Junior School

Home Learning 2020

This year at School has been like no other that any of us have known and, I must say, our Junior School girls of 2020 have been outstanding in how they coped with the sudden shift from being in real classrooms to virtual ones. The boundaries between home and school suddenly became blurred as we taught lessons from our kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms to girls scattered all over Edinburgh and beyond. For me the importance of relationships between staff and girls is essential to our success and we all had to engage with each other through a digital platform, a completely new way of learning and teaching.

Staff were inventive, adaptive and creative. A large number of our summer term events were moved online, and very successfully. Eco Day was a highlight with the setting up of our very own beehive, Honeycomb Cottage. We now have a swarm of bees led by Queen Beatrice! Thank you to Peter and Mrs Sinclair for all their work in steps towards the production of our own St George’s honey. We also enjoyed learning about just how crucial our bees are to our world.

Girls were energetic, enthusiastic and eager. Sports Day saw all of these qualities come to the fore as they entered into the activities in their own gardens and local parks with a fervour and ingenuity we just couldn’t believe. Galvanised by our wonderful PE department, there were back garden obstacle races, book-balancing challenges, hurdling cushions, loo roll races and it all ended, as every good Sports Day should, with an ice cream.

Parents were supportive, resilient and, quite frankly, exhausted. As they juggled their own work from home and supporting their daughters to keep the flow of learning going, it proved to be a steep learning curve for one and all. I applaud you and say thank you for the parts you all played too during home learning.

As we make our plans now to return to school, to reconnect with the children we have missed so much, may I say thank you to everyone in the Junior School community for working together to help us through these challenging, unprecedented times. Sue Hay, Head of Junior School - June 2020

Fairy Tales

We have been having lots of fun learning all about fairy tales. A friendly Dragon from Fairy Land wrote to us all at home and asked us to help him rebuild Fairy Land.

Here are our letters we wrote back to the Dragon…

We all had great fun making castles, towers, mirrors, finger puppets and fairy wands.

Keeping our spirits UP during lockdown

Despite not being in school, we have been keeping up with our summer term topics! Some of our highlights have been: the runner bean seed experiment, dressing up as characters from Katie Morag books, learning about natural and man-made features as part of our Island Study topic, making our own islands, learning about aerial views and keys when reading maps, enjoying clubs and even taking part in Sports Day! It has been tough not seeing our friends but we have all tried our best to stay together!

Rachael Isabelle

Art

Lucy Mila

Island Study

2019‐2020

Alba Madeleine Tessa Imogen

Poppy

Katie Morag Day Plants

Emily Selma

Pranavi

Pandora

Violet

2X

2Y

Elizabeth Brownyn Lydia

Esmé

Sports Day

The Victorians by Primary 3

The summer term’s unprecedented circumstances did not dampen the enthusiasm of the Primary 3 girls in their quest to research and enjoy their topic on the Victorians. Each week we looked at a different aspect of the Victorians, culminating in each girl presenting a talk to their class teacher on Microsoft Teams. The girls entered each activity with gusto and uploaded their favourite pieces of work, demonstrating their enthusiasm and creativeness.

Victorian school life

I enjoyed learning about Victorian schools because I learnt that you weren’t allowed to write with your left hand. Laila I liked making the Florence Nightingale Lamp I found learning about Florence Nightingale interesting and liked that she was called ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ because she carried a lamp when she went to check on the sick soldiers. Isabelle I liked learning about Florence Nightingale and comparing her life to Mary Seacole’s life. Alice

I learnt that they used slate in Victorian Schools. Eloise

Victorian toys and games

Famous Victorians: Florence Nightingale

because I liked learning about her. Amelia

I enjoyed making the Victorian outdoor game. Laurie

Laila, Zoe, Fleur, Harriet, Katie, Isabelle, Poppy L, Alice, Olivia, Phoebe, Imogen, Isobel, Caoimhe, Matilda,

Queen Victoria

Victorian Working Children

I liked learning about Queen Victoria because it was fun learning about her family, what she wore and her coronation on Thursday 28 June 1838. Poppy L

I learned that Queen Victoria had the longest reign ever - before our queen. Phoebe

I enjoyed learning about Queen Victoria. She was born in 1819 and she died in 1901. Matilda

I learnt that Queen Victoria only wore dark clothes for the rest of her life after her husband Prince Albert died. Emily

I enjoyed learning about Queen Victoria and how she was a strong lady, who reigned for a very long time. Eva

Victorian inventions

I enjoyed learning about Morse code. Each letter is made up of dashes and dots. Jaanhavi

I liked the inventions and the Victorian Schools. Poppy B

I enjoyed making the poster and making your own invention. Zandi

Isabela, Poppy B, Zandi, Emily, Laurie, Bess, Eva, Jaanhavi, Amelia, Kana, Eryn, Anushka, Eloise, Dilara

Primary 4

Our teachers are Mr D and Mrs P Un is a prefix we have learned Responsibilities for the class reps were good to have

Yes She Can is everywhere Evacuee Day we dressed up as evacuees back in the day Acccomplished learning led to success Recorder lessons were such good fun

In hockey club we learned new skills Neat and tidy was the way to go

Popups we learned with different folds Roman research taught us lots In lockdown we missed our friends Meeting on Teams helped this a bit All About Me was our PowerPoint Reading in groups on Tuesday and Thursday

Yelling and yelling for our House

Finding out more and more Our Junior Duke kept us busy Uncertain summer holidays with this virus Ready now to go on to Primary 5

A Year in Primary 5

Autumn Term Voting for House/ Vice Captains – Isla At the start of Autumn Term, I got ready to prepare and present why I should be House Captain / Vice Captain. The suspense was high when Miss Willkie was counting the votes. I was so thrilled to find out I was House Captain for my house, Buccleuch. I made a thank you speech and delivered it at assembly. I hope I kept my promise and I hope I have been a good House Captain. Climbing Scald Law – Ghorgie In Autumn Term we all climbed Scald Law. As we walked, I heard the slight swooshing of the trees in the wind and the crunch of the bumpy gravel under my boots. I loved these satisfying noises. When we reached the top, we all started talking about the view and all the birds and other wildlife that we could see - it was amazing. It didn’t end there, as we walked down the Law, I saw even more nature, what a treat! Trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens – Pippa Our trip to the Botanic Gardens was such a treat. We were met by a friendly, enthusiastic woman who took us around the Gardens and showed us different, imaginative ways to draw trees and leaves. My favourite was drawing by only looking at the tree and not at the paper which I was drawing on. The lady also showed us how to pour wax onto the outline of a drawing of a leaf. I then painted it with coloured dye. Later, once it had dried, I could hold it up to the light. It looked beautiful. It was exciting to learn new ways of looking at nature and different art techniques.

Doing tours during Open Morning – Anais School open days are always fun because I like meeting new people and showing them round. To prepare for the tours, we worked out a plan of which classrooms to visit and what each class was working on. People would ask questions on what our school day was like, if the lunches were tasty, what sports we did and what clubs and activities I was part of. Everyone I met loved St George’s as much as I do.

Creating an Advert for NASA – Beth

When we made videos inspired by NASA, I felt like I was a real reporter. We were tasked with making a video to recruit a new astronaut. It was fun working with my team to create the job description. We had so much fun filming. I especially liked using props to make it stand out even more. I also enjoyed helping other groups film their videos. I really enjoyed watching everyone’s videos, it was amazing seeing my classmates’ designs and creativity.

Christmas Stories – Shania Writing a Christmas story for the Primary 2 girls was a substantial step for me, especially when we had to come up with an imaginative story. There were so many ideas bursting through my head, it felt like I was writing a letter to the Queen. I made sure the story was simple so that they could understand it and relate to it. After reading my Christmas story to the Primary 2 children, I looked at their reactions and they loved it. I could see the smiles on their faces and they also clapped. I will never forget this moment. I thank my teacher and school for this opportunity.

Documentaries – Sadie In P5 I enjoyed making a documentary about Otters. It was fun to film a documentary just like Sir David Attenborough. To make the film we visited the Water of Leith and did some filming when we were there. We were there to see the otters' habitat. The otters' home is called a holt or a couch. We had great fun walking from school to the Water of Leith. We spent the whole afternoon there.

Nativity – Zoey

‘I’m Gonna Shine!’ was our nativity this year. I really enjoyed being a star and we got to wear the most beautiful costumes. I wore a silver t- shirt and and black leggings. My mum and I put stars on it to make it more beautiful. My favourite part of being a star was we got solos to sing and I love singing so I was happy. The show was amazing, and all our families came to watch. I was so proud of myself.

Spring Term

Robert Burns Assembly – Amelia Ross Mackenzie author visit – Ellie

We celebrate Burns Day on the 25th January to mark his birthday. During our assembly, I was one of the 8 girls to do the military two step in the middle of the stage. I was quite nervous, but I really enjoyed it! The show was over before I knew it and I had so much fun making the props!

Crazy Hat Day for Young Carers – Zara I mostly enjoyed CRAZY hat day. I am a young carer and I got to draw posters for the school. We donated a lot of money for the Young Carers. Ceilidh Practice – Kate I was always looking forward to doing ceilidh practice. We were given a partner and I learnt so many different ceilidh dances. I liked the Dashing White Sergeant best where we danced together in a group of six. Although the ceilidh was cancelled because of the coronavirus, I am still glad we were able to learn some dances.

I love it when an author comes to visit our school, so I was extremely excited when one of my favourite authors, Ross Mackenzie, came to visit P4 and P5 to talk about his new book ‘Evernight’. He told us about his inspiration for the book and I found this very interesting. I loved reading the book and really hope he releases Evernight 2 soon!

Scottish Politics – Martha The Scottish Politics topic was one of my favourite events in the year. For the topic we each created a political party based on a subject we were passionate about. We made posters for our parties and gave a talk asking our classmates to vote for us. I put lots of effort and passion into my poster and talk and my effort was rewarded. I was 1 of the 2 parties chosen by my class. I was not the overall winner, but I felt happy and proud of my achievements.

Summer Term

Virtual Camp – Rosslyn

In lockdown we couldn’t do real camp, so we did a virtual camp and to be honest it was extremely good fun! I enjoyed putting things in my time capsule then burying it until somebody finds it! My second favourite camp activity was making a map and my family then finding the time capsule.

Scottish Wars of Independence Topic – Eliza

Summer term gave us the chance to learn about the Scottish Wars of Independence. Outside of Edinburgh Castle there are statues of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace and there are so many other references to famous historical figures like Andrew de Moray in Edinburgh. Now that I’ve had a chance to learn about them and what they did for Scotland, I appreciate the history around me more because now I have knowledge of what happened in these battles and why they were fought. Although we didn’t get to go to the Bannockburn Visitors Centre or Stirling Castle as had been planned, we did get to visit virtually and see what they are like. And we learned a lot from Miss Wilkie and Miss Mitchell reading to us from The Little Book of Scottish History.

P5 farewell – Hannah When I started summer term I was in lockdown. My favourite things were the group maths calls. We had to plan a party and it was so much fun. Our budget was £500 and my group managed to stay within the budget. The other was the P5 farewell - it was so sweet. I loved my personal feedback. It has made me more confident about moving into P6. My mum was crying at the end of it. P5 has been INCREDIBLE and I loved every second of it.