All posts by Mrs Swanston

Whole School Events

Catholic Education Week – Pilgrims of Hope

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Pilgrims of Hope: Celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year | Sisters of CharityPilgrims of Hope, Pope's theme of renewal for Ordinary Jubilee 2025 | News | pressrepublican.com

Catholic Education Week takes place each year from the Feast of St Margaret of Scotland (16th November) until the Feast of St Andrew (30th November).

Catholic Education Week 2025 uses the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” which connects to the Jubilee Year 2025 proclaimed by Pope Francis. The Jubilee year is a special time of celebration, forgiveness and hope. During the Jubilee year we should try to improve our relationship with God and get closer to Him. Pope Francis decided that this Jubilee year would be a special time of forgiveness and hope.

Throughout Catholic Education Week, we have been celebrating by focusing on hope and resilience and the role of Catholic education in building a hopeful world. Children have been engaging in meaningful activities in class where they have learned that being a pilgrim of hope encourages us all all to live out our faith through acts of kindness and service.  Children have been making pledges about what their hope is for the world and thinking about what they can do to help achieve this.

“We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far- sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope. ” Pope Francis

Pope Leo XIV encourages all of God’s people to have hope in God. He says: “Christian hope is like an anchor that grounds our hearts in the promise of the Lord Jesus.” This means that when times are hard, keep praying and ask God to be with you.

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven,

may the faith you have given us

in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,

and the flame of charity enkindled

in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,

reawaken in us the blessed hope

for the coming of your Kingdom.

May your grace transform us

into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.

May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos

in the sure expectation

of a new heaven and a new earth,

when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,

your glory will shine eternally.

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,

a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

May that same grace spread

the joy and peace of our Redeemer

throughout the earth.

To you our God, eternally blessed,

be glory and praise for ever.

Amen

Primary 3, Primary 4

P4/3 Outdoor Learning

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Outdoor Learning - Happy Creek Learning Center

Poster – Free Clipart #2575617 | Clipart Library

Some recent photos of P4/3 during Outdoor Learning.  Miss Nelson leads this each week and as the photos show, the children love it!  

Charlotte – I liked making my name with twigs and mud and leaves.

Jude – I liked going to the park and playing with my friends.

Joseph – I like exploring in the woods.

Grace – I love Outdoor Learning because you can learn outside too, not just in the classroom.

Zac – I liked making my name.

Freya – I made a self portrait with things I found in the woods.

Oonagh – Do you know you can make your own self portrait with things in the woods like twigs and leaves?

Jorja – It’s fun to explore in the woods and use what’s there to make our own pictures.

Ariana – It’s fun going to the trim trail and playing.

Primary 3, Primary 4

Sharing the Learning – P4/3

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Shared Learning at School - Rokeby Primary School

Thank you to all of the parents and carers who were able to attend our Sharing the Learning event this morning.  The children loved having you in class as they engaged in a range of reading activities.

Joseph – My mum was here and we did a crossword and read a story.

Ariana – My mum came and we designed a character and did a word search.  My character was Rapunzel and she had a crown and long hair and a dress.

Charlotte – Me and my mum read a story and did a wordsearch.

Jorja – Me and my mum did the questions (about reading) on the board and I read a book to her called “Cowboy Kid”.  I drew me as a cowboy.

Abner – I read a story called “Secret Seven” and my mum helped me with the word search.

Oonagh – I read about Highland Cows and answered lots of questions about them because I know lots about them and I love them.

Amber – I did a reading crossword with my mum and showed her around the classroom.

Jude – I was doing the crossword with my mum.

Darcy – I did a Captain America character drawing with my mum.

Evan – My mum helped me with a wordsearch.

Freya – I designed a book cover and a wordsearch and I read a book too.

Zac – I liked my mum and dad in my classroom.

Philip – I did a wordsearch and read a book about a snake with my mum and it’s called “There’s a Snake in my School”.

Kendall – Me and my dad did a wordsearch and crossword.

Grace – Me and my mum answered the questions about books and started to read a book.

 

Primary 3, Primary 4

P4/3 Rights and Responsibilities

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Children's Rights and Responsibilities < WithoutStress.com

We have been learning about Rights and Responsibilities.  Rights are  needs or the things that we should all have.  These are things like the right to learn by going to school, the right to a name, the right to have your say, the right to play or the right to be safe.  Rights protect you in every day life, regardless of who you are or where you come from.  Children’s rights help make sure they are safe, healthy, heard and can be themselves.

We also have responsibilities.  These are things we are expected to do, such as following rules, being kind and helpful to others.

What are some of your responsibilities?

Each of us has different responsibilities in our lives.  At home, you could be responsible for tidying your room or putting shopping away.  At school, you could help your teacher or be a buddy to someone who needs help.  In your community, you can help to protect the environment by putting rubbish in the bin.

Can your responsibilities change?

As we get older our responsibilities can change.  Your parent or carer looks after you at the moment, but when you grow up you will be more responsible for yourself.  For young children, responsibilities are simple and practical, such as putting away toys, feeding pets, or helping to set the table. 

A class charter is a contract that we have devised together as a class. We have specific rights and responsibilities that our class are focusing on and these are displayed on our class charter.  The charter is a reminder of how we should all behave and how we should treat each other in order to respect the rights of every single member of our class.

Our thoughts…

Amber – I have the right to have healthy food to eat and clean water to drink.  I have the right to have a name when I was born.  I have the right to go to school.  I have the right to play and rest.  I have the right to be heard.

Riley – We all have rights and responsibilities and as you get older you get more responsibilities.  I have a right to play and my responsibility would be to not play for too long on video games as it could give you a sore head.

Jorja – We made a class charter and we all signed it.  We agreed to make sure we are responsible with our actions and we should not take other people’s rights away from them.

Grace – The UNCRC has 54 articles and it tells us what the rights are.  Number 1 tells us that all children under (age) 18 have all the rights.  Rights are important as they keep us safe, healthy and happy.

Jude – We have the right to play and the responsibility is to be kind and share and show friendship.

Philip – Rights are important because they protect you.

Oonagh – We are learning about all of the rights and we have a class charter telling you more about it.  We all signed the charter.  My favourite right is the right to have your own religion and beliefs.

Primary 4

Primary 4 assembly – 21.3.25

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What is Easter? Meaning, History and Holiday Symbols Explained

EASTER ASSEMBLY

Thank you very much to all of the parents, grandparents and other family members who came along to our assembly on Friday.  There was a fantastic turn out and it was lovely to see so many there!  We are so proud of how well our children led the assembly, delivering important messages about Easter.  We enjoyed a wee party back in classroom after the assembly to celebrate!

Primary 4

WORLD BOOK DAY and SHARING THE LEARNING – Primary 4

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Primary 4 had a wonderful day celebrating World Book Day!  What a brilliant day!  Some photos of us in action…

HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY – Keep reading!

 

SHARING THE LEARNING

On Friday, we enjoyed having our parents and carers in class to share our learning.  Following our activities on World Book Day yesterday, we decided to do some reading with our parents today.  So, we brought in our favourite books from home and enjoyed reading with our parents.  We then completed a book review detailing our thoughts on the book (or chapter) that we read.  We then designed posters for our class library and chose some book related activities.

Bonnie – I designed a character from my favourite book and my dad helped me.

Jessica – I read a chapter from my Harry Potter book and did my book review.

Hudson – I sat in the library with my mum and we read three books!  I loved it and I love reading!

Bella – I like brining my favourite book from home but I only read a chapter as it had loads of pages.  I’ve got loads of books at home and I liked reading with my mum.

Stella – I liked reading then doing my book review.  I gave my book 5 stars because it’s so good.

Jacob – After reading, I designed a character costume.

Damon – I loved reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” with my mum and it’s my favourite book because it’s so funny.

Jaxon – I liked when my mum came in and we read my story together.

Ellie – I did a reading word-search with my sister and found all the words.  I read a chapter of my book to Jodie.

Karlie – I brought in my favourite Harry Potter book.  It’s so special and the pictures in it are so pretty and it makes me want to read it even more.

THANK YOU very much to all the parents and carers for coming along on Friday.  Your support is always much appreciated and it’s fantastic for all of  the children to share their learning with you.

Primary 4

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY in Primary 4!

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A Complete Guide to British Currency

M O N E Y

Money is one of the concepts we have been learning in Maths.  This week, we focused on recognising coins and notes, sorting money, counting and adding amounts and discussing the importance of money and  how it affects our lives.  We also showed amounts of money using different combinations of coins and we all practised writing amounts of money on the whiteboard.

Next week, we will use iPads and the Smartboard to play different money games and focus on adding pounds and pence to find a total.

Bonnie – Money is really important because it helps you buy things that you want.

Karlie – We all need money to buy things that we need and things that we want.

Peter – I liked writing the pound sign.

Cody – I filled the whole whiteboard by writing lots of money amounts.  You shouldn’t write ‘p’ (for pence) if you are writing an amount like £10.50, you only need the pound sign.

Jacob – I could make lots of ways to make £2.75.

Jordyn – I enjoyed sorting the coins and I did it quickly.

Rocco – You can make an amount using different coins.

Alexander – I liked adding the (total) cost of things.

 

 

 

Primary 4

Primary 4 – Science

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Living things - Definition, Characteristics and Examples

This term, as part of our learning in Science, we are finding out about living and non living things.  Children are learning to explain the difference between living and non-living things, taking into consideration movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, excretion and feeding. 

How Can We Classify Animals? - Twinkl Homework Help - Twinkl

This week we started to learn about animal classifications.  Animals are divided into two main groups – animals that have a backbone are called vertebrates and animals that don’t have a backbone are called invertebrates.  We found out about the six animal groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects and amphibians and identified what the animals in each group have in common.

Karlie – Amphibians live on land and water.

Jessica – Fish have fins to move around and gills to breathe.

Damon – Humans are mammals.

Bella – Birds have got feathers, wings and a beak.  Some birds are really big and some are small.

Ellie – Reptiles have dry skin and scales and they can lay eggs too.

Cody – I liked sorting the animals.

Alexander – Frogs and toads are amphibians.