Category Archives: Primary 7

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

Magical Mediators receive WL Stellar Award!

March 6, 2017 Miss Burton 2 Comments

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=

Primary 7, Sciences, STEM 2017, Uncategorized

Cool Chemistry in P7/6

March 3, 2017 Miss Anderson Leave a comment

LI: We are learning to identify the features of a fair test

LI: We are learning to classify materials

SC: I can identify that a material/substance has changed through decay, cooking, burning, rusting, melting and dissolving.

I can investigate what causes this change.

This week we kicked off our new topic ‘Cool Chemistry’ and we have been very busy discovery what chemistry is and what processes we have to go through when conducting an experiment.We are all excited that we are going to be learning about chemistry and what this involves. At the beginning of the week we looked how materials can changed through different processes. We were all given a small piece of clay which we examined and we had to describe its properties. Some of the words that we came up with were: flexible, moist, dusty, strong smell, squishy, gritty and soft. We then watched a film to see what happens to clay when it gets fired in a kiln. Once the clay had gone through the heating process the properties of it were very different. Some of the words that we used to describe the properties of the fired clay were: smooth, hard, fragile, rigid, breakable. We discussed how clay would not be able to go back to its original form and came up with other materials that this would happen to when they have gone through a change, we discussed that bread and eggs could not go back to their original form.

We also learned about fair testing, what this involves and why it is necessary. Once we had learned about fair testing we then conducted our own investigation into what melts faster, butter or chocolate. We discussed how we could make this a fair test and decided that we had to keep the water at the same temperature when melting the butter and chocolate, the water had to be the same amount and the butter and chocolate had to be the same amount otherwise this would not be fair and our results might vary. We made predictions and were surprised at some of the results. We are looking forward to learning more about chemistry over the coming weeks.

Keep your eyes peeled for more experiments.

Miss Anderson

Community, Events, Primary 5, Primary 7, Pupil Council

Cluster Pupil Council Learning Walk

February 27, 2017 Miss Burton 1 Comment

Our Pupil Council decided that they would like to organise a Learning Walk in different schools so they could find out what it is like to be a pupil in a different Primary school. Our cluster schools Addiewell Primary and Woodmuir also agreed that they would like to join us.

Today was the first part of the learning walk, pupils from Addiewell and Woodmuir joining us. The Pupil Council put together a presentation with information that they would like to share about our school.

https://www.slideshare.net/midcps/pupil-council-learning-walk

Then we had a question and answer session, the pupils asked us and Miss Burton questions about our school, some of them really made us think!

What is the best thing about our school?
How do our assemblies run?
Do you feel safe in school and why?
How does the Pupil Council run?
How does the Pupil Council organise events?
What sporting events do we take part in?

Why did you want to become a teacher?
How do you ensure the teachers plan interesting learning?

Then the Pupil Council took the pupils on a tour around the school, the pupils from the other schools then gave us some feedback about our school. They all commented on how we had a fun and welcoming school which was bright and open.

What Mid Calder Primary looks like?

It is very open.
I like the library.
The displays are colourful.
the new Nursery building looks good so far.
P.E. looks good.
Open space.
Very creative.
Tidy.
Pretty.
Very productive.
Big.
More children than our school.
A lot of work happening.
People look like they are having fun.

What Mid Calder Primary sounds like?

Sounds very welcoming.
Loud.

What Mid Calder Primary feels like?

Happy.
Hard working.
Friendly atmosphere.
Warm.
Fun.
Our school – Addiewell.

Thank you to the pupils from Addiewell and Woodmuir and Mrs MacMillan and Miss McLaren for visiting us, we look forward to visiting your schools soon.

Outside of School, Primary 7, Uncategorized

Upper area trip to the Scottish Parliament

February 23, 2017 Miss Anderson Leave a comment

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

Learning Letters, Primary 7, STEM 2017

Primary 6, 7/6 and 7 Cool Chemistry

February 21, 2017 Mrs Ross Leave a comment

The Upper block are really looking forward to beginning our STEM topic for Term 3!

Have a look at our key questions which we will be aiming to answer during this five week topic.

How do we ensure a fair and accurate test that has proved or disproved a hypothesis?
What changes occur to different materials when introduced to another substance?
What can affect the rate and how well substances dissolve?
How are soluble and insoluble materials separated in water?
Are there changes to substances which can be reversed?

Keep an eye out for photos and videos of our up and coming experiments on our blog page!

House Meetings, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Uncategorized

House Meeting

February 17, 2017 Miss Burton Leave a comment

Today we got together for our House Meetings. We started by playing a community builder. Then the house and vice captains set us the challenge of creating an anthem for our house. We look forward to hearing the final anthems!

Achievement Awards, Health & Wellbeing, Outside of School, Primary 7

P7 Smoke Free Homes

February 9, 2017 Miss Burton Leave a comment

Congratulations to all those families who received a Smoke Free Homes Award as part of the P7 Drug and Tobacco education from West Lothian Drug & Alcohol Service.

English & Literacy, Maths & Numeracy, Nursery, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Profiling

Profiling Tool

February 9, 2017 Miss Burton Leave a comment

The documents below show what your child will be learning when they are working withing a specific level. This should help you support their learning at home. Our pupils use these profiling tool when they are setting individual and group targets.