International Tapas at Sciennes

Thank you to Ms Bethan Owen and Aileen Nimmo for organising such a fabulous evening, celebrating diversity at Sciennes, and to the Sciennes Family for creating such a warm welcoming party for our Spanish guests. Estupendo!

"Delicious food from around the world was on the menu for our phenomenally successful International Tapas Evening, held in school on Monday 2nd March 2015, to celebrate the diversity of languages and culture at Sciennes. Our fabulously generous bilingual families cooked up a storm to provide us with a veritable feast, while our enormously talented children kept us entertained with their fantastic music, song and dance. 

Planned as a special welcome to our visitors from the Communidad de Madrid, the event served as the perfect opportunity to celebrate and showcase the great cultural and linguistic richness our school population boasts. The delegation from Madrid was made up of teachers and local authority officers who have been working on a Comenius project with our cluster schools, the City of Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh College. We were delighted to welcome Liz Gray and Ann Robertson from City of Edinburgh as well as Dr Miguel Ultray Delgado, Spanish Consul General in Edinburgh.The project is focused on learning and teaching, with particular emphasis on languages and cooperative learning strategies and has been an enriching experience for all involved. 

Many thanks go to those who made the event happen, with special thanks to Aileen Nimmo (Chair of the Parent Council Fundraising and Events Group) for her hard work and boundless enthusiasm. June Underwood’s dancers were nothing short of spellbinding, as were our Acapella singers who had been so expertly prepared by Linda Carson and Sarah Dempsey. Thank you to Simon from James Gillespie's High School for playing the bagpipes to welcome our guests in style. Starting the evening off in the most charming of fashions was Melissa McLennan on her clarsach and bringing things to a foot-stomping close were Alastair and Judith Gillespie. Thank you to all the staff who supported in setting up and attending the event and to Forrest Howie for his slideshow for the Hall. Many thanks to all who contributed to such a successful evening which so clearly highlighted the atmosphere of team work and cooperation we strive to foster in our school."

Bethan Owen 

Grateful thanks to Bethan Owen and Aileen Nimmo for organising such a memorable, wonderful International evening

Daphne played clarsach beautifully

Simon from JGHS welcomed our guests in style

Welcoming party

Liz Gray, QIO for Literacy and Languages, City of Edinburgh

Our Spanish colleagues from Madrid

A tiny selection of the delicious and bountiful international foods which filled the Hall!

Captivated by Mr Howie's slideshow!

Acapella Kids led by Linda Carson and Sarah Dempsey

 

 

 

A full house

June Underwood's dancers took the floor... and dazzled!

Judith and Alastair provided foot tapping music

Mrs Alison Noble, Headteacher, gave the Vote of Thanks

Third Place in Euroquiz!

A wonderful result for Toby, Lena, Matthew and Alex at the Edinburgh Euroquiz event held at City Chambers on Monday 9th March. The P6 team secured a highly commendable Third Place behind Stewart's Melville and St George's. Thank you very much to families for supporting, to Mrs Nowell for accompanying and to Monika Wantoch, City of Edinburgh Council, for organising the event. Well done, P6! Euro stars!

Silver EPSSA Basketball!

We are delighted to report the terrific success of the P7 team who represented Sciennes in the Edinburgh Primary Schools Sports Association (EPSSA) Basketball Final, held on Monday 9th March at Meadowbank. The team achieved a fantastic Second Place and each of the twelve players was awarded a Silver EPSSA medal. The top two placed teams now progress to the Lothians Basketball Final in May. Some of the pupils take part in the Active Schools Basketball Club, some are involved with Blaze at the Crags and some are in the Netball team, but as a group they have not played together outwith the EPSSA games, so it was a remarkable result. We are indebted to Ms Anstruther for setting up our links with Blaze to develop Girls' Basketball throughout this year and were able to field six girls at the tournament. (Last year we could not even take part because we needed at least two girls on court to participate and had been unable to recruit any girls.)  Thank you to our superb Active Schools Basketball coach Mikey, to Ms Christie who transported the children by minibus and to Mrs Walker for organising the entire event for the city.

Good Luck in the Basketball Final, P7!

A team of girls and boys from P7 was successful in the first round of the EPSSA Basketball tournament and have secured a place in the Final on Monday, 9th March at Meadowbank.
Good luck, P7!

Netball Success

Very well done to members of the Sciennes Netball team who won five out of seven games at the EPSSA Netball Tournament on Friday 6th March! It was the first tournament for many of the girls and they played extremely well, with a great attitude both on and off the court. Grateful thanks to our superb netball coach Emmylou Ferry who also provided this lovely photograph.

Susannah, Rose, Evie, Joanne Chloe, Ava, Peigidh

P4-7 Assembly 6.3.15

On Friday 6th March at the P4-7 Assembly we were fortunate to enjoy a showcase of very talented pupils. We were all extremely impressed with P3 pupil Aminah's presentation on Autism. Wonderful confidence and an excellent talk which really helped us understand more about the condition. Tess and Anna Granville from P6C had been very moved by a video they had seen about Down's Syndrome. They played it to the audience and asked questions about it. The staff were heartened by the answers the girls' received, which showed real care, understanding and acceptance. P6C are very much looking forward to working in partnership with Pilrig Park Special School on a project begun this week and to taking part in an exciting performance later this year at the Festival Theatre.

Everyone was also entirely awed by P5 pupil Samara's remarkable piano playing of her own composition. We hope we will have many more opportunities to hear her perform.

Thank you to all families who provided costumes for World Book Day. A joy to see so many pupils and staff dressed up and photos can be found on the Class Pages. P6C set an Extreme Reading Challenge to all P4-7 pupils to submit photographs of themselves reading in unusual places. More details of how to take part to follow.

Next week is Red Nose Day (Friday 13th March) and P7A girls composed their own song, asking everyone to help raise funds, which was sung beautifully by Erin.

The UK Government has announced that all money raised by schools next week will be doubled! We have invited pupils to dress up and 'Make your face funny for money'. P7 pupils will collect donations. (We do not have red noses on sale this year but they are available at many retailers.)

P4 -7 Assembly 6.3.15 from SciennesPS

Runaway Cross Country Success!

Outstanding success at the EPSSA Cross Country event on Monday 2nd March on the Meadows. Rose achieved a fabulous First Place in the P6 Girls' race and Cerys also had a convincing First Place win in the P7 Girls' race (having won last year, too, and this year fortunately not having to run for part of the race with only one shoe!). Robyn achieved a commendable 10th place in the P7 Race.  Susannah ran a great race to come Fourth place with Holly hot on her heels in 5th place for P6. Lawson achieved a very respectable Fourth Place in the hard fought P7 Boys' race, with Joe coming 9th. P6 boys also ran extremely well with Stephen achieving Fourth place, Matthew Caldwell 5th and Matthew Ross 7th place and Calum 16th place. The other runners also did extremely well, with many being placed in the first fifty in each event, competing against 48 schools from all over the city.

Our five fastest P6 and P7 boys and girls out of the ten who competed in each race will go on to compete in the EPSSA Final Cross Country event at Duddingston Playing Fields on Monday 16th March at 11.00am. Thank you to all the parents who came along to support and to Willie Jarvie who has coached the children so well at the lunchtime Running Club. Participation in the Lothian Schools Cross Country events has also had a hugely positive impact on the progress and success of the pupils. Well done P6 and P7! A very exciting event!

Thank you to Mrs Sally Nowell for helping to officiate and to our PE Specialist, Mrs Beth Walker, for organising the entire proceedings, with assistance from our Active Schools Co-ordinator, Mr Jonathan Wallace.

P7 GIRLS A SCHOOLS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY 2.3.15
Cerys	1
Robyn	10
Katie	22
Zoe	25
Ava	30
Eliza	31
Adele	44
Evie	47
Annie
Mia W
Phoebe
P6 GIRLS A SCHOOLS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY 2.3.15
Rose	1
Susannah	4
Holly	5
Emily	10
Abby	20
Lena
Charlotte

P7 BOYS A SCHOOLS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY 2.3.15
Lawson	4
Joe	9
Mark	22
Dante	36
Ben	50
Joonhyuk
Christian
Toby
Logan
P6 BOYS A SCHOOLS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY 2.3.15
Stephen	4
Matthew C	5
Matthew R	7
Calum	16
Boris	21
Liam	27
Fergus
Alex R
Daniel H
Miles

Professor Michael Eddleston Science Assemblies

Grateful thanks to Sciennes' parent of Diya and Thomas, Professor Michael Eddleston, who delivered perfectly pitched talks to both our P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Friday 27th February. Professor  Eddleston asked the question 'Why do people become Scientists?' and gave examples of some famous scientists and how their questions and discoveries have impacted on the world and helped us understand what happens inside the human brain.

Professor Eddleston is a Scientist of international repute who studied at Oxford, Cambridge and the equally renowned Scripps Institute in California. He is a practising physician as well as a Professor and Fellow at Edinburgh University who travels predominantly to Asia as part of his ongoing medical research. Professor Eddleston also explained to the children how he became a Scientist and that what drives him is his ambition to provide patients - his own and others' - with the best possible care he can. He encouraged all pupils to see themselves as scientists and to keep looking at the world and asking questions.

Thank you to Ms Anstruther for organising the visit, which supports her work with our children on how the brain helps us to learn, as well as supporting our ongoing promotion of Science throughout school.

Professor Eddleston provided the time lapse video below to illustrate how Scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini's research established Nerve Growth Factor's influence on controlling brain connections. Overcoming Mussolini's fascist suppression early in her career, this remarkable lady went on to receive the Nobel Prize for her discoveries.

Thank you very much for a fascinating talk, Professor Eddleston!

Blaze Basketball Tournaments Friday 27th Feb

Our links with Blaze Basketball at the Crags go from strength to strength thanks to the support of Sarah and Eoghann.

There will be an all girls primary school tournament Friday 27th February at the Crags from 3-4pm which will be followed by a mixed tournament from 4-6pm.
P5 - P7 pupils all welcome - the more the merrier!

All Aboard the Wild About Scotland Bus

P6 and P7 pupils from Sciennes and P7 pupils from Tollcross have been very fortunate to be given the chance to take part in engaging workshops led by Education Officers Lindsay and Jamie from Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th February in their 'Wild About Scotland' double decker outreach bus, sponsored by Clydesdale Bank. Pupils learned about the habitats and conservation of beavers and wildcats in particular.

The Wild about Scotland bus is travelling the length and breadth of Scottish communities engaging children with Scotland's natural habitats and native species. The main objective is to provide fun, practical lessons that connect children to the nature in their own backyard with a view to creating a lifelong appreciation and respect for Scotland's wildlife and the importance it plays in wider conservation issues affecting not just Scotland but our planet overall.

More photographs on the Primary Six Class Pages and the Primary Seven Class Pages.

It was wonderful to have the Wild About Scotland bus parked up in  our neck of the woods and we thoroughly enjoyed the workshops. Jamie and Lindsay were very complimentary about the enthusiasm and manners of the pupils and we in turn  are grateful to them for their time and energy. And safe journey onwards, Dave the Driver, as you make your way to Oxgangs Primary and then Perth. Come back soon, RZSS!

 

School Resumes Monday 23rd February

We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 23rd February. We would appreciate your support in ensuring pupils return fully equipped with sharp pencils, coloured pencils, sharpener, eraser, ruler and glue stick in a pencil case as well as full P.E. kit (including indoor gym shoes and a change of clothing) and a water bottle.
Thank you.

Well Done, P6!

We hope Primary Six pupils have had a well deserved rest after their enthusiastic, energetic outdoor learning residential at Benmore Centre Monday 9th-Friday 13th February 2015.

The photographs below give a flavour of the exciting activities on offer at Benmore and many groups were also able to kayak and canoe. You can read about our adventures here:

http://sciennesbenmore2015.blogspot.co.uk

Group One Exploring Benmore Grounds

Group Two Caving

Group Three at Benmore Centre Golden Gates

Group Four receive instructions for a Gorge Walk

Group Five Climbing and Abseiling

Group Six Forest Adventure

Group Seven High Ropes Course

Group Eight Low Ropes Course

Group Nine Biking

Paleontologist Dr Steve Brusatte

What a fascinating and inspiring presentation from internationally eminent Paleontologist Dr Steve Brusatte at both P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Friday 5th February about his work as a Dinosaur and Fossil Expert. Originally from Chicago, Dr Steve, now based at Edinburgh University, travels the world giving lectures and was a consultant on BBC's 'Walking with Dinosaurs'. He was so generous with his time and our children were enthralled as he explained why he is so passionate about dinosaurs and how he came to be a paleontologist. His most recent discovery hit the headlines a month ago when he and his team found a new species of dinosaur in the Isle of Skye. The new dinosaur is one of only a few to be christened with a Gaelic name 'Dearcmhara Shawcrossi' which means sea lizard. The Question and Answer session was equally fascinating, with some excellent questions from the audiences. Thank you to Ragne and Emil's dad for contacting school and to Ms Anstruther for arranging the visit. A truly memorable presentation which certainly inspired our pupils, not only today but also for their future. Thank you, Dr Steve!

Dinosaur Song from Robert Mitchell on Vimeo.

A song especially for Dr Steve!