Raasay Primary School

On Friday 4th October, as part of their ACORNS Enterprise work, pupils ran an apple stall selling this year’s crop of apples from the school garden. The stall was to run from 2pm to 3pm but there was such a rush of customers that they were all sold out by 2.30pm! Thank you to all who came along – we hope you enjoyed using the delicious apples. Pupils then had to count up the takings to be recorded in their ACORNS accounts – the total raised was £83! Pupils will discuss at their Pupil Council how they wish the funds to be used.

Once again, Alexander organised another fun Science Club – the boys enjoyed digging for ‘treasure’ in the form of crystals, shells and jewels. They had to dissolve the hard clay compound that surrounded the gems and this showed the process of a solid becoming a liquid. Alexander hopes to run another two after school club Science sessions in week one and two next term. These will take place on Wednesday afternoons.

We were busy towards the end of term, clearing out the raised beds in the polytunnel and composting all the excess garden waste. We also havested the last of the grapes and, as you can see, our vine has flourished year on year!

Our weekly compost collections have resumed. Every Wednesday morning, pupils collect the compost caddies from local houses to deposit in our compost unit. We are delighted that we have the Nursery pupils joining us on some of these days.

On Wednesday 2nd October, Sarah Ross our Active School Coordinator started the first of her sessions with Leadership Sessions with the Primary Class. We recently bought new balance bikes for our Nursery pupils and we identified that our Primary boys could learn the skills of teaching the younger children in the Nursery how to use the balance bikes safely. The session took place in the Community Hall and further sessions will take place in Term 2.

On Tuesday 1st October, the film crew arrived at Raasay Primary to start their location shots with the pupils and to record them singing. The day started off with a one hour workshop, as part of our ‘Developing Young Workforce’ DYW curriculum. The boys had brilliant fun learning all about camera and sound work, creating story boards and content for a fun film set in the school and school grounds. They then saw how the editing process worked and we are looking forward to the crew sending to us a copy of the short film which we are looking to review and this has inspired us to create a mini Halloween film after the holidays.

After the workshop, the boys seamlessly clicked into professional mode, to start the recording of the classroom shots and the cutaways for the song with Morag. The film crew then filmed the boys during their art lesson which had a focus on line, tone and colour in the context of portrait art. This was the second lesson on producing a portrait of Calum MacLeod using their Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to create the effect.

After lunch, everyone headed out for the outdoor filming. We sent out an invite to the community to join us on location and to hear the boys singing – accompanied by Morag Henriksen and Ronan Martin on the viola. It was a glorious autumn day with a stunning backdrop. The film crew also had a drone for aerial footage and we can’t wait to see the final result.

“The boys have had an amazing experience working with the film crew, Kieran and Tom and also Morag and Ronan. Tom and Kieran fed back to me at the end of the filming how engaged, articulate and competent the boys were but also how much fun they had working with them. Lots of laughs, jokes and quick witted responses with belly laughs aplenty. Indeed they enjoyed it so much that they have offered to do an online session with the boys nearer to the airing of the programme. This will add to the excellent experiences they have had.

A huge thank you also to Morag. The boys loved meeting her and she kindly brought in crystals and other little artefacts relating to what the children had been showing her in the classroom, adding to their collection. Morag said she had a marvellous time; “all of it, everything and that it was she who was given an enormous gift by all at Raasay Primary by having the opportunity to work with the pupils and staff.” Ronan said he had thoroughly enjoyed the day and is planning to come back again soon to do some music workshops with the boys. What amazing ambassadors our boys were for, not only our school, but our island community. A huge well done to all!” Wilma Duncan, Head Teacher

Two weeks ago, Raasay Primary received an email asking us if we would like to be involved in some filming for ‘The One Show’. The producer detailed that the film crew were looking at featuring a piece within the show on Calum MacLeod – otherwise know as ‘Calum the Road’ who single-handedly built a road to connect Brochel with Arnish. The children have been studying significant individuals from the past with a focus on explorers e.g. Shackleton, learning about their resilience and endurance. We thought that this project tied in really well with our Social Studies topic as Calum himself is a very significant individual, in Raasay’s past and in present times. He was a local hero who exemplified resilience and endurance so we asked Morag Henriksen, who we met at the Alzheimer’s Ceilidh earlier in the term, if she could teach us the words she had written to the tune Calum’s Road. She sang it at the community event and we were keen that she would come in anyway so this was the perfect opportunity to make it happen sooner. She visited the school last week and we had great fun showing her round our school, learning how to play the bodhran and practising the song.

We are delighted that chanter sessions have resumed – taking place every Friday morning, either online or in person. We are lucky that this term, we managed to get two in-person visits from Angus McPhee, our Chanter Tutor. Our younger boys are just starting out on their chanter journey and all three boys are enjoying Angus’s weekly sessions. Angus is a big part of our school life and he joined us for our Prizegiving at the end of last session when he piped the children in and played our School composed tune ‘Damsels and Dragonflies’ which was written by our previous piping tutor, Iain Ruairidh Finlayson for the opening of our school pond back in 2010.

Pupils identified, during their first Pupil Council meeting, that they really enjoyed Weaving Club last session and that this was something that they really wanted to continue with over the session ahead. Weaving Club has been taking place this term every Thursday after school, run by our local Raasay Weaver, Lillian MacLeod. The boys are delighted with their hand-woven scarves which came off the looms this term. Their next Weaving Club sessions involve developing their skills to use two shuttles, rather than one.

At a recent Pupil Council meeting, pupils identified After School Clubs that they would like to plan and lead themselves. The first of these was a Science Club – our P5 pupil decided on the theme, made a list of resources required and then led the Club. The first Club was all about crystals – and the boys grew crystals on a tree template to understand how they formed. They also experimented with citric acid and baking soda to replicate a volcanic eruption. The second Science Club will be all about ‘digging for treasure and gem stones’.