Wednesday 30 September 2015

P3 Pupils Launch Their Mercy Corps Appeal for Playground for Syrian Refugees

At special Assemblies with Mercy Corps on Thursday 1st October, P3 pupils will tell the school about their Harvest project to help Syrian refugees.

The P3 Communications Group met on Wednesday and this is how they explained the project in their own words:

Primary Three are trying to raise money for Mercy Corps to help Syrian children who are refugees. There is a war in Syria and lots of people have lost their homes. Refugees are people who are trying to find a safe place to live. We are lucky to have lots of things to play with in our playground. We want to help children in refugee camps. We want to give them their own playground. A playground costs £300.

We have decorated envelopes and everyone will get one. Please put some money in your envelope and bring it back to school. We will collect the envelopes from the classes. Everyone in P3 has a different job to do. Some people are envelope collectors, some people are money counters and some people are going to talk at Assembly to tell everyone about our project.
 


Thank you from The P3 Communications Team 
 
Look out for more information from the team!


Article 22 The right to have help if you are a refugee 
Article 31 The right to play

 

Saturday 26 September 2015

Global Goals Assembly 25.9.15

On Friday 25th September at the P4-7 Assembly we marked the United Nations' adoption of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development with the 'World's Largest Lesson':

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change

Throughout the year, we will help our pupils understand and support the Global Goals and the Articles of the United Nations' Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by linking them to our curriculum.



Thursday 24 September 2015

Parent Consultations



We hope you will enjoy coming to Parent/Carer Consultations on Tuesday 29th September (5pm-8pm) or Thursday 1st October (4pm-7pm) and that it will help further the partnership between home and school for your child’s learning.

We suggest it is worth trying to arrive about fifteen minutes ahead of your child's appointment time. This will allow you to locate your child’s classroom and spend some time looking at their work before meeting your child's teacher in the Hall. You can of course visit the classroom after your appointment. Primary Seven pupils meet their teachers on the top landing and have been invited to join the meeting with you. Please wait outside on the landing until called in.

The Parent Council will have refreshments for sale outside the Hall. There is a Book Fair in the Library and we hope you will find time to look at our new Playground.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Senior Leadership Team

Monday 21 September 2015

Autumn Holiday Monday 21st September

Enjoy the Autumn holiday on Monday 21st September and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Tuesday 22nd September.

Saturday 19 September 2015

P4-7 Assembly: Global Goal 4

On Friday 18th September at the P4-7 Assembly we learned more about our new school wide project "Rights Respecting Schools" and Global Goal 4: The right to a quality education, as well as our own Responsibilities.

We congratulated our new Pupil Council reps and thanked Mrs Sally Nowell for organising the election on Wednesday. The Pupil Council will take a lead role in developing our "Rights Respecting Schools" project. Next Friday 25th September sees the launch of "The World's Largest Lesson" when we will learn more about the Global Goals for 2030:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change




Pupil Council Reps:
P2 Bella, Pixie, Isla
P3 Elsie, Showrjo, Theo
P4 Evie, Sean, Hannah C
P5 Zac, Louis, Eilidh
P6 Liston, Sarah, Cai
P7 Fergus, Hamish, Tom

Saul is Scottish Tae Kwon Do Champion!

Congratulations to Saul in P7 who won a fantastic medal and the title of Scottish Champion in his category at a recent Tae Kwon Do competition in Edinburgh. A superb achievement!



P7 Wider Achievement Conference Junior Awards Scheme for Schools (JASS)

On Thursday 17th September we held our annual P7 Conference, designed to welcome pupils to Primary Seven and to challenge them to make the most of the many opportunities for wider achievement available throughout the year.

The theme for the event centred on the Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) programme and we were delighted to welcome Ian Forder from FOTA to launch our use of eJASS.

Pupils got to experience each of the four elements of the award scheme at the conference:
  • Get Active, Stay Active – a Dance workshop led by Dance Division.
  • Me and My World – Victoria Telford from MercyCorps led a workshop to explain the work of our City of Edinburgh partner charity and its work in supporting refugees
  • My Interests – Mr McKenna led a STEM workshop using K'nex
  • Adventure  – pupils discussed their forthcoming week’s residential at the Lagganlia Centre for Outdoor Learning
eJASS - Introduction and Planning Session 
Pupils also took part in a planning workshop, in which they used iPads to plan how to complete 12 hours of activities in each of the four elements to achieve a Silver award and were introduced to eJASS.

Sciennes and Tollcross were part of the initial pilot for JASS a number of years ago. Last year, we began working with
  • Ian Forder from JASS
  • software developer Steve Moore
  • the Digital Learning Team
  • Alice Brown, Headteacher at Tollcross Primary
  • Barry Hewitt from Outdoor Learning
  • Claire Cooper from Drummond HIgh School
to take part in a pilot of the online version - eJASS. We are delighted that Alika's design (now in S1) is being used for the official logo.

At the conference, P7 pupils used an online planning tool to help them begin to think about ways to achieve the award by the end of the Easter holidays. Each pupil has also been given access to eJASS where they will be able to record their progress and upload evidence of their achievements. In May next year, pupils will be asked to give a five minute presentation to their classmates describing what they have done to achieve the award.

Find out more about Sciennes Primary’s JASS work on our JASS website.

More photographs on the P7 Class Page.


Me and My World: MercyCorps

My Interests: STEM workshop

Get Active. Stay Active : Dance Division
 
Introduction to eJASS

Thank you Mrs Tariq, for providing delicious fruit trays.

Monday 14 September 2015

Lothian Schools Cross Country

LOTHIAN SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE 2015/16
Congratulations to all the new and existing P6 and P7 runners who took part in last week's first Lothian Schools Cross Country event of the new session at Mary Erskine's. Tremendous results!
 
Boys
Stephen 7th
Matthew 9
Boris 10
Cai 39
David 43
 
Girls 
Rose 1
Susannah 13
Emily 24
Isobel 40
Joanne 42
Isla 53
Next fixture - Victoria Park, Newhaven Road Trinity  EH6 5PY  
Wednesday  16 September  2015

Meet at 4.15pm for 4.30pm start at each event, finishing at 5.15pm.


Thank you to Boris' mum, Sarah Winkler, for co-ordinating participation.  As many runners for both the boys' and girls' races can take part, but a minimum of 4 runners each week is needed to qualify for the league.  Sciennes receives 5 points for each team of 4 in each race plus a bonus point for each team of 4 they beat and points for those individuals who finish in the first ten runners. The distance varies slightly from course but is around one mile; some courses more hilly than others. Spikes can be worn for those who have them.

As many P6s as possible are needed please for the week when P7s are in Lagganlia (7 October) to keep up the minimum team points quota of 4 boys, 4 girls.  

If you know of anyone else who may be interested please contact Sarah Winkler thewinklers@btinternet.com
Edinburgh Schools’ Cross Country League  Winter Fixtures  2015-6
 Venue                                    Date
Mary Erskine’s School          9 September          2015  (4.30pm)
Victoria Park  Trinity            16 September           2015
Roseburn Park                     23 September        2015
Fettes  College                     30th September       2015
Royal High School                07 October              2015  

NB No P7s around this week as at Lagganlia so will need to try and have 4 P6 boys and 4 P6 girls to keep the team points going for Sciennes.

Inverleith (Heriot’s)                 24 February           2016
Fettes (relays - teams of 3)  02 March                 2016
Saughton (Tynecastle)           09 March               2016
Mary Erskine’s School           16 March                2016
           
AGM (Heriot’s)                       27 April                2016    4.30pm

Sunday 13 September 2015

House Assemblies 11.9.15

On Friday 11th September we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first House Assembly.

This year Sciennes is beginning a school wide project to become a "Rights Respecting School" which links with the United Nations Global Goals, begun in 2000, to:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change
 
On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders will commit to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Much has been achieved in the last fifteen years, and 2015 is the halfway point towards achieving the Goals by 2030. Our House Assemblies introduced these projects to our pupils.




Sunday 6 September 2015

Sciennes' New Playground

Thank you to great friend to the school, Chris Hill, for these fantastic photographs of active play and learning in our wonderful new playground. Chris has documented the transformation and more of his photographs can be accessed using the links below:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chdot/20759253598/in/album-72157655114190675/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chdot/albums/72157655114190675/page3

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chdot/albums/72157655114190675/page2