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.

January – February

Happy New Year!  We are thankful that the busyness of transfer is over and we can work at a more relaxed pace. This term, we are looking forward to renewing our links with our friends from St Brigid's as we take part in shared activities.  We are also looking forward to the opportunity to visit Cullybackey College for their annual INOV8 workshop.

Post-Primary School are preparing to welcome prospective students and their families for their open days/evenings.  Please see the details below for further information.  Admissions criteria for every school can be found by accessing the link here

POST PRIMARY OPEN MORNING/EVENINGS: 

Dunclug College

Wed 8 Jan and Thur 9th Jan 2025 at 7.00 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.  Principal's address at 7.00 p.m.  Seats can be booked via the college website (www.dunclug-college.co.uk).

Ballymena Academy

Wed 8 Jan and Thur 9th Jan 2025 at 7.00 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.

Cambridge House Grammar School

Sat 18th Jan 2025 at 9:15 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.; Principal's address at 9:15 a.m. & 10:45 a.m.

Cullybackey College

Mon 13 Jan & Tue 14 Jan 2025 at 7.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Slemish Integrated College

Wed 22nd Jan and Thur 23rd Jan 2025 at 6.30 p.m.

Topics This Term:

Our World Around Us (WAU) theme this term will be ‘The Irish Famine’.  We will be using Google Classroom to upload and share work.  We will be learning about a local family from Kilrea and their journey during the Irish Famine.

In Maths we will be covering the topics of Fractions, Decimals & Percentages, Ratio & Proportion, Angles, Data Handling and Algebra. We will be carrying out a number of mathematical investigations related to these topics. Remember that mental maths is important, so 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 to read a class novel, which is linked to our WAU theme and carrying out written and oral activities linked to the story.  At the start of a new year, we like to encourage the children to adopt a focus word to help develop their character throughout the year.  This could be related their confidence, school work or family life.  Please chat to your children about this.  We will also begin 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