On, Wednesday, 26 September 2012, half of Dunoon Grammar School’s S4 pupils attended Industrial Awareness Day, held at the local hostel – with the other half going on, Tuesday, 2 October 2012. The day is held in order to raise awareness of what goes on in business and to educate pupils of the day to day occurrences in some businesses. It is also to show S4 pupils what the business world is like and allows them to work with people from outwith the school. The day is always a success because of the fact pupils are put into groups and therefore working together and meeting new people. The tasks that they have to complete are all business related, this making them use other skills that are not normally used in a classroom environment. Continue reading Pupils Learn About the World of Work
Parents go back to School
On, Thursday, 4 October 2012, Dunoon Grammar School held an information evening for parents of S1 pupils. The evening was opened by a talk from Mr Shaw (Head Teacher) and Mr McLean (S1 Year Head). The parents of some S1 pupils were able to visit the many different departments in the school, where each department had a display of the work they had already done with the new S1. The evening was not a usual parents evening – where the parent and teacher sit down to discuss the pupil’s progress and behaviour – but instead to allow the parents to see, as a whole, what S1 have been doing in their classes. There were a number of senior students and prefects who helped out on the evening to guide the parents around the school. The evening was very informative and showed how well the new S1 have settled in to Dunoon Grammar School. Continue reading Parents go back to School
‘Borrow a Book, Borrow a Bag’
Children at Clyde Cottage Nursery, Dunoon have recently enjoyed their new ‘Borrow a Book’, ‘Borrow a bag’ initiative. The library started off with a small number of books but has grown since, with children bringing their own books in, which widens the choice and allows other children to borrow. The library, which has no stamping in and out process, allows children who don’t always have access to many books, to choose one, put it in one of the borrowed bags, take it home for a few days, enjoy reading it with their parents then bring it back and choose another one. However, if a book has been particularly enjoyed by any of the children, they are allowed to keep it!
Dunoon Grammar School Pupils go Eco-friendly
Over the past 6 months, a range of DGS pupils and staff have been gathering old plastic bottles to make their very own greenhouse. The greenhouse was made for two reasons: one simply because the DGS garden needed one; furthermore, it was a beneficial scheme which allowed recycled material, that would have otherwise gone to landfill, to be used in a productive way. Some materials were given in by some pupils, but also Bogleha (a recycling centre) installed bins to collect additional plastic bottles. Mr Crofts and Mr Davie, of DGS’s Technical department along with Mr Crofts’ S4 practical craft skills class took 3 days to construct the frame for the greenhouse. Dunoon Grammar School’s Eco-group and Mr McClement, PT of Science, took two afternoons to assemble the plastic bottles and to add the finishing touches to complete our new greenhouse. Continue reading Dunoon Grammar School Pupils go Eco-friendly
Success at Barcaldine Primary
Barcaldine Primary School successfully applied for a Heart of the Community Grant from Scottish Sea Farms. We are going to use the £1750 to purchase and build a polytunnel within our school grounds.
We are pictured here with Mr Calum MacAlpine from Scottish Sea Farms who came along to visit the school and talk to the children about their plans. We hope to be adventurous and grow as many things as we can – peaches, grapes and even sweetcorn – we are going to give everything a BASH!!!
Luing Fire Pit
There was great excitement on Thursday when the children of Luing Primary used their fire pit for the first time. The pit has been a major project worked on by all of the children, Clare the early level worker, with Jon and Watson two members of the Luing community. The wood for the fire pit area was donated and prepared by the Forestry Commission. The whole school community have been involved in a full risk assessment process before the fire was ignited. Continue reading Luing Fire Pit
Dunoon Castle House Museum
Armed once again with clipboards and pencils, P5 Dunoon Primary School, set off to investigate the Castle House Museum. They were looking for further evidence on how Cowal had changed over the decades.
The museum (in the children’s words) was fantastic, amazing, exciting and spectacular! The enjoyed watching a film, which showed various areas around Cowal, comparing Cowal in the past to the present. Some of the children preferred Cowal in the past! A fabulous time was had by all and the children would recommend a visit to Castle House Museum for young and old. Continue reading Dunoon Castle House Museum
Vikings in Skipness!
Pupils in Skipness have been learning about the Vikings. They have researched where Vikings came from and places in Britain that they raided. They made a Viking longboat and a model of a Viking longhouse. They created Viking helmets, swords and shields and had Viking costumes made for them. During a trip to Kilmartin Museum they wrote in runes on clay tablets. They also went to Vikingar and were in a Viking longhouse and the hall of the Gods. The children created postcards as Vikings away from home raiding and wrote imaginative Viking stories. They put together a presentation about the Vikings for the community in Skipness. Everybody had an enjoyable afternoon! Continue reading Vikings in Skipness!
Tobermory Disco Fever!
Primary pupils from Tobermory organised a school disco, and invited along children from the other local primary schools. Everyone had a great time, and enjoyed the home baking, too. The disco raised £244.80 for school funds.
Garelochhead Pentathlon
Parents for Pupils organised a whole day of Health and wellbeing activities for pupils. The sponsored Pentathlon was enjoyed by every child in the school. All Garelochhead Primary pupils and staff would like to say a MASSIVE thank you to mums Mrs Fiona MacLennan and helper Mrs Heather Smith for making the whole event possible. After all their exertions each class had time to enjoy healthy fruit snacks and a bottle of water. To date the amazing amount of over £170 has been collected in sponsorship. Well done and thank you parents and pupils.
Innellan Gardening Club – 1st Birthday!
Innellan Gardening Club celebrated its First Birthday with a party and a beautifully made cake last Friday afternoon. Family and friends joined staff and pupils to enjoy the cake and wish the Gardening Club many more happy years. To date the children have grown delicious vegetables in pots and raised beds and have enhanced the appearance of the school grounds with beautiful flowers. Last session they planted and nurtured lovely plants, which they used to fill large pots in the village for the enjoyment of the community. A huge thank you to the children and helpers, Mrs Stephenson, Miss Stevenson and Mrs Walkingshaw, of Innellan Gardening Club, for all their hard work! Continue reading Innellan Gardening Club – 1st Birthday!
Pre Five Mini Olympics
Active Schools Co-ordinator Jillian Gibson and Lorna Cameron, Early Years & Family Support Worker for MAKI, worked together to provide a recent Mini, Mini Olympics project for all pre five children in the Mid Argyll area. Thanks to funding from the local Public Health Network, each pre five unit was offered three free swimming lessons for their four year old children. The lessons were delivered by staff at Mid Argyll Community Pool and were kindly supported by many parents who came along to help. Continuing on from swimming, it was also possible to offer each unit two PE sessions delivered by the local primary PE teachers and Catriona Gunn from Mid Argyll Sports Centre. Continue reading Pre Five Mini Olympics
Tiree High School Councillor Visit
The S2 class have been looking this term at how we make decisions in a democracy. We have focused on local democracy and discussed our representatives and what they do for us. We have also looked at the various things that are provided for us by our council and finished off with a role play task where we looked at the difficult decisions councils sometimes have to make, due to lack of funding. The pupils took on the role of parents, staff members & local shopkeepers in ‘Avridge Council’ and prepared speeches, which they delivered to Avridge councils’ ‘Education Committee’ (Mr Campbell & Cllr Fred Hall!). Continue reading Tiree High School Councillor Visit
Egyptians
Enjoyment and choice as an element of curriculum design is alive and well at St Joseph’s, Helensburgh as P5 embraced their first interdisciplinary topic of the year – The Egyptians! Creativity was in abundance as the children designed their own hieroglyphics and Egyptian jewellery to name but a few of the excellent active learning opportunities offered to the children this term. As an open plan school, the excellent wall displays inspire other learners, so much so that P4 have chosen to study the same topic with different foci next term. Well done to Mrs Friel and Mrs McLean who have inspired and motivated the children of P5 by addressing their desire to learn particular aspects of this exciting topic. Continue reading Egyptians
The Flower Garden at Rothesay Primary Pre-5
Rothesay Primary and Pre-5, along with parents, carers and friends, celebrated the ‘Grand Opening’ of our new outdoor area on Wednesday 3rd October. The area was planned, almost 2 years ago, by our present P2 when they were in the nursery and it has taken a lot of hard work and determination for it to develop into the challenging, exciting and beautiful space it is today. The children decided they wanted a workers area, a secret hide-out, a quiet place, a place to plant flowers and vegetables, a slide and a tunnel, a huge sandpit and lots of music… and a place to find creepy crawlies and to fly with butterflies. Continue reading The Flower Garden at Rothesay Primary Pre-5
Rothesay Primary Wins the Cup!
The pupils at Rothesay Primary were delighted to win the James McMillan Trophy at their local Horticultural Show. The pupils had entered their tomatoes along with growers from all over the island and were amazed to win the best exhibit in section 7! They also managed to scoop a first for their cooking apples, dessert apples, rhubarb and sweet peas. We’d love to share the secret of success that our Young Green Fingers achieved – but we think it was mostly down to luck!
Dare to Dance DVD in Demand!
Oban Primary Campus hosted their show ‘Dare to Dance’ in The Corran Halls, Oban on Thursday 14th June. Approximately 130 children and 25 members of staff across the campus participated in the sold out show. Everyone enthusiastically performed in front of an audience of 600 people. Children and staff worked hard for 8 weeks to learn and perfect their routines, the show offered everyone participating the opportunity to develop their confidence and team work skills through dance. This was a massive event for our school community and raised a lot of money for our school funds. The show was recorded and DVDs have just been released to the public, the running total of DVDs sold is currently at 180, which is phenomenal.
Rothesay Primary trip to Science Centre
Primary 7 enjoyed a fun-filled day at the Glasgow Science Centre on Tuesday. We loved the planetarium – especially when it went pitch black and you could see all the stars overhead. It was fun to see the phases of the moon projected on the big screen above us. We watched ‘Hubble 3D’ in the IMAX cinema and couldn’t believe the amazing images that this telescope could bring us. The stars were incredible and seeing the astronauts getting ready for their missions to mend the Hubble was very exciting. The Science Mall is full of interesting exhibits. We particularly enjoyed the thermal camera, the visual illusions, the electricity orb, the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ feature and the technology labs. Thank you to Mrs Blair for organising our trip and to the Science Centre for a great day out! We’re just delighted the ferries were on!
Pirate Day at Dunoon Primary
On Wednesday the 3rd of October Primary 2/3’s took part in a Pirate Day in their class and around the school. They enjoyed a wonderful Pirate feast laid on by the kitchen staff as did the entire school. Mrs Campbell’s walls are decked with pirate memorabillia as the children have carried out a variety of pirate activities throughout the day. They created their own pirate names, played pirate games, made pirate hats and have been working on pirate puzzles, all as part of their class interdisiplinary topic this session. Much fun was had by all! aaarg me hearties!! Continue reading Pirate Day at Dunoon Primary
Lifelong Learners!
The pupils of Clachan Primary School found out about people in the past during a recent visit to Inveraray Jail. We were shown around by one of the ‘prisoners’ from 200 years ago called Eliza. We were able to go into a cell and find out how comfortable sleeping in a hammock could be, how the prisoners did their laundry and how difficult it was to turn the crank wheel.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and hope that Eliza is found not guilty and is able to return to her family!
