We have had lots of fun this week in Primary 6b, reminding ourselves of how to multiply and have been focusing on a range of different strategies to support us with our work. Some children learned to multiply with two digits e.g. 345×26 and absolutely loved the challenge. Take a look at us hard at work 🙂
On the lead up to Bonfire Night, please find some information Police Scotland, West Lothian Council & Scottish Fire & Rescue Service.
Firework Letter Schools 2021 WLC
We had a fantastic trip to Almondell Country Park in order to celebrate the near completion of the woodland management works and Historic Wall Project there. The kids had a brilliant day and so did the adults! We went on a guided walk, watched a chainsaw demonstration and did lots of tree planting. A massive thank you to Mrs Hearn and Mr Fazakerley who joined Miss Livingstone and I on the trip.
A massive thank you to Kirsty who helped us arrange this great trip and to all of the staff who were kind, patient and welcoming and supported the children with their tree planting.
Have a look at the fun we had in the pictures 🙂
Miss Baldacci (Principal Teacher)
On Thursday October 7th both Primary 6 classes attended a digital webinar with Amazon. The live 1 hour session was highly engaging, fast moving and well presented by a group of Amazon staff demonstrating the whole process from clicking and placing your order to your packages arriving at your home. The webinar was a mixture of live streamed interviews and demonstrations of each step your package takes, videos explaining the technology and also interactive multiple choice questions. There was an opportunity to have staff respond to you questions in a live Q&A session at the end.
We were fascinated by the amount of digital technology used by Amazon to carry out work in their factories and distribution centres. We learned all about algorithms, databases, computer science and cloud computing as well as how they are used to make Amazon as efficient a company as possible. Keeping the process as quick and efficient as possible. We were so shocked to see that all products are stored on ‘Pods’ which are completely controlled and moved around by robots. The robots scan QR codes on the factory floor to constantly update their position and to plan the fastest route to a human picker. Staff who must access the floor in an emergency must wear a custom made AI safety vest that cost Amazon around £9.8m to design. We were also shocked that the products were all stored randomly as the Amazon research showed this was actually more efficient than organising and storing products in alphabetical order or grouping them in any way. We also loved seeing some of the other machines in action and finding out about ‘machine learning’ so that technology can adapt and learn to keep the company as efficient as possible. We were shown how quality control was carried out at various stages.
The ingenuity and forward thinking of the company was so exciting, as well as their dedication to reducing their carbon footprint by cutting packaging by creating more ‘frustration free packaging’ and purchasing over 100,000 electric vans. It was a great opportunity to interact with such a modern and exciting company with over 1.3million employees, we agreed as classes we are all familiar with those smiley boxes!
Scott said “I thought it was really interesting to see some of the machines and I was shocked at what they did. Looking at them I wouldn’t have guessed what they could do.”
Jack said, “I thought it would be a normal deliver service but it’s so much more than that!”.
Erin thought, “It was really interesting because I thought it would just be a video of how they did it but there were all these robotics. We actually heard from real workers!”.
Jake said, “I like there was a real Q&A quiz and the interactive questions so would could join in.”
The children in The Hive have had a great first term.
We have learned many new things at our workstations.
We have also enjoyed some outdoor learning during Maths Week.
We learned some life skills by making our own sandwiches!
We have used our creative building skills in the block play area.
Mrs Grieve, Mr Fazakerley and all the Hive children hope you all have a lovely October holiday.
We have received exciting news that one of our pupils has made it through to the 120 finalists of the Royal Mail ‘Heroes’ Stamp Design Competition! Well done to Lily in P6 🙂 We have our fingers crossed that you make it to the next round (where 24 from the 120 finalists will be announced in November) and hopefully even make it to the final 8 winning stamp designs! An incredible 606,049 entries were received from children across the UK, with an amazing 7,479 schools taking part so to make it through to the 120 finalists is a great achievement – we are very proud of you and love you ‘Heroes’ stamp design.  
A massive well done to this P7 pupil for this fabulous drawing. She came down to show me on Friday and I was very impressed. She also shared the work she is completing on the American Revolution and said she was currently in the process of completing her own research. Well done!!
Miss Baldacci.
This week in Maths the class were asked,
‘How can we show we know how to use money?’
They discussed in groups and came up with ideas like helping parents pay for a pint of milk or a small snack with coins at a shop but I reminded them that they were in a classroom. Â Some other ideas were spoken about and then they thought that they could create a shop and they set about making labels with products and prices on them. Once they had made some the shopping began with them taking turns being the shopkeeper and customers who had to make sure to pay with coins. Â This then advanced to some giving change. Â The ideas then developed further and one group even create a VIP card for their shop.
Amazing learning and all child led.
Hi everyone!
Now that your child has met their new class and teacher, I wanted to provide Social Stories for them to look at incase they or yourselves wanted a reminder of doors they use and the people who can help them when they come back in August.
I have also recorded a version they might want to listen to which can help reassure children who are perhaps feeling a little worried about the change.
Take care,
Alison Baldacci (Principal Teacher).
