Hi All,
I have had a couple of parents asking about whether or not the children are required to wear their school uniform or their gym kits for tomorrow’s sports festival. I have checked the documents that were provided by the academy and the letter states that they should wear their school uniform, except on Thursday when they should wear their gym kit for the festival. Hope this helps.
Mrs Waugh
Just a little reminder that our P7 pupils joining Bathgate Academy, after the Summer holidays, have their transition days on Tuesday 7th June – Friday 10th June. Staff from Murrayfield will attend the academy on Tuesday morning and then again on Thursday as part of the sports festival.
Pupils are required to make their own way to the academy using either West Lothian Council school transport or alternative arrangements. Bus passes will be handed out on Monday and it is the responsibility of the pupils to keep these safe so that they can be used to get to and from Bathgate Academy.
Originally these bus passes were only designed to cover 3 days, however there has been a slight change and the bus passes will now be valid on the Friday too. The dates on the passes state Tuesday 7th – Thursday 9th only, but we have been told that these are now valid for the Friday too and the bus drivers have been informed of this change.
If West Lothian Council currently provide a taxi to transport your child to school then arrangements will be made for them to be taken to and picked up from the academy.
Your child should have received all other necessary information regarding these transition days and can discuss any questons or queries they have with their teachers tomorrow.
Mrs Waugh
The Risk Factory
Primary Seven pupils went on a trip on Wednesday 25th May to The Risk Factory to develop skills in identifying risks and to learn strategies to avoid them. The pupils had lots of fun taking part in the different scenarios, with many pupils declaring it was the best trip ever! Their emotions and common sense attitudes were challenged, with many having to learn serious consequences for their actions! We can’t reveal too much information or show photos about the scenarios because it would spoil the fun for next year’s Primary Six!
Africa
We started our new topic this week by focusing on the range of climates in Africa. The pupils paired up and used their research skills to learn about about typical features of a desert, rainforest, savannah or shrub land. We also used pastels and pens to create fantastic tribal art work based on the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. The Ndebele tribe paint colourful geometric symbols on their houses and walls.
French Transition – Story Telling Project
The Primary Seven have been busy working in groups to write and rehearse the telling of fairy tales in French. We are hoping to record them next week and send them up the Academy as part of our transition work.
Update
School Transport: Bus Applications
ALL pupils requiring transport in the new session (August 2016) are still required to submit an application form. However, P7 bus passes for transition days will now be sent to the school so that we can distribute these to pupils prior to their first transition day. Parents are not required to do anything to get these temporary passes as we will now be able to order these on your child’s behalf.
To find the online application form to arrange transport from August 2016, simply follow the link which will take you directly to the application process page. The form will be submitted directly to school transport:
http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/10045/Free School- Transport-Application-form
The deadline given by School Transport for submission of forms is 6th MAY – This date is earlier than in previous years in order to ensure service delivery. We have downloaded a paper copy of the form which we can give you if anyone is having difficulty using the above link.
School Transport: Bus Applications
Bathgate Academy have been advised by school transport that ALL pupils requiring transport should submit an application – this will include children who travel by taxi and mini bus as well as school buses. P7 pupils who will be attending Bathgate Academy will require a pass to use the buses on their transition days.
Pupils who are travelling with medical conditions will continue to have their travel arrangements assessed by the school doctor and at this stage do not require to submit an application.
The new bus pass layout will differ from previous years so pupils should be made aware that previous cards will not be accepted. School transport have created a link to a new online feature which allows parents and carers to submit an application online making it quicker and easier. The form can be found at the following address and will be submitted directly to school transport:
http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/10045/Free School- Transport-Application-form
The deadline given by School Transport for submission of forms is 6th MAY – This date is earlier than in previous years in order to ensure service delivery. There are printed paper copies of the application form and these are available from Bathgate Academy school office for anybody who cannot access the online facility.
Find out about our learning Primary 7 and some key dates for your diary.
Have a lovely holiday weekend.
Pupils from Murrayfield, Our Lady of Lourdes and Blackburn Primaries got together on Monday 18th April with YAP Music to record the song which they had written for the annual CAB Conference, which was hosted at Murrayfield in March. Pupils will each receive a copy of the finished recording to keep. Thanks to everyone for all their hard work.
Primary 7 have had a really busy few months. Please accept our apologies for the delay in keeping you up to date with all the fun things we have been learning about.
As part of our transition to secondary school, we have been working hard on putting together our Topical Science project. We have had the chance to find out about something interesting related to Space which is happening right now. We have been learning how to carry out research and how to include important information in our projects, such as our sources of information. Mrs Williams visited our class for 5 weeks and while she was there, amongst many other things, she helped us to find out lots of information about Space. She used to work as a Scientist and we were very interested in finding out more about her job and experiences.
Mrs Williams taught us all about the Solar System and we enjoyed using mnemonics to help us to memorise the order of the planets and then putting them in order of size. It was a really good topic and we decided to use it as a theme for our updated class charter.
Alongside the Space topic, we used what we had been learning during our Dyson challenge which we started with Mrs Anderson and began to look at the design process, how to join materials together to build a prototype and then used this information to design and build space buggies. We got to practice using hammers, nails, saws, glue guns to build and join materials in different ways. Everyone was very sensible using the tools and most people began to develop (albeit it at very early stages) some extremely useful skills for later life.
We worked hard to develop our understanding of how numbers work, by finding out about different angles in Maths and seeing how our knowledge of number bonds could help us to find the value of missing angles. We met “the Angle Family”, who helped us to remember some of the most common angle types. Thank you to the parents who visited us in our class to find out more about our “Mild, Spicy and Hot” challenges and who were able to join us in our work on angles. It was a nice chance for them to check in and remind themselves how to use protractors and to work with their children in the school environment.
One of our priorities this term has been to improve the presentation, punctuation and pace of our work. We have worked hard to learn and make accurate use of pronouns and speech marks in our writing.
We have worked hard on our cursive handwriting and have been trying to transfer it to all areas of our work. We did some interdisciplinary French handwriting of a poem about a wee man whose body was made of fruit, which we then illustrated with chalk drawings.
Our daily mile has continued to take place as we challenge ourselves to stay healthy. We have even walked in the rain and some extra healthy individuals even go so far as to jog around the playground!
Over the month of February, we learned about the Heart Start initiative with Mrs Bowman, who taught us all about CPR, mouth to mouth resuscitation and Dr’s ABC. Why not ask us what they are so we can tell you what we have learned? We also learned how to put someone in the recovery position and why and when we would need to do that.
In January, we took part in our first transition event of the year with Bathgate Academy.
We practised a series of Scottish dances and then joined the other Bathgate Cluster feeder primaries in a Ceilidh morning up at the Academy. Dancing with some seniors it was fun but it was hard too because in the first and second dances there wasn’t a lot of space.
In gymnastics with Mrs Logan, we carried out handstands, forward and backward rolls. Our favourite PE activity is still team Dodgeball though and we would be happy to play that as often as possible. We have also been making up our own games during outdoor PE lessons and teaching each other new playground games which we can share with younger children.
Coming up soon, we have our Community Action Blackburn conference. We have worked with peer educators and have put together a verse of a song which we will sing at the conference in March. Murrayfield is hosting the Conference this year and we are looking forward to welcoming our other Cluster Primaries along on the day.
How on Earth do we manage to fit so much into each day?
Thank you to the P7 pupils who all contributed to putting together this lengthy blog.
