Solar Eclipse in the Meadows and Playground

All twelve P4-7 classes set off to the Meadows to experience the partial solar eclipse on Friday 20th March, armed with safety instructions, pinhole viewers of various designs and some colanders. It was great to be joined by so many parents. P1-3 experienced the eclipse in the playground and it was a memorable whole school event. Mr Mark McKenna kindly provided a practical demonstration of the Science behind the eclipse at the P4-7 Assembly, assisted by P7 pupil Zoe.

Now for the Science bit... thanks Mr McKenna!

Mr McKenna's practical demonstrations helped pupils to understand today's eclipse

Mr McKenna answered the question "How can the much smaller moon blot out the sun?"

Pupils closed one eye and then looked at a fingernail to see if it could blot out a basketball hoop.

SCIENNES ORCHESTRA AT THE QUEEN'S HALL

Resonate: Studio to Stage at the Queen’s Hall

Monday 30th March 5.45pm for 6.30pm-9.00pm 

The Sciennes School Orchestra, conducted by Mrs Samanda Campbell, has been invited to perform at the Queen’s Hall on Monday 30th March. Resonate: Studio to Stage is an annual, highly regarded, event celebrating Expressive Arts in our city schools. Children will be seated in the audience until it is their turn to perform at approximately 8.00pm.


Pupils require to wear full school uniform: white shirt and tie, dark trousers and dark shoes and should meet Mrs Campbell and Ms Gallagher at the rear entrance at 5.45pm (or by 6pm at the very latest). The children will attend a rehearsal from 2pm until 2.30pm on Monday, and we expect to return to school by the end of the day but please be aware that there may be delays in rehearsing the programme.


Tickets for the event can be purchased at £4.00 each (£2.00 concessions) from the Queen’s Hall Box Office:


The Queen’s Hall Tickets & Information: 0131 668 2019 |
If you buy tickets in person or over the telephone, credit/debit card fees can vary. http://www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/shows/resonate-2015-from-studio-to-stage

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse – Health & Safety Advice
We have received several queries about the solar eclipse that will occur on Friday 20 March which provides an exciting 'Curriculum for Excellence' learning opportunity for our young people. At 9.35am on the 20th March the eclipse will reach its maximum for Edinburgh and schools are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to learn in context. The eclipse will begin at around 8.45am and peak at around 9.30am before ending at 10.30am.

Looking directly at the sun for prolonged periods can result in eye damage and children should be reminded of this. Whilst sunlight during an eclipse is no more dangerous than usual, many children and young people will be more tempted to look at the sun to see what is happening.  The necessary safety research and risk assessment should be done in advance of embarking on any learning involving live observation of the eclipse.  

In terms of advice a spokeswoman for The Royal College of Ophthalmologists said:
"The general public must remember that they should not look directly at the Sun or at a solar eclipse, either with the naked eye, even if dark filters such as sunglasses or photographic negatives are used, nor through optical equipment such as cameras, binoculars or telescopes.
There is no safe system to directly view an eclipse”.
We understand that some schools have purchased solar eclipse viewers already. We would refer you to the really helpful leaflet provided on the Royal Astronomical website which includes details on “safe visors”.
http://www.ras.org.uk/images/solar_eclipse_leaflet.pdf
The following guidance should be followed:

·         To view the eclipse safely you can project the sun through a pinhole made in a piece of card onto another piece of white card

·         It is probably sensible not to undertake outdoor activities during the period the eclipse is happening. If this is unavoidable close supervision of children, especially young children is essential to ensure safe viewing

·         Binoculars must not be used to view the solar eclipse

·         Photographing a partial eclipse is also difficult and dangerous - pointing a camera or smart phone at the sun may damage the sensor

Andy Gray

Head of Schools and Community Services

Playground Consultation Thursday 19th March 6pm-7pm

PLAYGROUND CONSULTATION EVENING
Thursday 19th March 6pm-7pm

Parents/Carers are invited to look at the advancements that have been made with playground development and to speak with staff.

You will be able to see:
• Recent Loose Parts experiences
• Playground redesign with more detail and explanations
• Letters from external play experts and parties
• The design marked out in the playground

You will be able to talk with members of staff and the Playground Improvement Group about any aspect of the design. We really want to hear from you directly.

Time is tight and we would like to finish the consultation by the end of March in order to successfully conclude the project this summer.

Senior Leadership Team 

£956.61 Raised for Comic Relief!

Thank you to all our families for so generously supporting Comic Relief in its 30th year. The opportunity to double money raised by schools - up to £10 million - was grasped across the country making this truly a bumper year for the charity. Ms Anstruther arranged a fantastic Talent Show at the P1-3 Assembly and it was great to see so many of our children make their 'Faces Funny for Money.' More photographs can be found on the Class Pages. Some of our Primary Seven pupils showed great enterprise in successfully organising and running a Bake Sale which itself raised a grand total of £200. The final total of £956.61 is quite extraordinary, particularly given families' ongoing generous support for the Playground Fundraising.

Thank you very much!

Here is a video of P1A class performing a Comic Relief song written by Lexie, put to music by Miss Dougal and performed at the P1-3 Comic Relief Talent Show. Outstanding!

Lothian Schools Cross Country Success

The Cross Country teams did well again on Wednesday 18th March at the Lothian Schools event. Pheobe gained Second Place and Cerys Fourth Place in today's race.

It was also the Awards Ceremony, being the last event of the season. Cerys came overall Third in the Primary Girls section, winning a Bronze medal and the Sciennes Girls A team (Cerys, Phoebe and Rose) were each awarded Gold medals for winning the relay race a few weeks ago. Very proud of the girls' achievemements, as well as those of all the other boys and girls who took part during the season. All worked really hard. Praise, too, to all the parents who stood in the freezing cold/ driving rain to cheer the children along!

(Thank you very much to Sheila Scott-Hobbs for the photo and update of more lovely cross country news and also to Clem Friend for her photograph of the girls with their Gold medals)

 

EPSSA P6/7 Cross Country Success

Fantastic results at the EPSSA Cross Country Finals on Monday 16th March at Duddingston Playing Fields. Many thanks to all the families who came along to support the pupils taking part. Cerys excelled and securing First place was no mean feat in the P7 Girls’ race with Phoebe also running superbly well to gain Third place. Rose was also fabulous – almost snatching second place but pipped at the post to Third place in the P6 Girls' Race. Holly, Emily and Susannah were all placed in the Top 50, with Holly running very well to be placed 20th. The P7 Boys tried very hard in an extremely competitive race, with Mark doing very well to be placed 22nd. P6 boys ran a great race, and were tightly bunched finishing. Well done to Stephen for achieving 11th Place, closely followed in the lead pack by Matthew C 17th, Matthew R 24th and Calum 26th.

Thank you to Mrs Sally Nowell for accompanying and marshalling, to Cat Perry for the warm up, to Mrs Beth Walker who organises the entire competition for the city and special thanks to running coach Willie Jarvis for all his advice and support. Our best wishes to longstanding EPSSA proponent Mr Dave Short who retires from his post as race starter this year.

What was wonderful to see was all the pupils genuinely pleased with improving on their personal bests, and their great sporting attitudes. We were extremely proud of everyone in the Sciennes Team!

Thank you to all 55 schools who supported this event with their teams on Monday 16^th March 2015 at Duddingston Playing Fields.   Please find attached a copy of the results for information.

All runners competed well.

The winners of the City of Edinburgh Shields are listed below.   The 40 medals which were distributed amongst 20 schools what a great breatdh of athletic talent in our City’s schools. 

Thank you to our excellent Starter Mr Dave Short, DHT Lorne Primary who retires this summer once he's started the ‘B’ schools Interscholastics!

Many thanks to school marshals and our super Active Schools Co-ordinators who supported this event.

Thank you again for your support of EPSSA.

Kind regards

Beth Walker

Winners of the City of Edinburgh Shields

P6 Girls	Erskine Stewart’s Melville	15 points
P6 Boys	Erskine Stewart’s Melville	10 points
P7 Girls	George Heriot’s	38 points
P7 Boys	Buckstone Primary School	18 points

P6 Boys

P6 girls

P7 Boys

Mrs Beth Walker and Chair of EPSSA HT Mr Willie French officiate

Grateful thanks to running coach Willie Jarvis

Cerys First Place P7 Girls!

Justly proud!

A wonderful event, thoroughly enjoyed by all

Mrs Walker and Mr French announce the prize winners

Medal ceremony

Team Sciennes!

Well done, Rose!

Third Place P6 Girls

A Bronze medal for Rose

Well done, Cerys!

Cerys and Phoebe in the Top Three!

Congratulations Phoebe for Bronze and Cerys for Gold medals

Believe • Achieve

 

Cerys takes Gold 

P7 GIRLS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY			P7 BOYS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY
Cerys	1		Mark	22
Phoebe	3		Dante	>50
Katie	50		Ben	>50
Zoe	>50
Ava	>50
P6 GIRLS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY			P6 BOYS EPSSA CROSS COUNTRY
Rose	3		Stephen	11
Holly	20		Matthew C	17
Emily	27		Matthew R	24
Susannah	35		Calum	26
Abby	>50		Boris	>50

Cross Country at Duddingston Playing Fields 11am

Good luck to our P6 and P7 runners at today's EPSSA Final at Duddingston Playing Fields, Cavalry Park, with the first race beginning at 11am and the event finishing at approximately 12pm, followed by a medal ceremony until approximately 12.30pm.