On Monday 6th February, P4/5 went to 4 different Neolithic sites in Orkney as part of the Neolithic Orkney topic. We visited Barnhouse Settlement, the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe.

We were shown around the sites by Sandra, an Orkney Ranger, and she told us lots of information about each place. Phil took us on a tour of Maeshowe that was very interesting, especially as none of us had been in before!

We learnt lots of new facts, particularly about the graffiti at the Ring of Brodgar and the Viking runes at Maeshowe.

When we got back to school, we wrote recounts of our day and also sent thankyou emails to Sandra and Phil from Historic Environment Scotland.

Here is what each of the Pupil Groups have been working on this week:

Tech Pros

The Tech Pros have been getting to grips with the website! We have spoken to each group about what they are doing and typed it up to be uploaded here! We are using web browsers, email and html to upload.

Eco Warriors

The Eco Warriors have been really busy! They are getting a compost bin, creating advertisements and getting people to take cardboard boxes and more into school. They are also putting up a Polycrub and are making different posters to go around school. They are putting a recycling bin in each classroom and also going to be reducing paper in the school. They have also planted flowers and should be fully grown in late June.

Kids Community

Sports Committee 

The Sports Committee have been planning new games to be played in the cage and have begun sorting and cleaning the P.E cupboard. They are also planning a whole school sport event and are learning new games.

The JRSOs have been working on a new competition starting today lasting 3 weeks – this is to design a new mascot for Road Safety. They are also organising and getting ready to give out prizes for wearing Safety Vests. 

At Firth Primary School, we work together across P1-7 to use our Pupil Voice.

Here is an update about each of our groups for this week:

Tech Pros

The Tech Pros have been working on:

• A Scratch challenge for each class that shows a progression of skills and gives an opportunity to learn or refresh coding skills with Scratch.
• Installing apps onto the tablets and laptops – Scratch, Reading Eggs and Gooseberry Planet.
• Updating and installing programmes onto our laptops.
• Creating an overview of Digital Coding for the whole school
• Discussing and deciding on digital resources that we would like in school.

We have been working hard to develop our library into a more useable space and to help us rediscover our fantastic books.

We now have two sections to the library, upstairs we have non fiction and downstairs we have fiction. Fiction books have been reorganised so they are by author’s surname, and are now much clearer to find.

The library is now much more useable and is a great space for us to use.

P4/5 are learning about the Vikings this term and have been reading a book called “The Chessmen Thief” by Barbara Henderson.

The book is about the Lewis chessmen and their journey, and part of the book takes place in Orkney. In linking up with Orkney Library, we were able to invite the author to visit us!

Barbara read some of the book to us, tested our Viking knowledge (she declared us to be Viking experts!) and also gave us an insight into the writing and publishing process. She was very impressed with our questions and ideas, she even tweeted about our reflective reading covers as she loved our artwork! It was fantastic to meet the author behind our class novel and we are now looking at her other books to see what we could read next!

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