Category Archives: Parents and carers

Parents and carers, Primary 2

FAMILIES CONNECT – P2 LEARNING TOGETHER WORKSHOPS

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FAMILIES CONNECT WORKSHOP 2

THEME: THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAISE

 

Thank you to all the parents who came along to our ‘Families Connect’ workshop last Thursday and for those of you who have indicated you would like to sign up for this programme and join our future workshops.  We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow from 2 -4 pm (Thursday 4th October.)

 

We still have additional spaces available on our programme which is designed to support children and their families to learn together and have fun by:

* Learning about feelings

*Using praise effectively 

*Exploring stories

*Playing with numbers

Please contact the office to let us know you will be coming along….

this way we can ensure we have enough scones/ biscuits for everyone!!! 

 

Each workshop includes a series of creative activities, techniques and games that parents and children can participate in together, the workshops will focus on three key area; language development, numeracy & maths and social & emotional development.  Activities will include:

  • Snack & Starter
  • Talk Topic
  • Reflection Time
  • The Science Bit (helping to understand how a particular topic will support a child’s learning)
  • Doing it Together (simple take away activities to try with children at home)

Last week the children spent time talking about and identifying different feelings.  They enjoyed taking home their family packs, which included feelings flashcards and scenario cards, which meant they could continue with these activities at home.

Please be assured that these are informal workshops, currently for P2 parents, which take place on Thursday afternoons  from 2.00pm – 4.00pm and all new families are welcome to join us.

 

Remember, there is still time to contact the school to sign up for this exciting opportunity!

A little clip should you wish to hear a little more about this initiative:

Families Connect Film: https://player.vimeo.com/video/224672230

 

We look forward to seeing you,

Mrs Mackie and Mrs Waugh

P7-6, Parents and carers, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7, Rights Respecting School, Uncategorized

Breakfast Club – Rise and Shine

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Good morning Blackburn!

We don’t let the grass grow under our feet in the mornings here at Murrayfield.  Children love joining in with our Wednesday “Wake up, Shake up” classes because they are great fun.  Why don’t you come along to Breakfast Club and join in the fun if you are in P1 – P7? ( Sorry parents – if you are interested we can see if we can arrange a session for you to join in too!)

Breakfast club gets us off to a fantastic start every morning.  It’s free to all pupils and we love to welcome newcomers.  Doors open at 8.15am.

Nursery, P7-6, Parents and carers, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7, Pupil Council, Rights Respecting School, Uncategorized

Building our early morning learning at Breakfast Club

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Our Breakfast club children got off to an early start in “building their learning” this morning.  There was huge excitement when they discovered a box of Lego in the cupboard and as soon as they had eaten their breakfast, they came over to start creating!  Dot in the Kitchen very kindly donated some trays for them to use to keep the bits tidy on the tables.  We are looking forward to seeing some lovely masterpieces from them.

Meanwhile, some of our other “early learners” worked to piece together cogs and to see how they worked together to make the different cogs spin.  There was a lot great learning going on, well before the bell even rang.  The best thing is that they were all having so much fun, they didn’t even realise how much learning was going on!

Another group of early morning explorers tackled Tangrams and either used the pieces to build their own pictures or decided to try to make the pictures shown on cards.

It is lovely to see our pupils eat a healthy breakfast in the morning and to see them safe and happy in the school environment, ready to go into their classes and learn.  If your child has not yet come along to the breakfast club, please feel free to come along for a quick look or ask a member of staff for details.  The more, the merrier!

Language Centre, Nursery, Parents and carers, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7, Pupil Council, Uncategorized

Brick Club

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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

 

Nursery, P7-6, Parents and carers, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7

Assembly dates 17 – 18

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Below is a list of the class assemblies planned until Christmas. Please note that these dates maybe subject to change. All assemblies start at 9.15am in the school hall.

  • 29th September – P1 and P2/1
  • 6th October – P3/2
  • 13th October – P6
  • 27th October – P7
  • 3rd November – p4
  • 1st December – P7/6
  • 8th December – P6 and P5
Parents and carers, Primary 2

CALLING ALL P2 PARENTS…..FAMILY LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

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FAMILIES CONNECT IS SAVE THE CHILDREN’S NEW AND EXCITING INITIATIVE, DESIGNED TO HELP PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILD’S LEARNING AT HOME.

This eight-week programme provides a series of creative activities, techniques and games that parents and children can participate in together. It focuses on three key area; language development, numeracy & maths and social & emotional development.

Activities include ‘Snack & Starter’, encouraging parents and children to spend quality time together, as well as Talk Topic, Reflection Time and ‘The Science Bit’ – helping parents to understand how a particular topic will support a child’s learning.  ‘Doing it Together’ gives parents simple take away activities to try with their children at home.

We know that the home learning environment can have a huge impact on a child’s learning. As well as being the place that provides for the basic needs of a child, an effective home learning environment will encourage strong parent and child relationships that help build self-esteem and security and help every child to fulfil their potential.

Research shows that parental involvement in their children’s learning positively affects the child’s academic performance leading to greater problem solving skills, greater school enjoyment, better school attendance and fewer behavioural problems at school. School quality only accounts for 14% of educational attainment, so the better the home learning environment, the greater the child’s attainment can be.

Building a home learning environment – and crucially, increasing parents’ skills and confidence to support their child’s learning, can have a huge impact on a child’s future.

The informal workshops focus on getting parents to reflect on what they already do to support their children’s learning, and inviting them to explore new activities, games and approaches that might enhance this.

We are really excited about Families Connect and can’t wait to see it rolled out in Murrayfield over the next year.  We look forward to working with as many of you as possible.  Come along and join us for our informal coffee morning on Friday 22nd September at 10.00am to hear more about this programme and to register your child/ family in the programme.

Please see the links below for further details about this great initiative:

FAMILIES CONNECT FLYER

Families Connect Film: https://player.vimeo.com/video/224672230

 

Mrs Abigail Waugh & Mrs Angela Mackie

Parents and carers

Our School Sensory Garden

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On Friday Mr Findlay helped some of our P7 and P6 pupils to develop our sensory garden.  Each plant was selected due to their colour, scent and texture.  Mr Findlay supported the group to carefully plant the shrubs and herbs into our new planters.  The planters were made by BLES.  We look forward to seeing our sensory garden grow and flourish.  Thank you to Mr Findlay for sourcing the wide variety of plants and filling our planters with compost.

Language Centre, Nursery, P7-6, Parents and carers, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7, Pupil Council

Calling all knitters!

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Some of the children at Murrayfield are making good use of twiddle muffs in school. Twiddle muffs can help children, who need to fidget, to concentrate and focus on listening tasks.

  • Do you like knitting or do you know someone who likes knitting?
  • Do you have some balls of wool you could donate?
  • Would you be interested in a parent/carer craft club at the school?

Please click on the link below for a pattern for Twiddle muffs.

http://www.knitforpeace.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Twiddlemuff-Pattern.pdf

Mrs Turnbull will be pleased to receive them any time.