Raasay Primary School

Thanks to money secured earlier this year from the Healthy Islands Fund, our five pupils were given the opportunity to take part in Mountain Biking sessions. Our initial sessions last week were based within the school grounds where the children went through all the skills completing Cycling Scotland’s Level 3 Go Mountain Biking Award (including our nursery pupil being the youngest to ever take part in this award!). The pupils will all have the opportunity to use their skills in a couple of weeks time when we have two more sessions planned in which they will be able to put the skills they have learnt into practise around some of the local trails in Raasay. The award money will also give the pupils the opportunity to travel to Fort William with a two night stay at Glenfinnan. They will then have a morning biking lesson on the Wolf Tracks at Fort William before having the opportunity to spend the afternoon watching the World Championships.

On Friday 29th April, pupils had the opportunity to undertake a paddle boarding session delivered by Spors Gaidhlig. This is their second session this year and the weather couldn’t have been better. All our pupils thoroughly enjoyed it and had the opportunity this time round to try out the paddle boarding on the sea. They started off at the West Suisnish Jetty and paddled along below Suisnish House before making their way across Churchton Bay, round by Goat Island and the Ard Uidhish before returning back to Clachan Beach. The pupils were able to build on the skills previously learnt on the first session with all them showing great confidence and skills, balancing on the board and manoeuvering the paddles. The team joined us for a delicious local lunch of Raasay Venison burger followed by rhubarb cake (from the rhubarb in our garden). We are looking at more opportunities to come together in the future and are planning some more paddle boarding and perhaps some gorge walking. Many thanks to Spors Gaidhlig for organising the event and we hope it won’t be long before we welcome you back. Moran Taing

On our first week back after the Easter Holidays we have been focussing on learning about environmental issues. During our literacy, we read up about the lifecycle of bees and how important they are because they polinate flowers and help plants make fruit and vegetables. We learnt all about what the queen bee spends most of her time doing (laying eggs) and is in charge of the hive. We learnt that worker bees have many important jobs around the hive. The worker bees are also all female and they keep the hive cool by flapping their wings, they build the hive and keep it clean, protect the hive and collect pollen and nectar from flowers. We also learnt that drones have only one job – that is to mate with the queen, that bees make honey to provide food for the winter and that royal jelly is a food that is only fed to the queen and the larvae. In the summer, a queen can lay up to 2500 eggs a day and a bee flies at approximately 15kmph. Bees flap their wings about 200 times every second and a bee will only sting if it feels that it is in extreme danger. A worker bee lives for about a month and they do special dances to tell other workers where to find pollen. Around the world bees are becoming an endangered species and if there are no bees, we will have no food. We found out lots of interesting facts and we also learnt that bees are very clever and that scientists have trained them how to kick a bee sized ball into a net. Apparently they are visual learners and if they see another bee doing this then they will do it too (who knew!). Prior to our visit to see ‘real’ bees (thank you Hannah and Simon, we designed our own bee-friendly garden following some comprehension work on what made a bee-friendly garden. We did a short science experiment showing the important role bees have in polinating flowers. Each child was given a bee wrist band and a ‘flower’ – this was a paper bag with some powdery crisps inside – pupils ate the crisps to demonstrate that they were taking the nectar from the flower and then moved on to another paper bag (whereby they showed how the pollen was moved from flower to flower). After lunch we went to Hannah and Simon’s to learn about and see their bees and the honey production. We were even kitted out with special ‘bee’ hats and we got to see how beekeepers use smoke to calm the bees before removed the honeycomb frames. Simon also showed us the bottom of the hive where the queen bee lived and all the worker bees lived in a separate area. We also got to touch and smell the block of beeswax and discussed how beeswax was used in the past and even today in different products. Simon also told us that up to 60,000 could live in one of the hives at one time – if all the hives were full that would equate to around 400,000 bees. We had a very informative and interesting afternoon and we look forward to our next visit where we will be observing the extraction of the honey from the hives. In the meantime, Simon very kindly gave us a jar of Raasay honey (wild flower) which we will be having on our toast at snack time. What a fantastic opportunity to learn first hand about the importance of bees in our environment – thank you Simon and Hannah.

Our last day of term had a distinctly ‘Roman’ feel as the pupils had been studying the Romans as their topic this term. Our fantastic cook, Ann, very kindly (and creatively) produced a ‘Vesuvius’ sausage and mash which went down a storm with the pupils! Pupils then had a Roman feast where they reclined in their togas and enjoyed some of the foods the Romans might have eaten including: olives, fish, grapes, cheese, breads, salads, nuts, honey and olive oil. Ann also brought in her photographs of a visit to Pompeii to share with pupils.

On the last day of term, pupils enjoyed a fun Easter Egg Hunt which involved them following the clues hidden all around the playground to eventually find a stash of Easter Eggs!

Pupils at Raasay Primary School are very fortunate to get locally grown, fresh produce supplied by the fantastic Raasay House Walled Garden. Every week our cook gets a delivery of seasonal produce which she can incorporate into her menus. We have noticed an uptake in meals and pupils enjoying a wider variety of different vegetables. Pictured is Rona delivering our supplies. Thank you to all at the Walled Garden for their fantastic work throughout the year.

At our recent assembly, pupils learnt about the effects on people living in Ukraine during the ongoing war. Pupils wanted to express their support for all Ukrainians and particularly young people like themselves. They created this beautiful sunflower using the colours of the Ukrainian flag as a symbol of their hope for peace. As a school we hope to hold a fundraiser for Ukraine and will keep you updated once we have set a date for that.

During some after school club sessions held at the Walled Garden, pupils have been working on making their own bird boxes to hang in the school grounds or in their own gardens. As you can see, they have created some lovely designs using the burnt etching tool. A big thank you to Darryl Simpson who very kindly gave of his time to help the pupils with this. Thank you also to parents and the Walled Garden for accommodating the activity which was very much enjoyed by all. The boxes will now, hopefully, be providing new homes for some of our nesting birds – in gardens and the school grounds.

Pupils at Raasay Primary School took part in the annual Red Nose Day event in aid of Comic Relief. Pupils were able to come to school in non-uniform or wearing something red in exchange for a donation. We also had some fun activities such as ‘dooking for apples’! – this was suggested by our Nursery pupil Eachann and was a hit with all the pupils! Staff, pupils and parents also participated in the ‘Take the Cake’ lotto and our fabulous cook Ann very kindly made some amazing Red Nose Day cakes to round off the fun. Thank you to all who contributed and helped to raise the amazing total of £64 which has been donated to Comic Relief.

Thank you to everyone who took part in our recent Coal Raffle – the lucky winner was Milly Tamati who won 10 bags of coal with second place going to Sandy MacLeod who won eight bags. A big thank you to RDT and The Pit for the donation of coal and to Raasay Community Stores for hosting the raffle sheet and posters. Proceeds will go to ACORNS Enterprise.