Category Archives: Achievements

Achievement Awards, Community, Events, Maths & Numeracy, Nursery, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Sciences, Technologies

Term 3 Celebration Assembly

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This morning we welcomed parents and friends along to our Celebration Celebration so that pupils could receive their STEM Super Star and Remarkable Reader Awards. We also announced the Top Scorers for each house and a big well done to Almondell who won the House Cup for last term.

Miss Sherlow presented those pupils who came in the top 50 of the West Lothain SumDog Competition with a certificate.

Lewis and Ross, both past pupils from our school who now attend West Calder High shared their achievements with us. They reminded us it was important to achievement academically and in other areas of life, and also to have fund along the way. A big thank you to Lewis and Ross for joining us.

 

 

 

Community, Events, Modern Languages, Outside of School

Euroquiz

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Last Friday, four pupils from Primary 6 – Aiden, Matilda, Calum and Erin – took part in the West Lothian heat for Euroquiz 2017. This took place at Howden Park Centre. The Scottish European Educational Trust runs an annual Euroquiz for P6 pupils, which sees teams of four working together to broaden their knowledge of Europe. Subjects covered include history, geography, sport, culture, languages and the European Union. Our four did us proud with their knowledge, effort and behaviour. They were a credit to the school and all really enjoyed taking part.

Community, Events, Outside of School, Primary 5, Primary 7, Pupil Council, Self Evaluation, Uncategorized

Pupil Council Learning Walk … Take 2!

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Today our Pupil Council went along to Addiewell Primary School, along with Woodmuir Primary to continue our Cluster Learning Walks. The Pupil Council gave us a presentation about their school and showed us a video.

We asked the Pupil Council some questions about their school:

  • What IDL topics are you learning about?
  • How do you use digital technologies in your school?
  • What kind of outdoor learning do you have?
  • What is your school motto and values?
  • What type of whole school events does your school have?

We also asked Mrs MacMillan, their Principal Teacher some questions about her job:

  • What is your favourite part of your job?
  • What are you most proud of in your school?
  • How do you deal with behaviour in your school?
  • How do you plan your assemblies?

There were lots of things that we found interesting about Addiewell Primary:

  • Together Time
  • How they eat their snack together
  • Wheelie Wednesdays
  • Improvements they had made in their playground
  • Their school motto
  • Everyone was very friendly
  • Cozy Corners in their classrooms
  • Their movie models in P5/6/7
  • That it was a combined school with St. Thomas Primary

Thank you to Charley, Jessica-Lee and Ryan for being our tour guides and answering our questions.

Expressive Arts, Outside of School, Sciences

Crystal Grotto at Jupiter Artland P2/3

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P2/3 visited the artwork entitled The Light Pours Out of Me at Jupiter Artland. They were using their senses to describe the artwork and they talked about the artist and the other senses she uses in her art such as the taste of her chocolate room!

Back in class they solved a design challenge to create an amethyst grotto as a class display. They made artworks with salt crystals and shades of purple acrylic paint. They also used triangles to make a geometric design. They used paint but also an Art app called Art Set. This can be downloaded free.

We learnt new words for purple such as mauve, periwinkle and magenta.

We also saw a smooth shiny material called obsidian. Can you find out more about this glass-like rock? can you find out more about the artist who made the huge grotto. What is her name? What other sculptures has she made?

Achievements, Events, Health & Wellbeing, Primary 7, Responsible Roles, Uncategorized

Magical Mediators receive WL Stellar Award!

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On Friday afternoon the Magical Mediators and their parents/ carers were invited along to the West Lothian Stellar Awards at Howden Park Centre where they received the winning award for Responsible Citizens.

The information below details why these group of pupils were nominated for the award and the impact they have had on the school and themselves. A big Congratulations to all the Magical Mediators for this huge achievement, we are very proud of them.

https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/13221/Spotlight-on-pupils-at-Stellar-Awards

  • How the outcome was achieved, were there barriers, new ideas, teamwork etc.

Over two years as a Senior Management Team we recognised that we were having ongoing issues in the playground. As part of a way to address the issues we introduced Responsible Roles for Primary 7 pupils which included:

  • Playful Pals: They have the responsibility of teaching younger pupils playground games, looking after the playground equipment and ensuring children are not on their own at break and lunch times.
  • Safe Security: They have the responsibility of ensuring the playground area and toilets areas safe and pupils are using the facilities responsibility.
  • Magical Mediators: They operate a peer mediation programme which helps pupils solve disputes in the playground through a coaching programme.

The Primary 7 pupils filled out an application form and were allocated a role depending on their knowledge, skills and qualities, they then underwent training for their specific role.

  • Who was involved/ affected – those involved, those supporting, those who benefitted.

Initially the Magical Mediators were trained along with St. Ninian’s Primary by the Scottish Mediation Network, the pupils now run their own training programme. They work in partnership with the pupil support workers and are supported by the depute head teacher. The Magical Mediator service is offered to P1-7 pupils. Our Magical Mediators are still in regular contact with the Scottish Mediation Network, who have written case studies about our programme to share our learning with others.

  • What was learned.

The Magical Mediators help our pupils become independent by helping them develop conflict resolution skills there preparing them with skills for learning, life and work. Pupils in the school have become more solution orientated by trying to solve their own problems first before asking an adult for help.

The Magical Mediators programme has impacted hugely on their Primary 7 leadership skills as they have responsibility for leading and developing the programme. They have developed their communication skills in a number of ways from promoting and advertising the service through Assemblies, promotion videos and our school blog to how they communicate with the pupils who use their service. They have developed resilience and problem solving skills in order to independently  overcome difficult situations. They have also developed their organisation skills by

  • What makes the achievement/project/group/individual special.

Our Magical Mediators have represented our school and West Lothian at the Scottish Medication Conference and more recently they were asked to share our journey to schools across Scotland at the Scottish Young Talks Conference.  At this conference they received an award from the Scottish Mediation in recognition for our Outstanding Contribution to Peer Mediation in Scotland by a School.

  • What are the lasting impacts of the achievement/project etc.

Our Magical Mediators continue to have a lasting impact on the health and wellbeing of the pupils in our school. It is a sustainable programme, as the Primary 7 pupils have developed training workshops to  train the new magical mediators each year. We regularly support the Scottish Mediation Network with their research and have appeared in their Young Talks Magazine several times.

You can find out more about our Magical Mediators on our blog:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/mcps/?s=magical+mediators&searchsubmit=

Outside of School, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 7, Uncategorized

Ball In The Hall

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Last week P1 and P2/1 finished their Castles IDL by having a fantastic Ball In The Hall. We all enjoyed a fun filled afternoon which was planned and organised by our P7 Buddies. Everyone joined in some games and dancing, before settling down to enjoy our Feast. Primary 7 served all the food and a drink, and then the Jesters provided us with some entertainment. We finished off with more games and dancing. A huge Thank You to Primary 7 for organising this for us. We had a great afternoon P7, and we hope you enjoyed it too.

Outside of School, Primary 7, Uncategorized

Upper area trip to the Scottish Parliament

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On Tuesday afternoon the upper area visited the Scottish Parliament. When we arrived we spent a short while looking at our spectacular surroundings of Arthur Seat and the amazing architecture of The Scottish Parliament, even the bike stands are arranged in a special way, which can only be seen if you are standing in a particular spot. On arrival, all of the children had to go through very strict security, it was a bit like going through security in the airport. Thankfully we were all ok and we were all able to proceed to the main part of the building. Walking through the main foyer we could see the spectacular architecture throughout and there were many fascinating sculptures that we were able to take the time to look at.

Firstly we went into a small room where we were put into small groups. There were certain objects scattered around the room, such as; a ballot box, a gavel and sounding block,  a crown and robe, the ceremonial mace, the act of union and a royal seal, we didn’t know that the bigger the seal you had, the more important you were, in our groups we had to discuss what we thought they might be and what relevance they had to The Scottish Parliament. As we have been learning about The Scottish Parliament we were very good at discussing the purpose of each object. We also learned a bit more about the history of the Scottish Parliament. In our groups we then had to decide the devolved matters and the decisions that were made in The Scottish Parliament.

Primary 6 were very lucky to be able to have a chat with our own local MSP Neil Findlay who spoke about his life as an MSP. He also gave us a few tips for when we are holding our own elections. Katie asked for some advice on how to become class president, Neil advised her to be confident when speaking, to know your questions and anticipate what your audience might want to ask, he also added that it is always good to put a bit of humour into your speech.

Finally we had the opportunity to visit the debating chamber. We were all very excited and the children were eager to see our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. We had to be extremely quiet when entering the debating chamber  whilst the debate was on as there are cameras and microphones everywhere. When we entered there was a very lively debate going on and some of the politicians were even shouting and banging their tables, we later found out that this is their way of booing! We couldn’t always make out what the debate was about or who was talking but it was very entertaining. Our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon even made an appearance much to the delight of many of the children. It was a very interesting environment and gave us an insight as to what goes on at The Scottish Parliament.

 

I like it when the MSP’s were hitting their table during the debate as it was very funny – Natalia P7

The debating chamber was the best bit of the day, I particularly liked the way that all of the parties disagreed. – Keiran P7

I found the trip very interesting and learned a lot more about The Scottish Parliament – Matilda P6

I disliked when all the MSP’s were banging on their tables and interrupting each other because it seemed very disrespectful to the others that were talking – Cailin P6

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