North Ronaldsay Community School

On Wednesday 18th May we flew over to Papay to meet up with the children and staff at Papay School and go for a sail on the Swan. You can read a peedie article (on OIC updates) about our trip by clicking on the link below

Yo Ho – A Pirate’s Life for Orkney pupils on board the Swan!

 

We also wrote acrostic poems about our trip. 

 

Steering was fun because I liked taking turns

Windy day, Maggie’s hat blew away!

And the sea splashed onto the boat and we got sprayed by it

N‘ we got biscuits from Maggie the Captain and everyone got some

By Phoebe

 

The Swan is a sailing boat

Helping each other put up the sails

Everyone had lunch together and played music

 

Splash went the sea

Wind was too much to get into the pier in Papay

And we played music

Nigg Bay was the boat we went on back to Papay

 

The best bit was the music because we all played something

Robin was nearly sick

It was as cold as ice

Papay was windy

By Isabella

 

The sail blew in the wind from the south

Hoo woo Maggie’s hat blew off into the sea when we tried to pull into the pier at Papay

Everyone went to Westray

Splash went the water in the sea against the boat

Wind blew rough and fast

At lunch time we made lovely music and when the anchor went down it was loud and clanky

Num num we got biscuits on the Swan and my favourite bit was steering the Swan because it was fun

By Robin

A big huge thank you to the crew of the Swan for such a fantastic day, to Jen Austin and Eric Linklater for coming to and all the beautiful music, to Beltane Hostel and Papay School for the kind hospitality and to the North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme for funding our project.

 

We had a visit from Fiona Sanderson on Monday 9th May – exactly 150 years since Dr Garvie was born. Fiona brought a doctors bag from the museum and we explored what was in it and compared it to things that might be in it today. We also selected some of the items and made drawings of them.

She also brought an old box camera like the one Dr Garvie took photos with. We each had a turn at taking photographs with it.

We had a tea party to celebrate Dr Garvie’s birthday and made marshmallows and cinder toffee from Dr Garvie’s ‘Sweets and Chocolates’ recipe book for it. Louise Palmer from the Lighthouse Cafe kindly helped us, supporting us over a video link.

We wrote reports about Dr Garvie.

Dr Beatrice Garvie
Dr Garvie was the doctor in North Ronaldsay in the 1930s.

She liked taking photos. Her house keeper was called Charlotte.

She lived in The Bungalow.

She was one of the first women doctors. She put her bike in lots of her photos.

She was very kind.

By Isabella

 

Dr Garvie
She was one of the first lady doctors in all of the United Kingdom. She also took photos of people and gave copies to them.

She gave gifts to the children. She had a cat and a dog. The dog was named Jock and the cat called Smuttie.

 

She put her bike in photos sometimes. She had an old camera. I think Dr Garvie was really nice and helpful because she gave the children presents.

By Phoebe

 

A big thank you to Fiona Sanderson, Rebecca Marr, Orkney Museum and Louise Palmer.

Our Trip to Kirkwall

On 16th March  North Ronaldsay School, Papay School and Mr Duncan went on a trip to Kirkwall. We went to the Airport, Hospital, Shearers, Library, St Magnus Cathedral, Daily Scoop and Tankerness House Gardens. 

First, we got on the plane from the airport in North Ron to Kirkwall. Then we went to the hospital play park. Next, we went to Shearers, I bought a chocolate bar and we saw Jake the cat. We chose some seeds to grow in the Polycroo. Then we went to the library, they have a Minecraft gaming area and lots and lots of lovely books.

Then, we finely got to the best place the Daily Scoop, I got a delicious raspberry ice cream but as soon as I walked out the door it went plop on the floor, luckily, I got a another one for free.

Next, we went to St Magnus Cathedral, we got to hear lots of music on the pipe organ and got to play on it. I loved it, it was so fun.

Finally, we went to Tankerness House Gardens, we played and had lunch with Papay. When we played tig it took a long time for Mr Ross to catch me! 

By Robin

We have been watching Newsround and following the situation in Ukraine. We wanted to do something to help in some way, so decided to create these wild flower seed hearts to raise money for Unicef Ukraine. They are in the waiting room at North Ronaldsay Airfield. We have already raised over £130 – thanks to everyone who has made donations.

We had lots of fun learning how to create little shoreline pictures using a variety of materials and blowing the paint to to create swirls and ripple effects. They look amazing!

We composed and recorded tunes on the piano with Jen.

2nd March

The sheets are all on and the window and door frames are beginning to go up.

We planned out how to make peedie Polycroo models. We counted out each of the parts.

We made our models, choosing from a variety of materials. Calum kindly gave us some feedback on them.

4th March

This is where the window will go. The floor is down too.

Drills – it has been interesting seeing all the different tools used to make the Polycroo.

These tyres are for playing on.

The tools and equipment ready to go down to the pier to go back into Kirkwall. Thank you to Peter Donnelly for his help.

By Phoebe and Isabella

Monday 7th 

We showed Jen the Polycroo, she was out to make some art and music with us for the TVV project. We thought it might be a good place for a wee ceilidh.

Wednesday 9th

The Polycroo is complete and we said goodbye to Calum and Carl and a big thank you! It has been so interesting watching the Polycroo being constructed. We’re really excited now to use the space and start growing!

It’s quite windy today so tricky to put on the sheets but there are now 3 on.  The sheets have blue film on the top part. The blue side goes on the outside and protects it from UV light.

The sign helps you to keep safe. The blue is for what you need to do, the red bit is for ‘don’t’ and the yellow bit is an alert.

I am excited now to go in it when it’s finished and plant seeds!

By Phoebe

 

The cement mixers are really covered in cement and Calum is explaining what  the stuff is.

Callum is telling us what the stuff in the bags is it is stones and sand for making the concrete.

Calum is telling us about how to make the cement for the Polycroo and how he bent the long plastic tubes so they slot into the little tubes. They were filling the planters with earth today too.

The weather is windy today but dry.

By Robin

Making concrete in the mixer. There are 4 ingredients – sand, water, cement and stones.

 

Pouring the concrete.

 

The black pipes have been attached to the base and will hold the frame. They are recycled from fish farms.

 

The weather today has been calm and sunny. We enjoyed being outside a lot and watching what was happening with the Polycroo.

By Isabella

 

The Polycroo building is going smoothly and the builders are building the planters and the base but the weather is fierce and frightening today so it must be hard to nail the planks down. By Robin.