Newsletter Friday 12th October 2018 @TowerbankPS www.towerbankprimary.wordpress.com

On Wednesday P6 and our P2 buddies did a beach clean-up. It was a beautiful sunny day. There were 160 pupils in 40 groups. Each group collected approximately 100 nurdles, so we think we collected around about 4,000 nurdles in just one hour! Each group had one bag, two litter pickers and a check list. We are surveying all the different types of litter we found with the Marine Conservation Society. We were also very shocked to see how much litter we collected. We found some glass, wood, metal and lots of pieces of plastic. We are Towerbank and we want to stop pollution!! Eilidh and Daniella P6

We had a great day at the beach on Wednesday doing our beach clean. We found lots of things – rubbish, nurdles, bits of plastic, straws, lollipop sticks and lots of other things. We really enjoyed working with our P6 buddies. Some of our keep the beach clean posters are now up in shops around Portobello. Please help keep our beach clean and tidy. Thanks to all the parents and carers who came out to help us too.P2

Thank you to all the bakers, helpers, 50p providers, buyers and eaters. We had an amazing selection of wonderful tasty treats and sold out of everything at pick-up. Thanks to an incredible group effort the bake sale raised a massive £726.35 for the school! The next 50p Friday bake sale will be on 1st March 2019.

Primary 7B have had a busy week! Here are a look at some of the World War II related activities we having been taking part in:

The P7’s experience with Captain Dean When Captain Dean came to our school it was very exciting. He started off by showing us his wartime relics. He showed us loads of interesting artefacts including: some British soldier jackets and hats, quite a collection of guns, a comparison between what a British soldier carried with them and what a German soldier carried on them , some gas masks and a morse code machine. He also taught us how to make identity cards. Overall our experience was brilliant and we recommend it for children and adults alike. From Max in 7B When Captain Dean came we had a great time. I quite enjoyed the siren which you probably heard. It is really interactive. We had an experience not many people can have because some of the things would be in a museum. It is definitely something to remember. It had a lot of activities and we all made identity cards. It was really interesting and taught me some new things. A few of the things actually belonged to people like the baby gas mask, which belonged to John Callam from Aberdeen. There were also questions to answer which made it better and each table was different. From Esther in 7A With captain Dean we had a great time at seeing his collection of World War 2 objects which started at the age of 12.This year he is probably still adding more to his collection. In his collection there is six sections they are: army clothing/guns, identity cards, hats/the London blitz, paperwork, rationing and German and British artillery. There was also the odd musket or bayonet. It was a great experience putting out the incendiary bomb as a team. We got very close to hearing a real air raid siren. Overall it was a great experience. From Teddy 7c ‘’I really enjoyed when Captain Dean came to school because I learned a lot and it was really fun going on the tables and looking at the objects.’’-Jasmine WWII Fun & Games For home learning, Chelsea had researched some World War II skipping songs and rhymes. We had fun on Wednesday trying them out. WWII – An evacuee’s perspective Mrs Doctor came in to P7B on Thursday afternoon to share her experiences of living in Edinburgh during the war. She was 13 at the beginning of WWII and she told us about her life as an evacuee in Bathgate; what it was like living with rationing; jobs that her family did; and her thoughts, feelings and memories of the war. We shared our WWII home baking with her and all thoroughly enjoyed the experience, learning a lot in the process.

Primary 5 are enjoying their topic about Harry Potter. In cooperative learning groups they have created new houses for Hogwarts with a name, shield, motto and house rules. P5D gave presentations to P4C about each house. The P4s voted to join one of the houses.

Gracie competed in a gymnastics competition last weekend and her team won a silver medal for 2nd place. Orla was down in Nottingham for a dance competition where she won 3 trophies including a team 1st place title.

Charlotte (p5) Ellie & Lily (p4) recently travelled to Manchester to take part in UKA performer of the year dance competition. All the girls did amazing and lily was lucky enough to win a medal! The best thing was all the friends having a great time and supporting each other

P3A have been learning about the story of Mr Big. It is a story about friendships. Mr Big was invited to join a band and it made him really happy. We have created our own P3A band and made our own amazing instruments.

The Edinburgh Author ‘Morag Hood’ came to visit P2 at Towerbank last Friday as part of the Portobello Book Festival. Morag read us some of her great stories and drew some of the characters too. We loved making our own ‘Steve the Puffin’ pictures.

Some of the brilliant skiers at Hillend this week. By the December 120 children at Towerbank will have taken part in a block of lessons here. Many thanks to all the parents who have been volunteering to go each week. The places for the Lagganlia ski week in February are all filled. 80 children will be skiing on snow (we hope).

School Streets Reminder that Towerbank is a School Streets School The streets around Towerbank are closed at these times to vehicles.

8.20 to 9.10 am and 3.00 to 3.40pm Monday to Thursday 8.20 to 9.10 am and 12.10 to 12.35 Fridays Local residents with a permit are entitled to drive at these times. So are blue badge holders and emergency vehicles.

October School Holiday School is closed next week for the holiday. Monday 22nd is a Staff only day Children return on 23rd October