First Fun Friday at St. Joseph’s Pre-5 Unit

St. Joseph’s Pre-5 Unit has been up and running now since August 2013. Following a recent parent survey, the staff were delighted to learn that parents were very happy with the provision, staff and curriculum. One suggestion from parents was to have a regular open afternoon which the staff readily developed. Friday 04 April, 2014 was the first of such events and parents attended in their droves.

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Positive Ethos starts at School Gate at St Joseph’s!

The very essence of the first of the four contexts for learning in CfE ‘Ethos and the life of the school’ begins at the school gate of St Joseph’s with janitor, Mr Stewart Maule. Mr Maule is a much loved janitor by the children and his jolly nature keeps all stakeholders smiling. The last day of school this term was a perfect example of this. Each person coming into school was received by Mr Maule wearing his usual smile but, this time, also a large Easter Egg costume!

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Kilmartin Tie-Dye Enterprise Project

The children at Kilmartin P.S. showed off their new tie-dyed t-shirts at the recent Mid Argyll Music Festival. Who wants to perform in boring navy school sweatshirts when you can brighten everyone’s day with a touch of the Caribbean? As part of the Cloth Uncut project, the children have screen printed patterns after looking at a variety of fabrics from African countries, woven their own tartan with lace and ribbon to represent Cyprus and finally learned how to tie-dye after looking at Caribbean fabrics.

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Barcaldine Tree Planting

Barcaldine Primary school children were invited along to Sutherland’s Grove on Tuesday afternoon to help plant Coastal Red Woods trees.

The weather was a bit wet to start but it soon dried up and the children along with Forestry Commission Scotland Craftsmen’s Peter MacArthur and Rory Maclean spent a couple of hours planting trees.

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Ardrishaig School Shout!

Lots of news from Ardrishaig Primary……….
Skipping for the British Heart Foundation
On Friday 21st March, staff and pupils took part in a sponsored skip-athon to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. Children had practised skipping as part of their P.E. lessons in the run up to the event and then took part in a variety of skipping events during the day itself, culminating in a whole school mass skip at lunchtime. Continue reading Ardrishaig School Shout!

Oban Schools Premiership Experience

On the 14/15th March, 43 pupils from 5 schools (Park, Rockfield, St Columba’s, Lochnell and Oban High) enjoyed a Premiership Experience football weekend in Newcastle and Sunderland. Over the weekend the boys and girls enjoyed a stadium tour of St James’ Park, a training session with Newcastle United coaches and watched Sunderland v Crystal Palace at the Stadium of Light. The pupils had a great time meeting and mixing with pupils from other schools. The photo was taken during the stadium tour.

Islay Schools Band Concert

Last Thursday 27th March Islay Schools Bands held a fantastic concert, normally it is only the High School Band and the Primary Schools Band (children from all Primaries on Islay & Jura) but a brand new after school Band was formed last year to give younger children a chance to begin learning an instrument from Primary 3. They are called “Ceol na Cloinne” (Music of the Children) and they meet at Islay High School every Friday. This was only their second concert and although there were a few’ butterflies’ they played excellently and did themselves proud! Continue reading Islay Schools Band Concert

Southend goes back in time

Pupils in the P5-7 class have been studying the Highland Clearances and Scottish Emigration through the novel, The Desperate Journey by Kathleen Fiddler. This inter-disciplinary project has brought together drama, art, music and literacy as well as learning about the lives of the Highland people 150 – 200 years ago. Model crofts were made of clay then thatched using dried grass and rashes from the fields.

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Jackie Baillie MSP visits P7 of St Joseph’s

Monday 31 March 2014 saw P7 children of St Joseph’s welcome a very important visitor to their class, Ms Jackie Baillie, MSP. Jackie was there to bring a personal dimension to P7’s Interdisciplinary Learning Study, ‘The Scottish Parliament’. But if Jackie thought this was to be an easy question and answer session, she was to be surprised! P7 asked several deep and searching questions and their teacher, Miss Claire Boyd, was delighted with how eloquently the children addressed their questions and how they also came back at Ms Baillie on her responses.

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Barcaldine visit Tesco

Barcaldine Primary School recently went along to Tesco in Oban to take part in their Farm to Food workshop.

The school children were met by Nicola Robertson who was wearing a lovely, bright yellow apron – certainly a beacon to follow because Tesco is huge!

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‘Really Weird Removals.com’ author Daniela Sacredoti visits Kirn Primary 5

In Primary Five at Kirn we have been reading ‘Really Weird Removals.com’ as our novel study this term, and have used the story as the inspiration for creating film adverts, life size characters, emails and much more. So, how exciting to be able to meet the author, Daniela Sacerdoti, in person in our own classroom!

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St Joseph’s Choir join LoCCo for a Community Performance

Saturday 29 March, 2014 was a ‘first’ for St Joseph’s Primary School choir. Aptly named ‘St Joseph’s Dynamic Diamonds’, the children sang for the first time with LoCCo – Lomond and Clyde Community Orchestra – for the community of Helensburgh at the Victoria Halls.

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Luss Win Rotary Photographic Competition

Two pupils from Luss Primary School took top prizes in the Helensburgh Rotary Club Photographic Competition. A P7 pupil won the Intermediate 11-13 years category and a P5 pupil took second prize in the Junior 7-11 years category. Pupils and their families will attend a presentation ceremony in Helensburgh on 15th April where the overall competition winner will be announced.

‘Cloth Uncut’ visits Kilcreggan Primary

“Cloth Uncut” recently visited Kilcreggan Primary. “Cloth Uncut” is a primary school visual arts programme. Pupils were challenged to create a piece of cloth which represented Scotland’s welcome to the Commonwealth Games. Pupils at Kilcreggan Primary enjoyed working in vertical (mixed age) groups with artist, Lee Hendrick, to create their pieces of cloth. Pupils produced several pieces of woven material using a variety of materials inspired by our Commonwealth twinned nations, Swaziland and Cyprus. Continue reading ‘Cloth Uncut’ visits Kilcreggan Primary

St Joseph’s Scoop The Double…..AGAIN!

Entries for the Helensburgh Rotary Club Young Photographer Competition 2014 were judged on 22 March, 2014 and St Joseph’s came out tops….for the second year running! Last year St Joseph’s had two winners in the Junior Category and this year again we had two prize winners in the Junior Section; one child won (age 7) third prize with one child (age 9) taking the top prize.

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The Luss Powan Blog

The children of Luss Primary School in class P5-7 have gone blogging mad!

They decided that this year they would write a blog, in order to detail the development of their very special powan fish eggs. This means that the local and wider community can follow the various steps involved in caring for this endangered ice age fish. The children are delighted, as their blog has had views from as far afield as the USA and Australia.

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Visions, Values, Aims Day at Barcaldine PS

Barcaldine Primary School hosted a Visions, Values and Aims Day whilst tying it in with Fairtrade.
We invited parents and guardians of the children as well as members of the local community so that they could come together and discuss the visions, values and aims of Barcaldine Primary School. The children partnered up with adults and voiced their opinions alongside their parents. The gathering proved to be a very fruitful event with loads of feedback coming back to the school’s Head Teacher Michaelina MacLellan. Continue reading Visions, Values, Aims Day at Barcaldine PS