Raasay Primary School

We were delighted to have recently been successful in our application for our fifth Eco-Schools Scotland Green Flag Award! The feedback below shows how much the hard work and efforts of the pupils were appreciated and we thank the community for supporting us on Eco journey.

‘Congratulations to everyone at Raasay Primary School for gaining your 5th Eco-Schools Scotland Green Flag Award! This is a great achievement and I have very much enjoyed reading through your journey. It is obvious that you have all worked really hard on your actions to make your school and your community a more environmentally friendly place to be. Well done!

Your Action Plan was well thought out and contained lots of interesting actions. I loved hearing about your composting scheme and involving the nursery in this will definitely help to establish long term habits.  I also really liked your helping hands chart for your light monitor duties and congratulations on your award for the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel – achieving 100% for all journeys is an incredible result

It was great that you identified a need in the community for more health and wellbeing events and that you then came up with lots of different ideas for all sorts of ways to include every member of the community.  They also sound like a lot of fun! Your CPR training, kayaking and visits by Freya are a really good way to learn new skills but also to help improve your own mental health and more congratulations for gaining a Sport Scotland Gold Award – well done again!

Your Heritage topic actions were also very interesting.  Your Gaelic language must be very good to win gold and silver medals and the Oban Rose Bowl and again you have used your own learning and taken it out to family, friends and neighbours.  Having recently been to your island and cycled along Callum’s Road, I was very interested to read about your Christmas Show – what a great idea and again, a celebratory community event which brought people together and explored your common heritage.

For a tiny school you really do seem to have had a huge impact on your wider community and you should all be very proud that you have achieved so much and you have truly shown that even small schools can make a big difference.’

As part of their STEM topic ‘Designing a School of the Future’ pupils were tasked with finding out which sources of renewable energy would generate the most electricity. They had to experiment using solar panels and wind turbines (using a hairdryer as the wind source!). The object of the lesson was also to work together showing collaboration, communication and co-operation.

The Nursery pupils were learning all about feelings and emotions. They also very much enjoyed their visit to Macdiarmid Nursery where they enjoyed sharing stories, outdoor play and the opportunity to make friendships.

On Friday 20th February, Raasay pupils took part in the Seall Arts Ceilidh which supports Alzheimer Scotland. An afternoon of music and light refreshments was enjoyed by the community. The pupils performed their version of ‘Calum’s Road’ which was much appreciated by all.

Pupils in Raasay Nursery were learning about Chinese New Year. They learnt about 2026 being the Year of the Horse, Chinese Zodiak and traditional way of celebration. They also enjoyed a Chinese themed snack of noodles, hoisin sauce and a lucky fortune cookie. The boys also enjoyed sharing their learning with the older boys.

On Monday 23rd February pupils undertook a workshop provided by the National Library of Scotland in collaboration with Seachdainn na Gaidhlig (Gaelic Week). The pupils were tasked with producing an artwork inspired by the many, and varied, words and phrases in the Gaelic language for ‘rain’. The work they produced will be on display at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh – once we have dates for the exhibition, we will let you know.

Pupils in Raasay Primary School celebrated Pancake Day by making their own pancakes. They had to follow the recipe, weigh ingredients and cook the pancakes. They did a fantastic job with all agreeing that they were delicious!

Pupils had an opportunity to choose their learning topic this term – and chose to study ‘The Ancient Greeks’

They have been learning about Greek culture, society, engineers and inventors among other aspects of the Greek civilisation. The boys have also created their own shields which were made to be life size – and it was quite a revelation how large they were, and how heavy they must have been to carry!

As part of our Reading Schools Silver Award journey, a whole school collaborative visit to Macdiarmid Primary School took place on Thursday 12th February. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to share our learning and make new friendships across our age and stage. The Nursery pupils joined the Macdiarmid Nursery for a fun morning of stories, activities and outdoor play. The staff had an opportunity to share their floorbooks work and other practices. The older pupils wrote their own stories based on the style of their class novel – The Wild Robot. They also challenged the other pupils to identify imagery in their writing. The feedback from everyone was that it was a hugely successful and enjoyable event and a fantastic opportunity to share ideas.

Our Health and Wellbeing focus since the beginning of term has been learning about healthy lifestyles and nurturing. We have also been looking at the importance of friendships and family relationships. Our final lesson was on learning all about what it is like to be a parent and the skills, qualities and commitment required.

Pupils identified questions they would like to ask our visitor – Karen who kindly brought in baby Louis for a visit and answered all our questions. As we have been involved in ‘Reading Schools Week’ all this week, Karen also brought in some of Louis’s favourite stories which the boys read to him. Thank you to Karen and Louis for their visit – this was a lovely way to round off Reading Schools Week and our Health and Wellbeing topic.