Author: Mrs Harrison

Dear Primary 7 parents and carers,

The children are continuing their learning about relationships, sexual health and parenthood. We have already learned about how human life begins, thinking about conception, pregnancy and birth. We have also learned about what sex is. Children at this age also have questions about contraception and condoms and so we will be sharing some information with the children about what these things are.

Thereafter, we will be working together on an activity about human sexuality. Sexuality is described as being about what we feel, what we do and is something that exists within ourselves. The purpose of talking and learning about the idea of human sexuality is so that children develop an understanding that sexuality is not just about ‘having sex’ – of course this is something that adults can also do as part of their sexuality, but we would like children to think of themselves as unique individuals with feelings and relationships and opinions that matter. The more we can build a positive sense of self and of human sexuality as part of the person, the more we can build skills and resilience for personal relationships. To support this learning the children think of human sexuality as a flower with petals that represent different aspects. The petals on the flowers are described in this way, when the children have worked together to describe all the aspects of human sexuality we will have a lovely colourful display to help us continue with our learning:

There are six petals and the children think about and draw and write about petals 1 to 6.

1 .Our 5 senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. For example, you can smell your favourite food being cooked, listen to music that you love, hold hands with someone, feel the sunshine on your face.

What do you like to see, hear, taste, smell or touch?

2.Our feelings. For example, feelings that are positive like happiness, love, pleasure, trust. And also, feelings that can be upsetting or feel negative like jealousy, anger or sadness. What have you been feeling today?

3. Spirituality: Some people say that your spirituality is about the human spirit or human soul. Spirituality is about love and respect for all living things, it is how you connect with nature. For some people this means believing in a God and being part of a religion. How can we, as humans, love and respect our world and look after it?

4.Our identity: Identity is about how we describe ourselves. Imagine you were meeting a person for the first time, what things would you want to tell them about you? How would you describe yourself?

5. How we feel about how we look: This is called self-image. When we think about self-image, we think about what size we are, what shape we are, how we feel about our bodies. We should try to have a good picture of ourselves and our bodies, this is called a positive self-image. What do you love about how you look and your body?

6. Our relationships with other people You can have all sorts of human relationships. You can be part of a family, part of your class at school, part of a friendship group. Adults can live independently, with housemates, with a partner or in a marriage. Who are the important people in your life?

As always, if you would like any further information, please contact me through the office.

Kind regards,

Mrs Harrison

Dear Primary 7 Parents and Carers,

Please see attached below the learning overview for Primary 7 this term.

During Science Week, Primary 7 were lucky enough to attend an in school workshop on anatomy and to visit Dynamic Earth for a STEM Careers Fair. We listened to the inspiring career paths of a scientific photographer and a marine biologist, both of whom work on Research Vessels exploring the oceans. The fair included a range of stalls for different companies from a variety of scientific backgrounds and we discovered many interesting devices and people.

Tuesday the 21st of March was World Poetry Day and Primary 7 were invited to commemorate this at the Writers’ Museum in Makars’ Court. This local gem of a museum houses exhibits about Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson. RLS wrote a children’s poetry book (A Child’s Garden of Verses) and also many exciting stories. To inspire our creativity we watched the National Theatre production of Treasure Island through the teacher’s subscription.

This exciting tale of adventure, bravery, dishonesty, greed and treasure encouraged us to write our own poems for World Poetry Day. We wrote the final draft on ‘parchment’ and these will be displayed in the museum. Some of us read our poems aloud to the audience of artists and museum guides and some local tour groups who were passing through Makars’ Court! Thereafter, we created a collage picture inspired by the Scott Monument, a treasure map or the museum itself.

To further celebrate science week, we created a seismometer in class and wrote up our observations on how it worked. We also visited the Science Festival on the 28th of March, which received rave reviews from the whole class! Every child got a brochure about it to take home, so this could be something really fun for the holidays! Some feedback from Primary 7 included:

“I really liked doing the Speed Sailing”

“I loved doing the creative coding, I loved it when we made the robots have a dance competition!”

“I liked doing the surgery, it showed how real surgery would be and it was fun to take out the stones, fix his knee and his brain.”

“Being a surgeon – I really liked it and I think for my future job I would like to be a surgeon”

“I really liked the surgery, it was really realistic and very interesting. We also learned some medical terminology for equipment and body parts”

“I really liked the blood bar because we got to feel the heart, we learned how the heart works and how the blood pumps through veins and arteries”

“I liked the surgery and crafting the sea oceans and making the yachts”

“I liked learning about the dangers of needles and never to pick them up, due to contaminated blood”

Finally, our display wall is depicting a rather eclectic mix of our Surrealism pictures from earlier in the year and our Spring pictures, inspired by the theme of the Art Gallery this year. The class winner for Primary 7 was Maria and everyone in the class contributed a flower to the collaborative frame. These hang on the walls of the stairs.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday!

Today was an epic adventure day. Like pirates and vikings before us (and probably many more reputable ancestors) we were going to build rafts and sail to an island. We made our plans and got into 4 teams. Our 1^st task; design a flag for our rafts.

We kitted up for our adventure. We put our rucksacks in barrels to protect them from splashes and picked a paddle. Once at Loch Insh, Group 1 removed the canoes from the trailer and arranged them on the beach.

 In our teams, we paddled across the loch to the Osprey Island. Our canoe had some challenges steering but we did make it in the end!

Once on the island, we had lunch with a view!

Thereafter, we climbed some tree roots and played camouflage again.

We got into our canoes again and paddled around the island. We learned that the island is a nesting site for osprey from April to July, which means there are no visitors during that time. We saw a big nest in the top of the tree. Finally, we had a floating picnic of flapjacks on the loch before paddling back to shore.

We are now heading into the forest to have a campfire and s’mores to round off our wonderful week. We can’t wait to see you all tomorrow and tell you about our adventures!

In the afternoon, Group 1 went abseiling first. Once again, their teamwork did them credit as they encouraged one another and cheered each other on as they went down.

Finally (Group 1 have been so busy) we tried our hands at archery. Some excellent shots and several near bullseyes!! Well done !