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Support for Parents and Carers

This leaflet details winter support programmes, activities and groups for South Central Parents and Carers.

Further information from:
Helena Reid
helena.reid@ea.edin.sch.uk
0131 672 2629
Development Officer Parent and Carer Support
City of Edinburgh Council

Festive Fun

A bit of festive fun from Ms Anstruther...

We told the children at the Christmas Assemblies that the staff often wonder why the photocopier isn't working on a Monday morning and Mr Reid and Mr Scott often wonder what has happened to all the recycling. Elves at play when everyone else has gone home...

Try the Elf Yourself app or go online at http://www.elfyourself.com if you want to try it out for yoursELF.


We wish all our families a wonderful, relaxing holiday and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday 7th January.

Professionally Produced Nativity DVDs

 

We are indebted to Alasdair Allen's grandfather, David Allen, (alias 'Papa David') who professionally filmed and edited outstanding footage of this year's P1 and P2 Nativities. Geoff at Quadrille Media produced the DVDs for us and they are now on sale through WisePay. They can be collected from the School Office.

David Allen worked as an executive producer and director at the BBC for 33 years. As well as making programmes, he was responsible for the BBC Computer Literacy Project before moving on to work on multimedia and production development. Since retiring in 2002 David has produced videos for organisations such as the BBC, Historic Royal Palaces (Kew Palace and the Tower of London) and the Bluebell Railway.

We humbly thank utterly charming David for his time, effort and great expertise.

JGHS Christmas Concert

Primary Seven pupils from each of James Gillespie's High School's feeder primary schools - Sciennes Primary, Tollcross Primary, James Gillespie's Primary, Preston Street Primary and Royal Mile Primary - performed magnificently at the superb Christmas Concert in the Usher Hall on Tuesday 17th December. Thank you to Deirdre O'Brien and Richard Deasley for organising the concert and for all their hard work in preparing pupils to sing in the P7 Choir. Thank you also to JGHS Headteacher Donald MacDonald for his kind invitation to cluster staff including Mrs Noble, Ms Gallagher, Ms French and Mrs Barker. We were as proud of our pupils as were the many parents and families who attended the event.

David The Champ!

Congratulations to Scottish Champion Boxer David in P7, seen here proudly sporting his medal. Well done for achieving this national award, David!

Wow! Record Breaking Christmas Fair

This year’s Christmas Fair raised a whopping £6,129! Thoroughly well organised and supported.  Grateful thanks to the Sciennes PTA and all volunteer helpers. A phenomenal total!

Party Season

Parties have been in full swing! Check out the Class Pages for some more photographs.
P2 had a special visitor at their party ....

Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

Thank You Sciennes Shoppers!

 

Thank you to the 111 supporters of Sciennes Primary School PTA who have raised an amazing  £1,148.19

just by shopping online with easyfundraising.org.uk. There are no catches and it's completely free to use.

It's really simple – just shop online via easyfundraising.org.uk with over 2,700 well known retailers like Amazon, Argos, M&S, eBay (and many more!) and whenever you buy something online, the retailer makes a donation to your chosen good cause.

It doesn't cost you a single penny extra.

Get started now –  http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/sciennessch

No one can see details of what you have purchased - or any of your personal details - only a running total of amounts raised. Friends and family could raise funds for Sciennes, too! If you join and then refer someone who joins, Sciennes PTA will receive a £5.00 donation automatically.

Thank you to all our Sciennes Shoppers!

P7C Book Review Blog

Ms French and P7C have set up a fantastic Book Review Blog. Well done to all the P4 and P5 pupils who have been sending them their book reviews. What a great way to share recommendations! More reviews are on their way  from Primary 6 in the next few days. We know you love to read over the holidays, so get ready to do some more reviews for P7 C in the New Year!

http://bookreviewpass.blogspot.co.uk/

Computer Xplorers: Scratch Hour of Code

President Obama, Apple and Microsoft are backing Hour of Code, which aims to get 5 million students in 33,000 classrooms around the world to learn at least one hour of computer science this week.

Lynne from Computer Xplorers gave each of our Primary Seven pupils an exciting session on using Scratch - programming software which can be downloaded for free. Next term she is running sessions on Kodu for Video Game Design in her After School Club - see WisePay in January.

Computer Xplorers Workshops for P7

Our friends at Computer Xplorers have kindly offered free workshops in Scratch to our three P7 classes this week in Hour of Code Week.

The Computer Xplorers After School Clubs are hugely popular - check out WisePay from 13th January 2014 for details of their exciting projects for next term.

The P1-P4 Computer Xplorers Club will run on Mondays 27th Jan - 24th Mar exploring Anithings Cartoon Creation. The P5-P7 Computer Xplorers Club will run on Tuesdays 28th Jan- 25th March exploring Kodu for Video Game Design.

Hour of Code Free Apps

Hour of Code Tutorials

“ I think everybody should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.”

 Steve Jobs

 

Light-Bot Free App in iTunes

or try the online version

Hopscotch Coding for Kids

Hopscotch Tutorial

 Daisy the Dinosaur

Computer programming for 5-8 year olds

 

 

Scratch is available for free as a download, though not for mobile devices yet.

Scratch  Christmas Card

Try the Scratch tutorial

 

Teach yourself code with Khan Academy

 

Take a step further with Code Academy. 

Sign up for a free account to advance to next levels.

The Hour of Code 9th-13th December

http://csedweek.org/

A Man Who Truly Believed and Achieved

“It always seems impossible until it's done.”

                                     Nelson Mandela

Rave Reviews for the Lyceum's "A Christmas Carol"

P3-P7 pupils visited the Lyceum Theatre on Friday 6th December to see their production of "A Christmas Carol" and were completely bowled over by the performance. Rave reviews from delighted pupils, parents and staff who thought it was expertly played and staged. A real winner!

"The best Lyceum Christmas Show ever"

"Christmas in a box'

"Spellbinding from start to finish"

"Perfectly pitched"

"Truly magical"

Thank you to all the parents who accompanied and to our Community Police Officers for escorting.