School Newsletter - Danestone Primary School

School Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 7 March 2015
On Friday the 27th of March some
Primary 7s and some Primary 3/4 ‘s
took part in the annual Scottish
Country Dancing Competition at
the Music Hall.
Firstly, the P3/4 dancing after
school club, taught by Miss Blair,
took part in a non competitive
section where they had to perform
a display. They all danced very
well and the children came off
saying “When can we do that
again?”
Later that day, the Primary 7
dancing team took part in 3
different sections where they won
the trophy each time!
Mrs Nicholson, a retired PE teacher
spent many hours expertly
coaching this team to become the
most successful primary school
team in the festival.
Well done to all the children who
danced so beautifully at the
competition.
March 2015
Fyvie Castle 783 Points
Dunnottar Castle 768 Points
Kildrummy Castle 652 Points
Castle Fraser 614 Points
Drum Castle 585 Points
Crathes Castle 551Points
Danestone P7 Scottish Country Dancing
Team who won all three competitions
P7 Visit Edinburgh Zoo to
Launch Their Online Game
On the 3rd of March 2015 the Primary 7s went to at conference at Edinburgh Zoo to give a talk about our
Online Panda Game. Not only did we get to speak at the conference, we also got to view new education
resources. However ,the best part was looking around the zoo! We got to see many exciting animals such as
koalas, the pandas, tigers and the penguins. It was such a fun day and it was amazing to see all the animals
and also the other schools creations. We can’t wait for the game to be on the website.
Headteacher - George Roberts
This month, Primary
2 and Primary 3
went on a Bible Traveller’s trip at Saint
Columba’s Church!
We went prepared
with our time travel- Bible Travellers
Time Machine
ler helmets and had
great fun learning about different
bible stories. When we were there
we met a ‘nutty’ professor who
had a time machine. It was
powered by baked beans! When
we went back in time we met
different people for example
Joshua who we marched with
around the Walls of Jericho, a fish
who told us about Jonah and the
whale, and the inn keeper who
quizzed us about the story of
Christmas! We had a great
afternoon and had lots of fun!
School News Letter
Primary 2 have been learning
about Chinese New Year!
We have been working hard with Miss Martin to put on a show about
the Chinese Zodiac. In our show we had 13 different animals, a Jade
Emperor and a Buddha. Everyone tried hard to learn their lines and
make masks to perform to several other primary schools across Scotland in our shared learning space. We even performed our show at
assembly and you might even have seen us on Open Day! We had
great fun performing and showcasing our learning.
Primary 7 have begun their
project learning about cars as we
prepare to take part in a primary
schools’ go-kart race weekend in
June.
Firstly we had to develop our
science and engineering skills
before we work on the cars. So
far we have learnt about air
resistance which we have really
enjoyed.
We will soon start
working on designing and racing
the cars. We are really lucky that
we have an Engineering student
who comes in to help us. We
can’t wait to learn more and race
the cars in June.
Science in Primary 1 & Primary 1/2
Lyn Strachan, from BP, came into Primary 1 and Primary 1/2 on Friday 27th March to teach a Science lesson
on ‘Opposites’. We talked about hot being the opposite of cold and what kind of clothing we would wear in
a very cold place, like an oil rig. Lyn then showed us a box of different types of gloves. We really enjoyed
trying on the gloves and finding out what they were all used for. We would like to thank Lyn for a great
morning and we hope to have her back again.
Reviewing our Curriculum
Miss Beattie & Miss Blair lead the
whole staff through a review of
best practice in teaching science at
Danestone Primary School.
1+2 Language Learning: Chinese
Language & Culture
Oldmachar ASG HTs met to discuss
joint approaches to teaching
Mandarin in our schools.
Ms Wenfeng Guo, OIdmachar
Academy’s very first Mandarin
teacher started work this month.
This means that our pupils who are
learning Mandarin will have the
opportunity to continue their
studies ,hopefully to examination
levels.
Establishing Robust Assessment
Moderation Across Our ASG
The ASG working groups
continued in their liaison across the
ASG schools. The inter-school
working groups had their 5th
meeting of this session
Technology Enhanced
Professional Learning
(TePL) Project
Both the teachers and the PSA
team undertook two iPad training
sessions to learn about new apps,
that can support their teaching in
class.
Miss Petrie & Miss Bruce have been
working closely with Adrian, the
creator of the Marvellous Me app.
They have undertaken some trials in
their classes. Adrian will visit school
early next term to role out the use
of this app across all classes.
Primary 7’s
Enterprise
By Jodie Allan
Notices
~~~
Monday 20th April
BACK TO SCHOOL
~~~
Friday 1st May
InIn-service day
SCHOOL CLOSED TO
PUPILS
~~~
Monday 4th May
LOCAL HOLIDAY
SCHOOL CLOSED
Headteacher - George Roberts
Horticulture with Duthie Park Experts
On Friday the 20th of March P7 had visitors from
the Duthie Park. They came to teach us about
plants and how to grow sunflowers. We all
went down to the outdoor classroom (which
used to be the wildlife
garden). We each
planted seeds and were allowed to take some
home to look after by ourselves. We were
shown how to use old bottles to make mini
greenhouses, to help the sunflowers grow.
The Duthie Park staff asked us to keep them informed of how our
sunflowers are growing, so we have to take photographs and
measure them. Once our sunflowers have grown we are going to go
to the Duthie Park to plant them for everyone else to see.
We can’t wait!
For the past eight weeks, every
Monday afternoon, primary seven
have been taking part in an
enterprise project to help us
understand how a business
works and to encourage us to
make business decisions. The
project has been run by a
teacher called Mr.Cassells.
So far we have been put into
groups, come up with a name,
designed a personal logo and
designed webpages for
our business!
It has been a very interesting
project and we have
learnt so much.
School News Letter
By Natasha Qureshi P7
This year Primary 7 have been
learning about World War One.
To help us expand our
knowledge we had visitors come
to talk to us and we went on
many of trips!
We worked with Marie who is a
drama specialist. Marie told us
about entertainment during
world war one and helped us
make our own silent movies.
Our movies were shown in the
Maritime Museum as part of the
“Working Life to War Life” Exhibit.
To launch the exhibition, 2
children (Katie Blair and Natasha
Qureshi) were chosen to go to
the Maritime Museum to talk
about our project.
The whole class was invited to
see the exhibit later in the week
which was very interesting.
We all had so much fun and we
hope we get another experience
like this again.
A couple of weeks ago
Primary Two received a
strange letter. It was
from a caveman called
Tog! We had lots of
P2 made their own caves out of clay
questions for him so we decided to
build a time machine to send him some letters back. Since then we have
learnt a bit more about what cavemen looked like and where they lived.
We have been designing and building our own caves in the classroom
and can’t wait to send Tog some photographs! We love playing in our
role-play cave and imagining what
life would have been like for Tog,
comparing it to our own.
MarvellousMe is an app that
aims to share with parents what
their children do at school
Open Day
On Tuesday the 10th of March, it
was Danestone’s Open Day.
There were lots of stalls in the hall
like a raffle, the bottle stall and the
eco committee’s stall. Also Tesco
came and so did Waste Aware.
In the red quiet room the tech
team did a master class to teach
parents/grandparents how to
turn on iPad’s, how to download
apps and much more! All of the
classes shared their learning with
our visitors.
Primary 7 did a fantastic job of
welcoming everyone into school
and showing them where to go.
It was a very successful day and
everyone had fun.
Thank you to everyone who was
able to come along and share in
our day.
We were very
honoured that the Lord Provost
took time out of his busy schedule
to visit Danestone.
Portia Miller, from P7, was asked
to show him around. The Lord
Provost was so impressed by
Portia’s skills that he took the time
to personally write to thank her.
By Alex P7
Danestone primary school’s
Primary 7 entered an online maths
competition and out of the whole
of Aberdeen Primary 7 came 3rd!
Sumdog is an educational game
which helps you improve at
adding, multiplying and
subtracting.
Sumdog is very
helpful for mental maths skills and
fun at the same time! We took
part in the competition at home
and in school. Coming 3rd in the
whole city is a huge achievement
for Danestone Primary and
everyone who took part should
be proud of their achievements.
Every year there
is an Aberdeen
Primary Schools
Rotary
Q u iz
competition. A
few weeks before the first
round, Primary 7
picked a team to compete in the
quiz. The team was: Alex Mckimmie,
Zara Begg, Kirsten Jessiman, Marcus
Macbeath and Jodie Allan.
On the night of the quiz, the team
went to Oldmachar Academy.
There were 7 teams all from the
Bridge of Don area. The quiz had 8
rounds with 7 questions a round.
Each round was a different
category with a variety of questions.
It was fairly equal all the way
through the competition until we
eventually took the lead on the last
round where we won by 4 points!
We are thoroughly looking forward
to competing in the next round
across Aberdeen city.
Our school website is in the process of being updated! Currently on the website you can find up-todate newsletters, school dinner menus and the latest whole school news. We hope to add much
more to our website including class pages! If you have any suggestions or notice that we have
missed something, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Miss Imrie via the school office.
Headteacher - George Roberts
It’s a simple and effective tool to help
teachers and parents (or carers) to
work closer together to improve
children’s learning and life skills.
School staff can simply post
comments, photos or, even short
video clips of a pupils learning for
their parents to see.
This means that rather than having
the ‘what did you do today?’
conversations which most of the
time get answered with ‘not much’,
parents will be able to engage their
child in conversations around actual
things they have done ‘I saw that
you were learning about gravity
today; that experiment looked really
interesting, how did it work?’
We know that parental
engagement in the educational
development of their children
improves attainment more than
any other single factor. Parents
can help their child the most by
having regular and meaningful
conversations with them, by
setting high aspirations and by
demonstrating their own interest
in and support of learning at
home and at school.
We are hoping that the role out
of MarvellousMe over next term
will enable us to be completely
ready to use it across the whole
school for August 2015.
There will be a drop in session
from 9:00am - 10:30am on
Wednesday 22nd of April for any
parent who wants to see the app.
Danestone Primary School
Fairview Brae
Danestone
Tel: 01224 825062
Fax: 01224 707796
School News Letter
Stirling Trip Extra
P5 & P6 Residential Trip Newsletter Special
It’s finally Stirling time!
By Erin Stables
Finally the day we had all been eagerly anticipating came! Everyone
was so excited as we waited for the bus. Everyone clambered onto the
bus, saying ‘bye bye’ to the Mums and Dads and teachers. We had to
take a quick toilet break in Dundee but then were back on the road.
Eventually we got to Stirling Castle.
By Max Cheung and Erin Crockett
We got to sit at the banquet table in the
great hall. When this hall was built it was the
biggest hall in Scotland
King James V told the story of the type of king
he wanted to be on this roof.
The best way to see the wonderful carvings
on the roof was to lie down on the floor.
Every carving told part of the story.
By Sophie Anderson and Amy Robertson
Queen had people in the room,
they couldn’t turn their back to her
so they had to step backwards and
sideways. In the king’s chamber
there were lots of embossed
carvings on the roof. They told the
story of the type of King James V
wanted to be.
Some Harry Potter fans in our class
got very excited when they saw a
tapestry on the wall whichwas
used in ‘Harry Potter and the Half
Blood Prince’!
As soon as we arrived in Stirling we
went to Stirling Castle Our group
started at the cannons. What a
spectacular view! We could see
everything! Then we went to the
dark, scary dungeons. We also
went to see the Great Hall where
there was a long table with two
posh chairs which we could sit on.
Near the Great Hall, in the Queen’s
room, we learned that when the
Stirling Castle with the river forth
in the foreground.
We learnt that building
Stirling castle on the hill was so it could be
better defended and that they could see any
attacking armies approach.
Headteacher - George Roberts
Stirling Smith’s Museum was our second visit.
We had a wonderful tour guide who showed
us lots of interesting things.
Stirling Smith’s Museum owns the worlds
oldest football. It sometimes is given out
on loan and put on show at world cups.
By Chloe Forrest
We then found out that the
museum has the oldest football in
the world, belonging to the
Queen! David (the man who was
showing us around) then told us a
story about a little boy who got a
bone stuck in his throat.
As the day continued, our next
stop was the Smith Museum
where we learned a lot. When
everyone entered, we sat down,
surrounded by stitched tapestries
and they were extraordinary!
Some were very expensive to buy.
The very second I got my first
glimpse of the room, I was
astonished at the quality of the soft
bunk beds that swallow you in!
The only bad thing was the shelf
above the bed which a few people
kept bumping into! Everyone liked
being in the rooms because we
were with our friends. Once we
had settled into our rooms and
unpacked, we had a delicious
dinner of macaroni or steak pie to
prepare us for a walk and bowling.
Stirling Castle dungeon found a few
new residents… They didn't stay too
long as they plotted their escape…
on a bus back to Aberdeen!
School News Letter
We were shown how to assemble a shiltron
defence. We practised it on the spot that
Bruce camped on the first night of the battle.
Can you guess who Danestone’s
‘Black Douglas’ knight is… a clue… his
name is a good strong Scottish name!
Aidan led the English troops and Kian led
the Scots into the re-enactment of the actual
battle of Bannockburn.
By Callum, Matt, Andrew, Katie and Lewis
glasses and went into a 3D room.
We had to wear the 3D glasses
and we were in the middle of the
battle. We learned that all the
warriors that would have had to
fight were the cavalry, longbow
men, foot soldiers, crossbow men,
shiltrons/spearmen. After that we
watched a 3D film on Robert the
Bruce and Edward the 1st and it
was told from another person’s
view. After that we learnt about
the weapons they would of used.
There was a normal sword, long
sword, crossbow, long bows,
shields, hammers, battle axe, and
the spiky hammers.
Next we gamed with the battle
master. It was a game where the
English had to get to Stirling castle
and the Scottish had to defend
the castle. At the end the Scottish
won. We were glad we had
learnt so much at school before
we went as being battle masters
was quite difficult! We also had
the opportunity to go outside and
visit the actual spot Robert the
Bruce set up camp. It was a good
spot because he could see all
around him and he could even
see Stirling castle.
It was Thursday morning everyone
was asleep and it was all quiet up
until the fire alarm went off. We all
woke up and went out of our
rooms, down stairs and outside in
our pyjamas onto the concrete.
We were all out there for about
10 minutes and it was cold and
wet. We finally got back inside
and went up to our rooms even
though most of us were locked
out. So a man had to come and
open the doors. We got dressed
and went down to the cafeteria
for breakfast which was the choice
of bacon, scrambled egg, beans,
sausages, tomatoes, cereal and
toast. After breakfast we went
back up to our rooms to get some
things we needed, like money and
cameras. Then we finally headed
off to the Bannockburn centre.
At Bannockburn, we learned what
Robert the Bruce wore and what
Edward the 1st wore. Robert the
Bruce wore a cloak and a helmet
and Edward the 1st wore a purple
cloak and a helmet. We told the
lady all we knew about the Battle
of Bannock burn. We got 3D
Danestone’s Very own Wallace & Bruce
(AKA Lewis & Aidan) show off their
battle skills.
Going on safari!
Headteacher - George Roberts
We visited the Wallace Monument
on the Thursday afternoon.
When we got there, we had a big
hill to walk up. When we reached
the top of the hill we were all
amazed by the spectacular views
back into Stirling.
Within the monument we visited
each of the three floors where
there were lots of artefacts and
information about William Wallace
and other famous Scots.
Unfortunately we did not get to
go to the very top as this was
outside and it was far too windy.
The teachers were worried we
would blow away!
On Friday 27th March, the P5s and
P6s who didn’t go to Stirling went
to the Duthie Park.
They arrived at the park by bus and
met Colin, the park ranger who
organised the day for us. He gave
us a History of the Park tour and
we learned about the mound. The
mound is unique to the Duthie
Park and was made when
construction workers from around
the city decided to dump the earth
they dug up in the park.
Meet a tree
There was so much laughter when
Colin asked Mrs Bruce to volunteer
for an activity. Once Mrs Bruce and
Colin showed everyone what to do
we all got partners and had a turn.
We were blindfolded and spun
around. Then your partner had to
guide you to a tree. When you got
there you had to feel the different
by Hannah McKenzie, Craig Conway
and Erin Crockett
At 8 o’clock on the first evening, we
arrived at the bowling. It was so
m u c h f u n a n d g o t qu i t e
competitive! All we could see was
people having a laugh and getting
strikes! The scores were all very high
(Miss Beattie thought she was the
best but Finlay won overall with
116 points !). We all worked well in
our teams and helped each other.
We were all really tired by the end
and had eaten too many sweets so
it was time to walk back up to the
Youth Hostel and have a drink
before bed.
features of the tree like the bark,
branches, width and shoots. Then
you had to go back to where you
started, remove your blind fold and
guess which tree you ‘met’. After
that, we did a bark rubbing of our
tree.
Pond Dipping
It was such a beautiful day and the
sun was shining. After we watched
dogs swim in the lake we went to a
pond to explore. Colin gave us
nets, trays, magnifying glasses and
an insect answer key to identify the
bugs we caught. We caught a
variety of bugs from water spiders
to leaches! We also saw the park’s
first frog spawn of the year!
Time to go back to School
After a fun filled day of outdoor
learning, we headed back to
school on the bus for some party
snacks and golden time
School News Letter
Ms Black proves that the Flying Fox is for
children of all ages!
Written by P6P
Bleary eyed, the children got out of
bed on the final day of the trip and
jolted awake when they
remembered they were going to
Blair Drummond Safari Park. After a
delicious cooked breakfast they
jumped on to the bus which was
driven by the hilarious “Fingers”
who wore a silly hat. It took about
15-20 minutes to get to the Safari
Park and by the time they got
there everyone was buzzing with
excitement. The animals were
greeted with a stampede of eager
children who were armed with
their cameras.
Cheeky Chimps
Most of P5 and P6 visited Chimp
Island by boat. The boat was quite
fast and the lake was full of ducks.
When they got there, chimps of all
sizes were waiting. One adult
chimp picked up a piece of dirt
and started rolling it around like a
Maria Podoleanu and Kiera Connon
While the rest of P5 and P6 were
at Stirling, we stayed behind and
took part in some fun activities.
Firstly we went to Tesco to get all
the ingredients for our fantastical
smoothies. It was a long walk to
Tesco and back but it was worth it.
As all of us were chopping and
slicing all of the juicy fruits, we
didn’t even realise that we were
making the smoothies on the floor!
Headteacher - George Roberts
The boating lake was a highlight of the visit.
We all enjoyed bumping into each other.
snowball. When he finished he
picked it up and threw it. Everyone
screamed! Then he picked up a
piece of wood from the water and
launched it again but thankfully it
never hit anyone.
The Super Sea Lion Show
The sea lion show was fantastic! In
the show there was a sea lion and
seal. “You can tell the difference
because the seal is a lot smaller”
said the trainer. The trainers shared
information about their predators
such as orcas and sharks. P5 and
P6 found it very interesting
because the seal and sea lion then
showed everyone what they
would do if they met a predator.
The crowd gasped in awe when
they jumped through hoops,
balanced and clapped their hands.
I Believe I can fly
“The Flying Fox” is the name of a
zip wire that went over the lake
that the pedal boats sailed in. Everyone enjoyed it although it was
not as fast as people thought. Even
the teachers had a go! Mr Roberts
looked like he was having a whale
of a time.
We did manage to make them in
the end though and enjoyed
having them at break time. They
were
scrumptious!
After break, we did sculptures with
a theme of ‘school’. I did Mr
Roberts and the others made boys
and girls at tables. Mr Roberts’ foot
and leg fell off!
In the afternoon, we baked our
pizzas and ate them, they were
delicious! It was the perfect day!
We were all so impressed by the sea lions.
They were very entertaining!
A bumpy ride
Everyone was buzzing for a go on
the bumpy slide because they
decided to have a race. The
children (and the teachers!) got
into a carpet to whizz down the
slide. There was so much laughter,
it was awesome!
By Malaya and Lawrie
We started the day by helping Mrs
Kirkpartick in the library. We then
picked ourselves a new book. Then
we went on a website called
Scratch and made our own
animation. I made a unicorn and
made it say “hi my name is bubbles
the unicorn.” You could choose a
range of characters and
backgrounds and add extra things
like how to control your characters
and what you want them to do or
say. It was FUN!
After that we took a Minecraft
book out of the library and made
modals out of Lego. If you didn’t
want to do that you could make
On the Thursday evening we had
a wonderful theatre company
come to our hostel to share with
us their Horrible Histories of
Bannockburn stories. David &
Jackie are retired teachers who
now work with school groups
sharing some of the history you
don’t always find in school books.
A small group was picked to
A Very Big Thank You!
All of the pupils would like to
thank those who organised the
trip and made it an unforgettable
one. Firstly, thank you to Ms
Lamont and Mrs Stephen for
organising everything. Secondly,
thank you to Mr Roberts, Ms
Lamont, Miss Bruce, Miss Beattie,
Ms Black, Ms Crombie, and Mrs
Hampton for looking after
everyone and for joining in the
fun. The trip was incredible! We
will never forget Stirling and
learning about Wallace & Bruce.
Minecraft paper people. We also
had an opportunity to draw a
self-portrait. After we drew the
self-portraits we covered them with
coloured tissue paper and the put
water on them. When they were
dry they looked as though they
were stained. Then it was lunch.
After lunch it was movie time! We
voted for Over the Hedge which
was a comedy film about animals
trying to get food for the winter
and a raccoon who betrayed
them. Half way through the movie
we got popcorn and juice. And
then it was home time. Everyone
enjoyed the day. It was fun!
present the stories with them.
They had to go 45 minutes earlier
to learn the parts. The rest of us
got some time to relax in our
rooms.
The stories they told and the performances were brilliant. It was
the perfect way to end our last
night in our hostel.
School News Letter