Mackintosh- Tim Burton Inspired Art!

This week in P7, we have been developing our artistic skills by exploring the unique and imaginative style of Tim Burton!

Our learning focus has been to develop our understanding and application of key drawing techniques, including line, shape, proportion, shading and tone. We have been practising how to use these techniques effectively to create depth, detail and expression in our artwork.

Using Tim Burton’s distinctive characters as inspiration, we have been experimenting with exaggerated features, expressive lines and contrasting tones. This has helped us to improve our observational drawing skills, develop greater control and precision, and build confidence in applying different artistic techniques.

We are looking forward to using these skills to create our own imaginative pieces of artwork! 🎨

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Categorized as Calderwood

Calderwood Primary Chronicle: 30/10/26

Calderwood Chronicle_30_10_26

 

Every fortnight we will issue our chronicle to families via email and our blog.

All other information about Calderwood is on our blog and website.

 

Calderwood Commitments: 

 

Calderwood Calendar: 

  • Family Calendar: Link is here. A huge thank you to Mike (one of our parents) who created a digital calendar for families to use: https://calderwoodcalendar.co.uk/
  • 03/11/26: Parent Council Meeting: In the Arena or Teams – you can find the agenda and Teams link here.
  • 10/11/26: 2:00pm – 3:00pm: Sharing the Learning: P3: A visit to the clan room to find out about their learning and to look at your child’s jotters. One adult per child please. This this is drop in opportunity and adults are not required to stay for the full hour. Children will be collected in the playground at the normal time of 3:15pm
  • 10/11/26: 2:00pm – 3:00pm: Sharing the Learning: P5: A visit to the Arena to find out about their learning and to look at your child’s jotters. One adult per child please. This this is drop in opportunity and adults are not required to stay for the full hour. Children will leave at the normal time of 3:15pm
  • 11/11/26: Dress Down Day for House Meetings: Wear your house colours on top and normal uniform on bottom. Red: Red, Sika: Blue, Fallow: Green, Roe: Yellow
  • 12/11/26: 2:00-3:00pm: Clan Connects: Tummel: Doors Open 2pm: Starts 2:10pm: An opportunity for your children to share on stage their learning in the Arena and then you can look at their jotters in the café. 2 adults per child.

 

Calderwood Communication:

  • Parking: A reminder that the bays labelled between the school and nursery are for car users who have a blue badge only.
  • Communication: Our communication approaches are here. The fortnightly Chronicle is our main method of communication, which includes deadlines, updates, calendar dates, information and news. It provides links to the blog for those families who would like more information on a specific context. The purpose of the Chronicle is to try and prevent numerous emails. We are grateful to our Parent Council Communication team who reshare reminders and key information from the chronicle. Outwith the chronicle, we may email key messages for specific stages, any last minute changes to plans or important deadlines. We will review our communication approaches at next week’s parent council.
  • Positive Relationship Policy: You can find our most up to date document here, including our anti bullying processes.
  • Profiling: Profiling means that learners will be engaged in regular, on-going discussions with staff about their This is a continuous process for all learners from 3 to 18. You can find out more about how we record and share learning in this document and how Primary 1-3 use Seesaw to support this process here. will be engaged in regular, on-going discussions
  • Term 2 P.E Days: You can find the link to your child’s PE Days here. We are aware that parents have requested that PE days say the same all year round, unfortunately this is not always possible. Teachers are entitled to 2 and ½ hours non contact time each week, which is rotated each term due to the Monday holidays. This is turn effects the non contact timetable, which impacts on the PE timetable, hence the change in days. This term we have also had the additional change of non access to the field, therefore meaning a change to outdoor PE times.

 

 

  • Home Learning: 

Reading: In Primary 1, we continue to build on the strong foundations established at the start of the year through daily phonics activities, storytelling, songs, rhymes and language-rich learning experiences. Pupils have made excellent progress in developing their awareness of sounds and letters and are now beginning to apply these skills independently through reading. Reading books have now been introduced and are sent home regularly, allowing children to practise and share their learning with their families. As part of their reading journey, pupils are learning digraphs, building their knowledge of common tricky words, and reading decodable texts that match the phonics skills they have learned in clan. This approach continues to support confidence, independence and a positive relationship with reading. Primary 2-4 Clans will take their reading book home, please ensure they have their reading book in the bag every day so they can access to it in clan. Primary 5-7 reading homework is a personal reader from the clan library or home. They should complete their reading log with the books they read.  

Home Learning Choice Grids: The home learning grids issued each term, linked to learning in clan and are optional tasks for children to complete at home. The blue boxes are to help you to prioritise which tasks to complete. Primary 1-3 should share their tasks on Seesaw, Primary 4-7 on Teams, if you would prefer a jotter to share tasks please ask your child’s champion.

  • School Improvement Plan: You can find our school improvement plan for the session here. The family friendly version is here.
  • Love to Ride Challenge Comes to Calderwood! This November, Calderwood Primary School is excited to be taking part in the Love to Ride Travel Tracker and Light Your Move Challenge.The challenge aims to encourage active travel and help pupils think about healthy, sustainable ways of getting to school. Walking, cycling, scooting, wheeling, skating and using Park and Stride are all great ways for children and families to build activity into their daily routines while reducing traffic around the school. You can find out more here.
  • Getting it Right for Every Child: You can find out more here about the different types of processes and meetings we use at Calderwood to ensure we follow local and national policy in meeting learners needs.

Calderwood Community:

Calderwood Compliments:

  • Our Calderwood football team put in an outstanding performance at their recent football festival, finishing the evening with three wins and one draw. Find out more about the event here.
  • Perth clan have enjoyed some fantastic lessons about travelling safely using scooters around our wonderful Calderwood community. We had a brilliant time at our last session on Thursday 15th October and would like to give a massive thank you to everyone involved in organising it. You can find out more here.

Burns – Expressive Arts

This week, we completed one of our Expressive Arts projects inspired by the work of artist Kimmy Cantrell. Throughout Term 1, we learned about the visual elements of art, and this project gave us the opportunity to apply our understanding of shape, colour, line and form in a creative and meaningful way. As part of our learning for Black History Month, we explored the work of influential Black artists and discussed how Cantrell uses bold colours, expressive shapes and unique mask designs to communicate ideas and emotions.

We began by sketching and developing a range of mask designs before selecting our strongest idea. We then used cardboard to create three-dimensional sculptures and painted them in Cantrell’s distinctive style. This project encouraged us to think carefully about our artistic choices while developing our creativity and resilience. The finished masks showcase the individuality of each learner while reflecting the powerful shapes, colours and forms that inspired us throughout our study of Kimmy Cantrell.

This week, Burns Clan also explored the visual elements of line, shape and tone through a fun art project inspired by the work of filmmaker and artist Tim Burton. We studied Burton’s distinctive style, paying particular attention to his exaggerated facial features, expressive lines and dramatic use of light and dark. Using these techniques, we created our own “Spooky Selfies”, transforming portraits into eerie characters while experimenting with shading and contrast to create mood and atmosphere. The finished artwork showcased our growing understanding of how artists use visual elements to create strong visual impact and convey emotion

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Our World War learning journey – Muir Clan

This term, Primary 7 have begun exploring the topic of World War II by using the powerful Sainsbury’s 1914 Christmas Truce advert as a stimulus for learning. Although the advert is based on a real event from World War I, it encouraged us to think deeply about life during wartime and reflect on the experiences of those involved.

While watching the film, we took notes, shared our responses, and discussed the key themes and messages the filmmakers were trying to convey. We then used the advert as a starting point for our response writing, a genre we will continue to develop throughout the term. As part of this work, we are learning how to explain our ideas clearly and support our opinions with evidence from the text to deepen our understanding and thinking.

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Getting it Right for Me Processes at Calderwood

Getting it Right for Every Child: You can find out more about the different types of processes and meetings we use at Calderwood to ensure we follow local and national policy in meeting learners needs.

 

Calderwood Primary GIRFEC Supports- Families

Halloween Social Story

Dear Parent/carers,

Please find below a social story that you can share with your child to support with the P1 and P2 Halloween Party and Halloween dress up at school on Friday.

Halloween Dress Down At Calderwood Social Story

P1-2 Halloween Parties At Calderwood Social Story_2026

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