Hello everyone, and a happy Tuesday to you all!

We hope you are enjoying your home learning today! Here is Tuesday’s update.

To follow up our extremely successful Sports Day, we have another school House Event tomorrow! Mr Paton and Miss Blair have organised a Scavenger Hunt! Please see below for a letter with details of the event, and look out for a Scavenger Hunt record sheet on the website tomorrow at 9am.

Broughton Scavenger Hunt Letter- June 2020

Also today, we’d like to share some information from Mr Horan, and the latest Living Streets Scotland focus.
This week’s activity on our updated #walkingfromhome page is encouraging everyone to Embrace. While we can’t embrace each other physically we can still embrace ideas that bring us together and the special things that make us unique.

You can encourage your school children to walk for 20 minutes every day as part of their daily exercise and see what benefits they experience with our activities.

https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/5313/embrace-final.pdf

Please continue to share your thoughts, snaps and videos with us by email or on social media #walkingfromhome.

Happy Walking,

Living Streets Scotland Schools Team

 

Mr Horan also drew our attention to this BBC show, where some of the biggest names in the UK invite the audience into their homes as they become Celebrity Supply Teachers! Follow the link below to check it out.

Celebrity Supply Teachers

 

Finally today, we have received some useful safety information from the CEC Swimming Specialists Team, around open water swimming. Please see the post and links below.

We have been experiencing plenty of warm sunny weather recently with much more likely to come over the summer period. As lockdown measures start being relaxed we have noticed various incidents of children taking advantage of swimming in open water areas. Although this is allowed under the current guidelines there is a concern over safety. To this end we strongly recommend that children do not enter any open water unsupervised.

In normal circumstances we would discuss the importance of water safety during swimming lessons. As this is not possible at the moment, we have some online resources that we thought that you might find useful.

1. The Royal Life Saving Society has a Drowning Prevention Week on the 12th to 19th of June. The following link contains resources for this week. It has advice and simple rules to follow in different water environments. The most relevant ones are.
   Summer Water Safety
   Water Safety at Home
   The Water Safety Code
   Five Points for Open Water Swimming Safely
   Cold Water Shock – the facts1   https://www.rlss.org.uk/Pages/Category/water-safety-information
2. RNLI – this site has a wide range of child friendly resources.
   https://rnli.org/youth-education/education-resources
   Interactive Learning Section has some good activities where children decide what to do in different scenarios.
   https://rnli.org/youth-education/education-resources/online-learning
3. Canal River Trust. This is a child friendly resource. There are several resources for teachers and pupils on this site.
   https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers/water-safety
   The following link is for a downloadable board game
   https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/41677.pdf
   The following link is for a downloadable water safety pack aimed at 7 to 11-year olds
   https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/31120.pdf
   There is a simple online game which are informative and fun
   https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers/games/waterside-safety-challenge
4. ROSPA. A wide variety of resources for adults and children. There is a useful water safety quiz which could be completed with adult support.
   https://www.rospa.com/leisure-safety/Water/Advice/Children-Young-People/Water-Wise-Quiz.aspx

We hope that you find these resources useful!

That’s all for today’s post folks, enjoy the rest of your day, and we’re looking forward to the Scavenger Hunt tomorrow!

As always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn. Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

Miss Bradley has made a video of a virtual tour of our Nursery.

We hope new parents and carers find it informative and helpful!

Hello everyone, and a happy Friday to you all!

We’ve made it to the end of another week of home learning! Give yourselves a big pat on the back for all your hard work this week.

Our first update for today is an update  letter for parents and carers from Mrs Gowans, sent out today.

Head Teacher Update Letter- Friday 5th June

We launched ‘Broughton Reads’ at the start of the week, and we’ve seen some lovely examples of pupils and staff sharing their reading for enjoyment photos. Some are reading at lunch, some at ‘Drop everything and read’ time. We’ve gathered a selection in the slideshow below. These were shared through our Twitter feed, through Teams, or through emailing our staff. Don’t forget, our Broughton Reads focus lasts until the end of term, so there’s plenty of time to share a picture with us!

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Miss Bishop from LC1 has a message she’d like to share with you all-

When I was visiting out partner school, Mboreni Primary in Tanzania, I learned how to make Mendazi.  Mendazi are a bit like a doughnut, but not in that shape. The teachers used to have them every break time. I have attached the recipe so you can have a go at making some of the food they eat in Tanzania. The recipe makes a lot of mendazi, so you may want to make lots, or half the recipe. You might want to add your own toppings at the end. The recipe does include hot oil so please be careful, and enjoy your cooking!
Miss Bishop

Miss Bishop’s Mendazi recipe

After a successful trial with our P7s, our P6 teachers are planning to invite their pupils to ‘Group Call’ meetings through Teams next week. This will be introduced to our P5 and P4 pupils at soon too, so they can have the chance to talk to their teacher and a few classmates, at least once before we break up for summer holidays. Class teachers will send out information around this before they ‘meet’ the children, so look out for this!

Finally, have you seen this? Historic Environment Scotland have created an online resource which is a 3D virtual model of Edinburgh Castle! You can explore the world famous Scottish stronghold, and you’ll even get virtual access to parts of the castle that no visitors have been able to see for many years. Follow the link below-

Virtual Edinburgh Castle Tour

That’s all for today, and this week folks! Well done again, for all your hard work. Keep sharing your fantastic learning with us, and have a great weekend!

As always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

 

Hello all, and a happy Thursday to you all!

Here’s a wee video message from someone you may recognise…

 

As was mentioned in the video, you may remember we invited people to take part in our lockdown planting project back in May, and asked people to share their planting and growing stories with us. Here are some lovely photos shared by Adam in P1a- Adam’s Mum explains what they planted-

“With Adam we planted the seeds of a fresh tomato and a fresh pepper weeks ago, and tomato plants are growing really well…. peppers a lot more slowly!
We also planted some rocket in an egg box a couple of weeks ago.
Last year Adam received some sunflower seeds from Smart Cookies and as we planted them in autumn in a pot. We only had 1 small flower which gave us 2 seeds! We planted them weeks ago and they are growing really well, so hoping to get more seeds this year!”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thanks to Adam and his Mum for sharing this with us! We’d love to see more photos of other growing and planting stories!

We also have some BBC Bitesize resources to share, for those who have been using this site to help with home learning-

Daily Lessons Schedule

Upcoming Lessons

Bitesize Daily: Book Club Lessons

Bring The Noise: BBC Teach Music Lessons

BBC Bitesize: Primary Games

Please remember if you have anything you want to share with us here on the website, just ask! You can email us like Adam did, or share with us on Teams! We love to see what you’re up to.

Also, don’t forget to end us photos of your reading for enjoyment time, including your lunchtime reading pics too!

That’s all for today folks!

Don’t forget ‘Drop Everything and Read’ Time at 2.30pm!

As always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

 

 

Hello everyone, and a happy Wednesday to you all!

We hope you’re all well and enjoying today’s home learning.

Some Broughton Staff are attending the Hub school at Drummond today, so we’ve enjoyed catching up and seeing each other face to face!

Our first update today, is another fab wellbeing resource from Miss Clark. It’s a link to a resource from the Sesame Street website which has activities to support children’s wellbeing.

Sesame Street- Caring

Miss Bradley has some flyers to share. They give details about ‘Best Start Grants’, which can help eligible families with the costs of starting school or nursery. Details below.

Best Start Grant- Nursery Starter

Best Start Grant- P1 Starter

We’re delighted to share a link to a video from Mrs Howarth, one of our Nursery Staff. She keeps bees, and this video sees her tell a story about bees, followed by a look inside the beehives in her garden. It’s very interesting!

Busy Bees!

You may remember we shared a letter on Friday from Andy Gray, CEC Head of Schools.

This letter is now available in translations, listed below-

Letter to Parents ENGLISH

Letter to Parents ROMANIAN

Letter to Parents SPANISH

Letter to Parents TURKISH

Letter to Parents POLISH

Letter to Parents Chinese TRAD

Letter to Parents Chinese SIMP (mainland China)

Letter to Parents ARABIC

To finish our update today, we’re delighted to show some more lovely learning we’ve had shared with us through our Microsoft Teams pages. Today, Georgie in P3a shared some lovely photos with us- Georgie says,

“My caterpillars have had 3 days in their cocoons now! We’ve moved them into the butterfly habitat and they will come out as butterflies in 1-2 weeks!

Also, my beanstalk is 86cm tall now, it has 18 leaves too!

Well done and thanks for sharing Georgie! How exciting to be able to see these changes happen. You’ll need to keep us updated….

That’s all for today folks. Enjoy the rest of your day, and as always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

Hello everyone, and a happy Tuesday to you all!

We hope you are having a lovely day, and have managed to complete some of your home learning for today.

Our first update today is a message from Jennifer Longstaff, the chair of our Parent Council-

As we are now in the last month of the academic school year we are looking to host a virtual Parent Council meeting in the next couple of weeks, when the Senior Leadership Team may have some answers to your questions from the City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Government.

If you have a question you would like answered please complete the following form by Sunday 7th June https://forms.gle/Q5drduUYDfbV5ZFa7.
There is also an option here for you to nominate yourself for one of our Parent Council posts in 2020-21, which will be voted for in our AGM.

The June meeting will largely be based on the following agenda:
-Introductions and virtual meeting rules;
-A schools update by the Senior Leadership Team;
-Your questions to the Senior Leadership Team;
-A brief Chair’s report;
-A brief Treasurers report;
-Confirmation of dates for virtual AGM and PC meetings in the 2020-21 school year.

Our virtual meeting link will only be shared to those who notify us via the above form or at broughtonparents@gmail.com that they are wanting to attend, in order to keep the meeting secure. Date and form of meeting information will be shared once they are confirmed next week.

Many thanks

Jennifer Longstaff
PC Chair

 

We’d also like to remind you about ‘Broughton Reads’, launched by Mrs Gowans yesterday. We’d love you to share your photos of you reading for enjoyment- send us a photo of you reading while you have your lunch once a week, and don’t forget to ‘drop everything and read’ at 2.30pm each Thursday until the end of term! We’d also love to see you sharing your recommendations with us of things you’ve enjoyed reading. Reading for enjoyment can be books, comics, recipes, leaflets, instructions, online, all different sorts!

To finish today, we’ve had some lovely home learning shared with us! Afnan in P6 has been very creative. Here is a photo of her bright and colourful creation, which she has made by hand! She has made it as a memento of this time we are living through- what a great idea, and well done Afnan, thanks for sharing this with us through Teams!

If you share a photo of something you’re proud of on Teams, and would like us to share it on the website, do as Afnan did and just ask! We’re more than happy to promote and celebrate the creative home learning we know is happening every day!

That’s all for today folks! Enjoy the rest of your day, and always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

Hello everyone, and a happy Monday to you all!

We hope you all had the chance to enjoy some of the amazing weather at the weekend, and are ready for another week of home learning!

We’ve got something new to share with you, and Mrs Gowans is here to explain it to you!

 

Attached below is a letter from Mrs Gowans, explaining all the information around Broughton Reads for you all. There’s also a format you may want to use to record any texts you read this month, but your home learning jotter or another way is equally good. We’d love to hear all your recommendations for good reads, so we can all share them with each other!

Broughton Reads Letter- June 2020

Broughton Primary School-My Reading Log

 

Mr Horan also has the latest information from LivingStreets to share with us- see their message below-

This week’s activity on our updated #walkingfromhome page is encouraging everyone to Share, sometimes it is easier to walk and talk.

You can encourage your school children to walk for 20 minutes every day as part of their daily exercise and see what benefits they experience.  This week encourage your school children to talk about how they are feeling using our activities to make sharing fun and playful.  https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/5302/share-final.pdf.

Please continue to share your thoughts, snaps and videos with us by email or on social media #walkingfromhome. 

Happy Walking,

Living Streets Scotland Schools Team

 

That’s all for our update today folks. We hope you have a lovely day, and can enjoy some of the sunshine!

As always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

Please see below a letter for parents and carers, from Andy Gray, CEC Head of Schools-

 

Dear Parent/Carer,

I would firstly like to express my gratitude to all our children and young people for their understanding and fortitude during this unprecedented emergency. It must never be underestimated the disruption young people have endured as well as the additional burdens placed on families during this time.

Following the First Minister’s announcement last week of her ‘Routemap’ to releasing lockdown in four phases, and her confirmation yesterday that the first phase would commence today, we are aware this will raise many questions about exactly how and when children and young people will return to their school.

The City of Edinburgh Council is considering very carefully the arrangements for the safe return to what will be a very different school experience because of the need to maintain social distance. We also need to consider the arrangements for returning to school for children and young people for whom social distancing is not possible, both for those attending mainstream schools and those attending specialist provisions. For all children and young people, learning will involve a blend of home learning as well as in-school attendance.

The First Minister announced that all schools in Scotland will open on Tuesday 11th August 2020 for pupils. As schools in Edinburgh will open a week earlier than we had anticipated, we will need to adjust the published City of Edinburgh Council school session dates for 2020/2021, after consulting parents and staff.

You will be aware that our staff have been working extremely hard to support learning during this challenging period both in the busy key worker hubs, as well as supporting home learning. During June, we will all be working hard to implement the safest arrangements in our schools. Headteachers will be in contact with parents to provide clear details of how the blended learning model will operate in your child’s school as soon as possible. The Council is aware you will have a range of questions which may include issues such as school transport, SQA exams, transition arrangements, school meals, cleaning regimes, personal protective equipment, hand washing as well as precisely when your child will be expected to be in school and when they will be expected to be home learning.

School staff, council colleagues and partners are working together. Where possible, we will consult with parents and young people too, to refine and improve arrangements to ensure the health and safety of children and staff, at the same time providing the highest quality of learning and teaching possible.

In the meantime, support for the children of key workers continues. Parents are eligible for support where both are unable to provide or arrange alternative childcare and who are working directly to support the national effort to reduce Coronavirus. Arrangements are being made to offer support over the summer school holiday period which will be similar to what a was offered over Easter. Further information about applying for key worker support in mainstream schools over the summer holidays will be available on the council’s website by Friday 5th June 2020.

Supports for children affected by disability will be provided within identified special schools, working with a range of partners. Parents requiring Key Worker support will be contacted directly regarding arrangements for this provision. If you are a Key Worker requiring support for your child over summer and your child does not currently attend a special school hub, please contact the Headteacher of your child’s school in the first instance to make them aware of this.

I can assure you enormous effort is being made to ensure the arrangements will have the health and safety of your child at the heart of all we do and although school will look different in August, we very much look forward to welcoming your children back in the new school session. I will write again with more details as they become available.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Andy Gray

Head of Schools and Lifelong Learning

Hello everyone, and a happy sunny Friday to you all!

Well done for making it to the end of another lockdown week of home learning! You really are doing amazingly well to keep going with your tasks, and we are so happy to see so many of you sharing your work with us, and communicating with each other via Teams.

Today’s post begins with the hotly anticipated results of this week’s Sports Day! We were so impressed with how many of you took part and shared your pictures with us. Mrs Gowans has collected and counted the points up, and here are the results…

1st       Trinity with 9704 pts

2nd     Drummond with 8088 pts

3rd      Pilrig with 7598 pts

4th      McDonald with 7123 pts

Congratulations Trinity! Well done again to everyone for taking part! These points will be added to our year totals, and may make a big difference to the results of our House Shield winners for this year! We’ll see…

Mrs Martin has sent us another list of lovely Art ideas to share, and how appropriate, the theme is Sunshine! You can find them below.

Sunshine Art Ideas

If you have been visiting the BBC Bitesize website to view some of their lessons, please see the links below for schedules and previews of upcoming lesson themes, as well as a link to the site if you want to view previous lessons.

BBC Bitesize- Daily Lessons Schedule

BBC Bitesize- Daily Lesson Previews

BBC Bitesize Site

Finally, look out on Monday for information about the re-launch of ‘Broughton Reads’ and how we will be promoting reading for enjoyment in the last few weeks of school.

That’s all for today, and this week folks!

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend, and, as always, stay safe!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans

Hello everyone, and a happy Thursday to you all. It’s another beautiful day, so make sure to get some fresh air today if you can!

We’re still receiving your great photos of Sports Day. It’s been lovely to see so many of you taking part and having fun. See our most recent photos in the slideshow below, and don’t forget there are loads of photos in yesterday’s post if you want to catch up with them. Our school Twitter feed @Broughton_PS also has lots of Sports Day pictures and videos to see- thanks to Miss Wilson for keeping that up to date!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

We have another lovely resource from Miss Clark to share today. It’s from Childline, with loads of super ideas for helping children to feel calm. Perfect for P4-7 to work through independently.

Childline Calm Zone

From next week we will be re-launching ‘Broughton Reads.’ A letter with more information will be sent out on Monday. We are looking to promote reading for enjoyment over the coming weeks. We would also like as many families as possible to sign up to the Summer Reading Challenge. The theme this year is The Silly Squad! More information on this can be found at https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

Now that the whole school has been given access to Teams, the staff at Broughton are really enjoying seeing home learning being shared in this way, and having the chance to ‘chat’ with our pupils- it’s not the same as actually seeing you all in the flesh, but nice to have some contact! We hope you enjoy using Teams, and please remember we posted our support videos again on the website this week, so check them out if you are having trouble accessing Teams.

That’s all for today folks! Remember to stay safe in the sun!

Mrs Venn, Mr Borthwick, Miss Bradley and Mrs Gowans