Raasay Primary School

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.

In STEM lessons, Primary pupils have recently been learning about coding a microbit. They were challenged with coding a microbit to turn the lights on when the light level dropped or when someone came into the room.

As an extension to the lesson, they then had to turn the microbit into a burglar alarm which would have flashing lights and a siren if someone came into the room. This week they will be further developing their coding as they create a code which enable the microbit to act as a soil moisture detector to let us know when the plants need watering!

On Thursday 2nd April, Raasay pupils were invited to an afternoon of Easter activities by the local Community Council in collaboration with Raasay Walled Garden.

The pupils decorated their own eggs before having an Easter chick and egg hunt! Everyone had a fantastic afternoon – topped off with hot chocolate and treats.

Thank you to the Community Council, Raasay Walled Garden and all involved for a wonderful afternoon and a lovely start to our Easter holiday.

April Fools’ Day comes to Raasay Primary and the boys were very excited to be told that, as a special treat, they were to get ‘brownies’ for break time – they were more than a bit disappointed to discover that it wasn’t brownies but ‘brown E’s’!

The boys took it in good spirit – they didn’t get brownies but they did get chocolate Easter nests which Sandra Smith had kindly made for the boys.

After the successful Community Curling Event last year, the feedback from the community was that it was very enjoyable, inclusive and that all who attended would love to see another curling event take place. The boys organised this for March 24th and, again, the event was very well attended and appreciated by the community. Active Schools Co-ordinator, Sarah Ross, joined us and also brought another two sets of curling equipment which meant that we could run three games concurrently. The boys once again were responsible for organising the event, explaining the rules, demonstrating the technique and recording the scores.

After the event the boys were presented with their Young Leaders certificates nd badges recognising their leadership skills development. Thank you to all who attended and congratulations to the boys for gaining their Young Leadership awards.

Continuing their STEM work – learning about Renewable Energy – pupils were learning about batteries and energy storage. They were given zinc washers, 2p coins, cardboard, salt, vinegar and a multi meter and were asked to build a battery. After building their battery, they were then challenged to improve it. The boys were very successful in their task – they tested their batttery using the multi meter and managed to get 12 Volts of power.

As part of their end of term SHHANARRRI rewards and the Health and Wellbeing curriculum, Raasay Primary School pupils and staff undertook a whole school outing to Skye Alapacas in Braes. This was followed by a pizza lunch at The Skye Candle Centre, Portree.

We were met at Skye Alpacas by the owner, Shona who provided a very engaging and informative visit. Shona gave us an initial welcome and guidance about how to act around the animals. She explained that they were prey animals who didn’t like loud noises, shouting, waving arms or running around and that quiet voices and a calm manner were what was required. As the weather was pretty cold and wet, we met the Alpacas in their shelter – Shona has explained that they liked to approach people and sniff (kiss) their faces! Some of us were lucky enough to experience this and the animals were very gentle and calm. Shona was very informative and we came away with some interesting facts about these lovely animals – they originate from South America and are related to camels, they form strong friendships with other alpacas, their wool is hypoallergenic and very light, they get shorn once a year and they have three stomachs!

After our visit we were ready for some lunch and headed to the Skye Candle Centre where we had hot chocolate, pizza and ice cream – delicious!

Thank you to Shona and Skye Alpacas for a wonderful visit and to Skye Candle Centre for our fantastic lunch.

Raasay Primary School has signed up for the Daily Mile initiative which is a fully inclusive physical activity whereby pupils walk, run or wheel for fifteen minutes on a minimum of three days a week. The activity has been shown to improve physical and mental health and is fully inclusive as each child goes at their own pace.

The boys have measured out the route within the playground and how many laps of the playground it takes to run a mile. They did some mathematical calculations and worked out that it is nine times round the playground. The boys are logging their runs and their times so that they can challenge themselves to improve their time each week. They are keen to build on their fitness ahead of the annual Inter Schools Cross Country in May.