Our Guardians of the Garden worked hard to produce two entries in the Gardening Scotland Festival. We are very grateful to Nicki Sinclair, Karen Yearsley, Andrew Sinclair and Drew Sinclair for all their help with the project. Both entries were awarded silver medals – very well deserved.
Thank you to all our families and friends who came to our Carol Concert at the Church last night, it was lovely to see so many of you there. We think you’ll agree that the children looked and sounded super. It was great to hear our fiddle group, guitarists and hand bell ringers performing so well.
An amazing grand total of £105.70 was collected for the Christmas Day lunch being organised for people who would otherwise be on their own at Christmas – thank you so much to everyone who contributed, your generosity is greatly appreciated.
News from the slopes….(huge thanks to Karen for keeping us updated)
Friday ….
Last day today. Very sad.
Fuelled up by yet another fantastic breakfast (bacon rolls). We had the fun (?) task of packing, tidying the rooms and chalets and stripping beds. The bags looks a little less tidy than they did on arrival, but with a bit of brute force, everything got squeezed in!
Then it was off to the Lecht again.. Unfortunately, there are no pictures from today as iPhones appear not to like the cold, and mine went on strike!
It was a day of consolidation for everyone.
Jack, Blake and Jake were on the kestrel and osprey, perfecting their turns. They looked very competent on the slopes and were beginning to get a bit faster, which is a sign of confidence. They headed over to the kestrel later for the wacky races.
Rachel was also on the osprey and kestrel today with her group and they were perfecting their plough parallel turns. These turns make it easier and quicker to get down the slopes. They also skied in the wacky races.
Struan’s group had a few few warm up runs on the osprey and then spent the morning on the eagle. In the afternoon, they ventured over to the steeper slopes of the Grouse and the Snowy Owl. Struan finally cracked parallel turns but wiped out on the Snowy Owl! Then it was over to the Kestrel for the wacky races.
Karen and David spent a very happy afternoon skiing on various slopes. With no queues it was fairly constant skiing, which was brilliant. The snow was good today, but the flat light made it quite hard to see exactly what the surface of the runs was like, which made it more challenging, especially at speed!
Once we got back to the centre, everyone had to get their boot and helmets return, dry a pair of skis and get changed. The it was onto the buses. Blackford and Aberuthven shared the small bus, which was quite posh, very comfortable and had less singing that the big bus!
Photos from Thursday:
Thursday morning phone call – Everyone is still having a great time – having fun and making new friends. There has been a good covering of snow overnight so conditions should be good today, the group expect to be going back up the Lecht.
Wednesday…It was a very different day today up a the Lecht. Much much colder and snowy. It had been very windy during the night so a lot of the surface snow had been blown off leaving the slopes very icy. It did make it harder for the kids, but skiing on ice is a necessary skill for Scottish skiers. Blake, Jack and Jake also skied the kestrel today. Everyone coped well with the conditions .. So well done team!
If you’re not familiar with the Lecht, the map below will show you where we have been
So, what were we up to on Tuesday?
After a hearty breakfast of cereal, sausages and French toast, sandwich making began in earnest. There were some interesting sandwiches!
Then it was into the minibuses for a half hour drive up to the Lecht.
Jack, Jake and Blake spent the day mastering the tows and leaning how to snowplough, how to stop and how to do snowplough turns. All 3 did really well. They were on the Robin and wren slopes. It was lovely to see them becoming more and more confident as the day went on and picking up a wee bit of speed.
Rachel’s group spent the day perfecting their turns and making sure everyone was in control. They looked like they were having a lot of fun and plenty of games. It looks like they might be heading over the kestrel tomorrow. Their confidence has really grown too.
Struan’s group spent the morning working on turns and playing games and then headed over to the kestrel to practice controlled stopping and making sure everyone was confident on the pomas. They then had a few runs down the osprey where they practiced snow plough turns, side slipping and the very beginnings of parallel skiing. Confidence is running high in this group!
Karen and David managed a few sneaky runs and enjoyed swinging about on the chairlift!
(click on photos to enlarge them)
Once we got back to the centre everyone had a swim to relax their muscles and to make sure they washed!
Dinner time was a relief for all our hungry skiers and then, having eaten a mountain of pasta they still managed to squeeze in goodies from the tuck shop. There was then a game .. A sort of signature scavenger hunt and then our nightly explore session where Freddie taught us a cool new song and one of the kitchen staff interviewed a jam jar!
After a hearty supper, it was time for bed and all is quiet!
Snow is forecast for tomorrow so we are hoping for some good runs at the Lecht again.
All kids are happy and very proud of their achievements. They are also … Asleep!
As you can see all is well and everyone is happy.
They have been great and they are all trying really hard and progressing well.
These were our dry slope pics from Monday. For the beginners this was a chance to get to grips with their skis and see what it felt like to move. For the skiers it was a wee refresher!
The children looked great in their party clothes today. There has been lots of games, dancing (including traditional Scottish dancing), and party food – everyone had a ball!
We think you’ll agree that our pupils put on a great performance at our Carol Concert. Thank you to everyone who came along to support us and to everyone who donated to Kobuin Primary School – £112.48 was raised from the collection – thank you!
The guitar, fiddle and hand bell ringers were great, many thanks to Mr Bulley, Mr Thorpe, Mrs Yearsley and Mrs Paton for their teaching and patience and for giving the pupils the opportunity to perform with such confidence.
P1-4 were a delight to watch in their nativity ‘It’s a Baby’ – a lovely performance and P5-7 were full of enthusiasm in their singing. Well done all of you!
More success for our football team at the last festival of this session. Teams from Aberuthven, Dunning, Braco, Muthill and The Community School of Auchterarder took part and once again Blackford won – well done team! St Johnstone Football Club had arranged for the Scottish Cup to be shown to pupils at the end of the fesitival and our winning team had their photo taken with it.
The school’s Gala Concert show The Peace Child was the theme for an amazing float created by three Parent Council members, helped by some of our pupils. We think you’ll agree they were worthy winners in the Gala Float parade. Thank you for providing our pupils with a wonderful opportunity, and well done on taking first place! The children all entered into the spirit on the day and looked fabulous.
There was a great turn out for Blackford is Brighter litter pick on Saturday- followed by a mega tidy up of our sensory garden – thank you to all families who helped out. We are very much looking forward to seeing the transformation of the area next term, funded by grants obtained by the Parent Council.
The school football team took first place in a recent tournament at the Strathearn Community Campus, with five teams in their section. The winning place was not decided until the last match – a very tense time for players and coach! Well done to the whole team – a brilliant result – and thank you to Martin Shankland, team coach, and Roz Finlay for transporting and accompanying the team on the day.
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