Category Archives: School

community, School, visitors

Cullivoe Up Helly Aa

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On Friday 24th February we met at the school at nine and got our shields so we were ready to meet the Jarl squad. Then we got the bus up to the hall and met up with the Jarl squad and got to see the galley, we got our photo taken with the galley.

After a while we got in the galley and went down the hill to the Jamison’s garage. 

This is when some of us had to come off because there were other children there wanting a turn in the galley, from there we went to the school.

There were lots of photos taken here with the Jarl Squad. The community came in for a cup of tea, coffee or juice and a biscuit.    

After that we got to hold/put on the jarl squad things like helmets, shields and axes.         

The jarl squad very kindly handed around creme eggs to all the children and some adults if they were lucky. The Jarl squad sang their songs and danced a little which was good before they went visiting.

When they left the school, we practised our squad to make sure everything went smoothly for the performance at night. We also played Chinese ladders which is when you get a partner and sit foot to foot all in a line with spaces between each pair (it looks like a ladder) you all get numbered then you have to run up the ladder from your space, round the back and end up back in your space. The Jarl squad came back and we got a photo outside with the jarl squad.

Then we had dinner with the Jarl squad, it was delicious!! When we were waiting for our pudding the Jarl squad started singing and had us join in so we all sang and danced, (we danced on our chairs at one point)

Once we finished our dinner we went home at 2 o’clock for a rest and we came back at 7 o’ clock to get on the bus to go to the procession. We went back to the school to get changed then we preformed our squad at the school. After that we got the bus up to the hall to perform our squad there. When we were finished we got changed into our party clothes and went through to the hall to watch the rest of the squads. We all had a great night!

 

By Jasmine, Amanda and Abbie

 

School

OutRight Certificate!

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We took part in the UNICEF OutRight campaign 2016 at the end of last year.

We also sent Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary for the UK, a letter explaining about our learning on the refugee crisis and how it effects their rights.

We received a letter from the UNICEF UK Senior Campaign Adviser.

The letter said well done on our learning and thank you for taking part in the UNICEF OutRight Campaign 2016.  They said that hundreds of people send letters, pictures and videos everyday of them learning about The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They also sent a certificate for us that can be seen on our achievements wall.

 

School

Climate Change

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Here is Ben, Amanda, Poppy and Ollie’s news report on coastal erosion in the Kiribati Islands.

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Jessica, Dylan, Ruby, Dean and Lee made their news report around Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in 2013.

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Jasmine, Katy, Tali, Sabienne and Thomasina made their news report on how rising sea levels are affecting Bangladesh.

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Finally, here is Emma, Bethany, James, Abbie (camerawoman) and Monica’s news report on the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa.

 

 

School, visitors

Dogs Against Drugs

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This afternoon Michael Coutts came into school to talk to us about Dogs Against Drugs. They are here to help our community and keep us safe.

There are 2 dog handlers in Shetland and they have 4 drugs dogs between them. They have 2 working dogs (Blade and Thor) and 2 training dogs – Axel and Odin who is still just 8 months old. They start training the dogs when they are 1 year old. Michael had a dog work as old as 9 and a half years old. They use Labradors or Springer spaniels as their noses are bread to be better. Did you know that dogs have 30x better smell than humans?

They take the dogs to the airports and the ferry terminal – anywhere where people can come into Shetland. As well as searching buses, cars, trucks, houses, etc. The dogs aren’t just used to find drugs but are used as a deterrent.

We saw a clip of Thor working and how he shows his handlers that he has found something – they stand and wag their tails.

The dogs and their handlers have to go south every year for assessments.

Michael showed us his uniform and let us try it on. He showed us his baton and let us all hold it.  He also showed us his handcuffs and let us try them on too but they were too big and our hands were able to come out as they are designed for adults. So he had Louise try them on!

Michael had taken his dog Thor up with him so we all went outside to see him. We stood in a big circle and Michael took him round for us to pet him. He was lovely and very excited to see us. Michael then took out a ball for Thor to play with as they use this as a reward. So because he was good and let us all pet him he got to play with the ball for a bit. Michael had him sit and wait before throwing the ball up into the air. Thor then caught the ball in his mouth!

Michael very kindly gave us key rings at the end that had their website on it. Here is a link to the Dogs against drugs website if you want to have a look at the dogs in Shetland: http://www.dogsagainstdrugs.co.uk/the-dogs

School

Thank you Mr Spence

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As you are probably all aware we have been very lucky to have Mr Spence working with us for the last 5 weeks as part of his PDGE course. His focus was with second level but he has enjoyed being involved with the whole school. He has been involved in the planning and delivering of numeracy and literacy lessons as well as taking a lead role in teaching primary 4-7 about climate change. We have really enjoyed having him with us and can’t believe how fast these last 5 weeks have gone. We are sad to see him go. We wish him all the very best in his next teaching placement and in his future teaching career! Thank you very much for everything you have done Mr Spence!

 

School

Pancake Day

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Yesterday was Pancake day or also named Shrove Tuesday…..

Shrove Tuesday is the day when we eat pancakes. This is the last day before the Christian festival of Lent. In olden days Christians did not eat many foods such as milk, eggs and fats during Lent.

They did not waste food so before Lent began, they had a feast using all the food that would go bad before they could eat it again. Pancakes were a dish that used up the foods by adding some flour.

Lent is the 40 days before Easter – We don’t count Sunday’s though. At this time, our days get longer and it is the start of Spring Time.

Lent begins the day after Pancake Day and the last day ends with Palm Sunday. This is the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and people waved palm leaves at him and laid them at his feet. Jesus went to the desert for 40 days and nights. He didn’t have any food or water. The devil came and tried to make Jesus eat and drink and made Jesus lots of promises but Jesus said NO!

Lent is a time when Christians give up something special like chocolate. This reminds them when Jesus went into the desert and gave up food.

There are many special days during Lent leading up to Easter. Easter is the most important of all Christian festivals. Lent is a time when Christians prepare for Easter and think of Jesus.

If you were to give up something for Lent what would it be? We had a great discussion of lots of things we could give up.

So yesterday afternoon we made pancakes and our school cook Jem made us pancakes for lunch too so we were very lucky to have pancakes twice!

We got to measure out all the ingredients:

  • 200g of flour
  • Tablespoon of sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • Milk

Once we measured out all the ingredients we had to mix this together to make the pancake batter. After we got all the lumps out of it we spooned this into the pan to make little individual pancakes to cook them. We all had the chance to flip the pancakes and even tried to flip pancakes from one frying pan to another. It was great fun and there was lots of laughter!

Once the pancakes were cooked we each got to eat one and they were tasty!

community, School

Happy Up Helly Aa Day

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From grand old Viking centuries Up-Helly-Aa has come,                   Then light the torch and form the march, and sound the rolling drum: And wake the mighty memories of heroes that are dumb;                  The waves are rolling on.

Hapy Up Helly Aa Day!!! We hope you are all as excited as we are today!

3 cheers for Up Helly Aa!!

community, School

Up Helly Aa Shields

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Each year we design a shield for Up Helly Aa because on Up Helly Aa day we all hold a shield with one of our designs on the front. In order to get this we all had a go at designing our own one before voting on which one we like the best. Most people do something that the jarl likes so we had a brainstorming session to get our artistic juices flowing.  (A jarl is the leader of the group of Vikings) The Jarl this year was Mr. Lawson and he likes Celtic football club so most of us did something with green and white, some drew celtic designs which was very intricate. We all put in a lot of effort and they came out great as I’m sure you will agree with the photos!

This year, after a very close vote, Abbie won and she won last year too! Abbie’s was snakes with the Celtic symbol touching each of the snakes’ tongues.