British Tae Kwon Do Champion!

We think Saul in P4C might just be Sciennes' first ever British champion! Congratulations on winning first place at the recent Tae Kwon Do Championships in Coventry.

Edinburgh Gang Show 2012

Thomas and Olivia in P5C and Zoe in P5A have been performing in the annual Gang Show at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh this week.

Mrs Barker's son Michael, a former Sciennes pupil now at James Gillespie's High School,  has also been appearing in the show and features in the publicity material - in this brochure and on billboards and buses all around town!

Congratulations Chess Champions!

Well done Atharva, Joseph, Kim and Robert who were one of three teams who all came first in the Lothian Primary Schools Chess Championships!

Another sparkling success for Sciennes' amazing after school Chess Club which reflects so well on the dedication and enthusiasm of all the parents who have run it over many years. The club continues to produce numerous top quality players.

Former Sciennes' pupils now play in the Scotland Chess Squad:
Boys U14 Jamie Underwood
Boys U18 Sam Gregory

At the season's opening Lothian Schools League  Competition at the Wester Hailes Education Centre on 18/11/12, Sciennes teams swept the board winning all 3 sections.

The P5 & Under section was won by the Sciennes A Team - Angus and Theo Michell, Sergi Mackinlay Vich and Paul Wang.

The P6/7 Challengers section was won by Sciennes B Team - Jingzhong Fan, Paul Tiplady, Olivia Kay and Akilan Ganeshram

The P6/7 Seniors section was won by Sciennes A Team - Robert Davis, Joseph Bartlett, Kimberley Zou and Atharva Patwardhan.

On and individual basis, Theo  had a perfect result with 6 wins out of 6, whilst Robert, Atharva, Sergi and Paul Wang were close behind losing just 1 game each.

In recognition of this feat Robert Davis, as Captain of the Senior Team, was invited to make the presentations to the prize winning teams.

Scots Fiddle Festival

Thank you very much to Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal who performed at the P4-P7 Assembly on Friday and talked about their experiences of playing fiddle and guitar. Eilidh organises the Scots Fiddle Festival and we hope some of our families managed along to join in the fun at the weekend, including a closing 'Stramash' jam session.

Computer Xplorers After School Club

Lynne Kerr gave a presentation at Friday's Upper School Assembly to give details of the next round of her highly successful after school Computing club which begins in January for P5-P7. Look out for application forms this week.

We are hoping to be able to extend the club to P1-P4 after the February break and will give details later in the session.

Children in Need 2012

Very well done to Ms French and Primary Seven for organising donations and Pyjama wearing to raise money for Children in Need. A final total will be announced here soon, which looks like exceeding £500! Thank you to everyone for supporting them in their endeavours.

 

Stuart in P2A won the Pudsey competition.

National Literacy Network - eLiteracy at Sciennes

Sciennes was delighted to be invited to Stirling Management Centre on Thursday 8th November to share ideas and practice with colleagues from across the country. Published author and Sciennes' parent, Mary Turner Thomson, was able to share how her innovative and enterprising "Pencilling Creative Ideas" project has enabled three successive P7 year groups to become published authors themselves. Workshops on writing, editing, illustrating and marketing have provided a real life context to explore what is involved in publishing a book and our pupils' books are available in bookstores, on Amazon and Kindle.

"On the Line"
"On the Line" Kindle edition
"Mother Nature's Children"
"Mother Nature's Children" Kindle edition

Time Education Supplement Article

 
We also shared how we had created an ebook published in iTunes for our school's 120th Anniversary, using sponsorship from the Big Lottery Fund and Growing Confidence scheme. The first instalment is available as a download.

This book was produced using a Mac computer and iBooks Author software, with some of the content coming from a Google Doc, some from an existing printed Centenary Booklet which was digitised using OCR software and some content from pupils using iPads. This book could only be published using a Mac computer and the downloaded book can only be viewed on an iPad.

Sciennes is part of a national 1:1 pilot using iPads in one P6 and one P7 class. Children in the P7 class with Ms French have created their own ebooks from scratch using an app called Book Creator.

 
Fiona Barker's innovative practice in using a Wikispace for 'Big Writing' and Reading Conferencing was also highlighted.

We have had tremendous support from Susan Varga susan.varga@edinburgh.gov.uk of City of Edinburgh Libraries and we shared how their Overdrive app gives access to hundreds of free ebooks and resources on our pupils' iPads.

Sciennes was also fortunate to be invited to make a presentation at Glasgow Science Centre on Thursday 1st November at the Association of Directors of Education (ADES) Technology Conference where we shared how 1:1 iPads are enabling greater personalisation and choice within learning and teaching.


 

Pudseys Pj party Friday 16th

P7s organising fundraising for Children in Need.
Wear your pyjamas or dress up as Pudsey or Blush-donation of up to £1.
Prizes for best dressed!

Scots Fiddle Festival 16th-18th November

Scots Fiddle Festival 16th-18th November at the Queen's Hall and King's Hall, Newington

On Friday 16th November two of the festival organisers will be visiting Sciennes as part of the Scots Fiddle Festival outreach project to play some music for the pupils and tell them all about the festival at both the Infant and Upper Assemblies.

The weekend is packed full of events for all the family including concerts, ceilidhs, recitals, workshops, talks, festival club, open stage, sessions and a folk church service. Come and try fiddle, come and try Gaelic and more! There are also stalls and a cafe running all day on Saturday and Sunday in the King's Hall. 

To see the whole programme and for ticket information see: http://www.scotsfiddlefestival.com/

Eilidh Steel - Artistic Director & Outreach Co-ordinator

+44(0)7792983517   Website:www.scotsfiddlefestival.com 

Scots Fiddle Festival Ltd Scottish Charity Number: SC031564

Scots Fiddle Festival has been nominated for  'Event of the Year' in the 2012 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards!

Vote here: http://projects.scottishcultureonline.com/scotstradmusicawards/voting/

Network Down

We have been experiencing difficulties with our school network throughout last week. Apologies if this has delayed any communications. We hope BT will have resolved the problem for us next week.