Childnet Film Competition 2019

Childnet launched their annual film competition encouraging schools and young people aged 7-18 to take on the challenge of creating a short film about internet safety to promote internet safety awareness amongst their peers. This year’s theme is ‘Our future online’ with a focus on what we can we all do to make our future internet a great and safe place. The three selected finalists from both the primary and secondary age category will be invited to a private screening at London’s BFI where they will be presented with great prizes for their school or youth organisation to award them for their creative achievements.

You can access the content for both primary and secondary categories by going to https://www.childnet.com/resources/film-competition/2019.

St Andrew’s Primary – Junior Award Scheme for Schools

JASS is our award for our young people. This award is progressive, with increasing commitment, learning and challenge at each level and all our children are taking part in this scheme. Parents, staff and pupils alike look forward to their Friday JASS sessions covering the four sections – My Interests; Get Active, Stay Active; Me and My World and Adventure. JASS is fully inclusive and our children have developed greater self confidence, self assuredness and (most importantly) enjoyment!

St Andrew’s Primary – This is My Island

St Andrew’s Pupils in P3/4/5 took part in a project organised by Mount Stuart resident artist, Malcolm Mackenzie. The project saw the children decorating pieces of wood which Malcolm used to make a boat. They wrote letters detailing what their island means to them, the things they love about living on Bute. Rothesay Primary and North Bute Primary took part too. The pupils attended the boat launch at Mount Stuart and class teacher Miss Rae said that it was “A celebration of community, commonality and sharing amazing outdoor spaces”.

Kirn pupils help to strengthen German links

A group of 15 pupils from Kirn Primary School have recently returned from a successful exchange trip to Germany.

Kirn was paired with Hardenberg Gymnasium in Fürth as a result of a long standing exchange programme that’s been in place between the German school and Dunoon Grammar, for more than 30 years.

The exchange was an opportunity to strengthen the link between the two areas, and the Kirn youngsters were partnered with German students the same age as them.

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Butterflies Exhibition at Campbeltown Museum

An exhibition of work by pupils from Dalintober Primary School will be on display at Campbeltown Museum until April 2019. The pupils worked with staff from Kilmartin Museum and Campbeltown Museum, as well as musicians, photographers and natural historians to create the exhibition.

For an opportunity to enjoy the photography, music, sound and artwork created by the pupils, alongside the Robert Weir Butterfly Collection visit Campbeltown Museum, which is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (9am to 12.30pm, 1.30pm- 5pm) and Wednesday (10am – 5pm).

Funded by Ernest Cook Trust.

The ‘H’ Factor Dunoon School Hostel

Thursday 29th November was the annual show at Dunoon School Hostel. The young people had been busy for quite a while rehearsing for this event.
The evening kicked off with Findlay, the evenings junior presenter introducing our hosts for the evening, Kara & Tristan. They danced a fantastic routine to ‘Twist & Shout’ sung by the very talented Findlay. The Judges came on , this year we had, Rod Stewart, Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger & Robbie Williams. So good of them to give of their time. Continue reading The ‘H’ Factor Dunoon School Hostel

Literacy Fun at St Mun’s Primary

St Mun’s Primary staff and pupils enjoyed a very successful evening when they invited family and friends to an end of term Family Literacy Night.

The evening began with Primary Seven pupils reciting a famous Roald Dahl poem ‘Television’ that warns of the danger of too much TV, whilst reminding us of the joy to be had from books and reading.

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Taynuilt held a whole school European Languages Day with each class hosting a nation

Nursery focused on Italy, with a real chef making pizzas, P1 Germany with saurkraut and frankfurters, P3/2 Switzerland with cheese and chocolate, P5/4 Portugal with custard tarts and of course P7/6 France – we had pétanque with positional language, a cafe with croissants, pain chocolat, cheese and sausage, home made French World Cup football swap cards and Lotto!

Each class had food to taste, games and activities and a song or some target language phrases. The children learned about the host country in their own classes in the morning and in the afternoon took turns to be Ambassadors and show children ‘around Europe’. Click HERE to see more photographs.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Campbeltown residency

As part of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Campbeltown residency, pupils from Campbeltown Grammar have created interactive posters with digital artists from talc, which can be used to trigger images to launch an augmented reality experience on your mobile.

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Curriculum Development Event

On Wednesday 3rd October, Garelochhead Primary held a curriculum development event in school. The Pupil council and house captains wrote a letter of invitation that was sent to all the local businesses to invite them to come and work with us on 4 questions related to the 4 contexts of learning. 20 representatives from the Ministry of Defence, school health, dental service, accountancy, engineering (Babcock and Jacobs), outdoor learning, the local bus driver, Police Scotland, Pre-5, the local minister and youth worker and parents took part.

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Residency in Campbeltown October 2018

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) have been working with primary and secondary school pupils across Kintyre as part of a week-long residency in Campbeltown. Pupils have taken part in performances and song writing workshops with BBC SSO musicians, including a special workshop on Gigha. The pupils created their own songs based on Mussorgsky’s “Pictures From an Exhibition”, inspired by characters in the paintings which inspired the music, including the “Troll King” and the “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks”.
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Fyne Homes Competition

Last term, pupils at St Mun’s Primary, Dunoon, were set an unusual family challenge. The school worked in conjunction with Fyne Homes, who were building a new housing development near the school. Families were invited to choose a name for the estate. There was a good response to the competition and a wide range of names were suggested.

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Super Staff at North Bute Primary!

Everyone at North Bute Primary is very proud of Mrs McFarlane and Mrs Santos who completed the Great Scottish Run to raise money to help kit out our new Science Classroom and launch the boat that we have been making in partnership with the local boat yard.

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Drumlemble School Committees

Drumlemble Primary School has formed four pupil committees to encourage the children to take an active part in many aspects of school life.

The purpose of the committees are to be able to work in smaller groups that deal with only one issue. The committee system keeps the meetings focused on the issues, one at a time. Each committee is headed by a member of staff and will meet each Friday morning.

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Kilchrenan Overrun By Pirates

All local pirates celebrated International Talk Like A Pirate Day by kidnapping all the staff and the children, and taking over the school.
They spent the day practising their pirate vocabulary, discovering their pirate names, designing pirate flags to match their desperate characters, making floating pirate ships and building pirate ships from large boxes so they could sail across the briny deep. There were songs and stories, the making of ships biscuits and a hunt for a lost treasure chest.

We are please to say that all staff and children were returned safely the next day, though strangely tired!

The delights of a rural school

The delights of a rural school where the pupils sow, nurture, harvest, prepare and distribute the harvest from the school grounds. The pupils of Minard Primary school made plum and apple crumble to give away to members of the community along with harvested parsley, carrots and leeks. The gifts were delivered almost as soon as they were gathered from the gardens. The feedback from our small community was excellent with several pots of soup on the go locally that night.

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