Have a look at the HOME LEARNING menu or click on the link below to see Miss Ritchie’s weekly video:

Here is my second video:

We have a plan…

We are delighted to welcome back Nursery to P5 pupils on Monday the 22nd of February.

Have a look at our Newsletters in the NEWS menu or click on the link below for lots of up-to-date information:

Dear Parents and Carers

We have prepared a new Home Learning Pack for the next 3 week phase of lockdown in response to your feedback and comments.  We have kept the same basic format and we have added in some extra ideas to keep it interesting.P1-5 teachers would really appreciate if you could return to school the empty case and reading books from the first 3 week phase of work.  The returned resources can be left in the porch at reception this Friday, the 29^th of January.  P6/7 do not have anything to return on this occasion.

New Home Learning Packs will be prepared and ready for you to pick up on Monday the 1^st of February, during school hours.  Please get in touch if these hours don’t work for you.

Core SubjectsYou will find booklets for language and maths in the pack.  These are the core subjects and we hope you have a go at working through these activities.  If you need support or advise you can use Seesaw to get in touch with a teacher and they will try their best to help.

Videos OnlineWe are offering online videos this time, which means the children can see and hear their teachers, as this has been highlighted as an important part of a child’s health and wellbeing.  This will be accessible from Seesaw and will link with a booklet provided in the Home Learning Pack.  The lessons will be recorded, and you will be able to watch them at your leisure, pausing and playing the recording to give yourself thinking time.

School Community Project
We have also included an activity about our School Community Project.  This is a project which is evolving as a result of the Friends of Firth School (FoFS) discussing ideas and offering to support the school to develop better outdoor learning environments

In the Home Learning Packs we have included activities to involve everyone in the planning and development process of the outdoor classroom space.  We would be delighted to capture inspiration from all generations and how we can continue to build something, even remotely, so people feel part of our whole school community.

Weekly Check-inWe would really appreciate an update every week to hear how the learning is going.  The proud moments have been lovely to see.  This will also let us know if you want to be supported in a different way or if you are happy with the provision.

You can check-in using whichever format is easiest for you.  If you use Seesaw to upload your photos, you can also choose to share them on the class blog, or just with the teacher, it’s up to you.

Headteacher TimeMiss Ritchie will be adding a weekly video with a story and message for all our pupils.  This will be available on Seesaw along with a reflection of the week’s achievements to round-up and bring together the successes of the school community.

Thank you,

From the Firth Staff Team

Literacy

 

• BBC Bitesize – a range of daily lessons focused on literacy – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
• Oxford Owl – https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ – the website provides information for parents about developing reading and comprehension skills at the Early Level. There is free access to e-books from reading schemes used in schools with related activities.
• The Book Trust – https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/fun-at-home-with-authors-and-illustrators/ – a list of age related fun literacy activities, including videos of authors, such a David Walliams and Andy Stanton, reading from their books. Also top tips on from illustrators on how to draw your favourite characters.
• The Literacy Shed Plus – https://www.literacyshedplus.com/en-gb/resource/a-cloudy-lesson-ks1-activity-pack – a range of resources with a given stimulus to assist talking and listening, and writing activities as well as comprehension. There are linked fun activities which can be done outdoors, eg. from a story about a boy making clouds, activities are suggested around cloud spotting and finding shapes in the sky, linked to work on the water cycle.
• Scottish Book Trust – https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-and-resources – a range of resources, with recorded interviews and readings by well-known authors, such as Michael Rosen.
• Pobble 365 – https://www.pobble365.com/ – a new image each day to inspire writing. This can be used for story starters or to inspire, talking, listening and writing activities.
• Education City – https://www.educationcity.com/ – fun interactive games to develop literacy.
• ‘Teach your monster to read’ – use the website https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/ – The website is a free resource whereas you have to pay for the App. This focuses on phonics and blending and is designed for those in the early stages of reading.  Children get to design their own monster!
• Elevenses with the world of David Walliams – https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/ – daily free audio stories read by David Walliams.
• Elaine C Smith reading The Glasgow Gruffalo – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8zxYnWRW8

Numeracy

Active Schools Orkney have some ‘spud’tacular activities for you to try! 

Dear Parents and Carers

We hope that you have had a good break and are ready to get back into a home learning routine.  As a result of feedback from the previous lockdown, we have put together a plan of action which should keep us busy until the 1^st of February.

To make the learning at home easier, and less reliant on having computers and printing resources, we have provided a home learning pack for each pupil.

The packs will have a maths, reading and writing activity to complete each week and there will be a grid with nine optional activities from other areas of the curriculum.  You can choose one or more of these activities each week.

It is hoped that pupils will complete the reading, writing and maths activity and feed back to their teacher at some point during the week with their best learning moment.  This can be in the form of a picture, photo, video or a written message and can be posted on Seesaw.

For example:

MY PROUD MOMENT: WEEK ONE

Hi Mrs Rendall, my proud moment this week was when I was able to make a cube and a triangular prism from a net I had drawn.  Now I’m going to try a square based pyramid and an octahedron!

You can also contact a teacher on Seesaw if you need help or advice with any of the learning activities during school time.

As an alternative option we will maintain and monitor Sumdog as an online activity.  This will provide maths, grammar and spelling activities for anyone who would like a change from the paper based learning.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch and we will do what we can to help.

Thank you

The Firth Staff Team

A warm welcome to Rachael Brammah from everyone at Firth School. 

Rachael will be in the office, taking up the post of office administrator and she will also be in the playground in her role as auxiliary.  

Rachael will be the first point of contact in the office for many enquiries you may make over the next few weeks.

Well done to everyone at Firth for a super day last Wednesday when we had a visit from the head of primary schools, Peter Diamond. 

He was thoroughly impressed with how everyone was dealing with COVID procedures and praised pupils and staff for the positive and caring atmosphere and high quality learning experiences he observed in classes. 

It is good to be able to share that our risk assessments are thorough and robust and are there to keep everyone safe.

We hope you all had a super holiday and managed to enjoy the festivities.

We are starting the new year with changes and COVID restrictions, as advised by the government, in a hope to keep everyone as safe as possible at school.

School staff will be working on Wednesday the 6th of January to create a plan of action for the foreseeable future, and will inform everyone of what is happening as soon as we know.

Thank you for your patience and support over the past year and for what may be a while yet!

Best wishes and stay safe!

Click on the images above to watch our Christmas videos made especially for you!