How has that happened?!

It’s the October holidays already! Thank you to each and every parent, child, member of staff and community partner who has contributed to a very packed programme at Abbeyhill since August. I look forward to more of the same when we return. We’ve got Parents’ Evening, Uniform Exchange, the Halloween discos, M&M pantomime, Children in Need Toy Sale, P7 Christmas Ceilidh, Family Film Night AND a very special festive surprise which will be revealed after the holidays. There are new clubs starting including an after school club with parents Vlad and Dimitra, as well as an Active Schools Parkour club. Oh, and we’ll fit in some learning and teaching too!

Spotlight on…P1

To wrap up the term, P1 have been out on a very windy Forest Adventure today and what’s the best thing to do when it’s windy? Build up your tent and see how many you can squeeze in! Everyone came back to school with rosy cheeks and full of tales from their morning out. Well done P1!

 

Spotlight on…P5 

P5 joined in with the BBC Teach Live – health and wellbeing. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to other ideas schools have across the UK on how to promote wellbeing (many may be brought to pupil council as ideas). We took part in 4 activities with other classrooms across the country doing the same – an emotional check in, art of emotions, growth mindset and a mass mindful finger breathing exercise. It was wonderful to see the class so engaged with this, and it will be on display in the upper  primary corridor.

 

Well done everyone! Have a lovely holiday and see you for more when we resume! 

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

 

 

 

 

Welcome home!

Return of the campers!

The P7 campers have had a fantastic time at Lagganlia and arrived back safe and sound at lunchtime today (although maybe slightly grubbier than when they left on Monday) and we can’t wait to hear all about it next week. Activities have ranged from bouldering and canoeing and everyone took the opportunity to throw themselves into new experiences. Thank you to Mr Hamilton, Mr Martin, Miss McCourt and Miss Graves for taking them once again.

 

Halloween

Now that autumn is well and truly upon us, you may have seen the posters up for the Parent Council Halloween Party on 1^st November. Posters will be going up in school next week so expect to hear a lot more about it from your children! As always there will be a separate quiet area with drawing and crafts for anyone who gets a little overwhelmed by the spookiness! Thank you to the Parent Council who lead this very successful event every year.

Spotlight on…P6 with Miss Stamati 

Following our outdoor activities and visits in September, P6 have expressed their love for nature, and curiosity as to how various natural systems operate. Our first step into Science found us discussing the crucial role of water in our environment, as well as our bodies.

Did you know that about 71% of the Earth’s surface is water (lakes, rivers, oceans, ice)? And that up to 75% of our body as young people (up to 60% for adults) is also water? We were so impressed when we found that out!

The water on Earth is found in three different states: gas, liquid and solid. Can you think of any examples?

We decided to conduct scientific experiments to explore the “Water Cycle”; How are clouds formed? Why do we get rain? What are the droplets of water that are created on a mirror when we take a hot shower?  – These were only some of the questions that led us to this experiment and to the creation of our Scientific Hypothesis: The cycle would not be possible without the sun!

Sun is our natural source of light and heat, through Solar Radiation. The warmer and brighter the sun, the more water will evaporate in the form of gas from the sea, lakes and rivers, and will transpire from the leaves of trees. When the gas reaches the colder temperatures in the atmosphere, it creates clouds through a process called condensation. Too much condensation in the clouds makes them really heavy, which results in precipitation, or else, rain! This rain reaches different parts of the Earth’s surface, and eventually will run off to the sea, or infiltrate in the soil.

We call it the water cycle, as the process begins again and it keeps repeating itself, like going around in circles!   

To conduct the experiment:

1. Draw your version of the water cycle on a clear sandwich bag or bottle.
2. Fill up with ¼ cup of water. Seal well.
3. Place your water cycle model on a window and record your observations over time! To gather more information through our experiment, P6 also placed water cycle models in dark places to observe what happens when solar radiation is missing.

Keep an eye out for our observations and conclusions to the experiment!

Some strong homework efforts!

 

Parents’ Evening

Next week we will send out the link so that you can book your Parents’ Evening appointments for the end of the month. It’s so worthwhile to take the opportunity to discuss your child’s academic progress but if you can’t make either of the dates, please feel welcome to contact your child’s teacher to make an alternative appointment.

Holiday reminder

Remember that next Friday (11^th) we break up for the October holidays. School and Nursery resumes for children on Wednesday 23^rd October.

Playing in the park!

On Monday after school, the teaching staff headed to Holyrood Park with Ranger Rob from the Education Centre to learn more about this incredible natural resource that’s right on our doorsteps and how it can be used to enhance our curriculum. A lot of tourists wondered why were walking around with blindfolds on and some ‘friendly’ rivalries were established for a team based ‘Nature’s Clock’ activity and we all came home buzzing with ideas.

P1 were out today for their 3^rd Forest Schools Friday and there were huge smiles on their faces when they returned a little while ago! From all the different activities that they are doing it looks as though they should have gone with the teachers on Monday and trained them up!

(Disclaimer – these photos are from last Friday but I fully expect some nice muddy ones from today’s adventure!)

This week, I visited Buckstone Primary School with the Head Teachers from Ratho and Broomhouse Primaries. We regularly meet in this group, as do all other primary HTs in the city, to discuss our own school in relation to progress against a particular ‘How Good Is Our School?’ quality indicator. This time we each presented information about ‘Raising Attainment and Achievement’ (3.2) and it was interesting to hear the different approaches that we all take and what works best in each school. We all took a few ideas from each other and agreed that, as always, it was time well spent.

Spotlight on….the Listening Spot with Russell McLarty

On Wednesdays at lunchtime over the past few weeks I have started to be a ‘Listening Spot’ in the playground. The idea is to have someone from out-with the staff – a ‘friend’ of the school – able to listen to any concerns children may want to talk about. Over the past 2 years I have been keen to help Abbeyhill Primary in different ways and certainly willing to take on this role carrying my ‘Listening Spot’ big umbrella. It takes time to build up rapport, but even over a few weeks it has been good to have some useful conversations and give a bit of encouragement. Where some youngsters may find it difficult to share things which are worrying them the ‘Listening Spot’ may help.

Did you visit…?

Last weekend it was the 14^th Colony of Artists festival and as always it was an absolutely amazing celebration of the rich artistic talent that lives in the Abbeyhill area. We are so lucky to be such an integral part of the festival as we have exhibited for 13 of those 14 years and it brings so much to who we are at Abbeyhill. Profuse thanks as always to our curator-in-residence Iliyana Nedkova as without her skill, expertise and organisation we would not be able to have the experiences that we do. Thanks must also go to Vlad Hasiu who worked incredibly hard alongside Iliyana in the run up and over the weekend to produce the exhibits in the school. Thanks to all the other parents, staff and volunteers who helped or visited to show their support over the weekend. If you weren’t able to make it don’t worry, we’ll be back next year!

Next week, P7 leave us for camp at Lagganlia and they are all very excited! Bets are on as to who will have the biggest suitcase and organisation skills are being put to the test as a few have admitted that they haven’t started packing…. I’ve recommended 3 times as many socks as they think they need so let’s see who comes home with dry feet next Friday! All P7 families will be able to follow their adventures through the private Twitter account that Mr Martin and Mr Hamilton have spoken about. Have fun P7!

Meanwhile, back at Abbeyhill the Nursery start their Forest Adventures, P5 have their second attempt(!) at attending the touch rugby tournament at Murrayfield, P4-7 Mindfulness starts again (the P7s will be getting plenty of practice in Lagganlia without their phones), the Abbeyhill Ambassadors will be recording new phone messages for the school phone line, a parental behaviour attitude survey will be sent out to families and I will be attending the Edinburgh Head Teacher’s Association (EPHTA) meeting with a focus on Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce. We will also send out the link so that you can book your Parents’ Evening appointments for the end of the month. It’s so worthwhile to take the opportunity to discuss your child’s academic progress but if you can’t make either of the dates, please feel welcome to contact your child’s teacher to make an alternative appointment.

Phew! We’re all off for a rest over the weekend so we’re ready for another jam-packed week at Abbeyhill!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

 

 

Colony Community

Colony of Artists 2019 is upon us! The festival opens with previews this evening and doors open to the public across the Abbeyhill community tomorrow. Please come and visit us at Venue 39 and make sure you visit the Abbeyhill colonies to take in the atmosphere and all the hard work that goes into putting on this fabulous community arts festival every year. It sounds clichéd, but it really does get better every time!

Listening Spot

Russell McLarty did his first Listening Spot on Wednesday and was a very popular figure with his umbrella in the playground! We’ll be getting feedback from children on how having the Listening Spot makes them feel so please watch this space to find out more.

Behaviour Attitude survey

I’ve been carrying out a Behaviour Attitude survey with children from P1-P7 to find out what they think is okay/not okay and how they feel about how the way we help them to sort things out when they have gone wrong. My next task is to share this with the rest of the school and design a survey for families to be able to carry out at home. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated so please watch out for this coming out next week.

Spotlight on… P1

In P1 we have started learning our sounds and what better way to learn ‘a’ than getting hands on and chopping up lots of a-a-apples. All of the children were given the opportunity to practice their fine motor skills by chopping up some delicious cooking apples before some of the children got their first taste of the cooking classroom. We stewed the apples with sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract to give everyone a delicious reminder of their daily sound.

Have you read…Mental health tips

A fantastic new resource has been developed by The City of Edinburgh Council Health and Wellbeing team which has been shared with families today. Please make sure you take a moment to read the Mental Health ‘Top Tips for Children and Young People’ and ‘Top Tips for Parents and Carers’ which have been written by and with children and young people and give a strong insight into what matters to them today.

Next week…  is a busy one for us as always with a visit to Buckstone Primary for me on Monday morning, a staff outdoor learning session, our first Families Connect session of the school year and much more. But first…Colony of Artists – see you there!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher 

 

 

 

 

We love the rain!

I hope you all enjoy reading your class newsletter if you receive school emails. Paper copies will also come out next week for those who don’t! It’s full of information about what has been happening in school since we started back in August. As you will read, everyone has been extremely busy and there is still plenty of excitement to come!  

We had our first outdoor wet break of the session on Monday and it was a new experience to be out in the rain, rather than cooped up indoors. Thank you to the families who have donated waterproof jackets that their children have outgrown as we needed quite a few spares for those of us who were unprepared! Thank you also to the parents who have taken the time to let me know that they think staying outdoors in (almost) all weathers is a positive thing. There certainly seemed to be less frayed tempers in the afternoon as we’d all had a dose of fresh air and enjoyed the delights of being outside in the rain – like jumping in puddles!

Spotlight on….P5 with Miss Howson

This term Primary 5 are exploring states of matter and substances as part of our introduction into chemistry! This started with an opportunity to make Ooblek (a non-newtonian fluid) which changes with force. We build on what we had learned in previous years, about solids, liquids, gases. We discussed how water is found naturally in all three states and reminded ourselves of the water cycle. We then began to deepen our understanding of how temperature changes the state of objects (how the addition or removal of heat leads to water/ice/steam). We began to look at how molecules in substances look (and you can see our photos of us being the molecules in a solid, liquid and gases state! We discussed how heat equals energy, so we break bonds and move more freely!

This terms science topic is looking at substances and chemical mixtures. To introduce the idea of chemical mixtures (more than one component within an item) we used Chromatography. Each pupil was shown 2 ways to conduct the experiment, and then with a partner had to agree on what protocols and techniques they were going to use. It was brilliant to watch the class as young scientists, discussing how to get the best results. After some experimentation, the class were then allowed to change the experiment, opting to investigate if we had to use filter paper or if normal paper would work. We were astonished to find out kitchen roll works! It was brilliant to see the different colours in our inks – and we created a brilliant display to show this science off!

If you would like to recreate this experiment at home you will need, a cup of water, a long piece of kitchen roll and some felt tipped pens. Draw a line a 5 cm from the bottom of your kitchen roll in felt tip. Place 3cm of kitchen roll (below the line) into water. Wait…. and watch the colours appear! Our young scientists can explain to you why!

We began to discuss the differences between mixtures and solutions this week, by watching Ms Howson make a picnic for herself – we all thought it was a little unfair! Into the first bowl she added: granola, dried apple bits, chocolate buttons, white chocolate buttons, and into the second bowl she added orange dilute and water. We were given a task, in groups discuss strategies we could use to separate the items in the bowls into their original items. It was a lot trickier to separate the orange juice! (and Ms Howson was very impressed when she saw people try filtration like the chromatography experiment!).

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We then watched The Great Picnic Mix-up and returned to our mixtures with our new knowledge and could discuss what was a mixture, and what was a solution – and how and why we could tell them apart.

With our new knowledge of solutions and mixtures it was time to make our own! We had four stations set around the room, each with a bowl, water and a bag of solute (different types of sugar and salts). To begin with we each went around the four stations in teams, trying to work out if our solute did dissolve, and how best to measure. We agreed on a sprinkle measure as a class. We were then given team captains and assigned a station – our task was to recreate the experiment, tallying each sprinkle to see the solubility of each solute. We worked hard as teams, sprinkling and tally marking trying to discover which solute would win!

After we had tidied up we discussed how we could improve the accuracy of our experiment (standardised measure, same temp water, same number of stirs. We agreed as a class we may return to this experiment later in the year and complete it in a more scientific way!

To recreate this science at home: you need a cup of water and a solute (salt, sugar (anything that would dissolve in the water). Our young scientists can explain why this works, what dissolving is, and why you cannot dissolve forever!

Report from the sidelines

Well done to our football team who did Abbeyhill proud at their first match last Saturday! There was some excellent football for our team and best of all, great teamwork. The parents and carers were great too at giving support and encouragement. Our opponents – Wardie – were all P7s and a well established team. They initially took a strong lead but in the second half Abbeyhill played some amazing football and pulled back to 5-7, the final score. We didn’t win but have lots to be proud of. Good luck in tomorrow’s match!

And finally….

Are you looking for things to do in the Leith and Abbeyhill area? The updated ‘at a Glance’ guides have just been published and will be shared with you next week. If you want to have a look now, please click here to access the website.

Next week, it will be all systems go as we gear up for our involvement in the Colony of Artists festival on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd September, Russell McLarty will start his ‘Listening Spot’ on Wednesday in the playground and our Abbeyhill Ambassadors will be doing a bag pack at Sainsbury’s. Remember that school is closed for the September weekend on Monday 16th September but we resume as normal on Tuesday 17th. Have a lovely weekend!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher