Sportshall Success!

Congratulations to our fantastic P7 Sportshall Athletics Team who came first today in the qualifying tournament for City of Edinburgh at Meadowbank. They will go on to compete in the Edinburgh Finals at Meadowbank on Monday 13th January 2014. A superb team effort and grateful thanks to Mrs Fiona Barker, P7 Class Teacher, for leading with excellent support from Lesley Ann Chessor (Joint Active Schools Co-ordinator for JGHS with Jonathan Wallace). Special thanks to our P.E. Specialist, Mrs Beth Walker, who trained and selected the team and who co-ordinates the entire event for the city.

Sciennes PTA Christmas Fair Auction Prizes 2013

Come to the hall and bid simply by writing your bid on the relevant sheet!

Auction closes at 3.45pm - highest bidder wins the prize.

                                                           

Speyside Cottage – An Easter week in a fabulous cottage sleeps 4+2 (worth £590 – minimum bid £150) http://www.lhhscotland.com/properties/detail/?id=23800#

Dynamic Earth – Adult and Child Day Pass

Gordon Wilson Hairdressing – Cut & Blow Dry with Director (worth £40)

Eddie's Seafood Market – Voucher for Sea Bass

Spirit Hair & Beauty – Back Neck & Shoulder Massage (worth £35)

Royal Yacht Britannia – 4 Day Passes

3 Course Meal for Two inc Glass of House Wine @ Spoon

Dine @ Toast Edinburgh with £20 voucher

Camera Obscura – 2 Adult & 2 Children Tickets (worth £42)

Original Edinburgh painting by Nancy Turnbull

Revitalize Massage Therapies - Gift Voucher for Massage

One Hour’s Career Coaching from BalancedMum.com

National Museum of Scotland – annual Family Pass (worth £54)

A beautiful Wooden butcher’s block from Marchmont Hardware

A personal training session with our very own champion boxer Alex Arthur

Transform your home with a consultation with commercial interior designers Maxwell Green Design

Get your house squeaky clean with the amazing Zorka’s cleaning services – 2 x3 hour cleans (worth £60)

Relax with a Thai massage from True Thai (worth £40)

Evening's Babysitting by Gillian Clarkson or Phoebe Cochrane

Baxter’s Barbers – 2 x Free Haircut

Doodles Ceramics - £10 voucher

Ishi Hair & Beauty – Cut & Blow Dry with Leigh (worth £34)

Free child space at Easter Mini Tennis Camp at Mortonhall Tennis Club

2 tickets to Scottish Ballet’s Hansel & Gretel at the Festival Theatre

20 minute drama activity for birthday party

Family scariness with 4 passes to City of the Dead Tour

Consultation with Medical Herbalist

Writing Coaching Session with published author

Get your kids dancing with a Family voucher for a term of classes at Ceilidh Kids

Enjoy a lunch for two courtesy of Annabelle's

Learn Croquet! Two places on beginners' courses (Worth £60)

P7C Book Review Blog

Need a new book to read?  Why not have a look at our Book Review Blog? You can find reviews of lots of the books we have read and links to other book blogs.  You just might find that book that makes you want to read till you can't hold your eyes open any longer!


Scan this QR Code or click on the link below to read our book reviews:

Bookreviewpass

We are also keen to have pupils from other classes giving us their reviews.  Hand in any reviews you have to Primary7C or, if you want to give us a review electronically, come and ask us how to send it by email. 

Watch out for competitions, coming soon!

Ms French and Primary 7C

P7 Published Authors

The P7 pupils have had the opportunity this year to work with a published author and participate in workshops involving creating characters, setting the scene, developing storyline, illustrating, editing, publishing and marketing.  Through workshops led by Mary Turner Thomson they have produced and illustrated three stories which have been compiled into a charming book called ‘Sciennes Scenes’.  This is being published by WhiteWater Publishing Ltd and will be available for sale in bookshops.  

The pupils will have their own book launch party on Thursday 28^th November when they will be given one copy of their book each. Additional books will be available at a reduced price of £5 per book (after the launch the price will be £6.99) and would make a great Xmas present for friends and relatives!

Energy Watchdogs

Sciennes’ new energy watchdogs are taking the lead in improving our school’s impact on the environment.

 

Starting during Switch off fortnight, our watchdogs are encourage staff and pupils to make simple energy savings by: turning off lights and electrical equipment when they are not needed, and heating classrooms sensibly by adjusting radiators rather than opening windows.

Each year at Sciennes, we use a substantial amount of oil, gas and electricity to heat our school and pool, and light our classrooms.

Our energy watchdogs are hoping to reduce our carbon footprint, and the school’s bills, throughout the year by taking these simple steps. We are also working closely with experts at the City Council to try out other energy saving measures before they are rolled out to other City schools next year.

Mr Kearton and the Eco Committee

Keeping Sciennes Beautiful

Our eco-committee is enthusiastically supporting Edinburgh's Clean Up day of action on 29 November, and invites all children from P1 to P7 to bring a parent or carer along and take part!

Litter can be a problem in our school grounds. A constant frustration for our many ecologically-minded children is that a good deal of the litter we collect seems to blow into our playground from the surrounding streets.

To help tackle this, we will meet at school on Friday 29th November at 12.20pm to collect litter from our nearby streets and green spaces until 1pm.

You are welcome join us and to stay for as long or as short as you wish. However, we ask that all children be accompanied and supervised by a responsible adult.

If you have a litter picker at home, and suitable gloves, please bring them along!

Mr Kearton and the Eco Committee

P7 Launch Date: Thursday 28th November

Ready to Launch, P7! iPads and "Sciennes Scenes"!

Sciennes 2013 PTA Christmas Fair

The Christmas Fair is taking place on Saturday 30th November, 2-4pm.  This a fun-filled event which includes a magic show, craft activities,  tombola, home baking, face painting, lucky dip, hamper raffle and lots, lots more. Santa will be making an appearance.

• You can order your entry tickets and magic show tickets NOW on Wisepay
• Please bring donations of home baking into school on Friday 29th November (items to be individually wrapped please)
• Volunteers are needed to make the event a success – CLICK HERE to go to the online volunteer sign up form.

From anytime NOW you can drop off the following items at school reception:

• Send in bottles for the Tombola
• Send in fiction/non fiction, children’s & pre teen books – good quality only please
• Send in CDs/DVDs/Computer Games/Toys – good quality only please
• Send in a box of mince pies for the refreshments stall
• Wrap and send in small gifts for the lucky dip, value 50p, please label ‘girl’ or ‘boy’
• Donate something for the Silent Auction

Easy Fundraising

 

So far, the 110 supporters of Sciennes Primary School PTA have raised an amazing  £1,093.75

You, too, can raise money for Sciennes, just by shopping online with easyfundraising.org.uk. There are no catches and it's completely free to use.

It's really simple – just shop online via easyfundraising.org.uk with over 2,700 well known retailers like Amazon, Argos, M&S, eBay (and many more!) and whenever you buy something online, the retailer makes a donation to your chosen good cause.

It doesn't cost you a single penny extra.

Get started now –  http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/sciennessch

Thank you 

 

 

Boroughmuir Rugby Festival

Congratulations to our Sciennes Rugby team on their performance at yesterday's Borouhmuir Rugby Club festival.

Victory was recorded against Oxgangs before an excellent full contact match was played out with Boroughmuir Rugby Club's P6 Team. Some excellent tackles were put in from us, while two excellent scores complemented our fearless attitude.

To top it off the team met some of the touring Australia Rugby Squad for pictures and autographs before a question and answer session finished the day.  

Well done to all our players, including Dante for his 'Top Boy' award, and to all the families who came along to support. 

Special thanks to Jonathan Wallace for organising this fantastic opportunity and to fellow Active Schools Co-ordinator Lesley-Ann Chessor for escorting. 

More photographs on Mr Wallace's Active Schools Blog.

Children in Need

Sciennes raised a fantastic £650 on Friday 15th November for Children in Need. Thank you to everyone who donated so generously and to all who dressed up. Special thanks to Mrs Susan Mackay and P6C who co-ordinated the fundraising.

Chess Success!

Congratulations to our fantastic Chess Teams!

Sciennes, fielding 4 teams, made an excellent start in the first event of the new season, Lothian League Day 1, run by Lothian Junior Chess at W Hailes Education Centre on 3/11/13 coming out top in each of the 2 sections.
The P6/7 A Team (John, Angus, Theo and Atharva) scored 21/24 whilst the P5 & Under A Team (Sergi, Matilda, Tom, Aidan and Stuart ) scored 19.5/24.
The P6/7 B (Danny, Aryan, Maxwell and Jingzhong ) B and C (Charlie, Abi, Alistair and James) Teams also performed creditably.
Individually the stars were John(6/6), Matilda (5.5/6), Atharva, Sergi, Angus and Theo (5/6) and Abi (4.5/6)

All our kids played in a sportsmanlike manner and are to be congratulated on their general good behaviour.

Thanks to all the parents who helped with organisation, transport and supervision. Bill Platts

Registration week – message from Cllr Paul Godzik

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Children & Families

This week is an important week in the school calendar for all those parents and carers of nursery school children. Paul Godzik (Education, Children and Families Convenor) writes below about Registration Week and the importance of registering at your local catchment school.

It’s Registration Week at all primary schools across the city and if your child is due to start school in August 2014, you must register your child at your catchment school this week.

I hope parents will register their child at their local catchment school rather than expecting to get them in another school in a different part of the city.

As many readers will know, there are less out of catchment requests being granted due to increased space pressures and parents need to be aware of the risks associated with making such requests.

So I’d encourage everyone to register their child at their local school and support their local community instead of making an out of catchment request.

Last week all the primary schools opened their doors for parents and their pre-school age children to look round as part of Primary Schools Open Day.

The feedback from staff and parents has been very positive. I’m delighted that so many were able to see at first hand the benefits of sending their children to their local school – not just for the families involved but for the community where they live.

A great example is Castleview Primary School in Craigmillar which in a recent inspection by Education Scotland was rated as one of the best primary schools in the country.
Broomhouse Primary School is another example of a school being at the heart of their community. The school operates a fantastic initiative called the Big Project which offers daily after school activities encouraging creativity in the expressive arts for Broomhouse children.

The Council had a record low number of placing requests last year which illustrates the growing recognition among parents that the days where you could choose which primary school you wanted your child to go to have gone.

Rising primary school rolls and pressures on classroom spaces will be with us for many years to come so it’s vital parents play their part in helping us tackle this issue.

With school rolls in the city predicted to rise by around 15% by 2019 – bringing our primary school population to over 31,000 – local catchment schools are the most suitable option.

All of our high schools offer a high quality education and your input as a parent can help make your local school better!

Register your child at your local catchment school.

PLEASE NOTE: Registration has to be in person and everyone should contact their local school to find out what time they can register.

When deciding the school you wish your child to attend, there are a number of important points you need to consider.

• Placements are allocated to children based on their residence at the time of allocation. All parents must provide proof of residency for a catchment place when they register their child for school.
• Your child is only entitled to a place in the primary school where they attend nursery if you live in the catchment area.
• Catchment places will only be guaranteed to children living in a primary school catchment by 28 February 2014.  Where a denominational Roman Catholic school is oversubscribed, priority will be given to catchment baptised Roman Catholics.
• If your placing request is successful for one child, this does not guarantee that requests for younger children will be successful.  This could mean that your younger children would attend a different school to their older brother or sister – would you be able to manage the school run to two different schools?

Primary 1 Enrolment Day at Sciennes

SCIENNES PRIMARY ONE ENROLMENT for 2014-2015

THURSDAY 14th NOVEMBER

If your child is 4 years old by 28^th February 2014 and due to start school in August 2014, please come along on Thursday 14^th November, 9.00 – 11.30 or 1.30 – 4.00 to complete an enrolment form and have a tour of school. 

Please bring the following with you: 

• Child’s birth certificate
• Name, address and telephone number of doctor
• Council Tax payment book or Council Tax letter
• a current utility bill (in your name)
• Names, addresses and telephone number of three emergency contacts. 

N.B. these are the ONLY accepted forms of proof. 

Please feel free to bring your child but this is not essential if s/he is attending nursery. There will be transition and induction opportunities for your child to visit school in the summer term.

OUT OF CATCHMENT REQUEST FORM

If you wish to request a place at another school you must complete and submit a Placing Request for a Non Catchment School, which goes live from today 11th November 2013.

 edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolplaces

DIRECT LINK TO ONLINE FORM

All requests must be submitted by 24th December.

Further information can be found on the school website 
  
The Council has agreed a policy for dealing with Placing Requests, and full details are in the Placing in Schools booklet. City of Edinburgh will grant Placing Requests if possible, however the highest priority is always given to children living within the catchment area of a school. It is important to note that due to rising birth rates it is likely that places for non-catchment children will be limited, even for those with an older brother or sister already attending.   

You will be notified of the outcome of your Placing Request by 30 April.

P7 to S1 and Nursery to P1 Transitions

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolplaces

Starting primary school and moving on to secondary school are two very important milestones both for children and their parents. City of Edinburgh Council realises this and has a range of policies and procedures in place to make each transition as smooth as possible for all concerned. See below or click on the ENROLLING tab on the school website. 

P7 to S1 TRANSITION
Letters are issued via pupil post in mid November to parents of Primary Seven pupils to confirm the secondary school serving their home address. No further action is normally required if you want your child to attend your catchment secondary school. However, if you wish to request a place at another school you must complete and submit a Placing Request for a Non Catchment School AVAILABLE ONLINE at edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolplaces FROM 11th NOVEMBER 2013. All requests must be submitted by 24th December. Further information can be found on the school website in INFORMATION > P7 to S1 Transition.

IMPORTANT
N.B. If you do not intend keeping your child's place at his or her secondary catchment school, please notify the school as soon as possible, since that will free up the place for those children waiting to hear. You can inform the secondary directly or contact your primary school who will pass on that information.

(N.B. It is important to recognise that if you live outside the school catchment area, attending Sciennes does not entitle your child to a place at James Gillespie's High School and families will have to complete a Placing Request form if they are not in James Gillespie's catchment area.)

P1 REGISTRATION WEEK
You must register your child at your preferred catchment school during Registration Week 11th-15th November, even if they are attending the nursery class. It is important to recognise that if you live outside the school catchment area, attending the nursery class in a particular school does not entitle your child to a place in the primary school.

P1 REGISTRATION FOR CATCHMENT PUPILS
Register for a P1 place if your child is 4 years old by 28th February 2014 and due to start school in August 2014. Sciennes will be enrolling its new intake of P1s on THURSDAY 14th NOVEMBER 9.00am-11.30am or 1.30pm-4.00pm.

It is anticipated that in Session 2013-2014 there will be two P1 classes of 20 sharing one room and two P1 classes of 25 at Sciennes. Three classes of 30 will then be created when those pupils enter P2 the following year. In previous years Sciennes has been able to accommodate all of its catchment children. On occasion a few additional places have been available for out of catchment pupils. Please note that priority is always given to non catchment children who have siblings already at Sciennes and we operate a waiting list. School will contact you by the end of April to confirm places for catchment children and offer invitations to an Induction visit. 

P1 REGISTRATION - NON CATCHMENT
If you are not within Sciennes' catchment and wish to register a child to begin P1 in August 2014 you should enrol at your catchment school. If you are planning to move to another address before your child is due to start school you must still register at one of the catchment schools serving your current address during Registration Week.

REQUESTING A DIFFERENT SCHOOL
Most parents/carers choose to send their children to one of their catchment schools. However, you have the right to express a preference for a different school and this is called a Placing Request. Should you wish to apply for a place at Sciennes or another school use the Placing Request form AVAILABLE ONLINE at edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolplaces FROM 11th NOVEMBER 2013. All requests must be submitted by 24th December.

0. The Council has agreed a policy for dealing with Placing Requests, and full details are in the Placing in Schools booklet. City of Edinburgh will grant Placing Requests if possible, however the highest priority is always given to children living within the catchment area of a school. It is important to note that due to rising birth rates it is likely that places for non-catchment children will be limited, even for those with an older brother or sister already attending.  
1. You will be notified of the outcome of your Placing Request by 30 April.
   

Further information can be found on the school website in INFORMATION> Nursery to P1 Transition and INFORMATION> ENROLLING AT SCIENNES 

IMPORTANT
N.B. If you do not intend keeping your child's place at his or her primary catchment school, or wish to delay entry, please notify the school as soon as possible, since that will free up the place for those children waiting to hear. You can inform the primary directly or contact your nursery who will pass on that information.

Gaelic Medium Education
If you wish your child to be taught in Gaelic, you can apply for a place at Edinburgh's Gaelic school, Bun-sgoil Taobh na Pairce. The school has a citywide catchment area and no previous knowledge of the language is required. Travel assistance is provided for any pupils living two miles or more from the school. Please register at Bun-sgoil Taobh na Pairce during Registration Week 11th-15th November.

City of Edinburgh Council offers an Appeals Procedure
If your child has not been offered a place at the school of your preference you have the right to appeal against the decision. The Placing in Schools Appeal Committee will hold a hearing where you can present your case why you want your child to go to a particular school. You can find further details about the Committee on the Placing in Schools Appeal Committee remit and membership page. For information on who should attend the Appeal Committee, what happens at the Appeal Committee and what the Appeal Committee can do you should consult our Placing in Schools Appeal Frequently Asked Questions Guidance. You can read the Placing in Schools Appeal Statistics for 2010 to see how many requests were placed, granted and refused.

Further Information

0. If you have any further questions about this process, you can:
   
•   email school.placements@edinburgh.gov.uk
  
•   call the School Placements helpline on 0131 469 3033.
  

JGHS Newsletter November 2013

Sciennes 2013 PTA Christmas Fair

Volunteer for Sciennes Christmas Fair using online form

You can use this on-line form to volunteer at the Sciennes PTA Christmas Fair. Lots of volunteers needed so please get involved. Thank you!

Sciennes 2013 PTA Christmas Fair

The Christmas Fair which is taking place on Saturday 30th November, 2-4pm.  This a fun-filled event which includes a magic show, craft activities,  tombola, home baking, face painting, lucky dip, hamper raffle and lots, lots more. Santa will be making an appearance.

• You can order your entry tickets and magic show tickets NOW on Wisepay
• Please bring donations of home baking into school on Friday 29th November (items to be individually wrapped please)
• Volunteers are needed to make the event a success – CLICK HERE to go to the online volunteer sign up form.

From anytime NOW you can drop off the following items at school reception:

• Send in bottles for the Tombola
• Send in fiction/non fiction, children’s & pre teen books – good quality only please
• Send in CDs/DVDs/Computer Games/Toys – good quality only please
• Send in a box of mince pies for the refreshments stall
• Wrap and send in small gifts for the lucky dip, value 50p, please label ‘girl’ or ‘boy’
• Donate something for the Silent Auction

Thank you!
Sciennes School Council PTA

Edinburgh 1:1 Mobile Learning Evaluation

Sciennes Primary took part in a National Pilot of 1:1 Mobile Learning with seven other schools from across Scotland which was evaluated in this report from Hull University. Sciennes also took part in City of Edinburgh 1:1 Mobile Learning pilot with three other city schools.

In August 2012, the City of Edinburgh Council commissioned Hull University to evaluate the impact and potential of mobile technologies for learning across the four 1:1 pilot schools. These schools were Sciennes Primary School, Broomhouse Primary School, Forrester High School and Gracemount High School. The evaluation took place over academic session 2012-2013 and was conducted by Dr Kevin Burden and Dr Trevor Male from the Faculty of Education at Hull University. The evaluation focused on the impact of mobile technologies on teaching and learning, challenges to traditional patterns of teaching and learning and leadership, logistics and infrastructure.
The evaluation is now complete and is available from City of Edinburgh's Digital Learning Team website by clicking here.
Some of the key findings of the evaluation:

• Levels of engagement and motivation amongst students rose across each of the pilot schools
• Student autonomy was considered to be an immediate benefit arising from the allocation of mobile devices
• Leadership and visible support from the senior management team was identified as a critical factor in the success and sustainability of the project 
• The use of personal mobile technologies engaged staff in wider CPD opportunities and activities which changed their attitudes to the use of technology in learning
• There is evidence that teachers are shifting their practices in ways which might prove to be very significant. These include different patterns and means of communicating with students to support their learning beyond school; changing relationships between students particularly in regard to the traditional knowledge giver role of the teacher; and new models for organising learning such as the ‘flipped classroom’
• All four schools in this project remain positive and optimistic about the benefits and opportunities to be gained from using mobile devices on a personal basis 

This evaluation will be incredibly useful for any school or establishment interested in, or already implementing, 1:1 mobile learning.

Local Catchment Primary School Open Day 5th November

The City of Edinburgh is promoting an Open Day for all Primary schools on Tuesday 5^th November for catchment families to visit their local school prior to their child joining Primary 1. 

We will welcome families between 9.30 – 11.30 and 1.30 – 3.00 for a tour of the school with our P7 House and Sports Captains. 

More about the Open Day here:
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/primaryschoolsopenday

Open Day times for schools here:
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/879/school_and_nursery_places/1805/school_open_days/2