St. Brendan's Primary School and Nursery

Welcome back to our school blog and a Happy Halloween from St.Brendan’s!

Parents Portal

Thank you to all of the families who popped in for our Parent Portal drop in this week.
We now have 125 parents/carers and 60% of our school pupils registered for the service.
We still have 93 pupils with no registered contact for this service. It is important that all families with school aged children are registered for the service by the end of term as this will allow you to receive important information when the School App expires in the New Year.

Families can sign up for the service through the mygovscot website here.
Please spread the word!
Anyone wishing support with signing up should contact the office so this can be arranged. 

Happy Halloween!

Parent Fundraising – Halloween Disco

Pupils had a spooktacular time at our Halloween Disco last week, organised by the amazing Parent Fundraising Committee. The hall was filled with music, dancing and fantastic costumes — from superheroes to spooky ghosts!

A big thank-you to our parent team for creating such a fun and memorable evening for everyone and a huge thank you to our teachers who volunteered and helped supervise. What a wonderful way to bring our school community together!

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Halloween celebration and Pop-up shop

This week we have been running a Halloween Pop-Up Shop at the front of the school which has been a huge hit! Pupils and families have loved browsing spooky goodies and treats, all while helping to raise money for our school funds. A big thank-you to everyone who supported and a huge shout out to our local supermarket Tesco for their generous donations to help make this pop-up shop possible.

Today pupils had a fantastic time celebrating Halloween by dressing up in their amazing costumes and enjoying an afternoon full of fun activities in class! From spooky crafts to games and laughter, everyone got into the Halloween spirit and had a wonderful time together.

Skills Academies

Last week, our pupils took part in an exciting round of Skills Academies, where they had the chance to explore a range of hands-on learning experiences including Design and Manufacture, Food technology, Life Skills, Community and Creativity. Each activity gave pupils the opportunity to discover new talents, work collaboratively and most importantly, reflect on this term’s core value — Integrity.

At our school, Integrity means thinking carefully about what is fair and ethical — doing the right thing even when no one is watching. It’s about acting honestly and consistently, staying true to who we are and what we believe in.

During the day, pupils showed wonderful examples of Integrity in action.

In Design and Manufacture, they worked fairly in teams, shared tools responsibly and made design choices that were both practical and creative. Pupils used the elements of design to create a sturdy bridge without going over the budget, taking into consideration the principles of fairtrade. Pupils also followed the design process to design and make their own board game with a citizenship focus (e.g. Rights, Eco, Fairtrade, etc.)

In Food technology, they measured, prepared and cooked delicious dishes while showing care for hygiene, safety and teamwork, using ethical fairtrade products. Pupils created fairtrade banana bread, spooky fairtrade Halloween cookies and fairtrade fruit emotion faces.

In Life Skills, pupils discussed real-world situations, considering what it means to make fair and ethical choices in everyday life. Pupils explored the book ‘have you filled your bucket today?’

In Creativity, they expressed themselves through art, design, and imagination — showing honesty and pride in their own original ideas. Pupils listened to the story of Elmer and created Elmer art pieces, listened to the story of Goldilocks and the three bears and created a short role play about Goldilocks as well as creating and performing a dance inspired by K Pop Demon Hunters.

In Community pupils created self-portraits of the St Brendan’s community as well as working with Muirhouse Primary pupils on a scavenger hunt ensuring everyone was willing to listen to others’ ideas and opinions and participated in a range of active listening tasks.

Through each activity, pupils demonstrated that Integrity is not just about words — it’s about actions. Whether they were designing, cooking or creating, our pupils thought deeply about how to do the right thing and stay true to themselves and their values.

We are so proud of their positive attitude, teamwork and thoughtful approach to learning. The Skills Academies continue to give every pupil a chance to grow, explore and live out the values that make our school community here at St. Brendan’s so special!

HWB Surveys

Our Health and Wellbeing Surveys have now been completed by teachers for each pupil, with pupils across all classes also taking part. These surveys are an important part of our school’s nurturing approach, helping staff to understand and respond to the needs of our children and families.

By following the refreshed GIRFEC pathway and using the responses gathered, we will ensure that any child requiring additional support receives the help they need to thrive.

Wellbeing at Home Surveys October 2025

All children in the school are invited to complete our Wellbeing at Home survey.

More information about the survey for parents and carers can be found here.

If you do not wish your child to take part, please access the link to indicate this.

To access the survey, click the following link as appropriate:

My Wellbeing at Home P1 to P4 2025-2026

My Wellbeing at Home P5 to P7 2025-2026

We thank you again for your continued support.

Celebrating our successes!

This week’s assembly was a fantastic celebration of our learners’ achievements. We recognised pupils who have shown excellence as Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens, Confident Individuals and Effective Contributors. Their hard work, positive attitudes and dedication to learning truly stood out.

We also shared and celebrated successes from clubs in our wider community—highlighting the amazing talents and efforts our pupils show beyond the classroom.

Well done to everyone involved!

After a fantastic first term in Primary 6, the children have returned from the October Week full of enthusiasm and ready to embrace the exciting opportunities and challenges that Term 2 has in store. Their commitment to learning continues to shine across all areas of the curriculum. Throughout Term 1, the children displayed a positive attitude and embraced a growth mindset. It’s been wonderful to see their independence and sense of responsibility flourish as the children begin to take greater ownership of their learning.

Our Learning So Far

Literacy

The children have been engaging with the Active Literacy spelling programme. They have been exploring root words alongside prefixes and suffixes, focusing on both their meanings and spellings. The children are also applying a range of spelling strategies to tackle common and tricky words, while learning to identify and differentiate between homophones and other commonly confused words. In addition, some children have been investigating phoneme families and discovering the different ways the same sound can be represented. In reading, the class have been applying the comprehension strategies to a wide range of non-fiction texts linked to their IDL topic, Sustainability. They have recorded notes in different formats by listening to and watching audio-visual texts. Working in pairs and groups, the children have extracted key ideas from written texts by using tools such as the contents page, glossary and index to locate important information. They showed great enthusiasm when using the Digital Den to carry out independent research with reliable websites and enjoyed applying their design skills to present their findings in creative and engaging ways. In writing, the children have been developing their character and setting descriptions by applying their grammar knowledge to include powerful adjectives and adverbs. These rich vocabulary choices are helping to bring their stories to life and make their writing more vivid and engaging. As a proud Reading School, we’re committed to nurturing a lifelong love of books and celebrating reading as a central part of our learning journey. Our children have thoroughly enjoyed choosing and reading books for pleasure in the school library, where their enthusiasm for stories continues to grow with every visit.

Maths and Numeracy

In Maths and Numeracy, the children have deepened their understanding of place value by exploring the value of digits up to 100,000. They’ve practised reading, partitioning, and writing these large numbers in different ways, and have confidently compared and ordered numbers within this range. This week, they’ve enjoyed diving into their new topic, Multiplication and Division, through a variety of fun and interactive activities designed to build fluency and accuracy with times tables, helping them tackle related problems with confidence. During Number Talks, learners have grown more assured in using a range of addition strategies and applying them to differentiated chilli challenges. Many have shown great skill in explaining their thinking and sharing strategies with their peers. The focus this week has shifted to subtraction, where the children have been introduced to the ‘Adding Up’ strategy and are beginning to use a range of mental methods with increasing confidence.

Learning across the curriculum

As part of their IDL topic Sustainability, Primary 6 have been developing a deeper understanding of the environmental challenges facing our world today. They began by investigating the role of fossil fuels, learning about how they are formed, their widespread use and the negative impact they have on the planet. Building on this, the children explored renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro power, discussing why these alternatives are vital for a more sustainable future. Climate change was another key focus, with pupils researching its causes and effects through a variety of sources including audio-visual materials, written texts and reliable websites. Working in pairs and small groups, the children recorded detailed notes in different formats and used these to create extended pieces of writing, such as information reports and explanation texts. They also applied their digital skills to design PowerPoint presentations, showcasing their findings in creative and informative ways. This cross-curricular learning has helped them build research, collaboration and communication skills while developing a strong awareness of their role in protecting the environment.

In Health and Wellbeing, Primary 6 have been learning about emotions through the Emotion Works programme. They’ve developed a strong understanding of how emotions connect to body sensations, behaviours, and triggers, and have expanded their vocabulary when discussing how they feel. The class also explored the concept of Growth Mindset, identifying their own strengths and areas for development. Many pupils were able to reflect on how different mindsets influence their learning and progress. As part of their learning, the children discussed what makes an effective teacher and created thoughtful descriptions of their ‘perfect teacher’. They also enjoyed investigating the Iceberg Illusion, identifying the hidden qualities such as effort, perseverance, and resilience that contribute to success.

In P.E, the children been working hard to improve their fitness and stamina through a variety of athletics and football activities. They took part in the bleep test, challenging themselves to pace their movement and build endurance. The high jump was a particular favourite, as they challenged themselves to improve their technique, coordination and confidence with each attempt. Relay races brought out their competitive spirit, and it was lovely to see them encouraging one another and showing great teamwork. In football, the children have been developing their dribbling, passing and shooting skills with growing control and accuracy. They’ve shown strong team spirit during small-sided games, working cooperatively and using effective communication to support one another on the pitch.

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In RE, Primary 6 began by learning about the liturgical colours used throughout the Church year, exploring their meanings and the key dates and seasons they represent. They have since been learning about the concept of Covenant and its importance in the relationship between God and His people. Through key stories from the Old Testament such as Noah, Abraham, and Moses, the children have explored how these covenants were formed and what they reveal about faith, trust and commitment. They have reflected on the promises made by God and the responsibilities taken on by His people, making thoughtful connections to their own values and choices. This learning has helped deepen their understanding of God’s love and guidance throughout scripture.

The children recently enjoyed their second Skills Academy, which focused on developing the meta skill of integrity. Through engaging activities in Design and Manufacture, Creativity, Community, Life Skills and Food Technology, the children explored what it means to act in a way that is honest, fair and true to their values. They practised communicating in different ways, listened to others’ stories and viewpoints and reflected on how their actions can affect those around them. The sessions encouraged kindness, curiosity and self-awareness, helping the children recognise and celebrate both their own uniqueness and that of others.