Our blog

New School Year!

2011-08-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome back!
I must extend a massive THANK YOU for the incredible welcome that has been extended by the children, parents and staff. It has been an incredibly busy first few weeks for everyone and I have enjoyed working with all the children and getting to know everyone in this wonderful school.

It has been great to meet so many parents already and I look forward to meeting more at the Parent Council Meeting this week. This is an opportunity for all parents to become involved in the school and support the development of our learning community. I know all parents will be warmly welcomed on Thursday 1st September at 7pm in Kilchuimen Academy Library.

It has been fantastic to see the successful learning happening around our school. The P1/2/3 class have been decorating enormous cubes that they made with nets and you will love the individual Coat of Arms designs that have been created. The P4-7’s have enjoyed learning Gaelic this week, gle mhath! Also, the P5 and P6/7 children that have been swimming have been excellent ambassadors for the school on their trips to Inverness. I was also delighted to receive a personal invite to attend a Bears Breakfast in the Nursery with my friend Dave the Bear, it was excellent and the breakfast was delicious!

Congratulations to the children that have become part of the Pupil Council this year. Well done Joshua, Caitlyn, Julina, Katie, Cameron, John, Ross and Ben. I believe there are some ambitious ideas to develop the school so I look forward to seeing some improvements in the coming months.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Kenneth Morrison

Happy Holidays

2011-07-22T03:38:00.000-07:00

Hello there everyone! I hope that you are having a super time during the summer.

I am writing to let you all know that Mr Kenneth Morrison will be your new Head Teacher after the summer holidays. He begins work on the 15th August.

Mr Morrison has worked as part of the English as an Additional Language team, and is an experienced class teacher.

I have very much enjoyed working at Kilchuimen Primary and I am very sad to be leaving you. I very much appreciate the support which you have given me and I am sure you will support Mr Morrison well too.

A huge "Thank you" must also go to all who gave me beautiful and generous gifts, I will treasure them all.

I will be keeping in touch with the school over the next two years and I am sure I will bump into many of you in Fort Augustus!

All the very best wishes to you all.

Good Luck to Mr Morrison.

Wendy Scollay :-)

School Sports Day 2011

2011-06-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Thankfully it stayed dry for sports day this week...Parents and children enjoyed a packed line up of races organised by Mrs Campbell. Many thanks to all those who contributed to the raffle. We shall draw the raffle on the day of the fete - don't worry, all your ticket stubs have been safely stored away :-) Thanks too to Mr Bowcott and Tesco for donating the juice, oranges and Freddy Frogs chocolates.
Here are some pictures...

P7 trip to Millburn Academy for the Global Citizenship Conference organised by Grantown Grammar School.

2011-06-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Joe, Libby and Melanie all went to an event in Millburn Academy called The Global Citizenship Conference with Joe’s mum, Mrs Kennard.
There were lots of different workshops and we did five of them but our favourite one was the one about The Red Cross.
What we did was we had lots of tape tied from chair to chair across a small patch of grass and there were fake land mines on the ground in between the tape. At one end there was someone sitting at a table with a water pistol pretending to be a guard. Behind the guard was a chair with a picture of a city on it.
The teacher decided to split us into three teams, the cross, the crescent and the crystals. We went to different groups Melanie and Joe where in crystal. Libby was in crescent.
What we were meant to do was walk across to the other side without walking on top of the land mines but it was quite hard because when someone was going across they had to wear a blindfold.
Luckily though, our team mates were allowed to guide us through by talking to us. If we managed to get as far as the guard then we were allowed to take the blindfold off and let the guard inspect the box we were meant to carry and ask us questions. When we all got past and we answered all the questions right, we gave the box to the people who needed it.
We had a really great day and we’d like to thank everyone who helped organise it. We’d also like to thank Mrs Kennard for taking us.

Photos to follow ASAP...:-) Here they are...

P567 trip to Inchmore Salmon Hatchery

2011-05-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

We went to visit the Inchmore marine harvest salmon hatchery…

How we got there -
Some of us went on the bus and some of us went in Reece's dad’s car. On the bus some of us were playing their Nintendo DS, some of us were listening to music and 1 of us was drawing. Other people were just talking.

What happened when we arrived -
When we arrived we were introduced to Owen and Matt. We saw Ben’s cat, then we went into a bit where they put the salmon eggs in trays until they hatch into alevins (after salmon hatch, they still have the yolk attached to them - they are called alevins at this stage). After that we had to step on a disinfectant soapy pad and then we went in a big green tent thingy where there were 32 big tanks of fry (baby salmon). Each tank had about 90,000 salmon in it. We got to feed them with tiny tiny tiny pellets of fish food it felt weird and we scattered it around the tanks full of baby salmon.
Later we went in the visitor centre, it was cozy. The man who showed us around was called Owen, Owen told us about where they get the eggs and about the fishes’ oxygen level. People where asking different questions and we were sitting on the floor listening.
We all went outside and got a few pictures taken.

How we got back to school -
Most of us went back on the bus and the rest went back in the car.
When we were going back to school on the bus, Paige and Jessie were drawing, some people were back on their Nintendo DS's and some people were just sitting.
When we got back we got off the bus and we had our snack. Some people had skittles!
We had fun finding out about the fish. We’d like to thank Owen and Matt at the hatchery and Mr. McDonald for helping us get there!

By Alanna & Jessie.

P7 Fairburn trip

2011-05-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

At 9:00 we went to school as usual had gym a little early and waited for the bus to come at 10:00. When it did we got on and had about an hour and a half’s journey from fort Augustus to Fairburn.
When we arrived we got our keys to our room and then had a little muck about with each other and went to have lunch. After lunch (which was hot dogs and burgers) we went to a huge rope course it was amazing we all stayed there for at least an hour! (Not enough I would say!)
Then we went straight back to the hostel and got changed into an old pair of clothes. Then we met up with Dave and went to built rafts it was really hard because we only got 6 pieces or wood, 4 barrels and 10 pieces of rope. We had to build rafts then see if they would float. Dave would send everyone into two teams and one team sank and the other teams first try sunk and the other try floated! (It was really cold!) Jamie, Joe and Reece threw buckets of water at team one.
Later on, we went to have a shower, and then we went and had dinner. For dinner there was soup and BBQ and finally we went to have a treasure hunt! The treasure hunt was very hard, the number 5 was tricky but Jamie, Chloe, Reece and Cameron team won!! We went to watch a movie there was as a choice of: Coralline, Stardust, despicable me, happy feet, the incredibles, but it didn’t work so we went to play charades or murderer’s wink, some people decided to go to the games room or watch football, While Dave went to buy a new DVD player.
After a good night’s rest we went to have breakfast, for breakfast there was toast and cereals, then we went to archery. There were 2 teams Hobbits vs. elves but hobbits won! Then we went to do the zip wire, everyone one got two goes the man that was controlling the rope, was very mean because he would stop the rope above all of that water! It hurt our hands too; he also hung Kenny over the nettles! After that we came back to fort Augustus and returned to school at 3:00. We weren’t greeted by shouts of happiness!
(Well except from our parents!)

By Jamie & Paige.

Edinburgh Day 2

2011-05-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh – Day 2

On the second day of the primary 7 Edinburgh trip, first of all, we had a shower then went down for breakfast. We had toast, cereal, tea, milk and juices. Then we checked out of the hostel and walked up to the Scottish Parliament.
On the way there, Libby and Jack forgot their jackets at the hostel. So they walked back to the hostel while we walked up to Parliament. There was a nice lady who gave us a tour of the Parliament.
Afterwards we had lunch at a park near the Parliament. Jack was being chased by Milosz and Reece because Jack whacked Milosz and Reece in the head with Jamie’s plastic hammer.
We walked up to Dynamic Earth and there was a lady called Nina who took our bags and coats and put them in a box. She then started our tour.
The first part of the tour was in a room which had a big sphere that showed different plants when you pressed a button on a touch screen computer. Then came the “time machine” (which was an elevator) which showed us in space at the start of the Big Bang where Libby screamed.
We came out of the elevator and we were in a “space ship”. It showed the beginning of the Earth and life.
We went into another room which had fake lava which lighted up when there was a picture of a volcano exploding where Libby screamed again.
Then we went into the next room and it showed the first ice age. The ice melted down and it formed canyons and seas.
The next room had models of cave men and dinosaurs and dodo birds. In that room there were heads and when you touched them it showed different things on a screen in front of the heads. In the next room there was a big block of ice which never melted because the room was like a fridge.
Then there was a room with a submarine’s periscope which showed animals and water.
There was a 4D movie and it felt like you could touch the animals and Libby screamed when the shark swam up. Then we landed in the rainforest.
There were model animals such as a komodo dragon, panther, spiders, lizards, snakes, monkeys and apes.
Then we went to the gift shop and bought some things.
After that we walked up the Royal Mile where Ms Scollay bought some musical tights.
Then we went in the Museum Of Childhood which had dolls and lots of old toys but we didn’t see all of it because we were all very tired.
Then we went up to McDonalds and had dinner there. We had chips, burgers, milkshakes and ice cream.
Then we went to the train station and went home.
By Joe and Milosz

Edinburgh trip P7s 2011

2011-05-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

Day 1.

For our school trip we boarded a train and headed off to Edinburgh. Paige, Melanie and Libby played uno and cards, while the boys played on their Nintendos. We were on the train for about 3 and a half hours (lots of uno) and lots of us were already tired as we all got up early (from four o-clock to half past five in the morning!!!)

Everyone brought some breakfast for on the train, some had sandwiches (though Melanie’s sandwiches got a bit squished in her bag), some had sweets (Libby had a few too many), some also had crackers and cheese strings. When we got off the train Miss Starr went to buy a sandwich (we think she forgot her breakfast) then we went to the national art gallery.

At the art gallery we met our guide who was called Duncan he showed us lots of famous paintings and sculptures. Duncan let us borrow some pencils and paper so we could draw some paintings and sculptures. One sculpture was of 3 naked ladies with their arms round each other called hope, faith and charity.

After the art gallery we went to the castle and took lots of photos. Paige, Libby, Jamie and Melanie wanted to buy an ice cream from the ice cream van outside, while Miss Scollay went to sort out the tickets but Miss Starr said no. Meanwhile Milosz was fooling around with Reece and Jack, Kenny wanted to take a photo but Melanie took some. When Miss Scollay came back we went in to the castle.

In the castle we got to listen to Irish music with some Irish dancing, Melanie took lots of photos and videos of the Irish dancing and the music, Libby kept on fidgeting and talking though.

Paige got glued to Miss Starr’s leg and Milosz got glued to Miss Scollay’s leg too because Milosz and Paige kept talking, walking off and being noisy. After leaving the castle we went to the Youth Hostel.

At the Youth Hostel we sorted out where we were all going to sleep, then we had some food. It was a choice of chicken and chips or mushroom pasta (yuck!!!!!!!!!)
When we had all finished eating we went to our rooms again (the boys in one room, the girls in another and the teachers in another) to sort out what stuff we wanted to take on the ghost tour.

At the place where we were to meet our guide, we met Andrew and Fiona who used to be in our class but moved to Edinburgh. As soon as the tour guide came he sorted out everyone out. In the tour there was a guy who threw water, a burnt monk who showed off all the time and said that two random ladies were his girlfriends. The guide kept spitting on Libby’s face but it was all part of the act. Melanie got hit in the head with a plastic rat named Pickles…

Day 2 next week…

Here are some pictures of us on day 1. We hope you liked reading our blog.

By Libby and Melanie

The School Wedding

2011-05-06T05:27:00.001-07:00

Many thanks to all the Mums, Dads, Grannies, Grandpas and family friends who joined the school to celebrate our own school wedding. Everyone left school with such happy smiles.

Please find below a report of the day written by our school reporters.

Kilchuimen Primary School held a wedding at Fort Augustus Church. The Rev. Dr. Adrian Varwell “married” Julina Cameron and James McGuire on the 29th of April 2011. Our bride and bridesmaids came in a silver Mercedes and the page boys in a black Mercedes and the wedding started at 9:00. Tina Cameron kindly did the bridesmaids hair. Our chauffeurs David Bowen and Graham Wilks escorted our lovely bride to the church. Our soon to be minister Rev. Dr David Anderson watch our wedding, and walked with Julina and James as they walked down the isle. Soon after, the guests came out to congratulate the lucky “couple.” Than not long after, Julina and James climbed in to there Mercedes and went back to the school before we had our speeches and our buffet which included chicken nuggets, bread, salad and loads more. Julina and James’s “mum” and “dad” made their speeches saying how happy they were. The best man made his speech as well saying that James had tried to kiss Mrs Walker. After the buffet the whole school had a ceilidh dance. Just before the P123 left, we had a very tasty wedding cake, made of cup cakes. After the P123 left, the rest of the school had another ceilidh dance. It was a very fun wedding and we enjoyed it very much.

Celebrating World Book Day

2011-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

We celebrated world book day by dressing up as our favourite character from a book. Mrs MIddleton was swashbuckling as Peter Pan, Mrs Walker was looking for treasure as a pirate and Miss Starr tried to sit quietly in her web, just as Charlotte would have. Mrs Campbell came as the girl who will wear purple when she grows old, and we all thought we'd entered the set of "Casualty" when we saw Ms Scollay who was remarkably believable as Nurse Nancy!

We were delighted that Jimmy was able to deliver our top soil kindly donated by the Findlays. It looks great! We're all looking forward to getting some planting done now that Spring is here!

Our latest 2 stars and a wish reports will come out this week. We hope that they will be an opportunity to discuss our learning with our parents or guardians. We have had an interesting time this week looking back at what we have done, noting where we have improved and where we still need to work hard. The reports will come home in our new profile folders, so we would ask that once they have been viewed and discussed at home, they are returned promptly to school.

Kind regards

Miss Starr

Playleaders recieve playground awards

2011-03-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

This week, the P6s and 7s have completed their Playground Leader training with
Jake. They are now even better prepared to deliver enjoyable and purposeful
games during break times. These children will now be running games on the MUGGA at lunchtimes. I am sure that all the children will have lots of fun.

They are however, looking for some help...they need someone to look after the box of toys while the games are going on. If any of the other children in school are interested in applying, please check the job adverts posted throughout the school.

The P5s are continuing their Feis music lessons, and loving it, at the moment they are doing Gaelic song and today are waulking the cloth.

P 123 have been exploring the rain forest. This week they were learning about some of the animals. Mrs Middleton showed the chidlren her pet tarantula. The children loved that!

P345 have been writing bedtime stories for the Silent Night competition. I was delighted with the effort that some of the children had put into this. I wish them well with their entry to the competition.

We have begun to get going in the garden. P 567 planted our orchard of trees this morning, Mr McArthur is going to help errect the green house with Mr Hepburn, and the shed is on it's way. Miss Starr located scaffolding planks for our raised beds and Mrs MacDonald kindly delivered the planks to school. P 567 will be busy next week, building the beds for the rest of the school. P 4 have written to Simpsons Garden Centre and Abriachan Nurseries asking for their help with choosing plants.

The nursery have been learning about food from other countries and this week the children enjoyed an African experience. They loved tasting the food. Mrs Collins was once more in to help them out, brining a taste of Africa to Fort Augustus. We have also purchased some new toys for the nursery and the children have been enjoying exploring these.

Next week we are going to celebrate Japan Day on Tuesday. The children were all very upset to hear of the terrible reports and wanted to do something. We have decided that we will try to raise some money for Save the Children as they have been hard at work in the striken country. We were glad to hear that Hario's family did not suffer in the terrible events, and Hario is coming in to school on Tuesday to show us how to do some origami and to speak a few words of Japanese. We also think that the end of term service collection will be for Save the Children.

Next Friday Edwardo will be coming to school, he is mime artist and will be doing a show for the whole school and workshops with the two older classes. We would ask for £1 towards this cost. I am sure that the children will have great fun with him.

Looking ahead, we are planning a World Book Day disco on 31st March at 6.30 - 8.00. Children will be invited to dress up as a book character.

The end of term service will be on the 8th April in the Church. This will be our last assembly with Mr Varwell.

Can I remind all parents to please return pupil profiles, pupils will need these to write thier two stars and a wish reports. Thank you.

So lots of exciting things to look forward too.

Have a lovely weekend

W S Scollay

SALMON EGGS AT LAST!!!

2011-03-11T02:11:00.000-08:00

P5/6/7 were very excited to see the salmon eggs being delivered by Mr Nick Barker this week. Mr Barker told us there are 160 eggs and we hope they will hatch in a couple of weeks time. Right now they are about the size of a small pea, with two black dots for eyes and are light orange in colour.

PLAYGROUND LEADERS

The playground leader course is nearly over now. We have been asked to prepare a presentation explaining that we have finished our training to the rest of the school at next weeks assembly. We will be organising games for the little ones - we hope they like them!!!

World Maths Day

2011-03-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

We had a super day on Tuesday as we celebrated World Maths day. Each class made their maths lessons are real as possible. Mrs Walkers class were working with different kinds of shape and drew them on the tarmac. They visited Mrs Curly to find out about how she uses maths in the canteen. Mrs Brady did some baking with the children which they really enjoyed and in the afternoon they went on a shape walk around the village to see if they could spot any shapes. The children had a great time!

P 345 were given a recipe and they had to work out what they needed to buy from the shop. Some of the ingredients were supplied. Groups were given a budget of £5. They bought thier goods and many found that they needed a little help to pay! We then came back to school and baked our recipes helped by Sheree and Dee. In the afternoon they did a transport survey of the traffic passing through Fort Augustus and are they are going to create graphs of their findings.

On Wednesday we headed back down to Londis so that we could find out more about the running of a shop as we needed tips for how to price and sell our baking. We also did lots of sums on the way, the Chip Shop price list had lots of maths, as did the Bothy's menu. We sold our cakes on our return to school, some groups made a loss others made a profit but that did not matter as we all had had such a brilliant time.

P 567 were not left out. World Maths Day on Tuesday found the P567 children taking part in a KPS active maths session around and about Fort Augustus, estimating and measuring height and angles, measuring and pricing raised beds, and finding out how stocks and finances are managed in a local business. The children also found time to squeeze in a session on the computer world maths challenge. The children really loved this.

Today all the classes took part in the maths sponsored challenge, we are hoping to raise lots of money for the new school playground. We have £1000 to raise. Some of the children found the sums very challenging but they all rose to the occassion and did a really really good job. Sponsored money should be in by next Friday.

We all took part in the World Day of Prayer service this morning, prepared this year by Christian women from Chile on the theme of what gifts we can bring to the benefit of society. P567 made art works depicting the tasks they carry out at home to help out and benefit their families. They have also been thinking about the different parts of the world affected by both natural disasters and civil unrest, and prepared a number of short prayers to add to the service. P345 painted scenes of the fantastic Chilean mountains, and P 123 created the national flag. The church looked lovely and the children all did very well with their readings and singing.

The school news letter went out this week and I hope that you all recieved it, an online version will be posted soon.

The school photos came back today and were sent home with the children this afternoon. Please return orders as soon as possible, Al has done us proud with super pictures of all.

On Tuesday it is Parents evening I would like to stress that we would really like the children to attend as well. Appointments went out this afternoon, contact the school if you are unable to make your appointment. We have tried to accommodate all but sometimes this is just not possible.

I look forward to meeting many of you at parents night.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

It's all go as ever here!

2011-02-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

Hello there, we have been thinking ahead this week, and P 345 got their letters home about the trip to Glasgow, they seem very excited about this.

P 345 have been busy working on their Italian information leaflets about different Italian cities, they turned out really well. We were also learning about crochets and quavers in music time.

Mrs Campbell trained the cross country runners this week and a team has been picked. We hope to get the mini bus to take us to the Bucht park on the 11th March. Keep practising the rest of you as we will be competing in the inter school sports in Inverness next term and will need fit people then. So if you were not picked this time perhaps you will be next!

All the children were given out sponsor sheets this week and they are all getting "revved" up for their sponsored mental maths challenge which is part of Kilchuimen Primary's maths week and world maths day (1st March). We hope that World Maths day will be lots of fun and plan to make maths real for the children, the children may be taking part in maths walk, while other classes will be going down to do some shopping maths at Londis.

Pr 567 have started their Salmon topic, children are making tartan designs for their salmon to immitate the look of returning spawning salmon when fishermen refer to them as wearing their "tartan
breeks".

Watch out for news of "the big pedal" from 7th to 25th March, a national
staged cycle ride around Britain. You can follow the event at http/thebigpedal.org.uk/ The final week of the event includes "Bike to school week" which we hope as many children as possible will take part in. More information will follow.

We were delighted that Mrs Collins raised £135 with her raffle, the hampers were super. All money raised from this and the sponsored maths challenge will go towards our new play park. Work should be starting on this in the next few weeks.

I hope to have a newsletter out next week with all the dates, but World Day of Prayer is next Friday and I would hope that some of you may be able to attend the church service at 9.30. On the 8th March we have our parents evening, but this time we hope that the children will come too, more information to follow. Appointments will be made for this event.

I wish you have good weekend

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Burns and a' that!

2011-01-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

Another busy week at Kilchuimen.

P 567 have enjoyed listening to Burn's poetry and songs performed by major stars like Brian Cox and Paolo Nutini. Then we made up our own poems about subjects we thought Burns would have liked, especially nature and life in the countryside.

Reece wrote a poem it's Playtime

Ding dong out you go everybody row by row
Get your coats on but don't run, hurry up playtime is nearly here
but just be careful it's slippy out there
Put up your hoods, you don't want wet hair
Now 5 minutes has already past
So the teacher shouts out to the class
"Come on you lot coats off and in you go"
So they sat in their seats again
Row by row.

P 567 made irregular mathematical shapes and measured their angles carefully using protractors.

The whole school assembly was led by the JRSO officers. They told us about the dangers of crossing the road and not using cycle helmets. We also have to make a JRSO logo. There will be a competition judged by Mr Blakey for the best logo. More fun activities will be announced soon.

P 123 have been in the rainforest. The created a jungle fact sheet. There was some very interesting facts on it. Some of the strange frogs and animals I had never heard of. The were singing Jungle songs. One of the favourites was, I have been eaten by a boa constrictor!

P 1 have been estimating number this week and P 2 and P3 have been rounding numbers.

P 123 also learned about wise King Solomon and they did some alliteration Jim ja jaguar.

P 345 have been speaking Italian, Lucy Findlay has been helping us. We also made Pizza's. We made clay food in art with Ms Scollay. We have also been working hard on our rainy day stories and we wrote the middle of the story this week.

P 345 have also been learning how to subtract using exchange, we have also been learning how to check our subtractions by doing addition sums.

Have a super weekend

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Filming fun

2011-01-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

Pr 567 have been enjoying filming their news reports this week. They have used the flip video camera to record their work. The children enjoyed taking part in this activity. P 345 have also been having a go at filming, and they were recording TV adverts for new sweets they had designed. This is a great way of making literacy learning realistic and fun. It really engages the children.

Miss Starr attended a Co-operative Learning Academy over 3 days last week and she has been putting into practise some of the techniques which she learned. This is a great way of ensuring that all children take part, and I know that the children think learning in this way is lots of fun. One of the social skills which she has been working on is, "No Put Downs". The rest of the staff are to be trained in some of the techniques during the In Service Days in February.

At assembly today we all were delighted to receive our prizes from BAM Nuttal and Scottish and Southern Electric. Each child received a googly bug, 2 pencils made from recycled CD cases, and a slap on reflective bracelet.

The children also were presented with their certificates for taking part in the sponsored skip for the British Heart Foundation. Pupils who had raised over £50 received a back pack.

Next week Colin Bailey is coming down to Fort Augustus to coach P 567 in rugby skills, this is part of the PE programme. Lessons will be held on Tuesday afternoon in school time and will run until Easter. Lessons will take place on the MUGGA, please wear track suits and sweatshirts. You make wish to bring along a change of clothes with you.

Have a lovely weekend

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Happy New Year

2011-01-14T06:38:00.000-08:00

We have been delighted to welcome all the children back to school. They all seem to have had a super holiday.

What an icy start to the term we have had and the school field looks more like a swimming pool. The children were all very wet yesterday and I would appeal for parents to send children to school with a change of clothes. (especially socks!) The children are all getting very wet but having lots of fun! Today with the combined conditions under foot and the rain we have had to stay in during break and lunch time, but we prefer to get the children to go out and enjoy all kinds of weather.

The classes have got straight back into work, P 345 have begun to learn about Italy, P 567 will be growing fish in class this term to release into the Tarff which will be a very interesting project and P 123 will be learning about the Rainforest.

We hope that some helpers will come forward to build out raised beds when the weather improves so that we can think about planting and growing later in the term.

Here's to lots of fun and learning.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

A very Happy Christmas to you all!

2010-12-23T01:54:00.000-08:00

Well where has this term gone? I know that I keep saying this, but I am sure that I lost a couple of weeks in November somewhere.

I would like to first thank all the staff for their hard work this term. The Pantomime and Nativity play were brilliant and I know that everyone had fun watching and taking part.

This week Pr 345 and Pr 567 went to the Telford Centre. There we sang our Pantomime songs, told the residents about the panto, and sung a few carols. The residents and children had a great time. The children really made us all proud with their singing and manners.

We had a fun party on Tuesday afternoon, we played lots of games. Santa paid us a visit. The children all got a wee parcel. A huge, "Thank you" must go to Susan Sutherland for her donation to help with the Christmas Party. Each child had jelly and icecream and lots of other goodies.

The nursery had their party this week too, and Santa also visited them. They have been making snowmen, and have made snowmen pictures. They have also had fun in their post office.

P 567 received replies from Santa on Monday to their letters. The children were thrilled to get a letter from him.

Thanks to all who came to the Church service on Tuesday, it was a cold night, but I think that it was worth it seeing the children's faces. Many thanks to Mrs Varwell and Dee for organising the tea and mince pies.

The children were thrilled to hear who were the winners in the Health and Safety poster competition. P 567 have been getting to explore the two new Kindles, and will show the other children next term how to work them. Each class got £35 to spend in Argos so the children will choose what they would like in their classes in the new term. Many thanks to BAM Nuttal for the tremendous prizes. The five winners also received £5 Tesco voucher for their efforts.

Our final exciting news is that we have secured funding from the Community Company and Leader Highland to the toal of £9000. This means that work will begin on the new trim track, adventure playground in the new year! Wonderful news! Fund raising will begin as part of the school's contribution to the playground in the new year. In total the play park will cost £10,000! A brilliant facility for Fort Augustus.

Well all have to do now it to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas. Best wishes for 2011.

I look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 10th January 2011.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

Christmas Fun

2010-12-17T02:40:00.001-08:00

We have all been recovering from the Pantomime this week.

Pr 345 have been learning about a Victorian Christmas and Jane from the Lochaber museum came in and helped the children learn more, they made real crackers which really bang! They also had a look at Victorian artefact's. The children loved it. All the children and Ms Scollay wrote their letters to Santa, they were posted the other day and we live in hope for a reply. We explained why we should get a parcel and asked Santa lots of questions. P 345 also had a class sale to raise money for their train trip to Glasgow to go to Scotland Street school in the new year. They raised over £100 well done to everyone who made it a great success.

P 123 have been working so hard on the Christmas Nativity play this week, the singing and acting is really coming along. The children have also been taking part in Christmas art activities. P2 have been running the school post office and they have been very busy selling stamps for 2p and the getting the cards delivered. Well done to the super post people!

P 567 have been learning more about their African topic and I noticed that they were also doing some times tables work. Some of the children have been helping the P2 children to deliver all the Christmas mail. The P567 class have also been making paper chains! My word they are the longest chains I have ever seen! Very festive!

It was a shame school is cancelled for the day today, as it is so Christmassy and everywhere is covered in glitter! The poor cleaners nearly had a fit in my room the other day! I hear that a few children also managed to have glue and glitter in their hair! (So did thier teacher!!!! I know my mum would say things never change with me!!)

On Monday at 1.30 we have the dress rehearsal in the church for the Nativity, the School Christmas service is on Tuesday at 6pm we hope all children will attend, the older children will be doing some readings, and the winners of the Health and Safety competition will be announced. We will have mince pies, tea and coffee in the church hall afterwards. I need some helpers to serve the tea, if you can please contact the school.

On Tuesday we will be having our Christmas party the P 123's will leave at 2.45, I am sure that we will have lots of fun.

School closes on Thursday 23rd December for the school holidays.

Of course this is all weather permitting!!!! (apart from the 23rd!) Keep logging on to keep abreast of what's going on!

Keep warm

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

School is closed

2010-12-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

Due to heavy snow fall over night the school is closed. I hope you have a lovely weekend keep safe and warm, and enjoy some snow fun!

Kindest regards W S Scollay

More of Mrs Walkers class work

2010-12-13T08:22:00.001-08:00

Some of Mrs Walkers Jack and the Beanstalk stories

2010-12-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

Pantomime

2010-12-10T01:29:00.001-08:00

What a super two nights of Pantomime fun we have had. The children were wonderful, the acting seemed to get better and better with each performance. If you would like to read some reviews of the performance there have been a number posted on the Blog, please have a wee read.

We had a great turn out on both nights and we were delighted to welcome some of the local community to the afternoon performance.

Thank you very much for all the donations for the raffle.

We are now having a quieter day after all the excitement.

Next week the highlight of the week is the Mrs Curly's Christmas lunch on Wednesday, remember to book by Monday.

Mrs Walker's class in getting ready for their Nativity play Busy Busy Bethlehem. We will be holding the Nativity in the church on Tuesday 21st December at 6pm, followed by mince pies and coffee in the church hall. We would like to see many of you there. As this is the school Christmas service we would like to see all the children attend. We will be finding out the results to the Health and Safety competition on that evening too, so YOU COULD be a winner.

If you are unable to attend the evening performance we are having a dress rehearsal on Monday 20th December at 1.30.

We will be partying on Tuesday 21st December at 1.30 more details will follow...

So... this week all quiet and then the following week oh boy we will be busy!

Have a super weekend!

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Kilchuimen news Karina

2010-12-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

Last night, 8th December a school played Jack and the Beanstalk play.
The P1/2/3 had masks on. They were little furry animals and they were dancing a little bit funny. P1/2/3 were great.
The Danta was played by Liam, Desmond was played by John, Paige and Jessie were Jack, Millie was Jack's mother. The Abba people were Hannah, Leteisha, Daisy and Muirin. Milosz was Mr Walsh. Ben M played by Mr Cowel.
Everybody thought that was amazing, everybody was cheering, we were really nervous on the stage.
My mum and dad thought it was fantastic.

Kilchuimen news Brian

2010-12-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night on 9th December we did a pantomime. We had practised for weeks. The pantomime was called Jack and the Beanstalk. It started at 7pm, it finishes at 8.20pm. Jack sold the cow for 5 majic beans, Milly hit jack and he couldn't sit for a week. Abba pupils were Muirin, Leteisha, Daisy and Hannah.
My dad thought we did great. My dad thought Libby did excellent.

Kilchuimen news Muirin

2010-12-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday the 8th December the first show of Jack and the Beanstalk took place at Kilchuimen Primary and tonight we will be putting it on again. There was lots of singing and Ben Johnstone sang an amazing song because people were picking on him because he was really small, it was a sad song.
The X Factor characters are Muirin, Daisy, Leteisha and Hannah, they sang "Money, Money, Money". Ben M was Simon Cowel, Rebecca was Cheryl Cole, Catriona was Danni Minogue and Milosz was Louis Walsh.
Jack was performed by two people, Jessie and Paige for half the time for both of them. The helpers were Mrs Findlay, Mrs MacKillop and David was helping with the play. David was playing the piano, it was good. My mum and dad and sister said they were amazed at the play and liked Ben J's song. When Millie was running and hitting Jessie, everyone was thinking it was so funny. I t was the best play and well performed.

Kilchuimen news Rachel

2010-12-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Last night and tonight on the 8th and the 9th of December, we performed Jack and the Beanstalk in the school hall.
Jessie and Paige were Jack, Andrew is the hen that lays the golden eggs. Muirin, Daisy,Leteisha and Hannah played Abba. Milosz played Louis Walsh, Ben M played Simon Cowel, Rebecca played Cherly Cole and Catriona played Danni Minogue. Melanie played Daisy the cow. Rachel, Siobhan and Laura played Villagers. John played Desmond and Laura played Molly. In the market scene, Desmond and Molly get married. How did they get married, Desmond had a barrel in the market place and Molly is the singer in a band and Desmond says to Molly, "Girl I like your face". Then Desmond went to a jewellers store and bought a 20 carat golden ring and gives it to Molly waiting at the door.
What happened in the pantomime, Jack was very poor then he sold his cow Daisy for 5 majic beans. When his mother found out the gravved the 5 beans and threw them out into the soil patch and over night the beans grew and grew. Then he climbed up the beanstalk and found the golden egg and the hen that layed the golden eggs. Then he went back down the beanstalk and lived happily ever after.
How did the parents like it? My mum and dad thought Jack and Rachel and everybody else were extraordinary. I thought that as well but I thought my brother was better but my parents didn't think that, they thought we all were very good.

Kilchuimen news Catriona Johnson

2010-12-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

On the 8th and 9th of December, the school performed Jack and the Beanstalk. The mums and dads loved it. The main characters were Paige and Jessie as Jack. Everyone was working very hard to make the play brilliant and had fun at the same time.
Everyone is included in the play, so come and see it.
People are very nervous and scared but the primary have put alot of work into it and my favourite part was when Milly chased Jessie with a brush, it was funny.

Kilchuimen news Laura MacDonald

2010-12-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

On the 8th and 9th of December we performed Jack and the Beanstalk. The actors ate the whole school and they are excellent, they dressed up funny, they felt excited.
My favourite bit is when Milly whacks Jessie with a brush because Jessie gave away the cow for 5 majic beans.
My other favourite bit is when me and Siobhan say Santa. Siobhan had to say "Is that Santa" and I have to say, "No it isn't".
Another bit I like is the bit when we do The Birdie Song, the birdie dance is funny.

I also liked other people's costume, they are really cool.
I liked Desmond's and Molly's song, it was good.

Kilchuimen news Daisy Clark

2010-12-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

Last night, the 8th December, the first night of Jack and the Beanstalk show was taking place at Kilchuimen Primary. There was an X Factor part with the judges adn the Abba children were there and they were Daisy, Muirin, Leteisha and Hannah. We all went up on the stage and sang Money, Money, Money. Jack was Jessie and Paige, Millie was the mother, Ben was the giant, Ben M was simon Cowel, David was the piana man and played all the songs. Jack climber the Beanstalk and found two animals. The animals were Libby and James and Jack was trying to find the golden egg. Ben J was brave going on the stage and sang his own song. His singing was really good. My mum said I got better than my last school. I was good.

Kilchuimen news Ross MacDonald

2010-12-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

Last night, 8th December the first show of Jack and the Beanstalk took place at Kilchuimen Primary School. The performers were, Jack was played by Jessie and Paige - Lewis and Ross were Policmen and milly was the mother. P3/4/5 acted the market scene, Abba was Daisy, Muirin, Leteisha and Hannah, Ben J. was the giant, he sang a song, it was good. Kilchuimen mums and dads were amazed with the show. It finished at 8.30pm. I felt tired and good.

Kilchuimen news Cameron Bremner

2010-12-09T06:05:00.000-08:00

Last night, 8th December, it was the first night of Jack and Beanstalk. It was funny because the song went up and up and the beanstalk was growing higher and higher. Jack and his mum was watching the beanstalk growing out of the ground. I could see the leaves growing out of the beanstalk. John was Desmond and Laura was Molly. I was a kid and I was in my tweeds and I was in my party stuff. I went in the hall and we started singing. My mum was happy.

Pantomime News - by Lewis Willaims

2010-12-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

Kilchuimen Primary School put on a fantastic performance of Jack and the Beanstalk last night, Wednesday 8th December.
The pantomine was held in the gym hall
A man called David was really good at the music.
The leading roles were Jessie and Paige who played Jack.
John played Desmond - he was really good. Ben J sang a beautiful song called "I'm not to blame".
Ben M and Miwosz played very good except when they were very mean on the x factor - except for Miwosz.
Ross and Lewis were really good. They played policemen and they tried to arrest Paige.
Everyone put on a brilliant performance enjoyed by all the mums and dads.

SNOW

2010-12-05T23:22:00.000-08:00

Good Morning all

School is open to village children. The nursery has been closed, and there is no school buses.

Wrap up warm for fun in the snow at break times and lunch time.

See you in school!

W S Scollay :0)

Panto Time!

2010-12-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

The children have been working really hard this week, the singing is sounding great and the acting is getting there! If you are an actor please learn your lines!

Tickets are on sale at £3 from the school office.

We are looking for raffle donations and help with serving and tidying up the teas and coffee.

All children are involved in the performance and they will need to be back at school for 6.15pm on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. We will be having a dress rehearsal on Wednesday afternoon at 1.30pm.

SO BREAK a Leg all!

We hope that the weather will not scupper our plans! Please keep everything tightly crossed!

Christmas Lunch will be on the 15th December, if you wish your child to have Christmas Lunch please make sure that you book and pay for it by Monday 13th December.

We wish you lots of fun in the snow.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Winter Weather

2010-11-26T05:50:00.000-08:00

Snow has fallen which makes us all think of school closures! Please check that you have the school hotline number. 0870 054 6999 (pin 04 2310) Please also make sure that you notify school of updated contact details and SOS contacts.

Panto practice and preparation is getting into top gear, working with all the other classes in school as well as their own acting roles. The children made masks for Mrs Walker's class and started work on the scenery with Mr Hayes, who is very kindly giving his time and expertise.

All of the work that goes into the panto fulfils the requirements of curriculum for excellence in many areas - as we want to see confident children who are comfortable producing public performances and who have experiences of drama and music that they are involved in performing themselves.

You can now buy tickets for the Wednesday and Thursday night performances from the school office £3.

The Great Glen Rangers helped us build our willow dome. It's brilliant - what d'you think?

Pr 123 and Pr 345 have also been learning the songs for Busy Busy Bethlehem.

We also welcomed this Advent season at the church this morning with a short Advent Service. The children who read the lesson did so beautifully.

Please also remember that school is closed on Monday for inservice training.

The big maths lesson will happen on Wednesday 1st December at 1.00 in the GP room all are welcome, we will have another Maths evening on the 14th December at 7pm.

The parents council AGM will be held on the 1st December at 7pm in the Academy Library please come along and lend your support to the school.

We wish you a fun weekend.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

We been having a foot tapping time

2010-11-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

A HUGE thank you to all the parents and friends of Kilchuimen who have sponsored the children as part of the British Heart Foundation big skip. The money is still coming in and we don't have a final total but people have been very generous. 20% of money raised will go towards school funds.

We raised £38 for Children in Need as part of our dress down day today. Every little helps.

Next week we shall be having another dress down day on Friday and the money will be used to raise money for Christmas activities.

On Wednesday we had a super afternoon of music when Mhairead Green and Anna Massie played the accordion, small pipes, guitar, banjo and fiddle to us. Everyone loved singing the song, Sam the Skull. We also learned about jigs, strathspeys and reels and how to decide which tune was which.

All the children have been working hard on their safety posters so we will be finding out soon who will win a prize.

Pr 123 have begun work on their nativity this week, Busy Busy Bethlehem, Mrs Walker thinks that they have nearly learned the piece already! Brilliant work P 123.

The singing for the Pantomine has really been improving it's sounding fantastic, we know lots of the words as well. Actors have been learning their lines and will be without the script soon!

The nurse was in school on Monday and did the P1 health checks.

The nursery have a mini hospital set up and there are a few sick teddies and dolls.

You will also be pleased to hear that the missing teddy from last week was found. He had a huge adventure. The children wrote about the teddy's adventure, that teddy had had a busy time!

We would like to invite all our parents and friends to come to the Advent Service in the church on Friday at 9.30, this is nice way to start off the Advent season. We hope to see you there.

Have a lovely weekend.

W S Scollay

2010-11-12T06:46:00.000-08:00

The school newsletter was put into school bag mail today, so check that out for the latest information. The letter will appear on the website later next week.

The children have been taking part in a Health and Safety poster competition for Glendoe. The posters will be displayed up at the dam and will help to remind the workers to keep safe. Having seen a few of them there are some excellent posters, some are very gruesome!

Mrs MacDonald's class and Miss Starr's class have been taking part in the League of Nations maths challenge. The children have really enjoyed competing with other children around the world. The maths is certainly challenging but lots of fun. All the children have been given user names and passwords which they can use at home. The competition starts for real next week.

Rehearsals have begun for Jack and the Beanstalk. I am delighted at the improvement in the singing, it would bring tears to a glass eye! (and not of pain!!) The actors have been rehearsing their parts as well, it should be good.

We stopped at 11am on Thursday as part of Rememberance day and George from the Academy collected money for a collection to the poppy fund. He looked really smart in his Army Cadets uniform.

A bid has been put in this week for Leader funding, many thanks to those who wrote letters of support for the project.

Next week we are going to be having a live performance of Scottish music from Anna Massie and Mhaird Green. That will be a real treat for us. P 5 have been learning the whistle with Feis, they are beginning to get quite tuneful!

On Fridays we are going to be having dress down day each week for £1 this will help to raise funds for the Christmas Parties.

Have a good weekend.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Halloween is coming! Skeletons will be after YOU!

2010-10-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to school after the holidays!

What a ghostly night we had last night. The children all seemed to have lots of fun at the Halloween Disco. The costumes which the children wore were all brilliant. I did not recognise quite a few of the children.

The Pupils did a great job organising the event, but our secret weapon of Mrs Collins certainly helped the council a lot! We have to send a very big and special, "Thank you!" to Mrs Collins who baked vast amounts of spider cakes, skeleton biscuits and other goodies, she made gloopy gunk for the children that dared put their hand in the bowl, and created a Gruesome feely box. Dee also helped the council think of exciting Halloween games. Everyone loved the wrap the mummy. A hall full of mummified children was a sight to see! Dee also went all the way to Tesco and bought all the prizes and some decorations on behalf of the pupil council. (Getting hopelessly caught up in the road closure!) We really have much to thank her for.

Alison Bowcott bought the apples for the very popular dooking for apples. The children really enjoyed that. Thank you Alison!

Tina Cameron kindly came in and helped to decorate the hall with the children. The secondary pupils had let us use some of their Halloween decorations and we all added many of our own. The hall looked really great.

Thank you also to all the staff and other mums who helped at the disco and made sure that the evening went off without a hitch.

Wonderful fun!

Today we had a right motley bunch of children come to school, many were dressed up again. Mrs Walkers class and Ms Scollay's class went to the Telford Centre, there the children sang some Halloween songs and spoke the residents and visitors.

£50 was won for the P 567 class by four children. They are delighted and I am not sure what they intend to buy for their class yet.

The Oban Times on Thursday had a super picture of the playground leaders, with the Pr 1 children. The children were proudly showing their new playground equipment which had been fund raised for by the last pupil council.

So a very busy start to the term, without mentioning that the P 567 and P 345 classes have begun work on the Panto! Jack and the Beanstalk. P 567 are learning about Africa, P 345 are learning about Victorians and P 123 are learning about the seasonal festivals.

Happy Halloween! :-)

W S Scollay

The holidays are here!

2010-10-08T03:01:00.000-07:00

I would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday. The children and staff have once more worked really hard and it is great to see the progress in learning which the children have had.

The staff returns to school on the 25th October for an Inservice day and we will welcome the children back on Tuesday 26th October. There will be a Halloween disco on Thursday 28th October 6.00 - 7.30 in the school hall. Children will be able to were their Halloween costumes to school on the 29th October if they bring £1. Mrs Walker and Ms Scollay's class will visit the Telford Centre on 29th October wearing our Halloween costumes.

Auditions will begin for the Pantomime during the first week back, Jack and the Beanstalk will be performed on the 9th December.

So lots of exciting events will be happening next term.

This week, P567 had a great time working on Africa. Our North Highland Cross Country representatives (Laura, Andrew, Ben J, Kieran, Mungo and James) ran really well. We're very proud of their efforts! On Thursday, they logged on to a web chat with the author or the Young Bond series of books, Charlie Higson. He's now writing scary stories for children, but we weren't scared! It was totally cool.

P 345 have been continuing to learn about maps, we took a very short walk along station road on Thursday. We noted all the mistakes which were on the Google earth map. The children have also been working on co-ordinates in their maths lessons. We will finish off work on this next term. We also spent lots of time redrafting our best pieces of writing work from this term. After the chats at parents night the children produced some fantastic work, showing us exactly how super they can do their work. No excuses now!

P 123 have been learning about lady pirates this week, and they wrote about them during their writing lesson where they had to use headings in their writing. The P 123 also led our assembly today, they put on a short play about Noah's ark, and taught the rest of the school a song about Noah.

The nursery have been pretending to catch and eat fish from their boat. That boat really travels in the nursery. They were also building planks to walk from the boat, and one wee boy made a barbeque where they cooked their fish. The children enjoyed salmon, mackeral for snack this week, and they all enjoyed that. The new guttering is also causing lots of fun and learning.

So... it's no wonder we all need a well earned break.

I look forward the fun and games of next term.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Rain stops play :-(

2010-10-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

With the wind whirling it feels like late autumn today. I always say this, but once again the term has simply flown past and the last week of term if fast approaching.

P 3/4/5 and P 5/6/7 were disappointed once more this week, as they were not able to go to Auchterawe. The rain poured down and making dens in the rain is not so much fun! Unfortunately we are unable to rerun this trip before the holidays, so we will see if we can manage this early next term.

Thank you to all the parents who joined us at parents night. It was lovely to see you all.

I hope that everyone now has a copy of the Quality and Standards report and the school newsletter. If you did not get a copy please ask for one from the school office. They will go live on the website later next week.

A quick reminder to all parents, that for PE lessons children should have shorts, a t- shirt and a pair of suitable indoor shoes. Mrs Campbell comes in every Thursday and expects all the children to be suitably dressed so that they can access all the activities.

P5/6/7

We are enjoying finishing off our model village, complete with garage, corner shop, cinema, floating boathouse, skyscraper, skateboard park.. powered by solar panels and wind turbines.

Sadly for us this was our last week of swimming for a while...it's one of the highlights of our week. We've had a brilliant time, and we've gained a lot of confidence from our lessons.

We are looking forward to seeing our new junior road safety officers back from their training session at Kirkhill Primary....we're going to ask them lots of questions about being safe near roads, especially now that the nights are beginning to get darker.

P 3/4/5

The children began thinking the big C word... sorry yes, I did mean Christmas!!! As part of the Blue Peter Whizz kids appeal we created Christmas cards. The cards have to be sent back at the end of next week. The children did some super decorations. These cards will be distributed through out the UK and sold in Tesco Extra stores. Look out for the packs, one of them may contain your children's card! All money raised will help to support wheel chair assessment clinics. If you want to find out more, log onto the Blue Peter website.

The children also wrote letters to Mr Salmond, about the state of our beaches, with rubbish. We will have a go at redrafing some of these next week and send them to the man himself! I await his response!

P 1/2/3

Did a salt water experience with Laura from the Nursery. We should see the results next week. The children have been singing about Mice! Discussing hand- washing and making posters. We had a vote for the Pupil Council. The rest of the new toys arrived the dolls house and the garage are very well equipped. We have been learning about blurbs, and about using headings when writing reports. We also read about lady pirates too.

Nursery

The nursery ate some of their harvested brussel sprouts for snack. The children have been looking at patterns in nature, and one wee one painted a beautiful fish. Another child painted a super picture of a shell with all the ridges and bumps on it. The children have had great fun with lengths of guttering in the playground, running water through the pipes. Mrs Macleod came into nursery and helped the children make plant pots with shells stuck on to them.

I wish you a happy weekend.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Parents Evenings and other bits n bobs.

2010-09-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

Please check school bag mail, appointments for parents night have been given out today. We have tried where possible to accommodate appointment requests but I know that this has not always been possible. If the time is not convenient please contact the school to arrange another mutually convenient time to speak to you child's teacher.

There will also be a parent council meeting on Wednesday 29th at 2.00pm. We are looking for a parent volunteer to help with the creche as we do not have extra staff available this week.

The order for sweatshirts is now closed. The order is being sent away today.

Pr 1/2/3 have been learning about Pirates, they have written Pirate Juice recipes, and they REALLY DID NOT have rum!!! I was slightly alarmed when I was assured by the children they had! Mrs Walker was mortified. The children have also been learning about pirate parrots and ships. In maths the children have also been taking part in addition.

Pr 3/4/5/ drew beautiful shells in chalk and finished their seascape pictures, they all turned out really well. They enjoyed a singing session with John Thomson this week, and they were keeping the beat to the music. John really knows how to get everyone to enjoy singing with his games and catchy songs.

Pr 5/6/7 have been creating their designed houses. These cardboard constructions have been built from an initial plan. The children have worked hard on them and have enjoyed making them.

The cross country team has been picked this week. Well done to those who got through and also well done to the others who have worked very hard at the training but did not make the final team.

We had Robbie in for work experience this week and he saw all aspects of how the school works, I hope that he enjoyed his time with us.

I hope that I see may see many of you next week at the parents evening.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Ship Ahoy!

2010-09-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

It seems that the school has been gripped by seaside fever. The nursery have been digging for hidden treasure in the nursery beach corner, they found lots of treasure there. The children were also really excited to find a message in a bottle on the shore, they have sent a message through to the P 123 class. It is all very exciting, beware if you go in the nursery though, you may be asked to walk the plank!

P 12 3 have created a fantastic pirate ship with the help of Mr Hayes, it is just brilliant, the children have really enjoyed taking part in this. The children wrote fantastic pirate stories which they are all going to read to the nursery.

P 345 all headed to Rosemarkie beach, they visited Channary Point and were delighted to be able to see some dolphins leaping. We have a very smelly classroom as they took back all sorts of interesting finds. All the children had a ball, and it is simply amazing now what they know.

P 567 did a new display for buildings in Fort Augustus of those old and new. They have been finishing off creating their "junk" buildings for their version of Fort Augustus High Street.

Children in P 345 and P 567 also watch a little of the Pope's visit on Thursday.

Thank you to everyone who donated money for the "Seeds to Africa" at the harvest thanksgiving festival. A total of £70 was made.

A super turn out at the Parent Council, with much debate about Curriculum for Excellence, feedback on the parent survey which was sent out in May, and I also outlined the improvement plan for the school for the next year. I hope that we see many of you at another meeting.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

The sun has got his hat on!

2010-09-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

well, we said, "Cheerio" this afternoon, to ten tired wee primary ones. They had really enjoyed their time at school this week, but we could see that they were needing the weekend this afternoon. We hope they have a lovely weekend to get their breath back!

Mrs Walker's topic is, Pirates, and I was really impressed at assembly this morning at the amount of information the children could tell me about Blackbeard the pirate. I have learned some really interesting facts, did you know that he drank gunpowder in his rum?! He also wore lit fuses on his hair! The children were impressed! (Sorry but we can't start that as a new school uniform addition before you ask!) P 1/2/3 also wrote lovely shipwrecked stories it's amazing what the children come up with. In maths they have been working with numbers and place value. The Pr 1's also started their reading programme with gusto this week. After hearing about all that no wonder the wee souls were tired.

P 3/4/5 went on a trip to the beach on Thursday, well, not exactly the beach... we all headed to the sand pit with our chairs, there we talked about the seaside sounds, the sights, and what sand feels like. We reluctantly headed indoors and the children all wrote brilliant seaside sense poems. P 3/4/5 also went a trip around the village on Tuesday afternoon, but once more the power of technology transported us there as we travelled the village using Google earth. The children loved it, and this is connecting with work which we are doing in maths in regards to plans and maps. I can also let you into an exciting, not yet told to the children secret, that Mrs MacDonald is going to take the children to Channory point, Rosemarkie beach and North Kessock dophin centre on 15th September, letters will be going out next week. That will be fun.

P 5/6/7 have been busy learning more about different structures, and they are full of the trip to the Housing Expo in Inverness, it is great to see how that trip seems to have inspired them. P 7 were taking part in fitness tests the other day, I think they found them quite demanding! P 5 /6/7 children have all been practising for the cross country race which is being held shortly.

In the playground we purchased £100 of new toys for the children to play with, Tesco has at present a half price sale which we have benefited from the lower prices. The children are enjoying the toys.

Please note that the Harvest Thanksgiving day will be on 13th September 9.30 in the church all are welcome to join us for this. The church is having it's harvest weekend on the weekend before so we are making us of the decorated church.

Have a super weekend.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Welcome Back!

2010-08-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome back everyone!

Pr 1 have settled so well into school, Mrs Walker is really pleased with all the children. Today is the first full day for them so I am sure that they will need a break at the weekend.

We were delighted to get new tables and chairs in the Mrs Walker's classroom and we have also bought lots of new toys and games for this classroom.

Unfortunately we have discovered that the time allocated to head teacher management time has been reduced due to falling numbers of the school role. This means that P 3/4/5 class will be seeing me for an extra day, so I will be teaching two days and Mrs MacDonald will teach 3 days. We will not see Mrs Gilchrist now in school at all, which is a shame.

The children in P 3/4/5 are doing a book study about , "The boy from Sula". They are enjoying learning all about the seaside and rural life on an island. We have also had lots of interesting objects brought into the classroom.

P 5/6/7 are learning about Structures. This is covering lots of engineering and design aspects. Today they are attending the housing expo with their class teacher Miss Starr. Miss Starr our new probationer teacher has really settled into life here at Kilchuimen, planning lots of exciting activities for the children.

We have been delighted to once more have an active school coordinator here, Jake Williams is doing golf lessons with P 5, fitness tests with P 7 and Rugby training with P 3-7. As Jake is a sport coordinator he should not be solely delivering these activities and we REALLY need some volunteers to work along side him for these events. These volunteers would help perhaps run other golf or ruby sessions when Jake has to move on.

We are planning to have a parent council meeting on Wednesday 15th September at 2.00. I hope as many of you will be able to join us. I shall be explaining what we intending to do in school over the next academic year, and would like to use this as a consultation meeting with parents. More information will follow. I also think that we need to have an evening meeting so mums and dads who cannot attend in the afternoon are able to come too.

I look forward to seeing you all over the course of the next session, and wish each children all the very best in their learning journey.

W S Scollay
Head teacher

The sun shines on Kilchuimen!!

2010-06-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

I say this often but this has been such a busy busy week for the staff and pupils here in school. It has been just brilliant though and I hope that many of you have enjoyed the fun too.

The sun shone so beautifully on our opening ceremony, we could not have asked for better. The school fete was a great success, and Eddy the penguin was just lovely. The children have shown us all once more just what they can achieve. We are very proud of them all.

A school newsletter will come out in school bag mail on Monday so look out for that.

We are going to hold the prize giving ceremony on Friday morning at 10.30am in the church. All are invited. Children will be dismissed for the holidays from the church at 11.30am. Please collect children who normally travel by bus as the bus will not arrive until 1.15 as the Academy does not close until 1.00pm.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for help and support over the last year. I would like to wish the Pr 7 all the very best of luck as they move into the secondary school, I am sure that they will all do well.

Finally I would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday.

W S Scollay

Fete and classroom opening anticipation!

2010-06-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

In a school often staff have the funnest of conversations with children. Today I was blown away by a Pr 3 child who told me all about the northern lights and how they occur. Did you know that the magnetic field pings like an elastic band, which then causes the lights? To be honest he explained it much better than I... wow... I love that!

Anyway much later in the day I received a phone call in connection with the classroom opening, I have been waiting for the call to come through from Lady Gaga and waited late tonight just in case. The phone did indeed call... AND no Lady Gaga BUT one of the Pr 7 girls had written to Mika. (the pop singer). Well did his PA not call, and did I not go, "who?" "Sorry but you will need to start again, I have no idea who I am talking to!!" So after my bumbling attempt at answering the phone, I found out that Mika had sent his apologies and although he would love to come, he is out of the country. Well at least he will be thinking of us!! He also mentioned that he was glad that we no longer had to live in, "smelly classrooms". So the invitations for the opening are far and wide travelled! It is so lovely for the children to see that their letters really do reach the folk that they have written to, many thanks to those who have replied to them, it means a lot.

Preparations are going ahead for the Fete, Pr 5/6/7 have been busy coming up with games and fun activities for Tuesday's fete so bring along a lot of money!

On Tuesday we will also be unveiling our mural, which is looking simply stunning, Mrs MacDonald (Art) has really shown her talents here with the children. It was great to see some of the children really getting into the painting, and seeing their drawings come to life.

The book has been printed but I will be relieved to see it, we have been promised it by Monday, everything is crossed.

The nursery have been busy in their garden, the tatties, and veg are really shooting up! The children have been on a bug hunt today, and were looking at them through the computer microscope. They were fascinated with this. It is an amazing world we live in and the wee ones so appreciate that.

So I look forward to seeing many of you next week for the Opening at 1.30 - 2.30 and then the Fete, there is still time to bake cakes and goodies for the baking stall. Please do buy one of our raffle tickets, £1 a ticket, the top prize is a fantastic gas barbecue donated by BAM and HIS. Wonderful! Lets see if we can raise a bit on that!

On Thursday we shall at last see the play Eddy the Penguin the children are so excited about this and the singing that I have heard is brilliant! I am sure we will have a very entertaining evening there! Come and join us in the school hall at 7pm.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

If you come down to the school on Wednesday...

2010-06-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon,

Another busy week has passed us all by!

The children have been working hard, they continue to practise Eddy the penguin. The older children are making a super job of the mural with Mrs MacDonald on the wall outside. All the classes had a Reduce, Reuse and Recycle talk by a man from the council. The children now know exactly what goes in the blue recycling bins. Pr 3/4/5 had a lesson about seed dispersal by Mrs Gilchrist and they are very knowledgeable about this now. Their project is Scottish history at the moment and the children wrote about Robert the Bruce and the spider, the children also wrote stories pretending that they were evacuees and they did a very good job of this.

Pr 1/2/3 have been learning about co-ordinates and wrote super book reviews about their reading books. The children tell me that, "Co-ordinates are easy!" Well done to them!

The nursery are in the summer mood, having taken delivery of a few new toys they have created a cafe, ice creams have been made and the children have been writing down all the orders. They are having lots of fun with that. They have also enjoyed playing with the climbing frame and slide this week, and also squeezed in time to do some more planting in the garden. I looked out the window the other day and was amazed that I could see the tatties growing like mad!

So as ever a busy school, next week we have lots more fun,

School is closed on Monday for in-service training.

On Wednesday we are having a teddy bears picnic, come and join us! It cost £3 to have lunch with us, take your favourite teddy bear with you!

Have a good rest and we look forward to meeting you and your teddy bears next week.

Kindest regards

Wendy S Scollay

Sports day

2010-06-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

Well the weather certainly has been in our favour this week. We had a brilliant sports day the children all had a lot of fun. "Thank you" to Mrs Campbell for arranging the event, thanks also to the secondary pupils who were a brilliant help to us. We had a great turn out of parents and friends which was super to see, it means such a lot to the children to have you there supporting them.

Some pupils from Pr 6 and Pr 7 represented us at the inter school sports in Inverness last weekend. They came back with a clutch of medals and some of you may have spotted their picture in the Highland News. Well done! Thank you to the Mums and Dads who supported the event.

Our open evening was well attended and it was nice to have the opportunity to talk to parents and children about their progress over the course of the year. Next session we intend to host 3 parents evenings so that parents have more opportunities to talk to teachers. There will remain report cards and two stars and a wish reports.

We are all waiting with baited breath for the post, nothing so far... Barry Hutchison and Gary Innes cannot come, which is a shame. We are waiting for Michael Buble and Lady Gaga to sort out their diaries!!!!!!!

We have decided that the official opening will be on 22nd June at 1.30pm and we will have a mini fete at 2.30 - 4.00. If you can help or would like to run a stall please do come and contact us at the school. We also have a small minor detail to resolve, and perhaps someone can help? We have booked a bouncy castle from Inverness, but have no way of getting it down and back up to Inverness, do any of you guys have a trailor or van and can help us. Please contact the school if you can help in anyway! Every little really does count!

I hope that the start of the summer really has come.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Summer seems to have come at last!

2010-05-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

The children are getting ready for the Eddy the Penguin performance. The children in Mrs Gilchrist's and Mrs Walkers's class will be the main actors. The singing for the play seems to be going well too.

The new Pr 1's came for their visit on Monday and I had a parents meeting for the new mums, I enjoyed meeting everyone and I hope that this helped with any concerns of queries that people had. The children made beautiful name badges for their new class.

The nursery joined us all for assembly this morning, it was lovely to have them share in this. They sat beautifully. Pr 1 / 2 /3 was telling us about the Jewish festival of Sukkoth, and the Sukka booths which Jewish people make in their gardens to remind them of the festival.

Mrs Walker's class have been learning about advertising this week, they had also made Eco posters. Mrs Middleton has been creating Knexx cars with them, and they are loving this. The music man was in on Wednesday and once more spread his magic, the children just love him!

Pr 6/7 were on the gallivant once more on Wednesday. They travelled to Abriachan, spending the morning in the forest and then went to Moniack Mhor to write poems inspired by the environment. They wrote amazing poems and were obviously inspired by nature.

Pr 5/6/7 have been trying to organise events for our Official opening on the 22nd June. They wrote to their favourite celebrity, Lady Gaga, Matt Smith, Will Smith, Danny Alexander and the Stig amongst others! We wait with baited breath for the post!!!!

The more emm... normal invites will soon be out!

So as we head off to the weekend, we hope that the good weather continues!

Enjoy!

W S Scollay

Reporting

2010-05-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hello there, I cannot believe that another week has simply slipped by, if fact it is rather scary! Many thanks to those of you who have completed the survey either online or on paper. Your views are very important to the school. I will publish the findings on the blog in early June.

This week Pr 3/4/5 have had lots of fun with the French assistant Pierre, they love having him into school. He is full of energy and teaches Pr 5/6/7 also. The children in Pr 3/4/5 have also been working on Fairy tale stories, they have been working hard, writing lots and lots! This has certainly given Mrs Walker A LOT of marking! :-)

Pr 7 went up to the Cameron Barracks in Inverness this week and took part in the Safe Highlander event. This is really a super event run by a number of the emergency services and spells out - in colour what exactly can happen! It always makes the children think. Let's hope the safety message gets through!

The winners of last week's election, The wild party animals had an appointment with me early this week and have been planning how to move their manifesto forward, as with all parties a few of their election promises have had to be dropped, but there is lots of exciting other things going to happen. I will keep you posted!

Pr 1 /2/3 with the rest of the school have been enjoying the teacher swap afternoons. The teacher's all go to a different class and work with the stage that they will be with after the summer holidays, this has helped both the teacher and the children get to know each other. We hope that this will help with the changes next year. The new P1 children came for their first afternoon visit last week, and although some of them were not quite sure they did very well. There is a parents meeting on Monday for new P1 parents to attend. We look forward to seeing you.

Unfortunately we do not know at this time who will take the P5/6/7 class and we cannot tell you the break down in the split within the composite classes, we will keep you posted on this. (All the P3 children had the chance to work with P3/4/5 last week and this will happen next week as well.)

The report cards will be sent out at the end of next week and we have the parents open evening on Tuesday 1st June. Just drop in, between 3.30 and 5.00 and 6.00 and 8.00.

So a week of reading for me and writing for all the staff.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

Election fever!

2010-05-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

It seems that the school has been gripped by election fever this week. Pr 5/6/7 held a mock election today, and the Wild Party Animal Party came out the clear winners. They have pledged to have fun parties and DVD's on a Friday afternoon. The P 5's and P6's visited the Polling Station in the village on Thursday, which sparked lots of questions. Pr 3/4/5 joined in the voting today when our own Polling station was set up.

Pr 5/6/7 also went tree planting to Dundreggan, they had a super day and learnt much about the diverse environment.

Pr 1/2/3 went for a walk around the village as part of their Eco topic. They discovered that there is far too few bins and also were shocked to see so many bags of dog poo hanging from the trees! They have a plan and are writing letters to see if they can change this.

Pr 3/4/5 have been working hard now on division and wrote a report about recycling. They have been trying to get the classes to recycle more! They also enjoyed PE with Mrs Campbell.

Monday is the final day for Mary's Meals Bag collection, we already have a few bags, but there is still time for you to fill a ruck sack for the project.

A parental survey was sent out last week, can you please return the survey to school as soon as possible as your opinion is valid. Please see my last blog for the direct link.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

On Line Survey

2010-05-05T05:24:00.001-07:00

You will receive a letter today with an attached survey, we are trying to find out how welcome you feel coming in to the school, how good is our communication systems and how can we involve parents more in the life of the school.

You can click on this link, which will take you directly to the survey.

Many thanks for your help!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LJCKMRP

We are back !! (And don't we know it!) :-)

2010-04-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

Well I am sure that you have heard from the children all about the super new classrooms, we are just simply delighted with them. They are so light and airy and we now have so much more room.

The Pr 5/6's had their new room all to themselves having no Pr 7's in whilst they were away on the school trip. They loved that, but also enjoyed lots of time with the new PE teacher who is going to be with us this term.

Mrs Walkers class have settled in well and were simply little stars helping me out the other day to move books and boxes from the staffroom to Mrs Walker's old room.

Mrs Gilchrist and Pr 1/2/3 have been delighted to become proud new owners of the SMART interactive white board from the Pr 5/6/7 class so there is lots going on with technology in there. I was amazed to hear the children in Pr 1/2/3 tell me about exo skeletal creatures! Wow!

I have to say a HUGE, "THANK YOU" to every one who helped, this has been such a busy week but staff and children have done the most amazing job. Our school is looking brilliant!

Pr 7 in the mean time had a great trip to Edinburgh, we did some amount of walking but what a great time we had, the children were so well behaved. We went to the National Gallery of Scotland, the Castle where we dressed up, did some retail therapy and met Mr McNeil which was lovely. Enjoyed a slap up meal at the Youth Hostel, was scared witless on a Ghost tour of the Royal Mile, slept soundly (and they really DID sleep). We questioned the MSP's about potholes, and fuel prices, the children sat on me so unfortunately I could not chip in during the fuel price debate which we saw, and finally was travelled through time at Dynamic earth where a 4D Rhino chased us!!!!! Willie Archibald did a great job of the driving and we drove past Grey Friars Bobby and through the town, taking us home, we even squeezed in a MacDonald's where Mrs MacDonald would not leave until the ice cream machine was fixed!

So I would say all in all 12 very tired but happy children arrived back to Fort with 3 tired and happy teachers!

We also said, " Hello " to two new pupils this week, but are also sorry to have had to say, "Goodbye" to two others. We wish them all the very best in thier educational journey where ever that takes them!

ROLL ON THE WEEKEND!! Emmmm .......... was it REALLY ONLY ONE WEEK!!!!!!!

End of term - Woooooo hooooooo! :-)

2010-03-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

Well here we are the last day, this week has been all go.

The children really enjoyed the K Factor and we spotted lots of talent at the event. I am not so sure that our talented teachers went down so well!

The Easter service was lovely and made us think that Spring is surely on the way. There were some lovely Easter Bonnets on display there. I was impressed at the super creations that had appeared, we have some very talented mum, dads and children.

Today Pr 5/6/7 are working on the Mars Lander Project trying to get an egg to fly from 5m and to land safely. They have been working well and I think that they have met and had fun with a few other children from Foyers, Invergarry and Stratherrick.

We had a whole school assembly this morning and celebrated a number of successes.

So all in all, a very busy and successful term.

As the builders near journey's end on the build I would like to say a big, "Thank You" to them. The extension and nursery is looking so lovely. Now that is something to really look forward to after the holidays which I am sure will be a tremendous benefit to us all.

Finally I would like to wish you all a safe and happy Easter Holidays

From

All the staff and W S Scollay

Book Cafe

2010-03-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

What a busy day, work on the extension is reaching fever pitch with lots of workmen trying their very best to make sure the building is all ready to go on the first day of term. Every time I go into the building something else has been done, its great.

The WW2 exhibition looked fantastic and the children should be very proud of the work which they have done, everyone enjoyed the children's presentations, it is amazing what technology can achieve in learning. The news reports which were filmed and the sound clips were great. I was really amazed at the Photostory the girls had made.

The other classes in the school did a great job reading out their stories, it is not easy standing up in front of the whole school. (I know!!) It was so lovely to see so many Mums, Dads, Grannies and Grandads attend the event. I know everyone is so busy but the children love to know that you are there.

Mandi Mansbridge wins the gold star of the day for her work helping to set up the exhibition, go shopping for supplies, working with Mrs Law support for learning teacher, serving teas and coffees AND helping to clear up! THANK YOU from us all!

Tomorrow is the K Factor and I am not quite sure what that will bring but two Pr 6 girls have been working hard to organise the event!

The Easter Bonnet Parade in the church will also be great and get us in the mood for the holidays, we hope that a few parents and friends can join us at 1.30 in the church.

Kindest regards

W S Scollay

STOP PRESS

2010-03-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

I am afraid to say that the book will NOT be ready for the Book Cafe on Wednesday. We have found that there is a number of errors which require correction.

We shall still hold the Cafe and show other writing which we have done over the course of this term.

The Book Launch will go ahead early next term.

Sorry about the delay.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

What a week!!

2010-03-19T02:22:00.000-07:00

Hello there, Friday once more!

Thank you so much to the all the parent helpers and friends who came in this week. We were delighted to have so many people to help us with the Towpath Tidy. The children did a great job.

School Photos were taken on Tuesday you will receive the proofs after the holidays, they have been taken against a white background, the class groups were also taken in a very informal manner, and I sure they will look super. I am excited to see what they will look like.

All children have made invites to our book launch on Wednesday and you should have recieved yours by now. We will be delighted to see you all there. 1.30 on the 24th March in the school hall. We will have Highland Children's Books selling a selection of children's books. Children will be able to spend their £1 world book day, book voucher there. You will also get a cuppa as you hear some of their stories.

I have seen a copy of the proof of our book and it looks tremendous, every child in the school has contributed in some way to the book. We will be selling the books at a cost of £5 which will go towards school funds.

Pr 3/4/5
The children have been busy learning about other world religions, they have know all sorts of interesting facts about Islam, Seikhism, Buddhism and Hinduism. They have also been learning more about shapes. They have been playing Scabee - a french beetle drive game, they really enjoyed this.

Pr 1/2/3
The children had an Egypt day on Monday and made pyramids, nets of pyramids and created their names using Hieroglyphics. I was impressed by the many facts the children could tell me about the Egyptians, they were very excited by the topic. The children have been learning about the body, body parts and the skeleton.

Pr 5/6/7
It was all go in the class yesterday as the Pr 5/6/7 took part in a WW2 activity day. 6 groups of pupils studied different aspects of the war, and were supported by staff, parents and friends. The children learned about the Wellington bomber which crash landed in Loch Ness and created a model. Gas masks, why they were needed, they also created masks and made a Gas Mask safety video. Another group learned about rationing and created some WW2 recipes, some of these were not very tasty! A group of boys learned about Scapa Flow, the sinking of the Royal Oak and what happened to the Gondolier from Fort Augustus and they created a huge map of the area. Some girls learned about Evacuation and created a super frieze. Yet another group learned about the bombing in the Highlands in particular the bombing raid to Foyers, they also made a great frieze.

I was very very impressed by the quality of the work, and the enthusiasm which the children displayed. It really was a great day, a real example of Curriculum for Excellence and active learning in action.

Next week will be VERY VERY busy as we head to the end of term, we will also be packing up the classes ready for the move to the new classrooms. The new classrooms are looking just fantastic and it is really exciting.

I think that both the staff and pupils will certainly be needing to put their feet up during the holidays!

Important dates next week:

Tuesday 7pm Parents Meeting for the Edinburgh Trip
Wednesday 1.30 Book Launch
Thursday 1.30 Easter Service in the church
Friday 3.15 - School close for Easter Holidays - An Easter bonnet parade.

I look forward to seeing many of you over the coming week.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

Eyes down!

2010-03-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

Well done to the Parent Council who raised £135 from the Bingo night. Everyone at the night really enjoyed themselves. Many thanks for all the great prizes! A great big, "thank you" to Peggy for being a super caller, she is very professional and certainly knows her stuff!

Once again we had a busy week, the days are flying past too quickly! On P1/2/3 made soup with cereals and grains and everyone tasted it. The children as part of science were out in the playground naming parts of plants.

Pr 3/4/5 were tiling and creating patterns and shapes. they have written arguments for and against wikipedia which was really good, they had been working with paint effects in art and have also been busy with the continents.

Pr 5/6/7 have had another busy week and have been working with the teachers from the secondary school on their Mars Lander project. They have had lessons from Mr Cooper Science, Miss Sharples English and Mrs Wyatt Maths. The children have been enjoying the input.

A VERY VERY busy week ahead for us, we have the school photographer on Tuesday, the Curriculum for Excellence Parents Information meeting at 2pm on Tuesday, on Wednesday Pr 3/4/5 will be taking part in the Tow path tidy and on Thursday Pr 5/6/7 will have having a WW2 topic day! Phew I am tired thinking about it!

Best have a good break this weekend! Have a good one!

W S Scollay

Where is the term going?

2010-03-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

Wow all of a sudden we are approaching the end of term and we are SO busy!

The renovations are really moving on and the nursery has spent this week moving over to the portacabin. Thanks to Angela, Alison and Jane for their hard work.

The Pr 7 children presented the world day of prayer really well. It was a lovely service in the church.

Pr 5/6/7 also really enjoyed a trip to the Inverness Museum and then visited Muirton Primary. I think that Muirton eclipsed the museum as lots of new friends were made.

Pr 1/2/3 have been planting in the garden today and this gives me hope that Spring is on the way.

Pr 3/4/5 have been been writing When I am big comparative stories, Mrs Walker was delighted with them.

We are having a Book Swap week next week so if there are any books that your child no longer reads and is happy to swap please bring them in.

You will receive the 2 stars and a wish reports next week an information letter will accompany them.

And last but NOT least the BINGO is on THURSDAY 7pm in the school hall come and join us I am sure it will be fun! Please send in any donations for the prizes to school by Wednesday!

We are open

2010-02-26T05:34:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to be open, and it is good to see so many of the children able to come in today. I know that some of the higher up houses have much snow and it's like a different world to here in Fort Augustus.

Chris Watt from Out of the Box led our assembly today and the children really enjoyed his fun. He is doing an activity day on Saturday in the Church hall, leaflets have been sent out, but children can still go if they have not completed their forms.

On Tuesday we held a parents information evening to let folk know more about the Curriculum for Excellence and what that will mean for their child. I am going to re-run the event on the 16th March at 2.00pm for any parents who were unable to attend the evening event. I hope that some of you may be able to come along, I think those who attended the evening found it useful.

Nursery will be closed on Friday to move over to the small half room in the portacabin to let the builders complete the work in the nursery. We will open on Monday again. I am sorry for any inconvience which this may cause you but I am sure that this will be worth it in the end.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

We are closed!

2010-02-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

Its Thursday 25th Feb!

This seems to have been a long winter, we are closed once more today due to snow. Enjoy the snowballs and snowmen once more, or keep warm and watch the olympics! You could even do your homework guys! ;-)

W S Scollay

Welcome back!

2010-02-19T06:11:00.000-08:00

I hope that you are all refreshed after the LONG weekend. We have had a busy time as a staff over the last few days and are getting to grips with what the Curriculum for Excellence will mean to us. We hope that you can join us on Tuesday evening at 7pm in the primary school for a meeting regarding this. We hope to give you a little information and perhaps answer some of your questions. If you have any questions that you would like answered, please contact me before Tuesday and I can perhaps add this into my presentation.

Nursery enrolement begins next week, so if you have a child who will be wanting to start nursery next year, please come along and complete the forms.

We are delighted to welcome two new families to the school this week and I hope that they enjoy life here at Kilchuimen. A warm welcome to you.

The children in Pr 3/4/5 have been building on their timetables knowledge this week and they have made some super board games, wow some of the rules are complicated though! Not to say the sums are tricky! Pr 5/6/7 have being learning about the life of Anne Frank and Pr 1/2/3 have been learning about food groups, I think that they would appreciate any pictures of food!

So I look forward to seeing many of you next week.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

The classrooms take shape!

2010-02-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

The school newsletter for February went out yesterday so check in children's schools bags for that.
The school enrolment for Pr 1 is happening this week, we need to have all the children registered for this so if you have not done so, please, enrol your child.

Pr 7 had a wee visit to the new rooms and they are very excited about them, they showed slides of the pictures to the other children at assembly tomorrow and everyone is keen to move in! We should be moving in on the 14th April, which is brilliant!

Pr 3/4/5 have been using times tables this week building on the good work of last week. Keep it up! They have been looking at home leaflets are laid out and them they made their own leaflets about saving water. They have now finished their desk tidies and they are very useful. they also did some drama which they loved.

Pr 1/2/4 finished their last lesson about Hinduism and they will be taking part in a "who wants to be a millionaire?" quiz. In writers craft they wrote Nursery Crimes. I have to say that some of the children's poems were hilarious. I think you will get a chance to read them soon.

Pr 5/6/7 have been working hard to finish off their Eco stories for the school book. We've been having a look at the Rainforest habitats, animals and the food found in our kitchen.

As we have worked so hard this week I have decided that you can all have Friday 12th February and Monday 15th February as a holiday with the teachers coming in to do training on Tuesday and Wednesday 15th and 16th!

Many kindest Regards

W S Scollay

Exciting Times

2010-01-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

This week I was lucky enough to go and visit the new classrooms, they are just super and so impressive! They have lovely high ceilings are light and bright! Ooh it is going to be lovely. I am hoping to be able to take some older pupils and the staff of a tour of the classrooms some time next week.

Next week sees the start of the enrolment for Pr 1 so, please come along to the school office. The school brochure is nearly complete and will end up on the school website.

Mrs Walkers class have been having a times tables bonanza, I noticed that they were becoming very slick with their tables, well done! The children have also been learning about Hydro Electric and about how much water they use in their own homes.

Mrs MacDonald's class were using the Smart board this week to learn about Scots Language, Moses, and how to use apostrophe's.

Mrs Gilchrist's class now know how fossil fuels are made and drew fabulous pictures, they were also learning about Scot's Language.

The nursery have been shooting off into space! There have created a huge rocket ship which I am sure will take them to the moon and they have also made their own junk model ships! Beam me up Scottie!

Pr 7 got their trip letters out today so that has sparked much excitement.

Another week is just flying past!

Have a great weekend!

Getting pens to paper!

2010-01-22T06:31:00.000-08:00

We were delighted to have Barry Hutchison with us on Monday. The children were really inspired to write and we have posted the first drafts of these stories to Barry for him to edit. These stories will eventually be illustrated and published. We aim to have a book launch on Wednesday 24th March. Every child in the school will have a story in the book.

Barry will return on the 2nd Feb to talk to the children about their story, make changes and move onto the final draft.

The stories all have a , "Eco" theme to them as the children are have been learning about this in class and will do more work on the Eco - school next term when the weather is better.

We are finalising the cost of the Pr 7 trip and it looks like it will be an exciting few days, the letters will be out next week with all the information, we have tried to keep the cost to an absolute minimum, and I think the children will get very good value for money.

The snow now has all gone for the moment any way which is good, but this means we are left with the muddy field. Access is restricted to Pr 4 -P r 7 only but please can children bring a change of shoes for indoors and to perhaps wear wellies! It is rather squelchy out there!

Building works is moving on and we ordered the new classroom furniture this week so that is another step in the right direction.

The school brochure is also in the process of being updated for the enrolment which will happen for Pr 1 during the first week of Feb and for the nursery during the week beginning 22nd Feb.

Enjoy your haggis, neeps and tatties!

A Happy New Year !

2010-01-15T06:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all. I hope that you had a great holiday and managed to get out and about in the snow.

The children have been well wrapped up and out on the field this week enjoying the snow, some of the boys made an igloo, it has kept them very busy.

The music man, who teaches songs to Pr 3/4/5 came in this week and recieved a very warm and excited reception from the children. What lovely singing I could hear from that class.

Pr 1/2/3 have create excellent pictures about climate change, they are very clued up and know all about it, just ask them! We also had a revelation from one of the children that he is a carnivore. Good for him!

Pr 5/6/7 battled with making life size and half size cereal boxes. Sellotape and paper are very difficult and get stuck everywhere. Some of the measuring was very creative, I don't think I will call on them to help with house renovations!

We are trying to organise a trip for Pr 7 to Edinburgh in April more information to follow so we will keep you posted. The cost will be more than last year but I think you will find that it will still be reasonable. ( I hope so anyway!)

Keep warm and take care on the slippy pavements, I wait for the thaw with huge anticipation!

Warmest Wishes for 2010

From W S Scollay

Merry Christmas Everyone

2009-12-23T07:01:00.000-08:00

Well what an end to the term we have had, I am sure that the staff will be glad to put thier feet up!

The children did so well this morning at the nativity and children covered for those who were not able to attend, you would never know that they had just been thrown into the role. Thanks to the parents and friends who attended the short service.

The children then enjoyed some snow fun, shame that the snow did not stick we were all desparate to make the biggest snowman but it was not to be!

The party in the afternoon was just brilliant the children were so well behaved and had a ball. Santa brought a small gift to everyone and Pr 1/2/3 got a flip video camera and two constructabot robots, while Pr 3/4/5 and Pr 5/6/7 got a Wii sport to share, the cheer that went up was enormous when they saw the Wii. We look forward to enjoying it after the holidays.

The nursery also managed to have their party and a visit from Santa as well, he brought the children some books, but I think that he also left a petrol pump for the garden, I know that this is something that the children have been wishing for for some time!

So all that is left to do is to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. I look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 11th January for lots more fun.

Merry Christmas

W S Scollay

We are open!

2009-12-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

Good Morning

School is open today to those who can safely come in.

We intend to hold the Nativity Service at 10.30 in the church all are invited, the parties will be held in the afternoon.

Take care coming in, if you cannot make it please call the school after 8.30.

To those who are still knee deep in snow we wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope that Santa makes it down your lum!

2 sleeps to Christmas I am now really really really excited! Remember to put out your reindeer food still some left to sell in school!

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

We are closed!

2009-12-21T23:43:00.000-08:00

Due to the icy weather we are closed today, so another day of snowmen, igloos and snowball fights! I hope you are having fun in the snow.

The nativity play is cancelled tonight. If we are able to open tomorrow we will have the nativity play at 9.30 in the church. The parties could also happen during the afternoon BUT we will have to wait and see!

This weather has really been rather exceptional for December.

Have a great day in the snow, I am off to check on my igloo.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

Let it snow! Let's go and make a snowman!

2009-12-20T23:40:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Guys,

The snow certainly has been falling over night and I am sure there will be a few of you who are well snowed in. I look out my window to a thick blanket of snow.

I am sure that it is with great sadness which you are all reading this as WE ARE CLOSED! So enjoy the day making snowmen and trying to dig yourselves out of the snow.

Hopefully we will be back to normal tomorrow, the parties will be resheduled and we will have them on Tuesday or Wednesday, I will give Santa a call to let him know we are closed so don't worry about that.

Have lots of fun in this winter wonderland, 4 sleeps to Christmas..... soooooo exciting!

W S Scollay

Christmas is nearly here!

2009-12-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

Well the Christmas preparation seem to be reaching fever pitch in school. The children are all so excited and full of what they would like for Christmas and the excitement of Santa. It really is a privilege to teach in school at this time of year as being with the children is so magical!

The classes all have been busy with Christmas art activities and a flurry of cards, tree decorations and pictures will no doubt wing their way to you this week.

A newsletter went 0ut last night so I hope you all have it with the calendar of events, I am having technical difficulties with the calendar on the website, so apologies for not having up dated it. I will have another go next week! The newsletter should be up on the web after the weekend.

Preparations have been going ahead with the Nativity so costumes are all sorted, the sheep were off to be washed as they seem to have turned rather grey in the cupboard and the children should all know their lines. I am in the dark about the whole performance and am looking forward to seeing what Mrs Gilchrist, Mrs Walker and Mrs Middleton have been up to.

We enjoyed a very tasty Christmas lunch on Thursday thanks to Mrs Curly and her team it really was delicious.

Monday will see us partying on down and we hope that the BIG man may visit, who knows what he will bring but I can tell you his helpers have been run off their feet sorting him out!

Tuesday 1.30 is the dress rehearsal - main performance of the Nativity in the church 6.30. We really need helpers to serve mince pies and coffee, please come into the office and offer your services!

Wednesday we have a short carol and reading service at 11.00 in the Church Father Stuart is going to join us.

Sooooo a very busy but fun week ahead. I am excited already!

Inspections and Quizzes!

2009-12-11T06:31:00.000-08:00

So much for a quiet week!

This week we had a Care Commission Inspection in the nursery, the full report will be published shortly but we are delighted with the feedback which we received on the day. A HUGE well done to Mrs Pargetar, Mrs Bowcott and Mrs Bremner. They have been working very hard.

Our Quality Improvement Officer Mr D McCartney was in every class on Monday and reported much positive comments about the teaching and learning. He is being replaced by Mrs K Craig who will be making monthly visits over the next 6 months. We look forward to working with her. Their role is to support the school and help improve our self evaluation processes, and to make an independent view of the teaching, learning and management. I see this as important to the growth and development of the school.

On Thursday night many of the staff and pupils took part in the Academy Quiz night, it was great fun, even more so since my fabulous team came second. (Robbed we were of first place. ) I was delighted to see so many pupils and parents there and the children sang Rudolph and Jingles Bells well. Santa seemed to really enjoy it. Thanks to Mr Wilks for organising the event.

Pr 3/4/5 did lovely Christmas art with the Mrs MacDonald, while Pr 1/2/3 have also made a lovely Santa scene. Pr 5/6/7 wrote persuasive letters to Santa explaining why they should get presents for Santa, they make very interesting and entertaining reading!

Next week we shall be tucking into Christmas Lunch on Thursday, orders need to be placed by Tuesday for this. Same cost as normal. That will be something to look forward to.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

2009-12-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

We have all been busy back in our classes this week, Pr 5/6/7 have begun their on Australia. Mrs Walker and Mrs Gilchrist have begun the hard work of the Nativity rehearsals this week and have already been up to the church a number of times. The children are working very hard on this and we are really excited about seeing the finished performance.

Building work has also been progressing, we can now see the shape of the new classes which is really exciting, I think that it really will be super. The children have all been stuck in the courtyard due to the very wet conditions of the pitch but I have to say that they are making the most of it, and it is great to see the wee one's playing so well with the big one's.

The nursery have also been thinking about Christmas and I learnt a very interesting carol this week about farm animals on their way to see baby Jesus. They have also been planting Marie Curie bulbs, super.

We were also delighted to welcome the new Blakey baby to Pr 1/2/3 Freddie is a wee bit toooo small to come to school but it was so lovely to see him. Congratulations to the Blakey family.

Have a super weekend, don't tire yourselves out writing all those Christmas cards! Mind and look out some old toys for the Pupil Council Sale next Friday, reindeer food has been made to sell, so I hope some of the children have been saving their pennies!

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

Concert Success

2009-11-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

I was worried about the concert last week and boy we seem to have had to overcome all sorts of hurdles to get there but yippeee we have done it! What a super job the children did! Well done to them all. I think that Pr 3/4/5 did so well learning all those words, I just don't know how they did that. Pr 1/2/3 also sang so beautifully, I was delighted to see Katie Beardie appear on the stage to help sing the songs. Poor Pr 5/6/7 have had a terrible week with illness and the class have had 8, 9, 10 and 12 pupils off at any one time so the parts from the play have changed hands a few times with children stepping up to the mark to learn someone else's part. In the end "Tam" really played to the audience and performed a convincing performance ably helped by his horse, "Meg". I have had super feedback from the mums, dads and friends of Kilchuimen who attended the concert and we are delighted that you enjoyed the concert so much.

I would like to send a BIG GET WELL SOON to all the children, mums, dads and staff who are not well and hope you all have a speedy recovery. Keep calling in to tell us if your child is going to be off, and we need to know if they are suffering, "Flu" like symptoms as the education authority wish a return of these numbers - daily if we are over 10% and weekly if less than this.

Today preparations for dare I say it... CHRISTMAS began. We went to the Church and had a short Advent service led by Mr Varwell, the children lit the advent candles and Mr Varwell helped us to reflect on what advent means.

Over the next few weeks the infants will be getting ready for the Nativity play.

The trip to see the polar bear is firming up and we hope to go on the 18th December. I will have to charge £5 to cover the cost of the £5 admission but the bus will be funded by the school. Letters will be winging their way home, but I think the children don't know about it just yet. shhhh

Look away now if you are under 16!!
We are having a change to the Christmas parcels which the children will receive this year, Santa has been in touch, the children will only receive small token parcels from him but each class will receive a LARGE shared parcel. (linked to the ICT development) The Parent Council elves will cover the cost of this. (that is of course if all the children are really really good!)

A big thanks to the parent council who arranged the raffle with the super prizes from the village, baking the yummy cookies and cakes, making bags of sweets to sell and serving the teas and coffees during the interval at the concert. We are still rather thinly supported on the ground and would really encourage you all to get involved, their fundraising efforts are really needed in a school of this size so that we can provide extra resources for the children, go on trips linked to school work and make life even better for YOUR children.

We hope for a quiet academic week next week, Dr Fred Freeman will be doing a Scots Language Workshop with Pr 5/6/7 on Wednesday which will build on some of the work done during these past few weeks.

Phew I am off to put my feet up!

Kindest Regards - Keep Well

W Scollay

St Andrews

2009-11-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

Wow what a busy week, I know that I am always saying this but I sometimes am amazed at what we manage to pack into a week.

The activity day went down a treat, the children really enjoyed working in the small groups 10 or 11 to a group with pr 1 - pr 7 mixed up in the group. We saw many examples of the children helping each other to learn and care for each other. We learned some Gaelic Songs and did some group work with musical instruments with Mrs MacDonald, I was so impressed at some of the portraits the Pr 1 children did of famous Scots with Mrs MacDonald, although we have a great collection from the whole school, the children enjoyed learning the Scot's words with Mrs Walker I think to some of the children, "The Broons" was written in a foreign tongue! Mrs Gilchrist is much fitter after spending the day in the gym teaching the children forgotten playground games, I hope that we will see some of the games played in our playground when the rain eventually stops! Mrs Middleton had the children using all sorts of exciting science equipment. Mrs Pinkerton and Ms Scollay were working hard with the children to learn the whistle, the wee ones had a go on the glockenspiel and I was amazed at how the children learned to follow the basic music.

The following day Pr 4 -7 just loved the trip to Urqhart Castle and learned all about life in the castle they came back with many facts I had not heard of. They also enjoyed sword fighting!

The children have also been polishing off their performances for next week. Tickets are now on sale please come and buy your tickets, they are £3 and are available from the school office.

I hope that you all managed to receive your school newsletter, it should be online later this weekend for you to view.

OOh and a wee snippet of exciting news, we are quietly planning to arrange a trip to the Wildlife park in Kincraig for all the Pr 1 - 3's so that they can meet a live polar bear, since they are working so hard on their Polar Caps topic, more information will follow - the children don't know yet ----- so shhhhhhhh........

I wish you a great weekend, and look forward to seeing many of you on Thursday!

Fireworks and Scotland

2009-11-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

All the classes have really been throwing themselves into practise for the St Andrews concert. This term we are having a whole school focus on Scottish Culture and Heritage as the Homecoming year reaches it's end. We intend to complete this year with a Scots day on Tuesday the 17th November and will host a St Andrews concert on the 26th November.

Pr 1/2/3 have been singing their songs while Miss Findley accompanies them on the guitar. Pr 3/4/5 have spent some time trying to decide what they would like to learn and perform and have a super song and poem list all organised. I will not let any, " cats out of the bag" though. Pr 5/6/7 have been getting their teeth stuck into Tam o'Shanter and have been getting to grips with the play Tam's Big Nicht Oot. Some of the Scots vocabulary has been a bit of a challenge but they are getting the hang of it. Both Mrs Walker's and Ms Scollay's class have also been thinking about Great Scots, and this has been set as the homework task for the next few weeks.

The Great Scots homework is linking into some art work on the Scots day will form part of a competition entry later in November.

On top of this Pr 1/2/3 classroom is being changed into an Artic area and the children are learning about the Artic Caps, its penguins and polar bears next week.

Pr 3/4/5 made super fireworks pictures which can be seen adorning the hall, while Pr 5/6/7 wrote firework and bonfire night inspired poems to accompany the pictures, Pr 1/2/3 have a very informative display about Germs on their wall this week.

So as you can see once more we are off to a truly flying start, please keep your eye out on the school calendar as I will update it as event will happen.

Please remember that the Parent Council have a meeting on Monday at 7pm in the Primary Staff room and we would really appreciate your attendance at the meeting.

Tuesday is Parents evening and all the pupils got their appointments slips home tonight so have a rummage in the school bags.

I look forward to meeting many of you during the coming week.

Many kind regards

W S Scollay

2009-10-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

It is great to see everyone back to school and looking great after the holidays. As you will see we are now an official building site, we have supervision in the playground at lunch time and break times but please note there is no playing on the field prior to this time. So don't come to school too early as you will only be in the court yard.

The nursery worked hard to open but a HUGE, "thank you" to the staff for their efforts.

The Halloween party went down a storm the children had a great time this afternoon and Mrs Curly did a really Freakish Lunch which the children loved. So have a lovely weekend and don't get too spooked!

Happy Holidays!

2009-10-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

I would like to wish you all a very happy October holiday. For most of you this is a VERY long holiday. This is to allow for staff training on the Curriculum for Excellence. The school does not re-open until Thursday29th October.

Thank you very much to all the mum's, dad's and grannies who attended the Harvest Thanksgiving service at the church today. The children say really well and said their poems with confidence.

We have had a busy day today getting ready for the renovations in the nursery, the staff have now cleared the nursery and the workmen move in next week. The porta cabin is empty and will be taken away at the beginning of the week, the school office is also empty ( I never knew it was SO big!!) So the school will look a little different when we come back.

The Fairy Queen arrived to school today and the the Pr 1/2/3 class were delighted to have her at their party.
As part of the RME lessons Pr 5/6/7 spoke to Mr Varwell in the church and walked down to the Catholic Church in the afternoon to see Father Stuart. We had a very interesting day and the children learnt about many of the similarities and differences in the two faiths.
Pr 3/4/5 have been really getting involved in their active maths lessons which is all about making maths fun and engaging through participating in maths games. This can also help children turn take and to work in groups.

Finally please can parents whose children travel by bus continue to remind their children that they MUST wear seat belts at all times on the bus.

Have a super holiday and we shall look forward with much excitement to next term, beginning with the Halloween party on the 30th October... Halloween is coming!

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

2009-10-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

Well it’s hard to believe that next week will be the last week before the holidays.
Due to a few technical difficulties I was unable to send the blog last week and hope that we will be up and running again soon.

The School Newsletter and the Quality and Standards Report should be winging thier way to you in the post as we speak. I hope you find both really useful. Should you wish to discuss any aspect of these two documents please get in touch.

Pr 3/4/5 have really got into the spirit of Hogwarts and are now in new house teams, taking their names from the Harry Potter book. They have also been making potions in their science class and learning to write in disappearing ink! (That will make marking easy!) The children have also really been enjoying their new active maths sessions on a Friday where maths is taught through active games.

Pr 1/2/3 have been continuing to work on their woodland topic and spent some time working through a website which demonstrated just how much they knew about the forest. We have real experts in this class.

Pr 5/6/7 headed up to Abraichan on Monday. They had a great time looking for the Kelpie’s Pearls. They found the Kelpie pool and followed clues around the forest looking for the Kelpie. The one of the children declared it was, “the best day of his life!” what more can I say really!

Mrs Pargetar had the nursery parents hard at work in the garden this week, they did a tremendous job filling the vegetable patch with new top soil, cutting down long grass and getting the garden in ship shape condition. A HUGE thank you to you!

The nursery children joined us for the assembly this week, which was great, they sang a lovely wee song and their mums and dads joined us to which was great.

The Harvest Thanksgiving service is in the church on Friday at 1.30pm. All are warmly invited to join us.

We shall walk round to the church on Thursday morning to have a practise of the songs.

Pr 5/6/7 will be going to walk around to the chapel as part of their RME topic on Thursday to meet with Father Stuart.

On Friday parents are have been welcomed to Pr 1/2/3 class to join them for a Fairy Party. It sounds just great fun, so come and join us. I think that there will be fairy cakes on sale!

Fairies in the woods!

2009-09-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

Pr 1/2/3 have been on an adventure this week. They walked over to the Convent woods on Monday and found, Fairy's Wings! The children were so excited and have them now up in the classroom. I am wondering if the Fairies have been looking for them! Maybe one day when we come to school they will be gone! We were delighted to have Kate Findlay's Dad with us on the trip and he showed the children many things about the woods and the children have come back to school full of interesting facts about trees and woodlands. Thanks also to Mrs Mansbridge and Mrs Kennard for giving of their time to accompany the children.

As I am writing this I can hear lovely singing from the Pr 3/4/5 the, "Music Man" - John Thomson came to school yesterday. He encourages the children to sing through games and activities. The children love when he comes in and I have to say the children sound tremendous. They must still be practising today, simply super!

Pr 5/6/7 had two visitors into their class this week, Father Stuart and Mr Varwell came to speak to the children about Christianity, how they became a Priest and a Minister and the children asked both men lots of very difficult questions about their faith. The children have learnt many things. We shall be visiting the chapel after the October Holidays.

Next week is the BIG PARENT COUNCIL MEETING!! 2.30 in the STAFF ROOM. Mrs Bowcott will run a creche in the nursery but we are time limiting the meeting and it will only run until 3.30! PLEASE please come and join us. We really need you!!

2009-09-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

It's Friday again the time is flying.

Last week it was rain and this week the wind! What a start to the autumn! Thankfully no one blew away on Tuesday! Please can I remind parents that children should all bring a jacket and suitable footwear for play times. We really try to get the children out to play, this break is a real brain break and helps so much with concentration, whilst we will not put children out in pouring rain they could be out when the weather is not so nice and should have suitable clothing.

Safety Jackets will be issued later this term so please return any you have about from last year.

A sweatshirt orders are now being taken please return them by Friday 18th September.

We also need to update your contact details - please inform the school of any changes.

Pr 5/6/7 have had an active week, a big thanks to Matthew McIver for arranging a really fun afternoon Golf Tournament. We were also so lucky to have super weather. The winners were Jonothan, Connor and Niamh. Lisa, Morgan, James B, Kenny , Paige and Rosie also received medals. It was great to see the children really having a go!

Pr 3/4/5 have continued to create Hogwarts School and Hagrid is now larger than life on the classroom wall. They have also been rounding numbers in maths.

Pr 1/2/3 have been learning about invertebrates! I am impressed! The children have been looking at countryside and seaside animals.

Pr 1/2/3 were very delighted to see the little fairy I caught in the woods last night at this morning's assembly. The fairy went a quick visit to the class before I let it free. (no cruelty to fairies here!)

The Nursery have been busy today making very tasty Gingerbread men and have been reading the story. No Gingerbread men escaped as far as I know, but if you see any lurking around the village you will know where they came from.

And the rain came pouring down!

2009-09-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

What a few days of rain we have had. The children were delighted to be able to get out and play this lunch time after being couped up on Thursday.

The children have had a busy week again.

Pr 1/2/3 should all be getting used to the Oxford reading tree and learning about the goings on of the characters Biff, Chip and Floppy the dog. They have also spent much time this week learning about the woodland creatures and animals which live in the enchanted wood. They were learning how to sort animals that had a back bone to those who did not.

Pr 3/4/5 have been enjoying the story of Harry Potter and have worked hard to create Harry Potter letters, had to cut out and make some Harry Potter glasses and they have begun work on a super display of Hogwarts School for the classroom wall. I have been told that the choosing hat is coming on a flying visit and will sort the class into new house teams in a similar fashion to what happens at Hogwarts. That should be fun!

Pr 5/6/7 have been following the story of the Kelpie's Pearls learning about the characters and setting in more detail. They have plum jam for sale at £1 for a small jar and £2 for a large jar. The swimming has been going really well and the children are beginning to find their confidence in the water. The children have been singing some Gaelic songs with Mrs Macdonald and learning about the colours in French.

The nursery are trying all kinds of different vegetables, they have been picking beans and peas from the garden but some children have also been bringing in some vegetables from their gardens to eat too. They have also painted some beautiful flower pictures.

Mr Varwell came in to assembly today and explained how a kind word to each other can make all the difference.

Next week on Wednesday the Pr 4/5/6/7 pupils have been invited to take part in a Golf Tournament at the Fort Augustus Golf Club with Matthew McIver the school's active sports co-ordinator. I am sure that will be lots of fun.

So, I hope that the rain stops for next week so the children can enjoy the play ground.

Welcome Back!

2009-08-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back everyone! The first two weeks seem to have been flying by so fast already. The children all seem and happy and settled into thier new classes.

If you have any concerns however about your child please contact the school.

The classes have all begun to work hard.

The nursery have been busy in the garden, they have really enjoyed digging up the tatties which they have grown and they have been having a taste of the lovely green peas as well.

Pr 1/2/3 have been delighted to welcome Brambleberry to thier class, he seems to have flown for a fairy visit from the enchanted forest. (I hope that he behaves himself!)

Pr 3/4/5 have been working on thier topic Harry Potter and have been working very hard in their class.

Pr 5/6/7 have begun swimming lessons at the Aquadome on a Wednesday. It is a long trip but as we live so close to the water I think that you would agree with me that the lessons are essestial. They have also had input from the Feis Rois team who are teaching them group work and ceilidh dance this term.

So a busy start to the term, but I am sure that there will be much more fun to be had.

I hope to keep you posted with the events as they happen so keep an eye on the blog spot.

Kindest Regards

W S Scollay

2009-06-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Our school blog is still under construction, please return soon when it should be bursting with news.