Islay High School Band, Primary School Band and Ceol na Cloinne our P3/4 Training Band, held a fantastic concert on Thursday 19th March. Our special guests were Coisir Og Gaelic Ile, Ella Edgar Dancers and Islay High School Pipers. A great night was had by all, there was a lot of new exciting music from all bands not to mention soloists from the Primary band and High School Band, all of whom put on great performances. A great night was had by all, well done boys and girls!
Category Archives: Gaelic
Parent and Toddler Group
In January we started a Parent and Toddler Group at Lochdonhead Primary School. We have around 6 toddlers who come and enjoy playing and meeting with their friends, every Friday afternoon at the school. We asked the parents what they thought of the arrangement and they said, ‘Brilliant’, ‘There is a good variety of toys for them. Different things every week’, ‘It’s a lovely bright space for them to play’. Hopefully in the warmer weather, the toddlers will enjoy growing seeds in our greenhouse and making use of our lovely Gaelic Story Glen. It is great to have young members of our community enjoying the facilities of the school. Many thanks to Alison MacKenzie, Principal Teacher of Early Years, for providing a rich and interesting variety of resources to support our group.
Bowmore Primary is ‘Tapsalteerie’!
On Tuesday 3rd February at Bowmore Primary, an appreciative audience enjoyed a child-friendly performance of our famous bard’s ‘Tam O’ Shanter’. Robert Burns’ famous poem was given the BPS treatment, creatively led by ‘Tapsalsteerie Theatre’- a unique husband and wife team from Stirling. David and Jackie Smith spent from 9.20 to 2.15 (breaks excluded of course!) with our P6s and P7s from the English and Gaelic classes.
Book Week Scotland
To celebrate Book Week Scotland, team members from the Early Years Service and CAST have been out and about in Argyll & Bute hosting pirate themed Bookbug events for 730 children, aged 0 to 6 years, in Oban, Mid Argyll and Islay. The team performed action songs and rhymes in both English and Gaelic alongside the children who had been given CDs and booklets to practice in advance. They were joined in each location by local storyteller Alasdair Satchell who told the highly entertaining tale of Seumas and the pirate, Captain Gilly White.
St Andrew’s Day Celebrations at St Joseph’s!
A great day was had by all at St. Joseph’s School as St. Andrew’s Day was celebrated in style. Everyone had been invited to come to school wearing some tartan at a charge of £1 per person – an initiative which helped raise funds for the school. Then everyone packed into the assembly hall to watch each class perform a Scottish song or dance. There was quite a genre of singing on offer from ‘Ali Babi’ by the pre-5 children to ‘The Song of the Clyde’ by P6.
Continue reading St Andrew’s Day Celebrations at St Joseph’s!
Prestigious National Award for DGS Gaelic Teacher
Pupils and staff at Dunoon Grammar School are celebrating the news that Gaelic teacher, Laura Howitt has scooped this year’s Daily Record Scottish Gaelic Awards for Innovation in Education. Now in its second year, the Daily Record Scottish Gaelic awards, sponsored by Bord Na Gaidhlig, was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Glasgow on Wednesday, 19 November. The event is a celebration of Gaelic culture in Scotland. Continue reading Prestigious National Award for DGS Gaelic Teacher
Dunoon Grammar School Race Night
Pupils at Dunoon Grammar School are putting the final touches to what will be a fun and exciting night on Saturday 22nd November at their race night taking place in Cowal Golf Club.
There are many opportunities for success on the night with prizes to be won on the races, raffle and other competitions that will be available on the night. Entry is free and DGS would like to extend the invite to everyone in the whole community.
The event will help to raise funds for the Gaelic trip to Canada in March 2015.
Port Ellen Success at the Mod
Port Ellen Primary School have again been very successful at the National Mod, which this year was held in Inverness. The schools gaelic Choir, Coisir Bun-Sgoil Port Ilein, won the choral unison rural primary, choral Puirt-a-beul and choral 2 part harmony learner. Their was success for individuals also, with Rebecca coming first and Rowan coming second in the solo singing 7-8, Eva coming first in the solo singing 9-10 and Abbie coming first in the solo singing 11-12 girls and Asher in the boys category. Continue reading Port Ellen Success at the Mod
News from DGS
Marvellous Macmillan Coffee Morning at DGS
DGS Staff and invited visitors enjoyed a fantastic coffee morning organised by pupils from the school’s learning centre on Thursday, 2 October – all in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Gaelic Transition through Local History
Ms Howitt from Dunoon Grammar School initiated a transitional topic for the Gaelic medium pupils of Sandbank Primary School where they could gradually get to know the staff, subjects and building during their last couple of years at Primary. The pupils were already working upon an enquiry based local history project which allowed many opportunities for interdisciplinary work, some of which were suitable for the Grammar staff to lead.
Auchindrain / Achadh an Droigheann
On the last week of term, June 2014, the pupils of Sandbank Gaelic Medium Unit visited Auchindrain as part of their local history project and Crofting Connections work. They had brainstormed a set of questions that they wanted to ask the curator, Mr Bob Clarke, which would help us to understand the forces of change in the lives of local people through the last couple of centuries. Mr Clarke took us on a tour of the houses, telling us about some of the inhabitants and their way of life. We learned so much that we would not be able to write it all down in one report!
Continue reading Auchindrain / Achadh an Droigheann
Whole School Orienteering at Sandbank Primary!
A whole school orienteering event took place at Sandbank Primary School on the last Thursday of the June term 2014. The pupils of Gaelic medium P6/7 had walked up to the Heritage trail the previous week, chosen a safe but challenging area for a star-orienteering exercise, drew the maps and planned the course. Back at school they prepared the materials (bilingually (Gaelic & English) and laminated the maps ready for the big day. Miss Wombwell split the rest of the school into mixed ability teams.
Continue reading Whole School Orienteering at Sandbank Primary!
GUARD at Tigh Caol
Sandbank Gaelic Medium P6/7 class were fortunate enough to be invited to participate in an archaeological dig at Tigh Caol near Glendaruel along with many other schools in the area. The dig was performed by GUARD (Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division) with support from the local community (Forestry Enterprise and Strachur and District Local History Society). Kilmodan and Sandbank both attended on the same day and the pupils were given the opportunity to metal detect, trowel and bag finds, draw the plans of the site and sieve the spoil heap.
Continue reading GUARD at Tigh Caol
Allt na Blàthaich
During May – June 2014 the pupils of Sandbank Gaelic Medium Unit P6/7 began to explore and record some old ruins amongst the trees at Ard na Blàthaich on the side of Loch Eck. First of all we mapped the area, photographed the ruins, and measured the walls using tape measures and measuring wheel. We also used a compass to give us the direction that the walls were running in and used some GPS machines that we’d borrowed from Clyde Muirshiel Countryside Ranger service. These gave us a grid reference number that we can now plot on a map.
Oban Pupils Present Prize-winning Gaelic Drama
Pupils from Rockfield Primary School’s P1-4 Gaelic classes performed a prize-winning play at the recent Argyll and Lochaber Gaelic Drama Festival, held in Oban’s Corran Halls.
The children presented ‘An t-Each Acrach’ about a very hungry horse, and were delighted that their performance was awarded the prize for best costumes and props.
Continue reading Oban Pupils Present Prize-winning Gaelic Drama
Lismore’s mountain adventure
May has been Mountain Month at Lismore Primary School. The children began the project by comparing the highest mountain on each continent with Ben Nevis and Lismore’s own highest point of Barr Mor. They made scale pictures of each mountain to compare the range of heights. They then went on to look at how mountains are actually formed and travelled to Glencoe to look at the volcanic and ice age activity that shaped the landscape. They also looked at the basalt, slate and quartzite layering in the Ballachulish Quarry.
Owl Magic
On Wednesday the 7th May Sandbank Primary School, Nursery, Gaelic Medium Unit and Sgoil Araich were visited by Owl Magic from Kilmarnock. Nine different owls from all over the world spent the day with us, as each class learned about birds of prey and how to handle them carefully and safely. The owls ranged from a large eagle owl from Afghanistan called Bailey down to a pygmy owl called Titch.
PORT ELLEN HOLDS FINANCE WEEK FAIR
This week was finance week at Port Ellen and all the classes have been involved in learning about money, finishing in a finance fair on Friday Morning. Primary 1&2 have been learning about banks and spreadsheets, and have even started saving their money up for the summer holidays. They ran a bank at the exhibition and showed they could count change, and had even made their own piggy banks. Primary 2&3 had made commonwealth animal banks, which included a wonderful anteater and Kiwi bank.
Rockfield Gaelic classes launch books
Before the Easter break, children in Rockfield’s Gaelic classes hosted an open afternoon to celebrate the launch of their very own books. The event was a really enjoyable way to end a very productive term and to involve parents, carers and peers in the children’s learning.
P2/1G based their books on their topic ‘Air an Tuathanas’ (On the Farm) and P4/3G created imaginative stories about ‘Na Lochlannaich’ (The Vikings). The children were really inspired by the book-writing project and produced some excellent work.
Sandbank’s Great Exhibition
Gaelic unit P6/7 from Sandbank Primary (Bunsgoil Thaigh a’Chladaich) were learning about the history of the Holy Loch area over the past two hundred years. The work was organised by Fiona Lochhead from Kilmun Mausoleum who arranged for a weaver called Fiona MacDougall and a heritage worker called Robin Patel to come in and work with us.
We got a lot of information from the gravestones at Kilmun, including occupations, infant mortality and the gristly work of resurrectionists. Continue reading Sandbank’s Great Exhibition
