Friday 30 June 2017

Mrs Noble Leads the End of Year Assembly 2017




WOW! WHAT A YEAR!
This video captures just a glimpse of another busy year at Sciennes Primary School.

Sciennes Primary Schoool Review of 2016-17 from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


Happy 125th Birthday, Sciennes!
Well done to all our pupils, staff and families for working so hard and so well together throughout 2016-2017, "in all the good times and in all the bad times."



Once a year we all come together in the Hall -  twenty two classes from Primary 1 to Primary 7 - for our End of Year Assembly, led by Headteacher Mrs Alison Noble. We were delighted to welcome Parent Council representatives: outgoing Co-Convenor of Fundraising and Events (EFG), Aileen Nimmo and new Chair of EFG, Jayamthi Sanahanam. Mrs Noble thanked them both, and also Phoebe Cochrane (Chair of Parent Council) and Tim Pask (Vice Chair of Parent Council, for the huge contribution they have made to the school throughout the year, particularly in creating opportunities to WOW our pupils with the World of Work Summer Fair. Phoebe and Tim will continue in their posts as Chair and Vice Chair of the Parent Council in August.




Mrs Noble invited everyone to take part in the Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge taking place at libraries across the city, including Newington Library. 




Mrs Noble led everyone in our fond farewells to staff and pupils who are moving on.  








We wished Miss Stewardson well in taking up a teaching position in Madrid for a year

We wished Mrs Joanne Hogan well in taking some time out to study.


The Sciennes Family wished Mrs Sally Nowell, Pupil Support Assistant a very happy retirement after 17 years of tireless dedication at school. Mrs Nowell's knowledge and love of literacy have successfully developed and honed reading skills in hundreds of pupils over the years and we will miss her sorely, as a colleague and friend.

Mrs Claire Ford, Senior Teacher and Class Teacher to P1D is retiring after 33 years dedicated service to the children and families at Sciennes. Mrs Ford has made a wonderful contribution to the life and work of the school and is loved and respected by all. We will miss Mrs Ford tremendously but we are very glad that she will keep in touch and keeping our fingers crossed we might be able to coax her back from time to time!



A rainbow bench, using designs created by P5A, is being developed for the playground to commemorate Mr Hewitt
We marked the recent passing of our very dear friend and colleague, Mrs Linda Young, who retired from Sciennes in 2014 after a teaching career which began at Corstorphine, then Rosewell before she joined Sciennes, dedicating herself to all the many children in her care here for over twenty years. Mrs Young was full of fun and very thorough in supporting her pupils' learning. She also had a wonderful ability to enable each of her pupils to create outstanding artwork. She was dearly loved by us all and will be sadly missed. Our thoughts and best wishes are with her family.







We wished fond farewell to our wonderful Primary Sevens, very proud of their confidence and readiness for the next steps to secondary school and beyond. Mr Howie provided an end of term treat with a video of staff dancing to The Soupdragons "I'm Free." P7 sang the finale song from their show beautifully and it was a joy to see them dance a conga together in the Hall at the end of Assembly.



Words penned by Mrs Claire Ford for Sciennes' 120th Anniversary
Mr Howie created a funny video of staff dancing to "I'm Free' by the Soupdragons as an end of term treat for our wonderful P7s. Publishing our end of term staff videos makes it less likely the will join in, so below is the next best thing...



Mrs Noble rang the bell and led them out in procession as the other classes lined the stairwell on the last day of term. Keep in touch, Primary Seven! A wonderful year group and you can be truly proud of all you have achieved together. We look forward to hearing of your continuing success.

Wishing all our families a safe, happy and relaxing holiday. We look forward to welcoming pupils back to Sciennes on WEDNESDAY 16th AUGUST.

P5 Scottish Opera

The Tale o' Tam o' Shanter from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.

Thank you very much to parent Jimmy Chow for filming and editing this great video of P5's Scottish Opera performance.

Sports Day 2017


Sciennes Sports Day from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.

Thank you very much to parent Richard Melvin for creating this joyful video of Sports Day.

Saturday 24 June 2017

UNCRC Art Project with Together Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights



UNCRC panels destined for Scottish Parliament in the Autumn
We hope that families will take an opportunity to come into school this week to see the wonderful UNCRC panels on display in the foyer outside the Gym Hall before the end of term. They will also be on display in the Scottish Parliament in the Autumn.
Juliet Harris and Liz Millership visiting to see UNCRC panels created Together 

Chelsea Stinson, Children's Voices Project Manager from the Children's Parliament (based at Summerhall) approached us with a very exciting opportunity to work with Together - the Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights (see video below).  


 

Over the past few months, Together and the Scottish Universities Insight Institute  hosted four seminars on children's rights in law, practice and policy, sharing national international examples of good practice with a diverse group of delegates:

http://www.togetherscotland.org.uk/resources-and-networks/the-uncrc-in-scotland-seminar-series-2017 

As part of this seminar series, Together have been working to ensure that children and young people play a key role and that key messages from the seminars are accessible to everyone. Together commissioned artists Joanna Boyce, Yonnie and Lyver to work with our P6 pupils to present key messages in a creative and engaging way.

Three young people who had attended the seminars (Joel, Thomas and Suki) interpreted the key messages and themes then P6C pupils from Miss Stewardson's class - Arwen, Thomas, Alma, Luis, Eilidh, Isaac, Eamon and Rachel - worked closely with the artists to visualise the imagery suggested, for example 'rights in the clouds', 'a policy factory', 'a meadow of rights' and 'connected in a daisy chain.'

During the project on 7th, 8th and 9th of June, Miss Stewardson's whole class discussed and worked on visualising UNCRC articles, particularly Articles 42 Everyone should know about the UNCRC (finding ways to depict 42 of the articles) and 31 The right to play.


PANEL ONE
Isaac - The Policy Factory



The Policy Factory, but where are the children?


The Policy Factory from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL TWO
Thomas - Right in Reach?



How can we help all children to reach their rights?



Reaching for Rights from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL THREE
Luis - Teardrop

A tear for the child who says, "No one asked me."



Teardrop from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL FOUR
Eilidh - The Children's Rights Clan


The Clan, all Together for Children's Rights, including Joel, Thomas and Suki

The Children's Rights Clan from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL FIVE
Alma - Right at the Heart


Getting It Right, at the Heart

Children at the Heart from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL SIX
Eamon - Equations


It All Adds Up - every child born has the same rights



Equations from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL SEVEN
Rachel -The Meadow of Children's Rights


Take a journey along the panels to reach the Meadow of Children's Rights

The Meadow of Rights from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.


PANEL MOTIF
Arwen - Daisy Chain


All connected Together


The Daisy Chain from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.