Pencaitland Primary Blog

Another lucky group of pupils have enjoyed being guests at the Special Table . They were invited to sit down at a lovely Spring themed table. These pupils are star examples in the dining hall with their politeness, helpfulness, manners and are  all round good eggs! The ladies in the dining hall are so impressed with you and so are we. Well done Chloe, Finlay, Euan, Hannah, Alex, Calvin and Natasha.

The fixture calendar has been unkind recently with another away fixture for the school football team. This time the team had to travel the relatively  short distance to Macmerry. The game was really close, with both teams having good opportunities to score. However home advantage told in the end with Macmerry running out narrow 2-1 winners.

P1 had a fantastic trip to Edinburgh zoo on Thursday. The session in the Education centre was both interesting and informative and enjoyed by all the children. It linked well to our current project about Safari animals. The weather was brilliant which helped us to spot lots of exciting animals. We managed to get VERY close to the tiger!
A great day was had by all.

Dear Parents / Carers,

W/c 22^nd March is Health Week for Pencaitland Primary School and a number of events have been organised for the children to participate in. You can see our timetable here - heath-week-timetable

Because of the number of activities, children should come to school in sports kit each day.

Primary 6 are organising the week as an enterprising project and are hoping to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. There will be a sponsored skipping day on Wednesday 24^th to raise money for this charity.

A survey of the children indicated the most popular activity would be an assault course. Consequently one has been arranged for Thursday 25^th. However to pay for this we will need to make a small charge and so children will need £1 for each attempt. Any money raised in excess of the cost will again go to our charity.

On Friday 26^th we have planned an aerobics workout first thing in the morning followed by some class based health sessions. After break the whole school will take part in a walk through the woods behind the school. Please ensure your child has suitable footwear that day. It could be muddy !

We aim to be back at school after the walk at around 11.30 – 11.45am. On return we plan to hold a healthy picnic. Please provide your child with a “healthy” packed lunch.

You are very welcome to join us for any or all of the Friday activities.

P6 Health Organisation Committee.

For a number of weeks now, P6 have been busy writing fairy stories to read to the infants. This has involved a lot of work understanding the genre, appreciating the needs of the target audience, coming up with creative ideas, writing, redrafting and editing. However all this effort as rewarded this week when their completed works were read out to the appreciative pupils of P1/2 and P2/3. P6 loved reading their stories to a live audience, explaining the pictures and revealing the “happy ever after” endings. The infants were great and responded enthusiastically as the various stories unfolded. Everyone involved had a great time.

Well done to P5 who showed off all that they have learned about Mary Queen of Scots in their assembly today.  For those who couldn’t make it here are a few snaps of our ‘Hollywood Blockbuster!’

Yesterday primary 1/2 spent a very enjoyable day at Edinburgh Zoo. First of all, we took part in an animal care workshop where we compared pet cats and tigers.   We then had some time to see some of the many other animals - penguins, the hippo (who was wallowing in the bath), flamingos, leopards, jaguars, owls and many more.  We all had a great time and will now be learning more about some of the animals through our Safari Animals topic. 

The children in Nursery have been learning about the lives of children in other countries, particularly those who are not as fortunate as us. We read stories from Africa and after looking at pictures for inspiration, we made necklaces and masks and practised carrying things on our head - not as easy as we first thought!. This work led up to the launch of “The Backpack Project”, which was introduced to parents on Thursday and Friday mornings of last week - a big thank you to those who came along. Containers are now in the nursery cloakroom for collection of items. They’ll be there until the end of April (possibly longer) and I’m happy to say that some people have already started contributing!

P1 enjoyed the visit from friends and families to look at all the exhibits in their museum. They made maps, signs and labels to help them to show everyone around. Thank you to all the mums who supported the children by bringing in some of their ‘artefacts’ and to those who managed to join us on Tuesday afternoon. The children had fun finding out about their Mums when they were young and had great discussions about the questionnaires, in particular the answers about hobbies and favourite toys.

Eight pupils were invited to sit at the Special Table in February. They were chosen for showing good manners, being helpful or following the Golden Rules. They enjoyed choosing their menu, being served by Mrs McBean and Mrs McCall and having some treats. Well done to Hannah, Robert, Ben, Blair, Olivia, Lois, Stewart and Arran! We are already looking for guests for the Special Table in March.

The latest issue of the Parent Council Newsletter is out and you can either read it here or download the PDF and read it at your leisure. There’s an additional article on GLOW on the website, which did not appear in the print/PDF version. Print copies will be available from the school reception.

Yesterday, Primary 1/2 held a class museum to showcase their work on the project ‘When Mum Was a Girl’.  Parents, grandparents and friends were invited to come along to see what the pupils had been learning over the last few weeks.  Everyone worked really hard. For homework, the pupils asked their mum a few questions about life when they were young and we used the answers to make graphs and signs to display in the museum.   The mums sent in ‘artefacts’ from when they were a girl, many of  which brought back fond memories for the visitors.  The pupils made signs, labels, maps and guidebooks to help the visitors during their time in the museum.  The afternoon was very well attended and the pupils enjoyed showing the visitors around the exhibits and taking photos.  The audiotour was very popular, as was the music from the 80s!   Thank you to everyone who supported us both on the day and for providing lots of interesting exhibits.

P3/4 were given the challenge today of making a bulb light up.  They worked out that they needed a source of electricity and some wires to connect everything together.

		No luck yet!

Keep watching this space for further developments.

Despite the rather inclement weather recently, the football match between St Gabriels and Pencaitland managed to go ahead.  The team were forced into a couple of last minute changes and had no substitutes either as illness struck the squad.  However, despite all the players having to play the whole game, Pencaitland managed to record a 4-2 victory. The sun was shining and it seemed to inspire the team (either that or it was the chance to avoid some work back at school!) and they played excellently. Good passing football and some well taken goals. Our opponents played well too and it was end to end stuff and really good to watch. St Gabriels really looked after us - the apples at half-time were gratefully received - and both sets of players were a credit to their respective schools.

Parent Council member Ralph Averbuch recently attended the first ever Parent Council Conference. A report can be found under the ‘Parents’ section of the blog or by clicking this link.

Recently P5 have been learning about Mary Queen of Scots and what life was like in Scotland in the 16th century.  Before the February break, the whole class went on a trip to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace to learn more.  We met ‘Mary,’ dressed up in the kind of clothes people would have worn in the 1500s and learned a dance.  A particular highlight for the boys was having the chance to try on some real armour!  After lunch at Edinburgh Castle we set off down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace where we were shown around the rooms where Mary Queen of Scots once lived.  The trip was fantastic, the children participated enthusiastically and everyone had a great day.  We’re nearly at the end of the topic now and are looking forward to sharing our learning when we present our ‘Hollywood Blockbuster’ about the life of Mary at assembly. 

Well done also to Calvin, Elliot and Arran who won second prize in a National Schools Partnership competition.  The boys spent a lot of time designing a very complex maze and each received a goodie bag of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ merchandise.

Primary 3/4 are pleased to announce the launch of their new stationery shop “Stationery Express”.  The shop will be open on Thursday afternoons.

For details please see our full page advert - link top left below ‘Home’.

Firstly, apologies to those who have been waiting with bated breath for the latest instalment of the nursery blog. Rest assured, the children and staff have been busy during our radio silence!

The winter weather provided us with lots of opportunities for fun and learning - we went sledging and discovered the higher up the hill we started, the further the sledge travelled. We built snowmen in the sun and shade and watched to see which melted first. We’ve also talked about the problems the weather poses for our wildlife and made birdcake to help our feathered friends. It was great fun watching to see who visited our feeders. Most recently we have found out about Chinese New Year celebrations and made our own dragon, lanterns and fans and tried to eat snack using chopsticks (sorry for any additional washing this may have caused!)

Before Christmas the PTA bought us a new birdbox - but this isn’t just any birdbox, it’s a Marks and …. (sorry, got carried away there!).

Seriously though, this isn’t just any birdbox.  It’s got a built-in camera, powered by a solar panel, that transmits the pictures and sound wirelessly into the school where any of the classes can watch what’s happening.

Richard from the Ranger Service came out to put it up for us, ably assisted by Mrs McCall and members of P3/4.  So far there’s been nothing inside, but it’s still early.  Watch this space for news!