Here is our newsletter and blog for October 2021. Have a look to see all the wonderful things we have been getting up to and what has still to come.
Category Archives: Newsletter
EYC and Class Blogs November 2020
EYC and Class Blogs November 2020
Early Years Centre
We have been exploring Autumn by observing the changes in our local environment and even went on an Autumn scavenger hunt around the village. We have been focussing a lot on the beautiful colours we see at this time of year, throughout the EYC. We also had lots of fun celebrating Halloween.
Mrs Chesterman, Miss Millarvie
P1-3
Halloween
Halloween was a really important time for us in the class, so Miss Burton made sure to give us lots of Halloween themed activities. We had great fun with our Halloween maths games, writing spooky stories, making Halloween decorations, creating magic wands and artwork, and then having a ball at our Halloween party. Don’t we just look fantastic in our costumes?
IDL – Biodiversity
During our biodiversity topic we did lots of exploring in our garden area. We identified different bugs that live on the school grounds and the different signs of Autumn. We have decided to put ourselves forward for the ECO Committee at school and as part of that we carried out an Environmental Review of the school. We found lots of good practice and then identified areas for us to develop. We are now going to work on creating an action plan and putting it into place. We told Miss Burton that we wanted to move our topic onto learning about different animals and gave her lots of questions that we wanted to find out about. We are going to find out the answer to questions like: Can wolves eat berries? What do reindeer eat? What is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise?
Numeracy and Mathematics
We have been focusing on addition in maths. Each group has a different focus within addition, whether it is to 10, 20, 100 or above and we have been taking part in activities based on this learning. We love Hit the Button and are all getting much faster at solving problems. We have also been learning different strategies we can use to help us solve addition, this could be through putting the big number in our head and adding on, using our Rekenrek or making friendly numbers. We are about to move onto larger numbers and subtraction
Literacy and English
In writing last term we learned more about sentences and how to write short paragraphs using the Slow Writing process. Here we would write sentences based on different criteria and using a picture as inspiration. It linked well with our sentence mentor task and is making us better at writing sentences. This term we have moved onto looking at non-fiction. We are exploring the difference between fiction and non-fiction books and how we can use non-fiction books to help us find out more information about topics.
Play Based
This term we have been lucky as our new resources have begun arriving for our play-based area. We love the new home area equipment, like our Doctor’s kit, babies, highchair and cleaning centre. We are learning to take turns with these resources as we all want to have a go! There has been lots of building taking place this term and one of our favourite things to build with is the magnetic shapes. We love working together to make huge rockets or making our own robots with secret compartments. Our farm arrived with our families, animals, and transport. We have great fun making up stories of what is happening on the farm. We are still deciding on the best name for the farm but now we are going with Barr Primary Farm. Our people who help us figures gave us a challenge to make somewhere for them to work. We worked together as a team to build them somewhere to work which even had a garage to park all their vehicles. Still one of our favourite things to do during play-based time is to draw. At Halloween we made decorations for the classroom and Miss Burton has collected an Art Gallery’s worth of pictures we have made for her; it always makes her smile.
Daily Fitness
With us now being able to have fitness indoors we have been really enjoying our Go Noodle time again. We love to have our daily fitness and have missed our Go Noodle routines. It didn’t take us long to get back into the swing of things.
Miss Burton
P4-7
Outdoor Learning
At pupil request, we have timetabled that on a Thursday afternoon each week we will embrace the outdoor classroom and get outside for our learning. On November 5th we ventured up the Barr trails a stroll and participated in a scavenger hunt – all of our instructions were in French, in order for us to revise our colours and positional language. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their stomp with Reilly informing me he had clocked up 15000 steps!
Energy & the Environment
We participated in a poster design competition in term 1 for the Energy Agency lockdown calendar. I am delighted to inform you that we had two successful class winners – Reilly Blanchard P5 and Rosie Denham P7. These pupils will have their poster featured in the 2021 calendar and are both invited to attend an online awards ceremony in December with the Provost for South Ayrshire.
Our Inter-Disciplinary Learning for Term 2 is ‘Energy & the Environment’. We have begun with a focus on ‘climate change’ and are linking this to the UNICEF campaign ‘Outright’. We have started a new class novel called ‘Wilderness Wars’ by Scottish author and teacher Barbara Henderson. We are exploring renewable & non-renewable energy sources and electricity in Science.
Halloween – What a SCREAM!
A real highlight of term 2 so far has to be our Halloween party! We did not let COVID-19 dampen our spooky spirits. Mrs McBirnie set a daily ‘Halloween’ maths or literacy challenge every day with a prize up for grabs. We learnt Halloween vocabulary in French and even created spooky mansions in art. On Friday, we had a class ‘pumpkin drive’ which got a particularly enthusiastic response and finished the day with our other party activities.
School highlights so far – P4-7
• I loved our class novel ‘Charlie changes into a chicken’ especially the writing task when we could choose our own animal that Charlie changed into.
• Dixie is my highlight – he is my friend, he helps us and he is really funny.
• I like maths because it helps me when I’m working on the farm. Decimals and division are my favourite.
• I like sharing my playtime with the little ones. It’s nice to see them and it is fun!
• I really enjoy ‘Beat That’ in maths because there are lots of different sums and you need to work fast.
• I love lunchtime because the whole class eats and plays together now.
• I love outdoor learning because it’s great getting out in the fresh air and being around nature even if we are doing work at the same time.
• I like writing because you get to be really imaginative. I have lots of story ideas and find it really relaxing.
• I like art because you can be creative and just let your imagination free. My favourite pieces so far have been my poppies poster, ‘The Scream’ and the exploding heads.
• I enjoy P.E as I like being active in body and mind.
• I like reading as when you have a good book you just can’t put it down.
• I enjoy learning my times tables and I’m getting really good at them.
• Most of all, I like Mrs McBirnie because she is so funny and kind (no pupil was paid for this comment!).
• I really like ALL of my classmates and I love our school as well.
Mrs McBirnie
HT Newsletter November 2020
Barr PS and EYC Newsletter
November 2020
ACE
I am delighted to say that the ACE days pupils missed last session have been rearranged. All the children will get the chance to hone their cycling skills, both within and outwith our school grounds, over a range of ramps and obstacles. Through this input, pupils will gain either level 1 or level 2 of the Go Mountain Biking programme. Mrs McRae will send information out to you soon.
Assembly
Through the wonders of technology, we held our first virtual whole school Assembly last week. The children shared their learning across the school and EYC; we discussed relevant updates and awarded certificates to pupils who have consistently displayed our school values. Looking ahead to Christmas, my hope is to build on this experience and present a Nativity which parents will be able to access too.
News
You may have already heard that Mrs McRae is leaving us and moving on to a new post within the NHS. Her last day with us will be the 11th November and I am sure you join me in thanking her for her dedication and commitment to our school community over the years. We wish her well for the future. I am delighted to tell you that Sharon Trotter will be our new clerical assistant but, as yet, she doesn’t have a start date. Mrs McBirnie’s children recently entered the Energy Agency lockdown calendar competition and we are pleased to tell you that Reilly and Rosie were winners. They will receive their prize at an online award ceremony in December.
Learning Journals
It is so hard to convey just how much learning happens every day within the nursery and classrooms, which is why we are implementing Learning Journals. As you know from the information previously sent out, Learning Journals will give you a window into what is happening in your child’s group or class. Staff will post observations containing a comment, photos or a video detailing how the children interact with their friends, with planned activities and achieve success. With the details you have supplied, whether at work, at home, on your phone or laptop, you will be able to access your child’s profile safely. You will also be able to leave comments and upload photos directly from your own device, if you wish. Staff will start using them from the end of next week, so look out for notifications and enjoy looking through your child’s learning.
Remote learning
Remote learning is the term being used to describe when learners and teachers are not physically present together in the traditional classroom environment. Government guidance states that the main elements of remote learning can include:
• providing learners with physical resources where needed such as learning materials, textbooks and digital devices.
• providing live learning and teaching sessions with children and young people, for example through Glow (either by communicating through the chat function or through live video links with learners).
• providing access to recorded learning sessions and tasks.
• setting learners tasks for completion and submission to / discussion with practitioners.
• using the opportunity for ‘live sessions’ (as above) to check in, discuss and engage in person with learners following a learning task, but not to deliver lessons or content.
• engaging regularly with learners through email or an agreed platform.
Going forward, should children require to self-isolate due to Public Health advice, the options below are what we will offer. A survey will soon come out asking you to choose your option in advance, based on your individual circumstances.
Option 1
• A printed pack of work, which will include independent activities relating to literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing.
• Check in phone calls from the class teacher.
• Completed work handed in and discussed on return to school.
Option 2
• Independent literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing tasks to be completed via Glow.
• Microsoft Teams chat function used for check in and work feedback.
Option 3
• Live learning and teaching sessions via Teams – twice daily, specifically timetabled.
• Follow up independent tasks to be completed.
Option 4
• Access to online-recorded learning and teaching sessions to be viewed at any time.
• Follow up independent tasks to be completed.
• Microsoft Teams chat function used for check in and work feedback.
Social Media
Please keep an eye on the school website and Twitter account to find out more about what is happening in our school and EYC.
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/sa/barrpsandeyc/
@BarrPrimary
Active Schools
The Active Schools team have been delivering a weekly input at Barr Primary school on a Thursday, working with all pupils every week. Their activities have included Active Play based learning, outdoor learning and a number of leadership programmes. Aaron (project assistant) has been heavily involved on a weekly basis developing positive relationships with all children. Last term, he took the P1-3 class up to the MUGA at the park for an afternoon of activity – really challenging them to improve their agility, balance and coordination. Connor (Active Schools Coordinator) has been involved in leadership delivery, creating junior coaches and our very own Sports Council. The Sports Council most recently took part in SportScotland’s #SportHour on Twitter, answering questions and getting amazing feedback!
Upcoming EventsNOVEMBER 16th – Cool to Be Kind Week ACE day 18th – ACE day 20th – World Children’s Day ACE day (not EYC) 24th – Parent/Teacher phone calls 26th – Hot Chocolate with the HT
DECEMBER 16th – Cinderella live stream 18th – Pupil group 21st – Christmas Parties Hot Chocolate with the HT 23rd – School closes at 2.30pm |
Mrs Murphy – HT newsletter November
EY and Class Blog September 2020
Have a look at what we have been up to since coming back to school.
EY and Class Blog September 2020
Early Years Centre
Since coming back to nursery, we have been very busy. We have been pirates sailing on the high seas in our boat. We made our enemies walk the plank!! We’ve enjoyed walking the Barr Trails and walked all of the Devil’s Footprints trail!! We took a picnic with us and enjoyed the view from the top of the hill. On the way back down we saw a mouse, butterflies, dragonflies, cows, lots of birds and wild flowers of all different colours. We had a great morning and walked for miles!!
Mrs Chesterman, Miss Millarvie
P1-3
P1 Settling In
We have had the absolute pleasure to welcome our new P1s into the class and they are settling in well. The have already picked up on the rules and routines in the class and have begun to explore their numbers and sounds.
Feelings
In our Health and Wellbeing sessions, we have been exploring feelings and how we can manage them. We first began by reading the story ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas and talking about the colours the book uses to relate to the different feelings. We have decided to adopt these colours into our daily routine and each morning we share what colour we are that day and why. We are very often feeling yellow (happy), pink (loved) and green (calm) which is great. We have now moved on to discussing key feelings in more detail using the characters from the movie Inside Out. We have looked at Anger and Fear and talked about this in relation to our lockdown experiences. We were very afraid that the park was never going to open again and we wouldn’t get to play with our friends! We are going to continue to explore our feelings and find different strategies we can use to manage them.
IDL – Biodiversity
Our topic this term is Biodiversity and we are exploring this outside, in our school garden. We have created some environmental art using natural materials, found different living things in our garden and studied the trees. We made stick stories and shared what we had found. We love being in the outdoors and we are going to find out more about what lives and grows in our garden and in the wider village. If anyone has any interesting information they could share please let us know! We are also hoping to develop this outdoor learning further with Aaron (Active Schools) and Mrs McTaggart.
Numeracy and Mathematics
In numeracy and mathematics, we have been learning about patterns. We used a variety of different objects to copy, continue and create patterns and even learned about patterns in numbers. We had lots of fun using the peg boards and sorting bears to make patterns of our own.
Literacy and English
In Literacy and English, we have begun to learn our new sounds. The ‘Gryffindors’ love the Jolly Phonics rhymes to help them remember their sounds and have been learning the correct formation when writing them. They are beginning to spell some simple words and we especially like ‘chopping’ our sounds down our arm to learn how to blend. ‘Hufflepuff’ had great fun stamping their words using their special stamping pads and ‘Slytherin’ and ‘Ravenclaw’ have been identifying the number of sounds in words using dots and dashes, this helps us with our spelling when we are writing.
We have been reading the book ‘Mr. Goose’ by Grant Kennedy, which is about a goose who goes on an adventure around Doonfoot. After reading the first page we predicted what we thought would happen in the book and then read the rest to see if we were correct. We have looked at the character of Mr. Goose and made our own characters for a story about an animal adventure around Barr. We have also described the setting of the book and have chosen the places our character would like to visit in Barr. We are learning about how to write super sentences and we will build up a story map about our character’s adventures in Barr using what we learn.
We are taking part in sentence mentor activities every day to learn how to write super sentences. These activities help us understand what is needed to write a good sentence and what we can use to make our sentences better.
Play Based Learning
This session we have developed a play-based area in our classroom. In this area we become explorers, builders, problem solvers, team players and much more. We work together in our play to consolidate and develop the learning that takes place in the classroom and it gives us an opportunity to create friendships and explore our feelings. We love having an opportunity to visit the area and we let our imaginations soar. Lately we have been enjoying playing in the kitchen, making a wide variety of different dishes for Miss Burton to try, building with the blocks and creating things with our playdough. We have problem solved how to make dominoes using the blocks and then experimented with taking slow motion videos of them falling, slow mo. videos are now our favourites. We have a big blue beanbag to chill out on when we need some space or want Miss Burton to read us a story. We explore writing using our chalkboard and whiteboard on the easel and we made a variety of different items with cardboard boxes, including stop and go signs which we then used in our fitness outside.
Daily Fitness
Each morning we take part in some daily fitness outdoors, we play lots of different games to keep our fitness levels high and help us get ready to learn. We love the ‘Video Game’, ‘Iceman’ and ‘The Transport Game’.
Welcome Time
Each morning we start the day with a welcome time, here we discuss the day, month, date, weather and season. We learn this in English and in French – we are getting more confident with this each day. We hope to learn some more languages this year too! We also share our feelings colour and talk about why we feel that way. Welcome time allows us to settle in the morning and catch up with each other.
P4-7
We have experienced a very positive start to the new school session as a class of 10 P4-7s. The pupils are resoundingly delighted to be back learning alongside their friends and I cannot express how proud I am of them for taking the changes of rules and routines in their stride. It is as if we have never been away! We have been making the most of the sunny days and taking our learning outside. The children are particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate in outdoor P.E with Mrs McTaggart. Our interdisciplinary focus for the first few weeks has been ‘Express Yourself’ and has involved lots of health and wellbeing and expressive arts. The class also experienced our first ‘live assembly’ as we learnt how to ‘Be Internet Legends’. We took the opportunity to try the game for ourselves and I am proud to say that the class are a pretty savvy bunch when it comes to internet safety. We are looking forward to getting our teeth into our ‘Energy & The Environment’ topic and look forward to updating you about our learning.
BACK TO SCHOOL PUPIL QUOTES
Being back at school was very exciting for me because we were off for so long. I was so happy to be learning properly again, and see all my friends, classmates and teachers. I’m so joyful for being at Barr Primary School.
Being back at school is very thrilling I get to see my friends and I get to do learning, being back at school has been a big relief I don’t have to worry about forgetting everything its really been a very enjoyable time we’ve got to do loads of fun things like art we also have class points and personal points.
I was really excited when we started P.E because that’s my favourite subject, and I was especially excited because we were doing cricket and it was at the Muga.
September 2020 HT Newsletter
Barr PS and EYC Newsletter
September 2020
Mrs Murphy
Back to schoolThe first half of term one has flown in and the new routines are second nature to us all. Thank you for your support and reinforcement of this. Staff have spent this time celebrating and building on ‘lockdown’ learning whilst focusing on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. You will be aware that a lot of learning is happening outdoors. As we move into Autumn, I ask that you please send your child to school dressed appropriately for the inclement weather. All Primary children should wear outdoor sports gear on a Wednesday, Thursday and P1-3s on a Tuesday also. Health and WellbeingDue to the amount of energy the children use through the increase in physical and outdoor activities, I will be providing an additional healthy snack. Your child may choose one piece of fruit or a cereal bar after ‘Go Noodle’ or at breaktime – if they wish. If you would rather your child didn’t have an extra snack, please let us know. Parent CouncilThe AGM will be held online within the first term. New members are always welcome-please let me know if you wish to join and I will send you a link when details are confirmed. ChildsmileWe are currently not toothbrushing in the EYC and school, as per guidelines. Thank you to Childsmile for providing every child with a toothbrush and toothpaste for home. School ImprovementThere are so many exciting things happening in our EYC and school this year, please see improvement priorities attached. Each of the classes will send out monthly blogs alongside the newsletter to update you. Teachers will also be making short phone calls home on the 22nd to let you know how your child is doing. If you miss the call, they will leave a message-please contact the school if you would like further information. Staff are continuing their Leadership of Learning work from last year, with further study planned across many curricular areas. The senior class pupils have also nominated themselves to be subject ambassadors and will work with staff to lead and develop this year’s curriculum. Staff and pupils are working hard to achieve accreditation in a number of areas this year: Silver Rights Respecting Schools; Digital Schools Award; Gold School Sport Award. We will keep you updated with our progress. Pupil LeadershipCongratulations to Molly and Rosie who have been voted School Captain and Vice-Captain. They will be instrumental in leading school improvement as the year goes on. Active SchoolsWe are delighted to have Connor and Aaron working with us for a full day every Thursday. They are helping to develop pupil leadership skills; support with outdoor learning and lead active play sessions in the EYC. As time goes on and national guidance changes, they will also deliver after-school clubs and a parent programme.
Mrs Murphy – September HT Newsletter |
