House Captains

Very well done to P7 House Captains Daniel and Emily H in Grange, Anouk and Angus in Lauder, Murrin and Milly in Sienna and Hazel and Abdul in Tantallon for their excellent presentations using iPads at House Assemblies on Friday 27th April.

This session we have been focusing on inspirational people such as Nelson Mandela, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King and Ernest Shackleton. At the start of the year our House Captains invited pupils to nominate inspirational people to be included in our Assemblies.

Our House Captains themselves inspired others, by creating and delivering excellent presentations on Winston Churchill, Ghandi, Barack Obama and John F Kennedy, which you can view on the House pages in the Community section of the school website or here:

Grange
Lauder
Sienna
Tantallon

Pupils in each House can add their own achievements to the online Achievement Walls on the House pages. (Comments are moderated so may take a little while to appear.)

Brownie Badge for Zoe P4

Well done Zoe for achieving your Sixer Brownie badge! 

All pupils have been asked to dress up on Friday 4th May for Wider Achievement Day. So many of our children have  had tremendous success in their pursuits and activities this session. Ms Mackintosh and Mr Hewitt have organised the day in celebration of the pupils' achievements.

A Rosette for Theo P4

Congratulations to Theo, sporting a rosette he won at a recent chess competition.

PTA Swimathon

Event information - BT MyDonate

During the week beginning the 14th May, Sciennes PTA is organising a Sponsored Swim to raise funds for playground equipment, benches, a bike container and replacement bikes for cycle training and smaller bikes for Early Years children. All children in the school are encouraged to take part, even non-swimmers. Thank you to Emma Laurenson and Alison Platts for setting up the BT MyDonate account and organising the Swimathon event.

Launched!

Thank you to all our families and visitors who attended our official launch on Thursday 19th April. Special thanks to Dave McKee, ICT Manager DigITal Learning and Teaching, City of Edinburgh Council and his team of ICT Development Officers, Fiona Hunter, Janet Wallace, and Jenni Robertson and also to Susan Varga from City of Edinburgh Libraries who gave an outstanding demonstration of the wealth of free ebooks, audio ebooks and eresources available through library membership.

Thank you to our pupil presenters and apologies that the movies played up rather than played! They are now posted in the 1:1 section of the school website.

Special thanks to Sciennes' parent Nigel Douglas (Ellie and Robyn's dad) who implemented a 1:1 Learning Hubs programme with us in 2007 and to whom we are indebted. We learned an enormous amount from our participation which readied us for our current pilot.

Launch animation now working!

Launch Information

You'll need your Glow password to log in once you scan this QR Code. You should then reach our Glow 1:1 section. Many thanks to Chris Hill for introducing us to QR Codes!

School Uniform

Details can be found in our Information section and are also posted below:

School uniform can be ordered online. (See Links section) and samples can be viewed at the School Office before ordering. T-shirts for each of the House teams - Grange, Lauder, Sienna and Tantallon - can also be ordered online.

T-shirts and polo shirts in white, red and navy blue with the school emblem may be ordered online but please note that it is perfectly acceptable for pupils to wear plain white T-shirts or polo shirts purchased from supermarkets or department stores. 

We have a school tie which can be worn with a plain white shirt if you prefer.

Plain grey skirts and plain grey or black school trousers can be purchased online or elsewhere. Plain navy blue jogging trousers are also acceptable.

Girls can wear a red or blue gingham checked summer dress.

Most of our pupils wear a navy blue Sciennes sweatshirt with the school emblem. Only our P7 pupils wear royal blue Sciennes sweatshirts and fleeces.

Fleeces and jackets in navy blue, as well as schoolbags and gym bags are available online

We prefer our pupils to wear school shoes in dark colours. 

At Sciennes we are grateful for parental support in ensuring all our children wear school uniform. We discourage wearing jeans and encourage our pupils to bring indoor gym shoes and a change of clothing for sporting activities.

Ready to Launch

Parents and Carers in the Pilot Project classes can sign up to attend using the Doodle Poll sent by Angela Christie. A great tool, introduced to us by parent, Claire Wheeler (School Council Communications Group).

School resumes for all pupils and staff on TUESDAY 17th April when we look forward to welcoming you back. We hope you have had a good holiday and are ready for the busy new term with full pencil cases and school uniform. Remember to bring your gym kit too please.

Help Write the iBook

ATTENTION: CALLING ALL FORMER PUPILS AND STAFF

Click here to access the draft content of our 120th Anniversary iBook.

Find the year you attended Sciennes and add your own memories, anecdotes and photographs directly into the draft. The text in this document will be added to interactive content - photographs, audio, video, animations - and it will be restructured to appear in a freely available iBook to be published in iTunes.

Thank you to all the former pupils and staff who have already contributed memories using our online form.

You can also use this Dropbox online storage facility to add photographs  - drag and drop directly. 

120th Anniversary iBook Update

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing to our online memories form and sending photographs. (See tab at top of page '120th Anniversary.') Our commemorative iBook is well underway, with the help of Sciennes' parent and published author Mary Turner Thomson. We will invite some of our former pupils into school in May to be interviewed or given a tour. Mary has managed to digitise the content of the Centenary Booklet, written by Sciennes PTA in 1992, and this will form some of the core content in our new digital book. Strangely - I wonder if anyone knows why? - the content of the book ends in the Seventies. We welcome all anecdotes from throughout the dozen decades of the school and will make the iBook freely available in iTunes when it is complete. We will add content from the anniversary celebrations so hope to have it complete by the end of term or the start of the new term. Information will be posted on the school website about how to access it.

We would be very grateful if you could copy and circulate this link to anyone you know who may be willing to help contribute to our memories of Sciennes:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGxIOUJ2MGQwQ1RTWkZQaDhuVFF2UlE6MQ


Perhaps it could be posted on social networking sites on our behalf?

You can also use this Dropbox online storage facility to add photographs  - drag and drop directly.


Thank you.

Earth Calling Afterschool and Holiday Clubs

Sciennes is delighted to link with Earth Calling. Gus and his wonderful team run highly successful afterschool and holiday clubs which pupils at Sciennes thoroughly enjoy attending.

"As one of the leading voices in environmental education, Earth Calling supplies ‘hands on’ unique environmental projects and activities to schools and the community. Established in 1999, our ethos is simple… through the passion and motivation of our team we encourage children and young adults to get involved in the future protection and conservation of their local environment."

Here is a link to their Gallery from last summer: Summer Clubs 2011 and to an online sign up for Summer Club 2012.

20mph Limit Comes into Force in South Central Edinburgh

Pupils from Sciennes Primary (including Willard in P3 pictured above) and James Gillespie's Primary Schools helped launch the 20mph speed restrictions. Click here for more information from the Scotsman or the Edinburgh Evening News.

MILK ORDERS

If you would like your child to have milk in the Summer term please log on to Wisepay and place your order. If you paid for the full year in August 2011 your child will automatically receive milk next term. https://www.wisepay.co.uk/store/generic/template.asp?mID=20019&ACT=nav

CHESS CLUB

Sunday 25th February was the final day in the Lothian Primary Chess League schools team

competitions.

Sciennes represented this event with 24 players split into 2 teams of P6/7 and 4 teams of P5 and
under.

In the P6/7 A league Sciennes came second and in the B league came third.
In the younger group we came first and fourth and in the Edinburgh league the
teams came second and fifth.

Well done to all players, some of whom had not played in a chess tournament before and thank you to all the parents who came along to support them.

SECOND-HAND UNIFORM SALE

Many thanks to Phoebe Cochrane and her team who raised a whopping £300 from the second-hand uniform sale.