M.G. Leonard at Sciennes!

We were extremely excited to welcome acclaimed and bestselling author M.G. Leonard to Sciennes to give a presentation to P5A, P5B and P4C pupils on Thursday 27th April

Copies of her book then were on sale centrally outside the Hall with an opportunity to meet the author and have copies signed and dedicated, for those who wished.

Many thanks to Waterstones for arranging this fantastic opportunity for the children.

A signed copy of Beetle Boy and Beetle Queen are available in our school library for borrowing

P4A, P5A and P5B also have a signed copy per class for their Class Library

P6 Comedy Festival - Thank You Richard Melvin, Julia Sutherland and Al Lorraine!

What an extraordinary opportunity for our three P6 classes this week to work with accomplished comedy writer, comedian, producer and The Stand Comedy Club compere, Sciennes' dad, Richard Melvin and his friends from Dabstar Productions! Using the BBC RND Comedy Classroom resources, groups of P6 pupils scripted, rehearsed with help from Richard and fellow comedian Julia Sutherland on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday then performed their comedy sketches in the Hall on Friday 31st March, again encouraged and supported by compere Richard, Julia and also radio producer Al Lorraine.

As well as being a fun and engaging way to develop literacy skills, this project was a huge boost to confidence in performance and all our children benefited greatly from taking part. As Miss Stewardson, who successfully led the P6 project said, "The children had the best time!"

Very well done to all our P6 comedy stars and their hard working teachers Miss Stewardson, Miss Rogerson, Mr Hutchison and Mr Howie and a huge thank you to inspirational Richard, Julia and Al. Fabulous! A joyful way to end the term. Happy holidays, all!

Comedian Julia Sutherland helped the children prepare for their performances 'backstage'

Class Teachers Miss Stewardson, Miss Rogerson and Mr Hutchison

BBC RND Comedy Classroom resources an excellent framework for developing literacy skills

Accomplished comedian, The Stand Comedy Club compere and comedy writer and producer, Richard Melvin

Selfie!

Richard with daughter Molly

Red Nose Day 2017

Sciennes Red Nose Day P4-7 Assembly 24.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School

 

On Friday 24th March 2017 Sciennes celebrated Red Nose Day with a whole school Comedy Festival, designed to develop confidence in public speaking and as part of our Health and Wellbeing programme, in support of Comic Relief. We watched a film about 12 year old Hassan from Sierra Leone and found out how Comic Relief has supported him return to school following the Ebola crisis.

Generous donations and support for P6 led bake sales, friendship bracelet, bath bombs and key ring sales as well as P7 Comedy Book and Red Noses sales have helped our school community come together to make a difference to others, in the UK and abroad. Thank you.

Some of our pupil jokers took to the stage at Assembly to share funny stories, knock-knock jokes, slapstick and one-liners. Thank you to everyone who took part and all will receive a special Red Nose Day certificate next week.

Our P7 House and Sports Captains celebrated many recent pupil achievements and P7 Sports Captain, Robert, reported on recent runaway Cross Country success.

The Evening News took a photograph yesterday which is on Page 17 of today's newspaper and another photograph taken today will appear in Saturday's edition (see below).

Article 1

Everyone under 18 has these rights.

P7 Book Launch in Support of Comic Relief

P7 Book Launch BaDUMtsh P4-7 Assembly 17.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School
 

On Friday 17th March we held a special assembly to launch our P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh", professionally formatted and published by Sciennes' parent and published author, Mary Turner Thomson, through her Whitewater Publishing Company. Mary addressed the P4-7 Assembly and explained the significant achievement of our pupils officially becoming 'published authors' themselves. It was wonderful to welcome so many parents to the event and we were also delighted to welcome City of Edinburgh's Literacy Development Officer, Evelyn Love-Gajardo.

Mary Turner Thomson and Evelyn Love-Gajardo (CEC Literacy Development Officer)

This is the seventh book Sciennes' pupils have produced with Mary and we looked back at our involvement with her over several years. We gave Mary a small token of thanks with a Love Hearts Thank You cake and Fairtrade flowers.

We are thrilled that celebrated and much loved comedian Patrick Monahan (who came to an Assembly in August and joined us for a Daily Mile run) so kindly sent a foreword for the children's book. Laura took to the stage to read aloud Patrick's thoughtful and encouraging words to the children.

Laura reads Foreword by Patrick Monahan

Thank you to P7 teachers Mrs Jane Maguire, Mrs Fiona Barker, Ms Fiona Sellar and Mr Mark McKenna who worked so hard with their pupils to create and organise the content for the book.

Thank you Mrs Maguire, Mrs Barker, Ms Sellar and Mr McKenna

A group of pupils from each of our three P7 classes confidently 'took the mic' to deliver a selection of jokes, funny stories and cartoons from their book, with all P7 pupils supportively calling out "BaDUMtsh" at the end of each punchline. All our pupils from P1-P7 have been asked to 'Stand Up for Comic Relief' and deliver jokes or funny stories to their classes as part of a whole school Comedy Festival in support of Red Nose Day next week.

P7 pupils 'took the mic' and shared jokes, funny stories and cartoons from their book.

Richard Melvin, accomplished comedy writer, producer and comedian has generously offered his time to provide comedy workshops for our three P6 classes where they will also learn about different jobs and roles in comedy production.

In support of Comic Relief, P6 pupil Emily is leading a bake sale for her year group and P6 pupils Niamh, Faye and Amelia are organising a sale of bath bombs and keyrings. All pupils have been invited to wear red and bring a donation on Friday 24th March.

Niamh, Faye and Amelia share their plans for Red Nose Day fundraising

Thank you very much to all the parents and to Pupil Support Assistants Mrs Tariq and Mrs Wilkins who helped cut up and distribute celebratory cakes, printed with the children's book cover.

Celebratory cakes!

An additional box of books should arrive from the printers on Monday. Pre-ordered books can be collected next week and copies can be purchased for £5 each with profits to Comic Relief.

Mary with her son, P7 pupil Zach

The Eco Group and Mr Hutchison were congratulated on their successful Fairtrade stall last week which helps Sciennes to work towards FairAware status. Louis and Henry in P6 announced that their football match in support of the Fairtrade Foundation will take place for P6 and P7 pupils from 1.30pm on Saturday 25th March on the Meadows.

Participation in the annual SEET Euroquiz held at City Chambers is an interesting, fun and exciting event, worthwhile in itself, but we were extremely excited to share that this year's P6 team - Alice, Ali, Hamzah and James - won the Edinburgh heat! Congratulations to the team and grateful thanks to families for their support.

Winners of Euroquiz 2017 Edinburgh Heat!

P5A pupils, Rory, Isla and Ella announced that they will be organising an Easter Egg Foodbank appeal and asked for donated Easter eggs to be handed in to the School Office by 31st March.