It's with great delight that we are able to welcome pupils back after the Summer holiday to a brand new, wonderfully equipped playground.

Over the last two years our parent group, Friend of Blackness, have been working extremely hard to raise over £180,000 in order to re-vamp our old, rather tired looking playground. Tarmac has been replaced and new equipment has been added, along with planters, shelters and benches to create a playground that the pupils and wider community can use.

Pupils have all had a chance in their classes this week to go out and explore and all the feedback has been very positive. WE are hoping this will encourage all pupils to be more active in their play both at lunchtimes and playtimes, and even allow some pupils to use it after the hours of school as well.

A new term and whole new set of faces for Blackness Primar School. A big welcome to our new Primary One pupils who have been settling in well with their move to Blackness.

They seem really excited to be taking part in all the activities over the past few days, including making spider webs, exploring the Numicon resources and practicing their fine motor skills by picking "flies" from a giant web along with a lot of other activities.

Primary 1A (Miss Chapman) and Primary 1B (Miss Brown) have also ahd time to use the lunch facilities and have enjoyed pizza, ham sandwiches and steak pie, as well as some pupils finding out what it is like to bring their packed lunch along.

All told it has been a very exciting week for everyone involved. We've even had some tears from some the pupils who were reluctant to leave at the end of the day.

Primary 6 and 7/6 have completed their second trip in a week. Just like buses, you can wait all year for one to come along and then two come along at once. They were also accompanied by Primary 7.

This time the trip was a bus ride to the Caird Hall to hear about the fabulous organ they have down there, and a bit of a music lesson from presenter Daniel Moult. They heard about the organ and it's historical significance in the world of music.

On Tuesday 13^th February, Primary 7 visited Sky Academy in Livingstone.  Before we went, we were split into four groups depending on the role we had.  There were eight different roles: camera operator, scriptwriter, producer, eyewitness, reporter, editor and director.  All of the Primary 7s really enjoyed the trip!  Once in our four groups we then came up with our team’s scene.  Team one was working with the presenters, team two worked with the reporter, team three was working with the eyewitness and team four was working with the experts. 

After all our scenes were put together, the end result was ready to be seen.  We were delighted that we were given a pen drive with the whole news report!  We are all very glad that we had this opportunity because it is so rare to get a space in Sky Academy!  Lexie & Freya, P7

Primary 1b have been making good use of the wonderful weather recently by completing a shape hunt in the playground. They had to find as many shapes as possible in the playground hidden in objects.

They did a very good job of tracking down circles, squares, rectangles and other shapes hidden in play equipment, benches and wall displays. They had great fun using the outdoor space for their learning.

On Friday 23rd March, all of our pupils from primaries 6 and 7 attended a series of workshops at Abertay designed by the students, geared towards learning about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  Here they learned about the principles of friction, surface tension and fluid density through a series of fun and engaging activities.

P1b have been learning all about pirates this term.  They hosted a special gathering to share their learning with others.  They sang many enjoyable songs including A Pirate Went to Sea, A Pirate Ship Sailed on the Allay Allay Oh and The Day I Went to Sea.

Everyone made fancy hats and wore them to the gathering.  Everyone enjoyed it.  All of P1b sang very well and performed the actions to the songs very well, especially Miss Chapman!  Well done P1b.

Primary two have been working hard during their music time with Mr McLean.  We have enjoyed learning lots of new songs and actions.  Lots of us have been working extra hard to always ensure we are listening and concentrating.  Our favourite part is doing lots of different types of voices, for example high, low, slow and fast. 

“I loved playing the parachute when we were singing,” said Rebecca.

“We have been using so, la, mi and ray,” Ethan commented.

Meanwhile, Charlotte said, “ We have liked learning the different pitches.”

Primary 7 pupils are really excited as they begin their preparations for  their move to secondary and embark on the next phase in their education.  Each year, a programme of transition activities is planned to help our young people as they make this important step in their lives, one of which is the Healthy Transitions project, run by Jane Duthie who works at The Corner Youth Centre.

Jane is ably assisted by S2 pupils who talk through health related topics, and are available to answer any questions, or allay any worries, that our P7s might have.  It was certainly nice to see some familiar faces return  to Blackness for a visit.

We would like to give a huge well done to all of our P6 pupils who participated in the Primary Schools Cross Country event at Baxter Park on Wednesday 14th March 2018.  Our Primary 6 girls’ team won a silver medal for their event. Everyone involved gave a great effort and represented Blackness very well.