Category Archives: Primary 1

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

How you can keep young people safer online over the Christmas period … and beyond!

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No doubt you’ll be working with a young person who has asked for some form of technology that links to the internet for Christmas, be it a new smartphone, tablet or games console.

While their device will provide them with hours of entertainment, it can also present new risks. Here are 4 steps you can take to make sure that young people are safer online over the Christmas period and beyond.

1. Set up parental controls

Parental controls can be a great tool to help protect young people online, and should be installed on any new device that they use. Give parents and carers the information they need to use these controls effectively by signposting them to this Thinkuknow article.

Let them know that they’ll find plenty of further advice and support on how to keep their child safe online on our parents website.

2. Start a conversation about communicating safely online

A new device enables young people to gain access to new communities through online gaming and social media.

If you can, make time before the end of term to start a conversation with young people about how they use online technology and what it means to them. You can use this as a way to remind them of some key strategies for safer internet use, for example:

  • Be careful with what they share, including images, videos and personal information.
  • Take control of who sees what they post by using privacy settings.
  • Be mindful of who they are chatting to and gaming with – do they really know and trust them? If not, don’t share personal details or agree to meet them in other online spaces.

3. Remind young people how to report anything worrying

It’s important that young people know where to go if they come across something online that worries them or makes them feel uncomfortable – especially as contact with trusted sources of support may not be available over the holidays.

You should:

  • Help them to identify a trusted adult that they can approach during the holiday period, and encourage them to the speak to the adult immediately if they have any concerns.
  • Talk them through how they can make a report to CEOP if something has happened to them online or they’re worried about what a friend is doing online.
  • Remind them that they can contact Childline if they have any other worries, for example if they are being bullied.

 

Throughout, remember that your focus shouldn’t be to put young people off using their new device or encourage parents not to buy it in the first place. Scaremongering is not effective and makes young people far less likely to ask you for help if they encounter a threat online. A balanced view encourages them to share their thoughts and engage with new ideas about staying safe.

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

Supporting gender balance and equality

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This page provides ideas to help ensure your child has equal opportunities to develop a range of skills and confidence regardless of their gender.

Gender stereotypes

Stereotypes are based on an assumption that all boys will be the same and like the same things, and all girls will be the same and like the same things.  This can lead to children being restricted in the interests, skills and behaviours they develop.

This page focuses on different expectations that can be placed on girls and boys.

Gendered messages

Children receive and absorb gender stereotyped messages about what they can and cannot do as a girl or as a boy from a very early age.

For example, toy manufacturers often market more aggressive toys to boys and more passive toys to girls, construction activities to boys and creative ones to girls. In picture books, women and girls are often portrayed as performing more domestic tasks while men are largely under-represented as parents. These stereotypes are unhelpful for both boys and girls.

Stereotypes suggest that girls and boys are very different and naturally like different things. For example, that girls are better at being carers and are not as good at maths, and boys are less emotional and are better at science or construction. Research suggests, however, that this is not the case. There is overwhelming evidence that there are no inherent differences between girls and boys which should limit a child’s interests or ambitions. Genders are more alike than different.

Gender stereotypes can affect:

  • The toys and games a child chooses and therefore the skills they develop
  • How children learn to express emotion
  • How important a child feels the way they look is
  • Whether a child feels they want to work hard at school
  • How a child feels about sport
  • What kinds of jobs a young person considers

 

There is, of course, nothing wrong with making choices along traditional lines, as long as those choices are not being limited by ideas about gender.

Challenging gender stereotypes

  • Talk with your child about how girls and boys, women and men are shown in books, TV shows or films.
    • What does it mean to be brave? Can girls be brave?
    • Is it ok for dads to stay at home and look after the baby?
    • Can women be firefighters? Can men be teachers?
    • Would the story change if the main character was a boy or girl? What would the story be like if you didn’t know what gender any of the characters were?
  • With older children, you could talk about how men and women are portrayed in adverts and social media. You might discuss jobs, roles at home, expectations of behaviour and appearance.
  • Look together at toy advertising:
    • How are they marketed? What messages are being given?
    • What makes something a girls’ or a boys’ toy?
  • Talk about different jobs and the skills needed for them. Few jobs can only be done by just men or just women.

Unconscious bias

We all have unconscious biases that can lead us to treat people differently without us realising we are doing it.

Research shows that adults tend to play differently with babies dressed as boys compared to those dressed as girls. Adults tend to offer ‘girl’ babies dolls and tend to hold them gently. They are more likely to offer ‘boys’ toy cars and balls and tend to play in a more rough and tumble way.

Things to think about

  • Praise: we often praise girls for appearance rather than their efforts or achievements. This can lead girls to thinking that how they look is the most important thing about them.
  • Crying: boys are often encouraged to stop crying quickly. This can lead to boys having difficulty sharing emotions when they are older.
  • Reading: research suggests we read to girls more than we do to boys. This can lead to girls being more likely to read themselves and having better literacy skills.
  • Chores at home: when you ask your child to help in the home, consider whether the tasks are reinforcing stereotypes.

Related links

Let Toys be Toys: Why it matters

Girls toys vs boy toys: The experiement – BBC Stories

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

MMR Campaign Summer 2019

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There are outbreaks of measles in the UK, Europe and the USA. Measles is very infectious but can be prevented with MMR vaccine. MMR protects against mumps and rubella too. NHS Lothian is inviting S1-S6 pupils who have not been vaccinated to clinics this summer term and in the holidays. Look out in the post for your clinic invitation. Make sure to get vaccinated! Together we can stop the spread of measles! #VaccinesWork #NHS_Lothian

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

Dates for your diary – Blackburn Gala Day

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Blackburn’s got talent : Friday 24th May 7pm in Blackburn Partnership Centre

(Children selected must live in Blackburn)

School relay – Sunday 2nd June 12 noon at Blackburn juniors park: 

Four pupils from P6 and P7 – relay race

Blackburn interschool quiz – Tuesday 4th June at 6.30pm at Murrayfield:

One child from P3, P4, P5, P6 and P7 to take part in the quiz

Gala day – Saturday 8th June 11.30am

Primary 1

P1 News

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This week we have been busy learning about mini-beasts.

We went on a mini-beast hunt with Miss Hoey.  We founds lots of different mini-beasts…..worms , slugs, snails, woodlice, caterpillars, flies, bees, spiders and even a millipede!

 

We learned that mini-beasts don’t have a backbone or a skeleton in their bodies. We also learned that butterflies taste food with their feet – imagine that!!!!

Insects have six legs but did you know that spiders have 8 legs?

We had to look under logs, under stones and in the trees to find some of them.

Next week we will be learning about one mini beast that we found on our hunt!  I wonder what it will be?…..

 

This week we have enjoyed:

I have liked learning about mini-beasts.  – Caitlin B

I liked finding mini-beasts. – Sophie

I enjoyed numeracy and adding my numbers. – Eva

I liked colouring in my mini-beast  but I had to answer the sums first to find out the correct colour. – A-Jay

I liked looking for slugs. – Dexter

I was looking for ladybirds. – Mia-Lily

I enjoyed learning my words for our assembly. – Macey

I liked learning about ladybirds. – Keila

I liked going outside to look for mini-beasts in the woods. – Logan

I liked doing maths and learning about halves and symmetry. – Annie

I enjoyed looking for mini-beasts and I found lots of fat slugs! – Ally

I liked being in the hall to try our assembly.  I know my line already. – Bella

I liked finding mini-beasts too. – Jamie

I was learning about bees. – Riley

I found a caterpillar. – Marchell0

 

We hope the weather will be nice over the long weekend so that we can go out and find our own mini-beasts.

Some dates:

P1-3 Author visit – Wednesday 8th May at 9:30am

P1 assembly  – Friday 17th May at 9:15am

 

Have a lovely long weekend.

P1, Miss Hoey and Mrs Mackie x

Primary 1, Primary 2

P2/1 News

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A little reminder it is our Assembly next week, the 3rd of May.  Hope to see you all there! 🙂

We have been learning:

We wrote instructions on how to wash our hands – Anya

We have been learning our number names – Rachel

We were making times on a clock – Olly

We played a game to practise our counting in tens – Dean

We were making imaginative stories using story dice – Willow

We played toyshop (money) bingo – Patryk

Have a nice weekend from P2/1, Mrs Joyce and Miss Akram 🙂

Primary 1

This week in P1…

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We have had another busy week in P1.

This week we have been learning about what transport might look like in the future.  We watched video clips about new transport inventions.  We then designed a mode of futuristic transport and then built it out of junk modelling, Lego or building blocks.  We made some super designs! Marchello even made a car that he could fit in to! We also sorted different types of transport into whether they were from the past, the present or the future.

In this topic we have found out about lots of different types of transport.  One of our tasks was to think  about how people in the olden days might have traveled before cars, trains and buses were invented.  Some of us thought that our mum or dad might have traveled by horse and cart!

In Literacy this week we have learned the sound ‘sh’.   Mrs Mackie thought we were telling her to be quiet every time she showed us the sound card and asked us what it said! We were able to name and sort some things that have the ‘sh’ sound in them.  Ask us if we can remember any of the words.

In Numeracy we have been working on subtraction.  We have been able to work out our answers using a number line.  We have been using computer games to help us.  Here are some free online  games we can play at home:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/mental-maths-train (choose the – carriage on the train)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/blast-off

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/subtraction-grids

Have a lovely weekend!

P1

 

 

Primary 1

Time flies in P1….

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What a quick week it has been in P1.  Time does fly when you are having fun!

This week in numeracy,  we have been learning about numbers up to twenty and in particular looking at how these numbers are made.  We have been using tens and ones materials to help us as well as playing place value basketball on the laptops.

We have been also been skip counting in 10s.  We have been ordering numbers in tens up to one hundred and  playing the Ghostblaster game to help us recall the multiples of ten as quickly as we can!

In Literacy we have been doing LOTS and LOTS of reading activities especially for World Book Day.  We listened to the story of Quick Quack Quentin  told by Kes Gray.  We wondered what our names would look like if Quentin stole the letter A from them so we wrote them down.  Some of our names were quite funny looking without an A in it and some didn’t look any different.  Why do you think that was?

We spent time looking at the different characters in books and then we chose one to design our lollipop characters.  We put a lot of hard work into them and they  looked FANTASTIC!

Remember to use your World Book Tokens and keep reading.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Primary 1

Home learning in P1

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New home learning activities for P1 are ready and will be issued next week in the children’s jotters (week beg 25th February).

Unfortunately, I am still waiting on some jotters to be returned so that they can be updated.  Can I please ask, if your child had not returned their jotter, to do so by Friday 22nd Feb to allow me to have it ready for the following Monday.

Thank you,

Mrs M :o)

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