UK Kodu Kup final success!

Competitions, Learning Tech, Primary schools, ,

Congratulations to Cardross Primary school who won the ‘judges choice award’ at this year’s UK Kodu Kup final.  Cardross is the first Scottish school to be invited to the UK final and they certainly represented Scotland well!  The pupils competed against 11 other schools from across the UK at Microsoft’s HQ in Reading.

To give a sense of the scale of their achievement, Microsoft estimates that 380,000 students have used Kodu in the UK this year.  Microsoft said “…the quality of the 160 games that were entered into the competition was outstanding and your games were voted the best by our judging panel.”

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Christian Aid Success for Cardross

Awards, Competitions, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, PE, Primary schools, Sport

Cardross primary were delighted to scoop the Christian aid trophies in both football and netball this year. Both teams faced stiff competition from Colgrain and their respective finals. The events were well organised and the pupils enjoyed taking part. Well done to all involved!

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Danke und auf Wiedersehen

Communities and Culture, Events, Geography, Global Citizenship, Hospitality, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, School Exchange, School trips, Secondary schools

Pupils, parents and staff from Dunoon Grammar School gathered at the school at 6.30 am last Thursday (26 June) to bid a fond farewell to German partners as the 2014 edition of the Dunoon Grammar School and Hardenberg Gymnasium exchange came to a close.

The tearful goodbyes from both sets of pupils as the German bus pulled away from DGS illustrated the success of this year’s exchange and the bond forged between the pupils involved. Continue reading Danke und auf Wiedersehen →

Sizzling Summer Spectacular to end school year at DGS

Communities and Culture, Events, Geography, Hospitality, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Secondary schools, Sport, Topics

Over 180 S6 pupils, staff and their families enjoyed a samba inspired BBQ last Thursday evening (26 June) to mark the end of a successful school year.

The school yard was transformed into the ‘Copacabana Courtyard’ – complete with inflatable palm trees – as pupils and staff enjoyed a World Cup themed afternoon that included a bbq, beach volleyball, limbo dancing, football target challenge and trampoline.

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Strone Primary School go back to 1939!

School trips

The first part of our end of term school trip was a visit to the Scotland Street Museum, where the pupils were taken back in time to experience what life was like for children in 1939.The P1-4 class got ‘Spick, Span and Sporty’ having a taste of the chores children used to do in the home and trying out an old fashioned PE lesson! The P5-7 class took part in an authentic World War ll classroom lesson, and were terrified by the wonderfully acted ‘Miss James’ who had everyone reciting their times tables and writing with ink pens. No-one dared misbehave and risk receiving the belt! Continue reading Strone Primary School go back to 1939! →

Cinema Day!

School trips

Oban Phoenix Cinema was invaded on Wednesday morning by Barcaldine Primary and Ardchattan Primary pupils who (courtesy of Renewables Now who donated a gift voucher) were booked in to see a film. The children enjoyed watching Rio 2 on the bright orange beanbags whilst munching on popcorn and crisps and slurping on juice!! After the film the Barcaldine children and staff went along to Palava for a spot of lunch. This was a great get together for us as we are sad to have Miss MacLellan our head teacher leave us for pastures new!! Our new acting head Mrs Julie Watson joined us too so now we know who will be greeting us after the summer holidays!!

Hello and farewell……….

Messages

The SAL team would like to wish retiring Head of Service Carol Evans all the very best for the future and say a big HELLO to our new Head of Service Ann Marie Knowles. Carol has been in post as a Head of Service since 1995 and joined our education department in 1976. After years of hard work her future plans include relaxing, seeing a bit of the world and spending time with her grandchildren. Heartfelt wishes for future happiness from us all!

Learning centre pupils trek to the top of Mount ‘Kilimancamelshump.’

Events, Fundraising, Health and Wellbeing, Learning Centres

On the 17th June, Dunoon Grammar School learning centre pupils, teaching and support staff walked up The Camel’s Hump to raise money for CLASP/Cornerstone. Parent, Frances Halligan, is walking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa in September of this year and this learning centre sponsored walk was to support her huge fundraising efforts to help CLASP/Cornerstone provide a youth club service for young people with additional learning needs. Continue reading Learning centre pupils trek to the top of Mount ‘Kilimancamelshump.’ →

Skye’s Big Haircut!

Appeals, Communities, Events, Fundraising, Primary schools

Last Friday the pupils and staff of Dunoon Primary School came to school with crazy hairstyles for ‘Mad Hair Day’! The school was supporting Skye, a P6 pupil who recently had her lovely long hair cut off to donate to the charity the Little Princess Trust. The Trust provides real-hair wigs to boys and girls across the UK and Ireland that have sadly lost their own hair through cancer treatment.
Pupils who wanted to join in brought a donation for the charity and on the day the school managed to raise a total of £146.14!
Skye, who also fund raises for The Little Princess Trust has raised over £400 herself. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause, you can do so buy following the the following link to Skye’s Just Giving page. HERE

DPS Commonwealth Concert

Commonwealth, Communities and Culture, Events, Expressive arts, Geography, Hospitality, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools, Topics, Uncategorized

Dunoon Primary hosted a spectacular Commonwealth Grand Concert on Tuesday 24th June. The Concert began with a parade of all the countries and the choir then sang ‘Heres to our Commonwealth’. P1 – P7 then followed with a selection of songs relating to their chosen Commonwealth Country.

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Dancing their socks off!

Communities and Culture, Events, Expressive arts, Health and Wellbeing, Primary schools

Lochgilphead Primary 2 and Primary 3/2 classes have been dancing their socks off! As part of their topic this term these classes joined up to learn about different styles of dance. Children learned basic moves for merengue, hip hop and waltz then choreographed their own dance sequence. As a culmination of the topic the children put on a dance show for parents, families and friends. It was an enormous success and the children and audience loved every minute of it. Continue reading Dancing their socks off! →

Bowling Club Visit

Commonwealth, Communities, Events, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, PE, Primary schools, Sport

Pupils from Garelochhead Primary School enjoyed a visit to Garelochhead Bowling Club recently.
The Primary 2 class went along to the club as part of their interdisciplinary learning on the Commonwealth Games. Club members Mr Kjorstad and Mr Leishman taught them about the rules, the object of the game and the equipment that you need to play.

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Safety at Sea

Communities, environment, Events, Fundraising, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Topics

As we are learning about the Sea this term, Achaleven Primary took up the kind offer from the volunteers at RNLI Oban Lifeboat to visit and learn all about the work they do. We had great fun trying on all the safety gear and seeing all the equipment that is on board the boat. Following on from this trip we have decided that we want to help raise money for RNLI next year. Thank you to the volunteers who took the time to show us around. Thanks also to Alba Sailing for lending us life jackets for our trip.

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Stramash visit Barcaldine Primary

Active Schools, Events, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, PE, Primary schools, Sport, Training, ,

Stramash visited us again last week however this time we got to stay in our own playground. We were joined by Achaleven primary School pupils and Rob from Stramash delivered a PE session with all the children. We certainly had a beautiful day for it and we actually had to take shelter because it was so hot.

St. Joseph’s children always happy to help!

Appeals, Communities, Early Years, Events, Fundraising, Geography, Global Citizenship, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools, Requests, RME, Topics

The children and parents of St Joseph’s were delighted to lend a hand to Helensburgh Rotary Club’s Aquabox Appeal last term. This year the children were not asked to bring in small toiletry items etc. as in previous years but to collect money to assist in buying an Aquabox which was already full of essential items for those people in third world countries. St Joseph’s gladly embraced the request and held a non-uniform day solely for the purpose of raising funds for the appeal.

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Barcaldine do Onesie Day

Events, Fundraising, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools, RME, Topics

Barcaldine Primary School participated in the Sunday Mail’s Centenary Fund Onesie Day fundraising event. The children all came into school wearing their onsies!! We had a variety of animals like a bear, frog, rabbit and cheetah as well as angry bird and batman. The children raised £50 on the day. The Centenary Fund raises money for 17 different charities and their target this year was to reach 1 million pounds.