Category: general/ whole school

March 2009

HMIe Report

No doubt you will have read the school’s Follow-through Report.  It does give us a very clear agenda for taking the school forward.  This is something WE CAN do TOGETHER.

 I truly believe that this is a fantastic school.  Staff work so hard.  Visitors and students enjoy being in our school and have commented on how supportive and welcoming everyone is. The children are happy.  We know this because they have told us so.  Our attainment is high and actually was raised last session.  At the moment we are in the process of tracking pupil progress to ensure that we maintain this high standard with an expectation that we will strive to ensure that every child will achieve his or her full potential.  Towards the end of March we will be sending home Pupil Progress Reports.  I am reading through them at the moment and I am very impressed at the standards that the children are achieving and the obvious in-depth knowledge the teachers have about each individual child.

I have asked the children to write a little bit about what they are learning just now to give you a flavour of the variety of learning experiences going on in the school.

Red Nose Day

Various classes have organised fund raising activities for Red Nose Day.  You will be hearing more about them next week.  The children and staff have planned some real fun events. 

What are we doing at Loirston?   Well………………

In P1 we are learning about spring.

We are doing a play for our assembly about looking for spring signs it is funny.

Gemma P1B

………………………………………………………………………………………

For Comic Relief our class has taken something we had to do in maths and turned it into a big competition. In the competition you have to make a three dimensional shape and turn it into a Comic Relief creature. It is 50p to enter and all the money goes to Comic Relief.

In January we did our class assembly, it was a big hit. All of the Spheres passed their level D maths tests and we were all really proud of them.

Emma –  P6

…………………………………………………………………………………………

P7a are learning about and really enjoying World War 2. They are
reading Goodnight Mr Tom as a class. They have designed their own air
raid shelters and are going to make models. They have made cartoons
using goanimate.com about the events that led up to World War 2 and
are putting them on Glow so that other people can see them. Some children
have taken home mp3 recorders to interview their elderly relatives
about their memories of the war.
Next week we are visiting Skene Square Environmental Centre to find
out more about what happened in Aberdeen during the war.
Some children are gathering news and interviews to make the latest
Loirston radio broadcast.
Some of our work can be seen at http://p6loirston.edublogs.org/

P7A

………………………………………………………………………………………….

We have been learning times tables and lots of maths. Spelling is very easy (only sometimes). As well we have been learning times tables. We have also been learning all about the 5 senses. Our class has been told that teachers have a sixth sense, that is eyes, on the back of their head.  The 5 senses are: smell, taste, hear, see and touch. Use your senses they can save your life!!! Your sense of smell is your most useful sense for saving your life!!!

Molly and Ayla –  P3

………………………… ………………………………………………………………

P7B are on the crest of a wave after their great assembly performance
on Monday 2nd March. The ‘Loirston Homecoming Great Scot Awards 2009’
was an example of pupil directed learning with the pupils learning new
skills in ICT, Expressive Arts and English Language. All children had a
performing role and every individual shone in their designated role! We
are currently working on editing the film footage so keep an eye on www.
p7bl.edublogs.org in the coming weeks.
We are looking to create balanced arguments in our extended writing
and will be reflecting on the arguments presented for and against
homework in primary schools. Our WW2 topic is moving on from evacuees
to the roles of adults on the home front.
We are looking forward to Thursday 12th of March for our ‘Big Kid-
Little Teacher’ day where Mr Anderson will become a pupil of P7B for
the day and one lucky pupil will get to boss him around as they become
the P7B teacher for the day! We hope this will raise LOADS of money for
Comic Relief 2009- after all, that will be ‘something funny for money!’

P7B

……………………………………………………………………………………..

In P2 we are learning to do odds and evens in maths.  We are also learning adding and taking away hard sums.

Emily P2

In P2 we are learning about Noah’s Ark. We told the story on a computer.

Kieran P2

In P2 we are learning about senses. We use our ears to hear loud and quiet sounds.

Chiaran P2

We are learning to add up to 100. We are learning to estimate and we are learning about health topics.

Cal P2

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

In Primary 1A we are learning to –

• Write stories using finger spaces
• Read stuff – different words, tricky words and sounding out words
• Do take away sums
• Write capital letters and the alphabet
• Write letters and numbers the right way round
• Find out how cars and things stop and go and about magnets too. We are going to the park next week to find out how swings and things go
• How to weigh stuff with scales and balances
• How to sort out our worries with our worry bag and dolls
• How to hold a hockey stick and doing running about games because exercise is good and makes your body strong
• About where food comes from and how to take care of your teeth. We made biscuits in the kitchen
• Listen to stories about Jesus and learning to help each other and be kind

P1A

…………………………………………………………………………………………

You may or may not be aware that throughout the school year we get many requests to support a great variety of charities.  It is clearly not possible to help them all.  Decisions are made at the beginning of the school year about what our involvement will be.  Consideration is given to the timing of different appeals and this is one of the criteria for supporting Comic Relief and in particular RED NOSE DAY.  We also use the materials produced by the charity to fit in with our delivery of the Citizenship and Personal and social Education areas.

This year Red Nose Day is on Friday 13^th March.  We (John the Janitor) will be selling red noses on Monday 9^th March in the hall from 9.00am.  420 noses have been ordered and will be sold at £1.00 each. This will happen again on each day of the week until all noses have been sold.

We are inviting pupils to take part in the Red Nose Day theme –

DO SOMETHING FUNNY FOR MONEY

Instead of wearing school uniform, pay £1.00 and come to school wearing clothes that make you and everyone around you happy!  It could be hair, clothes, face, socks or ALL of these and MORE!!! It’s up to you and your child/ren change the way you look and the donation will be used to spread laughter to others in this country and in Africa.

It may be that individual classes want to organise additional fund-raising activities on the day – we will see what happens.

Hope you can help to make Friday 13^th March a laughter filled day and to contribute towards a big total for Comic Relief.