All posts by Mrs Millar

Brick Club

I have just received training in LEGO based therapy and I am hoping to begin work soon with some groups of children in our school.

LEGO® based therapy is a social development programme based on the highly structured, systematic and predictable nature of LEGO play.  Through LEGO therapy, children can learn to communicate with others, express their feelings, change their behaviour, develop problem-solving skills and develop a relationship with the world around them.

In order to get started, we will need to build up a bank of LEGO resources to enable us to work with the children.  We would be very grateful if you could have a look for any LEGO or DUPLO in new or very good condition which you would be happy to donate to the school to help us.  Loose LEGO would be great, as would any small, complete boxes of LEGO or DUPLO with instructions included, as instructions are required for some of the activities.

Thank you for your help and support.

Kind regards

Mrs Millar

 

Kirking of the Council

Two Murrayfield pupils, Rachel Laidlaw and Aimee Clifton were amongst a group of pupils chosen to represent our school and Bathgate Cluster at the occasion of the Kirking of the Council held at St Michael’s Parish Church in Linlithgow on Friday 23rd June 2017.

The girls were proud to attend this historic occasion during which Councillors and officials commit themselves to serving the people of West Lothian.  Rachel and Aimee were elected House Captain and Vice Captain this year and have been very conscientious in their work to represent the pupils in their Home Teams.

Count on me

P7 and P6 pupils worked today with musicians from YAP music to practise putting their lyrics to the tune for our annual CAB conference. This is always an exciting time and it is fun to have the opportunity to work with professionals and benefit from their experience.

We can’t wait until we have the opportunity to record it and hear how it sounds.

 

 

P7/6 Blog Friday 2nd February 2017

This week in P7/6 we:

  • Went to the Community Centre with Community Action Blackburn (CAB)  to interview people working for all sorts of jobs.  It was really interesting.
  • We went on the laptops to go on a site called Education City.  We were playing games with money and decimals and practising our skills.
  • We had a homework task to build old style crofts from the Highlands that were in Scotland between 1700-1800.  They are amazing.  We will put up some photos to show you the terrific amount of effort that has been put in.
  • We also painted stones to make different colorful patterns and they are going to be put out in the school garden.
  • We all created our own hand-written homework debates and then typed them into Word.
  • We all tried our hands at a game of Scrabble.
  • We were also learning about decimals using Numicon blocks.
  • Lastly we all learned about probability in our SHM 6 books

Thank you for taking the time to read our school blog, and we will write to you next week. 🙂

Marcus and Logan C.

Word’s out!

P7-6 learned the joy of playing Scrabble this week during our spelling lessons.  We had so much fun working together in small groups, finding out about the rules, challenging ourselves to come up with some quite impressive words at times.  It must have been fun, because almost every day since,

groups of children came to ask when were going to play again.  Mrs Millar finally caved in and we had a second round on Wednesday.  It was really lovely to see the teamwork, co-operation and most importantly, the fun that everyone had while they were learning.

We began to link fractions to decimals in Maths and did some Maths Talk activities where we found out people’s different strategies for multiplying two 2-digit numbers together.  It was very interesting to see how differently we all think.  Alyssa and Logan learned a new game where they built up groups of tens and hundreds and exchanged pieces with the friendly banker, Logan, to see who could collect the highest number.

Preparations are still underway for the P7 transition Ceilidh at Bathgate Academy and we have some talented dancers, a few interesting moves and most children now dancing in the same direction.

Handwriting and presentation is still a key priority in our class.  I would be really grateful if you would make sure that your child comes to school prepared with a pencil, rubber and ruler.  Also, they should all have a pair of indoor gym shoes to wear, and an outdoor pair of gym shoes for outdoor PE.  Shoes which are loose, too small or broken will be sent home as early as possible to enable you to replace them.  Thank you for your support with this.

We are trying to work alongside the other classes in our school to promote healthy snacks at break time.  In class, children are allowed to drink water.  If you wish to purchase milk for your child to have each day, please speak to Mrs Strachan in the office.

As well as our class novels, each child selected a personal reader which they agreed to complete before Christmas.  Next week, as part of their homework, they will be asked to complete a book report about this book.  Your support is much appreciated in ensuring that your child completes their homework and returns it on time.

We are currently working on an argumentative piece of writing about the pros and cons of homework.  Thank you for getting involved in the Big Talk homework in preparation for this.  It is a very controversial argument and P7-6 have presented many different viewpoints so far.  I am sure you will look forward to reading their final drafts.

 

Farewell Mr Richards

Mr Richards, one of our P7-6 teachers is leaving today to take up a new job in Edinburgh.  We are all going to miss him at Murrayfield and we wish him all the best in his new school.  We are looking forward to seeing him when he pops in to visit us.

We have had a busy week, finding out about China and Chinese New Year stories and customs, making decorations and props for our dramatisation of the story of the Rooster, the Dragon and the Centipede.   We performed the drama at our Assembly and were complimented by some of the younger children who really enjoyed it.

We had a few lightbulb moments when we learned our fractions this week and can now place missing fractions on number lines confidently.  There were lots of smiley faces as we burst out of our learning pit!

Our Scottish Ceilidh preparations are coming along really well and we nearly have co-ordinated feet and everyone spinning in the same direction.  It has been a lot of fun and we have had a lot of laughs along the way.

The lure of the snow is making us impatient for the weekend and we can’t wait to get outside to hopefully build a snowman, if there is enough snow.

 

P7 Transition

P7 pupils and their parents/carers are warmly invited to attend the

Bathgate Academy Roadshow

at  6:30pm

in

Murrayfield Primary School

on

Tues 10th January 2017

Bathgate Academy’s Senior Management Team look

forward to giving you an overview of Bathgate Academy.

If you are unable to attend on this date, please feel free to attend an alternative session at one of our other Cluster primary schools on the following dates:

Mon 9th January Blackburn PS

Thurs 12th January Simpson PS

Mon 16th January Boghall PS 

Tues 17th January Balbardie PS

Further information on key Transition dates and events can be found on Bathgate Academy’s website under Support Provision, P7 Transition.

Primary 3G and Children in Need

Primary 3G have had a really busy week practising for their Children in Need Assembly.  They have been selling raffle tickets and have made quite a lot of money.  The money is going to the Children in Need charity and it will help children to have better homes, lives, give them food and some things that will help them survive.  We have been learning about needs and wants in our class and even though we know that toys are wants, we wish that we could help children who don’t have toys to have some nice things to play with.

 

Next week, we are holding a bake sale and our children and adults raffles will be drawn.  Make sure to buy your raffle tickets to help us to raise even more money for Children in Need.

This post was written by the children of P3G and typed in by Mrs Millar.

Mrs Waugh, Mrs Mackie and Mrs Millar are so proud of all the boys and girls who managed, even when the microphone stopped working, to carry on and deliver a very special message.

 

Blissful day at BLES

Our final groups of P7 pupils from Murrayfield and Blackburn Primaries had a chance to join in the fun at BLES today. They were given the opportunity to learn skills for life under the expert guidance of the BLES team. Over the course of the day, within their groups, they: recreated a mural to replicate one put together by Blackburn’s 3 primary schools a few years ago as part of CAB transition work; learned joinery skills and were helped to use a range of manual and power tools to build their own bird house which they were allowed to take home; found about electrical sources, fuses, fuse boxes and electrical supplies and then learned how to wire a plug and strip wires. All of our children had the most amazing experience and learned skills which they will be able to take forward in a wide range of practical situations throughout their lives. Lynne Wishart from BLES told us that the staff were all really impressed by the children’s enthusiasm and behaviour over the 3 day period and that working with them had been like a breath of fresh air. We are really proud of all our pupils and would like to thank all of the wonderful staff at BLES and those who have sponsored this project for giving us this unique opportunity. It was a wonderful experience.