Happy Holidays

Wishing all our families a safe and happy holiday. We look forward to welcoming pupils back to school on WEDNESDAY 21st OCTOBER.

Well done, P7 Lagganlia Champions!

What a fantastic week at Lagganlia! Well done Primary Seven - all Lagganlia Champions! Have a well deserved rest in the holidays and we look forward to welcoming you back to school on WEDNESDAY 21st October.

Group One

 Group Two

Group Three

Group Four

Group Five

 Group Six

Group Seven

Group Eight

Group Nine

P3 Syrian Harvest Apppeal with Mercy Corps

P3 present at Assemblies

On Thursday 1st October Victoria Telford from Mercy Corps came to both P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies to help P3 launch their Harvest Appeal. Pupils from P3 told everyone at Assemblies about their project to raise money to build playgrounds for Syrian refugees.

Victoria Telford from Mercy Corps

Victoria tells the pupils how Mercy Corps is helping Syrian refugees

After the Assemblies, groups of P3 pupils delivered hand decorated envelopes and asked families to make donations to the Appeal by Thursday 8th October. Great project, P3!

UN Global Goal 10 is Reduced Inequality

Sciennes P3 Mercy Corps Assembly 1.10.15 from SciennesPS

Article 22 The right to have help if you are a refugee 
Article 31 The right to play

Serena's Fundraising Cafe for Syrian Appeal

Very well done Serena in P2b, who has raised nearly £20 for the P3 Sciennes' Syrian Appeal with Mercy Corps by running a charity bake sale for her neighbours in the back garden on Saturday 4th October It was all her own ideas and work, including the Serena's Charity Cafe sign, menu and cakes. A tremendous effort!

‘Cost of the School Day’ Parent / Carer Session

Sciennes Primary School is proud to be one of six schools in Edinburgh committed to raising awareness of children in poverty and exploring ways in which we might reduce the ‘Cost of the School Day’. 

We are offering parents the chance to hear from Pattie Santelices, a member of the Health and Well Being team at City of Edinburgh Council, talk about the implication of children living in poverty in Edinburgh. 

The aims of the session are:
* To highlight the scale and impact of child poverty.
* To explore cultural and structural explanations of child poverty.
* To introduce the wider ‘1 in 5’ Project.
* To consider the costs associated with the school day at Sciennes
* To reflect on how we can make education fairer for all 

There are many costs associated with school and education (e.g. uniforms, materials, trips, meals etc...) and together we would like to explore ways to reduce these costs where possible in order to make education fairer for all. 

The presentation will be held on:
Tuesday 6th October 6.30-8.30pm and is repeated on
Wednesday 7th October 1.30 – 3.20pm 
If you would like to attend please email the school: admin@sciennes.edin.sch.uk 

Complementary sessions are taking place with staff and pupils in school. Feedback from everyone will contribute to new Council recommendations and guidance for schools. 

Council plans to beat child poverty

Published Friday, 2nd October 2015

 

Tackling child poverty is the focus of a new awareness drive being spearheaded by the City of Edinburgh Council.

A report going to the Education, Children and Families Committee next week (Tuesday 6 October) shows that just over 21% of children in Edinburgh live in poverty and this figure is forecast to increase significantly by 2020.

Every area of the city is affected with each Council ward having child poverty rates of over 10% and it’s estimated that the cost of delivering services to address the impact in the Capital is around £156m a year.

Next week’s Child Poverty report outlines various actions being taken by the Council to lessen the impact. 

Key areas identified include:
*Developing more flexible and affordable good quality childcare to meet the needs of families on low incomes
*Improving attendance at schools and early years establishments, and the attainment and achievement of young people
*Reducing the attainment gap between lowest achieving pupils and their peers across the city
*Identifying and developing more safe places to play

Other actions include increasing breakfast club provision, working in partnership with food banks to better understand why families in poverty are using their services and further developing family engagement with a focus on strong home-school partnerships.

A major school project – the ‘1 in 5: Raising Awareness of Child Poverty in Edinburgh’ - has already started in five primaries and one secondary school. It aims to identify best practice and changes that can be introduced to make school more affordable for families on low incomes. The project involves working with children, staff and parents to challenge the stigma that affects children living in poverty.

The report also highlights the importance of income maximisation to raising attainment. Research has shown that the level of household income plays a major role in attainment levels with more initiatives needed to increase wages, encourage take up of unclaimed benefits and other finance-related poverty costs.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education, Children and Families Convener, said: “Child poverty matters to us all as it damages childhoods, damages life chances and damages society as a whole. Children from poorer backgrounds lag behind at all stages of education so it’s important we do all we can to close the attainment gap.

“We have developed a range of actions to challenge and mitigate the impact of child poverty in the Capital and will continue to work closely with our partner agencies to ensure everything is done to ensure children given every opportunity to have the best possible start in life.”

Alison Noble, Head Teacher at Sciennes Primary School, is one of the schools taking ‘1 in 5: Raising Awareness of Child Poverty in Edinburgh’ project.

She said: “This project provides a valuable opportunity for Sciennes to make a difference and ensure the outcomes for our children are not undermined by poverty and inequality. By taking part we can focus our efforts on addressing the barriers that exist within our community and help us to begin to fulfil one of the objectives in the Scottish Attainment Challenge - to close the attainment gap and provide every child with the same opportunity to succeed.

Our ward includes an area of multiple deprivation so raising awareness of the issues surrounding poverty may contribute to our children making a positive contribution to the school, local and wider community.” 

P3 Pupils Launch Their Mercy Corps Appeal for Playground for Syrian Refugees

At special Assemblies with Mercy Corps on Thursday 1st October, P3 pupils will tell the school about their Harvest project to help Syrian refugees.

The P3 Communications Group met on Wednesday and this is how they explained the project in their own words:

Primary Three are trying to raise money for Mercy Corps to help Syrian children who are refugees. There is a war in Syria and lots of people have lost their homes. Refugees are people who are trying to find a safe place to live. We are lucky to have lots of things to play with in our playground. We want to help children in refugee camps. We want to give them their own playground. A playground costs £300.

We have decorated envelopes and everyone will get one. Please put some money in your envelope and bring it back to school. We will collect the envelopes from the classes. Everyone in P3 has a different job to do. Some people are envelope collectors, some people are money counters and some people are going to talk at Assembly to tell everyone about our project. 

Thank you from The P3 Communications Team 
 
Look out for more information from the team!


Article 22 The right to have help if you are a refugee 
Article 31 The right to play

 

Global Goals Assembly 25.9.15

On Friday 25th September at the P4-7 Assembly we marked the United Nations' adoption of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development with the 'World's Largest Lesson':

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change

Throughout the year, we will help our pupils understand and support the Global Goals and the Articles of the United Nations' Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by linking them to our curriculum.

Sciennes Global Goals Assembly 25.9.15 from SciennesPS





The Worlds Largest Lesson Introduced by Malala Yousafzai from World's Largest Lesson on Vimeo.
 

Parent Consultations

We hope you will enjoy coming to Parent/Carer Consultations on Tuesday 29th September (5pm-8pm) or Thursday 1st October (4pm-7pm) and that it will help further the partnership between home and school for your child’s learning.

We suggest it is worth trying to arrive about fifteen minutes ahead of your child's appointment time. This will allow you to locate your child’s classroom and spend some time looking at their work before meeting your child's teacher in the Hall. You can of course visit the classroom after your appointment. Primary Seven pupils meet their teachers on the top landing and have been invited to join the meeting with you. Please wait outside on the landing until called in.

The Parent Council will have refreshments for sale outside the Hall. There is a Book Fair in the Library and we hope you will find time to look at our new Playground.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Senior Leadership Team

Autumn Holiday Monday 21st September

Enjoy the Autumn holiday on Monday 21st September and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Tuesday 22nd September.

P4-7 Assembly: Global Goal 4

On Friday 18th September at the P4-7 Assembly we learned more about our new school wide project "Rights Respecting Schools" and Global Goal 4: The right to a quality education, as well as our own Responsibilities.

We congratulated our new Pupil Council reps and thanked Mrs Sally Nowell for organising the election on Wednesday. The Pupil Council will take a lead role in developing our "Rights Respecting Schools" project. Next Friday 25th September sees the launch of "The World's Largest Lesson" when we will learn more about the Global Goals for 2030:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change

Sciennes P4-7 Assembly 18.9.15 from SciennesPS

Pupil Council Reps:
P2 Bella, Pixie, Isla
P3 Elsie, Showrjo, Theo
P4 Evie, Sean, Hannah C
P5 Zac, Louis, Eilidh
P6 Liston, Sarah, Cai
P7 Fergus, Hamish, Tom

Saul is Scottish Tae Kwon Do Champion!

Congratulations to Saul in P7 who won a fantastic medal and the title of Scottish Champion in his category at a recent Tae Kwon Do competition in Edinburgh. A superb achievement!

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.

Lothian Schools Cross Country

LOTHIAN SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE 2015/16

Congratulations to all the new and existing P6 and P7 runners who took part in last week's first Lothian Schools Cross Country event of the new session at Mary Erskine's. Tremendous results!

 

Boys

Stephen 7th

Matthew 9

Boris 10

Cai 39

David 43

 

Girls 

Rose 1

Susannah 13

Emily 24

Isobel 40

Joanne 42

Isla 53

Next fixture - Victoria Park, Newhaven Road Trinity  EH6 5PY  

Wednesday  16 September  2015

Meet at 4.15pm for 4.30pm start at each event, finishing at 5.15pm.

Thank you to Boris' mum, Sarah Winkler, for co-ordinating participation.  As many runners for both the boys' and girls' races can take part, but a minimum of 4 runners each week is needed to qualify for the league.  Sciennes receives 5 points for each team of 4 in each race plus a bonus point for each team of 4 they beat and points for those individuals who finish in the first ten runners. The distance varies slightly from course but is around one mile; some courses more hilly than others. Spikes can be worn for those who have them.

As many P6s as possible are needed please for the week when P7s are in Lagganlia (7 October) to keep up the minimum team points quota of 4 boys, 4 girls.  

If you know of anyone else who may be interested please contact Sarah Winkler thewinklers@btinternet.com

Edinburgh Schools’ Cross Country League  Winter Fixtures  2015-6

 Venue                                    Date

Mary Erskine’s School          9 September          2015  (4.30pm)

Victoria Park  Trinity            16 September           2015

Roseburn Park                     23 September        2015

Fettes  College                     30^th September       2015

Royal High School                07 October              2015  

NB No P7s around this week as at Lagganlia so will need to try and have 4 P6 boys and 4 P6 girls to keep the team points going for Sciennes.

Inverleith (Heriot’s)                 24 February           2016

Fettes (relays - teams of 3)  02 March                 2016

Saughton (Tynecastle)           09 March               2016

Mary Erskine’s School           16 March                2016

           

AGM (Heriot’s)                       27 April                2016    4.30pm

House Assemblies 11.9.15

On Friday 11th September we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first House Assembly.

This year Sciennes is beginning a school wide project to become a "Rights Respecting School" which links with the United Nations Global Goals, begun in 2000, to:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change
 
On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders will commit to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Much has been achieved in the last fifteen years, and 2015 is the halfway point towards achieving the Goals by 2030. Our House Assemblies introduced these projects to our pupils.

Sciennes House Assembly 11.9.15 from SciennesPS

Sciennes' New Playground

Thank you to great friend to the school, Chris Hill, for these fantastic photographs of active play and learning in our wonderful new playground. Chris has documented the transformation and more of his photographs can be accessed using the links below:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chdot/20759253598/in/album-72157655114190675/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chdot/albums/72157655114190675/page3

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chdot/albums/72157655114190675/page2

Off to A Great Start

We have all enjoyed welcoming back pupils to Sciennes and to our exciting new playground - in sunshine! Everyone worked so hard to ensure the playground was ready for the start of term and it is wonderful to see so much active play and learning taking place.

As well as our new Primary One pupils, we have many new pupils throughout the school who are already settling extremely well and we also warmly welcome back Class Teacher Mrs Kat Watson in P3 and Miss Heather Richmond in P5 to the Sciennes Team.

Thank you for equipping pupils with sharp pencils, rulers, glue sticks, coloured pencils and erasers in pencil cases as well as a water bottle and full P.E. kit which includes a change of clothes and a change of indoor shoes in a P.E. bag. Pupils will require P.E. kits in school each week and we appreciate labelling of ALL items of clothing.

We are also grateful for your support with school uniform and helping us to discourage the children from wearing jeans.  Please note that P1-P6 pupils wear navy blue, with our royal blue uniform reserved to distinguish our P7 senior pupils. (Summer dresses for girls should be blue or red.)

We encourage our pupils to be punctual, arriving ready to enter school by 8.50am at the latest and are grateful for your support in ensuring the children are ready to make their way into school from 8.45am. P1 classes will continue to line up and be escorted into school by their Class Teachers at 8.50am.

Further information can be found in our online weekly newsletter from Mrs Noble - The Sciennes Flyer.  Each year group will also receive a paper copy Class Newsletter from their Class Teachers containing an overview of the term and detailing forthcoming informal 'Meet the Teacher' sessions. Each class has its own blog which will be added to throughout the year and you can access using the CLASSES tab above.

We regularly Tweet updates (which include posts from each of our school blogs, and also publish posts on our Facebook page) so we encourage you to sign up to Twitter and follow us to keep informed.

Welcome Back Monday 17th August

We look forward to welcoming back pupils on Monday 17th August.  Everyone has worked incredibly hard to ensure our new playground is ready for the pupils' return.

We have two morning bells, slightly apart. The first is a signal to line up and the second bell is when lines begin to be escorted in by Class Teachers. ALL pupils should be in line by the second bell at the latest and we appreciate parental support in ensuring pupils are on time to start school promptly at 8.50am each morning.

Parents and carers of any new pupils joining Sciennes should accompany them to the Hall on the first day of the new session where they will be met by a member of the Senior Learning Team and taken to class.

We are grateful for parental support in ensuring all our pupils wear school uniform and details of this can be found in our School Uniform Policy:

Sciennes School Uniform Policy

We appreciate pupils returning equipped with well stocked pencil cases - sharpened pencils, coloured pencils, small and large ruler, sharpener, eraser, glue stick - as well as P.E. kit which should include a change of labelled clothes and indoor gym shoes in a gym bag.


We ask that you help us in being able to return Lost Property by labelling all pupils' items carefully.

Teachers will issue a Class Newsletter with specific information for each class in due course. Families will also receive an Information Pack, issued to pupils. We are grateful for your support in returning any forms promptly. Please also log on to WisePay for details of forthcoming trips.

Thank you.

Playground Improvement Photographs

Check out the link below for regular updates.

 Updated photographs