BBC Ten Pieces : Nicola Benedetti

Ten Pieces Ambassador, Nicola Benedetti

Watch Nicola Benedetti's lessons with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on the BBC Ten Pieces website or view here:

http://sciennesmusic.blogspot.co.uk/

Orchestra at Reid Hall

Sarah Deters

Jenny

Many thanks to Sarah Deters and Jenny at the Edinburgh Museum of Musical Instruments who gave Sciennes School Orchestra a fascinating historical tour of instruments through the ages on Monday 10th November in the Reid Concert Hall. Sarah and Jenny explained how instruments and their use in orchestras have developed over time. Thank you to Mrs Samanda Campbell, who leads the School Orchestra, for providing the children with this lovely opportunity to value their commitment, and to Mrs Katherine Peace and all the parents and grandparents who escorted. More photographs on our new Music blog. Orchestra members will be able to view a slideshow of the instruments they learned about on the trip when they next meet on Monday 17th November, before rehearsal and immediately after morning break in the Hall.

Sportshall Success!

Congratulations to our P7 athletes who came First in the first round of Sportshall Atheletics at Meadowbank on Monday 10th November. They did amazingly well to come first in 13 of the events! Thanks to Mrs Beth Walker, our P.E. Specialist, who organises the event for the city, for preparing the team so well and to Jonathan Wallace (Active Schools Co-ordinator) for assisting Mrs Walker with the event. Many thanks to Mrs Fiona Barker and Mrs Sally Nowell for escorting and supporting the team. Great result, P7, and excellent sporting attitudes! More photographs on the P7 Class Page.

1st	Sciennes Primary	213 points
2nd	Buckstone Primary	191 points
3rd	Pentland Primary	168 points
4th	Taob Na Pairce Primary	160 points
5th	St Ninians Primary	149 points
6th	Niddrie Mill Primary	136 points
7th	St Mary's Primary	135 points
8th	Gilmerton Primary	115 points
9th	Cramond Primary	87 points

The top three schools have qualified for the Sportshall Edinburgh Final on Monday 8th December at Meadowbank.

P1-3 Road Safety Magic Roadshow

Many thanks to Mark Symonds who arranged the Road Safety Magic Show for P1-3 on Monday 10th November. More photographs on the P3 Class Pages.

Change of Venue for Orchestra! Reid Hall

The Orchestra will now meet Sarah Deters in the Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Square, on Monday 10th November and will view pieces from the Museum's collection of stringed and wind instruments. Some Primary Seven pupils have been asked to bring their instruments, if they can, for filming.

Reid Concert Hall

A state-of-the-art teaching facility when it was built by Professor John Donaldson back in 1859 with Reid Bequest funds, the Reid Concert Hall's auditorium (the ‘Music Classroom’) is still in use for public classical concerts and as a lecture theatre. The organ is considered one of the finest of its kind in Britain.

The Reid Museum, the earliest surviving purpose-built musical museum in the world, comprises of an extensive collection of antique wing, bowed, stringed and percussion instruments.

Route will be via George Square

P6 Marie Curie Bake Sale

Many thanks to P6 families who contributed baking items for the Marie Curie Bake Sale on Saturday 8th November at Marchmont St Giles Church and came along to purchase items. Three P6 pupils helped to man the homebaking stall as part of their Bronze JASS award.

Very well done to Sarah Nimmo, Archie Eccles and Nikolina Partolina who all worked very hard on the day and raised £138 for Marie Curie at their bake sale.  The remaining baking was sold later in the day, leading to an amazing total of £200.

The children counted the money and the stock and were proactive with their sales techniques. They were perfectly behaved, had a fantastic manner with their customers and were a credit to their families and to Sciennes. 

Aileen Nimmo, Chair of the Parent Council Events and Fundraising Group

Sciennes Music Policy

A draft policy is being circulated and amended and an updated version will appear on our new Music at Sciennes website. Meanwhile, please refer to Sciennes Policies. A Music Improvement Group has been set up which will meet throughout 2014-2015, tasked with raising awareness of our existing Music provision and also exploring ways to expand upon it. Our new blog will be a vehicle for communicating aspects of our Music provision.

http://sciennesmusic.blogspot.co.uk/

We greatly appreciate the support we have already received from Instrument Tuition Specialists Dr Robert Fraser and Rob Ironside, as well as assistance from City of Edinburgh's Principal Officer Instrumental Music, Mike McGeary, and Deirdre O'Brien, Head of Faculty for Expressive Arts at James Gillespie's High School. We also benefit from ongoing parental feedback via our Parent Council, particularly in ensuring our procedures for offering the limited City of Edinburgh provision of free Instrument Tuition to some of our pupils can be clearly understood by all our families.

We also look forward to communicating and celebrating the fantastic achievements of all our young musicians at Sciennes.

P6 Active Travel Sustrans Superheroes

Our P6 pupils have all undergone Cycle Training and have been great ambassadors for Active Travel to school. In recognition of their achievements, they will be awarded Sustran's Superhero badges at our Road Safety Assembly on Friday 14th November. This ties in nicely with our day of support for Children in Need, which has a Superheroes theme this year, also on Friday 14th November.

Road Safety Week 17th -23rd November

In this year’s Road Safety Week (17-23 November 2014), we’re asking everyone to look out for each other on roads. Miss McGrouther, P4 Class Teacher, is our Road Safety Co-ordinator and she has been working with her class and our P6 JRSOs (Aidan, Kirsty and Morgan) to help promote Brake's LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER theme by promoting BE BRIGHT, BE SEEN.

Sam Moody, Road Safety Officer, will return to Sciennes on Friday 14th November to raise awareness of Road Safety for our children (particularly those who walk and cycle to school) at our P4-7 Assembly.

Our JRSOs have been given an exciting opportunity to be involved in the launch of Brake's Road Safety Week at City Chambers on Monday 17th November.

New Sciennes Music Blog

Check out our new 'Music at Sciennes' blog http://sciennesmusic.blogspot.co.uk/

P7 BBC Music Tribute for CBBC

Who were you today, P7?

1 Dave Grohl; 2 Alison Balsom; 3 Lorde; 4 Pharrell Williams; 5 Zane Lowe; 6 Sam Smith; 7 Paloma Faith; 8 Eliza Carthy; 9 Nicola Benedetti; 10 Chris Martin; 11 Jaz Dhami; 12 Martin James Bartlett; 13 Danielle de Niese; 14 Stevie Wonder; 15 Florence Welch; 16 Lauren Laverne; 17 Brian Wilson; 18 Jake Bugg; 19 Katie Derham; 20 Gareth Malone; 21 Kylie Minogue; 22 Chrissie Hyde; 23 One Direction; 24 Emeli Sande; 25 Elton John; 26 Baaba Maal; 27 Ethan Johns; 28 Jools Holland; 29 Jamie Cullum; 30 Brian May; 31 Tees Valley Youth Choir; 32 BBC Concert Orchestra
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/07/bbc-god-only-knows-pharrell-stevie-wonder-chris-martin-lorde

What a hive of creative activity on the Top Floor today! Balloons, butterflies, cellos, trumpets, clarinets, harmonicas, Hawaiian shirts, shades and tigers were just some of the props used by all three P7 classes to try to recreate clips from BBC Music's "God Only Knows"single sold in aid of Children in Need. Laurence even brought in his own spotlight! Ruaridh had a great wig and many thanks to Weston in P4 for dressing up as a tiger. Clips were studied, storyboarded and timed as P7s got to work with their iPads throughout the morning. And they did this very quietly and calmly, so as not to disturb the fabulous Primary 3 Dance Show for parents which was taking place in the Hall. A joyful - if busy! - morning, and a great credit to their very game teachers. We have also discovered that Mrs Nowell is the Beach Boys' Number One fan!

Camera Obscura £1200 for the Playground!

A wonderful evening, thoroughly enjoyed by all, and an amazing amount of £1200 raised for playground developments. Thank you to Sciennes parent Andrew Johnson (Director and Manager of Camera Obscura) for his generous hospitality, and to all the Sciennes helpers on the night, particularly Tanya Boughtflower who promoted the event so effectively. Thank you to Aileen Nimmo for her promotion of the event, too, and for being a wonderful 'welcomer', and to Angela Christie for setting up the event with Gift Aid.

Ms French, who attended the event with her daughter Erin, said the energy, enthusiasm and drive of the Parent Council Events and Fundraising Group were palpable. (She was also delighted to be given a personal tour by Andrew's daughter, Kirsty.) Thank you to everyone who is putting so much time and effort into making improvements in the playground a reality for all our children.

P1 Registration Thursday 13th November

Register for a P1 place if your child is 4 years old by 28th February 2015 and due to start school in August 2015. 

Sciennes will be enrolling its new intake of P1s on THURSDAY 13th NOVEMBER 2014 9.00am-11.30am or 1.30pm-4.00pm.

Further information here: http://sciennesenrol.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Universal praise was received for our excellent P7 House Captains and Sports Captains who provided tours on the Primary Schools Open Day on 5th November. Wonderful ambassadors for Sciennes.

Camera Obscura Outstanding Success!

Grateful thanks to all parents, carers, pupils and staff who attended the Camera Obscura and the World of Illusions Evening event on Thursday 6th November. This Playground Fundraising event was organised by Sciennes parent Andrew Johnson and the Parent Council, exclusively for Sciennes families and friends. Early indications are that the evening has raised a staggering amount - well over £1000!

The Playground Information Evening taking place on Thursday 20th November 7.00pm-8.00pm in the School Hall is open to pupils, parents and extended family. Come along to find out how the playground will be transforming, what the vision is and how we can work together to make it happen.

CBBC Friday Upload!

It's not every day that we get an invitation from CBBC's Friday Download team to have a go at creating our tribute to a music video and uploading our film clips to the show! Primary Seven pupils began planning their response today to this fantastic creativity challenge and it was wonderful to hear so many great ideas and see such motivation, co-operation and team work. We begin filming tomorrow! There is a chance that some of our clips might be used in the TV programme and even if they do not get selected, Primary Seven are having great fun, and learning loads about using their iPads.

We will try to recreate sections from the Children in Need video "God Only Knows", produced by BBC Music, and will film members of the Sciennes Orchestra on Monday. Parental permission requests specific to this event, for those pupils who have not completed the Media section of our EE2s, will be sent out on Friday.

Grateful thanks to Researcher Jenny Garton for this lovely opportunity for the children. 

Become a Superhero for Children in Need Friday 14th November

Next Friday we are inviting pupils and staff to bring a donation and dress up as Superhero for BBC Children in Need, Friday 14th November. Here are some costume ideas!

Ragbag Appeal

What an amazing response to the Eco Team's Ragbag appeal! Thank you very much to all families who donated and to our P7 helpers. All money raised will be used to contribute to Eco developments in the playground.

More photographs on the Eco Team Blog.

Chess Success!

 

Last weekend the Sciennes Chess Club had a very successful Chess Tournament at Wester Hailes Education Centre. Sciennes was represented by 4 teams of four. We brought home FIRST prize in P5 and Under category and SECOND prize in  P6/7 category, but all teams played very well and above all showed excellent sportsmanship, supporting each other very well. A true credit to the school!


Lothian Team Chess Day 2/11

On Sunday 2nd of November Sciennes School entered a team chess tournament at Wester Hailes Education Centre. Sciennes have an excellent record in these team events and hopes were high for both a good result and a fun day out.


There were two sections, P6+7 and P5 and Under. Sciennes had two teams in for each section. As always, every single game is tough fought and there are no easy matches. Everyone who played should be proud to represent their school and the brilliant fighting spirit and team sportsmanship shown.


Stars of the show were the P5 and Under A team who won the tournament! Sergi scored a very impressive 5.5/6 on top board but everyone in played brilliantly and it was a real team result. The B team also were great, they had a very tough section, made from B teams of other schools, and special mention goes to Brindley and Jennifer Feng. Brindley won all 6 of his games and Jennifer won her last game heroically and was absolutely delighted!


In the P6/7 competition Sciennes the format was slightly different. There wasn’t two leagues but only one big one which meant the A team and the B team were in together. Only Sciennes had a B team in this competition so it was particularly tough for them having to the play the A team from every other school, including Sciennes! The team drew a match 2-2 with South Morningside School and a big well done to James for winning his last two games. P6/7 B team is to be commended for their positive attitude - placed against stronger teams they lost won some but lost many games, yet they kept going and supported each other well – very well done!

The P6/7 A team were, as always, fantastic. They scored an excellent 2nd place only losing to the winners. Theo was a superstar on board two scoring 5/6. Congratulations to them on this achievement.

Well done to all who participated, everyone was a credit to their school and enjoyed their day.

Calum MacQueen, Head Coach

School Orchestra at St Cecilia's Hall

Mrs Campbell will accompany the School Orchestra to St Cecilia's Hall on Monday 10th November. Pupils will have a chance to view the Musical Instrument Museum's fantastic collection, dating back to the 16th Century.

Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments ranks among the world's most important collections of musical heritage. All the main types or musical sound-making device are represented, and are presented to the public in two museums. The c. 5000 objects in the permanent collection constitute a rich research resource of both breadth and depth, and include many historically typical models of musical instrument spanning over 500 years together with prized rare and unique items. 

Many thanks to Sarah Deters for this wonderful opportunity. Sarah is also providing free music workshops in school for Primary Four and and Primary Five. The Primary Five workshops on 'Old Edinburgh Music' will feature some of the collection's historical instruments, dating back to the time period the classes are studying.

Further information can be found at Musical Instruments at Your Fingertips:
http://www.miayf.org/

New Book Reviews Added

New posts are now up on Ms French's P6 book blog called - Bookreviewpass.

Catchment School Open Day 5th November

Please note the City of Edinburgh Open Day for families to visit their catchment school is Wednesday 5^th November and we will welcome visitors at Sciennes from 9.30am – 11.30am and 1.30pm – 3.00pm.

P5 Learning about Energy with Mr McKenna

P5 are learning which chemicals produce which colours in fireworks as an introduction to their study of Energy. Mr McKenna ably delivers supremely engaging  Science lessons for P3-P7 each week in our Science lab and there is always something amazing going on!

Marie Curie Bake Sale Saturday 8th November

MARIE CURIE BAKE SALE 

Saturday 8th November

Marchmont St Giles Church

2pm-4.30pm

P6 families have been invited to contribute baking items for this Bake Sale and we hope that many of our families may also be able to attend this fundraiser on Saturday to purchase items. Some P6 pupils will be helping to man the homebaking stall as part of their Bronze JASS award.

If other families were also willing to contribute home baking, then please hand items in to the School Office on FRIDAY 7th NOVEMBER where they will be collected by Aileen Nimmo, Chair of the Parent Council Events and Fundraising Group. It would be great if items could be bagged, with ingredients listed and a a price marked. No nuts please.

Thank you for your support.

Book Reviews by Pupils for Pupils

Looking for a good read? Have a look at Ms French's Book Review Blog to find pupils' reviews and recommendations.

Food Focus Fortnight

What a wonderful Food Focus Fortnight! So many delicious recipes and activities – fruit kebabs, soup, stovies, cakes, cereal bars, bread, pesto, chilli and much more. Thank you to Shona Pearmain, Principal Teacher, for planning and to parent volunteers for support. 
We continue to use our kitchen area regularly. Many more photographs on the Class Pages.

http://www.sciennesclasses.blogspot.co.uk/