Category Archives: Primary 5

Community, Events, Health & Wellbeing, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Pupil Council, Uncategorized

Morning Blether: Profiling

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This morning the Pupil Council held a Morning Blether to explain to parents what profiling is, how we are profiling at Mid Calder Primary School and how was can improve our approaches to profiling.
We also shared a new profiling tool that our staff have created in order for parents to understand what a level looks like in Maths and Language. This will be launched at the Curriculum evening on February 25th at 6pm and will be made available to all parents at this event and on the blog.

Thank you to the Pupil Council for organising this event and to the parents who attended, you can find a copy of the PowerPoint below.

http://www.slideshare.net/midcps/profiling-morning-blether

Community, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5, Uncategorized

Grand Designs

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This afternoon, the middle area were lucky enough to have a special visitor to come and help them with their IDL context, Grand Designs. Mr Cargill, the Depute Headteacher at West Calder High School, came to share some wisdom and words of advice based on his experiences of being involved in the design of the new high school. He discussed the budget for the school, how some of the money might be spent, and how he knows that tough budgeting decisions will have to be made based on what’s best for the learners and staff in the school. He also shared the questions that those involved in this process have been asking themselves, some of which were the questions we have been asking during our own design challenge. We also learned about the different places Mr Cargill has gone to find ideas to help him. He even travelled as far as Liverpool to visit a newly built school, speak to those who now learn and work in the school, and to take pictures to remember ideas that he liked. Although we might not make it to England to  get some great ideas, we were certainly inspired by the creative layouts and designs he showed us.

A big thank you to Mr Cargill for sharing his experiences. We can’t wait to use what we have learned in our classroom designs and to share our finished designs with him!

 

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Pupil Council, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

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Today at our Pupil Council meeting we discussed the concerns we had about bring our own device and came up with some solutions.

  1. Lost, stolen, damaged devices: We recognised that we would have to trust each other. We think it’s important that your device has a protective cover. Some of us discussed that if you brought you own devic e it is just for you to use. We would have to learn to take responsibility for our own devices and respect other children’s property.
  2. Taking photos & videos: Some of us had the idea that if you were using your own device you could only take photos of yourself and your work and you could use school devices to take photos of other pupils in your class. We discussed how you had to ask someone before you took a photo and then delete the photo from the device when you are finished. We recognised that we would have to be responsible when taking photos and videos to ensure they were appropriate.
  3. What if I don’t have a device?: ‘So what?’ -We have lots of devices and eq uipment in school that you can use. We discussed how you might want to take an old device to school with you to use.
  4. Responsible use: We thought it would be a good idea to create a contract so children remember how to use the devices responsibily. We don’t think we should use social media or texting  at school, we want to use our devices to help us learn.

On Thursday some of the Pupil Council and Technical Troopers are having a Glow Meet with the Pupil Council at Williamston Primary. They are using BYOD and we think we could learn lots of them.

Our new school devices are almost ready to use on our Anytime Anywhere Learning network … We are very excited abut the possibilities this will have for us and our teachers!

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Community, English & Literacy, Events, Nursery, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, School News

Mid Calder celebrate Burns in braw style!

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On Friday 22nd January, Mid Calder Primary participated in their annual Burns/Scots poetry celebration.

Pupils from Nursery, right through to Primary Seven, we asked to develop their knowledge and understanding of Scots language by learning a selection of poems.  Each class selected two representatives who then recited their chosen poems to the whole school community.

Mr MacFarlane, Mrs Bokhari and Mrs Ross were asked to judge the participants- the winners of each stage from P4-7 will represent the school at the West Lothian recital competition.  Thank-you to Mr MacFarlane and Mrs Bokhari for their excellent judging skills.

Many thanks to the Vice Captains for compering the morning and welcoming our visitors into school.

A huge thank-you to the parents and carers who came along to show their support during the morning.  Also a huge thank-you to all of the parents and carers from the school community who helped prepare poems with all of our learners at home.  The level of commitment and effort when learning these difficult pieces of text, was phenomenal.

Well done to the girls from Primary 5 and Primary 7 who were keen to share their skills and talents in Highland dancing.  What a fantastic performance!

All of the pupils and staff members participated in preparations for the assembly with enthusiasm and dedication – another example of successful learning in Mid Calder Primary School!IMG_0999 IMG_1001 IMG_1023IMG_1065 IMG_1066IMG_1056 IMG_1057IMG_1052 IMG_1053 IMG_1054 IMG_1064IMG_1058 IMG_1059 IMG_1060 IMG_1063IMG_1061 IMG_1062 IMG_1073 IMG_1074 IMG_1075 IMG_1076IMG_1077 IMG_1078 IMG_1079 IMG_1080IMG_1070 IMG_1072 IMG_1082

Interdisciplinary Learning, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5

Primary 5 measure up, but does our classroom?

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Learning Intentions:
We are learning what a budget is and why it is important
We are learning to prioritise within a budget

We are learning to measure in cm and metres

Success Criteria:
I understand what a budget is and what it does
I can prioritise my choices and justify my selection
I can select the most efficient operation and calculate accurately

I can measure using rulers, measuring tapes and meter sticks
I can measure to the nearest cm

This week, the classes in the middle area received a special challenge from Miss Thompson- to redesign our classrooms for the 21st century! Miss Thompson is going to set us a budget, and we will use this to help us to create a design for a new room. We need to make sure that it is a classroom that is ready for us to learn and for our teachers to teach, but with some exciting new features!

To help us develop the skills we will need to complete this challenge, we started with a task in small groups where we had to plan a party with a budget of £200. We used our knowledge of the four operations to work out what we had spent and how much we had left. We presented our ideas to our peers and had to justify and explain our choices. This helped us to understand what a budget is, why it is important, as well as how to find clever ways to help us to stick to it.

Next, to get ready for the design aspect of our challenge, we had use the skills we have been learning in our class maths to measure different parts of our classroom so we know how much space we have to work with. We used a variety of measuring apparatus to measure objects in meters and centimeters, and even had to use a decimal point. We developed our teamwork and communication skills by working closely with our group to make decisions and to share out the task equally.

We can’t wait to get planning our designs! Watch this space…

Achievement Awards, Events, House Points, House System, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7

Term 2 House Winners: Calderwood

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Congratulations to Calderwood who won the House Cup in Term 2. Millie and Jamie organised a Glow Party which included, glow sticks, glow corners, games, dancing and lots of yummy food – chocolate fondue, popcorn, sweets and juice. A big well done to the house captain, vice captain and all the Primary 7s who helped to organise and run the party. A special thanks to Mrs Bokhari for helping with the food.

Well done Calderwood!

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Achievement Awards, Events, House Points, Musical, Nursery, Outside of School, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Sporting, Star Writer, Top Scorers

Term 2: Achievement Assembly

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On Friday we had our second Achievement Assembly of this session. Each class nominated one pupil to receive the Achievement Award for their class and parents and carers were invited along to watch the assembly.

We also gave out Star Writer Awards, Top Scorer prizes and announced the winning house for the term.

Well done who everyone who received an award!

Term 2 Star Writers
Term 2 Star Writers
Calderwood: Term 2 House Winners
Calderwood: Term 2 House Winners
English & Literacy, Primary 5, Uncategorized, Winter Ready P4, Winter Ready P5

P.5/4 Scots Poetry

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P.5/4 are busy learning some Scots poems at the moment. To help you to do this at home, click on the links below to download them. There are three for the P5s to read and three for the P4s. Everyone should choose one that they would like to learn.

To show that you are Winter Ready and can access the school blog in case of a school closure, please comment below with which poem you are going to learn!

Primary 4 Scots Poems

Primary 5 Scots Poems