Figure Me Out a Class Charter from P7M

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Mrs McGregor’s and Mrs Robb’s class took the theme of Figure Me Out ! for their class charter.

The children drew a portrait of themselves and included a variety of questions about themselves, that could only be worked out by completing a sum.

The Charter looks superb and holds lots of great information about the pupils and what they think the ‘rules’ of the class should look like.

  • The Class Charter of P7M.
  • It is very personal to the pupils in the class.

Please click on the photos for a closer view.

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 12 – Every child has the right to have a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously.

Mrs Smith’s Class Discuss Needs & Wants as well as Kindness and Friendliness as part of Health & Well Being Work

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Being part of the RRSA scheme, we try to ensure that all of our pupils are aware of their rights and that their basic needs should be met. It is sometimes difficult to separate needs from wants, especially if you’re a pupil.

Mrs Smith noted the following, “As part of our UNCRC work we have been looking at Needs and Wants and there were lots of debates  about what is actually a Need. It took some explaining to convince the class that holidays, TV and phones are not needs!!”

As part of the experiences and outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence the class familiarised themselves with; I explore the rights to which I and others are entitled, I am able to exercise these rights appropriately and accept the responsibilities that go with them. I show respect for the rights of others.  HWB 1-09a

  • A discussion group decided on where to place the items. Were they Needs or were they Wants?
  • A lot of thought went into this activity.
  • Working hard at deciding the Needs and Wants.
  • Making a list of Needs.
  • Our list of Wants.

The class then went on to discuss friendship and kindness. They looked at bucket fillers and bucket dippers among other things.

This is what Mrs Smith told us about these activities, “We have been working extensively on HWB in the Linkroom.

We have explored class rules with Clark the Shark. We have, also, looked at  how to be helpful to others by pretending Aliens arrived to start school and how we could help them by explaining what the routines in school are. This brought us on to discuss Bucket dippers and Bucket fillers. We discussed whether we were a bucket filler or a bucket dipper. One are for debate was who would be more popular; the bucket filler or the bucket dipper? 

The main focus throughout has been kindness and caring for others, friendship and helping others.”

Linking these to the CfE the class covered the following experiences and outcomes:

I value the opportunities I am given to make friends and be part of a group in a range of situations. HWB 1-14a

I make full use of and value the opportunities I am given to improve and manage my learning and, in turn, I can help to encourage learning and confidence in others. HWB 1-11a

I recognise that each individual has a unique blend of abilities and needs. I contribute to making my school community one which values individuals equally and is a welcoming place for all. HWB 1-10a

 

  • The class looked at how they could fill their bucket…I hope with kind acts!
  • Class rules were developed with the help of Clark the Shark.
  • Some of Clark’s rules.
  • How could we help the alien visitors who knew nothing of our school and culture.

I’m sure the pupils in Mrs Smith’s class have learned a lot from their work on H&WB as well as needs and wants.

 

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 23 – A child with a disability has the right to live a full decent life with dignity and independence, and to play an active part in the community. Governments must do all they can to provide support to disabled children.

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. 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.

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

A Towering Challenge in P4N

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Miss Noble’s P4N class has been very busy looking at school disposition characters and carrying out work which highlights the various dispositions. They recently carried out a tower building challenge and this is what Miss Noble had to tell us about the task.

“This activity was focused on the school disposition of co-operative Carly, as we worked in table teams to build the tallest tower. The tower that was the tallest and could stand on its own for five seconds would win. The children were learning how to work well as a team with a team leader, time keeper, resource manager and clean up crew. They loved it!”

 Below, I have inserted a slideshow of P4N at work, cooperating as a team to produce the highest tower. There are some intriguing pieces of building work to be seen!


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…..

P2C Hard at Work and Enjoying Themselves!

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We have been learning all about numbers and showing numbers in different ways. The children have also been counting and using Lego to represent numbers. The boys and girls have been learning how to use a number-line to help them solve addition sums. 

We have also been trying very hard to spell words. 

  • Someone’s being a number wizard!
  • Lots of concentration on our work.
  • Some more budding mathematicians.
  • Using the famous Lego to help with number.
  • Someone who’s making a good job of their spelling.
  • Using letter blocks to practise spelling.
  • A very neat worker.

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…..

The Weekly Update from P1-2A

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Our buddies in Primary 1-2A have, once again, sent me along some lovely photographs cataloguing the things they’ve been getting up to during their time in school last week.

  • Using construction to support numeracy.
  • Learning through play.
  • Practising our RADS skills!
  • Developing team work!

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…..

Some Fun from Primary 1-2A

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Miss Howarth and Mrs Arqued have sent on some photographs of Primary 1-2A at work in the classroom.

Fun Phonics, reading together, a construction King, symmetry work and a montage of our new pupils in the class.

  • The maths work was all about symmetry, including symmetrical letters.
  • Reading together.
  • Using the SmartBoard to practise phonics.
  • Our P1s in the P1-2 class.
  • Someone who loves construction.
  • 3 Musketeers guard their castle and we have a budding engineer at work!

UNCRC / RRSA

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

School Meals Menu

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Below, I have attached images of the autumn school meals menu. The menu runs on a three week cycle.

If your child is to attend school meals, it is always a good idea to have a look at the menu with them to ensure that there is something be offered that they like. If there isn’t, then it’s better if you provide a packed lunch on that day. We would rather that our pupils had something they wanted than end up being hungry because they don’t eat what’s available in school.

Just a wee reminder that P1-3 have free school meals but P4-7 have to pay. If you think your child may be entitled to free school meals, then application can be made through Aberdeen City Council’s website. I have ploaced the link below.

https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/education-and-childcare/school-life/apply-free-school-meals

In the slideshow below I have placed copies of the new menu. Please, take time to discuss the menu with your child.

UNCRC / RRSA

Article 24 – Every child has the right to the best possible health. Governments must work to provide good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment so that children can stay healthy…..

Return to Riverbank

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Following a false start due to flooding, Team Riverbank is up and running again and we’re feeling like we’ve never been away!

After weeks of waiting and following all the instructions for preparing the school for reopening, it all came to nought when the thunder and lightning struck! I felt so sorry for our class teachers who had prepared their classes, beautifully, only for us to discover the fallen roof tiles and soaking wet corridors and carpets.

It was all hands to the pumps to get the classes up and running again for our pupils. A special thank you must go to the ACC workers who assessed the damage and then, ultimately, worked all day Thursday and Friday to ensure we could open on the Monday.

It was very disappointing that we could not provide our pupils with their full day induction but the pupils did very well in taking in the new arrangements for being in school and travelling around inside Riverbank.

Our P4-7 parents are adjusting to not being allowed in the playground and our Nursery and P1-3 parents are becoming accustomed to the one way system which works its way around the school.

Many other changes have happened due to Covid 19. It’s really tricky having to conduct all our meetings with parents and partners, virtually. And, whilst we can’t invite visitors into school, at the moment, we hope that parents and carers will contact us by email or telephone if they have any concerns or things they may wish to discuss with us.

Now that we’re back, I have received some lovely photographs of pupils at work, back in the classroom.

  • Practising our fine motor skills.
  • Getting back to numbers.
  • Lots of fun and learning has taken place in the outdoors.
  • A young RADS star.
  • Some really WOW Work!

In the slideshow above we can see some of Mrs Arqued’s and Miss Howarth’s pupils from Primary 1-2 A working hard and covering several different areas of the school curriculum. These photographs cover the week commencing Monday 24th August.

Miss Howarth and Mrs Arqued sent me some photgraphs of the work the children carried out more recently. I have placed them in the slideshow below.

  • Someone went kite flying and I could belive he had a real kite!
  • Just check out the concentration on these faces.
  • This chap used his imagination to say that he was eating a chicken kebab! Yum!
  • Using things from the environment to make some mobiles.
  • We’ve spent lots of times outdoors.
  • Flexing our muscles to make the play dough!.

The children have made lots of use of the outdoors. Some of the work they have carried out included using things they have found in the school grounds to make something and describe it. The children showed great imagination; from the young man who found some leaves and pretended they were a kite which he went on to fly, to the chap with the twig and leaves which became a chicken kebab.

The children also made, what looked to me like some lovely mobiles, again with natural things they found in the school rounds.

I’m sure we’ll see lots more from P1-2A in the weeks ahead!

Miss Coyle’s Primary 3C class have spent a lot of time working on their maths. She sent me some photographs of the work they had carried out.

We can see lots of different materials being used in tackling our maths in P3C.

Miss Littler’s P4L class have been working on their class charter; the set of class rules that the children and teacher put together.

This lovely charter shows what the children feel would make a perfect pupil and what makes a terrific teacher. Their charter was designed round the lovely animated movie Up!

I hope, in the weeks ahead that we will be able to see further class charters and see the themes the children have chosen.

This is just a small taste of what’s being going on at Riverbank since we’ve returned to school.

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. 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.

End of Week 13 of Digital Learning! Welcome to the Holidays!

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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!

 

Dylan from Mrs Smith’s class created artwork from items found on the seashore as part of Edinburgh Zoo’s ‘Wild About June’ Challenge!

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!

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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!

Tower Building Challenge in Primary 1C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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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.

End of Week 12 of Digital Learning

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Here we are again at the end of our 12th week of digital learning. It makes 14 weeks since we were last all in Riverbank.

The staff has, only, recently been given access to the school. This has allowed the removal of personal items and arrangements for pupils for their eventual return.

It’s certainly been a surprising week for us all! The announcement by the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, that schools would be returning in August to full time schooling resulted in many of our plans having to be redrawn. We were also advised that we would be given a further teacher and this has resulted in us being able to realign some of our classes. We are very sorry for any inconvenience that the rearrangement of classes may have caused.

Over the next week our pupils will have the opportunity to attend online Achievement Award Assemblies where Star Awards will be given out….virtually, of course.

Mrs Robb was on hand at the Tillydrone Campus giving out our P7 Leavers’ Hoodies. Something, that for quite a while, we thought might not happen, due to Covid19 and the lockdown. I’m sure our P7s will look smart in their hoodies.

Mrs Ironside has been keeping up a constant stream of information for staff, pupils and parents. This is a really difficult job given how many changes she has had to cope with and how often they have occurred. I wouldn’t have her job for all the tea in China.

As we head towards the holidays next Friday, we will keep you up-to-date with any news about returning to school.

Despite all that’s happened, I have still been able to pull together our usual wide range of items for our weekly showcase. So, let’s get started!

The first contributions come from Mrs Spry’s and Mrs Ng’s P6N. Suzanne, Sophie and Ksawery, carried out some mosaic art.

Ksawery used his mosaics to construct a lovely house.
Sophie provided some lovely mosaic art work.
Suzanne’s mosaic was of a lovely flower in a flowerpot.

 

Our second contributions come from P6P, Mr Probart’s class. Aimi was looking at the famous Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh and Majka was looking at the work of Pablo Picasso. Majka did her art work as a collage and said how difficult it was. I think she’s made a pretty good job of it!

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Our third contributions come from Mr Duarte’s P3D class. The pupils in this class have been working on a mini topic on pirates. Let’s show case their work now!

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Next up we have P5B, Miss Bush’s class who have provided us with a range of items.

We have some lovely art work made from circles. We also have some Rainbow time activity work on what makes a happy house.

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We also have an animal fact file. Animal fact file

Work from a young lady on what makes a happy place for her. My Happy Place

And lastly from P5B we have a lovely review, from one pupil, on the work they have covered in RME.

For our next class, we have Mrs Stephenson’s P4U. They were participating in Art with Rob, who was teaching them how to draw owls. Some of these were pretty good!

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Next we have an array, from P1A, Mrs Arqued’s class, on ‘Thinks That Make Me Happy!’

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The class also carried out work on creating lapbooks. The children were supported by adults, at home, in producing a short book or lapbook on their favourite animal. We have giraffes, butterflies and dogs for a start!

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We also some lovely work on describing animals. Anastasia’s animal adjectives

They have been very busy in P1A because they also designed some posters to help with their tricky words!

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Next we have the work of P3C – Miss Cody’s class. The class have been working on making estimates of how long a tasks might take. They then learned how to use a stopwatch to find out how long it actually took.

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The class were reading the book Winnie Goes Batty and they enjoyed making headdresses for Wilbur…and themselves. They also looked at gathering information and making bar charts.

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And the headdresses!

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Mrs Smith’s pupils have been taking part in Virtual Sports Day. Mr Flanagan recommended the virtual sports day where the pupils carry out a different event each day.

We have a young man taking part in the bottle toss challenge.

The second event involves jumping over a given line from side to side and to try and get as many jumps as you can in 30secs. Here we can see a young man tackling the challenge.

The boys in the class were also carrying out work on 3D shape.

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Miss Moreton’s Primary 3F class have sent their work on newspaper reporting. They were tasked with providing news which wasn’t all doom and gloom but it was about spreading Good News! Their news items were to bring a little hope and happiness to everyone.

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As always Miss Howarth has sent on Miss Coyle’s class work, that of P1C. This week they have designed their own school badge since all school is at home now. They took part in building a strong bridge challenge, Trick Word work, Phonic Sounds work plus a 3D shape challenge.

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We also had one particularly busy young lady who had learned how to sign happy and sad in Makaton and she also composed her own music from the virtual music room.

Finally, our very own Mr Flanagan shared with his class something he saw when he went out for his daily walk. it looks great. Fantastic nature seen on our doorstep.

So here we are again….at the end of another week and we have seen some lovely work from throughout the school.

One week to go and I hope I’ll have some last things to share with you before the holidays!

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.