Sciennes P4-7 JASS Assembly 19.5.17

Sciennes P4-7 JASS Assembly 19.5.17 from Sciennes Primary School
 

On Friday 19th May P7 House and Sports Captains explained the Junior Award Scheme for Schools (JASS) programme and Sciennes' involvement in it since it was developed.

http://www.jasschools.org.uk

The Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) is an accredited learning programme, celebrating wider achievement, for young people (P6-S2). Sciennes and Tollcross Primary Schools have been implementing this scheme since we piloted it in 2009.

The concept emerged from a discussion during a Sciennes P7 visit to Lagganlia between Alice Brown, Gael Logan and Barry Hewitt who came up with the idea to set up a 'Duke of Edinburgh' style award scheme for upper primary pupils. The scheme has since been developed into a city wide, then a national and now UK programme.

There are three levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold), each requiring a higher degree of commitment. Each level also includes four sections to be completed:

    My interest - a hobby or interest
    Get Active, Stay Active - involvement in a sport or physical activity
    Me and My World - a community or environmental project
    Adventure - a teamwork challenge through involvement in an outdoor activity (e.g Benmore and Lagganlia or ski-ing or horseriding or forest walks).

P6 and P7 pupils have been asked to prepare a short 5 minute talk outlining what they have done this year to achieve their award. Volunteering at the Summer Fair on Saturday 3rd June 12.30pm-3.30pm can still count towards JASS, if anyone needs to make up hours for 'Me and My World.'

We celebrated James, Alice, Hamza and Ali's fantastic achievement in winning Third Place, representing Edinburgh at the national Euroquiz Final, held at the Scottish Parliament on Monday 15th May. We played excerpts from the event (available in its entirety on YouTube) and the team challenged everyone to answer some of the (tricky!) questions. A fantastic achievement.

Mylo and Christopher in P6 explained their new Code Club and thanked parent Tim Pask for his support.

Well done to the netball team and to P5 on excellent homework produced for their China project. Congratulations to P5B who came 9th out of 2335 schools in a recent national Sumdog competition. A number of our classes has used Sumdog over the years and P5 have recently been piloting this maths website as a year group with hugely motivating results, which we aim to roll out to other year groups in time.

The Eco Group were thanked for a successful Litter Pick on Friday 12th May, led by Mr Hutchison, and Caitlin asked for donations of seashells for the Playground.

We wished everyone a safe and happy holiday on Monday.

Sciennes Receives a Special Certificate from Junior Award Scheme for Schools (JASS)

Joan Alexander with Cameron, Anna and Sarah

Thank you very much to Joan Alexander and all at the Junior Award Scheme for Schools (JASS) team as well as Friends of the Award (FOTA) for inviting Sciennes to the FOTA Annual General Meeting on Thursday 10th November.

P7 pupils Anna and Cameron received a special certificate on behalf of the school, in kind recognition of Sciennes' ongoing contribution and commitment to JASS and eJASS.

Anna's sister, Sarah, also attended with their mum, Mrs Aileen Nimmo. Thank you also to Mrs Claire Marshall for accompanying her son Cameron to the event, held in the prestigious European Room of the City Chambers. Councillor Elaine Aitken, deputising for the Lord Provost, presented our pupils with the certificate and they were also congratulated by MSP Miles Briggs.

What a wonderful celebration of volunteering, pupil-led social action and wider achievement! Many adult volunteers were recognised and celebrated for their contribution, as well as the young people they have supported in achieving both Duke of Edinburgh Awards and the Junior Award for Schools. A lovely evening and we were very proud of all three of our pupil ambassadors.

Superb P7 Sciennes' ambassadors, proudly sporting their Bronze JASS medals and already aiming for the Silver JASS award

Councillor Elaine Aitken, deputising for the Lord Provost, presents Anna and Cameron with a special certificate for Sciennes

Thanks, mums!

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.

Alika's eJASS Logo

Alika's illustration has been adopted as the inspiration for the new logo for eJASS. Alika received an Amazon voucher, kindly donated by Ian Forder, JASS Director at Friends of the Award (FOTA). Thank you to software developer Steve Moore, who has worked with pupil focus groups and P7 classes throughout the year to pilot his online version of the Junior Award Scheme for Schools - JASS (formerly know as the Junior Award Scheme Scotland but now is used throughout the UK).

P7 Pupils in JASS Spring Newsletter

 

Some of our P7 eJASS test pilots pupils feature in the Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) Spring Newsletter.

P4-7 Believe • Achieve Assembly 27.3.15

Sciennes P4-7 Believe Achieve Assembly 27.3.15 from SciennesPS

 

At the P4-7 Believe • Achieve Assembly on Friday 27th March we celebrated P6 pupil Milenka's fantastic achievement at a recent International Fencing competition in Poland where she came 26th out of 128 participants in her age group. She was the highest ranked girl from Scotland and the second highest ranking from Britain. Milenka gave a confident and engaging presentation and was roundly congratulated by all.

Milenka, far right

Pupils had an opportunity to share their learning and achievements at Parents' Consultations this week and it was wonderful to welcome families into school. We really value our ongoing partnership with families. Well done also to all the staff who have worked so hard to display their pupils' work to such great effect and we hoped you enjoyed visiting classrooms. A favourite haunt was the 'Evacuee's Waiting Room' on the top landing, complete with suitcases and gas mask boxes!

Each P6 class performed their fabulous BBC Ten Pieces dances at Assembly last week and this week they were able to see the video of their Year Group performance of Anna Meredith's 'Connect It' dance. We think Mr Howie's 'Sciennes' animated logo is super cool!



JASS AWARDS in P6 and P7
We aim to allocate about six months to the Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) awards at Bronze (P6) and Silver (P7) Levels and we include as many holidays within that time as possible - from the beginning of the October holiday until the end of the Easter holiday - to help pupils achieve their goals. Next term, pupils have been asked to give a short talk explaining how they have achieved either 8 (Bronze) or 12 (Silver) hours in each of the four categories: Get Active, Stay Active; Adventure; My Interests; Me and My World. At Assembly we highlighted the numerous Easter holiday activities available to help any pupils make up additional hours still required to achieve the award (see slideshow and website or Sciennes Twitter feed and Facebook Page for details). Individual log in accounts have now been created so we hope to begin our pilot eJASS programme with some of our P7 pupils before the end of term.

ME AND MY WORLD JASS
Luke and Toby gave details of their innovating idea to achieve their 'Me and My World' certificate by running a Bake Sale in the Meadows during football practice tomorrow morning Saturday 28th March from 9.30am. All items £1.00 and all proceeds to the Playground Fund. It never ceases to amaze that a third of our school population - 215 pupils! - take part in the Sciennes Football Club. Testament indeed to the great enthusiasm and dedication of so many of our parents and supporters.

Me and My World Ideas:

This year, our pupils have generously supported local and national charity fundraisers: Food Bank, Children in Need, Comic Relief, as well as taking part in Playground Fundraising events at school including Camera Obscura Family evening, Christmas Fair and the forthcoming Swimathon. Participation in these events counts towards the 'Me and My World' JASS award, as does making a difference at home such as helping neighbours or gardening. Pupils have been asked to show support on Saturday 28th March for WWF's Earth Hour by switching off lights at 8.30pm - 9.30pm, which would count as an hour towards the award. Pupils might also consider preparing and delivering a Talk about a charitable organisation, or deciding to give their time in some way to help others.



The Science Festival is about to begin and to highlight the exciting opportunities on offer we showed the 'Scientific Method Rap.' Mr McKenna has posters and leaflets in his Science Lab and invited pupils to come and ask him about some of the activities on offer during the holiday. (See website and Sciennes Twitter feed or Facebook Page.)



We also practised "It's A Wonderful World",  ready to sing it at our Easter Assemblies next week on Thursday morning, led by Mrs Noble.
Please note that term ends on THURSDAY 2nd APRIL at 3.20pm, normal time, and we look forward to welcoming pupils back to school on TUESDAY 21st APRIL.

eJASS at Sciennes

Sciennes and Tollcross Primaries were part of the initial pilot for the Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) wider achievement programme 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 help develop the online version of the programme called ‘eJASS’. eJASS will be piloted at Sciennes and Tollcross next term. Primary Seven pupils and one P6 class will be able to use the online version on their personal iPads to record their progress.

On Wednesday 6th December we were delighted to welcome back software developer Steve Moore from brawsolutions to meet with P7 pupils for some market research. Steve was very impressed with the pupils' feedback and ideas which he will incorporate into his software design. Thank you Zoe, Cerys, Laurence and Maxwell for your very helpful contributions! (Cerys and Zoe were part of the group of pupils who met with Steve last year and they were delighted when he showed them how he had incorporated their suggestions from their last meeting.)

Sciennes Primary Journey through JASS at P7 Conference

Sciennes Primary Journey through JASS at P7 Conference

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Children & Families

On 25 September 86 P7 pupils from Sciennes Primary took part in a Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS)-themed conference. Pupils can achieve a Bronze JASS award in P6 and each year they are introduced to the Silver award at a special event.

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 – ChangeWorks led an interactive Waste Reduction workshop using online voting tools.
• My Interests – pupils made minestrone soup and garlic bread in our new kitchen.
• Adventure  – pupils discussed their forthcoming week’s residential at the Lagganlia Centre for Outdoor Learning.

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.

Jonathan Wallace, James Gillespie’s High School Cluster Active Schools Co-ordinator, helps us to introduce and support the JASS programme in P6 and P7. He is in an ideal position to continue to support the pupils when they aim for a Gold JASS award in S1 and S2 at JGHS.

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 help develop an online version of the programme called ‘eJASS’. eJASS will be piloted at Sciennes and Tollcross later in the term.

Joan Alexander from JASS attended our P7 conference and provided an exciting demo of eJASS, as well as lots of ideas for celebrating pupils’ wider achievements.

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