World Nursery Rhyme Week, beginning Monday 18th November – Due to the 2 in-service days (Closed Thursday 21st November and Friday 22nd November) we are going to postpone nursery rhyme week. Therefore we will be celebrating this from 25th November.
The ‘Rhyme a Day’ challenge will focus on each rhyme in the following order: ? Monday 25th November: ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ ? Tuesday 26th November: ‘Down in the Jungle’ ? Wednesday 27th November: ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ ? Thursday 28th November: ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’ ? Friday 29th November: ‘Two Little Dickie Birds’ If your child does not attend on a certain day then please feel free to take part in the “Rhyme a Day” challenge at home.
Apologies for the link not working, hopefully it works now. Thank you
Dear parents/carers of our ELC Children We value our partnership with parents/carers to help us improve our service. Please follow the link below to complete a questionnaire by selecting the appropriate answers and feel free to add any comments in the box provided. We would really appreciate your participation with the questionnaires to enable us to develop our service. All responses to be in by Thursday 3rd October 2019. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3HxavRmw96xPvRsmZ9TvHRuf0yj-TRLQjeCAhz19Nb1dg_g/viewform?usp=sf_link
The pupils were encouraged to promote kindness by carrying out random acts of kindness throughout the day. The Health Promoter Group would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part!
A reminder for everyone, Friday 15th November is Pudsey day, children are welcome to wear something yellow and place a pound in the Pudsey box. The monies raised will be put towards children who are in need.
Unfortunately the SHSAA Cross-Country Championships to be held on Thursday 14th November has again been postponed.
We have received the folowing information from the organisers:-
After the recent wet weather the Bught Park is too wet and muddy for the event and it is not set to improve over the course of the week. It has been advised by the ground staff, committee officials and event organisers that it would be safer to postpone the event. We do not wish to risk the safety of any of our competitors. The event will be rescheduled and will take place towards the end of February. We will be in touch in the new year with a new date.
We will keep parents/carers and pupils updated when we receive further information.
We were delighted to have Mr John Darcy along for a special assembly yesterday. He reminded us about the importance of sharing any worries we have and who to go to for help. Friends, family, people who work at school and Childline were all groups who could support us.
This links with UNCRC Article 12: All children have the right to be able to give their opinion when adults are making decisions which affect them, and adults should take it seriously.
We are now settled into a busy second term here in P2B with lots of exciting things happening over the next few weeks. We have started practising our songs for this year’s Nativity along with P2A and all of P1. Children with speaking parts will also receive their lines home this week so please keep an eye out for these should your child be in this position.
We are very lucky this term as we will be receiving tennis coaching every Friday for the next 4 weeks. Please ensure full PE kit is taken in each Friday for this. For the remainder of term, we will no longer have PE on a Wednesday.
Finally, a reminder of our trip to Vue Cinema which is taking place this Thursday (14/11). Could all children please bring a snack and drink with them on this day for the film (no fizzy juice). Please also ensure that full school uniform and suitable shoes are worn.
The Digital Dynamos have been working hard to create a child friendly version of our acceptable use policy. We have thought about how this links to our rights as well as giving information, suggestions and advice. We would like your support to ensure that this A.U.P is followed both at home and in school to ensure that we are all safe.
See pictures below. These are being printed and given out to each class in a leaflet format. We have gone over this at assembly and shared with both staff and pupils.
This week we have been discussing Remembrance Day, thinking of the brave men and women who look after our country. The children showed respect by participating in a 2 minute silence in the ELC setting and also in the Forest. . We also explored different material to make our own Poppies to remember all the soldiers who fought for our country.
Also this week we have continued with discussions on police which has lead us to explore what technology police use…”they have walkie talkies to speak to other people” Koen, “ They have a torch to see in the dark for bad guys” Finlay. S.
In the woods this week the children have been busy learning the rules around a fire to prepare them for cooking on the fire next week.
Children in Need is on Friday and P5a and P5b have organised lots of fun activities and games to raise money for this fabulous cause. There will also be a ‘Dress Down Day’ on Friday for a donation of £1. There will also be a bake stall and raffle. Any donations of baking (no items containing nuts please) or items for our raffle would be gratefully received. Please send in any items of baking, or prizes, into school by Friday. Thank you very much!
A huge thank you to everyone who donated to our Blythswood Shoebox Appeal! We have collected a fantastic 52 boxes this year. These gifts are really treasured by those who receive them.
We are thankful. Here are some pupils from P6B sharing what they are thankful for on this special day. #WeWillRememberThem #ArmisticeDay #LearningforSustainability #peace #Thankful
Thank you for your support with the Blythswood Shoe Box appeal. The boxes were collected on Friday and will make Christmas vry special for many families. It is good to remember and help those who don’t have what we enjoy.
Thank you to the girls for helping to decorate our school hall for our Assembly as we thought about Remembrance Day again
Just a reminder to parents that on Wednesday 13 November, P6 will be going to the Vue cinema. The pupils are excited as one can expect. There are some payments not yet received, so if possible, please make payments (£2) early next week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
The delivery of stones has arrived !! We are so grateful to Jewsons who donated this bag of gravel so we can replenish our outdoor construction area and as you can see Ben was very excited too !!
Again if anyone is able to help on Monday around 3pm, we would very much appreciate your help.
Well done to Lily, Freya, Katie, Erin and Ayla who spoke at our assembly today about the work of Blythswood and our fundraising plans for Children in Need. They all spoke so confidently and clearly. Well done!
Congratulations to Josh, who is our Star of the Week for his fabulous group work. He listens so well to the contributions to others and his contributions to discussions have been fabulous too. Well done Josh!
We have had a busy week with discussions on how to keep safe around a bonfire which then led us onto looking at how police keep us safe. The children then investigated what police officers wear and drew around each other to create their own Rainbow and Buttercup police officers. We wish you all a lovely weekend 🙂
We have been instructed that our school will be used as a polling station for the General Election on Thursday the 12th December. The school will be closed to all ELC and school pupils.
Please see attached Parent / Carer and pupil surveys to be completed by Friday the 6th of December 2019.
Please note that the meeting scheduled for ASN consultaion on the 27th November 2019 at Milburn Academy has now been moved to the Inverness Royal Academy on the 2nd December 2019 a letter of invite to the new date and venue will follow.
Due to the late delivery of our construction area stones, we will not need help this afternoon. However if anyone is available on Monday afternoon, that would be greatly appreciated.
We would like to congratulate Spokes for Folks on their amazing achievements last night at the Highland Heroes award night. Not only did they win ‘Charitable Organisation of the Year’, they also came away with the ‘Overall Hero of the Year’ award. We are so proud to work with Spokes for Folks during our intergenerational sessions and cannot wait to continue the partnership!
Please click on the link above to access our overview for term 2.
This term our IDL will be : Beyond Belief. This IDL will build on children’s sustainable learning development and enable pupils to apply and grow their knowledge and understanding of rights as well as our school values of respect, responsibility, love, confidence and pride.
It will provide children with an opportunity to question and try to explain the world around them by looking at philosophy, spirituality and religion . Looking back to our term 1 topic, in the words of Greek Philosopher, Aristotle “It is the mark on an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ” Children will explore varying beliefs, religions and values as well as developing an understanding of both mental and physical health and wellbeing, thus looking at people and society as a whole.
Children will be given the opportunity to develop philosophical thinking and a more holistic understanding of the world through asking questions and exploring answers from different viewpoints. We will explore and compare how religion, science, pholosphers, values and individual opinions aim to answer life’s big questions.
ELC are requiring the help of some willing parents to come and move a new delivery of gravel to our construction area. If you could come along tomorrow at 3pm with a wheelbarrow and spade or just yourself to help us move the stones we would be grateful. Many hands make light work. If you can help us out please speak to a member of the ELC.
Just a reminder that we are heading to Vue Cinema on Friday 8th November to see Dumbo. Please remember to take a small snack and water bottle. Thank you!
The children were excited to head to Ach an Eas for their first session. They demonstared good walking to and from the Care Home. Yesterday we made bonfire and firework pictures to follow on from the excitment of Bonfire Night on Tuesday. The children shared their thoughts on the fireworks with their friends and residents.
We had a visit today from Elma MacKay who works for Blythswood. Mrs MacKay has recently visited Eastern Europe and she was able to tell us all about the people she met there and what Blythswood are doing to improve their lives. She also spoke about the work Blythswood do locally to help those in need. We learned about the history of Blythswood, what her job involves, what skills you need to work for Blythswood and how we can get involved and support their work. We would like to say a huge thank you to her!
We are learning about the work of Poppy Scotland in the lead up to Remembrance Day. We have been learning about the use of tone in art and we are creating Poppy Artwork using a variety of media, including charcoal.
A massive thank you to everyone who has donated to the Blythswood Shoebox appeal so far. Please can we have all donations into school by Friday. Thank you very much!
As part of our topic this term we will be doing a bit of philosophy and thinking about some of life’s BIG questions. Today we started to research different point of view and answers to the question : How was our world created? We look at viewpoints from different religions , science and astronomy. Pupils are working in groups to create a poster explaining a specific point of view. They will then share this with the class. We remembered that everyone has the right to an opinion and to be respectful of all viewpoints.
We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to the Parent Council for giving our class some money. We have spent half of it… on a CD player, Nessie book and Nessie soft toy. We are using them as content for writing this term. We gave our French partner school the same Nessie book and toy. Our boys and girls liked them and asked if they could write their own Nessie story and do some Nessie art. Yes, we can!
Here are 2 more fabulous Hallowe’en costumes which got missed out last week…sorry girls!
We have been learning about Bonfire Night and have made some beautiful pictures of fireworks!
Phonics – our sounds this week are U and L.
Show and Tell – it is the turn of the Whizz Kids and the Bright Sparks!
Wet Weather – as the weather has turned a lot colder since coming back after the holidays, we kindly ask that all pupils come to school with suitable clothing and footwear for being outside in the unpredictable Scottish weather!
We would love to make this in our nursery garden, donations of 2L bottles would be greatly appreciated and if anyone would be willing to build the frame for us that would be great 🙂
Welcome back! We have another busy term ahead of us with lots of exciting things planned. Please note the termly overview will be posted up on the blog by the end of next week. Letters regarding our trip to the cinema went out today, if you are able to help then please return the slip as soon as possible. On Monday our class will have the opportunity to go to the book fair where they can browse or purchase a variety of books and stationary items.
This week the children have been learning to identify symmetrical shapes.
We are very excited about our trip to Edinburgh to see a live performance of the Lion King at the Playhouse Theatre. Please could we have all deposits in by 08.11.19. Thank you very much!
P5a are organising a collection for this year’s Blythswood appeal. We would be very grateful if we could have all shoeboxes handed into school by the 08.11.19.
Leaflets about the shoebox appeal, including a checklist of items, were sent home this week. Please let us know if you need any more information or anymore leaflets.
This week, classes in Explore have been making things over the campfire. The classes learned about fire safety and used their weighing and measuring skills to make Dampers – sweet bread – over an open fire.
In case you would like to make this tasty bonfire treat, here is the recipe.
Ingredients
250g self raising flour
40g Caster sugar
100 ml water
Method
First, put the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add the water a little at a time and mix well.
Use clean hands to knead the mixture and bring it together, adding more flour or water as required.
Leave to stand for 10 minutes.
Find a 50cm stick and cover the end in tin foil.
Take a small amount of dough, make it into a sausage shape and coil around the top of the stick.
Bake over hot embers for 10 to 15 minutes until it is golden brown and solid to touch. Alternatively, these could be baked in the oven (without the stick!).
We linked our maths lesson to our class novel. We have been busy reading Fantastic Mr Fox, who hosts a feast. As we have been learning about money, our task was to budget for a feast with our class. We had £50 to spend.
This is Mr Fry. We enjoy adding to his beard when we are practising our common words.
Enjoying our 10 minutes of Mindful Monday’s
This was us busy at our calculator work. We had to input different amounts of money. We are getting better at remembering when we need to use a 0 and when we don’t.
Deep in thought working on our target boards. These are helping with our mental math skills. We tried to challenge each other and turn it into a bit of a competition.
Just a quick round up of some of the activities this week, as I will be posting the ‘Termly Overview’ with dates and information very soon.
We were finding out about acute, right, obtuse, straight line, reflex and full turn angles. We used an angle generating ‘machine’ to help us…
We also painted some HUGE poppies inspired by a book about Remembrance Day, and by looking at Georgia O’Keefe’s work. The children worked with a partner. I was very proud of how well they all listened to instructions, watched and imitated my demonstration AND didn’t spill the water all over it! As expected, this brilliant class worked together as a team beautifully. (And Cameron is not doing what it looks like he’s doing…he was putting his hand up!)
Watch this space for lots of information on the Termly Overview.
We are collecting tokens from The Sun newspaper in a chance to win a free box of books worth £250. We would very much appreciate it if you could also help us collect some tokens as we would love some new books in our ELC. Thank you 🙂 have a lovely weekend.
In the lead up to Remembrance Sunday on 11th November poppies will be available in school, by donation, from Monday 4th November. P7 pupils will visit the classes each morning to allow pupils to donate and receive their poppy.
Welcome back to term 2! We have had a busy week doing lots of spooky activities in the run up to Halloween. The girls and boys have made potions in the witch’s cauldron, using this to help them write a recipe for a potion! In science we have been learning about the sense of smell.
Phonics – we have been going over sounds that we learned at the start of last term. We will start our new sound on Monday.
Book Fair – Our class will visit the book fair on Monday morning. If pupils would like to buy anything they can take a small amount of money along with them (please put money in a small purse or wallet). The book fair will also be open for a short time after school for pupils who wish to buy something.
Please note that a deposit of £90 has been requested for payment due on Nov 1st. We have 30 deposits outstanding.The letter with the payment schedule is attached.
Pr 7 would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who supported our fundraising disco last night. We hope everyone had lots of fun . You all looked amazing in your costumes.
Special thanks to the staff who helped us to run it and to our Pr 7 parents who supplied so much to help make all our stalls such a success.
A chilly welcome back after the October holidays. We have loved seeing the home link sheets and listening to your holiday news. This week we have been discussing Halloween , finding out how people celebrate the festival.We have also created our own ghosts and skeleton pictures at the art area, and tonight we worked hard as a team to create our own spooky pumpkins.
Just a reminder, school dress up party is tomorrow from 5pm-5:45pm.
Hello, and welcome back to another term in Primary 2! A couple of things to note this week – our class will be going to the book fair on Thursday morning, where children will have the opportunity to browse or purchase a variety of books and stationery items. Please also keep an eye out towards the end of the week for a letter regarding an upcoming school trip.
As always should you have any questions or concerns, please contact the school office and I will be happy to organise a suitable appointment. Our learning overview for this term will follow later in the week.
The children have the opportunity on Thursday 31st October at 2pm to visit the Book Fair to window shop or purchase some books. There are small items for about £1 too.
We have been advised that the P6 & P7 cross country competition postponed from before the October break and due to take place this week, has now been further postponed until Thursday 14th November 2019.
Pupils who have been selected to represent the school will receive an updated permission form tomorrow and this should be returned to the school office by Friday 1st November.
Today the children were making witch’s potions. They mixed some unusual ingredients together to make a potion to turn people into frogs. Hopefully, none of the children have turned into frogs!
Bonjour! Welcome back to our next term. Hope you had a good October break. I spent a week of mine in Paris and Versaille, visiting our partner school, Ecole Des Sources, in Linas, Versaille. The French children loved the Nessie toy, storybook and shortbread we gave them. Our children also made a Scotland flag from recycled materials for them. They are excited to hear about and see pictures of what life in Scotland is like and I am excited to use French more in the classroom!
Mrs Wilson and I have changed our days slightly so from this week on, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be Mrs Wilson and I will be doing Thursdays and Fridays.
We will be sharing our learning overview with you later this week.
We have used some of the £100 Parent Council Money given to each class, to buy books to refresh our class library. Our selection has come from local some charity shops. We look forward to some great reads.
Thank you for all your support and to all the pupils for their hard work this term. I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday 28th October. Have a great holiday . Here is our blog written by Hamish and Morgan:
Monday we had P.E with Miss Barkley for the whole afternoon because Miss Macdonald was at a meeting. We played a game where we had to throw the ball to someone on your team who was on the other side of the hall, on a bench and they caught the ball then you would go join them on the bench. The aim of the game was to get your whole team on the bench. Then the P7s came in and we played benchball with them.
On Tuesday we had an open morning for our parents to come in and see our work. We did a topic task about how different life in Sparta and Athens was. We had to think about what rights the children living in each place had or didn’t have. We also did a sheet about our emotions and talked to our parents about it.
Last week we made baby cards for the uni kids to send to the government because kids in other countries are dying of diseases that we have the cure to.
Recently we started to do Successful learners and Effective Contributors each day. We have an envelope that will have someone’s name in it and if they have been listening, have not been in trouble and have been responsible and respectful for that day we get 5 dojos and a little sweet. If the people do not get it, Miss MacDonald does not say who it was.
Last week we did a workshop with Scotish Ballet , If you look on class dojo there is some videos of us.
We also did writing about heroes and villains. We used Hercules as a model text to help us write our story.
In maths we did our end of unit assessment on place value and we did amazing!
We are moving on to fractions/decimals/percentages . It is going to be tricky but we will try our best.
We also did French, with Miss Cox where we learned about Birthdays, numbers and colours.
As you can see we have had a busy time but it has been fun. We hope you enjoyed reading our blog and have a great holiday.
Today at assembly all children showed good sitting and listening to Mrs Kellacher. Alfie was very happy and proud to receive the Pupil of the Month certificate as he has been showing good progression and doing his best, we are very proud of him. We wish you all a safe and fun holiday, see you in two weeks :).
Please use the link below to access the consent form for this activity. Completed forms should be returned to the school office by Thursday 31st October. Due to the restricted amount of places available, places will be allocated on a first come first served basis
We have been working on communicating with our partner school in France the past two weeks. Myself and the lovely Mrs MacLelland are going to visit them for a week in Versailles. We will be sampling the local wine culture!
The children were working with primary 3 to make a film. Mrs Scotstoun and I are working on a way to upload this, but there is too much content. We’re trying to make a link… so watch this space. I will put the children’s letters in French on here. Can you translate? Ask the children to help if you get stuck! (or do like I did, and use google translate;-D )
Congratulations to Tyla, who is our pupil of the of the month for her fabulous written work! It is always so neatly presented and full of description! Well done Tyla!
I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday!
We have agreed the aspects of ECO Schools Topic we want to cover for the next 2 years. As we make our Action Plan we spent some time thinking about how we show our progress on ECO Board noticeboard.
We took part in the BBC Growth Mindset and Well-being lesson live, where we have been learning about the power of YET and having a positive mindset. Let’s focus on what we will be able to achieve one day, with some hard work and effort!
We cannot believe that the first term of Primary 7 has gone by so quickly. A big well done to everyone for all the hard work they have put in; let’s keep it up!
Fancy Dress Disco – This week we began to prepare for the annual P7 fancy dress disco. This is used to raise money to put towards P7 trips and is always a huge success. Pupils have come up with some really creative stall ideas and should continue to prepare for these over the holidays. Please do not go to any unnecessary expense! The discos will take place on 30th October- more details to follow in term 2.
Rose Bowl Projects – All pupils were issued with the Rose Bowl project guidelines on Monday. Every year we ask P7 pupils to create a detailed project on a topic of their choice. Support for aspects of the project such as bibliography and glossary will be given in class. Pupils should make a decision on their project topic and begin to research as soon as possible. Projects are due in the last week of term 3.
Open Morning – Thank you to all those who managed to come along to our open morning on Tuesday. It was great to see the pupils share their learning with you – they were very proud of their Google slides and forms. Thank you as always for your support.
World Mental Health Day – To recognize World Mental Health Day 2019 P7B took part in the BBC Teach live lesson about Growth Mindset and Wellbeing. We discuss how our wellbeing can fluctuate depending on what is happening in our lives. We discussed things that we could do to top up our wellbeing; suggestions included: chocolate, spend time with a pet, take a bubble bath. We also discussed the power of “not yet” and how we need to adopt a growth mindset; this is being able to tell yourself that you can improve, you may not be able to do something YET but you can still achieve your goals if you put your mind to it.
Loch Insh – Reminder that to secure a place for your child to take part in the Loch Insh Residential Trip, deposits of £90 are due by Friday 1st November.
I would like to wish everyone a happy, safe and restful holiday and I will see you all in term 2!
This is an advance notice that we will be supporting this year’s Blythswood Shoebox Appeal.
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us in the past. Last year we collected 55 shoeboxes and we would love to make this an extra special Christmas for those in need again this year.
This year Blysthswood will be collecting our filled Shoeboxes on Friday November the 8th. We would be very grateful if all donations could be handed into school by then. A checklist of suitable Christmas gifts to include in your shoebox will be going home on the first week of term.
Please help us to spread love and hope this Christmas.
Last Saturday at Messy Church, we had a super afternoon with just under 100 folk coming along and we catered for about 130, including the team. There was a good buzz in the building as people explored various activities (making fruit kebab, button trees, lego challenge, face fainting, etc) throughout the first hour. During the celebration time in the beginning of the second hour, there was enthusiasm in the singing and children dancing to the music. Afterwards, everyone sat around tables in the foyer and enjoyed a good BBQ and desserts. Good conservations were shared throughout the event and the children who came along with their families had so much fun and would like to come back ? We are very encouraged in organizing the event.
P5a wanted to learn how to make bread. We learned that the ingredient called yeast makes the dough rise. It needs sugar and warm water to work. We made dip of different flavours to try with our homemade bread. Our favourite flavour was chilli! ? It is believed that chilli originated from Mexico.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our open morning. We loved being able to share our school day with you all! If you have not yet had the chance to leave us feedback, I would be very grateful if you would by using the link which you can find on our school blog.
We had great fun learning how to make fresh pasta in P5a. We loved kneading the dough, rolling out the dough, cutting the dough into our favourite shapes and using the pasta machine!
We have been learning about international food. We have been learning how to prepare food safely and we wanted to learn how to prepare vegetables and how to make homemade soup. Today we made vegetable soup and had great fun tasting a variety of foods and flavours from a variety of countries. Spicy food is a favourite in P5a!
