Raasay Primary School

Pupils in Raasay Primary and Nursery held their annual Sports Day on Monday 29th June. The boys had decided on a Football theme for the event – to tie in with the current World Cup which is taking place in the USA. They came up with some interesting challenges for the day including: football dribble race, keepie-uppies, kicking the ball the furthest and beat the goalie. The final event of the day was to be the grand finale – a Raasay World Cup. Scotland might be out of the running for the World Cup but we had our own version! With only having three boys in Primary School and four in Nursery, we relied on putting a call out for some willing volunteers to make up the teams. Many thanks to everyone who came along to spectate, encourage and take part. The boys were delighted to be able to be part of a team and managed to have a very competitive football match which ended in a close 7-6 result!

A huge thank you also to our amazing Parent Council who put on a fantastic spread of home baking and cordials to keep everyone refreshed! We finished off with our 100 square winners – thank you to all who contributed and congratulations to the winners.

On Thursday 11th June pupils in Raasay Primary and Nursery visited the Museum of Island Life at Kilmuir. Pupils enjoyed learning about how people lived on Skye in the past and the various aspects of village life such as the shop, blacksmith, school and weaver. They also had an opportunity to feed the Highland Cows and enjoy a snack from the Deli.

We are delighted that our art collaboration work on the project ‘Rain’ with the National Library of Scotland earlier this year is now on display in Edinburgh.

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.