RAISING ATTAINMENT – CORRAN HALLS, OBAN 10th & 11th MARCH 2014

Argyll and Bute Council Education Department are holding a two day Learning Festival entitled ‘Raising Attainment’ at which delegates can browse stalls, take part in workshops, listen to keynote speeches and a bit of live music! Please see image below for further details. Continue reading RAISING ATTAINMENT – CORRAN HALLS, OBAN 10th & 11th MARCH 2014

Traditional Toys from The Toy Shop!

Primary 1 at Cardross had an exciting afternoon testing traditional toys as part of their topic. Fiona from The Toy Shop in Helensburgh kindly gave up her afternoon to introduce the pupils to the toys. It was a wonderful afternoon and we are very grateful to Fiona for her input.

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Lorn Mathsfest

On the 12th February the fifteenth Annual Lorn Mathsfest was held in Oban High School. Forty-eight S1 pupils and forty-eight P7 pupils from the associated Primary Schools formed teams of four. These teams worked together enthusiastically during the day to solve written and practical maths problems and puzzles. One of the written problems was in French and another was in Gaelic!

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Decorating the Heedie’s Office

Whilst Mr. Mitchell continues to settle in well as new head teacher at Dunoon Grammar School, he felt that his office was still feeling a little bit bare. He approached pupils in the learning centre to see if they could help by providing a few plants. Outdoor learning is a big part of the learning centre curriculum and the pupils rose to the challenge straight away. Pupils painted and decorated containers so that the plants would look attractive in Mr. Mitchell’s office.

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Park Primary 3 Protect an Acre of the Rainforest!

In the Autumn Primary 3 in Park Primary School undertook an interdisciplinary study on The Tropical Rainforest and as part of this they compared the local temperate rainforest, Dunollie Woods, to the tropical Amazon Rainforest. As a final outcome for their learning the whole class took part in an informative assembly at the end of November which was performed in front of the other children as well as any family members who wanted to come along. At the end of the assembly donations were collected and have now been used to protect an acre of the Rainforest through the Rainforest Concern Organisation.

Vikings Topic P5 Dunoon Primary

This term P5 are learning about The Vikings. All the pupils are thoroughly enjoying the topic and have produced some fantastic work. They have designed and made Viking shields from wood, drawn longships and have used ICT skills to produce Viking factsheets. Pupils have also made their own Vikingbook page with their own wall post and profile picture ( dressed as their Viking character). We are all looking forward to continuing this topic and a trip to Vikingar to learn more.

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Dunoon Grammar School – Higher German Film Trip

On Wednesday 12th January, the Higher German class braved the wild seas to make their way to the Glasgow Film Theatre to view the German film “I feel like Disco” which was showing as part of the Glasgow Youth Film Festival.
Despite being drenched several times, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day out – the film was great!

Park Pupils Impress at Burns Event!

A few weeks ago, Primary 7s at Park School entered the Burns competition at the Corran Halls. After weeks of preparation, the pupils took part in different categories and clearly impressed the judges as they returned to Park with 10 medals in total! These were as follows: silver and bronze in Recitation; silver in Solo Singing; gold and silver in Instrumental; gold and bronze in Art; and gold, silver and bronze in Writing in Scots.

Congratulations to our Primary 7s – we are very proud of their achievements!

Dunoon Grammar School – Modern Studies Trip to Westminster

At 11.45pm on the 16th of December, Dunoon Grammar School’s Modern Studies Trip commenced. Those involved (Mrs Hunter, Mr Clark, Mr McNeilage, and 26 pupils from DGS) embarked that evening upon an exciting adventure. During the trip the group would get to visit the Houses of Parliament and experience London during Christmas time, but first they had to endure on an 8 hour bus ride to get there.

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UK Maths Challenge 2014

On Thursday 6th February, 60 of our S3 and S4 pupils competed in the UK Intermediate Maths Challenge. The UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge is an hour long, intriguing multiple choice question paper, which is designed to stimulate interest in maths in large numbers of pupils.
The top 40% of students nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate in the ratio 1:2:3 and each school receives a Best in School certificate.

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E-Safety for Parents event

Do you…
• Worry about what your children are doing online?
• Know how to stay safe online?
• Know how to keep your children safe online?
• Have e-safety questions that you would like answering?
• Need help to make sure that you stay safe online?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above ………………. Continue reading E-Safety for Parents event

Dalintober PS Pupils Thank Community

Pupils of Dalintober PS have written an open letter to ‘The Campbeltown Courier’ and personally delivered letters to local shopkeepers thanking them for supporting a fundraising activity for Campbeltown Christmas Lights Group. ‘Penny Jars’, designed by the pupils, were on display in local shops and shoppers were encouraged to throw any loose change in to the jars. In only two weeks a grand total of £512.61 was raised. The pupils will be putting the jars back in to shops following the February break in the build-up to this year’s ‘Switch-on’.

Dogs Trust Centre visit Dunoon Primary!

On Wednesday 12th February Alison and Alfie from the Dogs Trust Centre in Glasgow came to visit our school. Alison told the children about the work carried out there and also discussed with them the important aspects of dog care. She emphasised the need to clean up after our dogs when exercising them in public places. This tied in with our Eco Schools Committee who are organising a poster competition to highlight the need to keep our streets clean and free from dog mess.

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Tobermory High School & Primary School Celebrate 2nd Green Flag

Tobermory High School 3-18 Learning Community are celebrating being awarded their second Eco Schools Green flag. The eco committee worked hard over the last 2 years to minimise waste, improve the school grounds and keep on top of litter across the campus. The Eco Schools assessor was impressed with the collaborative approach the school has adopted to tackling eco topics, working in conjunction with the Forestry Commission, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and the Mull and Iona community Trust.

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Dunoon Grammar School Badminton Winners

A number of our pupils took part in the Annual Argyll and Bute Schools badminton championships last week. Our pupils were a credit to Dunoon Grammar School. Their standard of play was exceptional and they returned with a number of titles.

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Rotary Young Chef Competition

Well done to S1 pupil Jennifer who was runner up in the District Final of the Rotary Young Chef Competition last week – she will now go on to the Regional final which will be held in March.
8 competitors will take part in the next round made up of 2 competitors from each of the three Rotary Districts in Scotland and 2 competitors from the North East of England. We wish Jennifer the best of luck in the next round.

Dunbeg Primary Arctic Topic

Dunbeg Primary pupils in P2/3 have been learning all about the Arctic. They even sent their very own explorers on an Arctic adventure! Snowy the Seal and Penny the Penguin set off with their scientist friends Finlo (Ruari’s dad) and Kim (Sennen’s dad) who were going to work there for a few weeks. Snowy and Penny got up to all sorts of mischief which included snowmobile rides, exploring ice caves, helping with scientific experiments and meeting huskies and polar bears.

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Achaleven Goes Green for the 5th Time

Achaleven Primary School pupils and staff were very proud to receive their 5th Green Flag from Eco-Schools Scotland last week. This follows an assessment at the end of January where Eco-Schools assessor Paula Love commended them on their collaborative approach by working with local environmental organisations including The Grab Trust and AliEnergy, and for the work done in the community by involvement in recycling, village litter picks, charity fundraising and promotion of Fairtrade.

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‘Food for Thought’

Lochgilphead Joint Campus has successfully been awarded a £3781 grant from ‘Food for Thought’ – a funding initiative of Education Scotland. The money is being used to build a fully adapted polytunnel, large fruit tree planters and soft fruit growing areas. The aim of the project is to get students involved in growing more produce for the canteen and home economics department and learning how food is produced.