Raasay Primary School

As in previous years, we were delighted to welcome Ann Larkham to the school to deliver the K’next Generation workshops. These workshops employ active learning to develop problem solving, communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills and offer an engaging and challenging way to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Enterprise.

This year, the challenge for P1-7 pupils was ‘Parasport Challenge’ where they had to design, build and test a racing wheelchair. The winning ‘wheelchair’ was built by Noah and Nelly – pictured below with their gold medals! The pupils really enjoyed this workshop with some of the pupils reporting back that they thought this was the best K’next workshop ever!

The next workshop ‘Under the Sea’ was for Nursery to P3 pupils. They had the opportunity to learn about, draw and build sea creatures out of Knex. Tamsin took up the challenge creating a whole ‘family’ of Tamsin fish! Calum created an octopus, inspired by the example provided. He also went on to create ‘Louie the Lobster’. Hamish created his own moving sea monster which had an ‘octo’ theme. Thomas and Noah showed excellent team work skills as they went about creating their own giant sea monster. They were thinking carefully about how they could get their sea monster to stand on his own two feet. So they had to carefully consider the balance of the design!

Feis nan Gaedheal’s Feisgoil delivers language, music, arts and cultural services to schools, local authorities, public bodies and community groups across Scotland. The objective of the ‘Learn Gaelic at School’ programme is the retainment and attainment of the Gaelic language through active learning. In addition to having the opportunity to learn the Gaelic language from a fluent Gaelic speaker, pupils also have the opportunity to learn about the heritage of the Gaelic language locally and nationally. We welcomed to the school Coinneach Rankin who will be visiting us over the next few weeks to deliver the workshops. Coinneach was very impressed with the level of Gaelic shown by the pupils on his first visit. Below Coinneach is pictured with the pupils enjoying some of the activities provided.

In our first week back we have been using a website called Go Noodle. We signed up and now we can pick a video and dance along to it. There are dance videos, fitness videos and cool down videos. So far we all like Go Noodle and look forward to doing more of it!

By Ethan Carslaw

28.4.17

On Thursday 27th April Nursery – P7 pupils had the opportunity to attend workshops on the ‘floating classroom’ the Silurian which berthed alongside the pier. The 90 minute workshop was led by expert marine biologists and educators and began with a treasure hunt around the boat, providing an insight into life aboard the vessel. The pupils were introduced to some of the key Hebridean whales and dolphins before going out on deck to learn how to scan for dolphins and use equipment such as binoculars. The session was followed by an interactive presentation below deck in the science station where sounds, videos and props were used to demonstrate the importance of sound in the marine environment. Finally, pupils had the opportunity to feedback and ask some final questions before receiving their ‘Silurian Scientist’ certificates. Raasay Primary School would like to thank all involved for providing such an inspiring and memorable experience – as you can see from the photographs and comments below the pupils had a wonderful time! If you would like to find out more about the trust you can visit their website on http://www.hwdt.org

“I loved all of it but my favourite part was listening to the sounds the whales and dolphins made” Tabitha P5

“I liked being strapped to the mast!” Thomas P3

“I enjoyed learning about the life of a volunteer” Ethan P7

Before we broke up for the Easter Holidays pupils enjoyed a fun Easter egg hunt which involved finding eggs and fluffy chicks from the rhyming clues! What a surprise when ‘Polly’ the Easter lamb also turned up for a visit – Polly was rescued from Fearns on the day of the Poly tunnel opening – hence her name! Pupils had a great time feeding her and being chased around the garden.

Parents also attended the afternoon to learn about our new website which went ‘live’ today.

Happy Easter to all our parents, friends and community members – school re-opens on Monday 24th April.