Category Archives: Primary 1

P1 Learning Letter: Term 1 & Meet the Teacher

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome to Term 1 of Primary 1. I hope you all had a relaxing summer break. In school we are looking forward to a busy and exciting term. Over the first few weeks we have been working hard to establish a positive and effective classroom ethos. This has included getting to know each other, and creating our own Community Contract, which helps pupils, staff and visitors to understand how the school values and children’s rights are respected within our classroom.

Miss Prior and Mrs Walker

Learning Letter P1 T1

 

https://www.slideshare.net/midcps/p1-meet-the-teacher-2017

Meet the Teacher

Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended Meet the Teacher tonight. If you were unable to attend all the presentations are now available on the blog.

Thank you to the house and vice captains who welcomed our guests, acted as tour guides and helped you to complete the evaluations – if you would like to complete an online evaluation, please do so here.

https://www.slideshare.net/midcps/meet-the-teacher-2017-18

Mid Calder Primary Wins National Award for Excellence in Digital Teaching and Learning

Wednesday 6th September – Mid Calder Primary and Nursery School have gained national ‘Digital School’ status for excellence in digital technology in teaching and learning.

The Digital Schools Award recognises the dedication and innovation shown by Mid Calder Primary in areas of leadership and vision, digital technology for learning and teaching, school culture, professional development and resources and infrastructure.

22 primary schools from cities and towns across Scotland were recognised for their work on digital technology in the classroom at a special presentation ceremony.

Recognised by Education Scotland and supported by HP, Microsoft and Intel, the award is designed to encourage and recognise schools that make the best use of digital technology in the classroom.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, said: “This programme positively impacts upon pupils’ motivation to learn as well as recognising achievement by teachers and schools in advancing the integration of technology in the classroom. I commend all the primary schools receiving their digital schools award on their great achievement.”

Depute Head Teacher, Sarah Burton, of Mid Calder Primary, West Lothian said: “The Digital Schools programme offered our  school a supportive structure to evaluate our digital learning journey and where we needed to go.”

“It has also enabled our Technical Troopers pupil group, to take on a valuable leadership opportunity within our school. We are very proud of how digital learning is embedded in our school from nursery to primary 7, and this award was a chance to celebrate this work and share with others.”

Mid Calder Primary in West Lothian is now among 43 Scottish primary schools from across Scotland that are recognised for excellence in digital teaching and learning

 

 

 

 

P1W’s Class Charter

Primary 1W have had a fun and busy start to the first two weeks of term, getting to know each other and focusing on the book “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister. We enjoyed participating in many activities around the key themes of the book, such as friendship, being kind and sharing.

 

We have used our learning to help us build our class charter, linked to our school values and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We each chose a colourful scale to draw a picture of ourselves on and to add to our class rainbow fish.

We decided together that in P1W we will:

  • Share
  • Be Safe
  • Learn
  • Listen
  • Try our best
  • Play
  • Express our ideas
  • Be kind

Aims Assembly

On Friday we had an assembly to share our new school aims that the pupil council rewrote into child friendly language. Each stage took a different aim.

  • P1: We aim to have fun and interesting learning where everyone tries their best.

  • P2: We aim to live by our school values and have a welcoming school.
  • P3: We aim to develop our skills and recognise achievements.

  • P4: We aim to provide an exciting place to learn and to learn about things that interest us.
  • P5: We aim to connect our school life to our home life and our local community.
  • P6: We aim to become independent learners by making our own choices and decisions.
  • P7: We aim to be prepared for transitions and the world of work.

The nursery also created a video to share their values with us.

September School Newsletter

Dear Parent/Carer

When we left school for the holidays in June everything seemed in place for the start of the new school session, but we have begun the session with no P7 teacher. We are very pleased Miss Tuke has secured a permanent position as principal teacher in East Lothian but it has altered the planning we had in place for our upper primary children. However, we have been very fortunate to have Mr Clancy return to the school and he will work with Mrs Redmond to teach the P7 class until we have a new Acting PT in position. Despite this setback we have had a very good start to the new term and the children seem very settled in their new classes. The new Primary 1 children have already embraced the school routine for coming in with Miss Prior and Mrs Walker having lovely quiet classes to begin the day.

The children have been looking at the school aims, with each class taking an aim and looking closely at what it means for us in our school. They will present to each other at our assembly this week so everyone will be aware of what the aims mean to the children and staff and that these are the aims we will live and learn by.

I have high expectations of what I believe our children can achieve and having spent a lot of time in classes over the first few days I believe our children and staff have high aspirations of what they can achieve. I thought I would share a poem about always doing your best and if we all do our best then we can reach these aspirations we have!                                                                                                                                                                                                    Mary McKenzie

2017.08.27 Ist newsletter of 2017-18

2017.8.28 page 2 ist newsletter 2017 – 18

 

 

P1P Class Charter

During the first two weeks, Primary 1 have been looking at the story of the Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. This story is all about being kind and friendly to others through sharing. We thought this linked well to our own classroom expectations and some of our School Values.

Through various activities we have explored the Rainbow Fish further and have also shared our thoughts and ideas on our school’s values. We used these brilliant ideas to create a Rainbow Fish themed Class Charter that also linked to the UN Rights of the Child.

Each bubble contains something that we think is important for us in and around the classroom and each shell contains one of our school values. We have all signed a scale on the Rainbow Fish to remind ourselves that we have agreed to our Class Charter and will use this throughout Primary 1. Brilliant work Primary 1!

P1 Time

This week we have been reflecting on our learning about Time.

LI We are learning to read o’clock times

SC I can recognise the o’clock time on an analogue clock face

I can recognise the o’clock time on a digital display

We talked about why it is important for us to know about time, and to be able to tell the time. Here are some of our ideas –

You need to know the time so you’re not late for school.  

We need to know when it’s bedtime.  

We don’t want to be late for going outside to play.

As part of our learning we made clocks, used plasticene to show the time on clock faces, played matching games, played bingo games and played Stop The Clock on the Smartboard.

We are getting very good at reading the time on the clock in the classroom, and we can remind Mrs Smith when it is almost lunch time, and when it is time to tidy up at the end of the day!

Sometimes we are even beginning to recognise ‘half past’ times too.