Danestone Primary School Newsletter May 2015

School Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 8 May 2015
On Friday the 15th of May P7
officially launched their online
Mandarin & Chinese culture
learning game
“Ling Ging’s
adventure!”
In partnership with AVC media
and Edinburgh Zoo and both their
expert teams, it took over a year
from the initial ideas to having a
finished product ready to share
with the world.
At the launch there was representation from AVC media, Sandie
Robb from the RZSS, as well as the
press and some Danestone
parents.
The event started off with the MC’s
(Alex & Andrew) introducing
everybody. After that Sandie Robb
gave some background
information on the Panda project.
Next we had a speech from an
AVC representative. Finally we
By Cameron Black and Lawrie Ramsay
had a talk from Danestone pupils The game is available to play at:
about our part in the project. www.thepandagame.co.uk
Once it was finished there was tea
and coffee for everybody. We
would like to thank AVC media for
giving up loads of their time for us
and RZSS for the opportunity.
It was a great project!
On the 27th of May P6B visited
the University of Aberdeen to
listen to a lecture about ‘under the
sea’. We learnt about how they
get the oil out of the sea and how
they are searching for the missing
flight MH370. We also got to see
cool survey gear like drones and
3D laser scanning devices. We
listened to a talk by people who
work as a surveyor, engineer and
geophysicist. The geophysicist
wanted to be a space cowboy
before he was a geophysicist!
Sadly the MH370 plane has still
not been found! Everyone
thought that this trip was really
interesting!
Living
and
Growing
with Mrs Kerr
Dunnottar Castle team captains, Macy and Logan
are presented the sports day shield .
Dunnottar Castle team celebrate their 2015 sports day victory!
On Friday 22nd May we held our annual sports day.
The weather was kind enough to allow us to complete all our events. We spent the morning doing track
and field events before moving on to team challenges in the afternoon. We all had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed the competition and sportsmanship of being in our castle teams.
Congratulations go to Dunnottar Castle who were crowned 2015 champions!
Headteacher - George Roberts
In P7 we have been learning about
how babies are made and how
they are born. To help us learn a
little more about how to care for a
baby, Miss Blair invited Mrs Kerr in
with her son Logie and her
daughter Lyla.
Mrs Kerr showed us how to look
after a baby. She talked about how
to care for a baby and showed us
all the things you need to care for
a baby. We found out that it is a
lot of work! Some people got to
hold Logie and we loved seeing
Lyla too.
School News Letter
by Jonathan Pan
Armed Forces Day is to celebrate
all the armed forces, that’s the
Navy, the Air Force and the Army.
The competition was to design a
flag to celebrate the day. My
design was the British flag on the
left top corner and two
aeroplanes, one submarine, two
tanks and a mountain. I included
lots of detail and really liked my
design. I loved my British flag. I
got a £10 Hobbycraft gift card
because I was awarded 3rd place
in the competition! I really enjoyed
designing my flag and my mum
said it looked really good.
On Friday 8th of May we had BP in
to show us how solar panels work
and how energy is transferred
from one thing to another. We got
to use mini photovoltaic cells,
lamps, fans and buzzers to
experiment with energy.
We also learned about when solar
energy was first used by people
long, long ago. Thank you again to
Mrs Strachan and Mr Cheung for
coming in.
Headteacher - George Roberts
We were both proud and
delighted to hear recently of the
footballing success of former pupil
Dean Campbell.
Talented
footballer Dean was recently
selected to play for Scotland U14’s
and travelled to Holland in early
May to play against the Czech
Republic, Holland and Turkey.
Being selected at this level is a
wonderful achievement but in
addition, for the match against
Turkey, he was also chosen to
captain his country. Dean led out
his team with pride and sang his
heart out to Flower of Scotland.
Congratulations and well done
Dean!
On the sixth of May p3, p4 and p5
got to see a science show from
Generation Science. They taught
us about vibrations and how
vibrations make sounds. One of
the things that we saw was a
tuning stick and they asked for a
volunteer and Craig went up as a
volunteer. They took out a bowl of
water and put the tuning stick in it
then the water splashed all over
Craig because of the vibrations!!
We also learned about pitch and
volume through interactive
activities.
Dean’s success comes as no
surprise to those at Danestone.
During his time here, Dean shone
out as a very talented footballer,
representing the school and
playing for Aberdeen.
He is
currently at school at Hazelhead
Academy where he is part of the
Scottish Football Association
On the 1st of April, Primary 5 went
to Aberdeen University to take part
in many different workshops with
Primary 4 and 5 pupils from other
Aberdeen schools.
Rocket Cars – Ewan Lowe
This was an activity where we
pumped up a bottle with a hole in
the bottom and then put on the
wheels and let it go. It was a really
fun activity and we liked the style of
our car.
Fit Like – Sophie Anderson and
Zoe Taylor
At this workshop, we took part in
A m e r i c a n s p o rt s in c l u d in g
cheerleading, soccer and hockey.
In cheerleading, we learned how
to stand on each other and jump
off onto the ground, as well as
learning other cheerleading stunts.
For soccer, we had to practise
tackling each other.
Musical Journey – Abbie
McLeod
This workshop was based on the
theme of space. We made music
with many different instruments to
represent the planets. We enjoyed
performing to the rest of the group.
Gut Reactions – Lewis Bowman
and Ross Sleigh
At this workshop, we carried out
science experiments based on
digestion. We had to mush up
food and then squeeze it through
the digestive system (a pair of
tights) and it was disgusting! We
learned that saliva has enzymes in
it, that your small intestine is really
long and that there is strong acid in
your stomach. We enjoyed the
‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’
fun quiz.
Performance Programme.
We are always thrilled to hear
news of former pupils. Please email
school at
danestoneschool@
aberdeencity.gov.uk
if you have any good news to
share.
Storybird Writer – Erin Crockett
For this activity, we worked on the
computers at the University. First
you had to choose a style of picture
and decide whether you would
write a picture book or a chapter
book. We all enjoyed writing our
stories and adding pictures as we
went along. When the book was
finished, you could publish it and
some of us shared our books with
the rest of the group. We are now
enjoying using this programme to
write stories in class and at home.
Tom Thumb – Konrad
Rejmanowski
We explored the botanic garden
and sorted little figures of animals
based on where we thought they
would live. After that, we tried to fit
string around trees to measure
them and try to work out how old
they were. When we finished, we
tried to build a fire by looking for
different sized sticks.
School News Letter
We are delighted to have Mrs.
Sheila Lang join the staff team as
our new School Support Assistant,
working in the school office. Mrs
Lang will be working in the school
office on Thursdays and Fridays..
We are equally delighted to have
Mrs Susan McDonald join us as a
nursery nurse.
Her skills and
enthusiasm are a great asset to our
nursery team.
As we head towards the end of
the school year there are a few
staff changes for the new school
year.
Mrs Robertson has decided to take
a career break from teaching and
concentrate on family life. Mrs
Robertson has been a key member
of our teaching team for many
years and her knowledge, skills and
professionalism will be greatly
missed by us all.
Although she is going to be on a
career break she will not be a
stranger as she has agreed to
volunteer to be a helper on school
trips!
Miss Boyle, who joined us as a
student around 18 months ago
has fulfilled her probationary
period this last year. Sadly she is
moving back to Ireland. Miss Boyle
has provided her P1 class with a
wonderful first year in school. She
has also added great value to the
school and ASG development
work over the past year.
We will miss her very much, but
wish her every success in her
teaching career in Ireland.
Mr Murphy has also completed his
probationary teacher period and is
now a fully registered teacher. We
are delighted that he has secured a
permanent post with us at
Danestone Primary school.
Miss Imrie will leave us in June, but
thankfully will return in August as
Mrs Sayer. We wish her and her
future husband John our very best
wishes for their big day in July.
We have two new members of
staff joining us this summer. We
are delighted to have secured the
services of two highly regarded
teachers in Miss Katie Brown and
Miss Laura Paterson.
They will
both join our team for a three day
training course in the summer as
part of their induction process..
They will take up their teaching
commitment in August.
By Lana Morrison
In May P6 and P7 had a science
fair. We had been working on our
experiment at home for three
weeks and we made our science
boards at school.
On the day of the fair we finished
our boards and they were all very
good! Our boards were carried
through to the hall to be displayed
and the judges and parents came
and looked at our boards. At the
end the judges (Mr Chung and
Mrs Blair) announced the winners.
The P6 winner was Elise and the
P7 winners were Natasha, Kirsten
and Penny. Thank you to the
judges and all of the parents who
came to the science fair. We hop
you enjoyed seeing all of our
experiments!
Headteacher - George Roberts
Sophie & James try out our new benches that were paid for with the prize
money they won for the school last session.
We are the very proud owners of a class set of new benches in the
school wildlife garden. They were partially paid for with the
£500 James and Sophie A P5 won in a design a bird house
competition sponsored by JD Pipes Ltd
At Danestone, we strive to
maintain a secure and safe
environment for all of our children
and adults in school. We hope
parents and carers are confident
that procedures are in place to
support such an environment.
Children are supervised by Pupil
Support Assistants in the
playground during morning and
lunch breaks. Their role involves
supporting children in play,
treating any bumps and scrapes,
helping to sort out any
disagreements and ensuring the
environment is safe and secure.
This includes keeping a watchful
eye for any unknown adults
showing a high level of interest in
the children playing. From time to
time, parents visit the playground
at breaks (either on foot or stop
their cars) to watch their child play
or to hand over a forgotten snack
or book. Whilst we fully
understand the positive intentions
behind this, it can cause some
difficulty and anxiety for staff. Our
PSAs do not know every parent /
carer / grandparent or family car.
When they see an unknown
adult in the playground, or
beckoning to children from the
perimeter fence, or pointing from
a parked car, they have to spend
time trying to ascertain who that
adult is and / or reporting to
school management where appropriate. This in turn, takes time
away from interacting with and
supporting the children.
Please can we respectfully request
that if you have any item to pass
to your child, you do so via the
school office or, if there is a
genuine need for you to be in the
playground at a break time, you
identify yourself to school staff
from the outset. Thank you for
your continued support.
Once again we have a group of
children and staff from P4 and P7
participating in the Scottish Survey
of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN).
This is an annual sample survey
which monitors national
performance in literacy and
numeracy in alternate years, for
school children at P4, P7 and S2.
The focus for this year is
NUMERACY. Findings from the
survey are also used to create
resources for teachers to help
improvements in learning,
teaching and assessment in the
classroom.
The SSLN was developed to
support assessment approaches
for Curriculum for Excellence (CfE)
and is a joint venture between the
Scottish Government, Education
Scotland and the Scottish
Qualifications Authority. The
survey consists of a set of written
and practical assessments and
questionnaires for both pupils and
teachers. Approximately 11,000
pupils and 5,000 teachers from
across Scotland participate in the
SSLN. Thank you, and well done,
to the group of Danestone pupils
who have participated in this
survey.
By Callum Duncan
On the 13th of May Danestone
and Middleton Park’s P6s and P7s
went to Oldmacher Academy for
a hockey festival. First everyone
got into 4 big groups, each group
had a station, there was dribbling,
shooting, passing and tackling.
Each group got 3 minutes at a
station. When every group had
visited each station we stopped for
a break.
After the break the same groups
all split into 4 teams. Each match
each was 5 minutes. We got to
practise the skills we had learned
at the stations. Both schools got
together for a big photograph.
We all really enjoyed the festival!
School News Letter
Oldmachar
Academy
Transition
Writing Project
By Portia Miller p7
It is all go in the Nursery just now!
Our theme has been, PEOPLE
WHO HELP US and we have had
a lot of visitors! Each class has had
a visit from a Police Officer, a Nurse
and the Dental Nurse. It has been
such an exciting time. Our visitors
have been wonderful. They have
let the children try out various
pieces of equipment, try on items
from their different uniforms and
answered endless questions!! A big
By Kian Guyan
On the 5th of
May, Seb, our
police liaison
officer came to
Danestone to
talk to both p6
classes about
cyber bullying.
We watched a
video clip of a boy who logged
into a social media site and lied
about his age and posted his
home address. We learnt how
dangerous this is. We also chatted
about telling adults if we were ever
to make similar mistakes.
During Seb’s second visit we talked
about emergency situations,
whether you would call 999 or
101. 999 is for life threatening
situations and 101 is used if it’s a
non-emergency, for example, if
your bike had been stolen.
We found this work really
interesting and we came up with
some tips:
thank you to all our visitors from
the staff and the children.
We are getting excited about our
trip to The Den and The Glen. We
just hope that it is going to be a
nice day.
Our pre-school children are very
excited about going into P1. They
have started their visits to P1 and
have also been attending
Assembly, when possible. Can you
believe your little ones are soon to
be the new P1’s?
by Nicola Han and Sophie Karim
• To stay safe online you should
not share your personal
information with people you
don’t know.
• You should use social media
responsibly, not for bullying
people.
• If you are bullied online you
should tell an adult like your
parents or your teacher.
• You should call 999 if it is a life
threatening situation eg an
accident.
• You should call 101 if it is a
non-emergency eg your bike has
been stolen.
We are learning about ‘Needs and Wants’
so we went on a walk around our
community to see how our needs and
wants are met. We walked past the police
station, the church, the community centre,
the doctors, Step by Step nursery, the
church, the care home, and people’s
houses. There were lots of different types of
houses. We even saw high rise flats in the
distance. We were separated into groups
and answered
a
quiz
while
we
walked. There were
clues and we had to
find the places that were the answers. When we
came back we made our own maps of
Danestone. We liked it so so so much!!!
Danestone
2015 Castle
Captains
Crathes Castle
Khushi Kohli and Liam May (P6)
By Sebastian P7
The primary 3 – 7 classes were
given the opportunity to take part
in four interesting PE lessons from
RGU students.
On week one we learnt basketball.
We all got taught the passes and
how to shoot. We all had fun and
at the end we played a game of
basketball.
On week two we learnt
badminton. We all got taught how
Headteacher - George Roberts
For the past 3 weeks Primary 7
have been going up to Oldmachar
Academy for some lessons. We
have been working with the
English teacher Mr Brown on a
passage called “Smart ice cream”
by Paul Jennings. For this reading
work we looked at the passage
and made a poster about it. On the
poster we had to use a strategy
called PEE P-Point E-Example
E-Evidence
Using this strategy we had to make
a poster using a different main
theme from the story. We have also
written an essay on the perspective
of a character called Jerome from
the story. It has been quite
challenging but we have enjoyed
the lessons.
to serve and we played a fun
game of badminton.
On week three we learnt how to
play tennis. We were taught how
to serve and we played a fun
game of tennis.
On week 4 the coaches from RGU
came in to class to help us think
about nutrition.
We would like to thank the RGU
students for their brilliant lessons
where we learned so much.
Dunnotar Castle
Logan Mann and Macy Gibson
Castle Fraser
Zara Begg and Marcus Macbeath
Kildrummy Castle
Connor Cadger and Penny Milnes
Fyvie Castle
Portia Miller and Jay Biggerstaff
Drum Castle
Eve Alexander and Hewitt Duncan
Grove Nursery
Eco Trip
We went to Grove Nursery and
planted hanging baskets. They are
going to go on Union Street in
three or four months.
We met an expert called Terry
and he helped us make our
baskets! We went in a big green
house which was very hot inside.
We had lots of fun! We got really
messy with the soil and learnt the
names of the beautiful plants.
We all had a fun time!
Danestone Primary School
Fairview Brae
Danestone
Tel: 01224 825062
Fax: 01224 707796
School News Letter
Oldmachar ASG
Head Teacher Visit to China
Developing links and partnerships to support our Mandarin development work
On the day
we arrived in
China
we
were invited
to
have
dinner
with
John Somers,
the
First
Secretary
(Scottish
Affairs) form
John Somers, the
First Secretary
the
British
(Scottish Affairs)
Embassy.
form the British Embassy
John spoke to
us about the importance of
developing the next Scottish
generation of young adults to be
globally aware. He reinforced the
benefits of speaking Mandarin and
the opportunities for employment
that it will bring. He commended
our ASG for the work we were
doing in this area and pledged his
personal support if we required it.
The Hanban is the Chinese
Education Commission and it
provides Aberdeen with two
teachers every year to support our
Mandarin
development work.
We visited their headquarters to
formally show our gratitude for
their support and the teachers they
provide. They were delighted to
receive us and representatives took
us around their museum area
where we were able to learn about
a number of the 56 different ethnic
groups that make up China. We
also got to try on some wonderful
traditional dress costumes. It is such
a pity their headquarters are 5000
miles away as it would be a
wonderful class trip for our pupils!
Headteacher - George Roberts
The Oldmachar ASG Head Teachers were
shown around the school by a very welcoming group of pupils.
We all participated in a Schools conference
where teaching methodologies and
possible partnerships were discussed
We visited a number of classes. This class is a
Mandarin class for pupils who do not speak
Mandarin as their first language.
Fang Cao Di International School
is an eight campus school in
Beijing. Collectively the school has
around 10,000 pupils, but the
campus we visited had around
1500 pupils.
This campus
specialises in teaching Mandarin
as a second language. It has numerous nationalities amongst its
families as the Fang Cao Di area
has most of Beijing’s diplomatic
embassies and many international
companies.
We were given a tour by a group
of eight pupils, two of which were
Scottish and were extremely
proud to have a Scottish
delegation visit their school.
We were invited to attend classes
across the school to observe how
pupils were being taught. Seeing
how their pupils were learning
Mandarin as a second language
was very useful for the whole
delegation as all of our schools are
teaching Mandarin as a second
language.
In the afternoon we had the
opportunity to present our
Oldmachar ASG work at an
international conference.
Afterwards we had a very
Interesting business meeting with
the Head Teacher of the school, a
teacher training company
executive and a number of other
related professionals where we
discussed ways in which our
teachers in Aberdeen and their
teachers in Beijing could develop
their teaching skills together. This
will need further discussion but it
looks to have great potential.
In ancient China the judge would show
his judgement by using a coloured paddle.
A red paddle was life in prison… a black
was a death sentence!
Wuhan University is a partner
university with the University of
Aberdeen. Both universities are
developing joint courses where
you study at one university for
three years and the other for one
year. These courses are already
very popular with Chinese
students and are gaining
popularity with Aberdeen
students. I would hope that in the
future some of our pupils who
have been studying Mandarin
throughout their school career
would consider one of these
university courses. It would be a
wonderful opportunity to take
their Mandarin skills to a very high
level.
We visited the university and met
a number of staff who we work
with (via email, skype calls etc.)
We met two of the students who
will be working in Aberdeen next
Wuhan Univeristiy has over 50,000 students.
Its campus is said to be one of the most
beautiful in China.
year. They will be working in our
schools to support our pupils with
their Mandarin writing.
Wuhan University students were
our guides and interpreters
throughout our trip. They were
wonderful ambassadors for their
University and their Country.
Without them I think I might still
be sitting in Beijing airport!
School News Letter
Mr Roberts was asked to participate in a
The Oldmachar ASG Head Teachers went to
Taigu County Middle School where we were martial arts display, but needed two teachers
to get even the easy bits right!
shown a wide range of pupil work.
Taigu County, Shanxi Province is
approximately 550km south-west
of Beijing. This province, even
with its proximity to Beijing, is still
relatively undeveloped.
The
economic activity in the Taigu area
is primarily agricultural, and heavy
steel works.
We visited two schools in this area.
The first school had never had an
international delegation visit
before and were delighted to
have us visit. We were given a
wonderful gala performance of
physical education, martial arts,
expressive arts and local cultural
activities. We were also shown
some wonderful examples of the
pupils work.
We were invited to take part in a
number of activities which was an
amazing experience. I now know
that that my martial arts skills are
extremely lacking. I am going to
have to work hard on my
coordination and my lefts and
rights!
This school is working with one of
our Chinese partners to develop
their learning and teaching skills.
We had some very interesting
discussions and were able to give
some advice on what
developments they may want to
focus on. We offered to help
them with their future staff
development programme by
sharing our knowledge, resources
and experiences.
With the
support of our Chinese partners
there may be opportunities for
some of their staff to visit
A b e r de en t o
un d ert a k e
professional studies in our schools.
They would get the opportunity to
observe our teachers’ practice
and to participate in some team
teaching activities.
The second school we visited was
the Middle School of Taigu
County. This is the equivalent of a
junior high school in Scotland.
The pupils were 11-16 years old.
This school had over 8000 pupils,
many of them boarded at the
Headteacher - George Roberts
school as they lived in rural areas
which were too far away to travel
to daily.
We observed an English class,
with approximately 50-60 pupils.
The pupils were very attentive and
focused on their learning. They
were happy to talk to us in English
and were very apt at making out
what we were trying to say in
We observed an English class. The pupils
were very keen to talk to us in English and
practise their skills.
our very poor Mandarin! This was
an extremely interesting visit as the
methods of teaching
(group work, discussion work,
pupil lead learning etc.) that we
use in Scotland were being used
in this class. The head teacher was
very keen to develop a wide range
of teaching methodology as he
was seeing very good results
across his school.
CCNU Primary School is part of the university
and is on the university campus.
The school has approximately 1500 pupils
who are children of either students or staff
at the university.
Central China Normal University
has well over 40000 students. It is
so big it has its own primary school
for the children of students and
staff. The ‘normal’ part of the
university name intrigued me. In
China there are ‘normal’
universities and ‘experimental’
universities.
The experimental
universities are tasked with
developing new methods of
working as a university both in
their
governance and in
their course delivery. The normal
universities follow a more
traditional university structure.
CCNU Primary is on the university
campus, but a new school will be
built in 2016 which is just off
campus.
The school has
approximately 1500 primary pupils.
As part of my visit I was invited to
be attend a number of classes. I
observed two excellent English
lessons. I was very impressed with
the standard of English and the
speed at which the teachers were
teaching and the pupils were
learning.
I also took part in a calligraphy
lesson.
It was a wonderful
experience. I loved taking part; I
was really getting into it, even
though the class of eight year olds
were streets ahead of me in their
skills!
The school shared an assembly
with a number of classes
performing areas of their learning.
I was captivated by two P6 boys
who programmed a small robot to
do a martial arts routine which
they did, with their robot to music.
It was an amazing piece of
learning and their presentation
skills were excellent.
I spent some time at lunchtime
meeting pupils and parents. The
When Chinese pupils learn
Mandarin characters they practice
them many times until they are
able to write them from memory.
They will start, the same way our
pupils do, by forming the
characters on special lined paper,
but when they get to be skilled
they may use calligraphy brushes
and form the characters
freehand.
Mr Roberts was presented with a friendship
calligraphy from the Head Teacher of CCNU
Primary School.
head teacher had only started at
the school two days before so he
was keen to meet the pupils too.
We both spent time chatting to
them. My interpreter was able to
tell me that there were many pupil
conversations around the fact that
we were both head teachers, but
which one was the new CCNU
head teacher…? The answer in
most cases was simple… the one
not wearing a skirt was their head
teacher!
One of my first
collaborative tasks is to develop a
presentation on Scottish traditional
dress, in particular the kilt!
School News Letter