Raasay Primary School

As part of their topic ‘People Who Help Us’, Nursery pupils visited the local Fire Station where Fire Fighters David and Ethan Carslaw showed the boys the Fire Engine and some of the equipment they have to use.

Nursery pupils have also visited the local Nurse, Shop and Post Office to learn about the jobs people do in our community.

Thank you to all who helped facilitate these visits.

As part of their ‘Space’ topic, pupils had the opportunity to have a Teams meet with Space Scientist Dr Gilles Baillet. This was an amazing opportunity to talk directly to someone who is currently working in this industry – Dr Gilles sent this resume about his career:

“I’m in the field for the past 15 years, sent multiple spacecrafts in space. Now I am responsible for In-Space Manufacturing (3d printing space systems directly in space) at the University of Glasgow but also work on planetary exploration (from Venus to Uranus) and small spacecrafts called CubeSats which is the speciality of Glasgow.

I am originally French from Britanny but moved in Glasgow 5 years. I’ve been working all over the world from Taiwan to NASA in California but I do believe Scotland is the best place for Space. We have fantastic engineers and innovators, especially in Glasgow which is the city outside of west coast California which manufactures the most  Spacecrafts in the World. And in Scotland we also have a unique capability to manufacture and launch our own rockets from Orkney and maybe soon from North Uist in the outer Hebrides. Finally, I would like to stretch that you do not need to be good in maths or science to be working in the Scottish space industry, people in the industry ranges from lawyers to managers.”

Since Dr Gilles was responsible for 3D printing in space, Calum Gillies kindly agreed to bring in his 3D printer (which is the same model as used in the space station) and the boys were able to print a ratchet tool from the template sent by Dr Gilles and which they have printed in space. The boys enjoyed learning about the 3D printer and also saw examples of what Calum had used it to produce. Finally, they were able to print an ‘airfix’ style kit of the rocket Apollo 5 which they put together for themselves.

Pupils in the upper school joined the Nursery pupils for some Valentine’s Day activities. They made some delicious heart-shaped fudge and some cards.

Pupils in Raasay Primary School will be learning about websites and the World Wide Web and how websites are a bit like an online book and the webpages are like the pages of a book. Websites are found on the WWW which is like a big online library. Pupils will be identifying how they use websites, e.g. finding out information, having fun and playing online games, looking at pictures, watching videos and listening to music. Investigating whether we can trust every website that we look at will be a focus and identifying if all the information pupils access from the ‘library’ is true. They will be able to understand that websites are different from books because books are often written by experts whereas websites can be made by anyone for everyone to see without checking any facts or correcting any mistakes, unlike books where facts are checked and mistakes are corrected. Children will also be learning about how advertisements try and make you pay for something when you are online and identifying the importance of informing a trusted adult if they notice a mistake or if anything feels unsafe. Pupils will also be learning key words relating to ICT and creating a glossary. There will be quizzes, fun facts and a short video.

This term pupils in the upper school will be studying ‘Space’ and as part of their Art sessions they created artwork around the theme. The children were learning about the use of tone, texture, line, shading, perspective and colour and used these skills in their art. They also had to blend the colours to create the effects in the backgrounds.

Pupils at Raasay Primary School enjoyed their first Community Lunch for 2025 on Thursday 16th January. As always, pupils helped to serve the food and engage with the community members. A delicious lunch as always – thank you to all involved.

On Wednesday 18th December, pupils at Raasay Primary School enjoyed a fabulous Christmas Lunch before some fun Christmas party games, followed by a visit from Santa and his helpers!

As you can see, a great time was had by all. Special thanks to our school cook, Ann – and to Santa and his helpers who took time out of their busy schedule to visit and deliver some lovely presents.

Merry Christmas to all!

On Friday 13^th December, Raasay Primary School welcomed the Raasay community to the local Hall for their annual Christmas Show. This year’s production was ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ – a traditional fairy tale with a Raasay twist. The school role currently sits at three pupils from P3-5 and three in the nursery. The age of the pupils averaged only 6 years old, however, the boys were still able to perform a 45 minute production which engaged and captured the imagination of the audience. With the limited school roll, some of the pupils took on a dual part with ease. The story was lead by the main character of the Shoemaker, played by the P5 pupil who rose to the challenge of the leading role which would normally be assigned to a P7 pupil. The event was much anticipated by the local community who attended and there was plenty of enthusiastic audience participation.  The reviews from the community are in – here are some of them: ‘Brilliant evening’s entertainment’ ‘Absolutely wonderful’ ‘Well done everyone, it was amazing’ ‘It was awesome’

If you were unable to come along on the night – here is a link to the video of the show:  https://youtu.be/4d5KBDFyokQ?feature=share

Our Primary pupils produced some wonderful Christmas art which was inspired by Henri Matisse. They all did a fantastic job with their Christmas tree art which was then turned into personalised Christmas cards.