Tag: Skills for Learning Life and Work

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P7a Weekly Blog

What a busy week in P7a! Here’s what’s been going on…

Numeracy and Mathematics

Our learning this week has allowed us to extend our knowledge of angles. We started on Monday by recapping on our prior knowledge of angle types and identified examples of these in school, the playground and the wider built environment. These were acute, right angles, obtuse, straight lines, reflex and complete turns. Following on from this, we were able to measure and draw angles of varied sizes using a protractor. Angles can be named using the letters representing the arms (lines) and vertex (where the lines meet). The vertex must always represent the middle letter, e.g. < ABC where B is the vertex. We have also been introduced to complementary, supplementary and vertically opposite angles. Complementary angles add up to 90°, supplementary to 180° and vertically opposite angles are always the same.

Literacy and English

Yesterday, we finished reading Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which has been our shared reading text over the past few weeks. We discussed different symbols within the text and the themes that they represent. For example, Ethan commented on the fact that the striped pajamas symbolised the persecution and dehumanisation of Jewish people. A fantastic and worthy contribution! There were a number of context clues within the final chapters which we used to infer what was going to happen. We found the ending to the story incredibly powerful and rather upsetting. Although it was hard to listen to, we all agreed that the key learning point to take from the story relates closely to the final line; “Of course, all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age”. Always be kind to others and treat people fairly. Race, religion, skin colour, gender, physical appearance and sexual orientation are irrelevant. We are all human beings, so celebrate diversity and allow equality to prevail. On Thursday, Miss Baillie and Mr. Ritchie visited class to see what a writing lesson looks like in P7a. We were writing letters from the perspective of a child evacuee in WWII whilst attempting to portray their feelings and emotions during this traumatic experience. Finley was chosen as our Star Writer for February and we’re incredibly proud of him. What a great addition he has been to our class and school!

Health and Wellbeing

Our football season kicked off on Tuesday at Xcite, with 30 of our footballers in action. Mr. Logan was incredibly impressed with the positive attitude, enthusiasm, sense of fair play and skill level demonstrated by all children. He’s incredibly confident that it will be another successful year for our football teams, as they follow in the footsteps of last year’s trophy winners. Thank you to Miss Baillie, Mrs. Tomczynski and our former pupil Robbie Tomczynski who assisted with the coaching on Tuesday afternoon. We couldn’t have managed without them!

In P.E this week, we were continuing to develop our skills in dodgeball before applying these in different match adaptations. Below you can see some of us practising our throwing and catching. In between each throw, we had to create a finger-tap sequence (our fingers were numbered 1 to 4) before catching the ball. As we improved our ability to do so, we added in 5th and 6th numbers to our sequence before sharing these combinations with a learning partner. In game situations, we developed the accuracy of our throw by not only trying to eliminate opponents but also striking targets on our opponents’ side of the court. Next week we aim to further improve our peripheral vision, spatial awareness and positioning.

Learning Across the Curriculum

As part of the Developing the Young Workforce initiative (DYW) our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme continued this week with four more visitors in class. We welcomed in Marlous Peterse (a Theatre Manager), Ben Johnson (an aircraft engineer), Joe and Claire from Sygenta (agrochemicals) and Iain Fyfe (volunteer in school, retired HR Manager and ex-professional referee). These visits have been a fantastic learning experience, allowing us to extend our knowledge of the variety of careers, occupations, business and workplaces out there. The important message this week was not to assume that everyone leaves school, goes to college or university then finds a job in that field. Our visitors alluded to the fact that everyone’s journey into work takes a different route and there really is no right or wrong way to get there. Find something which is suited to your unique skill set and make sure you’re passionate about it! We look forward to hearing from more visitors next week including a Procurator Fiscal, Defense Lawyer and Policewoman.

Coming Up…

Here are important upcoming dates for the P7 diaries…

  • 4.3.19 – Deborah Demick (Procurator Fiscal) and Neil Hay (Defense Lawyer) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 4.3.19 – After school football outdoors from 3.15-4.15pm
  • 4.3.19 – Football kit to be returned please
  • 5.3.19 – Scottish Opera workshop (all day)
  • 6.3.19 – Claire MacPherson (Police Scotland) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 7.3.19 – P6 Fairtrade Bake Sale
  • 8.3.19 – World Book Day assembly
  • 8.3.19 – Pupil Voice Committee meetings
  • 11.3.19 – Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood lessons begin in Health and Wellbeing
  • 11.3.19 – Fidelma Guest (Dietician) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 12.3.19 – Grant Armstrong and Scott Brown visiting P7 for S1 transition talk
  • 12.3.19 – Deborah Paton (Sustrans) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 12.3.19 – Jennie King (NHS – Nurse) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 14.3.19 – P7 Information Evening for children, parents and carers at Linlithgow Academy
  • 15.3.19 – Natalie Boyle (Eye Surgeon) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme

We’ve lots to look forward to! Have a great weekend everyone!

P7a and Mr. Logan

 

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P7a Weekly Blog

A short week in P7a this week, but still lots of learning to report on…

Numeracy and Mathematics

As we progress towards the end of term 3 and our transition to S1, we have been introduced to some areas and concepts that will be covered within Third Level Numeracy and Mathematics. This week we have continued learning about algebra and solving equations. We began by discussing what algebra we had already been exposed to (without even realising), such as ‘number machines’ and ‘missing value’ type questions. Having consolidated our knowledge of these it allowed us to further extend our learning to replacing values with symbols, finding the value of ‘x’ (or an unknown quantity), simplifying expressions by collecting like-terms and evaluating expressions by substituting known values such as a, b or c. We discovered that one theory behind the use of ‘x’ to represent an unknown quantity came from a 17th century French philosopher, scientist and mathematician called René Descartes. Can you find the values below?

Literacy and English

In Boy in the Striped Pajamas this week, Bruno encountered Shmuel, a prisoner at Out-With, whilst exploring and we have been drawing a comparison between them. Although the boys share the same birthday, we discovered that the similarities stop there. We examined extracts of their conversations and journeys made from the text, highlighting evidence and annotating points of interest.

Another journey we have found out about this week, is that of child evacuees during World War II. Whilst being introduced to Operation Pied Piper we used bullet points to take notes relating to key information shared. These notes will be used to inform our writing planning next week when we write letters from an evacuee’s perspective. To begin entering this mindset, we prepared and delivered a short drama in groups that portrayed the experiences and emotions of these children.

Learning Across the Curriculum

As part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme, we had Pamela Barnes and Teresa Waddington in class to speak to us this week. Pamela works with a local community development trust and Teresa is a Plant Manager with Shell.

We have been continuing to rehearse our songs for our Scottish Opera performance, 1719, which commemorates the Jacobites’ risings where they fought alongside the Spaniards against the Hanoverians. The singing sounds fantastic as we look forward to our workshops and final performance in March.

In Science with Mrs. Tulloch, we completed our STEM invention drawings and continued to construct our moveable buggies. In the coming weeks, these will be finished and our buggies judged on whether they can make it up a series of ramps with varying gradients. A huge thank you to Mrs. Tulloch who works tirelessly to spark our interest and curiosity in engineering.

Finally, it was sad to say goodbye to M last week who moved to her new school. We wish her all the very best and thank her for being such a kind, lovely and warm-hearted member of P7a. We will all miss her!

To all of P7a’s parents, carers and families, have a lovely weekend!

P7a and Mr. Logan

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Springfield’s Careers Fayre

Tonight we hosted Springfield Primary School’s first Careers Fayre for our P5, P6 and P7 pupils together with their parents, carers and families as part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme. We had a huge turnout, with the children able to visit the stalls of 20 local professionals, businesses, colleges and universities. They asked questions, gained an insight into a wide variety of career opportunities and were even lucky enough to get some free goodies for their efforts! A huge thank you to those of you who were in attendance and made this such a great success, and also to those who kindly agreed to run a stall on the evening. Without all of your support we could not have provided the children with such a valuable learning experience. Have a look at the pictures below to see what was going on!

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy

  • Established the difference between a pattern (shapes) and a sequence (numbers)
  • Explained and used rules to extend well known number sequences including square numbers, triangular numbers and Fibonacci sequences
  • Applied knowledge of multiples, factors and square numbers to generate and continue number sequences
  • Challenged peers to solve our own pattern and sequence problems

Literacy

  • Completed our personal projects on an aspect of WWII and received our feedback
  • Beginning to summarise our personal projects ahead of our class talks
  • Carried out research on the blitz in Scotland and how this affected those in Glasgow and the surrounding areas
  • Used the Literacy Box for comprehension challenges and consolidated our learning of grammatical rules and punctuation
  • Began reading and exploring the themes within our new WWII related class novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
  • See examples of our propaganda below

WWII

  • Created a display around our classroom door using our propaganda posters
  • Produced blitz artwork using watercolour paints and silhouettes of British and German aircraft
  • See examples of our artwork below

Health and Wellbeing

  • Continued improving our physical fitness as part of a fitness and track athletics block in P.E
  • Completed a fitness circuit with various activities and exercises
  • Recorded and tracked our progress using score sheets at each of the 8 stations
  • Football team trained in preparation for this year’s George Allan tournament on Sunday 20th May, 7-a-side games with a formation/shaping focus
  • Netball girls participated in their final league meeting of the year, finishing 3rd in the cluster league standings
  • MF and LC successfully led our Cheerleading after school club for their younger peers ahead of their showcase event

Skills for Learning, Life and Work

  • We welcomed Mr. Vereker into class to speak about his job in rope access
  • Mr. Matheson also visited us to speak about his job as Software Writer
  • Putting together our list of professionals and local businesses ahead of our P7 Careers Fayre on 1st May at 6pm

Lion King

  • Final preparations and rehearsals taking place for our Lion King performances at Linlithgow Academy next Tuesday and Wednesday evenings
  • All tickets now sold out for the Tuesday evening and a very limited number remaining for Wednesday
  • See photos below of us rehearsing below

  • Next Week

  • Monday 23rd April – After school football training outdoors at 3.15pm
  • Tuesday 24th April – Full day dress rehearsal at Linlithgow Academy and Lion King performance at 7.30pm
  • Wednesday 25th April – Lion King performance at 7.30pm
  • Thursday 26th April – Mr. Boiling visiting for WWII at Sea presentation, rugby taster sessions to begin, sports leaders to assist at Minikickers football for P1 at 3.15pm

As always, have a great weekend when it arrives!

P7b and Mr. Logan

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy

  • Identifying multiple lines of symmetry from 2D shapes and patterns
  • Creating our own designs reflected across vertical and horizontal axes of symmetry
  • Carrying out rotational symmetry in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction
  • Designing symmetrical mascots for Team Scotland at Commonwealth Games
  • Consolidating our knowledge of inverse operations with Mrs. Doran

Literacy

  • Developing our comprehension skills through the interpretation of WWII propaganda
  • Discussing the main themes, purposes and reasons for use of varied propaganda
  • Making our own examples of propaganda on a theme of our choice
  • Consolidating our knowledge of similes, metaphors and personification
  • Applying this knowledge to create poems with Mrs. Doran

Health and Wellbeing

  • Started our block of fitness and track athletics for P.E
  • Carried out baseline assessment of our fitness levels using Cooper Test method (12 minute run)
  • Springfield 1 remain unbeaten after 3 wins and a draw at our final football league meeting on Monday
  • Springfield 2 put in an outstanding performance to beat Linlithgow Bridge 3-0

Skills for Learning, Life and Work

  • Visits from various professionals this week
  • Mrs. McKellar – Speech and Language Therapist
  • Mr. Sexton – Project Manager (Scottish Water)
  • Mrs. Waldron – Landscape Planner
  • Mrs. MacKenzie – Police Scotland
  • Ms. McLeod – Bauer Academy (Media)
  • Developing the Young Workforce event at SRUC Oatridge Campus

Have a great weekend everyone!

P7b and Mr. Logan

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

  • Consolidating our use of written methods for all four functions
  • Carrying out WWII written addition problems involving money
  • Ensuring we always show our working in response to questions
  • Tackling multi-step problems and sharing our strategies

Literacy and English

  • Writing our STEM letters to be sent off alongside our annotated inventions
  • Researching for our personal projects and beginning to collate these
  • Continuing with our group novel studies and tackling inferential and evaluative questions

Health and Wellbeing 

  • Further developing our skills in football with additional BMT skills introduced
  • Celebrating achievements of CMcK and our gymnasts
  • Attending our S1 information evening at Linlithgow Academy ahead of our transition
  • Reflecting on our learning and progress during term 3 ahead of parents evening

Skills for Learning Life and Work

  • Visits from S6 World of Work ambassadors electrical engineer, Procurator Fiscal, Merchant Navy and project manager

Thank you to everyone who attended parents evening. I’m delighted with each and every member of P7b and the progress they are all making. Let’s make it a final term to remember!

P7b and Mr. Logan

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

In maths this week we have been comparing costs to find the cheapest option or best buy. We discovered that buying in bulk can often reduce the price per item and lower costs. Knowing this was beneficial when ordering resources this week for our enterprise projects. In order to ensure we maximise our net profits, we have been sourcing materials for the best price online through comparisons between different retailers. This week we have also been using written methods to divide sums of money, with a remainder on occasion. Long division forms part of the S1 assessment in maths and this will ensure we have a secure knowledge of this area before our transition. Our Standardised Assessments indicated that we needed some practise and consolidation of interpreting written word and multi-step problems. We have been working hard to read questions carefully at all times, take note of key information and use working to tackle this style of question step-by-step.

Literacy and English

On Thursday we embarked on our first Big Writing adventure with Mrs Doran. We further explored the issue of deforestation in the Amazon rain forest, carrying out various written tasks in response to a reporter on location. Our whole class targets in writing are to continue using an ambitious range of VCOP to make our writing exciting for the reader and developing the ability to proofread, self-check and up-level our work where appropriate. Mr Logan has been pleased with the level of description and detail we are beginning to incorporate into our work. Our focus in grammar and punctuation has been to use adjectives along with examples of figurative language such as simile, metaphor and personification. In shared reading this week we all examined the features of charity appeals. We were able to highlight simple features such as bold titles and thought-provoking images, but also looked deeper into ideas such as the way in which such adverts affect our emotions and influence our actions. P7b were able to identify persuasive language used throughout the text and used a dictionary to define unfamiliar words such as ‘malnutrition’, ‘irrigation’ and ‘supplements’. There was also a vote for our new class novel this week, and Ailsa’s choice of Maze Runner, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, was chosen by the majority of pupils.

Health and Wellbeing

We have two weeks remaining of futsal, and are grateful to our specialist coach Neil from the Livingston Youth Football Foundation for his continued commitment to the programme. In P.E next week we will be developing our passing and dribbling skills within basketball, our latest block of P.E, and applying these skills within small-sided game situations. Our after school clubs are going from strength to strength, with a huge number of pupils across all stages of school benefiting from the provision of various activities. A huge thank you goes to all of the teachers who are giving up their own time to deliver such high quality sessions. We really are doing our utmost to develop every aspect of our children’s Health and Wellbeing at Springfield Primary School and their continued participation in these activities is one way to ensure we do so. Next week, P7 are looking forward to the start of our skiing sessions as Midlothian Sports Centre. No matter what ability level, each of our pupils will be given the chance to either learn to ski or build on their previous experience. Mr Logan, Mrs Gordon and Miss Baillie are also looking forward to taking to the slopes! Thank you in advance to those parents who will be assisting us over the 4 weeks of lessons. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Coming Up

  • Skills for Learning, Life and Work focus group on 29.11.17 at 7pm
  • Skiing block begins on 30.11.17 at 8.30am – 1.15pm (4 weeks)
  • PTA Glitter Ball and Christmas Dress Down Day on 1.12.17
  • Nativity performances on 6.12.17 and 7.12.17
  • Christmas Fayre on 8.12.17 at 9.30am – 12 noon
  • Learning Showcase in classes on 13.12.17 at 1pm
  • Christmas Service at St. Michael’s on 19.12.17 at 6.30 – 7.30pm
  • Carols Round the Tree and Christmas jumpers on 22.12.17
  • Christmas holidays from 22.12.17 – 9.1.18

We hope you’re having a great weekend!

P7b and Mr Logan

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