Our blog

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

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

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!

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

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!