Our Blog is brought to you by some of us in the Blue and Green Groups :  Lailah, Heidi, Teejay,  Jorjia, Lilyanna, Kayden, Rowan, Jacob P and Cooper.

House Captain and Vice-Captain Update

Last term we organised a LOT of fun events for the whole school. First, we had our famous Neilsland’s Got Talent show!  The overall winners from P4-7 were Ariana and Peyton and the overall winner from P1-3 were Myla and Aya-Rose.

In March, we had a Danceathon for Comic Relief and we raised £177!

We finished up last term with our Easter Fun Day where we went round the classes and did lots of different activities with them such as Just Dance, Don’t Say It, Easter colouring and an Easter egg hunt.

Numeracy

In maths last term, we did a big topic on ‘Measure’.  We found the perimeter of squares, rectangles and composite shapes.  We also learned how to find the area of rectangles, squares and triangles and the volume of cubes and cuboids.  Right now, we are working on fractions decimals and percentages, and there is a game that we all enjoy playing that links fractions with reading. Here’s how to play it:

• Mrs Kennedy says a word from a given page in our reading book
• We find a synonym for that word
• We estimate how far down the page the word is as a percentage of the full page
• We calculate the percentage using a calculator
• We get points of we are close and lots of points if we are spot on!

We all enjoy this as it gives us a bit of a challenge, and it is fun.

Outdoor Learning

This term, we did a variety of outdoor learning. We started the term off with a giant litter pick!  We got into four groups and firstly went to the playground to pick up litter using the litter pickers. After that we got to the back bit that had a whole bunch of litter. Amazingly, each group got 2 or 3 bags full!  Another thing we did at the start of spring was to look for and write down signs of spring.  We got a lot!  One day, Mrs Kennedy had a fun idea for us to start a campfire, and we made some delicious s’mores.  For safety reasons Mrs Kennedy made the fire, but we were allowed to come forward in pairs and toast the marshmallows.  It was great!  We also had a lot of fun making mini-beast hotels. A few weeks later, when we did a mini-beast hunt, Jacob saw a slug and an ant in his hotel!

 

Sky Academy

Before we went on our trip to Sky Academy, we did lots of preparation work on films, storyboards and all the different jobs you can do that are related to movies and TV.  When we got there, we had our lunch then we split into our four groups. We went into the studios and made our movie trailers that we had planned. The genres of film we made were:

Lucy’s group: horror / comedy

Teejay’s group: action / comedy

Lacey’s group: thriller

Ariana’s group: mystery

HWB

Last term we focused on gymnastics for indoor P.E.. First off, we did counterbalances and yoga poses. With the counterbalance, we held our partners hands and leaned back and made a perfect V.  We also did partner balances and had to hold them for 10 seconds.  We also used the high horse and the small  horses to do jumps and to land properly.  We played football in outdoor P.E. In March, we did tennis in indoor and outdoor P.E.  We did partner work and group work to help with our skills before playing against each other. This term we are doing athletics.

We have also done some food preparation and cooking!  We have made coleslaw, French toast, Greek salad and marinara sauce.  We already learned the safety rules of cooking like always wear an apron, wear a hairnet if cooking for others and always wash your hands with warm water and soap before touching any food and while preparing.

We have just started our learning on first aid. So far we have learned how to treat a burn or a scald, what to do if someone is choking, and how to help someone who has been stung including people allergic to stings.  Did you know?  A burn is caused by fire or something hot for example a curling wand or an iron and a scald is caused by boiling water or hot steam.

Literacy

Last term we focused on functional writing.  We finished our discursive writing block then we went on to exposition writing then procedural writing.

Exposition writing is writing that exposes facts about a topic. For example, we wrote Every Child should have a Residential Trip whilst at School. Some of the points we wrote about were:

• you develop new life skills
• it can get you away from technology
• you develop social skills

For our procedural writing, we got to make homemade marinara sauce and pasta then write down the recipe and method for our assessment.

 

Last term we did our solo talks. It was really entertaining because you could pick your own topic and most people did something different to everyone else. Mrs Kennedy gave us a sheet telling us everything we needed to know for the solo talks and what the success criteria were.

Hera are some of our solo talks:

• Oly did hers on preparing everyone for high school
• Peyton did hers on her trip to Tenerife
• Adam did his on Texas
• Jacob P did his on his pig
• Lacey did hers on money

 

We had such a good time during our solo talks, and we really loved listening to each other.

Transition

In February, we did a book study at the same time as the P7 pupils from Townhill and David Livingstone primaries. The book was called ‘What you Need to be Warm’ and the message from the book was that warmth comes not just from coats and fires, but from kindness, memories, and the people who care for us.  We all did the same work (such as art, HWB and Adobe) than we met on a Google Meet to show and tell each other what we did.

Isabella and Jack (who were pupils at Neilsland) came out with Mr Palmer to do some work on subjects with us.  We learned a lot.  Last week, we had a visit from the English department, and the maths departments will visit us in May.  We have our two-day visits to our high schools on the 19th  and 20th of May too.

 

Our second Blog is brought to you by the Yellow Group who are:

Harrison, Ariana, Adam, Oly, Bella, Rhea and Lacey

We hope you like it!

 

House Captain and Vice-Captain Update

During last term we hosted a fun morning! All children got to enjoy active activities such as BOCCIA, bowling, football, basketball and dance.

Our House Captains and Vice-Captains are quite busy. We look after each of the pupils in our House and make sure they feel included in everything they do. At assemblies, we sit at the side and make sure everyone is listening. We try to get house points so we can win extra playtimes and the shorts and shades party at the end of the year!

This term we will be organising Neilsland’s Got Talent ( on February 13th) and a Dance-a-thon which we will host to raise money for a charity that we choose.

Buddy time

Last term, we wrote Christmas poems for our wee Buddies. We like to meet our wee buddies when we can, and here are some photos of us doing some cosy reading together.

Numeracy

In December we did some math and science presentations in front of our class and some of the P6 pupils. Here are some examples of our presentations:

• Lacey and Heidi did a speech about Isacc Newton
• Harrison and Jacob B made a PowerPoint also on Isacc Newton
• Bella and Rhea did a Google Slides presentation about Rachel Carson
• Lailah made up a poem about Albert Einstein
• Caleb made a great poster about Isaac Newton.

We learned lots!

In maths just now, we are learning all about fractions, decimals and percentages. We know how to simplify fractions, and we are getting good at converting fractions to decimals and percentages and we sometimes use a calculator to do this.  We know that we need to be very good at out times tables to work quickly with fractions.  If you are going to a shop and you want to see what 10% off comes to, then you need to be able to do this.

IDL

As you know, we studied WW2 last term. We finished the topic by hosting the Remembrance Day assembly and we enjoyed entertaining some of the residents from Lornebank care home. Here are some photos of us with our model Anderson Shelters which were amazing!

We have just finished our topic on Scottish Landmarks.  We learned to read Ordnance Survey maps (including contour lines) and we researched some famous landmarks.  Our new topic is….’ITALY’! This ties in with our book, ‘The Thief Lord’ which is set in Venice.  We have already learned that Vivaldi (the famous composer) was born in Venice, and we have listened to one of his famous compositions, ‘The Four Seasons’. We recognised the music as a lot of it is used in games even though it’s 400 years old!

HWB

In indoor P.E. this term, our focus is be gymnastics, and we will be self and peer assessing to help improve our skills in jumping, rolling and balancing.  In March, we will do a short tennis or badminton topic. Outdoor P.E. this term will be football and basketball skills and some other team games like rounders and Kennedy ball.

We have recently learned how to stay safe in a kitchen. We looked at all the hazards in a kitchen. For example, knifes, tripping hazards, boiling water, hot pans and slippery floors. We learned about the importance of practising excellent hygiene in a kitchen including how to wash your hands properly, how to store raw meat and how to prevent cross contamination.

We are now ready to go into the kitchen and cook! We have two new ovens for the school so hopefully we will be the first to use them!

Literacy

Last term we finished reading Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.

The story was about a young boy (Michael) and his family going on a boat adventure around the world.  Before the boat adventure, Michael’s parents split up over a financial problem, leading to the dad selling the house and buying a boat called the ‘Peggy Sue’.  There were multiple characters we came across in the story like Michael’s dog Stella (who was a black and white collie), Kensuke, his father and his mother.

Mrs Kennedy requested for the film to be released from ‘ClickView’ so we could then try out the film as well!  We made a comparison of the book and the film using a Venn diagram and we all concluded that the book was way better.

This term we are studying, ‘The Thief Lord’ by Cornelia Funke

So far, we haven’t read much but from what we have already read, we learned the story is set in Venice, Italy. We have met a couple characters like Victor Getz the private detective, Esther Hartlieb and Max Hartlieb, the cruel aunt and uncle, and also Prosper and Bo, the two run away orphans.

In writing this term, our genres will include exposition, report, explanation, poetry and narrative. We will also have solo talks to deliver on the 19^th and 20^th of February.  Some topics we have chosen are: Black holes, the Titanic, Texas (the state), rock music and Scottish Munros.

STEM

We delved into our senses last term and what it would be like if we were deprived of a given sense. Here’s a link to a YouTube video showing how we got on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6XKAMgcOVE

We had some great discussions on how we might cope in situations where we were deprived of a sense and how individuals learn to adapt.

This term we are moving on to forces: What a force is, how we can understand how particular forces work and, most importantly, how this is practically applicable in our daily lives. Over the term we will be working on aerodynamics, reducing friction and improving efficiency – all of which encompass engineering, design and teamwork skills. Watch this space for future YouTube videos!

Transition

We have already had two visits from Mr Wilkie who is one of the deputes at Calderside Academy.  We did two workshops on our transition to high school where we covered everything a new S1 needs to know- from timetables to lunch arrangements.

This term, we will hopefully have a visit from one of the English teachers at Calderside who will give us a typical S1 English lesson. We are also scheduled to have Pupil Ambassadors / House Captain visits from pupils at Calderside, including some from the science department who will deliver a STEM lesson.

Welcome to P7 2025-2026!

This first blog is brought to you by the Red Group who are:

Alexa, Calum, Kaiyah, Caleb, Lucy and Jacob L.

We hope you like reading about some of what we have been learning and doing so far in P7.

House and Vice Captains

Meet our new House and Vice-Captains for session 2025-2026!

Adam, Peyton, Ariana, Harrison, Alexa, Jacob B, Kaiyah, Oly.

We have already organised a fun morning in September. All the classes went round different stations and did different activities such as basketball, Just Dance and games like Capture the Flag. We raised over £400 for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity!

Transition

We have already begun our transition journey. We all went to Calderside Academy on 7^th October for a wellbeing day with other primary schools like Townhill and Woodhead. Some of the activities we did were rock climbing, loose parts play and music studio in Terminal 1.

Numeracy

So far in numeracy, we have covered topics such as place value, rounding, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and time. For the last two weeks, we have been learning about fractions. For example, how to convert mixed number fractions to improper fractions and identifying and creating equivalent fractions.

Literacy

Reading

Our class novel is Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. The main character is a boy called Michael who is from England. One day, his parents find themselves redundant, so they buy a boat and go off to sail around the world. One night there is a terrible storm, and Michael ends up in the water then on an island. Right now, Michael is discovering the island and has met an old man called Kensuke.

We are using Kensuke’s Kingdom to learn comprehension strategies like metalinguistics, visualisation and predicting. We predict that Kensuke and Michael will build a boat, and they will sail to Japan which is Kensuke’s home country.

Writing

As our topic is WW2, we have all written poems about the Clydebank Blitz and diaries from the perspective of an evacuee. Here is Calum’s poem remembering the Clydebank Blitz.

 

Commemoration of Clydebank Blitz

By Calum McFadden

Death

I was sleeping until I woke up,

I heard an explosion then another again, and again.

I was afraid for me my wife and my kid.

I heard my wife scream, HELP!

Like her only chance of life.

But I was too late…

 

Fear

She died before I could save her.

I had to protect my son, George, at any cost from this dangerous world until…

BANG!

My house exploded like a firework on fireworks night.

No home, no food, no water, no hope.

But… a party with bombs. That is how I told George everything was okay.

I lied.

 

Homeless

He knew everything was not okay.

I felt fear. I felt enraged at the bombers.

Then I cried in pain for my Mary, my sweet Mary, vanished from me.

 

The Great Sea

I knew we had to escape.

We found a friend, a golden retriever, and we called him Sunny.

We went on my old sloop.

George and Sunny looked like they were having fun and had forgotten about the bombs.

But not me…

 

The rest of the class agree that this poem is OUTSTANDING!

 

Music

In music, we are learning the notes middle C to top C and how to play them on the recorder. We are also learning to play the ukulele (in groups) and Mr Riley from Calderside Academy is teaching us. Last week we had a visit from a piper (Chris) who taught us all about the chanter and the bagpipes.

John Muir Wild Places Guardian Award

We learned about the life of John Muir who was born in Scotland in 1838. He was a man who loved nature and spent his life protecting nature and all things to do with it such as trees, rivers and animals. We will work towards getting our John Muir award this session and then when we go to high school, we should be able to go for the Duke of Edinburgh award. For the John Muir award, we have to spend time in nature and we have to learn through the principles set by him which are: Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share. Recently, we did a study of trees and their leaves, and we have completed an a-z hunt of the ‘back bit’ of our playground.

Thank you for taking time to read our blog! Next term, the blog will be presented by the Green Group.

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