Hamilton Cup Footballers

Well done to our P5 boys for all their endeavours when competing in the Hamilton Football Cup on Saturday.

P5B Thistle Table Centres Art Project

Stevi Manning, Principal Officer Arts and Learning for City of Edinburgh Council, offered P5B and Ms Gregson an exciting opportunity to design table centres for a prestigious Arts and Business Awards ceremony.

P5B worked with artist Martin Ayres to design these wonderful thistle table centres for the occasion.

Thank you to Toby, May and Zoe who explained the project at Assembly.

Back to School Tuesday 22nd October

We look forward to welcoming pupils back to school on Tuesday 22nd October.

Sciennes iPad Pilot

Sciennes iPad Pilot mentioned by Henry Hepburn in Times Educational Supplement Scotland (TESS)

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6295214

Easy Fundraising - School Council Communications Group

Claire Wheeler and Charlotte Herthelius from the Sciennes School Council Communications Group produced this video guide to setting up Easy Fundraising. Further information is available on the school website Community>School Council>Easy Fundraising or by clicking on this link: http://www.sciennes.ik.org/p_SC_Easyfundraising.ikml

P6@Benmore 4th-8th February 2013

 February may seem like a long time away, but we hope this blog will give families and pupils advance information about the forthcoming residential for Primary Six.

http://sciennesbenmore2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Outstanding Primary Sevens

All safely returned after an adventure packed and fun filled sunny week at Lagganlia. P7 pupils truly were a credit to their families, teachers and school. There is a link to the camp blog in the Links section of the website. Grateful thanks to Ms French, Miss Gaffney, Mr Howie, Ms Christie, Mrs Mehmood, Miss Ingles, Mr Hewitt, Mr Wallace, Lagganlia staff and most of all to the P7 pupils who made the residential such a success and a joy.

WisePay

Thank you to all our families for continuing to help us embed use of WisePay for all our online payments and trip permissions.

Sciennes is currently the only school in Edinburgh and one of very few in Scotland to have this innovative, ground-breaking facility and we are indebted to Angela Christie, Business Manager, for driving it forward.

Remember, you can also order school uniform online by clicking on the Links button of the school website.

Learning Through Technology

Sciennes was delighted to be invited to present at the Learning Through Technology Roadshow at Dynamic Earth on Wednesday 3rd October. Ms Gallagher, Ms French and Mrs Barker gave a presentation on our experiences of using 1:1 Mobile Technology, as part of a national pilot.

 

"Lucy Gallagher is Depute Head Teacher at Sciennes Primary School and has worked as an ICT Development Officer for City of Edinburgh Council. Sciennes` experience with mobile technology dates back to 2006 as a pilot school for the innovative Learning Hubs project. 1:1 school and home use of iPad technology has been implemented with two classes since April 2012, as part of a national pilot. Wendy French and Fiona Barker continue to pioneer exciting use of iPads with their P6 and P7 classes,  facilitating high quality learning and teaching. At Sciennes we consider deployment of the iPad within the 1:1 model to be `The Gold Standard.`"

Sciennes Celebrates World Smile Day

5th October 2012 was World Smile Day. Harvey Ball was the commercial artist who designed the 'Smiley' logo and Eva in P6B happened to be wearing one on Friday.

It was also National Poetry Day on Friday and four of our House Captains: Millie, Hafsa, Alexander and Joe, read a Kindness poem. Stella, Cenk and Brianna from P5B also read fantastic poems they have been producing in class with Ms Gregson.

P6 Cycle Training

Grateful thanks to Ms Christie, Mr Wallace, Ms Pearmain, Mrs Barker, Mr Kearton, Mrs Nowell and all the instructors and parents who have made this year's cycle training such a success, ending in a fun cycle in the Meadows.

Thank you to Chris Hill for these Vox Pops reflections from P6 pupils and Scott Noble.

Sciennes Builds A Farm Harvest Appeal

This year Primary Three pupils will again lead our Harvest Fundraising Appeal. The charity chosen is Send A Cow to Africa. P3 pupils in  Mrs Young's class have created posters showing how money raised can be spent in helping people in Africa to build farms. For example a chicken is £6.00, a fruit tree is £12.00 and a sheep is £21.00. Rose and Hamish in P3A came to assembly to tell us about the project. Ms Anstruther has created a farm display on the back wall of the Hall so that everyone can see how Sciennes is helping. P5C pupils Dylan, Mia, Mirren, Lawson and Dante held a bake sale on Friday 21st September to begin the fundraising and more details will be provided by P3 and Ms Anstruther on how to take part. Thank you for your support.

This video shows how the work of the Send A Cow charity has benefited Olivia and her family.

Olivia's story from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

This video explains the work of the charity. P3 classes have asked everyone at Sciennes to think of their own fundraising ideas. P5C pupils raised an amazing £130 at their bake sale last week! Well done Dylan, Lawson, Mirren, Dante and Mia and thank you to Mrs McVicker and all the mums and dads who helped. What a great start to our Harvest Appeal.

Send a Cow video for schools from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

P7@Lagganlia 8th-12th October

Keep up with our adventures on our Lagganlia Blog.

Thank You to Our Sponsor

Grateful thanks to the sponsor of our 120th Anniversary Celebrations: The Big Lottery Fund through its City of Edinburgh Council "Growing Confidence" project.

The first instalment of our A Dozen Decades at Sciennes eBook - The Victorian Era - is now available to download for free from iTunes. Please note that it can only be viewed on an iPad. Thank you to Mary Turner Thomson for all her endeavours in bringing the eBook to publication. The original online book can still be viewed in its entirety, in draft version, by clicking on the Guestbook button of the website and then the 120 eBook button. Further instalments will be released in due course and details will be published here.

Sciennes Flyer

Our weekly Sciennes Flyer is emailed directly to families and you can also access it from the 'Information' button then 'Flyer'.


Our Home page is a blog that has been embedded in an iFrame in the school website. We have had feedback that double scroll bars which can appear on some computers, depending on how resolution has been set,  can be cumbersome. To avoid this, click on the link at the top of the page to view the Home page in a new browser window.

Maggie's Centres Sponsored Cycle

On Sunday 9th September Shona Pearmain and I plan to take part in Pedal for Scotland 2012 where we will cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh (49 miles). You can find out more about the cycle at http://www.pedalforscotland.org/.

During my own experience of cancer I found that my local Maggie's Centre was an AMAZING place and I enjoyed popping in. Now I would like to 'give something back', so I am taking part in the cycle ride specifically to raise money for Maggie's Centres.
Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me and donations will be quickly processed and passed to my charity. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on the charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this. 

I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

Please click here to donate MAGGIE'S CENTRES PEDAL FOR SCOTLAND CYCLE

Fiona Barker, Class Teacher P6C

Earth Calling

We are delighted that Gus, Tara and the team are running their highly successful Wildlife Club for a second year at Sciennes.

Here is the Autumn programme.

Ask your Class Teacher or Ms Gallagher if you would like an application form to join the club.

Further details on their website: Earth Calling.

P6 Cycle Training

Angela Christie shows two of the cycle training volunteers where P6 will be doing their on-road training - starts tomorrow.

Primary 6 Cycle Training

We are about to embark on another year of cycle training for our P6 classes. If you would like to volunteer to help or would like further information please contact the Business Manager angela.christie@sciennes.edin.sch.uk. Children in all three classes should bring their bikes into school on Thursday 30th August for a bike check and playground skills session. It would be appreciated if you would ensure your child's bike is roadworthy and if not please try and get it repaired before Thursday. Please also make sure you provide your child with a properly fitting bike helmet since it will not be possible to participate in any cycling activities without one. We have a number of brand new helmets in school which can be purchased for £9.00. If you would like one, please send £9.00 cash or a cheque (made payable to Sciennes School Fund) in an envelope with your child's name and class clearly marked on the front. 

Thank you

Out and About While the Sun Still Shines

Many thanks to everyone who has volunteered to assist with our first trips of the session. P4 and P5 thoroughly enjoyed their trip to the Book Festival on Tuesday. P3 will visit on Thursday, P7 on Friday and P6 on Tuesday 28th August. Thank you to all families for using our online system 'WisePay' to give permission and make payment for trips. It radically reduces administration for the school and we are grateful for your support in using it.

P4B and P3C took advantage of a special invite to participate in a Fringe Festival event for the BBC this week.

P7A enjoyed making large scale willow and tissue paper sculptures at the City Art Centre on Tuesday while P7B and P7C took part in exciting animation workshops there, to tie in with a current sports exhibition "The Human Race" as a follow up to their fantastic Olympics topic in the summer term of P6. Ms French has posted some pictures on the P7 Blog - click on the 'Class Pages' button on the left to view. P7 pupils have also launched into their Rivers topic and will shortly visit the Water of Leith Education Centre for field studies and river dipping. Wellies or old trainers at the ready please!

Cycle Training for P6 gets underway soon and we are grateful to Chris Hill for his continued support and enthusiasm. He has worked with Angela Christie to secure funding for cycle training in city schools and has launched this website:
Cycling Schools

It's a busy, bright, bustling term and we are very pleased with the way the children are settling in, concentrating and applying themselves, in class and beyond.