Redwell Primary School

We were very excited to see that building work began on the site of the new school during the summer holidays. Work is well underway and the senior management teams of both schools will be making regular visits to the site to make sure things are going according to plan.

Back in March the children took part in a SHANARRI design activity. They worked in mixed Claremont/St John’s groups and their task was to create a poster for one of the following SHANARRI themes: Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included. The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity and the results were great.

The finished products were given to a representative from Robertson Construction who then chose one from each theme to be displayed on the hoarding outside the site. The posters were displayed during the summer holidays and really brighten up the building site! We hope you’ve had a chance to go along and have a little look at the site and see the posters too.

Primary 5 took a walk to the new site to see what progress had been made. Here are a few pictures that they took of the site.

Our fantastic new school badge displayed on the hoarding outsite the new school site.

Lord Alan Sugar set the children their next challenge.

Week 3 –

Lord Alan Sugar

Amsprop Estates Head Office
Amshold House
Goldings Hill
Loughton
Essex IG10 2RW
UK

 Dear pupils,

I am very impressed with the results from last week’s challenge.  The logos you have created are outstanding.  I can see some of you working for me in the future…I hope.   

For this week’s challenge you have an important job to undertake.  You must decide on the colours for the new Redwell Primary uniform.  Throughout the week you will have a number of activities to complete to accomplish this.  Some of you will get the opportunity to visit some supermarkets and shops to see what colours of school uniforms are available.  Others will have to research the colours of school uniforms in Clackmannanshire and Stirling to decide which colours will be best for your new school uniform.  You will also have to do some work on the importance of colour and which colours match best.    

As before, on Friday, you will all come together and present your creations to the others.  I have extremely high expectations of what you can achieve. 

One more thing, on Friday you must also ensure that every pupil gets the opportunity to vote on their favourite badge and colour of uniform. 

Good luck young apprentices!

Yours sincerely, 

 Lord Alan Sugar

How they addressed the task –

This week the children had to design the colour of the new school uniform. Groups were given the job of carrying out market research. They had to survey the shops to find out what colours they stock.

Some groups visited Alloa Tesco and Asda. They were lucky to have a tour of Asda with Kirsty McCormack. Kirsty answered all of the market research questions about stock, most popular school uniform colours and cost. The children were able to bring back fantastic information to share with their teams.

After a great start the team received this letter in week 2-

Lord Alan Sugar

Amsprop Estates Head Office
Amshold House
Goldings Hill
Loughton
Essex IG10 2RW
UK

Dear pupils,

You appear to have started off tremendously and I am pleased you managed to succeed in your first challenge, well done young apprentices. 

This week’s challenge is when the real work starts and you begin to show your more creative sides.  This week each team must create a new school badge to represent Redwell Primary.  To accomplish this you must undertake various tasks.  You will have to do some research about logos, some of you may visit businesses who have years of experience in this industry and others will conduct a survey to find the pupils views and ideas about the school badge.  I have even organised a special guest to come in to talk to you about the local area who may have some valuable ideas of the types of things you could include in your badge. 

On Friday, after you have completed all of the tasks, you will all come together in your teams to create your badge. 

Remember, to be successful you must work as a team

Good luck young apprentices!

Yours sincerely, 

Lord Alan Sugar

How they addressed the task –

By the end of the week each team has to have a completed Redwell School badge design.

First the children had to learn all about ‘design’. Groups visited C.R.S., Logo Express and Forth Valley College campus.

At C.R.S. Rory showed the children how designs were created and produced for signs. They recognised lots of familiar signs C.R.S. have made for vans and businesses. Rory took each of our team names and used a computer programme to create a design. The children saw the whole process and left with their own team ‘sign’. It was fascinating and gave them lots of ideas.

At Forth Valley College in Stirling, the children were welcomed and given a tour by Mrs Sneddon. They then spent time with Brian Smith and his visual communication students. They showed the children how to come up with ideas and develop them into a finished design. The children were very impressed with the students’ work. They even developed some of their own ideas about the Redwell Badge with the help of Brian and the students.

At Logo Express the children were able to see how the school badges are made and put onto school uniforms. They learned that a badge with 2 colours of thread takes about 5 minutes to make and a badge with more colours takes longer. The children learned that the badge is drawn out and then printed off on a special machine which send the instructions to the embroidery machine to sew the finished badge.

Each week the team will receive a letter from ‘Lord Alan Sugar’ detailing their task for that week.

Week 1-

Lord Alan Sugar

Amsprop Estates Head Office
Amshold House
Goldings Hill
Loughton
Essex IG10 2RW
UK

Dear pupils,

My name is Lord Alan Sugar and I have a challenge for you.  You have been specially selected to take part in the creation of the new Redwell Primary uniform and badge.  This must be done in 4 weeks and will end in a fashion show extravaganza in the Town Hall on Wednesday 5^th June. 

As part of this challenge you will have to work together cooperatively and undertake various mind-blowing tasks. 

Each week I will write to you with a new task.  You have until Friday to complete that week’s task. 

This week’s challenge is to find out more about entrepreneurs, I suggest you watch my television show ‘The Young Apprentice’.  You must also create a motivational name for your team, a team logo, briefcase and business card.  Your team must be organised and prepared to present your work to the class this Friday when all groups will meet again. 

Good luck entrepreneurs!

Yours sincerely, 

Lord Alan Sugar

How we addressed the task –

All the children gathered at Claremont and Lord Alan Sugar ‘visited’ with this week’s task for the children. This week he asked the children to meet the other members of their Young Apprentice teams and work cooperatively to design a team logo showing the meaning of their motivational name and also create their team briefcase.

In the afternoon the children received a visitor from Business Gateway.  John Paterson is a successful local businessman and we learned about entrepreneurship, the ingredients for a successful business and local success stories. We also asked lots of questions!

Next we all got together at St John’s and each of the Design teams gave a presentation, introducing each other and the team logo to everyone.

It was a great end to the first week and everyone is very excited to find out what Lord Alan has in store for next week!

Children in Primary 3 and Primary 5 are taking part in a design project to investigate and create the design for the new school badge and colours for our new school uniform.

Children from both schools will be visiting each other and completing a series of design challenges. This apporach will be based on the TV show ‘The Apprentice’.

The project will include meaningfull opportunities for partnership working including:

• Links with local businesses
• Researching
• Links with Alloa Academy and Forth Valley College
• Organsing and presenting a uniform fashion show (Wednesday 5th June)

The culmination of the project will be a final decision on the badge and colour of the Redwell uniform.

Continue to check th blog for updates.

To enable us to evaluate the joint activity and plan for the future events we asked our volunteers for feedback. We received a very positive response with comments including:

“I think it was an excellent experience for the children, not only did they meet future classmates, they met their potential teachers. It was a brilliant confidence builder for them. Definitely a SHANARRI experience.”

“I thought the day was a brilliant success! You could not tell the children apart if they weren’t in their school jumpers. the behaviour from both schools was excellent. They mixed very well with their peers from Claremont.”

“The kids really seem to have taken onboard ‘SHANARRI’ in both schools. I did not hear anything negative from the kids about the new school, they seem excited about it.”

We also asked for suggrstions for future joint working as we approach the merger, some of the suggestions included:

“Maybe a fun activity for them to do together?”

“Joint sporting events? Social events? Summer disco? More joint learning days.”

“Free time for the children to mix as they wish.”

We are taking on board all of the feedback and suggestions and we are looking forward to lots more joint working over the coming session.

On Friday 22nd March children from both schools took part in an activity, working together to design artwork to cover the hoarding that will surround the building site of the new school.

The artwork focused on SHANARRI, with each stage taking on an element as a theme for their posters.

The morning was very successful and worthwhile. The children worked across 2 schools, with half of each class in St. John’s going up to Claremont and half of each class in  Claremont going to St. John’s. The Nursery classes also participated in the activity but with groups going up and down to each school over the course of a week.

Two Primary 1 pupils making sure their brains are ‘active’

Primary 6s working together on the theme ‘respect’

Primary 7 pupils working on the theme ‘nurtured’

All of the excellent work has been collected in and will be given to Robertsons Construction. they will reproduce the posters onto the hoarding for everyone to see.

Earlier this month the designs for the new school were ‘showcased’ at Alloa Town Hall. Staff, parents and pupils attended this successful evening and celebrated the work that has happened so far.

Representatives from the Pupil Council shared information on Shanarri, Outdoor Learning, Health and Well Being, Pupil Council, Eco Committee, Our Blog, how we chose the school’s name and the architects’ designs.

The pupils were also responsible for addressing visitors’ questions and taking photographs of the event.

Continuing on from the work during the November in service days we had a more in-depth, detailed look at the outdoor space and the transition to Redwell Primary School.

All staff from both St. John’s and Claremont worked in small, mixed groups to create a visual representation of the shared visions and aims which would be implemented in Redwell Primary.

A plan for a joint ICT programme, which will be implemented in both schools  to ensure a smooth transition to Redwell, was developed.

Staff worked together to look at ways in which the layout of the playground at Redwell Primary would lend itself to promoting outdoor learning with the children.  Steve, from Grounds for Learning, led another session to demonstrate activities which could be used to develop outdoor learning and Curriculum for Excellence.