Congratulations to our Year 7 pupils for graduating from Cumran Primary School! You have been absolutely wonderful. Good luck with everything you do from this moment on. Have a great time in high school and continue to Look Up and Aim High!

As World Book Week comes to an end we spent our Friday dressing up as our favourite characters. There was also a performance of The Three Little Pigs with the help of some wonderful actors. We hope that after hearing about each pupil's character it will encourage others to pick up that book and read a new story. Can you spot any characters that you know?

A few of our Year 6 and 7 pupils were invited to go to Blanchflower Stadium to play during halftime at the Northern Ireland vs Scotland Under 18s game! What a fantastic opportunity and they all played brilliantly!

On February 7th, Cumran pupils participated in a variety of activities to learn how to stay safe online. This year’s theme is ‘Want to talk about it?’ Our ‘Digital Leaders’ led assemblies prior to Safer Internet Day to discuss how children can keep safe and who they can talk to if they have any questions or worries.

We are now living in an ever-changing technological world where our children have increased access to digital devices. Therefore, it is important that children know how to keep safe and use age-appropriate apps, programs and video games.

Tap on the link below to view information about the assemblies.

So, what is Online Safety?

Today, the internet is an almost limitless resource. Every topic under the sun seems to have been researched, written about, photographed and captured on film. The huge variety of content available provides an excellent opportunity for children who are eager to explore and learn independently. However, with a lack of restrictions online, it’s essential to consider safeguarding when you let children work on the web or use any electronic communication devices. This is where Online Safety comes in. It involves educating children, and adults, about how to be safe, about making sensible choices and about where to get support/help if they need it.

Parents/Carers can use features on Apple and Android devices to monitor their children's activity.  For more information on setting up screen time limits, please visit the ICT information and tips page in the Parents' section.

• All candidates from Year 4- 7 shared with the whole school why they want to be in the School Council
• Cllr Alan Lewis spoke to the children about his job as a Councillor and he gave the children some advice on how to vote effectively
• Year 4 - 7 then voted confidentially using their polling cards and posted their anonymous vote in the box to be counted ❌
• Now we await the results 😊

Coding... 

1. Develops problem-solving skills 

2. Improves computational thinking 

3. Encourages persistence 

4. Teaches creativity 

5. Helps teach digital literacy 

6. Improves Confidence and communication skills 

The children engaged in a range of activities throughout the week  and thoroughly enjoyed coding.  The various apps and tools provided classes with the opportunity to be creative, while they learnt to debug, code and persist with a task.  Pupils were using a range of apps including Tynker Jr., Tynker, Blockly, Scracth Jr and the Bee-Bot app.  There was definitely a buzz in the school, especially when the drones were up in the air!  The Key-Stage 2 corridor was taken over with 'Dash' robots being programmed to do lots of things including, speeding away, dancing, talking and blinking!  'Cumran Coders' definitely had a brilliant week and they all enjoyed coding different apps and accessories.  

Year 3 were learning about position and movement using the Bee-Bot app.  Mrs Pullin used a bee on the interactive panel teaching the children how to move forward, backwards, right and left.  Both Mrs Pullin and Mrs Hamilton were so impressed with the children’s movement knowledge when using the Bee-Bot app, enabling them to accurately code.  They played different levels, with the difficulty and coding ability increasing each time.  The children were able to insert the correct number of arrows and direction arrows each time to complete the challenge and successfully move the Bee-Bot from the starting point to the finish line.

Year 4 completed 'Space Invaders' online workshop which was led by Nerve.  The children worked in pairs and used the 'Scratch Jr App' to create a game which they coded with up, down, left and right arrow buttons.  This was a challenging activity, however, all Year 4 pupils persevered to accurately create the code for each element.  Both Mrs Robinson and Mrs Smyth were  highly impressed with their skills, at times they were much quicker than the teachers!  During the workshop, the children learnt about the importance of having a start and end block, they created broadcast and receive messages using the envelopes, created their own arrow keys to code the game, have different background which they switched between and imported themed sprites.  Have a look at the pictures and a short video of a completed game in action!   

In Year 5, the children were really excited to be using the dash robots!  They used a range of task cards to help them code using the 'Wonder Blockly App'.  While working in group, the pupils worked collaboratively to create code enabling the dash robot to move in different directions, they coded the movement speed, programmed Dash to dance, blink, change its eye colour and to even communicate with voice!  There was great excitement among the children and it was wonderful to hear them chatting in their groups how they needed to debug their code!  Year 5 can't wait to use the dash robots again!

Some children also coded the probots to move from around the mat.   Using probots was an excellent way to integrate their mathematical skills as they measured how far they needed to program the probot to move and inserted the angle needed to turn.

This class really enjoyed using both the 'Probots' and 'Dash' which enabled them to work collaboratively, problem-solve, communicate effectively with others as they created and debugged code.

Year 6 completed an online 'Digital Story' workshop using the 'Scratch Jr' app.  During the session, the children learnt how to insert a topic background, change the sprite and add code.  They understand the importance of using a start and end block when creating code, how to communicate with another sprite using 'Broadcast and Receive', programming the sprite to move, speak with a speech bubble and adding their own voice.  The class thoroughly enjoyed this session and followed the instructions given to create their own digital story.  It was lovely to hear the children asking if they could use this app again and how they could create their own stories.

Year 7 were 'Flying High' as they used the Tynker app to code the parrot drones.  Initially they coded the drone to take off, to move forward and then land.  Next they progressed to integrating their maths shape and angle knowledge, enabling the drone to fly in a square, pentagonal and hexagonal pathway.  The pupils worked collaboratively as they coded the drone, it was great to see how they persisted with the task when the code wouldn't work, enabling them to debug their code as they problem solved.  There was a great buzz of excitement in the class as they used the drones, they are now excited as they try to earn their 'Pilot's Stripes'.