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 and Miss Houston are the assistants in P7JH and Mrs Wilson is the assistant in P7SG.

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.

August - October

This term will be a busy one for some of our children as they will sit their Transfer Test during Term 1.  All our local secondary and grammar schools will hopefully have Open Mornings/Nights in January so please keep an eye on this page for dates and for links to the criteria for each schools as it is published.  It's important that you plan to attend these open nights as it will give your child an idea of what goes on in these various schools!

Topics this term:

The P7s will be boldly going where no one has gone before!  We will be finding out about Space this term, from planets and stars to the space race and moon landings.  If you have anything at home related to our topic, please encourage your child in their learning by sharing it with them.

In Literacy, we will spend time revising our grammar & punctuation.  We will also be introducing strategies to improve our writing. During creative writing we will be looking at structuring paragraphs with the aim of composing a piece of recount writing based on our topic.  We will also write shorter pieces, including poetry, which will help us to draft, edit and improve our work with increasing independence. 

In maths we will be looking at place value, revision of basic maths facts and operations, mental maths strategies, and problem-solving strategies to help with mathematical investigations.   Please take time to revise table facts and number bonds with your child to help benefit their number recall. 

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 Mrs Gregg and Mrs Hughes 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