It has been a while since Primary 7/6 have blogged and recently we have been incredibly busy!

Literacy
The children have continued to journey through the Active Literacy programme. They have continued to explore how root words are impacted by a variety of prefixes and suffixes; explore a range of common and tricky words; and look at differentiating between homophones and confusions.

After finishing our learning around poetry, the children have been working through two anticipated novels in upper primary school: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo and Street Child by Berlie Doherty. The children have explored the themes of resilience and loyalty that are pivotal in the stories, as well as the hardships of animals in wartime and the difficulties many children faced in the streets of Victorian London. They have worked with their peers to analyse the author’s use of language, summarising key events and emotions experienced by the characters and predicting what might happen next. The children engaged well with these novels and are looking forward to their final novels next term.

In writing, the children finished their block of poetry writing with a whimsical piece in tribute to Scots poetry. We had some wonderful acrostic poems written about the chippy, shortbread and Irn-Bru! The class then moved back to develop our narrative writing in anticipation of our final assessed piece of the year called Forbidden Planet. In their writing, the class applied what they had learned about figurative language, adding examples of similes, alliteration and onomatopoeia as well as other devices of the author’s craft. We are looking forward to our feedback on this exciting piece.

Maths and Numeracy
Primary 7/6 have been learning how to identify, represent and manipulate fractions in a variety of forms. Pupils have been working on identifying fractions and understanding their worth in order to compare their size. Applying this further, we have been working on creating equivalent fractions and by simplifying fractions, understanding their relationship and how we use common factors to help us. They have also been applying their skills to real‑life contexts and problem‑solving activities. The children have enjoyed testing themselves through a variety of stations, from interactive maths games to solving word problems, as well as using manipulatives.

Last week, Primary 7/6 were treated to their first visit and session from Mrs Woodside, the Head of Mathematics at Our Lady’s High School. Mrs Woodside began a block of lessons on algebra. The class engaged enthusiastically in their introduction to algebra, understanding what this means and beginning to ‘collect like terms’ in order to help create and sort equations. We cannot wait for the last two visits to continue to develop our understanding (and get some more detail on life at OLHS).

 

Learning Across The Curriculum

This term, the pupils have engaged well and been keen to learn more about our interdisciplinary topic: Europe. Firstly, we identified European countries on a map, as well different major geographical features such as seas, rivers and volcanoes. We used this research and learning to create PowerPoints with our peers.

We built on this by looking at key landmarks throughout Europe and comparing these in terms of their purpose (whether cultural, historical or naturally occurring). Having researched a variety of these, we used both TinkerCad and Minecraft Education software to create scale models of a variety of landmarks (See if you can identify any below!)

Pupils have also researched about the history of post-WW2 Europe and the creation of both the European Union and the Euro currency. We explored culturally significant awards, distinctions and events (such as Eurovision and European Cities of Sport and Culture).

Recently, the class also explored the work of European impressionist painters such as Vincent Van Gogh. We created our own art pieces utilising ‘mark making’ techniques.

The class have thoroughly enjoyed this topic and love putting their knowledge to the test in a variety of quizzes about capital cities, rivers and other things.

 

Health and Wellbeing

Primary 7/6 haven’t let the wild weather stop them in their outdoor P.E lessons, with our focus this term on football. The class have been working on our control of the ball, using a number of drills to help us become more confident in defending the ball when we have possession and progressing the ball up the pitch. A personal favourite of the class currently is “King and Queen of the Ring”! We have also used lots of small-sided games to work on this, as well as our passing and dribbling, in game-like situations. We love this competitive side of our lessons!

Indoors, we were fortunate to have a taster session provided by the Scottish Rugby Union (RFU) for tag rugby. We loved the experience with Gary and working on how to correctly catch and throw the rugby ball.

We have also come to the end of our Gymnastics programme. The class have loved creating routines on the mats and using a variety of moves, rolls and poses to manoeuvre. They have also grown in confidence mounting and dismounting a number of different horses on to crash mats. The pupils continue to love showcasing their sporty flair this year!

The class have just begun to explore the theme of Healthy Diets and are looking to answer the Big Question: Can one diet be healthy for everyone, or do different bodies need different things? 

This Is Our Faith

The class have approached this holy season of Lent by exploring their foundational understanding of what the season means. They have discussed the three pillars of almsgiving, prayer and fasting and how they can show this in their own lives.

Alongside, they have annotated key messages from Jesus about this time; in particular, the class had a discussion on key part of Jesus’ Sermon n the Mount. The class explored the key messages He wanted to give us.

Our Primary 7s are looking forward to preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

 

Experiences Across the Curriculum

Finally, we feel it important to give a shout out to many experiences and successes achieved by the class recently!

On Tuesday 24th March, our P6 team participated in the North Lanarkshire Heats of the 2026 Euro Quiz. We are delighted to announce we won and will represent North Lanarkshire at the national quiz later in the year. The class have worked tirelessly through their Europe topic, which no doubt has helped our team’s preparation! Well done boys and girls!