On Thursday it was great to see the Primary 7s all returning from their residential trip – and what a great time they had!
We certainly missed them around the school!
Category Archives: Outdoor Education
PE Outdoors
It was great to see Mr Dearie’s class out doing Crossfit in the lovely autumn sunshine today. Well done, Primary 5!
Garden Work
Well done to the Primary 6s who volunteered to work with Mrs Lawson at lunchtimes and start weeding and clearing the huge amount of weeds which grew over lockdown and the summer. It could take some time to complete but many hands will make light work. Any more P6s who would like to join in would be made very welcome, however you must use your own set of gardening gloves.
A special mention to Alesha and Amy who phoned the council and asked them to come and empty our overflowing bins. The men came the very next day! Well done, girls!
ECC garden
Mrs Hendrie and Miss Gray have had a busy afternoon constructing two new tents in the ECC garden to provide some shelter for the children while learning outdoors 🙂
Outdoor Learning at Gargieston
On Thursday, four of our P7 pupils created designs of paths/swirls/mazes to be cut into the back grass at the school which has become overgrown during the school closure. The designs were amalgamated together and a grass cutter machine cut the grass in to the design yesterday morning. This initiative is very exciting as it will allow us to develop learning through landscapes, biodiversity and develop our outdoor learning curriculum within the school. It will also give our children a fun, natural environment to explore and to learn from. Yesterday Dominic, Archie, Freya A and Louie from last session’s Pupil Council and Miller, Freya L, Callum and Eilidh from last session’s Rights Respecting Schools group met with Natalie White, Outdoor Learning lead officer, George, the grass cutter and a photographer from East Ayrshire Council. These and other super photographs will be used to publicise and promote this initiative to all schools in East Ayrshire. We are delighted that Gargieston is leading the way!!
Fun in the Sun!
As the weather is so hot ,& pupils will be spending more time outdoors.
Could we please ask that sun cream is applied before coming to school.
Pupils could also bring in sun cream if they need to reapply it during the school day and a sun hat to protect them fully from the sun.
Outdoor Classroom Day
This year’s Outdoor Classroom Day is happening on this Thursday 21st May 2020. Outdoor Classroom Day aims to inspire and celebrate outdoor learning and play both at home and at school. Usually, this day is celebrated by teachers taking their classes outdoors for their lessons, however, this year, of course, due to the coronavirus crisis, things will look a little different, with the vast majority of teaching and learning taking place online and at home.
The organisation promoting Outdoor Classroom Day have decided this year to launch the movement – ‘Playful Nature’ – after collaborating with parents and teachers across the globe.
Their aim is to support children to continue to connect to nature, even during a period of lockdown and staying at home. They believe that this connection is best made through play and have shared a variety of activities on their website which encourage a connection with nature both indoors and outdoors. On 21st May – Outdoor Classroom Day – they are encouraging everyone to bring playful nature to their setting, family and home.
These ideas and activities can be found here: https://outdoorclassroomday.com/
Orienteering After-School Club
We have had an amazing response to our after-school club, thank you. Unfortunately we are no longer able to take any more pupils. We are looking forward to seeing all children who have already signed up on Tuesday.
This does not mean that children will be unable to participate in the festival, if they wish to take part they can still attend at least 3 evening training sessions in April and May. Details of which will be released soon.
Thank you again.
P 4 – 7 Orienteering After School Club
Mr Smith and Mrs Mackie will be running an after school orienteering Club for primaries 4 – 7 , on Tuesday 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st of March from 3.15pm to 4.15pm.
This is for pupils who are interested in attending the orienteering training evenings in April and May and also wish to be entered into the orienteering festival. Gargieston has always done very well at orienteering events and we would love to maintain this. We would love to see some new faces coming along to the club as well as pupils who have been before.
iCycle Training
Mr McDowell and Mr Stewart organise iCycle training for our Primary 6 children each year. This training is delivered after school from 3.30 until 4.30pm over 8 weeks commencing w/b 9th March. This year, we have 47 children interested in taking part. We are absolutely delighted with the level of interest but this means we will need to deliver the training in 2 groups. Mr McDowell and Mr Stewart are happy to offer their time to lead the training on a Wednesday and a Thursday after school but we need your help to ensure it can go ahead.
Please indicate on the drop down below if you could offer your time to support our children in their iCycle training. We welcome help from parents / carers from any stage in the school.
Thank you
