Welcome to P4.

P4 Information

Welcome back everyone! I hope that you had a nice holiday and are settling back into the school routine easily.

I thought I would provide you with some current information about timetable and topic organisation, homework and swimming.

Timetable Information

Music- The children have music on a Monday morning with Mrs Callaghan and will come into school from the lines first.

P.E.- Our pre-planned P.E. days are Wednesday (with me) and Thursday with Mrs Duncan. I think everyone now has a P.E. kit in school but if not can I remind you to provide one for those days.

Class Novel- By popular demand I am reading Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone to the class after breaks.

Topic- For the next week we are learning about Pirates and Mapping. Linked to survival on a desert island a member of the Outdoor Learning Team is coming on Monday 4th September to assist us in the building of Outdoor Shelters.

Swimming

Due to the fact that the building of the new leisure center is not yet complete swimming will begin on the 12th of September. Children will need a packed lunch that day- a letter with follow.

The children should bring a swimming  costume/trunks a towel and goggles. There is no need to pay for a locker and we won’t be using hairdryers or vending machines.

Homework

Homework in P4 will be distributed on a Tuesday and should be returned on  a Monday.

There will always be reading and spelling and initially (starting from next week) the children will be asked to revise their learn its. More numeracy homework may be handed out as and when additional numeracy support is needed.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 29th) I will give everyone a printed copy of the spelling chart and children will be expected to write what is required in their jotters.

There will be a copy on the Website, posted by 4pm on Tuesday.

Any worksheets that are required will be given and any further copies will either be available from the website (if possible) or from me.

 

 

Welcome to P7 – Some quick information

Welcome back Primary 7!

You all looked so smart in your red hoodies today, what a fabulous start to, what I am sure will be, an amazing year for you all.

As discussed, there is no homework this week other than house captain speeches which we will begin to write in class at the end of this week. These will be due in at the end of next week.

When you enter our classroom you will intermediately notice that it is like no other because it was designed, after a lot of research, by P7 last year.  It promotes high level learning, rich collaboration, student centered and active learning. This fortnight we are trying out different learning areas to suit learning styles and hopefully you will learn more and more about how your learning environment can help or hinder learning. Today we worked outside, on the floor, in groups, in ICT and in the noisy hall today and you were all able to reflect on these environments really well.  The respect that you showed to some of the “funky furniture” was great – well done! We will begin to explore all the flexible seating options every day, please trust and bear with me because I know you will not only love your new space, but overtime you will also understand why it is how it is and be able to change things and make adaptations.

I put together a Welcome back newsletter HERE in a PDF for you to have a look at and once I have edited your DAY 1 PHOTOS i will put them below 🙂

Mrs Hinton (k.hinton@mgfl.net)

P4 resources appeal.

Hi all,

After the trip next week we are beginning Forces our new science topic. We are going to combine this with music and design and technology.

We need some materials to help us make instruments such as:

Plastic tubs (margarine, icecream or old Tupperware)

Pringles tubs

Biscuit tins, coffee tins, other tins without sharp edges

Plantpots.

For the science aspect if anyone has any:

old material, carpet, lino, tile, magnets or toy cars (wheeled toys) that we could use/ borrow then this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Mrs Cooney and P4

P4 Dates for your Diary- Assembly and Trip

Dear Parents, some dates for your diaries.

 Friday 19th May

The children have been working on an assembly and would love to show you their production. Please feel free to come and see the Loanhead Primary News Station report on the continents and climate on Friday the 19th May 11:45 in the large hall.

The children who have speaking roles will be bringing scripts home from next week to practise and may be asking for some items to wear. Please don’t go to any expense. I will send a note home about this when we have discussed what we may need.

Thursday 25th May

P4 will be visiting Dynamic Earth on Thursday the 25th of May from 9.30- approx 2pm. Packed lunches will be required.

We have been learning about the Continents, climates and the weather cycle and we will be learning more about this on the trip. We will also be taking part in a forces workshop on the day which is the new topic we are starting after the trip.

A letter with detailed costs will come out soon; I am still waiting on details of the buses and can’t calculate this till then.

The children have asked if they can bring some money for the shop and I have no issue with this, as there will be time but, I would ask that the amount they bring is limited to £3 per child.

I will also need a few parent helpers for this trip if you think you can help please return the slip at the bottom. If you can make the assembly also fill in a slip, this is to work out how many chairs etc are required.

Thanks, Mrs Cooney

Newsletter May 2017

As always, the newsletter is available to download as a PDF from the newsletter section of the webpage (in the menu bar at the top of website).  There are a lot of important dates in this newsletter so it is copied below.

 

Loanhead Primary School

May Newsletter

Welcome to a busy couple of months ahead. To try and keep everyone informed this newsletter will be placed on the website and a paper copy will be issued to the eldest pupil in each family.

Red Nose Day

Thank you to the P7 enterprise group and the pupil council for all their hard work. We raised £352.00, thank you to all who contributed!

Gate Closure

Please note that the gate from the car park that leads into the playground at the lower atrium will be closed at 9am. The gate at the back of the playground, leading to the safe route, will be closed at 9.15am.

Rag Bag

Recent rag bag collections have raised £120, Thank you so much for all your donations. Our next collection day is Wednesday 31st May.

Head  Teacher Awards

Congratulations to the following who were presented with their Head Teacher award at Loanhead Parish Church when we attended our Easter Service; P1 Flynn Campbell (care), P2 Chloe Laing (development) , P3 Reece McHale (development), P4 TJ McDermid (learning), P5 Freya Turner (caring), P6 Lois Aitchison (learning) and P7 Anna Pettigrew (honesty)

Digital Parenting

P7 have been sharing their learning on internet safety with P5 and P6 pupils, During their work we have been made aware of the amount of pupils with smart phones and their attitudes towards their phone. A survey carried out by P7 revealed that:

– 89% of pupils in P 4-7 at Loanhead Primary have some sort of social media account despite being under the legal age.

– 75% of those pupils would be devastated if their posts (past, present and future) became public for their parents to read.

– 74% of pupils with social media access have felt uncomfortable by something they have seen online that one of their friends has posted.

The ‘think U know’ website has lots of useful information that is age banded for children and has a separate parent section.  This is worth a look to give you and your child information about staying safe on line.

Clothing

If your child borrows clothes from school, please ensure that these are washed and returned.

Election Days

Loanhead Primary School is NOT being used as a polling station. School will run as normal on these days. Pupils have a holiday Monday on Monday 22nd May. This is a Modlothian inservice day for teachers.

Road Safety

We have had a couple of instances where cars and pupils have almost collided. Please ensure your child walks in the car park and stays on the footpath.

Summer Fair

This will be held in the playground on Friday 26th May 11am – 1pm. There will be a dress down day on Friday 19th May we will be collecting tombola prizes (small toys sweets etc.) for the summer fair. The Parent Council are also looking for parent helpers on the day – please speak to a member of the parent council or hand your name into the school office if you can help. Donations of home baking, raffle prizes, toys, bric a brac, will be all gratefully received. There will be a wine or water stall and we are looking for donations of full and empty wine bottles! If you would like to rent a table on the day please speak to a member of the parent council.

Transition

Our nursery pupils will meet their P5 buddies this week as we begin our transition work. The nursery pupils will meet their P1 teacher on the afternoon of Wednesday 21st June. There is also a parent meeting for our new P1 parents at this time. A letter detailing these events has been issued to nursery parents.

Lasswade High School is being used during the general election and this has impacted on transition days. Pupils will now attend Lasswade High School on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th June. A bus is provided by the High School. Exact timings for bus pick up will be given nearer the time. There is also an information for parents evening at Lasswade High School on the Wednesday evening.

Beeslack High School transition days are Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th and Friday 9th June. Transport  is not provided and pupils are expected to make their own way there.

Congratulations to Alyssa in P7 who has managed to secure a place at Broughton High School to allow her to study dance alongside her academic subjects.

Parent Appointments

Our parent consultations are on Wednesday 24th may (5.30pm – 8.30pm) and Thursday 25th May (3.30pm – 5.30pm) Appointments will be issued on Tuesday 9th May. If the appointment you are given is unsuitable please call the school office for an alternative. Pupil reports will be issued at the parent consultation.

Communication Group

Thank you to all who took part in our communication survey. The survey results and our response will be issued to all families at the beginning of June.

Parent Questionnaires

Our annual questionnaires will be issued to all families next week. Midlothian Council are also asking parents to complete surveys about education in Midlothian. This survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Midparent This online survey will be available  from Monday 8th May until Friday 26th May. Your replies to these questionnaires are very much appreciated and help us to form the basis of our school improvement plan.

Sports Day

Sports Day this year will be on Monday 5th June 12.30pm – 3pm. This is weather dependent! The change of day allows Mrs Duncan our PE specialist to be fully involved. As this is transition week it also ensures all P7 pupils are able to take part.

Gala Day

Loanhead Gala day is on Saturday 24th June. The Queen and members of her court are from Loanhead Primary School. Your support at this event would be very much appreciated!

P7 end of term

Tuesday 27th June – evening event for P7 in school organised by P7 parents.

Wednesday 28th June – 1.15pm P7 Leavers Assembly parents of P7 pupils are invited to attend.

Thursday 29th June – P7 day out

Friday 30th June – Final day of term all finish 12pm

Parent Council

The Easter Disco raised approximately £250 thank you to all who supported this event.

Dates for your Diary – please note these may be subject to change

Tuesday 2nd, 9th and 16th May – P6 & P7 Bikeability

Friday 19th May – DRESS DOWN DAY

MONDAY 22nd MAY – PUPIL HOLIDAY

Tuesday 23rd May – P1 trip to Botanic Gardens

Wednesday 24th May – 5.30pm – 8.30pm Parents Consultations

Thursday 25th May – P4 trip to Dynamic Earth

                                 3.30pm – 5.30pm Parents Consultations

Friday 26th May – Summer Fair

Wednesday 31st May – Rag bag collection

Monday 5th June – Sports Day 12.30pm – 3pm (weather permitting)

Monday 5th June – Friday 9th June – Health Week

Tuesday 6th & Wednesday 7th June – Lasswade High School P7 Transition days

Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th & Friday 9th June – Beeslack High School P7 Transition days

Thursday 8th June – Nursery Sports

Tuesday 13th June – Biking Festival

Tuesday 20th June – P7 trip to sky studios

Wednesday 21st June – P1 induction day

Saturday 24th June – LOANHEAD GALA

Tuesday 27th June – P7 evening event

Wednesday 28th June – pm P7 leavers assembly

Thursday 29th June – P7 day out

                                   Nursery Graduation

Friday 30th June – FINAL DAY OF TERM ALL FINISH 12PM

 

P7 robotics award winning team at the Vex nationals competition 2017, Birmingham

Mrs Hinton could not be any prouder 🙂 P7 have had Robotics as a topic this term and have been working through the Vex Robotics curriculum. This STEAM ( science, technology, engineering, art and maths) topic has really taken off and a team of 8 travelled to Birmingham with another team from St David’s Primary School to compete in the National competition.

Pupils have had to study robot builds from simple from complex, they analysed how they work and designed their own robot for for a challenge, built, it was then programmed to move, pick up hex balls, lift and transport them, place them in high and low goals, go up and down a bridge and balance in a bridge with 1 other robot…..very tricky. They also had an engineering notebook detailing, step by step, how they built and programmed the robot and this was assessed.

In Birmingham, pupils represented Scotland as the only 2 teams from Scotland and competed in driver and skills matches. Their robot was inspected and analysed and they were tested on their knowledge and understanding.

They had under 3 weeks, as a team, and we’re up against teams with experience from 2-6 years so they have done amazing. Thank you to the parents who have come in to help over this time too.

We have learned a lot from our fast paced day yesterday and saw some truly technological robot design and programming. We also are so happy to have won the Think Award for knowledge of programming, being able to talk about it on detail with terminology and relate it to our chosen robot design. Well done!

A different P7 team will.compete in a Midlothian school contest in 2 weeks.

P4 New Topic- Science- The Water Cycle

Hi All,

Our new topic is the weather cycle, water in our homes, environment and its impact on living things. We will also explore how water changes state. We will also try to make our own clouds.

Shortly after we will look at water on a global scale oceans, rivers, continents and different environments and people and the ways that water, lack of and abundance, affects them.

We are going to be taking part in some science experiments in relation to this topic and are looking for some resources:

  1. Empty jars of any size.
  2. A spare hairdryer or two.
  3. Grownups who would like to help on Wednesday or Thursday afternoons at about 1.15-2.30pm with some science experiments.
  4. Ice cube trays.

If you can help with any of these things send them in or come and see me anytime!

 

Thanks,

P4 and Mrs Cooney

 

Primary 4- Scottish Book Trust monthly writing competition

Primary 4 and I are taking part in a monthly writing competition run by the Scottish Book Trust.

The children will get a chance to write a 50 word “story” based on a visual prompt provided by the book trust.

The children should enter the “young writers” category.

I have started a creative writing course and will be taking part in this too. Why don’t you have a go?

This month is:

Write a story that features the roll of a dice. 

There will be an opportunity for the children to brainstorm ideas in class and write some ideas for their story as well as begin to write it.

I would appreciate it if you could help them to apply at home when they bring you their completed piece of writing.

The website is:

 

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/the-50-word-fiction-competition

and all information can be found there. There are also examples of last months winners.

Every month we will post a few entries on the website so that you can see what the children have been writing.