Author: Mrs Campbell

After many weeks of rehearsal and preparation, Primary 5 and Primary 6 finally performed their Scottish Opera show, ‘Vikings! The Quest for the Dragon’s Treasure’ on Monday 17^th June.

Everyone spent time in the morning with the  Scottish Opera coaches, who took pupils through their paces with stage directions and choreography. After lunch, pupils were very excited to see their costumes and really start getting into character.  Some of the other classes came to watch the dress rehearsal and then parents , carers and invited guests took their places for our final performance.

The audience was blown away by the performance and so impressed with the confidence shown by everyone involved. The Scottish Opera professionals were also so impressed by  the childrens’ commitment and said that it made their job so much easier when pupils were so well-rehearsed and enthusiastic.

Miss Niven, Mrs Campbell and Mrs Stewart are all incredibly proud of everyone who took part – it was definitely worth all the hard work and effort! Well done everyone!

Our science teacher, Mrs Beattie, has been working hard with P5A on the Climate Smarter project to produce a model of an eco friendly school. The children worked in groups to produce models which included sustainable features such as wind turbines and water recycling units. Our head teacher, Mrs Stewart, had the unenviable task of choosing 2 models to go forward to the Climate Smarter competition and STEM celebration at Heriot-Watt university on 22nd May.
The 2 groups attended the day with Mrs Beattie and Mrs Campbell. The children were asked to set up their models and then had the opportunity to spend the morning taking part in a range of STEM challenges.
They then had to present their models to the judges and showcase their knowledge about ways to make buildings more eco friendly and sustainable.
Both groups spoke confidently and held their own against other pupils ranging from P5 to S2.

We were all absolutely delighted, surprised and elated when one of our groups won 2nd prize! The boys were over the moon and received a trophy, certificate and a whopping £150 for Mrs Beattie to spend on STEM resources!

We couldn’t have been more proud of the pupils, they conducted themselves beautifully all day and spoke so confidential and enthusiastically to the judges and everyone else they met that day (even the bus driver was impressed with them!).

A huge well done to everyone involved and thank you to Mrs Beattie for organising.

Primary 5A and 5B went to visit Surgeons’ Hall Museum in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

We took part in a workshop to learn about how surgery was performed in the past and how this has helped to shape the procedures we are lucky enough to have today.

We handled some old instruments and had to guess what they were used for, then some lucky volunteers demonstrated what it would have been like to undergo certain procedures back in the bad old days – we all agreed we’d much rather have to go to hospital in this century than back then!

We then looked at some of the exhibits, including some hands-on robotics which allowed us to see what it is like when robots perform surgery.

Afterwards we enjoyed lunch outside in the sunshine before returning to school.

Everyone feels ready now to begin our new IDL context on Human Body Systems.

Primary 5A were very excited to welcome parents and carers into class on Thursday afternoon. Pupils had chosen to share some of our maths and literacy games we use in class to support our learning in these areas, as many parents had asked about ways to support at home at our last Parent Consultations.
P5 had great fun showing parents a variety of games and challenges which can be used at home, and lots of parents showed their competitive side when playing against their kids!
We ended with a Kahoot! quiz to showcase our learning across the whole of this session – in the end it was a very close finish but Alex and his mum were the victors, well done to them!

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ella in P5A has been learning British Sign Language and this week she volunteered to teach a short lesson to the class. We learned how to sign please, thank you, hello and goodbye and then we practised signing our names. Next time, Ella and Emma will be teaching us how to sign all the letters of the alphabet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our 1+2 Languages ambassadors have done a great job of promoting languages this term across the school. They suggested having a Languages ‘Advent Calendar’ where every day in December classes would learn how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in a different language. All of our pupils really loved doing this and it gave them a chance to share the different languages spoken at home by many of our children and their families. We also learned a lot about different cultures and customs across the world at this time of year. Here are some children from Mrs Turner’s class enjoying their daily dose of languages!

On Thursday, 9th November, P5A visited East Calder Library with Mrs Campbell and Mrs Robertson.

We met Deborah the librarian who told us all about how to become a member and explained all of the different services the library provides. We did some reading activities and then listened to a story. Lots of us were keen to get an application form so we can become members and visit the library more regularly.

On Monday 2nd October, P5A and P5B took part in the Handball Tournament at West Calder High School.

We formed 3 teams and took turns to play short matches against other schools.

Everyone showed great team spirit and sportsmanship and we had a chance to practise our skills in passing, receiving, shooting, marking and blocking.

Well done to everyone who took part!

This P5 pupil successfully completed the Summer Reading Challenge 2023 and shared his favourite book with us – a great achievement, well done!

Primary 5A have had a busy couple of weeks settling into our new classroom and revisiting our school rules and values. We are in the process of creating our class charter (it’s going to bee good!) and have been reminding ourselves about the 4 capacities and skills for learning. We also thought about our goals and aspirations for the new school year.

We had our first visit to the school library and have been enjoying having the opportunity to read or listen to stories in class.

We have begun revising place value and have explored the numeracy materials in class to help us demonstrate our understanding.

On Friday, we joined up with P5B to choose our IDL context for this term. The outcome we will be exploring is all about the impact we have on the planet and how we can lead more sustainable lives – there was a clear winner and we are all very excited about exploring The Rainforest and showcasing our learning.