Welcome back to our school blog and a Happy Halloween from St.Brendan’s!
Parents Portal
Thank you to all of the families who popped in for our Parent Portal drop in this week.
We now have 125 parents/carers and 60% of our school pupils registered for the service.
We still have 93 pupils with no registered contact for this service. It is important that all families with school aged children are registered for the service by the end of term as this will allow you to receive important information when the School App expires in the New Year.
Families can sign up for the service through the mygovscot website here.
Please spread the word!
Anyone wishing support with signing up should contact the office so this can be arranged.
Happy Halloween!
Parent Fundraising – Halloween Disco
Pupils had a spooktacular time at our Halloween Disco last week, organised by the amazing Parent Fundraising Committee. The hall was filled with music, dancing and fantastic costumes — from superheroes to spooky ghosts!
A big thank-you to our parent team for creating such a fun and memorable evening for everyone and a huge thank you to our teachers who volunteered and helped supervise. What a wonderful way to bring our school community together!
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Halloween celebration and Pop-up shop
This week we have been running a Halloween Pop-Up Shop at the front of the school which has been a huge hit! Pupils and families have loved browsing spooky goodies and treats, all while helping to raise money for our school funds. A big thank-you to everyone who supported and a huge shout out to our local supermarket Tesco for their generous donations to help make this pop-up shop possible.
Today pupils had a fantastic time celebrating Halloween by dressing up in their amazing costumes and enjoying an afternoon full of fun activities in class! From spooky crafts to games and laughter, everyone got into the Halloween spirit and had a wonderful time together.
Skills Academies
Last week, our pupils took part in an exciting round of Skills Academies, where they had the chance to explore a range of hands-on learning experiences including Design and Manufacture, Food technology, Life Skills, Community and Creativity. Each activity gave pupils the opportunity to discover new talents, work collaboratively and most importantly, reflect on this term’s core value — Integrity.
At our school, Integrity means thinking carefully about what is fair and ethical — doing the right thing even when no one is watching. It’s about acting honestly and consistently, staying true to who we are and what we believe in.
During the day, pupils showed wonderful examples of Integrity in action.
In Design and Manufacture, they worked fairly in teams, shared tools responsibly and made design choices that were both practical and creative. Pupils used the elements of design to create a sturdy bridge without going over the budget, taking into consideration the principles of fairtrade. Pupils also followed the design process to design and make their own board game with a citizenship focus (e.g. Rights, Eco, Fairtrade, etc.)
In Food technology, they measured, prepared and cooked delicious dishes while showing care for hygiene, safety and teamwork, using ethical fairtrade products. Pupils created fairtrade banana bread, spooky fairtrade Halloween cookies and fairtrade fruit emotion faces.
In Life Skills, pupils discussed real-world situations, considering what it means to make fair and ethical choices in everyday life. Pupils explored the book ‘have you filled your bucket today?’
In Creativity, they expressed themselves through art, design, and imagination — showing honesty and pride in their own original ideas. Pupils listened to the story of Elmer and created Elmer art pieces, listened to the story of Goldilocks and the three bears and created a short role play about Goldilocks as well as creating and performing a dance inspired by K Pop Demon Hunters.
In Community pupils created self-portraits of the St Brendan’s community as well as working with Muirhouse Primary pupils on a scavenger hunt ensuring everyone was willing to listen to others’ ideas and opinions and participated in a range of active listening tasks.
Through each activity, pupils demonstrated that Integrity is not just about words — it’s about actions. Whether they were designing, cooking or creating, our pupils thought deeply about how to do the right thing and stay true to themselves and their values.
We are so proud of their positive attitude, teamwork and thoughtful approach to learning. The Skills Academies continue to give every pupil a chance to grow, explore and live out the values that make our school community here at St. Brendan’s so special!
HWB Surveys
Our Health and Wellbeing Surveys have now been completed by teachers for each pupil, with pupils across all classes also taking part. These surveys are an important part of our school’s nurturing approach, helping staff to understand and respond to the needs of our children and families.
By following the refreshed GIRFEC pathway and using the responses gathered, we will ensure that any child requiring additional support receives the help they need to thrive.
Wellbeing at Home Surveys October 2025
All children in the school are invited to complete our Wellbeing at Home survey.
More information about the survey for parents and carers can be found here.
If you do not wish your child to take part, please access the link to indicate this.
To access the survey, click the following link as appropriate:
My Wellbeing at Home P1 to P4 2025-2026
My Wellbeing at Home P5 to P7 2025-2026
We thank you again for your continued support.
Celebrating our successes!
This week’s assembly was a fantastic celebration of our learners’ achievements. We recognised pupils who have shown excellence as Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens, Confident Individuals and Effective Contributors. Their hard work, positive attitudes and dedication to learning truly stood out.
We also shared and celebrated successes from clubs in our wider community—highlighting the amazing talents and efforts our pupils show beyond the classroom.
Well done to everyone involved!
