P7 Book Launch in Support of Comic Relief

P7 Book Launch BaDUMtsh P4-7 Assembly 17.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School
 

On Friday 17th March we held a special assembly to launch our P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh", professionally formatted and published by Sciennes' parent and published author, Mary Turner Thomson, through her Whitewater Publishing Company. Mary addressed the P4-7 Assembly and explained the significant achievement of our pupils officially becoming 'published authors' themselves. It was wonderful to welcome so many parents to the event and we were also delighted to welcome City of Edinburgh's Literacy Development Officer, Evelyn Love-Gajardo.

Mary Turner Thomson and Evelyn Love-Gajardo (CEC Literacy Development Officer)

This is the seventh book Sciennes' pupils have produced with Mary and we looked back at our involvement with her over several years. We gave Mary a small token of thanks with a Love Hearts Thank You cake and Fairtrade flowers.

We are thrilled that celebrated and much loved comedian Patrick Monahan (who came to an Assembly in August and joined us for a Daily Mile run) so kindly sent a foreword for the children's book. Laura took to the stage to read aloud Patrick's thoughtful and encouraging words to the children.

Laura reads Foreword by Patrick Monahan

Thank you to P7 teachers Mrs Jane Maguire, Mrs Fiona Barker, Ms Fiona Sellar and Mr Mark McKenna who worked so hard with their pupils to create and organise the content for the book.

Thank you Mrs Maguire, Mrs Barker, Ms Sellar and Mr McKenna

A group of pupils from each of our three P7 classes confidently 'took the mic' to deliver a selection of jokes, funny stories and cartoons from their book, with all P7 pupils supportively calling out "BaDUMtsh" at the end of each punchline. All our pupils from P1-P7 have been asked to 'Stand Up for Comic Relief' and deliver jokes or funny stories to their classes as part of a whole school Comedy Festival in support of Red Nose Day next week.

P7 pupils 'took the mic' and shared jokes, funny stories and cartoons from their book.

Richard Melvin, accomplished comedy writer, producer and comedian has generously offered his time to provide comedy workshops for our three P6 classes where they will also learn about different jobs and roles in comedy production.

In support of Comic Relief, P6 pupil Emily is leading a bake sale for her year group and P6 pupils Niamh, Faye and Amelia are organising a sale of bath bombs and keyrings. All pupils have been invited to wear red and bring a donation on Friday 24th March.

Niamh, Faye and Amelia share their plans for Red Nose Day fundraising

Thank you very much to all the parents and to Pupil Support Assistants Mrs Tariq and Mrs Wilkins who helped cut up and distribute celebratory cakes, printed with the children's book cover.

Celebratory cakes!

An additional box of books should arrive from the printers on Monday. Pre-ordered books can be collected next week and copies can be purchased for £5 each with profits to Comic Relief.

Mary with her son, P7 pupil Zach

The Eco Group and Mr Hutchison were congratulated on their successful Fairtrade stall last week which helps Sciennes to work towards FairAware status. Louis and Henry in P6 announced that their football match in support of the Fairtrade Foundation will take place for P6 and P7 pupils from 1.30pm on Saturday 25th March on the Meadows.

Participation in the annual SEET Euroquiz held at City Chambers is an interesting, fun and exciting event, worthwhile in itself, but we were extremely excited to share that this year's P6 team - Alice, Ali, Hamzah and James - won the Edinburgh heat! Congratulations to the team and grateful thanks to families for their support.

Winners of Euroquiz 2017 Edinburgh Heat!

P5A pupils, Rory, Isla and Ella announced that they will be organising an Easter Egg Foodbank appeal and asked for donated Easter eggs to be handed in to the School Office by 31st March.

P5 Growth Mindset Workshops Mon 20th March

We are extremely grateful to Hopscotch Theatre Company who have made exceptional efforts to reschedule their highly oversubscribed Growth Mindset workshops for P5 (due to take place on Monday 27th February but cancelled as a result of unforeseeable circumstances outwith their control).

We look forward to welcoming the team on Monday 20th March.

Get 'Reddy' for Red Nose Day!

Sciennes Get 'Reddy' for Red Nose Day P4-7 Assembly 10.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 10th March we shared plans for Red Nose Day on Friday 24th March. P7s will begin selling red noses next week at £1 each and pupils will be asked to 'Stand Up for Comic Relief' by taking the mic and saying something funny as part of our whole school Comedy Festival.





Our P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh" is currently being printed, professionally formatted and published by Sciennes' parent Mary Turner Thomson through her Whitewater Publishing Company and we will hold an official Book Launch during Assembly next week. We are delighted that much loved comedian Patrick Monahan so kindly sent a foreword for the children's book. Pre-ordered books can be collected on the day and copies can be purchased for £5 each from that day with profits to Comic Relief.

Another celebrated Sciennes' parent, Richard Melvin, has generously offered to provide comedy workshops for P6 pupils as part of our Comedy Festival.

As Fairtrade Fortnight draws to a close, Mr Hutchison and Sciennes' Pupil ECO Group led a very successful Fairtrade Craft and Tuckshop for P1-P7 from 10am-10.45am and after school. Thank you very much to all who supported.

 

We showed a video about Fairtrade cotton and P6 pupils Louis and Henry are planning a football match to continue to raise awareness of the Fairtrade Foundation and its aims.



Fairtrade cotton from Fairtrade Schools on Vimeo.

We sang "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" and encouraged everyone to keep being kind. There has been some rough play with our loose play materials recently so pupils were encouraged to take greater care of playground equipment.

Caitlin from the ECO Group encouraged everyone to keep using the Travel Tracker and reminded P4B that they are on Litter Picking Duty next week.

Our House Captains did a fabulous job of presenting news and recent pupil achievements and we sang the new Comic Relief song, "Put a Nose on It!"

P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh" Now Printing!

A huge congratulations to our three Primary Seven classes and their dedicated teachers, Mrs Maguire, Mrs Barker, Ms Sellar and Mr McKenna who have worked so hard with Sciennes' parent and published author, Mary Turner Thomson, to create a professionally published comedy book, "BaDUMtsh!"which was sent to the printers today and will launch officially on Friday 17th March at a venue to be confirmed. Profits will go to Comic Relief.

Grateful thanks to Mary for bearing with us in a particularly hectic term and for taking so much time and trouble in formatting the children's work for publication through her company Whitewater Publishing.

We are indebted to celebrated and much loved comedian Patrick Monahan for so kindly providing a foreword for the children's book.

Further details of our whole school Comedy Festival will follow shortly. We will be inviting the children to 'take the mic' and say something funny to develop their confidence, their Listening and Talking skills and as part of our Health and Wellbeing programmes in the lead up to Red Nose Day on 24th March. Parent Richard Melvin, writer, comedian and compere at The Stand has very kindly offered to provide hugely exciting comedy workshops for P6 pupils and we are grateful for the support offered by the Gilded Balloon.

Though Sciennes has not been specifically named, we are absolutely delighted that our ideas have been used by Comic Relief as the basis for a press release template sent out to schools.

Fairtrade and Get Ready for Red Nose Day Assembly

Sciennes Fairtrade P4-7 Assembly 3.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 3rd March we held a Fairtrade Assembly to highlight how paying a fair, minimum price to Fairtrade farmers can make a real difference to their livelihoods. Mr Hutchison (with the support of the One World Shop based at  Nicolson Square) is organising a Fairtrade Craft and Tuckshop on Thursday 9th March and will provide further details next week.


Make Bananas Fair: Foncho film for Schools from Fairtrade Schools on Vimeo.


We watched a video of Kid President meeting Former President Barack Obama where his key question was, "How can adults and children work together to change the world?" and the answer was to treat everyone with kindness and respect,




Mr Obama has encouraged the next generation to 'take up the mic' through his Obama Foundation and we are encouraging pupils to get involved in Red Nose Day by 'saying something funny for money.'



We are mindful of our 1 in 5 Child Poverty Awareness project and so pupils need only bring a donation if they wish, rather than be sponsored. Pupils will be asked to share a joke, funny story, rhyme, poem or drawing with their class as part of our whole school Comedy Festival later in the month and we are looking forward to encouraging their confidence in performance and their Listening and Talking skills in a fun way, and as part of Health and Wellbeing programmes.

P7 pupils will soon be selling red noses in school and their P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh", professionally published by Sciennes' parent Mary Turner Thomson through her Whitewater Publishing Company launches on 17th March, with profits donated to Comic Relief. Please respond to the email you will shorty receive to place advance orders by 8th March, ahead of printing dates.

P7 Comedy Book

Sciennes' parent Richard Melvin, comedian and compere at The Stand, has very kindly offered to provide comedy workshops for P6 pupils and we continue to use the BBC Learning resource "Comedy Classroom" to develop literacy skills through comedy. We are very grateful for the support and encouragement we have received from the Gilded Balloon. We began to learn the new Red Nose Day song for Comic Relief and everyone who takes part in our Comedy Festival will receive a certificate.




P5 pupil Cole blew everyone away with his outstanding street dance skills and he gained deserved applause for his confident performance. P7 Sports Captains congratulated pupils on many recent achievements.

World Book Day Thursday 2nd March

We will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 2^nd March and children are welcome to dress up. Please note that we will issue World Book Day tokens which can be exchanged for a WBD 2017 book or reduce the cost of a book purchased in a participating shop. As previously intimated, we will not be having a Book Fair in school this term.

Your 20mph Update

Phase 2 of the rollout of a 20miles per hour (mph) speed limit goes live on 28 February 2017.   The second phase is the largest construction phase in the scheme  stretching from Granton to Portobello, Duddingston to Morningside, Gorgie to Murrayfield.

You can find out if your street is changing to 20mph by checking our interactive map.

The introduction of the new 20mph limit relies on signage and road markings alone.  Existing speed humps or other traffic calming will remain unchanged.  Larger 20mph signs will mark the entrance and exit of a 20mph area where the speed limit changes.  These signs will be supplemented by smaller repeater signs or road markings with speed limit roundels.  

While many cities in the UK, Europe and beyond have already brought in 20mph (or 30km), Edinburgh is the first city in Scotland to roll out 20mph limits in this way, with many other areas, including East Lothian, keen to bring in slower speeds. 

Slower speeds bring many benefits to places and people. They help to reduce the risk and severity of collisions, encourage people to walk and cycle and spend more time in an area. The project extends 20mph speed limits to approximately 80% of Edinburgh’s streets, while retaining a network of roads at 30mph and 40mph on key arterial routes.    

Further information is also available on the Council’s website at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/20mph and on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/edin20mph

Regards

20mph Team

P5 Growth Mindset Workshops Postponed

Hopscotch Theatre Company contacted this morning to make us aware that regrettably they have to reschedule the P5 Growth Mindset workshops (due to take place tomorrow Monday 27th February) as a result of unforeseeable circumstances outwith their control. We look forward to welcoming the team later in the year.

Remembering Mr Hewitt

Remembering Mr Hewitt Sciennes P4-7 Assembly 24.2.17 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 24th February we held special Assemblies to remember our dear friend and colleague, Mark Hewitt, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly during the mid term February holiday,

Sciennes is a happy, vibrant school where we are frequently fortunate to be able to celebrate many exciting and interesting achievements and events. It is also a strongly united community where we can come together as one family in challenging times and we have witnessed that first hand this week as families, staff and the children themselves have responded with tremendous sensitivity, kindness and care to the very sad passing of Mr Hewitt. We are very grateful for, and extremely touched by, all the warm wishes and support extended, including those from colleagues around the city, which Mrs Noble has been able to pass on to Mr Hewitt's family.

At the Assemblies, we recalled and celebrated Mr Hewitt's many qualities and passions: his great love of literacy and drama which so motivated his pupils' interest in reading and performance; his dynamic, motivational approach to teaching which highly engaged his class; his sociability, great interest in people and his upbeat, fun outlook. Mr Hewitt loved to sing and we paid tribute to him by singing Fischy Music's "You Are An Inspiration" at the P4-P7 Assembly and "You Are A Star" at the P1-P3 Assembly.

We are carefully considering appropriate ways that we can continue to honour Mr Hewitt's memory in the future and invited pupils to contribute their ideas.

Mr Hewitt was instrumental in designing a 'Random Acts of Kindness' P5 project which went ahead throughout this week. At the Assembly, we watched a short film "The Life Vest: Kindness Keeps the World Afloat" and encouraged the children to maintain acts of kindness and make a difference to others, particularly in the weeks to come.



Growth Mindset workshops (delivered by Hopscotch Theatre in Education Company) are taking place on Monday 27th February for all three P5 classes, and this was another area of particular interest for Mr Hewitt. We congratulated P6 pupils on their 'can do', positive approach during their recent residential week at Benmore Outdoor Education Centre where they certainly showed a Growth Mindset approach to all the many new experiences.

World Book Day is on Thursday 2nd March and staff shared with the children that Mr Hewitt had planned to dress up as Miss Trunchbull. We encouraged the children to feel able to share their own stories of Mr Hewitt with us and with their families. It has been a comfort to staff to be able to recall and share our many fond memories of Mr Hewitt who, though with us at Sciennes for only a short period of time, made such a huge impact and touched the lives of so many. We will continue to prioritise support for Mr Hewitt's class and our thoughts are with Mark's family at this very sad time.

Sciennes Senior Leadership Team

P4/5 Disco Postponed

A reminder that our annual P4/5 Disco, due to be held Thursday 23rd February, has been postponed until Thursday 16th March 6.30pm-8.00pm.

Ceilidh Kids P1-P3 event – A wee reminder

Friday 24 February 2017 in the school hall between 12:30 pm – and 2:15 pm

• The event is meant to be veryfamily friendly, particularly, for families with young children – siblings, both older and younger, are more than welcome.
• It’s meant to be a socialising event for the entire family – Parents are most welcome to join in the fun .
• Tickets can be bought at the door on the day as well as pre-booked at the school office

o   Cost: £3 per person and £10 for the family ticket

o   If pre-booking please write child’s name & class and how many tickets on the envelope and hand it to the school office

• The school has kindly agreed to allow us to have a picnic lunch from 12 pm to 12:30 pm. Please remember to bring in your packed lunch (children can bring in the packed lunch from school)!

o   We can picnic at the playground (weather permitting)

o   If the weather is not pleasant let us head into the gym-hall

• Drinks and a light snack is included in the tickets.
• It’s meant to be a social event for P1-P3 and fun for the whole family. Hope to see many of you there on Friday.

o   Why not make it as a class get-together?
Looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday!
Jay & Aileen
EFG, Sciennes Parents Council

Pupils and Staff Resume Monday 20th February

Hopscotch Theatre 'Nation of Innovation'

Many thanks to Ross, Hannah, Marianna and Brian from Hopscotch Theatre for bringing yet another high quality 'Theatre in Education' production to our school.  "Scotland - The Nation of Innovation" fitted perfectly with our whole school Scotland Week and was a fun and engaging exploration of Scottish Inventors and Innovators for our 655 P1-P7 pupils on Friday 3rd February. We particularly liked the Growth Mindset theme and song and we are looking forward to welcoming Hopscotch back soon to deliver Growth Mindset workshops to our P5 classes. 

Singing along to "I just can't do it YET!"

An INVENTION can be defined as the creation of a product or introduction of a process for the first time. INNOVATION on the other hand, occurs if someone improves on or makes a significant contribution to an existing product, process or service.

Key Learning Outcomes

• Helping pupils and teachers to develop a greater understanding of intrinsic motivation and resilience in pupils, encouraging a ‘Growth Mindset’ approach to learning
• Pupils will learn about Great Scottish Inventors and Innovators, cultural heritage and global legacy
• Pupils will have a great appreciation of Scots' influences in design and technology

Take Part in IDEAL Research Project

IDEAL is a University of Edinburgh research project investigating how smart technology can help people find ways to use less gas and electricity in the home. It uses sensors to record energy use and details like temperature and humidity, and gives feedback to help reduce energy use, while maintaining comfort and convenience.

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There is no cost to participate in the project, which has proved popular with staff at the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Parliament.

If you would like to take part, further information can be found on this website, contact IDEAL@changeworks.org.uk, or call 0131 539 8610.

Drew Murphy

IDEAL Project Manager

Changeworks
36 Newhaven Road
Edinburgh EH6 5PY

Changeworks ~ Inspiring change for people and the environment

T 0131 468 8669

F 0131 555 2768

E dmurphy@changeworks.org.uk
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