PRIMARY
SCHOOLS life with and without Fair Trade prices for his family’s coffee beans. They have made cabins using shoeboxes and recycled materials as part of their work on The Titanic and had great fun recording jingles for an Ollie Enterprise task. P4-6 took part in the K’Nex Challenge and Callum Davis and Aidan Dempsey now go forward to the next stage of the competition. P5 thoroughly enjoyed their two-day Victorian Experience and now have a much greater understanding of what it would have been like to go to school during the Victorian era. Mr Fraser was a very authentic Victorian teacher who transformed the classroom with a range of artefacts. P6-7 spent a morning having a guided tour of the Royal Northern Spring Show at Thainstone Centre. They saw sheep and cattle from the catwalk as well as a live auction of pedigree bulls. They also saw different breeds of horses and ponies being put through their paces. They even got a glimpse of HRH Princess Anne which linked well with their topic on the Diamond Jubilee!
Lairhillock Mrs Avril Tulloch very kindly judged our Scots Poetry Competition in January and winners were chosen from each class as follows: P1-2 Isla Thomson, Rasmus Feld and Seumas Morrison P2-3 Joseph McIntosh, Ellen Thomson and Antoine Guinebault P3-4 Carl Saunders, Craig Strachan and Katie McIntosh P5 Struan Kirk, Lauren Grinyer and Louise Carmichael P6-7 Sasha Coutts, Mena Collin and Alexandria Reid Our cross country team completed the Primary Schools Cross Country Series event at Inverurie. Struan Kirk and Louise Carmichael came first in their races and Matthew Paterson gained a third place. Health and wellbeing continues to be a major part of the work in school. Weekly cooking sessions have focused on pastamaking. Nursery children took part in a Child Smile workshop that taught them how to brush their teeth correctly. Deaf Awareness Workshops have been delivered to the whole school. P5 pupils participated in the Grow Well Choices which is a healthy lifestyle programme developed and delivered in partnership with NHS Grampian. P5-7 successfully completed Level 1 of the St John’s Ambulance First Aider Scheme. The school’s Police Liaison Officer delivered a workshop on Internet Safety to P6-7 pupils.
Work on developing our school grounds will commence during the summer thanks to the news that our application to Awards for All has been successful. The school has received £10,000 towards further developing outdoor learning opportunities for all the children and we hope that the local community will also be able to benefit from this. The Community Council has very kindly provided the school with trees from the Woodland Trust’s Community Tree Pack which is part of the Jubilee Woods Project. The project aims to plant 6 million trees in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Silver birch, rowan, blackthorn, hazel, hawthorn and oak trees have been planted.
The Rights Respecting Pupil Council decided to use the £214 raised at the Suitcase Sale to sponsor a child in a developing country. Yefrin Martinez Obando is 12 years old and lives in Nicaragua with his family. Yefrin’s father is a peasant farmer and they live in a house made of adobe with a tile and slate roof. Photographs have been received of Yefrin and his mother, and the children plan to send photographs back so that we can begin to build a relationship with the family. ‘Tom’ our cuddly dog from nursery has travelled to South Africa with Caleb Heath and we are eagerly awaiting his return to find out about life in that part of the world. World Book Day saw characters from all sorts of books appearing in school and the costumes were extremely creative. During Science and Technology Week, the whole school visited Satrosphere with each class taking part in a workshop. Banchory-Devenick School joined us to watch the performance ‘When the Oil Ran Out’ performed by Hopscotch Theatre Company.
The nursery children (pictured above) have been outside wearing the new outdoor clothes and wellington boots bought with money received from the North East Forest Education Initiative grant scheme, which supports projects that promote the use of the outdoors as a learning and development resource. We were able to purchase 30 sets of waterproof jackets with hoods, waterproof trousers and 30 pairs of wellington boots. This means that the weather won’t stop the children from taking part in outdoor learning activities!
P1-2 children have developed their understanding of life in the 1940s as a direct result of the wealth of artefacts brought to school by parents. They have been recreating a 1940s style kitchen and living area. On a completely different note, Robert Anderson’s lambs paid the school a visit much to the excitement of everyone! P2-3 pupils have written a script for their movie based on Early Man and we are very grateful to parents who have assisted with costumes. P3-4 created Fair Trade storyboards comparing a little boy’s
Marian Youngson, Head Teacher Tel: 01569 732520 E-mail: marian.youngson@aberdeenshire.gov.uk 4