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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

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!

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