On 9th January 2015 the NSPCC launched its Share Aware campaign to encourage parents/carers of children from 8-12 years to have conversations with their children about safety online. Having conversations from a young age can help build trust and openness and get preventative messages across. However, many parents feel confused by the internet and out of their depth in understanding what their children are doing online and what the risks might be. The Share Aware campaign aims to give parents the tools to feel confident to have these conversations. Please take a look at the Share Aware site. A link has been added to “Links for Parents”.
All posts by Arlene Black
Williamston Choir
Please take some time to watch our choir perform three of their Christmas songs on the West Lothian YouTube channel. View here
JRSO News
The Junior Road Safety Officers, Leya Crawford, Jamie Meldrum and Alix Crawford have had a busy few weeks. They attended their first ever Induction Day at Broxburn Primary School where they got lots of advice on how to be a successful JRSO and some practical tips on organising the JRSO noticeboard in school. They have also had the difficult task of judging the many entries to the Road Safety Week competition. This year the focus was Look Out For Each Other. The standard of work is extremely high and winners and runners up will be announced soon.
P6 visit Hopetoun House
We have been enjoying exploring our Victorians topic and we visited Hopetoun House last week. We thought it would be a nice, relaxing day for us, learning all about life as a servant in the Victorian days…how wrong we were! We were immediately dressed as servants, some of those being the scullery maid (a terribly hard job!), nursemaid, boot-boy (and many more) and put straight to work! In fact, we arrived at Hopetoun House at 9.45…they expected us at 6am! Some of the boys had the pleasure of becoming the ‘butler’ for the day…what a nice job that must have been! Hopetoun House has really put into context what we have been learning and it gave us a real insight to what life would have been like back then. Life as a servant meant long hours, extremely hard work and no days off! We had a fantastic time, the Housekeepers Mrs Ward, Mrs Stewart and Mrs Carmichael kept us working hard all day, however, they were actually quite kind to us! A big thank you to Hopetoun House and the ladies for a wonderfully engaging day!
Williamston Waves first broadcast!
The new Williamston Waves crew delivered their first broadcast to the whole school on Friday! This was a great opportunity for the crew to introduce themselves and share their vision for Williamston Waves. Keep your eyes open and ears listening to find out more about what the crew are getting up to. We hope all classes will tune in to our broadcast every Friday after break time.
P6 Victorian Ballroom
Well done to the Primary 6 pupils who have been learning to waltz. The ‘Victorian Ballroom’ has been an interesting topic in music. Boys and girls have been practising their 1,2,3s and are ready to try dancing with a partner now!
Magical adventures in the woods for P5
Primary 5 children thoroughly enjoyed their recent visit to Bellsquarry Wood. The Woodland Trust kindly arranged for the Rowan Tree Theatre Company to meet and take them on a magical, enchanting walk through the woods where they met characters such as Huffy Bodger, Glitz Noskin, Mina Miyoko and Berta Bogdal. This highly creative adventure saw the children investigate their environment, sing, dance and even eat and drink in their surroundings on this cold but sunny day. Feedback from one child as simply “The best trip I have ever been on” sums up the enthusiasm on the day.
P5 works with Woodland Trust
In Primary 5 we have been working with the Woodland Trust, in our local area and also slightly further afield in Bellsquarry Wood. There are so many opportunities for us to extend our leaning in the outdoors as well as developing skills in working with new adults and each other. Have a look at what we have been up to.
Nursery has a braw time exploring Scotland
We have been exploring lots of Scottish themed activities this week. Children have been busy building castles with our large waffle blocks in the outdoor area. We have also been weaving lost of beautiful creations on our fence. Highland cows, thistles and kilts have been created at the art table along with junk model castles.
We have danced to bagpipe music and played along with our own drums. Mrs Stewart was regularly spotted beating the drums in our music area!
We continue to enjoy investigating the letters in our names and have been practising our writing and also searching for letters in the water tray.
It has also been ‘Book Week’. We have listened to 3 stories that are on the book trust shortlist: Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten; Robot Rumpas and Lost for Words. We voted ‘Robot Rumpas’ as our favourite!
Winter Ready
West Lothian Council has launched its public information campaign Winter Ready West Lothian 2014/15.
The campaign highlights the council’s preparations for possible severe weather and encourages local people to prepare now. Severe winter weather can include snow, frost and low temperatures, high winds and flooding.
Further information can be found on the West Lothian Council website (see links for parents)
