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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

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

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

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

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 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

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