May 15, 2025
by Miss Hutchison
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Celebration of STEM Event

Well done to the Whalsay Primary team for their prize at the Celebration in STEM event today at the Shetland Museum! They were runners up for their Climate Smarter model.

The pupils had to present their Climate Smarter model that they had prepared in class last term. They prepared a small presentation for the judges then had to answer questions about their model and their learning.

They had a brilliant day at the Celebration of STEM event. We spent the morning doing various STEM challenges at different stations. This was such a fun for the pupils and there was a lot brilliant learning, problem solving and teamwork going on!

The pupils got to make model cars and helicopters, drive in a forklift simulator, steer boats and make circuits! We also got to make model boats with Lego.

It was brilliant to have the secondary and primary teams together! They all had a good fun on the ferry back home making helicopters.

Well done again to all of the bairns! What a super day it has been.

April 28, 2025
by Mrs Polson
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Term 4 – Primary One – First Week

Pupils in primary 1/2 were happy to see their friends after the Easter break and soon got busy playing together in class.

The class has been learning about fractions – folding different shapes of paper in half, colouring and painting equal parts. Pupils used their playdough to make cookies and cut them in half. Harry suggested using the pieces of folded paper to make comics which led to variety of stories being created.

Later in the week the class helped with the Voar Redd Up. They were responsible for picking up litter in the playpark. Luckily there was time for a play at the end. Well done everyone!

April 28, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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Castle CSI – Glasgow Science Centre

Last Friday we had a visit from the team at Glasgow Science Centre. We watched an interactive assembly where we learned all about the features of castles and why they were important. We found out about their features and how the were built, defended and attacked.

Following our assembly the Glasgow Science Centre team delivered workshops where the pupils were able to take part in a series of activities to investigate real bones that were discovered within the grounds of Stirling Castle. Our investigations allowed us to discover more about the people who had died, where they were from and if they were male or female. We were also able to determine what the cause of death was likely to be and even what their occupation may have been.

It was super to see the children engaged in the activities, thanks to the Glasgow Science Centre team for travelling to see us.

March 21, 2025
by Mrs Irvine
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40 years of Red Nose Day

P3/4 have had a retro 1980s day to raise money for Comic Relief as it is 40 years since the campaign began.

This week we have been using 1980s cartoons to inspire our writing and developing designs for our very own Inspector Gadget suit!

We looked back at he Doomsday Project completed by P5 and P6 in Whalsay Primary in 1985 and used it to discuss some differences that had occurred in the isle in the last 40 years. The children have enjoyed playing some of the playground games mentioned in the project during PE and outdoor time this week.

March 7, 2025
by Mrs Polson
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P1/2 World Book Week

Primary 1/2 have had a busy week celebrating books.

They enjoyed meeting the author Ann Marie Anderson. She read her latest book “Hirda the Oorick.” Some of the class created characters to help Hirda gadder up bruck.

Anne shared books written in Doric with the class. She read “Nae Place Like Hame?” The class thought this story was funny. There are lots of words in Doric that are different from Whalsay words. Great reading Anne.

Eva brought in another book written by Ann Marie Anderson called “Da Fisherman’s Wife.” She explained how it was her auntie Jo who illustrated this book. Well done Eva.

Ruby read one of her favourite books called “Peekaboo Sun” and look there she is dressed up as the sun for World Book Day! Great reading Ruby.

On World Book Day we had so many book characters in our class. A big thank you to secondary one and primary 6/7 who read books with us.

March 6, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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P6/7 World Book Week

With World Book day on Thursday the 6th March, Primary 6/7 have been exploring the world of books.

We have been inspired to by MC Grammar and created our own raps based on a novel by Julia Donaldson. We have really enjoyed sharing these raps with the children in P1/2.

Over the week we have been tuning in to authors to find out what inspires them when they are creating stories.

It was lovely to have parents and family in to join us for our library session on Wednesday.

But the biggest surprise was when the children arrived to school as their favourite characters from books. Miss Paterson was most surprised by the arrival of minions instead of her P7 pupils! Also including a set of terrible triplets and a scary shark. All of the children in class looked great. 🙂

Well done boys and girls and I hope this has helped to inspire you to read more or create your own books.

March 6, 2025
by Mrs Irvine
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Happy World Book Day from P3/4

P3/4 have had a busy couple of days celebrating World Book Day.

Yesterday Ann Marie Anderson came to visit us to read her new book Hirda the Oorick. The children enjoyed hearing the story and learning new dialect words. P3/4 drew pictures of Hirda with new characters they thought would be good at picking up bruck! Our work is on display in the primary corridor.

Thank you to the parents who came in yesterday for our library session. There were activities to complete and lots of books to explore.

Today we were treated to a Harry Potter themed science show in the primary canteen. Mrs Constable and Mrs Simpson put on a fantastic show and kindly let us have some of their experiments to try in class. The levitating feather and the Marauders Map were exciting to play with!

Secondary 2 came to read to us today as part of the paired reading activities that are ongoing in the school. It was lovely to see friends and relations sharing stories in the class and in the library.

In class we have been thinking about our favourite places to read, completing a book scavenger hunt and character top trumps game. It has been a really enjoyable day!

March 3, 2025
by Miss Nairn
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P3/4 Co-op Group Lessons

Part of our topic this term has been all about our place in the world – Shetland and Whalsay.

Our co-operative groups chose an area to research in depth – some chose knitting, some looked at music in Shetland, the sports we play, and others chose to look at the fishing boats we have.

Each group had to spend time gathering information about their chosen area, and to make a presentation to the rest of the class. We became the teachers! We gave our presentations and prepared some work/ activities to check that our pupils had been listening carefully! Once the presentations were complete, each group answered any questions and then gave out the follow up work. As teachers we had to help the pupils who needed it, and of course, we had to correct it at the end!

February 7, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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Sumdog Competition

This week Sumdog were hosting a competition across Shetland.

We were very please to find out that P6/7 reached the top of the leaderboard.

In addition we had 3 students in top ten positions.

Libby 1st

Cleo 4th

Benjamin 7th

A huge well done to all the P6/7 pupils on their success.

February 5, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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P6/7 Writing Success

It has been a great week for writing in P6/7. On Tuesday we made it into the 100% club.

All of the children met the success criteria for writing on Tuesday and as a result we have reached 100% on our run chart. The chart tracks our progress in writing over the term.

As a reward the children have decided to wear there pyjamas to school. This will take place tomorrow, Thursday 6th February.

Well done P6/7.

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