‘LOOSE PARTS PLAY’ OUTDOOR LEARNING HAS ARRIVED AT SCIENNES!

Update from Kirsten Unger, Playground Group:
What is 'Loose Parts Play'? More open-ended play in the school. Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They help inspire imagination, problem solving and creativity in play, on children’s own terms and in their own unique way. 

On Friday 6th March we were fortunate to have Steve Moizer, from Grounds for Learning to train the Pupil Support Assistants and meet with the School’s Senior Management Team to give us the best possible start to loose parts play. From March 9th-12th Louise Caldwell,  Play Development Officer, Edinburgh is in school to work with individual teachers and classes using loose parts. 

Parents were able to hear more from Steve Moizer on Friday 6th March and if you want to be actively involved in supporting the ‘Loose parts’ initiative please get in touch. 

Bamboo? Biophilia: Plants make us feel good. We have created some living play spaces, bringing some sensory richness and fun. It has been achieved through generous donations from Jewsons, Homebase, The Range, Morrisons, friends of pupils, skip scavenging, the Council and help from the school budget. If you have ideas or want to donate large pots/soil/plants, please let us know. 
Contact: kirstin_macunger@yahoo.co.uk


Joyful scenes in the playground this week during 'Loose Parts' Outdoor Learning with Louise Caldwell, City of Edinburgh Play Development Officer, and Kerry from Playbox, giving our children the opportunity to express themselves through self-directed play. We have also benefited greatly from the advice and support of Steven Moizer from Grounds for Learning. Ms Christie timetabled sessions for buddy classes and more photographs can be found on the Class Pages. Thank you to parents who have come along to see the sessions. There is still time to catch us at play tomorrow! Wonderful to see the children co-operating so well to construct together with imaginations soaring! 

Red Nose Day at Sciennes

Make Your Face Funny for Money

Friday 13th March is Red Nose Day and to mark the event the children may come to school with decorated faces and / or hair. The P7 pupils will be at the entrances into the school with buckets to collect the donations from the children. There is a pledge from the Government to double the money that is raised in schools, so we hope to make this a bumper year at Sciennes!

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