Raasay Primary School

For our last ‘Forest Schools’ session this term – what better way to round off the day than some marshmallows toasted on the bonfire! We look forward to our regular forest school sessions next term.

These cute felt covered ‘Pebble Pets’ are the ideal pet – no mess, no fuss and always there when you need them! Pupils designed and made their own felt covered pebble creatures, can you spot them hiding in the woods?

Pupils continuing with their Cross Country Training – and enjoying some lovely weather for it!

Today, in Forest School, pupils were learning to do some ‘God’s Eye’ weaving. This involved measuring lengths of stick and sawing them – they had to make sure both pieces were the same length. They then used colourful wools to create their own patterns.

Due to COVID restrictions, schools will not be gathering this year for the annual Skye Schools’ Cross Country Championship. However, High Life Highland have set up a virtual Cross Country which Raasay pupils will be taking part in. First of all, pupils had to measure out an appropriate course with 1800m for the P6/7, 1200m for P4/5 and 600m for the younger pupils. They decided on the shore path and measured out the distances using the trundle wheel. Each week, they will be undertaking the course as many times as possible and trying to improve on their own individual timings. There will be certificates for all those taking part and a special prize to the school with the highest percentage of participants. The event runs for the whole of March and we’ll keep you posted as to how we get on!

In our Forest School sessions the children have been working on their shelter-building skills.  They learnt how to tie a rope between two trees to make a taught ridge-line, using a hitch which could easily be undone, and made small shelters that would protect them from the prevailing wind and rain using a tarpaulin.  The children enjoyed using these to share their core reading books together.  We have established a Forest School seating circle where we can enjoy games and activities together, using logs which were kindly donated to the school.  The children have chosen their ‘favourite’ log, which we will decorate with their names in future sessions.

The children have thought carefully about what fruit and vegetables they would like to grow in their polycrub this year, so our next steps will be to prepare the soil ready for planting the seeds.  We will also be learning some more knotting skills for a variety of craft projects…so watch this space!

Pupils at Raasay Primary School celebrated World Book Day by dressing as a character or theme from their favourite book. Pupils shared their favourite books with the class and enjoyed hearing from our cook, Tekela and cleaner, Ann about how important books and stories had been to them growing up.

The Forest School model originated in Scandinavia and involves learning outdoors in a regular, sustained basis. This helps to promote and support the social, emotional and physical development of children in an outdoor, preferably woodland,environment. This sits very well within our own ethos here at Raasay Primary School where we believe in the outdoor environment to promote learning and emotional wellbeing. We have engaged with many projects which still support this e.g. John Muir Award, Eco Schools & Active Schools. We are delighted that Lucy Salter will be joining us for the rest of this term and next. Lucy is a qualified Forest Schools Instructor and has been delighted to make use of the school grounds to kick off the Forest Schools work this term. As you can see, they have got off to a fine start, with the first day being about identifying areas of development and risk assessment. In Lucy’s second session, they wasted no time in getting underway with their plans – below is a selection of photographs showing some of the activities including: sourcing, cutting and sawing wood, fire safety training, building a bonfire, making portraits out of natural materials, lifecycle of a frog, making bird cakes, clearing and planning renovation of the bird hide.

Pupils are now well underway with their project ‘The Vikings’. Last week they took part in an online, live workshop where they learnt about Viking Gods and pupils enjoyed taking on the role of certain Gods for a Viking Saga. They are presently working on a 3D model of a Viking Long Boat and making their own shields and helmets.

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we join in ‘Wake up Shake up!’ with Amy Gallagher from High Life Highland. This is a fantastic online, live exercise session which really helps to set us up for the day!