Welcome to our P7 page!!

There are two P7 classes in Ballykeel Primary in 2024/2025 year.  The P7 teachers are Mr Hughes (P7JH) and Miss Kane (P7LK).  Miss Parker is the assistant in P7JH and Mrs Wilson is the assistant in P7LK.

We hope that this page will give you a flavour of life in P7.

We're sure that you can't believe that your child is in their final year at Ballykeel Primary School.  Over the course of the year, they will participate in lots of activities and routines to develop an independence for their own learning and preparations for school.  We trust that you would also encourage greater responsibility at home, too.

March-April

Pupils will be celebrating World Book Day in March.  We will be taking part in lots of fun activities during a special celebration week, from setting aside time to read every day, having a sponsored read, designing a bookmark, and dressing up as a book character.

We are also going on our trip to Woodhall in March.  Miss Kane’s group will go from Monday 3^rd to Wednesday 5^th, and Mr Hughes’s group from Wednesday 5^th to Friday 7^th.  Keep an eye on Seesaw for updates, photos, and videos of what we have been doing!

Topics This Term: 

Our World Around Us (WAU) theme this term is ‘The Irish Famine’.  So far, we have been learning about the cause and effect of the potato famine, as well as carrying out online research and completing artwork related to the topic.  Looking forward, we will be learning about some of the people affected, and the choices they had to make as a result.  Some of what we will be learning about can be explored on our 'Hunger' Google Classroom.  This is a great resource, and we would encourage you to use it at home.

In Maths we will be covering the topics of Sequences, Algebra, 3D shape, Co-ordinates and Data Handling. We will be carrying out a number of problem solving investigations related to these topics. Remember that mental maths is important and keep practising table facts and number bonds with your child. We will be focusing on the terms factors and multiples. 

Within Literacy we will be continuing our class novel, which is linked to our WAU theme, and carrying out written and oral activities linked to the story. We have begun an exciting piece of creative writing based on a ‘crime’ committed in our school, by one of our teachers. Children will investigate the crime, keeping a notebook of evidence, and compile a written report for the judge and jury! 

Remember that your child has access to a Homework Help website via Google Classroom.  This website if full of helpful information for our Literacy and Numeracy topics, as well as links to videos and games to help them to develop their skills. 

School Supplies & Information

Your child should have the following items with them in school.  These will stay in school throughout the year. 

• HB Pencils
• Rubber
• Sharpener
• 30cm ruler
• Pritt stick (not coloured)
• Biro pens for marking (blue, black, red or green) – no gel pens please
• Set of colouring pencils

Homework

Homework is an important part of your child’s development and helps to reinforce the learning that has taken place during the school day.  

Each night your child will receive reading, spellings and mental maths / table facts.  Along with this, your child will also receive a written literacy homework on Monday night and a written numeracy homework on Wednesday night.  This written work will cover aspects of literacy or numeracy covered in class during the day, or revisit learning that has already taken place in the earlier part of the week.  Those sitting the Transfer Test will receive additional written homework aimed at increasing their knowledge ahead of the test. 

How can I help my child with homework?

Helping your child with their homework is an important factor in helping with their learning as it will serve to motivate and encourage them to continue to work at their best, both in school and at home.  There are a number of ways that this can be done; here are some suggestions:

• Listen to them read / ask them some questions about their reading book
• Ask them their spellings
• Go over their maths and tables facts
• Ask them some questions about what they learned today
• Check that their homework is completed and signed

Google Classroom is introduced in Primary 7.  This is a super resource which can be accessed both in school and at home.  Your child can log in using their C2K username and password.  We use Google Classroom for aspects of literacy, mathematics and World Around Us.  Within Google Classroom, there are websites created by the P7 teachers relating to the P7 literacy and numeracy curriculum, as well as the World Around Us topics which will be covered this year.

You can help your child to revise topics at home by using online games and websites.  We recommend that you download the Overdrive App from Libraries NI so that you can ‘borrow’ e-books and audio books.  They have a great selection. 

The BBC Bitesize Website is also great for revising, and YouTube has lots of helpful videos.  Just search for the topic you are after. 

Keep revising table facts and number bonds, as this will improve speed of recall.

Whilst these are simple things, they will make all the difference to your child’s learning.

Hopefully this page will you a greater insight into P7 life.  We hope you have enjoyed looking through it.  Come back soon and see what else we have been getting up to as the term continues.

Miss Kane & Mr Hughes