Raasay Primary School

On Friday 12th December, the pupils of Raasay Primary School put on their annual School Show production and this year it was based on the story of Calum’s Road. The idea to base it this year on Calum’s Road came from our P6 pupil and he was delighted to see his idea brought to life. The show was attended by over 100 people and the feedback from the community was that it was an amazing production – and all the more incredible that there are only 3 boys in the Primary School – and 2 in the nursery who also took part. As the story was based on Calum’s Road, we were delighted to be joined by our special guest Julia MacLeod Allan (Calum’s daughter) who travelled from Dunfermline to be with us on the night. Julia commented ‘Brilliant production. The boys are so talented, and the work involved so many people. Mrs Duncan and her team are to be applauded and thanked for giving us all a night to remember. What a community – proud to be associated with you’. Wilma Duncan, Head Teacher, noted that ‘all the boys supersede the levels expected for their age and, year on year, they build on and develop their skills across a range of genres. They have a ‘can-do’ attitude and their positivity and enthusiasm means that nothing is too much of a challenge for them. The production included: Gaelic, singing, dancing and choreography, poetry, monologues, comedic timing and add libbing! All of which they more than excelled at. In our school rationale, the four capacities include being responsible, confident, successful and effective and that was evident on the stage. Central also to the rationale are the four contexts of learning – having the opportunity of personal achievement, inter-disciplinary learning, ethos and life of the school and curriculum areas and subjects – and, again the boys demonstrated this very well. In our school it is our role to challenge our pupils, to give them opportunities for enjoyment, to develop progression, depth of learning and support personalisation and choice’.

Wilma also thanked everybody on the night who had contributed in various ways to making the night a huge success. Please see photos below by David Carslaw who captured the evening wonderfully and provided a super record of the evening for sharing.

Please see some of the feedback below.

June Gosling ‘Such an incredible performance by all, a thoroughly great evening and great to see so many people’

Diana Lindsay ‘Amazing everyone’

Lesley Oliphant ‘It was just wonderful’

Ann Oliphant ‘It was a really super night. Children are amazing – as are the staff’

Catherine Travis Timms ‘A most entertaining, enjoyable and excellent performance – Thank you ALL’

Linsay MacLean ‘Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to all’

Pupils in Raasay Primary and Nursery enjoy their school lunches each day – we are lucky to have meals cooked freshly on the premises each day. Recently, Ann our school cook has been making soup using veg from the local Walled Garden and the boys have been thoroughly enjoying their warming bowl of soup.

As part of their French lessons, pupils have been playing a variety of games linked to French vocabulary for food. The boys have really enjoyed using the games to help deepen their understanding of the language.

On Thursday 4th December we had a visit from our Pets as Therapy dog, Freya along with Catherine. The boys thoroughly enjoyed choosing a story for Catherine to read and then they took turns to read to Freya. We look forward to her next visit.

Thank you to all who contributed to the recent door to door collection and the donation tin in the shop in aid of Poppy Day Scotland. The amazing total of £248.50 was raised. A big thank you to the boys for undertaking the door to door collection. Thank you also to the Community Council for inviting us to the Remembrance Day Memorial Service on Tuesday 11th and to the Rev. Rosemary for leading the service.

A big thank you to all who turned out for our ‘Indoor Curling’ taster session on Tuesday 11th November which also included unlimited tea, coffee and delicious baking. The boys were leading the session and started by welcoming everyone on the day and explaining the rules and aims of the game. Everyone was very intrigued as to how curling was going to take place without ice! Some very enthusiastic teams were formed and a round robin tournament took place with the winners on the day being Lesley and James – congratulations! The feedback from the community members attending was very positive, with most requesting that we have more sessions like this. It was also noted how professionally the boys introduced and refereed the whole event. The boys raised £178.00 for their ACORNS Enterprise fund and they will discuss at their next Pupil Council meeting how they want to allocate the funds.

As part of our journey to the Reading Schools Silver Award, pupils have been collaborating with Eigg and Muck Primaries. They had an online meet where each school shared their recommendations for books they have enjoyed. We now have a list of recommendations in our library and have purchased some of these as class reader books. At a recent assembly, the boys each did a presentation of a personal book review. This is helping to promote reading for pleasure throughout the school. Another initiative we have undertaken is our ‘Book and a Biscuit’ whereby the children enjoy relaxing with their books, sharing it with others while enjoying a biscuit. As you can see from the photograph, the older boys were reading to the Nursery pupils which is something that they enjoy regularly.

The boys have been continuing to enjoy the After School Weaving Club, led by Raasay Weaver, Lillian MacLeod. They have produced some lovely work and Lillian was particularly impressed by their very neat edges and use of colour.

As this was the final Kayak session until April, the boys were tasked with planning the final session themselves. They had to make sure they incorporated a warm up followed by some fun activities which showcased the skills they have learnt so far. They had lots of fun and finished off with all jumping into the water.

This term the boys have been learning skills such as: turning, stopping, going backwards, sideways and balance.

As part of their STEM project the boys were tasked with making paper aeroplanes and to work out by trial and erro how much weight their plane could carry and where the weight should be placed. The boys did a fantastic job and also had a lot of fun trying out their different configurations.