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Another Visit from Ria at UHI STEM Outreach

We have been lucky over the last couple of weeks to have Ria Fitzpatrick from The University of the Highlands and Islands come out to the school and teach us specific lessons focused in the S.T.E.M. areas of the curriculum.

S.T.E.M. stands for Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics.

Previously Ria has used Kapla blocks with the class and helped them engineer some complex structures that had to be self supporting without using any form of adhesives.

This time around, Ria has been focused more with us on the science and technology side of things. Last week we looked at coding a robot called ‘Botly’ who can follow our commands made using cardboard coding discs on the floor. This week we worked on something far more environmental science focused and looked at the impact that oil spills can have on our natural environment, and the animals that live around us.

We discovered that there are a number of techniques used to clear up oil spills using booms, skimmers and absorbent substances. The older children were particularly engaged with the practical aspects of the investigation which you can see pictures of below.

Notable Numerals

Our P1 children have been reinforcing their understanding of numerals today using lego to model the forms of the numbers they selected as the most tricky for them to write the right way around. Well done P1s!

Talented Authors in our midst!

We were all very exited this morning to receive a letter from Lynsey Evans at Young Writers HQ in Peterborough. She wrote to let us know that some of us had our poetry chosen to be published in the next edition of the Young Writers poetry books;

‘Once Upon a Dream – A Collection of Poetry’

Huge congratulations to the four of our pupils for winning a spot in the book and well done to everyone at the school who tried their best with their writing for the competition!

Maths Dice Challenges for the Middle School

Our P2-4 children were absolute stars working collaboratively using dice beginning to understand the foundations of multiplication. Some of the boys and girls even managed to extend their own learning independently to move onto double digit multiplication sums!

Teamwork in the Snow!

We had a fantastic day in the snow today building the biggest igloo Mr Wakeling says he’s ever seen! We all worked together and problem solved throughout the day to make sure we didn’t let the construction collapse in on itself! There were lots of awesome ideas to reinforce different parts, and we even used the biggest pots from the polycrub to make the bricks of snow.

What do you think of our new chilly home?

School Website to get a refresh!

We’re happy to announce that after a lot of hard work in the background by the technical team for Glow Scotland, Orkney Islands Council and within the staff team at the school, we have now got editing rights over our school website back up and running!

Keep your eyes peeled on the page for news from the school including the events we’re hosting, progress in our new Inter-disciplinary topics and learning from nursery all the way up to P7.