On Friday 24th February we held special Assemblies to remember our dear friend and colleague, Mark Hewitt, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly during the mid term February holiday,
Sciennes is a happy, vibrant school where we are frequently fortunate to be able to celebrate many exciting and interesting achievements and events. It is also a strongly united community where we can come together as one family in challenging times and we have witnessed that first hand this week as families, staff and the children themselves have responded with tremendous sensitivity, kindness and care to the very sad passing of Mr Hewitt. We are very grateful for, and extremely touched by, all the warm wishes and support extended, including those from colleagues around the city, which Mrs Noble has been able to pass on to Mr Hewitt's family.
At the Assemblies, we recalled and celebrated Mr Hewitt's many qualities and passions: his great love of literacy and drama which so motivated his pupils' interest in reading and performance; his dynamic, motivational approach to teaching which highly engaged his class; his sociability, great interest in people and his upbeat, fun outlook. Mr Hewitt loved to sing and we paid tribute to him by singing Fischy Music's "You Are An Inspiration" at the P4-P7 Assembly and "You Are A Star" at the P1-P3 Assembly.
We are carefully considering appropriate ways that we can continue to honour Mr Hewitt's memory in the future and invited pupils to contribute their ideas.
Mr Hewitt was instrumental in designing a 'Random Acts of Kindness' P5 project which went ahead throughout this week. At the Assembly, we watched a short film "The Life Vest: Kindness Keeps the World Afloat" and encouraged the children to maintain acts of kindness and make a difference to others, particularly in the weeks to come.
Growth Mindset workshops (delivered by Hopscotch Theatre in Education Company) are taking place on Monday 27th February for all three P5 classes, and this was another area of particular interest for Mr Hewitt. We congratulated P6 pupils on their 'can do', positive approach during their recent residential week at Benmore Outdoor Education Centre where they certainly showed a Growth Mindset approach to all the many new experiences.
World Book Day is on Thursday 2nd March and staff shared with the children that Mr Hewitt had planned to dress up as Miss Trunchbull. We encouraged the children to feel able to share their own stories of Mr Hewitt with us and with their families. It has been a comfort to staff to be able to recall and share our many fond memories of Mr Hewitt who, though with us at Sciennes for only a short period of time, made such a huge impact and touched the lives of so many. We will continue to prioritise support for Mr Hewitt's class and our thoughts are with Mark's family at this very sad time.
Sciennes Senior Leadership Team
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