Absolutely thrilled to hear of Saul's recent success in the Tae Kwon Do World Champion competition, held in Coventry with over 3000 competitors. What an inspiration and an excellent role model Saul continues to be! Saul is now in S1 at James Gillespie's High School and was Sports Captain at Sciennes. He retains his World Champion title in the Junior Boys' Green Belt, both in Individuals and Tag Team and is also current Scottish and UK Champion.
Saul's mum contacted us with this lovely message and fantastic photographs:
"Saul worked hard for it - training and mental positivity paid off. Without Sciennes' After School Programmes this may never have happened. Thanks for all the support you gave to Saul while he was at Sciennes."
On Friday 23rd September 2016 at the P4-7 Assembly we reflected on the messages of Global Goals Week and how we can plan to take action together on the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Last year our main focus was on Goal 1 No Poverty and Goal 11 Reduced Inequalities. We also explored Goal 13 Climate Change and Goal 5 Gender Equality.
Pupils had been asked by The Children and Young People's Commissioner for Scotland, Tam Baillie, what they would wish for if he gave them a magic wand. He explained that their wishes were 'promises' already in place in the UNCRC. We looked at some of the children's suggestions and how the Global Goals for Sustainable Development can help achieve their wishes:
Each of our Pupil Groups - Pupil Council, Eco Group, JRSOs, P7 Captains and Digital Leaders - is making plans for the year and classes were encouraged to share their ideas with their Class Reps so that we can work together in school to take action.
P4 and P7 pupils Alba and Samara gave extraordinary performances on piano. Samara practises for many hours every day and Laila told us how she has worked hard to achieve so many Tae Kwon Do medals.
Mylo and Christopher confidently introduced our brand new iTeach Digital Leaders programme and explained how to get involved.
We celebrated lots of individual pupil achievements, including a recent win for P6 Team at Boroughmuir RFC and Pedal for Scotland medals for siblings Sam, Lizzy and Quinn.
Congratulations to our newly elected Pupil Council members who will be
the voice of their classmates throughout the year and will also be our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors. Thank you very much to our Returning Officer, Pupil Support Assistant Mrs Sally Nowell.
On Friday 16th September 2016 we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first ever House Assembly.
In May 2016, Sciennes became a Level One "Rights Respecting School" and we have already begun our journey towards Level Two accreditation. Our journey so far has been recorded on our Rights Respecting Sciennes blog. We reminded pupils what it means to be a Rights Respecting School and that it includes being a Global Citizen. We first introduced our pupils to the United Nations' Global Goals for Sustainable Development when they were launched last year in September 2015. By 2030 these aim to:
End extreme poverty Fight inequality & injustice Fix climate change
On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) One year on, we watched a rap to help us understand all the goals better.
We thought about what we have already done in school to be Global Citizens. For example, last year the whole school took part in a City of Edinburgh pilot project to raise awareness of 1 in 5 Child Poverty (SDG1), P3 led a whole school project to raise money for 9 playgrounds for Syrian refugees (SDG10), P6 took part in Gender Equality workshops (SDG5) and our ECO Group campaigns took action on Climate Change (SDG15) and promoted Sustainable Consumption (SDG12).
We watched an animation written by Sir Ken Robinson, 'The World's Largest Lesson Part Two' which gave us ideas of what we might do next to help make a better world.
Congratulations to our newly elected Pupil Council members who will be the voice of their classmates throughout the year and will also be our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors.
Have you checked out our Curriculum blogs on the right hand side of our website?
We currently send a Tweet each
time a post is added to our website, Class Pages and many other school blogs which automatically updates our Twitter account. We also pass on information about local events and initiatives via Twitter. Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date.
We are always interested to hear any comments regarding our communications so please feel welcome to email
admin@sciennes.edin.sch.uk with any feedback.
The Sciennes School Website comprises:
The School Calendar - Diary Dates
The Parent Council Website
The Sciennes School Flyer - weekly online newsletter sent by email and published on the School website
Sciennes Twitter
Sciennes Facebook
Class Pages - blogs for each year group P1-P7
Curricular blogs e.g. Health and Wellbeing, Rights Respecting Schools, ECO, Music, Reading
Community Pages - e,g, Active Schools, Active Travel, Playground Improvement Group, Sciennes After School Care Scheme (SASCS)
Call Parents
The system we use to communicate directly with you via personal email and text.
Uniform
Online ordering using Image Scotland.
WisePay
Our online system for lunch, milk, trips, clubs and
permissions. Sciennes was the first school in the city to adopt this
system a few years ago and remains one of few to have implemented it, in
Edinburgh and indeed in Scotland, thanks to the efforts of Angela Christie, Business Manager.
Please do contact us or your Parent
Rep if you would be interested in receiving support with our online communications.
On Friday 9th September at the P4-7 Assembly we celebrated Roald Dahl's life, work and world of pure imagination, ahead of the forthcoming celebrations to mark the centenary of his birth on 13th September.
Roald Dahl faced many challenges in his life. He would not have recognised the phrase 'growth mindset' but our children do, thanks to the great work of our Infant Depute Headteacher, Ms Carolyn Anstruther, and Class Teachers. Dahl's resilience to change, his hard work and perseverance are reflected in his life story and also in his success. "I can't do it YET!" and seeing the positives in making mistakes are attitudes we are trying to cultivate in our learners. We listened to "Up Grow the Roses" from the Dahl screenplay for "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" with its positive messages about learning from failures and to try, try again. We also asked the children which Dahl books they have 'not read YET'.
We are keen to encourage all Sciennes' pupils to join their local library as we continue to promote a love of Reading in our school and at home. P4-7 teachers have signed up their classes for The First Minister's Reading Challenge later this term and Ms Wendy French has been running her own 'Go For Gold' Reading Challenge in P5C since August. Eliza and Jaimee told everyone at Assembly what was involved. Pupils who read five books gain a Bronze Award, ten books brings a Silver Award and already many P5C pupils have been awarded with a Gold Medal and certificate for reading fifteen books!
We wished Happy Eid to all families celebrating and reminded everyone that MONDAY 19th SEPTEMBER is a holiday.
Pupil Council elections take place on Monday 12th September, with the results being announced on Thursday 15th September (International Day of Democracy).
"Up Grow The Roses" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Oh yes!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
(spoken)Yes I know but he wants it to float. It will!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
Here, here!
That mistake you'll never make again!
No sir!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
(Oh) There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!
Correct!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Oh yes!
Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur!
No sir!
Edison took years to see the light!
Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that
bell!
So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, Yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
Grow the ro
Grow the ro
Grow the roses!
Grow the ro
Grow the ro
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the ro
Grow the ro
Grow the roses!
Those rosy ro
Those rosy ro
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster, grow the roses of success!
On Friday 2nd September P4B pupils had a fantastic opportunity to take part in a Tennis on the Road session at the Meadows Tennis Park, led by Kris Soutar and supported by our Tennis coach, Alex Harkins, and Tennis Scotland. Judy Murray was unfortunately unable to attend but the pupils had a terrific time. Thank you for such an exciting opportunity for the children.
TENNIS ON THE ROAD Judy Murray is aiming to give parents, coaches & teachers the tools needed to get
kids active and to help further kick-start and develop tennis in Scotland.
Thank you very much to P6 and P7 families who attended and engaged with our 'Right Click' digital safety workshop, sponsored by Unicef and BT, on Wednesday 29th August. We are very grateful to BT volunteers Mike Brown and Karen Halliday for leading the warmly presented and interactive event and to Zoey Ayling (Unicef's Programme Support Officer) for providing the opportunity.
Feedback was very positive and we aim to address inhouse the requests for additional sessions, for younger pupils and also a follow up parents only session.
Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie, visited Sciennes on Friday 2nd September and it is hoped families will find his team's advice on Online Safety useful in continuing dialogue with their children.
Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie
What would you wish for if you had a magic wand that could change the world?
We were honoured to welcome Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie, to speak to our children at both P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Friday 2nd September 2016.
The Children and Young People's Commissioner in Scotland's job is to help children understand their rights and to make sure
those rights are respected. His goal is to make sure all children and
young people in Scotland are as safe and happy as possible.
Tam works towards his goal by:
listening to children and young people
asking people in power – like Members of the Scottish Parliament – to think about how new laws might affect children
helping children learn more about their rights
speaking out if children and young people are not getting a fair deal.
The Commissioner captivated our pupils with an engaging, child friendly explanation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We particularly liked his use of the term 'promises to children' and his invitation to everyone to think of what they would change if they had a magic wand. He explained that each idea the children then shared is already a 'promise' made to all children across the world, contained in the UNCRC. Tam also explained his role as Commissioner and we are delighted that our children had an opportunity to meet such an inspirational leader of positive change in our country who works tirelessly to promote the rights of all children. Tam was extremely generous and gracious with his time and we hope that we can carry on his good work in ensuring all adults and children understand the UNCRC and use it to build a better society.
We also introduced pupils to the First Minister's Reading Challenge, which launched on Thursday 1st September and features Janis Mackay, our Patron of Reading. All P4-7 pupils will soon receive their very own Reading Passport to record their reading journeys until May next year. Many of our pupils have completed the Summer Reading Challenge and Ms French reminded everyone that it closes on Sunday 3rd September, so pupils should claim their certificates and medals from their local library by that date.
Pupil Council elections will be held on Monday 12th September, with the result given on Thursday 15th September (International Day for Democracy). Mrs Sally Nowell will be Presiding Officer.
