Well,  what a busy time we have had over the last few weeks in Primary 7. We have had our first transition visit to Cardinal Newman High School, where we got to work with teachers from the English department which we loved. We are due to visit again on the 15 December so can’t wait to get another visit.

In other areas some of our Primary 6 and 7 boys and girls represented our school at a football festival where both teams did very well and gave the children a fantastic opportunity to compete against other local schools. Recently many children represented our class in the Cross Country trials and I am pleased to say many will be selected again to run in the final. Well done to all involved and for all the parents who came along to support on these occasions.

Literacy

We are well underway with our Active Literacy Spelling Programme and some of the words being taught to the children are very tricky. We discuss the meaning and the root of these as well as how to spell them accurately. I will not always set specific spelling tasks for homework each week as the children can chose which way they would like to learn these words – I will spelling suggestions to the files section on our class team.

Reading – we have just completed a block of Non – Fiction Reading in which the children developed their reading, writing, listening and talking skills through the exploration of non-fiction sources. This was linked to Climate Change, Sustainable and Renewable Energy and the children worked co operatively over the course of the week to read, watch and listen to a variety of sources such as texts, AI generated pieces, documentaries, podcasts and online sources linked to the themes above. They had debates and discussions and shared their learning with each other over the week. They had the opportunity to plan and research and then produced an extended piece of writing each week, showcasing their knowledge within their writing skills. The children really enjoyed this method of learning. In addition to this the children had to read a personal reader at home and prepare a detailed book review which they will present to the class. This gives us the opportunity to developing our listening and talking skills and we are engaging in Peer evaluation so that we all have a shared understanding of what is expected of us in this area. So far, the presentations have been excellent, and I have a list of books that I now really want to read. We will get through the rest of these this week hopefully.

Over the next few weeks we will be embarking on a Christmas Media Study where we will explore and develop our reading comprehension skills via this media. We also hope to look at poetry and perhaps Song.

Maths and Numeracy

We have working hard on developing our Number and Number Processes. We have been looking at multiplication and division, decimal fractions, negative numbers, multiples factors and primes and BODMAS which the children really enjoyed. I am seeing the confidence increase in many of them as they are experiencing success. I would continue to encourage them to always read and consider each problem carefully. Quite often errors occur due to a lack of concentration, mis counting or wrong multiplication facts. It is important at this stage that the children are focused in class. I would also encourage children to continue to take pride in their jotter presentation. This week children are undertaking the Standardised assessments for P7 which will enable us to identify areas for development and focus for next term.

HWB/PE

We have been working with the Cardinal Newman High School sports leaders in PE. They have been teaching us a range of different games and skills and are helping us to work together as a team. We are going to learn how we can be leaders in our own school by being Junior Sports Leaders for the younger children in our school.

We are also about to embark on our favourite time of the year in the school calendar – Social Dancing. This is in preparation for our class party and to teach us lifelong skills as we never know when we might need to dance the night away at a Ceilidh.

We also recently learned and performed a modern Scottish Song in honour of St Andrew’s day. We really enjoyed singing ‘Home’ by Nathan Evans and our performance is on our school Twitter if you would like to listen to our wonderful singing.

Uniform

Please can the children remember to bring PE uniform to change on Tuesdays and Thursdays, if there is any item needed, please access our Uniform Swap and Shop where you may find what you need. Can I also remind the children to wear their school tie each day as again this sets a good example from Primary 7 to the rest of the children.

Finally thank you to you all for your ongoing support with the children.

Mrs Preston and Primary 7.