Raasay Primary School

Pupils in Raasay Primary once again took part in the local Skye Mod. This year they were competing in Poetry recital, Piano recital and Folk Group. They all did fantastically well and came away with individual medals in their categories and a share of the Oban Rose Bowl. Our P4 pupil won the gold medal for piano despite having taken up learning it very recently, our two older boys won silver in their poetry categories – and the three of them won Silver in the Folk Group section. The Folk Group medal was a particularly amazing achievement as they only put their group – the ‘Raasay Bluebells’ together a few weeks ago and started practising their medley with some input from our YMI tutor and lots of hard work. Despite having a few wobbles, they stuck at it and presented themselves so well that they achieved silver despite being up against more experienced groups. Well done to all.

We always enjoy our visit from Freya, our Pets as Therapy dog, and her owner Catherine. The boys in the Nursery enjoyed their final visit for this session and Catherine reported how having Freya visit brings a more calm and gentle atmosphere. The boys have been building up a relationship with Freya and very much look forward to her visit and sharing stories with her. This links to our Rights Respecing Schools journey and our Silver Reading Schools award.

Pupils enjoyed their last Community Lunch of this session at the Hall on Thursday 21st May. The pupils and staff regularly attend the event which is always a delicious homemade lunch of soups and puddings, using where possible local, fresh ingredients. The boys always enjoy helping out with serving and clearing away. This ties in with our work on Rights Respecting Schools and Green Flag Award.

As part of their Rights Respecting Schools Award and Global Campaign work for UNICEF, pupils in P4-6 undertook a walk up Dun Caan, the highest point on the island on Wednesday 3rd June.This also tied in with UNICEF Environment Day which took place on Friday 5^th June. The boys did a fantastic job and enjoyed some well-earned hot chocolate and fantastic fish and chip lunch at Raasay House afterwards. We will be sending a percentage of our Sports Day fundraiser to the UNICEF fund.

This year, in addition to our amazing grape vine, the pupils have also planted cabbage, carrots, lettuce, beans, strawberries and potatoes and we are looking forward to a bumper harvest later in the year!

Each year, in March, pupils take part in the Sustrans ‘Big Walk and Wheel’ event which encourages pupils to take an active journey to school. We have been very successful in this over the years, winning the top spot for UK Small Schools for several years in a row. We were delighted to once again come top of our category with 100% of pupils taking an active journey to school. This ties in with our work with Rights Respecting Schools, Green Flag Award and Gold Sport Scotland Award.The boys are pictured with their certificate.

Following on from their art workshop in March with Mexican artist, Daniel Godinez Nivon in collaboration with Atlas Arts, pupils were invited to the hall for an immersive art exhibition – ‘Inner Sun Dreaming’.

Pupils enjoyed reconnecting with Daniel and experiencing the exhibition. They then had the opportunity to create their own ‘dream pillow’ whereby they decorated a drawstring bag with images of what they would like to dream about, they then filled it with oats and herbs of their choice such as – lavender, heather, thyme, mint and rosemary. Thanks once again to Daniel and Atlas Arts for a wonderful experience.

On Monday 25th May, our P6 pupil had the opportunity to spend the school day in the Portree Primary P6 class. The idea is to provide early transition opportunities for our senior pupils and this will hopefully be the first of many visits over the next session. Being able to experience a ‘big’ class setting, make friendships across his year group and share his learning with others in his age and stage will be invaluable in helping to make the transition to High School when the time comes. We have collaborated with Portree Primary in previous years to provide this and found it to be very helpful to all.

Thank you to the whole P6 class and their teacher, who made this a wonderful experience and we are already looking forward to the next time!

As part of our Reading Schools Silver Award journey, pupils in Raasay Nursery went out and about with their ‘Book Bus’ and stopped outside the local shop to engage with members of the community in reading and sharing stories. This is part of our focus on highlighting reading for pleasure in our local community and involving community members.

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their outing and being able to share their books – this will be the start of more regular ‘Book Bus’ outings so look out for us!

As our topic ‘The Greeks’ comes to an end, pupils enjoyed learning about and experiencing some Greek foods. On our tasting menu we had: olives, feta cheese, falafel, frankfurters, crepes, croissant, pretzels, egg, sun dried tomatoes anchovies – some foods were more popular than others with anchovies definitely not a hit! Pupils star rated the foods with frankfurters coming out on top. This lesson also formed part of their health topic looking at the link between food and health and all pupils identified the nutritional values of each foods – looking at the percentages of saturates, fats, protein, sugars, salts etc. and have a much better understanding of what these labels mean.

We also tried out a recipe for an ancient Greek honey pudding similar to melopita – a crustless blend of cheese, honey and eggs which is baked in an oven. We then served it with yogurt, more honey and cinnamon – all agreed it was delicious and gave it 5/5.