Raasay Primary School

There was a lot of measuring, weighing, pouring and mixing involved in making pancakes for Pancake Day. As part of their writing the younger pupils practised writing a sequence of how to make pancakes. The results were delicious!

On Thursday 22^nd February Alexander attended the Book Bug session at Broadford library where he had the opportunity to meet with other 2 years olds in the area for storytime. Of course the trip on the ferry was also very exciting!

The Leanne Fund is based in Stornoway and is the foremost Cystic Fibrosis charity in Scotland, working with individuals and families across the Highlands, Islands and Grampian to provide vital social, practical, emotional and financial assistance – supporting the whole family.

This charity inspired us to undertake a ‘dress in your whackiest and brightest clothes day’, learn all about Cystic Fibrosis through assembly and share what we learnt with our local community by way of a ‘Whacky Walk’ whereby we ‘encouraged’ contributions from people who we met en route. We were delighted to raise the fantastic total of £82.05.

Our Rainbow Raiser was great fun and the children were really engaged throughout the day and as a small island school we thoroughly enjoyed focusing on a charity in the Western Isles – our island neighbours!

This term has seen the introduction of an after school Lego Club on Monday afternoons. We are very grateful to Della Cheshire for getting this underway and giving of her time to run the club each week.

Pupils were thoroughly entertained by the Portree Community Pantomime Group’s production of Peter Pan at ‘The Venue’ Portree High School on Friday 9th February. Thank you also to Henry – who kindly came along to the school when we returned and took the children for storytime – very much appreciated by all!

Our weekly ‘Weaving Club’ is now underway – all the children were delighted with what they managed to achieve on the very first day and are looking forward to the forthcoming sessions.

This week children had the opportunity to learn local Gaelic place names from John William Gillies who kindly came along to help us to ‘map’ various locations and learn their Gaelic meaning. This workshop has been provided by Aros’ year-long community arts programme for Skye and Raasay: Tha Seo Math Dhuibh – Good for You.  The programme is supported by the Highland Culture Strategic Board and the Highland Council and Creative Scotland Take Pride, Take Part Investment Fund.

We are delighted that our recent application for a Third Green flag has been successful! We are grateful for all the hard work and support of parents, Parent Council and the wider community. Here is what the team at Eco Schools Scotland had to say about our award:

‘Dear Mrs Duncan,
Eco-Schools Scotland – Eco-Schools Green Flag Award status
I am delighted to confirm that your school has successfully renewed Eco-Schools Green Flag Award status. This is an outstanding achievement, so please pass on our congratulations to everyone involved.
Interim Assessment Report
Massive congratulations to everybody at Raasay Primary on successfully renewing your Green Flag status. I cannot believe how much you have achieved since my last visit and felt that your wonderful submission showcased well all the marvellous environmental work going on in school (although I must admit that your photo with Mickey, the dolphin, was my favourite!). Throughout, you have made fantastic use of your unique, island environment to enhance the children’s learning and give them a true sense of place, working collaboratively with helpful partners such as the Ranger’s Service, local businesses, the CCF, Highland Council, Eden Court and the Raasay Roots, Fruits and Shoots initiative. Through the creation of your All Weather Garden Project, you have gained well-deserved recognition of your efforts, winning the Council’s Carbon Clever Competition, a success shared via BBC Alba and Eden Court’s Climate Change Day. Well done, too, for your ongoing scheme to help your fellow islanders compost their organic waste, your involvement in the development of the Victorian Garden at Raasay House and your tireless community litter picking and beach cleaning activities. For a small school, you have definitely made a big impact! Next time round, you will be able to renew your Green Flag status via our new, online system, and we invite you to continue your exciting Eco journey by choosing one of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals on which to focus, in tandem with your ongoing ventures, to add a global dimension to your environmental work. Amazing effort, everyone. Well done!’

We are now underway with our Community Arts project whereby the pupils will be researching and mapping local Gaelic placenames. As you can see, our map is filling up nicely already.

We are delighted that Dr Margaret Ritchie from the University of the West of Scotland, in conjuction with Strathclyde University visited our school to deliver some amazing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) lessons with the children.

This links in well with our Science focus this term whereby children are developing key skills in understanding the impact of forces in our world.

Dr Ritchie worked with pupils and they conducted various experiments looking at scientific variations using pipettes and test tubes, exploring the properties of liquids.

As you can see in the photographs, they also explored the effects of static electricity. One of the most amazing activities was seeing holograms in action – Dr Ritchie set up various holograms which appeared to float above the computer keyboard – various holograms appeared including the Earth and some dancing figures.

We look forward to this continued partnership with Dr Ritchie and her colleagues as they continue to support the school. They have also provided the school with a drone which we look forward to using as part of our further science activities throughout the year.