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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

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

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

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

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

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

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