Month: May 2015

P5 and P3 Farm Day at Dalkeith Country Park

It was a exceptional day out in Dalkeith. P5 and P3 went to Dalkeith country park to a farming and food event. They were divided into groups of 3 one with Miss Chidgey, Miss Kelly and Miss Cornwall.

They learned about the different sheep breeds the male is called a runt. They learned about the different wools that are of sheep . They then learned about the different foods that grow in Scotland. They learned that barley is used to make  whiskey.

They learned about how many seeds a tractor can hold 100.000 seeds.

They learned how to milk a cow.

 They went on a tractor.

They had a food taster were they had to try different foods . They learned about the sheep males and females .

What farmers can provide that is good

Dairy milk , wool flooring ,

Matrices bedding , fruit and veg

Strawberry ,peas , carrots

 Oranges , apples , potatoes broccoli , collie flower , pares, wheat , cabbage and other veg and fruits .

  They learned about farming to encourage them to eat healthy food and to build  on there learning of forestry and farming and to help them on their topic. I would add in a station about how to grow fruit and veg. There next steps could be that they could download apps on their iPads or watch a farming video on the smart board.

Thank you to the staff and teachers and thanks for having us Dalkeith country park!

Dalkeith Country Park

Dalkeith country park

On Tuesday the 26th of May 2015 P3 and P5 went to Dalkeith Country Park. They went to learn a lot more about farms and farmers.
Dairy

They learned if you shake milk for 15 minutes it turns into scrambled milk and if you keep shaking it it turns into butter.image

They learned you have to put your hand behind a cows tail so they can milk it.

Trees
They learned that beech trees grow very large. They saw a tree getting cut down and they leaned all about the different animals who live in the trees.

imageSheep
They learned about different type of sheep. They learned how to use wool with a spinning wheel and how sheep go to the market!

Conclusion

They liked trees because we learned a lot at the tree station.

They learned how to make flour when they made it in the olden days.

We probably need to work on paying attention more.
They learned you have to put your hand behind a cows tail so they can milk it.
Sheep

They learned about different type of sheep. They learned how to use wool with a spinning wheel. They went to the sheep market and learned to milk a cow.

 

Conclusion
They really liked learning about the trees because they felt that they learnt a lot. The classes next step is to do some further research.

Reported by Connie (P5) and Michaella (P3)

Primary 7 Triops

Primary 7 Triops

Christin and Robert have a big secret. Primary 7 has a class pet! The pet is not a hamster or a guinea pig; it is even better. It’s a type of shrimp called a ‘Triop’, which comes from the group ‘longicaudatus’ and is great for observing for science.

Triops shed their exoskeleton several times a year which you can take out the tank and keep or just let them eat it – yum yum.

It all started when we had an idea, we wanted to learn new things and we thought “How about a class pet of some kind, we can’t have a hamster or anything like that…” then it came to us: Triops. Robert had hatched them at home and was very fascinated with them and Christin wanted to find out more about them.

It started with us going to Mr Currie with our heads held high to pitch our idea to get primary 7 a class pet. Then, after a lot of perseverance we finally got a yes to getting Class Triops.

It has now been about 2 weeks and he is doing great he should be laying eggs soon which we can give another class to use next year.

 

 

St David’s HS Maths Challenge

On the 26th of May P7 and P6 went to a maths challenge at St David’s High school and had lots of fun.

We earned lots of points and won three awards: we came third in the ‘Measurement’ poster competition (which we made at school before the event) and came 1st and 2nd   in the overall competition. We were really excited to win scientific calculators as prizes! We would also like to say a big well done to St Andrew’s for winning the best school prize.

During the day, we took part in some fantastic active maths challenges as well as problem solving activities, which were lots of fun!  The third years gave us scores for how well we completed the activities and sometimes they even helped us to get on the right track with finding the solutions.

After such a successful and enjoyable day, Primary 6 have already said how excited and determined they are about going back next year! We hope that all the other schools had fun and will come back next year too. We would like to say a big thank you to the high school for inviting us to the maths challenge. We had the coolest time ever we also like to say thank you to all the staff and third years for taking time out off class to help all of us. We would also like to say thank you to Miss O’Brien, Miss Gilmore and Sandra for taking time off their time table and looking after us. Primary 6 and Primary 7 also feel that they represented St David’s well by trying their hardest, working really well together and showing manners to other schools and staff at the high school.

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JRSO

Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs)

our JRSOs, like all out pupil groups are elected members of the school group. They are required to apply for the positions, sharing their strengths and skills via a written application and interview process as well as their commitment to the safety of all in our community.

JRSOs lead by example. They model excellence in behaviour, attitude and learning as well as continuously promoting the road safety message.

JRSOs are also trained in their role to enhance their knowledge and understanding and awareness of how they can help the children of our school community.

This is a prestigious position. Our JRSOs are often the face of the school, visible by their fluorescent clothing at the beginning and end of the school day. They are outstanding ambassadors of our school and we are proud of their efforts and achievements.

Please contact Miss O’Brien or Miss Gilmore for further information.

We are a Fairtrade School

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Primary 4 lead our learning as a Fairtrade school and ensure that the Fairtrade message is promoted throughout the school year within our whole school community.

Our learning from P1-7 is centred around our development as responsible citizens and effective contributors to society, therefore, where appropriate, fair trade is a common theme where we can ensure a real and meaningful learning experience!

Please continue to support Fairtrade wherever you can. Let us all make a difference as active, global citizens.

Walking to School

P6 have been learning about their personal health and well-being, specifically they have learned about the benefits of physical activity particularly during walk to school week. Of course, they also celebrated ‘Walk to School Week’ by taking part in the Midlothian Inter-School Walk! They used their creative writing skills to create dramatisations, raps, songs and so much more. They have even built their own time machine to compare people’s attitudes to exercise in different eras! Now they are hosting competitions to encourage others to take part!!

It’s All About Me!

P6 are learning all about themselves this term!

 

During the coming term we will be focusing, as a whole school, on developing our questioning and higher order thinking skills. We will develop these skills across the curriculum. In particular we have already been applying and growing these skills during our bug club reading and our talking and listening experiences as we learn about equal rights.

 

We will be finding out about our changing bodies and as we begin to understand the changes that occur we will learn how to best prepare and look after ourselves. We will investigate our physical health and wellbeing as well as or emotional and mental health and wellbeing. As we learn about ourselves we will also be finding out how to maintain healthy relationships with our peers and families. We will familiarise ourselves with the people in our lives that we can use for support and guidance.

 

We recognise now that we are becoming more independent but as we become more independent we need to be more able to keep ourselves safe. Going forward we will be learning about how to keep ourselves safe, both in public and on the internet.

 

As well as learning about ourselves we will be experiencing our local environment, and building an understanding of the processes involved in where our food comes and the processes involved. We will be visiting Dalkeith Country Park to take part in a ‘Food and Farming’ learning experience.

 

It will be an exciting term for us!

St. David’s PS and the community it serves

Saint David’s Primary School and the Community it Serves

St. David’s is situated on the south side of Dalkeith in Kippielaw Playing Fields.  It is a one-stream co-educational Roman Catholic Primary School for children of primary school age with a catchment area that includes not only Dalkeith but also Eskbank, King’s Lines, Danderhall, Pathhead and surrounding areas.

Pupils are accommodated in a purpose-built, semi open-plan school.  The building contains seven class bases, wet areas, a general-purpose room, school hall and Library and outdoor learning areas with extensive school grounds utilised for both curricular and extra-curricular activities.

There is, at present, nine teachers, including: Head Teacher, Mr Currie; Principal Teacher, Miss Chidgey, Support for Learning teacher, Mrs Lumbard and visiting teachers of physical education, music and French as well as instructors of brass and violin and an English as an Additional Language (EAL) Assistant.

The school also employs the support of an administrative assistant, four Learning Assistants, breakfast club and dining room supervisors, playground supervisors and site supervisor. Cleaning and catering are contracted to the region’s in-house’ service organisations. A crossing patrolperson operates at the entrance to the school on Lauder Road and there are various other crossing patrol points which serve the school along Lauder Road.

St. David’s has an extensive programme of support and extra-curricular activity before school, during lunchtime break and after school through, for example, morning Breakfast Club and activities such as football, rugby, basketball, gardening club, Masterchef and ‘Street’ and Hip-Hop Dance to name a few.

We have an excellent working partnership with St. David’s High School, St. David’s Parish, Dalkeith, and the Archdiocese of St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh and often work alongside other local religious organisations and other major world faiths in the Midlothian and Edinburgh areas.  Respect and tolerance and the celebration of diversity are integral to our schools’ visions, values and aims.