It is hard to believe we have only returned for one week following our October break. I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful Autumn weather and are now ready to face the Winter months ahead. Our pupils certainly returned full of energy and our wonderful staff lost no time this week heading back into learning and preparations for Christmas!

All classes received the copy of their Christmas card design. Please return to school early this week with your order. Preparations are underway for Christmas performances and these will be shared after our staff meeting this Tuesday evening.

This week we celebrated Hallowe’en a little early but in style! Our fabulous Parent Council once again delivered a super disco for our pupils. Many thanks to them for their continued support and efforts and also to many staff members who came along as dwarves this year to look after Snow White from the Wicked Witch! (Poor Miss McKendry!)

However, the real stars were, as always, our pupils. Their costumes, and make up, were outstanding! A super evening of fun!

I had the pleasure of spending two days at Heathery Knowe Primary school this week as part of a self evaluation exercise. It was an excellent opportunity to share the life of another primary school. I look forward to sharing some practice from our school with their Head Teacher this week.

On Tuesday we welcomed Mrs Clark from Macmillan Cancer Support. We were delighted to present a cheque for £440 to Mrs Clark following Primary 7’s successful coffee morning.

 

We also welcomed Miss Sneddon, our new Quality Link Officer, to our school this week. She was highly impressed with our building and was very complimentary about the organisation of many varied learning spaces that we have created for our pupils. She visited every class and met pupils and staff. Our confident pupils shared what they were learning and what makes our school and nursery a great place to learn. We look forward to working with Miss Sneddon this year.

 

In the classes …

 

Starting with the nursery the fire engine has raced off in an emergency and in its place we now have the arrival of the Witches’ Den. I was well informed by children that there are only 4 witches allowed in there at any one time. Thankfully they did not name the witches! The children completed their learning about People Who Help Us by learning about the ambulance service. They made a super paramedic for display on the wall and learned how to make a 999 call. They also practised using a knife to spread butter on toast.

 

Primary 1a and 1b have been adding numbers to 10! They have also been introduced to the letter ‘h’. I witnessed some super speedy writing this week in Primary 1. It is amazing how quickly our youngest school pupils learn. They were all very excited for their first school disco on Thursday evening. They loved it! There were some very tired faces on Friday morning but it did not last as we had a super visit from a local author Elizabeth Finnegan who shared her wonderful stories about Buttons. P1 were soon twirling and whirling around the dinner hall!

 

In Primary 2 the pupils have been developing their ability to add three single digits together. They used the skill of pointillism to design their Christmas Cards. In Spanish they have been learning how to make the sign of the cross.

 

Primary 3 also welcomed a visitor to their class this week. Elena from the David Livingstone Centre visited with lots of artefacts. They made their own badges. In literacy they then used the experience to develop their recount writing.

P3/4 have been looking at landscape artists and expressing their opinion about art. They then used pointillism to create their own landscape. In drama they have been developing their ability to create freeze frames.

P4 have been learning about classification using living things and identifying vertebrates and invertebrates. They wrote their very own Hallowe’en spells. In literacy they have been discussing books read and providing reasons why they liked or disliked them.

Primary 5 have had a super exciting week. On Wednesday they visited Dynamic Earth taking part in two workshops about deforestation and climate change. They have been discussing the impact of deforestation and ways we can try to avoid using products that relate to this.

Primary 6 have been very excited about their reading challenge. They are keen to make reading dens in the classroom and they are looking for any donations of blankets and cushions to help. They are continuing to learn about life in the trenches and have planned their soldiers’ letters that they will write next week.

Primary 7 had a super start to the week with a visit from Christina McKelvie, our MSP. She visited their class after following the progress of their start of year House Elections. Primary 7’s next stop is the Scottish Parliament. In RE they learned about the psalms and began quiet prayer practice. In numeracy they are learning to subtract mentally to 5 digits.

 

Finally, our senior nurture groups had their monthly visit to Memories Tearoom. The pupils worked alongside the members bringing joy and laughter as they made poppy crafts and danced.

 

What a week of learning for our pupils aided greatly by our partnership working and visits to places of interest to support learning.

 

We are walking to church on Thursday morning to celebrate All Saints Day. If you can help us walk please meet at school at 9am. Mass is at 9.30am in the church.

 

Many thanks for reading my blog,

Mrs Hendry

Head Teacher