“Lost at Sea” in Kirn

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company visited Cowal Schools at Dunoon Grammar School this week. “Lost at Sea” was a production about the scientific tracking of a shipment of rubber ducks which had fallen overboard. The play was performed in the round, and children of Toward, Kilmodan, Kirn, Strone and Strachur Primaries enjoyed a funny “out-of-the-box” dramatic experience.

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Achaleven 150th celebrations

The school and village celebrated 150 years of Achaleven Primary on the 25th and 26th March. A great time was had by all and the sun shone all weekend.

Marion Fisher, former pupil and Clerical Assistant at the school, along with her committee of Dawn McBay, Isla Munro and Ellie Cooper organised the reunion for past pupils.

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Dunoon Primary School at national awards ceremony

Well done to the P5 class of Dunoon Primary School for winning the P5-7 category of the national French drama competition (Concours pour la francophonie). To celebrate their success, the P5 class were invited to a special event for all the national winners for ‘Le jour de la Francophonie’ (International Francophonie Day) on the 17th March at the University of Edinburgh.Their winning performance was based on an interdisciplinary learning project about the Titanic.

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The Giant Egg Discovery

THE GIANT EGG INVESTIGATION

P1 and P2 at Rhu made an ‘eggxciting’ discovery in the playground earlier this term. Imagine our surprise when we found a giant nest with an enormous egg inside! On researching eggs, taking advice from our resident palaeontologist, dissecting droppings and reading lots of books, we thought it could be a dinosaur.

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ST ANDREW’S PRIMARY- RED NOSE DAY 2017

St Andrew’s Primary School changed front their usual blue uniform to a red takeover for Red Nose Day! Pupils and staff all wore either red or fancy dress of their choice to have some fun while raising money for Comic Relief. Pupils brought in a donation for the chance to dress up. At the school’s assembly, pupils in P 1/2/3 shared with the rest of the school where the comic relief money goes- showing the results of their research that included the provision of schools, immunisations and other medicines for children in areas of Africa. They pupils then enjoyed a disco in the afternoon with biscuits for sale! Altogether the school managed to raise £191.75 for the charity.

Comic Relief at Castlehill

Castlehill have been busy all week raising funds for Comic Relief. P5, 6 & 7 were baking and this was enjoyed by all. Thursday saw a bring and buy sale along with non uniform and various stalls. The week ended on a high on Friday when the whole school completed the Daily Mile displaying something red. For many the red was their faces at the end of it! A grand total of £760 was raised.

PUPIL READS ONE MILLION WORDS

On Thursday 23rd March 2017 the pupils from Lochdonhead Primary School travelled over on the ferry to Oban to celebrate Alex’s reading for enjoyment success. She has read one million words in six months and was awarded a book of her own choice from Waterstones to celebrate. This award was generously funded by our Parent Council.
This is an amazing achievement and she has read a total of 24 sizeable books to attain this. A big ‘Thank you!’ is extended to the Parent Council for funding the trip and the award.
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Giggling on Gigha for RND 2017

Children and staff at Gigha Primary School and Pre-Five Unit hosted an afternoon tea comedy club experience for all members of the community. P4 – P7 amazed us with their three minute stand-up routines – some real comic talent in their delivery. Our favourite was, ‘What’s pink and fluffy? Pink fluff!’ Neighbours and friends chipped in with their favourite jokes – there were some real howlers, including the inevitable ‘Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side!’

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St Andrew’s Primary Science Week

During SCIENCE WEEK we organised science workshops for all pupils exploring electricity, gravity, magnets and brain processing of information.

We also had experts in school who worked with our P 5-7s. Scientists from Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt University worked with us on a Seabeasties project finding out about the beasties that live off our Scottish coasts. Pupils made nets to catch plankton and viewed findings through smartphone microscopes.

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‘Father of the iPod’ surprises DGS Pupils with Words of Support

A class of S3 Business pupils at Dunoon Grammar school received a pleasant surprise last week when Tony Fadell – dubbed the Father of the iPod – tweeted words of encouragement for a learning experience the pupils were working on.

The pupils studying Business were working on a creative team exercise – tasked to rebrand Apple’s iconic iPod and devise an effective marketing-mix to breathe new life into the flagging sales of the once all conquering multimedia player.

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Spotify in the DGS Spotlight to celebrate International Women’s Day

Budding Business & Computing entrepreneurs from Dunoon Grammar school participated in an exclusive Question and Answer session with senior executives of the successful technology company Spotify – to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March 2017.

Spotify is a music, podcast, and video streaming service with over 100 million users across the globe

Dunoon Grammar was the only school in Scotland to take part and one of only four schools from across the UK involved in the event organised by Apps for Good.

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Dunoon pupils scoop top award at national event

A group of pupils from Dunoon Grammar School excelled in a national event last week when they scooped the top prize.

S1 students from the school’s business and computing department beat off stiff competition from across Scotland when they won Apps for Good’s first ever Scottish event.

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National Technologies Network – Internet Safety

An e-safety self-review tool for schools in Scotland was launched in November 2013. The objective of this is to help ensure that schools have robust, up to date e-safety policies. This will be updated in comings months to reflect recent legislative and policy developments.

Schools can visit www.360safeScotland.org.uk<http://www.360safeScotland.org.uk which provides a user friendly and interactive means for schools to build on existing e-safety and anti-bullying policies. This tool has been developed in partnership with the South West Grid for Learning to produce a new version of the award winning 360 degree safe e-safety self-review tool for Scottish schools.

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Dunoon Grammar Legal Eagles Soar on Work Visit

Three Dunoon Grammar School pupils experienced a day in the life of an active Criminal Defence lawyer during a visit to McCusker, McElroy & Gallanagh last Friday.

The three soon-to-be Law School students – Georgia Brown, Georgia Wallace and Cambeul Walker – shadowed Terry Gallanagh, a partner at the Paisley based Solicitors.

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Crofting Connections at Parklands School

We would like to share with everyone our project in association with Crofting Connections.

This term the Selkie class are looking at the life of a sheep, with the visit of sheep and lambs to school, dying fleece, spinning, weaving and felting. Today we had a visit from Joy Dunlop who taught us some Gaelic, traditional Gaelic waulking songs and step dancing. She was amazing and we really enjoyed her time with us.

Game Design Bowmore Primary School P5/6/7

Primary 5, 6 and 7 have been developing their computational skills through our game design topic. These have included problem solving, debugging and creating algorithms. The children have set up their own game design businesses and to ensure they met the needs of their target audience. Detailed questionnaires were created, handed out and then the information was collated and displayed as pie charts and bar graphs. The children worked hard to use their numeracy results to inform their game design.
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Hip Hop Workshop at Strone Primary School

‘On Monday 20th March M.C and David came to visit our school. David was the camera man and organiser. M.C is a hip hop artist. He was a fun person who taught us how to do hip hop dancing and street poetry. He was brilliant at it! M.C told us what RAP means. It means Rhyming American Poetry. When we did street poetry I thought I’d be bad at it but it turned out to be great fun. We went up to the hall to do some hip hop dancing which was very cool. Everyone thought it was really brilliant. I hope he comes back again.’ By Adam Smith, P6 pupil.

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Dunoon Primary raise awareness of Down’s Syndrome

Today, Tuesday 21st March, the staff and children of Dunoon Primary School have come to school wearing odd socks. Why? To take part in World Down’s Syndrome. Staff and children in the Learning Centre donated to World Down Syndrome Day and bought official “lots of socks” socks while other children choose to wear their brightest and most colourful socks.

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Free Microsoft Office 2016 Downloads

Glow Users can now download for free the Microsoft Office 2016 apps on up to 15 personal devices; up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets (Windows, iPad and Android) and 5 phones. 

‎Making the these apps available helps Glow users take full advantage of the opportunities these tools offer. The Office apps which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote provide a learning platform that translates beyond school and into the world of work. 

To download the Office 2016 apps, log in to Glow and either click on the Download Office Now tile or go to the Office 365 Home tile and once in Office 365, click on “Install Office 2016” at the top right of the page.

Further details here