Depute Headteacher, Carolyn Anstruther, led an extremely well received Emotional and Mental Health Curriculum Evening for parents on Thursday 14th May.
Workshop 4 – Mindfulness with children- Ms Carolyn Anstruther, DHT
Ms Anstruther has implemented a wide ranging programme to focus on Mental and Emotional Health and Wellbeing with pupils, staff and parents throughout the year which has impacted positively across the school and within the community.
Grateful thanks to Anna Millar from iTeach, a
great friend and support to the school, who has worked closely with us and with
colleagues across all sectors of the city developing and leading
training designed to maximise the use of iPads in Learning and Teaching.
We were delighted to welcome Anna back to Sciennes on Wednesday 20th May, modelling lessons with our P2 pupils and helping us move further forward by sharing her innovative practice. Andrew Jewell from iTeach also recently returned to Sciennes to pay a second visit to P7 on 30th April and we were delighted to welcome them both.
Thank you, inspirational iTeach, and thank you City of Edinburgh DigITal Learning Team for organising. We were also fortunate to win a green screen kit from iTeach in their recent Twitter competition!
Well done to our P7 Basketball Team on reaching the Inter-Area Basketball Final held at Dean Park Community High School on Wednesday 20th May. It was such an achievement to go through to this stage of the competition - a first for Sciennes! - and everyone played really well against very stiff competition. Congratulations to Law Primary School from North Berwick who won overall. We were most fortunate to have both Mikey Macdonald, Active Schools Basketball coach, and Sarah Murphy, Blaze Basketball coach, accompany and support the team. Thank you to Sarah for the team photograph.
Great sporting attitudes from all the team, particularly Lawson, and we hope that all the players will take up the invitation from Sarah to come along to the open sessions at Blaze Basketball, joining Dylan, Joe and Maxwell who already attend.
Primary Seven pupils were so privileged on Wednesday 20th May to have an opportunity to work with American author (now based in Edinburgh) Nora Chassler. They gained an incredible insight into the processes of writing as she planned a joint story with all three classes! Nora carefully guided our pupils in moulding a composition, verbalising her thought processes about the key elements of story writing as she worked with them : creating an effective opening; making sure there is a hook to engage the reader; developing character; describing setting; plotting a storyline; finding resolution. By evening, Nora had worked up all their ideas into a finished piece that will be a wonderful inspiration for our pupils' own follow up writing.
Nora is currently working with all cluster primary schools, as part of an innovative creative writing Transition project set in place by Faculty Head of English, Allan Crosbie, and his colleagues at James Gillespie's High School. She has
already provided a stimulating workshop for all P7 staff, as part of a
morning of inservice from Allan and his staff on Thursday 7th May. We are very pleased to be able to work closely with our secondary and cluster P7 colleagues on this exciting scheme which also involves visits from JGHS English teachers to meet and work with the pupils. The English Department look forward to reading their finished stories which will be on display during their Three Day visit to JGHS 16th-18th June.
As part of Walk to School Week,
come and join us for the Sciennes' Walking Bus starting at King's
Buildings on Tuesday 19th May 8.10am sharp. We will pick up people en
route, including our Junior Road Safety Officers and Eco Reps. We will be walking down Mayfield Road, turning left into Relugas
and right into Lauder Road. At the top of Lauder Road we will turn right
and cross Grange Road with Crossing Guide.
We hope the route (see below) will become the established 'walking bus route' which pupils and staff will continue to use during Walk to School Week and beyond.
Very well done to Chloe, Anna, Sarah, Erin and Lexie who held a bake sale in aid of Cancer Research, which they organised
and advertised themselves, and raised an
amazing £130! Superb achievement, girls.
Congratulations to P7 House Captain Ruyuan who has won second prize in the P4-7 category of the National Galleries Children's Art Competition, sponsored by Tesco Bank on the theme of 'Flight'. Ruyuan is a member of Sciennes' brand new after school Art Club and we are grateful to Heather Lucchesi for
entering eight pieces of work from her club. There were over 6500 entries in total so it is a fantastic achievement for Ruyuan! Ruyuan will attend a prize giving ceremony in June and her work will be on display in the gallery until October. She
has won a folder of art materials as a prize and her artwork is also going to
be 'October' in the galleries calendar for 2016. Thank you, Heather, and very well done, Ruyuan!
The City of Edinburgh Council, Sports and Outdoor Learning Unit has a
full programme of outdoor and adventurous activities taking place
this Summer in Edinburgh. The programme starts on Monday 13th July and
runs until Friday 14th August 2015.
Sessions include:
Archery, Bushcraft,
Canoeing, Climbing,
Dragon Boating, Elie Chain Walk,
Geocaching, Gorge Walking,
Hill Walking, Mountain Biking, Multi Activity Days
The programme is open to pupils from P6 – S4 and most sessions run from 10:00 – 16:00.
As part of Walk to School Week,
come and join us for the Sciennes' Walking Bus starting at King's
Buildings on Tuesday 19th May 8.10am sharp. We will pick up people en
route, including our Junior Road Safety Officers and Eco Reps. We will be walking down Mayfield Road, turning left into Relugas
and right into Lauder Road. At the top of Lauder Road we will turn right
and cross Grange Road with Crossing Guide.
We hope the route (see below) will become the established 'walking bus route' which pupils and staff will continue to use during Walk to School Week and beyond.
A reminder was given to pupils at the P4-7 Assembly on Friday 15th May that parking is not permitted on the Meadows on a Saturday morning
or at any time and that if parents continue to disregard this rule then the
football club is at risk of losing our let.
We have also posted a reminder on our school website and circulated information to parents.
On Friday 15th May at the P4-7 Assembly we gave a fond farewell
to Rachel Inglis, Pupil Support Assistant, as she begins a new career in the
Police. Mr Howie gave a presentation thanking Rachel for the support, commitment and enthusiasm
she has given to Sciennes in class and at Outdoor Residential Camps. She will
be greatly missed by staff and children and we wish her every happiness and
success in the future.
We welcome Sarah Sheehan
as supply Pupil Support Assistant.
We were delighted to welcome back great friend to the school Jenny Carr, Chair of the Scotland Russia Forum, now based at Summerhall. Jenny has previously provided introductions to Russian language for our pupils and arranged for a Russian Cosmonaut to visit our Assemblies! It was fantastic to see that two of our pupils - brother and sister Fedya and Katya - have provided narration for a new website, designed to help children learn more about Russian language and culture.
Jennny offered all pupils in P1-7 the chance to take part in an exciting competition, where every entrant receives a mystery gift, and there are also individual prizes to be won! Jenny showed a short video of the Baba Yaga Russian folktale and explained the variety of ways to enter the competition (see below).
The Scotland Russian Forum has received funding from the Scottish Government for the competition. Entry details are below and each Class Teacher has been given a copy of the entry form. All entries should be passed to Ms Gallagher by Friday 19th June and please contact lucy.gallagher@sciennes.edin.sch.uk with any queries.
HOW TO ENTER
* Decide on your activity (or activities)
* Fill in the entry form (from your Class Teacher or Ms Gallagher)
* Hand in to Ms Gallagher by 19th June
* Everyone who enters receives a mystery gift!
* You MIGHT get a PRIZE!
Thank you to the members
of the Grange Association for their thoughtful invitation to the highland
dancers and woodwind band to perform at the Fair on Saturday 9th May. We received great
feedback from families and the children were delighted to take part.
Please
note that parking is not permitted on the Meadows on a Saturday morning
or at any time. If parents continue to disregard this rule then the
football club is at risk of losing our let. Please pass this message on
to as many parents as possible.
We are now nearly half way through our fantastic Swimathon! The children
who have swum so far have done so with such enthusiasm and
determination it has been quite inspiring and many have even had smiles
on their faces when they get out of the pool exhausted. Whether they
walked, doggy-paddled or swam they have all done an amazing job and, so
far, they are the junior school (p1-4) pupils!
We still have the rest of the week to go but urge you to support your child in a couple of important ways:
Make sure that they remember their swim kits (suit, goggles, towel) on the
day they are swimming and to support them through encouragement and
sponsorship. Sponsoring can be done through Bt mydonate at
https://goo.gl/8r1aFX or cash/cheque with sponsor sheet (hard copies are
available from the school office).
The funds raised will benefit every pupil at Sciennes Primary School and for many years to come.
Many thanks again from the Swimathon Team and remember....
KEEEP SWIMMING!
An incredible amount of more than £4000 (with Gift Aid) has been raised already! Thank you!
The generosity of the Sciennes Family is truly staggering. A whole school Bake Sale on Friday 8th May, organised by parents Jayne Weaver and Alison Outred and the Sciennes Parent Council raised an incredible £857.62 for the Nepal Earthquake Appeal!
Sincere thanks to all who baked and bought and to P7 helpers, parents and staff who supported. Money raised has been donated to the Red Cross.
Thank you.
Thank you to former pupil Ronika and her mum (who are Nepalese) for all their support
A huge thank you to Victoria Telford from Mercy Corps who gave an excellent presentation to the upper school Assembly on Friday 8th May about the charity's disaster relief efforts in Nepal. Victoria clearly explained who Mercy Corps are, how they have responded to communities devastated by the effects of the recent earthquake, and how they continue to support people affected by natural disaster. Victoria was delighted to see so many of our pupils wearing red in support of Nepal and to accept donations from staff and pupils totalling £82.50. We are delighted to have formed a link with neighbouring Mercy Corps, based in Sciennes, and look forward to working with Victoria to support our learning about Global Citizenship in the future.
Mercy Corps' European Headquarters in Sciennes, close to the school
Robika (centre) who is from Nepal with P7s dressed in red to show their support
