Category Archives: Health and Wellbeing

Health and Wellbeing, Social Studies

Our Partnership With Litchenza Primary in Malawi!

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To become Global Citizens and work towards achieving our Rights Respecting School Level 2 award, we have recently linked with a school in Malawi. We have partnered with Litchenza Primary School and we have recently sent them a package called ‘To Litchenza from Whinhill’. In the package we had things like; letters, postcards, banners and photographs to share what life in like in Scotland. In Malawi we learned that they speak Chichewa and we have learned some in class. Moni (hello) Muli Bwanji? (how are you?) Zikomo (thank you) We have lots of fun when we learn about Malawi and Africa!­­­­ We have learned about children’s rights and that sometimes children don’t always get their rights because of different reasons but they should! Really important rights are; the right to education, the right to shelter and the right to a name, the right to clean water, the right to nutritious food and the right to have rights. We have learned that we have some differences between Scotland and Africa but we also have a lot of things that are the same! It has been good because we are learning about other cultures and comparing them to our own.

We are linked with Malawi because we want to learn more about what school is like for them and share what school is like for us. We have lots of things to share with our school in Malawi. When we sent the package we sent them some of our school jumpers and ties so they can see our school uniform. Litchenza Primary School sent us a package back and we were so excited! In that package there was a handmade crochet shall, some paintings, photographs and a picture of pupils holding a certificate saying Whinhill partnership with Litchenza. The pupils in the picture were wearing the Whinhill jumper we sent them! So far it has been really fun talking to Litchenza and sending them pictures of us doing our learning and getting replies to our letters.

Health and Wellbeing

Basketball Tournament Jump2It

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Jump2It came to our school to prepare for an exiting basketball tournament. We took part in basketball sessions focusing on each skill in basketball. First of all we focused on handling and controlling the ball in our hands, how to shoot, how to pass and how to dribble. We set out a drill for dribbling, passing and shooting as we set out cones as checkmarks. After we learned the basics we then moved on how to make runs, space, open shots and marking. We got into groups of 4 and practised by playing games and learning how each player plays and where they usual are best at shooting, passing etc.

Over the past weeks of training we have become better at each and every skill in basketball, we knew we where ready for this tournament! When we got there at the Greenock Sports Centre we got put into to teams  but it was really hard for the teachers to pick the teams because we where all good at this new sport to us! We had to use all of our learning skills and put them into play. As we progressed my team was winning a lot but I wasn’t sure about the other teams but I’m sure they played amazing as they used all of their skills! At the end it was a great tournament but we never won sadly but we showed respect because the school who won where really a tough challenge. Euan from GP4-7 won a trophy for best sportsmanship. We were really proud of him!

Health and Wellbeing, Science

Inverclyde Academy Transition Day

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On Thursday we went to Inverclyde Academy for our first induction day. When we were driving there our bus broke down but we got there eventually! We all got off the bus and went around to the dance studio where Mr Brown was waiting for us to tell us what to do. I felt better when I saw Mr Brown because I had met him before when he came to our school to talk about high school.

Everybody went to their first class and I had Home Ec. I really enjoyed it because I made rice crispie cakes. I felt a bit nervous going in to class but confident when I was cooking because it wasn’t the first time I had cooked. I was really excited for my next class which was P.E. We played rounders and I was glad that I was prepared and had brought my P.E kit! We got to meet the head girl who did a quiz with us, it was quite difficult but fun. Another subject we enjoyed was science. Our science teacher set her hands on fire, I couldn’t believe it! Mr Rodgers and Mrs Hunter had a turn and they both set their hands on fire too. The teacher also tried to burn a £20 but luckily it didn’t burn. She taught us about the things we needed to make combustion; the fire triangle is oxygen, heat and fuel.

After science we had to go back and pick up our rice crispie cakes – they tasted delicious! I was tired at the end of the day and was glad to get back to school. I really enjoyed my day at Inverclyde Academy and am looking forward to going to high school next year.

By Luci in P7

Health and Wellbeing

Our Buddies

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In Primary 7 we have the responsibility to help the P1s settle into school. We are their buddies and look after them. It’s important that they feel safe, nurtured and included in our school. We had to show them little things like where their seat was and also help them change into their coat and shoes for going into class and out into the playground. I think they are all very happy, especially my buddy! I am very happy Mrs Reid and Mrs Hunter picked me for my buddy. He is a lot more confident and he is talking to me and my friends more. Mrs Hunter says that I have really helped him come out of his shell. I had to find out things to talk to him about that he liked and his favourite things are Mickey Mouse and Wreck it Ralph. He always talks about it, he is very funny and likes the song head shoulders knees and toes. When I do it with him he says ‘again, again’  because he likes it so much! We have all loved working with our buddies and we go down to Primary 1 every Friday to help them learn skills like literacy and maths. One of our favourite things to do with our buddies is read with them. We have to be really expressive when we tell a story to keep them interested. Then we use our Talking Round Corners questioning skills to ask them about the story we just read.

Health and Wellbeing, Literacy and English

Our Friendship Assembly

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Today we are writing this blog about Primary 7a’s class assembly. Since we are focusing on Article 15 – you have the right to be with friends and join or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others, our assembly was all about friendship. In the last few weeks we have been learning about being a good friend and how to help our buddies in P1 make friends. In the assembly we thought would make it funny and put the Great British Bake Off (The TV show) but instead we called it the Great Whinhill Bake Off. The hosts for the Great Whinhill Bake Off were Jamie Hollywood and Ellie Berry with their glamorous, fabulous and totally exotic assistant…Joanna Jelly (aka Scott Orr)! They were really funny! They told us all about the qualities of a good friend for s recipe for friendship.

An important part of our assembly was the story called ‘The Crayon Box that Talked’. Some pupils dressed up as a colour and acted like a crayon. In the beginning they all hated each other but then at the end of the story they became friends. Things we had to focus on were having a loud, clear voice, thinking about our body language and responding to the audience. We found it difficult at first but we all were delighted with our performance! At the end we sang a song called Count on me by Bruno Mars. The video was animated and it had the lyrics so everyone could sing along!

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bootcamp, Health and Wellbeing, ShareOurLearning

Sports Leaders

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We have been learning sports leadership skills and leading sessions with our buddies in P1. The first thing we had to do was in a group we planned our session using the STEPS principles which is Space, Time, Equipment, People and Speed. We had to organise a warm up, main activity and a cool down. Since we have a wheelchair user in P1, it was really important to think about the activities and how he would be able to take part in our session. We decided to play Boccia which is a sport that wheelchairs users can play, (my buddy is a wheelchair user) it is like bowls and it is really fun! Then we collected any equipment and practised it first to check the space we needed and timed it.

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Leading the session was hard at first because at the start the P1s were a little hyper but we managed to calm them down and then get some of the shy ones to come out of their shell. Sometimes it was hard to stop them from running about and get them to listen. It was good teaching them some cool activities they can play when they are in the playground with their friends or even show their parents. It was our first time teaching P1 and also we were the first P7s in Whinhill to do Sports Leaders.

We will be doing it again tomorrow so we had to reflect on how our last session went and write an evaluation before we planned our next session. The session we planned this week is a bit more advanced. We had to change what sort of sponge balls we were using because we needed bigger ones for the P1s who found it hard and smaller ones to make a challenge for the good ones. The first session went really well and next we are going to work up the classes and lead more sessions. We have learned loads of new skills so far like planning and organising the session and working with others in a group. We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Scott and Nathan in P7.

Health and Wellbeing, Literacy and English

Meeting our Buddies!

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This is our first post on our new class blog! On the first day of school we got to meet our P1 buddies. We were a wee bit nervous because we were not sure what it would be like to be responsible for someone new in the school. It has been lots of fun with our buddies so far and we been involved in lots of activities to help them settle into school. Some of the P1s are really shy and some are really energetic and excited about school! Outside in the playground we drew with chalk and a lot of the Primary 7s got chalk all over them! We had to help them write their name and draw a picture beside it. It was good to get a chance to talk and get to know our buddies better.  In class, we talked about asking them open questions to start a conversation and it really worked! Look at our photos at the bottom of the page.

Each morning we go down to Primary 1 and make sure that they are safe in the playground and help them get changed into their sandshoes for class. If we see our buddies crying in the morning about missing Mums and Dads we calm them by reading them a book or trying to make them happy and take their mind off it. We would like to say thank you to Mrs Hunter and Mrs Reid  for helping us with our buddies that we love so much.

By Chloe and Cerys P7