The latest radio podcast is now available over on the radio blog.

Here is a flavour of the fun we all had today, raising money so that children across the world can get a good education, just like us!

Thank you so much for helping your children support our fundraising efforts for Comic Relief.

John sold 420 noses, so there’s £420.00 total for starters.

Primary 6 got the enterprising fundraising off to a great start a couple of weeks ago.  Under the expert organisational skills of Ellie, Jordan C, Lewis and Rachel C, they organised a 3D creature competition and have received an amazing array of inventive and imaginative constructions. The artistic and creative talents of some parents and the support given to our younger pupils is truly appreciated.  Results and total will be announced at our Red Nose Day Together Time this afternoon.

Primary 5 have also taken the creative tack and devised games based on a ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’ format.  So this morning all classes will have the opportunity to see who can ‘hit’ the red X while blindfolded.

Moving on to P7B, they came up with ‘Big Kid, Little Teacher’! by offering the pupils the opportunity to bid to be a teacher for the day.  The lowest unique bid got the honour and congratulations to Rachel M who selected Laura to be her Pupil Support Assistant for the day.  Total raised was £160.00. The whole enterprise would not have been possible without the commitment and co-operation of Mr S Anderson who allowed himself to be a pupil for the day. As you can imagine, ripples of laughter followed him wherever he went – to music, the playground, to P.E., Together Time and having to complete his class tasks.  Both Rachel M and Mr Anderson agreed that it had been an exhausting day and were looking forward to getting back to ‘normal’ on Friday.

Primary 7A, with Cameron B as the main instigator, spent Thursday afternoon (under Mrs Meldrum’s supervision), baking Red Nose Cakes that are being enjoyed today. They charged 20p per cake.

Down at the younger end of classes, Primaries 1A and 1B have had a toy swap for 50p and have raised £30.00, you’re never too young to be an entrepreneur!

Although not raising money for Comic Relief, P5-6 have been involved in their own enterprise project and set up The Scotch Café, where the smell of broth and stovies has permeated the building throughout this week. Again, I am sure there will be a more fulsome report and total to follow.

Of course all of the projects would not be possible without additional help and expertise of many adults in school but the learning potential from these contextual projects is staggering.   Pupils have to design, develop ideas, communicate, co-operate, keep accounts and work as a team – all skills that will enable our young people to be, successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and  responsible citizens,

And finally, we still have our collection today for ‘Wear Something Funny for Money’ I know there will be a few smiles about the place today.

A final fundraising amount will be communicated to you at a later date. 

Again, a very BIG Thank You for your Comic Relief Support and for everything that you do to work alongside Loirston staff to make the learning experiences at Loirston so meaningful and relevant.

What, with the publication of the HMIE follow through report and the recent press coverage, our children’s school has no doubt been a hot topic of conversation, understandably and rather unfairly, not always all objective.

Following the recent meeting of the Parent Council attended by Mrs McIntosh (acting Head Teacher) a great number of positive points within our school were highlighted, giving much needed assurance that things are definitely moving forward and that great inroads have been made. Mrs McIntosh intends to feed that information to all parents ASAP, we were pleased that since the HM Inspectors visit in December the teachers and management staff have prioritised the tasks requiring attention and are working hard to have all the points up to date before the Inspectors next visit.

As a Parent Council working in partnership with the school, we feel strongly that it is our role to support the school in any way possible and that definitely means that we will continue to ask pertinent questions and demand definite solutions to the problems highlighted in the original HMI report and in the follow through report, from the Management Team of Loirston School, The Education Department and ultimately to Aberdeen City Council.

A point raised at the meeting, and agreed by Mrs McIntosh was for the Action Plan from the previous report to be shared with the Parent Council. This would allow us to highlight ways we can directly contribute to improving our school in a structured manner, and help fulfil the actions raised. 

Not having a permanent Head Teacher and the school falling victim to much publicised ACC budget cuts, where the teachers stand to lose a large proportion of Pupil Support Assistants are both contributing factors that have exerted high levels of pressure on all the staff.

 A city wide online petition has been started and all city Parent Councils are asking ALL parents and carers to go online and sign the petition at –

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/25710.html

Both parents can sign and were possible this address can be passed onto as many friends and concerned family members and neighbours as possible. Any support on this issue would be greatly valued by all our kids’ teachers who have been working so hard to provide a positive educational experience for all our kids at Loirston.

A follow up meeting where tough questions will need answers is to be held next week. Be assured that the results will be passed on to all parents then.

Thanks

Karen Paterson

(On behalf of)

Loirston Parent Council

Primary five are creating, in pairs, a Comic Relief Game for each class. The game is based on ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’ except they designed the game themselves.  Entries cost 20p and Primary Five will be coming round on Comic Relief Day, Friday 13^th March, to each class.

We hope that you can give your child money to participate in this activity.  The prize is a crème egg to the winner in each class.  The winner is the child who sticks their red dot closest to the X on the picture when they have their eyes closed or are blindfolded.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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