Tag Archives: Article 31: We have the right to play and take part in a range of activities.

Pentland – Term 3

I think I say the same thing every time … but how is it the holidays again already?!?!

We’ve had another very busy term and especially enjoyed our families coming in to join us for a Clown Doctors session, Burns’ Ceilidh, Fairtrade cafe and Red Nose Day cafe!

Our current topic is Spring which we will be continuing next term. We have also taken part in Chinese New Year, Valentines, ECO and British Science Week activities.  Phew!!!

Two of our favourite activities were making Mr Nonsense (now our new class mascot) for the Red Nose Day cafe and throwing our wildflower seed bombs around the woodland to help the local wildlife…

The staff working hard too…

Think they enjoyed it as much as the children…

Our finished product…

Happy Easter from everyone in Pentland!

Term 3 in Duntarvie

In Duntarvie class we have been very busy learning out in the community and have created some videos of our favourite things we have been experiencing and participating in this term – hope you enjoy them.

We are looking forward to getting to explore further on our bikes next term and making the most of the lovely weather (fingers crossed). We are also planning to get back to check on all our berry, fruit and vegetable plants at the community garden.

Have a lovely Easter break.

Science day, Beatlie 2023 – sensory connections

This year the theme for science week was connections so we decided to have a seaside and underwater adventure where we could explore all our sensory connections.

We had lots of fun exploring different elements of being at the seaside and a range of reactions to some of the sensory items we were using – hope you enjoy watching our video.

Autumn Term Music in Beatlie

In Music this term, we had fun once more sharing and playing music together with our friends. 

One of the focus points across the school has been making choices in music. In Ochiltree and Duntarvie the children have been exploring genre, from disco to indie and rock, with more to come after the holidays. In mixed groups doing ASDAN and NQs, they selected from a range of music on switches and then chose instruments to play along with the selection, including drums and electric guitars. It was surprising to find out who are the secret rock and rollers in the classes!

In Primary and Lammermuir, we have been choosing from a range of nursery rhymes and instruments. The Pentland children had great fun deciding whether songs should be loud, quiet, fast and slow. At Halloween The Hairy Scary Castle  song made a return, with all the spooky sounds inside, which the children always enjoy.

Across the school we continue to have opportunities for individuals to have short Music as Therapy sessions that allows an opportunity to focus on the particular needs of some of the children.  While this is different from Music Therapy with Aisling, we do confer and ideas overlap. Importantly, it is an opportunity for the children to express themselves through music away from distractions.

We ended the term with music for the Christmas show, quite a change after the last few years, with lots of creative ideas. Next year, we will continue to have fun with new and familiar songs alike, and also take time to use music for wellbeing and to celebrate Scotland as we head to Burns Night.

Pentland – Term 2

WOW! Who can believe Christmas is here already!

We’ve had another very busy term in Pentland with lots of new learning and fun celebrations including World Smile Day, Diwali, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Scottish Book Week, St Andrew’s Day and, of course, Christmas!

We have really enjoyed having our families back in school to take part in the Live Music Now café, watch our Christmas performance and see us meet Santa.

Our topic this term was ‘Day & Night’. We had fun creating day and night skies in art, bathing and dressing baby dolls for daytime and night time activities, and taking part in some day and night drama activities, including putting on our PJs and then snuggling up with a teddy for a bedtime story!  We also explored dancing to lively and calm music and played some time games including ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’ and ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’.  Some of our boys also explored day and night sequencing, sorting and opposites during our weekly maths group.

Here are a few photos of our topic work…

Bedtime!

Our completed art gallery…

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all our families from Team Pentland.

Hopetoun News Term 2

This term has gone by in a flash and no-one can quite believe Christmas is upon us!! We have been super busy in Hopetoun rounding off our ‘In the Garden’ topic, having lots of spooky Halloween fun and helping put together our very own Beatlie ‘Going on a Bee Hunt’ story as part of Scottish Book Week. We enjoyed a Live Music Now café and in Hopetoun we feel proud to have donated to a local charity called West Lothian Schoolbank who provide clothing for children who need it. We’ve managed to fit in a couple of trips to the café which we have all loved and are looking forward to getting out and about in the community much more after the winter break. Our last couple of weeks have been full of Christmas spirit, we were lucky enough to have the Snow White panto come to Beatlie and have enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch, we finished off our festivities with a primary Christmas party with lots of games and music and of course a very special visitor!!

Sending big Christmas wishes to everyone, Team Hopetoun are looking forward to welcoming everyone back in the new year!!

Term 2 in Dunratvie 2022

Beatlie Cafe for Live Music Now – 18th November 2022

It was lovely to see parents, grandparents and carers back in Beatlie for our cafe this  morning.  Thanks for your donations, we raised £100 for Live Music Now.

Live Music Now (https://livemusicnow.scot/ ) visited our school last year and worked with some of the senior classes.  It was very successful and we hope to have them back again in the future.

Our children showed us how much they enjoyed listening to the live music this morning with lots of dancing, smiling and playing along with musical instruments.

 

Pentland – Term 1

Ahoy Me Hearties from the Pentland Pirates!

What a busy (and quick!) first term here in Pentland. We started the year with a Pirate theme which we explored through various activities including art, cooking, sensory play, stories, dressing-up and physical games and activities…

Pirates was also the theme for our Class Charter…

We had a visit from Cool Creatures…

We looked for signs of Autumn during an Autumn Scavenger Hunt and used our senses to explore autumnal objects…

But our highlight has definitely been horse riding…

Our art wall so far with boats, treasure maps, treasure chests, leaf hedgehogs and shaving foam art…

Hope everyone has a great holiday and we’ll see you next term for the countdown to Christmas!!