At Shapinsay School we have a strange tradition of soaking our leavers when they don’t expect it. This year was no exception, and our P7s and Caroline were surprised by everyone at the end of the day.

Well done for being such good sports!

Some of the older children went to the STEM challenge day in Kirkwall. They had to build a vehicle to lay a subsea cable, give a presentation about their learning in STEM subjects and take part in various challenged.

The Shapinsay Science Squad were delighted to be awarded the runners up prize for the STEM challenges.

We went to Kirkwall and met with the children from Rousay, North Walls, Eday, North Ronaldsay and Papay. We took part in rugby, various sports and met Ola the Orca who is the mascot for the 2025 Island Games.

As part of our science topic of forces, we have been learning about air resistance and water resistance. Both are examples of friction, which is a force that slows things down.

To test out air resistance we created parachutes to allow eggs to be dropped from the stage. We found that larger parachutes created more air resistance, therefore the eggs dropped slower.

Then we dropped different shapes into water to test water resistance. We found that shapes with a larger surface area took longer to drop because there was more water resistance. Pointy shapes are more streamlined so have less water resistance.

This term we are learning about David Balfour and the impact he had on Shapinsay. He built Balfour Castle in 1847-1848, but he did a lot more to improve Shapinsay. We can still see a lot of the things he did today, including Shapinsay’s square fields.

Sheila Garson (a local historian and author) came in to talk to us about him, and about how Shapinsay has changed since David Balfour’s time.

Then we went to the Shapinsay Heritage Centre where we looked at lots of evidence from the Victorian times. We had been learning about primary sources of evidence and it was great to see them in person.

We also went to Balfour Castle, where we even saw some things from David Balfour’s time in the castle.

We are delighted that we have achieved our Silver Rights Respecting Schools Banner.

https://www.orkney.gov.uk/latest-news/shapinsay-named-a-unicef-silver-rights-respecting-school/ 

In Science this term we are learning about forces.

So far we have learned that forces can be a push or a pull. We have also learned about friction. The older children have learned how to use a newton meter to measure force.

Here are some photos of our experimenting:

Here are some photos of the Christmas events from this year

We sang at the Christmas tree lighting, and P7s switched on the lights.

We had Christmas lunch with the Lunch Club, and then sang for them in the Clubrooms afterwards.

We had a couple of trips, with the Nursery children going to soft play and the Primary children meeting with the children from Rousay School for a session on the inflatables and to watch Paddington in Peru at the Pickaquoy Centre.

The Nursery children have had fun printing their own wrapping paper.

In Science this term the primary children have been learning about Sound. Here are some photos of what the children have been doing

The children learned that you can see sound vibrations in action, using rice and musical instruments.

The children learned how sound travels in waves. They experimented with seeing whether sound travels best through solids, liquids or gases.

The children learned about pitch.

Barbara Balcombe came in to teach the children about hearing loss and what can help people with hearing loss. The children looked at some different devices and learned some signs.

As part of our topic about France, we tried some French food. We had to ask for what we wanted in French, and then say whether we liked it or didn’t like it. We used “je voudrais” to ask for our food, and “j’aime” or “je n’aime pas” to say whether we liked it.