Category: Clan News

The Ben’s Book Covers

 

The Ben’s have been inspired by their favourite books to create book covers that are now displayed in the discovery den. They have been creative with their work, some using free hand painting and colouring, others tracing, and some clan members used technology to design their covers. They have used their own ideas of what it means to be successful as a means to set a standard at this task, all students have completed it above and beyond these expectations. At home, you could discuss what your favourite book is and why you have chosen this – you could even have another read of that book to remember why you love it so much.

Speak Out, Stay Safe

NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme

This term we participated in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme. This consists of an online assembly and supporting classroom based activities. Speak out. Stay safe. is a safeguarding programme available to all primary schools in the UK and Channel Islands. It aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse in a child friendly way. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or Childline.

In the online assembly, the Speak out. Stay safe. messages were delivered in a fun and interactive way with the help of their mascot Buddy as well as special guest appearances from Ant and Dec.

We studied the content of the materials and are extremely confident that they are appropriate for primary-school-aged children. By the end of the programme, the aim is that children feel empowered – knowing how they can speak out and stay safe.

If you would like to know more about the Speak out. Stay safe. programme you can find information on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout

Additional resources

Adapted assembly for home use

The NSPCC has also developed an adapted version of their assembly for parents/carers to use at home with their children.  This can be found here: www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/safety.  With the help of celebrities, the film focuses on how a child can get support if they have any worries or concerns.

To complement the assembly, there are some resources that can be used to enable further discussion whilst doing activities with your children.  These are hosted on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/activities.

Online safety hub

You may also like to visit the NSPCC Online Safety Hub where you will find advice and information on a range of different online safety topics including gaming, social media, sharing nudes, parental controls and more.

You will also find online safety information for families of children with additional needs and disabilities. We have worked with Ambitious about Autism and parents and carers who have children with additional needs and disabilities to create activities to help talk about online safety which you can find at www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-families-children-with-send.

Childline Under 12’s Website

Childline also have a website with age appropriate advice for primary school children on topics such as bullying.  It also has games and other interactive tools. Your child can visit it at www.childline.org.uk/kids.

If you’d like to know more about the NSPCC’s work, or take a look at the wide range of information and advice which is available for parents and carers, please visit their website www.nspcc.org.uk/parents.

Talking PANTS with your children

Talk PANTS is a simple conversation to help keep your child safe from sexual abuse. From P through to S, each letter of PANTS provides a simple but valuable rule that can help keep your child safe. You can find out more and download the free resources at www.nspcc.org.uk/pants.

Penguin and Ladybird have partnered with the NSPCC to create a brand new Pantosaurus book aimed at children ages 4 – 8. You can find copies of the new book on sale, either in Matalan’s selected stores and online, selected SPAR stores or at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/. All profits from the sale of this book will support the NSPCC.

Support the NSPCC

You may be interested in the NSPCC’s new selection of BUDDY goodies available from the NSPCC shop at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/collections/buddy which make perfect gifts for children – and all profits go to help keep children safe.

Ben Lomond Fundraiser – 30th September

Message from Ben Lomond

As part of our context for learning Ben Lomond Clan have planned and organised a fundraiser for 30th September to raise funds for Primary 7, this includes:

  • Purchasing Leavers Hoodies
  • P7 celebration events; such as a meal out to celebrate the end of Primary
  • All things Primary 7

So far we have been very lucky that local businesses, including Linwater Caravan Park, Stirling Developments and Taylor Wimpey have also contributed to the Primary 7 fundraising.

On the day, the clans can take part in timetabled events which you can see in the poster below.

The suggested donations for some of the activities are:

  • Soak the P7’s: £1 per throw
  • Brick a Brack and home baking: 5p-£1 donation

If you would like to contribute, please remember to give your child some change on Friday 30th September – 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p,£1 (unfortunately no change can be given). Alternatively, you can make donations through iPay impact by clicking on funds and selecting P7 Fundraiser, this account will open on 22nd – 30th September.

 

On this day children can also dress down, (please remember no football tops or crop tops).

 

All children will have the opportunity to take part in the event, the suggestion of a donation is not compulsory. 

 

Also, on the day we are offering a champion car wash. We would appreciate it, if you could follow any cones and signs placed in the playground on 30th September.

 

There is still the opportunity to donate any brik a brack until 26th September.

Thank you for your support.
Yours sincerely,
Tyler (and the rest of Ben Lomond)

 

Home Learning Choice Boards

Please find below a copy of the home learning choice boards for Term 1. Our approach to home learning is flexible to ensure we met the needs of our families and children’s extra curricular activities, therefore the amount of tasks you complete are up to you as a family. The tasks are a mixture of online and discussion/ paper tasks. If children choose to share any of their home learning with their clan they can do this via their champion.

 

The tasks are also uploaded to Seesaw/ Teams. Children will bring home their log in cards this week, please ensure you keep these in a safe place.

 

You can find further information here:

Our Parent Council are currently setting up a working group to consult on our approaches to home learning to ensure we meet the needs of our families.

P1 Home Learning Choice Board T1

P2 Home Learning Board- Term 1

Primary 3 Home Learning Board– Term 1

P4 Home Learning Choice Board_Term 1

P5 Home Learning Choice Board_Term 1

P6 Home Learning Choice Board_Term 1

P7 Home Learning Choice Board_Term 1

Term 1 Writing in Bluebell

Over this term, Bluebell will be developing their skills in descriptive writing. We have started to look at, discuss and apply the structures of description using our PM example texts. This will gradually build up into pupils creating their very own descriptive texts, applying their learning independently.

To support the development of our writing skills, pupils have and will continue to throughout the year, to work on the principles of VCOP.
V – quality vocabulary
C- Sentence connectors to construct more detailed sentences
O- Sentence openers
P – Punctuation

We became ‘Sentence Doctors’ to cure some sick sentences by applying VCOP. We were excited to share some of our cured sentences with Miss Burton. Pupils in Bluebell worked extremely hard to make considered choices for their vocabulary.

STEM in The Bens

STEM is a huge part of who we are at Calderwood.

Recently, the Bens have been exploring the area of chemistry and chemical reactions.

We started by giving the pupils the chance to experience first hand a basic chemical reaction – water, oil and an effervescent tablet! – They were given the instructions but no adult support to carry it out.

This encouraged independent and collaborative learning & problem solving skills.

 

Next, we watched and observed the magic that took place! The comments, questions and curiosity from them was fantastic.

-“why is mine fizzing so much?”

-“why does the oil sit on top of the water?”

-What makes it do that?”

 

With our curiosity activated, we learned all about the chemical reaction & creation of carbon dioxide.

 

The following week, we conducted a fair test and began to explore how scientists set up testing by ensuring variables & conditions were all the same, only making one change at a time.

 

Children worked amazingly together to investigate their own scientific enquiry questions such as:

 

“what happens to the amount of fizz if I change the amount of tablets?”

“what happens to the oil bubbles if I use milk instead of water?”- (warning, it smelled awful!)

“what happens to the amount of fizzing time if I use less water?”

 

Well done, Bens – it was fantastic to watch you experience the wonders of STEM on your own.

 

Remembering Queen Elizabeth II

Today, across our clans we took some time to reflect on this moment in history and celebrate the life of Queen Elizabeth. Some clans made pictures of her, discussed what she did for the United Kingdom and beyond, wrote poems and reflected on her achievements.

Some of the older clans also watched a Newsround clip.

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