We Are One
“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written.” Melody Beattie
Hogmanay is always a day filled with optimism and hope, and this year the weight of expectation was even more acute. As I watched the televised New Year celebrations (linked below), I found the drone display over Edinburgh particularly impressive and moving. The organisers had worked hard to reinvent the celebrations, whilst still achieving their goals and retaining the spirit of the traditional fireworks display. For me, this embodies the approach that we are taking as a school community — we are following the new restrictions and determined to play our part in keeping friends, families, and communities safe, but at the same time we are continuing to pursue our goals, albeit in creative and different ways.
The customary ‘Happy New Year’ message could have sounded rather hollow if it were not for the beaming faces, enthusiastic contributions, and all-round chattiness of our children, who have readily embraced learning in their online classrooms over the past few days. Indeed, it would have been easy to become disheartened as we started the new term, but as we have all told the children this week: we have done this before and we can certainly do it again. Pupils, teachers, and parents at St Leonards are resilient, dedicated, hardworking, imaginative, creative, positive, forward-looking and determined. It will take more than a new lockdown to dampen the spirits of our community!
Learning from home can be intense, lonely, and worrying, and so we are encouraging the children to remember that we are all here to support each other. Wherever possible, they should take this time to follow and discover passions — to build, create, bake, design, explore, craft, play, read, puzzle, imagine, act, investigate, ask questions, and discover answers. The televised Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations included a slogan of hope, ‘We Are One 2021’, in lights over South Queensferry, and this was a poignant reminder that we face the difficulties and challenges of this second surge of the coronavirus as a community rather than as individuals.
We are one, and, as one, will come through this as more resilient, adaptable, and open-minded individuals and be physically reunited as a school community. For now, let’s be kind to ourselves and to others, rise to the challenges of lockdown life, and stay positive as we look to the chapters that are yet to be written in 2021.
Miss C Boissiere, Head of Years 1-3
Year 1
Brilliant Bird Feeders
BRILLIANT BIRD FEEDERS | It can be difficult for birds to find enough food during the colder months of the year, and our pupils set to work to create bird feeders using apples and seeds. There were some brilliant bird feeders created by this week by the Year 1 pupils, their siblings, as well as the youngest key worker children. The children have hung up their feeders outside, and have been on the lookout for hungry visitors to their gardens!
Building Bug Hotels
BUILDING BUG HOTELS | Our Year 1 pupils have also been busy building bug hotels this week using natural materials. They are excited to see what bugs will seek refuge in their constructions over the coming weeks!
Year 2
Stunning Snow Globes
STUNNING SNOW GLOBES | This week, the Year 2 pupils created some stunning, three-dimensional snow globes in their Art lessons. It was wonderful to see the pupils express their creativity through this project!
Push and Pull
PUSH AND PULL | The Year 2 pupils have also enjoyed their new Unit of Inquiry, Simple Machines. They have been thinking about forces, and whether the forces they see around them are a 'push' or 'pull' force. The pupils went on a hunt around their local environment, and took photographs of the six simple machines that they will learn more about over the coming weeks.
Counting Coins
COUNTING COINS | The Year 2 pupils have been busy setting up shops this week. There were toy shops, book shops, and food shops. Playing shops requires a lot of mathematical skill - the pupils had to be able to recognise different coins and know their value, and identify the coins needed to create different amounts. Well done, Year 2!
Year 3
Investigating Electricity
INVESTIGATING ELECTRICITY | This week, Year 3 began their new Unit of Inquiry, investigating electricity. The class established the need for safety, before exploring indoor and outdoor environments to look for items that use electricity. The pupils then went onto consider the clues that electricity might be being used. We are excited to see where their explorations take them over the coming weeks!
Year 4
Sharing Session
SHARING SESSION | The Year 4 classes enjoyed getting together to share their resolutions for the new year. Special mention and a very warm welcome must go to Theo, who started at St Leonards this week. He was a risk-taker and shared his resolution with everyone else on the Meet.
The pupils also shared what they knew about 'light', which is the focus of their new Unit of Inquiry. The Year 4 pupils are already very knowledgeable about light and its properties, and are excited to take their learning further and make more connections to the world around them. Great work, Year 4!
Stunning Seating
STUNNING SEATING | Over the Christmas holidays, Harris created a stunning outdoor seating area so that his family could celebrate safely! Great work, Harris, and thanks for sharing this photograph with us.
Year 5
Studying Scotland
STUDYING SCOTLAND | Year 5 has adapted brilliantly to learning online, and have shown that they are able to take responsibility for their learning. The pupils have enjoyed the introduction to their new Unit of Inquiry which focuses on Scotland, and are excited to discover new things about the country that we live and learn in. Great work, Year 5 - keep up the enthusiasm!
Year 6
Lots of Learning
Lots of Learning | Miss Cormack, Mrs Fynn, and Mrs Bonner have been incredibly impressed with the enthusiastic and engaged attitude demonstrated by the Year 6 pupils, and have been proud of the way that they have settled into the new routines of St Leonards Connected. The pupils have been busy perfecting their multiplication, setting targets for the new term, and starting an exciting Unit of Inquiry.
In their Maths lessons, the Year 6 classes have been focusing on multiplication. They have carried out multiplication of two digit numbers by three digit numbers using standard written methods. The pupils have enjoyed using the messaging threads on the virtual learning environment to find out answers and work out the solutions to questions in a collaborative manner.
In Language and Literacy, the pupils have set personal targets for the new term, presented information on migration (the focus of their new Unit of Inquiry), and also practised spelling words which begin with the prefix 'post'.
Finally, in their Unit of Inquiry lessons, the pupils have explored migration and the reasons why people migrate to different places. The classes began with their provocation, discussing where in the world each pupils is from and creating a collaborative map to show the varied parts of the world that their families have moved to and from for work, to be closer to relations, or several other reasons. The pupils looked at pictures relating to migration, and discussed the push and pull factors which might lead to migration to and from these locations.
Keep up the good work, Year 6 - we look forward to seeing where your inquiries will take you next!
Other News
Warm Welcome
WARM WELCOME | A very warm welcome to Alvin, Layla, Amber, Oliver, Priya, Theo, and Andrei who have joined St Leonards this term. It has been lovely to meet you, albeit in a virtual manner, and we look forward to getting to know you more over the coming weeks!
Ultra Challenge
ULTRA CHALLENGE | The PE Department has challenged the Junior pupils and staff to accumulate as many minutes of exercise as they can for the month of January. You can use your timetabled PE lessons, as well as extra sessions playing football, walking the dog, running, cycling, or engaging in some other form of exercise. All you need to do is record your minutes and upload a picture or video to Flipgrid to show your exercise. There are House Points to be won... will Skye, Mull, Lewis or Harris be victorious? Watch this space for updates, and get exercising!
Make Your Minutes Count
MAKE YOUR MINUTES COUNT | As well as the Ultra Challenge, we are encouraging the St Leonards community to support Doddie AID, and inter-district challenge running throughout the month of January until Saturday, 6 February.
The event is inspired by Doddie Weir, whose story has touched the rugby world. Doddie has fearlessly and cheerfully faced his diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease and raised an amazing £7 million over the past three years for MND research. The inter-district challenge is a mass participation exercise event that seeks to join Doddie in raising awareness and funds for MND research. The competition is between five districts: South, Edinburgh, Glasgow, North & Midlands, and Scottish Exiles. Any exercise counts, be that skiing, sailing, horse riding, running, or cycling!
For more details, please visit www.doddieAID.com, and to join the St Leonards team please click the link below. It would be great to see a large proportion of our community support this worthy cause!
Spotlight on Thinkers
SPOTLIGHT ON THINKERS | As we embark on a new term at home and online, Miss Brannen has put together a suggested list of picture books that will help your child focus and reflect upon this month's Learner Profile attribute: Thinkers. This attribute helps us to face challenges and solve problems. Some of these resources can be found for free on YouTube and Storyline Online.
Thinkers use critical thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems. They exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.
Some Suggested Reading
Going Places, by Peter and Paul Reynolds. It's time for this year's Going Places contest! Finally. Time to build a go-cart, race it — and win. Each kid grabs an identical kit, and scrambles to build. Everyone but Maya. She sure doesn't seem to be in a hurry ... and that sure doesn't look like anybody else's go-cart! But who said it had to be a go-cart? And who said there's only one way to cross the finish line?
Making a Connection to Thinkers at Home
- Encourage your child to try to think of solutions to problems.
- Pose different real-life problems and questions to your child. For example, “I’m not sure how to arrange the glasses so they can all fit in the cupboard.” or “I wonder how much of the groceries in the shopping trolley will cost… can you make an estimate?”
- Ask your child these questions when they are working on a problem: “Do you have any ideas about how we can begin?”, “How can we do this differently?”, “What other ways can we show that?”.
- Encourage your child to try to think of solutions to problems independently.
Thinkers Questions
- Did they work to solve the problem independently?
- Did they make good decisions?
- Describe how the characters in the book are thinkers.
- Did they think about the outcomes of these decisions?
- How did they think? Creatively? Critically?
- Is there a connection between [character’s] risk taking and their creativity? Why?
- How do you know that [character] was taking a risk?
In conclusion, these picture books are a marvellous way to talk about thinking skills, problem solving, imagination and related emotions. Using the questions outlined above and trying to give real-life problems will allow your child to see that they can be thinkers.