Penicuik pupils’ efforts all add up to lockdown success

Scotland Rocks 2020 was held June 8-11, with children logging in between 2pm and 7pm each day to do a series of increasingly challenging times tables.

Lilly Learmonth, principal teacher at Sacred Heart Primary School, explained more.

She said: “Our children (P4-P7) use a resource called Times Tables Rock Stars to improve the accuracy and speed of recall for their multiplication and division facts.

“They have all become very good at this through their own hard work.

“The staff used the online classroom etc to motivate them and we had daily updates to chart our success.

“The majority of our pupils participated and added to our overall school score which made us third in Scotland. Our P6/7 class had the highest class total in the whole competition.

“We had nine pupils who made it into the Top 50 ‘most valuable’ player, including one in the Top 10.

“The staff are rightly proud of the achievements of all of our pupils. Although some made it on to the individual leaderboard – it was a community effort that got us to third place in Scotland.”

The school’s top performing pupils were Rory Swan (P6/7), who finished in ninth place overall; Rudi Richardson (P6/7); and Arran McManus (P5/6).

Rory and Bryony Swan’s mum Lesley Swan said: “Rory and Bryony really enjoyed being a part of the TTRS competition. It was exciting for them to play as long as they possibly could with their classmates – trying to get Sacred Heart Primary to the top of the leaderboard.

“This has been such a positive highlight during lockdown as they are so proud of their contributions to their little school.”

Arran McManus’s mum Sabrina McManus added: “Arran thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the competition. It gave him a focus during that week of lockdown and really motivated him to practise the times tables.

“The further up the leaderboard he went, the more he wanted to play. It has boosted his self-esteem in doing so well and given him the confidence to try other activities.”