Secondary pupils from MYJHS  visited the newly opened Spaceport at Saxavord, Unst.

The day started with a presentation from RFA (Rocket Factory Augsburg) about what the centre is hoping to achieve and about careers in the space industry.  RFA stressed that it was not all about scientist and engineers, but also the need for coders, accountants and support staff.

The rest of the event was split into four activities:

1. a trip along some very bumpy and uneven roads to the launch site.  Here we were driven around the site, looking at the old World War 2 structure, in amongst the modern technology.  The site is still very much a building site with only launch pad 1 built. .

2. to build, using newspaper and masking tape a launch cradle and then the largest rocket that could be supported by the cradle.  Two of the rockets where nearly two metres high.

3. using Lego Mindstorm robots.  The students had to program their robot to orbit a picture of the Earth, thus simulating a satellite.  Once they had mastered that, their second task was to orbit the Earth, locate a Lego structure pretending to be a satellite, hook it in the robot’s grab and return to earth.

4.  used Lego Mindstorms, in this challenge they had to design, and build a robot that could travel a course of three metres, turn once it reach a line and then return to the start.  The students had a range of different sensors that they could use, including one that detected colour and one for distance.  Using the various sensors they were able to code the robots to turn on reach the 3 metre line.

Our students represented the school well, asking questions, showing great team work stills and completing all the tasks and challenges ask of them.  Well done to them all and we hope that one of two of them have been inspired by the day to seek a career in space at Saxavord in the future.

Big thanks to Emma Spence DYW Co-ordinator for organising this trip.

On Monday 10 June 2024 we had an assembly to share learning and achievements.

The assembly began with our Junior Road Safety Officers sharing their presentation on how to travel safely  to school on the bus.  Their key messages were: wait safely, don’t disturb the driver, take your seat and always wear your seat belt.

Second item saw the school celebrating our Home Economic pupils achieving their Elementary Food Hygiene Certificate.   Huge congratulations to them.

Final item came from our Pupil Council – they shared their creative poster promoting safe use of the schools laptops.

UNCRC Rights: 12 – Respect for children’s views;  13 – Sharing thoughts freely; 29 – Aims of education

School Values – ISLAND- Learning, Aspirational, Developing

Bookbug week ran this year from 13–19 May 2024.  This years theme is “Bookbug says Hello!”, celebrating the many languages spoken by families across Scotland.

We excitedly said our “Hellos!” to Bookbug during two events held in our school, on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.

On Tuesday, we held a Big Bookbug session with pre-school, Nursery and Lower Primary pupils, involving listening to a story, playing games and singing.  This was followed on Thursday by our Mini Bookbug session with nursery pupils, listening, playing and singing, held outside in the sunshine.

Curious for more about Bookbug? Tammie in the library is your go-to person for all things Bookbug-related.

On Wednesday 8 May 2024, the school hosted our annual YPI final – The Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI), involving S3 from Mid Yell and Baltasound Junior High Schools.

YPI is an initiative managed and funded (with contributions from schools and partner organisations) by The Wood Foundation. The initiative was launched in 2008 and involves schools all over Scotland.  “YPI fits our school values of “Learning at the Heart of our ISLAND’.  It helps to build a culture and puts the values into action – Inclusive, Supportive, Learning, Aspirational, Nurturing and Developing.

This year, there were a total of five teams – three from Mid Yell and two from Baltasound, each choosing a social issue and then selecting a Shetland based charity to support. This year, the charities represented were: The Compass Centre; Ability Shetland; Space2Face Shetland; Mind Your Head; and Shetland Bereavement Support Service.  The level of work and commitment of all the teams in engaging with and researching their chosen charity was evident to all and all the teams delivered presentations of a very high standard.  All teams spoke passionately, raising awareness of each charity of the vital role they play in supporting Shetland community.  All described how completing this project had developed their wider skills, including: confidence, taking initiative, communication, independence, responsibility and supporting each other.  These greatly impressed the judges who had a tough task in deciding who would win the final and have the opportunity of presenting a cheque for £3000 to their charity.

After careful consideration, the judging panel selected the Mid Yell JH team who had presented on behalf of Shetland Bereavement Support Service: Honey Henderson, Chloe Kennedy, Aaron Kennerly and Hunter Coutts.

Yesterday our S3 class hosted our Annual Senior Citizens Event.  This event started with some musical performances and followed by a Christmas feast, served up by the S3 pupils.

S3 pupils had to organise the event – setting up tables, welcoming guests, serving, raffle calling and cleaning up after the event.

A big thank you goes out to:  the wonderful audience, canteen staff and our S3 pupils.

On Friday 1 December 2023 we had a visit from Dogs Against Drugs, Michael and Axel (the dog).  They told us about their roles in drugs detection and shared details about their new website.

Dogs Against Drugs – Detecting and Deterring Drugs in Shetland

On Wednesday we held an assembly during which pupils shared their learning and we celebrated pupil successes.

Lower Primary shared their learning about climate change and what we can all do to reduce our impact.

Key messages they shared with us all include:  switch off lights when you leave a room, switch off devices not being used, plant more trees, don’t cut down trees.

Celebrating Sporting Success

Annual pool, badminton and chess competitions are run for lower and upper primary classes and we celebrated their success.  We also celebrated our successful S2 badminton players who won at the Shetland Schools Competition last week.

On Wednesday 8 November 2023, S2 pupils travelled to Lerwick to visit the Lerwick Power station & LEF.

During our visits we: had guided tours, learned more about electricity, engineering and fabrication; how important they are to our local economy; learned about health & safety issues, about job roles, skills and careers routes

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Our S1 pupils were lucky to have Scottish Rugby coach pop along the school to develop their rugby skills.  All pupils were very enthused by the experience.

Our thanks go to Active Schools for organising the visit.