West Lothian Courier
This week our school featured in the West Lothian Courier.
One last Scots treat from P1!
Scots Celebration Assembly
Today we held our traditional Scots Assembly to celebrate Scots and Burns. We invited our grandparents along to share this special celebration with us.
Our nursery am children joined us at the assembly to sing some songs and pm children sent us some videos to share.
Over the past few weeks we have been learning Scots and Burns poems and each class selected 2 pupils to present at today’s assembly. On Monday we will find out the names of the pupil at each stage who will now go through to the West Lothian Burns Competition. The Vice Captains and Mrs Dickie were a tough judging panel to impress!
Primary 6 have been learning Scottish Dancing in P.E. and their class selected a group of pupils to share their dance a our assembly.
We all took part in a Scottish sing song sharing the songs we have been learning.
A big thank you to Mrs Campbell and Mrs Dickie for organising the assembly, and to everyone who came along to help us celebrate.
Scots in Primary 1
We are learning to … perform a poem using good volume and eye contact.
I can … say the words clearly
I can … look at the audience
I can … stand still.
I can … use a volume of voice so people can hear me.
We are learning to … mix primary colours to create new ones and creat patterns with colour.
I can … choose colours to mix and describe what new colour I make
I can … experiment with a repeating colour pattern using art materials.
In talking & listening this week we have been trying hard to learn ‘Mince & Tatties’ and ‘Robin Reidbreist’. Everyone had a go of reciting the poem they had chosen to the class. Some people felt a little bit nervous and scared before they performed but afterwards felt proud! Hannah, Christopher, Connor and Iona were chosen to perform at the Scots Assembly.
In art we learned to mix colours to make brown. Floraidh remembered that we needed to mix red, yellow and blue. We also designed new tartan kilts for Katie Morag. Ruiraidh said we had to make a pattern using crayon lines.
We learned about a famous Scottish book character, Katie Morag. We had to write a description about her. We used descriptions like: curly, red hair / black boots / green kilt / rosy cheeks. We tried hard to use our sounds to write lots of this by ourselves.
We self-assessed our work by explaining what was good about it.
Keep learning your sounds and blending at home everyone – you are becoming very good writers and readers!
Here are a selection of children reciting their poems:
Learning Overviews Term 3
Glowing report for Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School
Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School has been praised for its positive relationships between children and staff.
The school, received praise in a number of areas following a recent routine inspection by Education Scotland.
Inspectors highlighted a number of key strengths including the high quality, inclusive ethos which permeates the school, resulting in children, staff and stakeholders feeling valued and respected, the quality of the learning experiences in the nursery and the leadership of the headteacher in creating the conditions for staff to build on their strengths and take forward the agenda for school improvement.
The report also noted that the pupils are happy, confident and caring children who are eager to learn, they have a strong voice and contribute enthusiastically to bringing about change in their school.
Executive councillor for education, David Dodds, said: “This is a fantastic report for Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary and everyone involved with the school should take great pride in their work. It is wonderful to hear of the inclusive ethos that is embodied throughout the school and the fact that pupils are so enthusiastically involved in school life. With this attitude I’m under no hesitation that the school will continue to thrive and achieve in the future.
Inspectors also recommended that the school continues to strengthen approaches to planning, tracking and monitoring to identify which interventions are having the greatest impact on outcomes for all children and raises attainment and achievement.
Acting Headteacher Sarah Burton added: “We are delighted to have received such a positive report and I have to commend all the staff here at the school for the fantastic work they put in on a daily basis to deliver for our pupils. The report is great testament to the work of my predecessor, Steven Eagleson who was headteacher at the time of the inspection and to the positive contribution of parents and the wider school community.
There are always areas to work on and I can assure parents and carers that every member of staff will continue to work towards providing pupils with the very best environment for learning. We always try to put the pupils at the heart of everything we do at the school, allowing them to partly shape their own learning and it is great to see the inspectors have acknowledged this.”
(Issued by media and communications officer Lewis Carr)
Survey for P1 parents/carers!
Further to our recent gifting event of Bookbug family bags in Primary 1, the Scottish Book Trust have asked if parents & carers of P1 children could take part in a short survey so that they can receive feedback on the bags. The survey should only take around 5-10 minutes of your time and there is the chance to win a bundle of books for your child! We would be very grateful if you could complete the survey, using the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6QXHRCS
Almond House Party
The House and Vice Captains decided they would like ‘a treat’ for winning the most points each term. After consulting with their House, Ella and Ewan decided on a Candyland theme party. They put together a programme for the party and organised the morning. A big well done to all the P7 Young Leaders in Almond who ran the party on a Friday morning – it was a huge success and everyone had lots of fun.
Congratulations Almond!
Fun Time Friday
At our Pumphie Pals the children agreed that they wanted to continue having structured activities for Golden Time/ Fun Time Friday. Some of the activities are across the school and some are in stages. We started this again on Friday and some of the activities included:
- Film Club
- Outdoor Games
- Digital Fun
- Singing
- Cooking
- Science
- Dance
