Riverbank School

The end of session 2017-2018 saw the completion of 10 academic sessions since Riverbank ‘was born’.

We felt we couldn’t let our 10th Birthday go by without having a major celebration. It had to be something to remember and, my goodness, I think we just about made it a day to remember.

The day set for the event was Monday 25 June 2018 and a timetable of events was to be drawn up. Each class had to provide some bunting and decorate the dining hall and their classroom. The day would start with a coffee morning for parents and carers. This was from 9.30am until 10.30am. The Parent Council were to help with teas, coffees and juice and the celebration wouldn’t be complete without a slice of birthday cake. Parents and carers attending the coffee morning in the dining room were also entertained by the school Glee Group under the watchful wing of our music teacher, Mr Dawson. The Glee Group performed four songs, my favourite being James Bay’s Hold Back the River.

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Meanwhile, elsewhere in the school, groups of children were being entertained by the magician, Gary Seagraves. Gary was amazing and he had Basil, his rabbit, with him, too. It got a bit scary when he wanted to cut off the hand of one of our P6 boys!! Basil did the most amazing card trick, there was levitation and plate spinning as well as many other amazing tricks. Oh, and the P6 boy still has his hand, though I’m not quite sure what the girl helper caught when the guillotine dropped!

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The class parties took place in the afternoon and each class had a theme from shorts and shades to a beach party, pyjama party and a Hallowe’en Party! to name but a few.

There was plenty cake to eat and each class managed a trip to the ice cream van for an ice cream. Mmmm it was delicious!

The children will be the first to say how much they enjoyed the day and I can vouch for the happy faces I saw and the fun and laughter that was seen and heard throughout the day!

Some slides from Mrs Stephenson’s and Miss Miller’s Classes

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Some other people sent me some more photographs taken on Birthday Day!

Mrs Lade’s class.

Mrs Ng kindly gave us this shot from her class photobooth. Who are they?

Mrs Ullah and Miss Rowley very kindly provided photographs of P7U & P7R enjoying the Birthday Celebrations. I think their celebrations might have something to do with the sand and a beach!

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Mrs Smith managed to take some photos of a bubble machine in action and some silly woman photo bombing at the ice cream van!

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And……..finally, I have included a selection of photos taken by Mrs Ironside as she wandered round the school on Birthday Celebration Day!

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This must be one of the longest articles I’ve ever provided for the website but it just shows what great fun we have at Team Riverbank when a celebration is called for. I must thank everyone who provided me with photographs and for the support of the staff, pupils, parents and all other support staff who helped make our 10th Birthday a real whizz bang of a day!

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 29 – Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full….

Article 31 – Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

This young lady shows us what she thinks.

A few weeks back, our Primary 3s were given the opportunity to have an operatic experience, this was to be provided by Scottish Opera. We were invited to send the Primary 3s to an event at the Aberdeen University’s Hillhead Campus where they would find out all about opera. The pupils gave the thumbs up to this event.

The run up to this included the children being given information on what opera was all about.They even had to learn a song which was written in the operatic style and was set to a well known piece of classical / opera music. The words were very tricky to fit in but our bold threes did a grand job in learning the song before heading off to the opera.

They were amazed at what they found on their arrival. There was an orchestra as well as the opera singers. They were given information on how the opera is staged including the putting together of the wardrobe (that’s the costumes that the singers wear). There was lots to see and they could join in too.

I am rather fond of classical music and have visited the opera, myself, and I was disappointed that I had to remain in school and not be able to go with the children. I think it’s great that our young pupils are being given the chance to find out what opera is like at such a young age.

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The staff who accompanied the children were very impressed with the event and agreed that this was a great learning experience for the children whereby they might never have been to the opera before and they might never have thought of going. And the smiley faces on the children who attended tells a story in itself and they were very chatty about the whole experience when they returned to school. A big thank you to the ACC department which gave us the opportunity to attend and to Scottish Opera for a fantastic learning experience for our Primary 3s.

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 29 -Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.

I’m sure that you will all have been aware that Soccer Aid took place on Sunday 10 June. The UK Government has stated that every £1 that is raised for Soccer Aid will be matched by them. We weren’t able to join in the fundraising around the 10th, as the school timetable was pretty full. So, as a result, we are holding our events for Soccer Aid on Thursday 25 June.

There is no Day for Change this year as Soccer Aid is taking its place. Our pupils were asked how they would like to raise funds for UNICEF through Soccer Aid, and they decided that they would like a range of stalls in the hall. In addition, Rob from RADS is arranging a playground soccer challenge. All the classes will compete against each other and there will be an award for the winning class from P1-3 and another for the winning class from P4-7.

The children will be timetabled so that they all have a chance to participate in the playground challenge as well as to buy some raffle tickets, have their nails painted etc.

As requested by our pupils some of the stalls and prices will be as follows:

Children’s Raffle – 20p per ticket      Face Painting – 50p      Nail Painting – 50p      Tattoos – 10p, 20p & 50p                    Guess the Teddy’s Birthday – 20p      Badge Making – 50p      Colouring Competition – 20p                                              Bracelets – 50p      Cake & Candy – 10p, 20p & 50p

There may be other stalls and competitions available on the day.

We hope that the children will have great fun and that we will be successful in raising money for UNICEF which will help children in crisis around the world and remember, for every £1 we raise, the government will match it. Some information on Soccer Aid can be seen below.

 UNCRC / RRSA

Article 31 – Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Article 13 – Every child must be free to say what they think and to seek and receive all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.

We are always keen to share what’s going on at Riverbank with our parents and carers and Tuesday 29 May was a day for doing just that. We had two slots, one in the morning and another in the afternoon when parents and carers were invited in to Riverbank and during those times, they could visit classrooms and see some number or maths work going on.

Some of the activities were in the classroom, some in the hall and others were outside. Some of the activities saw maths being taught through football. This was a collaboration between class teachers and Rob from RADS. There were some outdoors maths activities as well as some lovely indoor activities.

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It was good to see so many adults joining in the classroom fun and finding out how their children learn about number and maths in school. We know how much our pupils love sharing their learning with parents and carers at home.

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 28 – Every child has the right to an education.

Article 29 – Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full…..

Article 31 – Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Primary 2-3, Mrs Barber’s class, participated in a homework activity which required them to design and produce a tabletop garden. I was asked to go down to the class and view and judge the gardens. Oh, my goodness, what a tough task that was! Everyone had tackled the task in their own way and although there were two main winners, Mrs Barber had a prize for everyone. The gardens were amazing and i loved seeing the great ideas the pupils had had. I have placed the photos, which I took when judging, on a slideshow so that you can enjoy them too.

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A montage of tabletop gardens. Well done to everyone who participated.

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 29 – Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.It must encourage the child’s respect for…..and the environment.