End of Week 13 of Digital Learning! Welcome to the Holidays!
This week has been quite an emotional week for Team Riverbank! There have been many meetings….all virtual, of course. The pupils and staff are now very adept in using Google Meets and the staff have had to master Microsoft Teams too….not as easy as you’d think! In among all that, some training meets have been via Zoom and Webex! My vocabulary on video conferencing has fairly spiraled out of control! Every day we learn something new….even in lockdown!
We have reached the end of 15 weeks of lockdown and minus 2 weeks Easter holidays we have reached the end of 13 weeks of digital learning. It seems a long way back that we all abandoned ship …..er… Riverbank School and started working from home. The learning curve for the whole Team was extremely steep but we have made it all the way to summer holidays. I do recall saying that the Easter holidays were the strangest holidays that I’d ever had and it seems that summer may be just a little less strange as Covid19 restrictions are slowly relaxed.
During the course of this week we have had Achievement Awards Assemblies with Google Slides presentations rather than real certificates. These assemblies were carried out as Google Meets and it was lovely to see so many parents and carers dropping in for these events. I would like to thank all the staff who helped make these occasions memorable ones for our young learners.
The Primary 7 Leavers’ Assembly was a lovely affair with Google slides and videos from the brave P7s who summed up Riverbank in one word…or maybe two and also said what they would miss most. Unusual things to be missed were the cook’s chicken and mealie and the water fountain!!!
Miss Hampton and the class teachers said that they were disappointed the leaving process for the P7s was not what we wanted but that she was delighted to see so many people in attendance at the Leavers’ Google Meet. Mrs Ironside wished the P7s well and reassured them that the staff at whichever academy they would be attending were all preparing for the arrival of new S1s and that they would all be made welcome. She assured the pupils that they would all cope well with the change to a new school and she wished them well for their future.
Again, I would like to thank all our parents and carers for the support they have given the children over the last 15 weeks. Things can be very tricky working from home. A reminder that we return to school on the week commencing Monday 10th August and all parents should have received an email with joining instructions for each pupil.
I would like to thank the pupils who have dutifully completed the learning tasks set for them by the teaching staff. It is their efforts which have enabled me to showcase such a great variety of work, on this website, over the last three months.
Finally, a big thank you to all the staff at Riverbank for all their efforts in maintaining contact and learning with the pupils.
I hope everyone at Team Riverbank has a very restful and enjoyable break. Remember to Keep Safe!
And now the final showcase of work for academic session 2019-2020…the strangest one we’ve ever had!
Mr Probart’s P6P
Majka Dzieza shared, with us, the things which make her smile. Aimi provided art work in the style of Piet Mondrian, Patrycja made a home for ‘beasties’ described by Mr Probart as Air B’n’B for Beasties and they even sent virtual flowers to Mrs Gilchrist, their PSA!
Mrs Smith’s Class were busy carrying out some of Mr Colvin’s Daily Daft Challenges! One of the challenges was to see how many socks you could put on in 30 secs. Personally, I think they were being too tidy!!!
Our next challenge was from Edinburgh Zoo which supplied their ‘Wild About June’ challenge. Not sure if I like this one, though! But our bold hero took on the ‘wild’ challenge and made Nettle Soup!
At this juncture, I would like to take this opportunity to remind folks that I am not allowed, for child protection reasons, to display a photograph or video where the child’s name appears with the image. So, I have received some items like this and, unfortunately, cannot present them. I wouldn’t want any of our pupils thinking they’ve been deliberately left out of the website. Also, videos which are more than 3 minutes long are huge files and make it difficult to display on our website.
Primary 1A – Mrs Arqued’s class sent me a video of a young lady reading a story for her younger sibling. No mean feat for one so young.
Our next contributors are Primary 1C – Miss Coyle’s class, aided and abetted by Ms Howarth.
First we have the multi-talented Ms Howarth showing her Makaton skills in singing along to an old apt favourite – Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard. That will be closely followed by one of our recurring stars of the Riverbank website who does her own take on the Makaton video.
Miss Coyle’s class also carried out a Tower Building Challenge and Miss Howarth sent me this montage of participants and their efforts. I cannot believe how high or tall these buildings were! Fantastic efforts!
As frequent browsers of our website will be aware, Primary 1C has contributed many items to the website over the last 13 weeks of digital learning. As a reminder, Ms Howarth has sent me a video of many of the activities which P1C has taken part in.
Finally, before I go on holiday, we have the efforts of P4L – Miss Littler’s class. Miss Littler’s pupils were tasked with an Upcycling Challenge. They were asked to make a piece of jewellery, a necklace in fact, from odds and ends they could find around the house. From the returns, it is clear that we could have some young entrepreneurs in our midst. Well done folks!
At their final Google Meet, they used a Google Jamboard to make their very own Message Board to send messages to one another and Miss Littler and Mrs Smith, the class PSA, added their messages too. In addition Miss Littler added a reminder photograph of the class pre-lockdown. What a lovely thought.
I hope everyone has a lovely break but remember to keep safe and, hopefully, we’ll be back IN Riverbank in August once again! Take care everyone!
UNCRC / RRSA
Article 3 – The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all things that 
affect children.
Article 24 – Every child has the right to the best possible health. Governments must work to provide good quality health care …..
Article 28 – Every child has the right to an education.
Article 31 – Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.