Classes – Stane Primary School and Nursery Class

Loose Parts Play – What is it, and Why do it?

As part of our continued improvement work in the nursery, we are planning to develop our outdoor provision to enhance the play experiences we can offer our children. One aspect of this work will be to incorporate more ‘loose parts’ in our outdoor area, which research suggests can help our children to be more imaginative and creative.

What is ‘Loose Parts Play?’

In play, loose parts in a nursery environment can be materials such as stones, pebbles, wooden stumps, gravel, fabric, twigs, wood, plastic pipes, wooden pallets, plastic crates, buckets, boxes, pots/pans, tyres, balls, shells…the list is endless!

These materials can be moved, carried, combined, lined up, taken apart and put back together again in lots of different ways. There are no instructions for the play (apart from how to use the materials safely), leaving the children to lead their own learning.

What are the Benefits of ‘Loose Parts Play?’

Using loose parts in play offers the children a much wider range of learning opportunities rather than only adult lead activities, encouraging them to be imaginative. It can also help develop communication and co-operation skills, as children work together to solve problems and create and design objects.

Can you Help?

Any donations of loose parts (examples above) would be hugely appreciated. If you know of anyone who might have pipes, wooden planks, baskets, fabric, pebbles etc. that they no longer require, we would love to hear from you!

URGENT INFORMATION

Due to flooding, the following classes should not attend school on Tuesday 12th December 2017: Primary 3/4, Primary 4/5 & Primary 7. Classes who should attend as normal are: Nursery, P1 and P2/3. The P5/6 outing will go ahead as planned.

Christmas Event Dates 2017

Christmas Dates 2017 (click the image to download a printable copy).

Kilbowie October 2017

P1-7 Family Open Day 31st August 2017

Save the date…

PE Days

As part of the Curriculum for Excellence, children participate in two hours of physical education per week. At Stane Primary, each class will have two lessons of one hour as detailed below.

Children are required to bring appropriate gym kit: white t-shirt, black shorts and suitable indoors shoes. All jewellery must be removed for PE lessons (it is recommended that children do not wear jewellery to school on PE days)

If your child is unable to participate, please inform the class teacher in writing.

Class

PE Lesson 1

PE Lesson 2

Primary 1

(Mr. O’Donnell)

Tuesday

(after playtime)

Friday

(before playtime)

Primary 2/3

(Mrs. Robert)

Monday

(after lunchtime)

Wednesday

(after playtime)

Primary 3/4

(Mrs. Barton)

Monday

(after playtime)

Thursday

(before playtime)

Primary 4/5

(Miss Tiffney &

Miss Simpson)

Tuesday

(after lunchtime)

Thursday

(after playtime)

Primary 5/6

(Mr. Watson)

Wednesday

(after lunchtime)

Friday

(after playtime)

Primary 7

(Miss Thomson)

Monday

(Before playtime)

Thursday

(after lunchtime)

Family Focussed Primary 1 Induction Day

As a trauma-sensitive school, we understand the importance of safe and secure transitions. We can aim to achieve this by including families in important events and milestones such as their child’s first day at school.

During our first ever family-focussed induction day, our new Primary 1 pupils had the pleasure of the company of their parents and families throughout the whole of their first morning in school.

Their new class teacher, Mr. O’Donnell, personally escorted each child and parent into the classroom and the fun shared activities were designed to be worked on together – a real example of family learning.

From these pictures of happy, smiling faces, you can see how successful the morning was.

Evaluations from our parents highlighted the success of this approach:

it helped those dreaded tears to see them in the class and make it alot easier. thanks very much for that time with my son into class.

— alison gray (@alisong57546111) August 17, 2017

I can only echo that. It was a fantastic start which meant the only tears were after reading the beautiful poem.

Well done and thank you.

— Craig (@thecraig86) August 17, 2017

Nursery End of Year Celebration/Fun Morning

Thank you to everyone who came along to our nursery end of year celebration on Tuesday 21st June 2017.

The nursery boys and girls performed a range of songs told the story of their year at nursery. The children really enjoyed performing these songs to all their families.

After the children had finished their songs, the service moved on to the commencement of the children moving on to primary 1.

The children all did well and had a great time performing to their families.

After all their hard work performing, the children enjoyed a fun morning of two bouncy castles, face painting, glitter tattoos, a party snack and even visited the ice cream van!

We all had such a wonderful time.

Kilbowie May 2017 – Activity Photographs

During each activity at Kilbowie, the instructors take lots of photographs of the action. You can view these below:

Group 1 Gorge Walking:

Group 1 Canoeing:

Group 1 Rock Climbing:

Group 2 Tree Climbing:

Group 2 Bushcraft:

Group 2 Gorge Walking:

Photographs taken by school staff during the week can be viewed on the school twitter page.

Kilbowie May 2017 Day 2

It’s been a fantastic second day at Kilbowie and the children have made the most of the wonderful weather – it got to around 18 degrees today and not a cloud in the sky. Just wonderful.

The children were woken to dance music blaring through the loud speakers at 7.30am this morning. The children had to make sure their rooms were nice and tidy once they showered and got dressed as the Kilbowie staff were inspecting the rooms to make sure they were tidy. Most of the children have done a great job at keeping rooms in order, but a few beds could have been neater!

Breakfast consisted of toast, cereal or porridge and some lovely hot tea to wake us up.

After a bit of free time, the children met their instructors to get ready for the morning activites and headed off to get their kit. Group 1 and Miss Thomson were going Gorge Walking with Dave and Group 2 were taking part in Bushcraft with their instructor Chris, one of the other instructors, Keith and Mr. Clark too. All of the children took part and tried new things, making their teachers very proud -themselves too.

Lunch was Macaroni and cheese or Tomato pasta with a cold option of filled rolls, with plenty of fresh fruit and crisps.

After lunch, the afternoon activities were Climbing for Group 1 with Dave and Group 2 worked with a different instructor (also called Chris) and went canoeing.

For dinner, we enjoyed Chicken or Quorn bites or Vegetable rice. It was sticky toffee pudding for desert. As the weather is so hot, we decided to forgo chips and instead walked into Oban for some Ice Cream from ‘The Pokey Hat Shop’ in Oban Harbour. It was Mr Clark’s pleasure to treat the children as they have behaved so well this week.

The instructors came in the mini-bus to collect us but many of the boys wanted to walk back as it was such a good night – Mr Clark and Miss Thomson enjoyed the walk back too.

We arrived back in time for the night line – the highlight of Kilbowie. The children follow a rope course wound through the forest area in the grounds. The children tried really hard not to peek and most of them got all the way round without looking once. Of course, it doesn’t help when the teachers are accidents giving the wrong instructions or pretending there’s obstacles that might not be there….

Finally, after a long day we enjoyed some sandwiches for supper, had a quick tuck shop and then settled to bed. It’s all quiet now and everyone’s asleep, ready for an exciting day tomorrow.