All posts by Mrs Smith
Alex Ellis-Roswell’s walk around Britain for the RNLI reaches Aith!
All pupils at Aith JHS loved chatting to Alex this morning. When he met Primary and Early Years pupils they asked him lots of interesting questions including how many pairs of shoes he has gone through on his journey so far (8!). There was gasps from the audience when they found out he hasn’t been home for Christmas whilst undertaking his marathon journey. So far he has been walking for 3 years and estimates he has another year to go – Good luck Alex! The lifeboat is very important to us, very best wishes on the rest of your journey.
Walls and district Brownie Jarl squad Visit Aith JHS
Don’t they just look fantastic in their Viking finery? 
Fantastic singing and a skilful demonstration of the cup-song too
Angela showed us the original Jarl shield from 1987. She was the Jarl the following year, perhaps Ruby might follow in her mum’s footsteps one day.
30 Years on and still going strong, Three Cheers for the Walls Up-Helly-Aa!
Chinese Calligraphy
Primary 4/5/6 really enjoyed learning about the art of Chinese calligraphy with Wenting today.
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We found out that some very famous Western artists like Matisse and Picasso said aspects of their work had been influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Picasso was also reputed to say that if he had been born in China he would have been a calligrapher rather than a painter.
We used special paper which needed only water on the brush to write – we had to take the pictures quickly though before the writing disappeared!
Pick’n’Mix
We have been experimenting with a new way of doing homework where the pupils have more choice in deciding which homework tasks would be most beneficial to them. Some of the options are best done little but often whilst other tasks take a bit longer so you might just choose one of this type to do during the week to fit around the other clubs and activities you enjoy doing. Here is a sample of some of our ‘weekly treat’ tasks the pupils have chosen so far, I am very impressed with the time and effort they have put into these tasks. Well done P4/5/6!
We have seen some ‘Brilliant Baking’, Terrific ‘Travel Bug’ journey planning, Smashing Roman shields, Magnificent Maths posters, Fantastic play-scripts and a Roman letter translated into Latin – wowzers!
Roman Sandals
Roman soldier’s sandals were called caligae (cal-igg-eye). They were designed to bend easily so soldiers could fight, march and run. Primary four made their own versions with Ms Fraser. 
They are very eye catching and rather stylish but we decided perhaps ours are best suited for indoor wear!
The 150th anniversary of the voyage of ‘The Diana’
Primary 4 – 7 visited the Museum and archives to find out more about what happened to the Victorian whaling ship ‘Diana’. Kirsty Clark led a hands-on workshop on what it was like at the Whaling in Victorian times and Mark and Brian Smith shared interesting information stored in the archives. We had a really interesting and informative visit, thank you all!
The Diana left for the Arctic in May 1866. At first the crew did well and they caught a small number of whales, but on the journey back the weather began to get worse and the ship was locked in a sea of frozen ice. It was trapped for over six months. Food was rationed, and fuel was in short supply; the sailors were driven to use anything they could get their hands on for food, even the wood from the ship’s masts and seal clubs.
By the time the ice had thawed and the Diana had finally landed in the Shetland Isles, 13 men were dead including Captain Gravill, the captain of the ship. A detailed log was written by the ship’s surgeon, Dr Charles Edward Smith, after the death of Captain Gravill.
We have entered a play in the Drama Festival which tells the story of the crew, many of which were Shetlanders. Some of the crew are our ancestors.
The play was written and directed by Marsali Taylor, based on the information in Dr Smith’s log entries. Dr Smith’s brother, Frederick Smith was mayor of West Ham and after hearing the tragic story of the Diana’s crew, he paid for a red marble drinking fountain to be erected on Victoria Pier in Lerwick.The memorial reads “The Providential Return of the S Whaler ‘Diana’ of Hull 1866-7”.
All roads lead to Rome!
After researching how the Romans built roads we built our own to demonstrate the layers of construction involved – with one key difference – ours are edible!
The smuck experiment
Scienterrific!
