A Connected community of …. volleyball players!

Well done and thank you to everyone who took part in our staff, parents and senior pupils volleyball game. The number of participants may have been higher but for some challenging weather conditions! Very well played to everyone who took to the court to play – a lovely way of bringing people together and a game played with smiles on faces and in great spirit!

A big thank you to Ms. Cheyne for organising the whole game – talks of a rematch are already underway … Watch this space!

     Bats about Bats 

Over the last few months there have been quite a few sightings of Bats in Whalsay.  Several of the pupils have seen (and heard them).  Ms Irvine saw two bats at Hamister and even managed to get a smudgy photo of one as it fled past her.

Mrs Simpson’s S2 class were full of questions that she couldn’t answer so she decided to invite our local Bat expert, Mr Pete Gulliver, to visit the class.

Pete came into school on 3 December and gave a fascinating talk and slide show.   He has tracked and monitored bats for years and often cares for injured or exhausted bats.  He had amazing footage of a bat flying around his hallway at home.  He took in the equipment he uses to listen to bats and played audio clips, explaining how to distinguish between the different species.  In one sound clip there were 4 different species of bat identified at one time.  What shocked everybody was that this sound clip came from Skerries a couple of months ago!

Bella Jamieson, who only recently took up crocheting, had made a beautiful bat (without a pattern!) as a thank you gift.  Bella presented this to Pete on behalf of the whole class.

Pete messaged later to say “..the pupils were wonderful and very attentive.  Please make a special point of thanking Bella for my beautiful gift, I am thrilled with it and am going to name it “Pip”.

The feedback from the pupils was very good.  Several said they were now much more interested in seeing a bat and knew what to look out for and when.   One pupil stated they thought Mr Gulliver was very kind to be devoting so much time and effort into caring for bats and helping release injured ones back into the wild. Everybody left the talk much more informed and enthusiastic about bats so the whole class would like to say a HUGE

thank you again to Pete.

Last week saw our Secondary pupils take part in a well contested and highly skilful Interhouse basketball competition.

A big thanks to the Team Captains for taking Responsibility for the organisation of their teams and to Ms. Cheyne for leading the event.

I write this blog post as a very proud Head Teacher having had the pleasure of being involved in a day of learning which shone a light on the diverse range of learning, volunteering and employment opportunities available here in Whalsay.

On Thursday, we had P7, S1, S2, S3 and S4 pupils visit 28 stations that were occupied by different businesses and service providers who operate within the isle. Witnessing all of our exhibitors share their passions for their professions and contributions to community life, engage with our pupils and make connections through points of mutual interest was wonderful to observe. Discussions ranged from subject interests and specialisms to career pathways to what is involved in different roles within healthcare and leisure, renewable energies, transport, fishing and a whole host of other opportunities within the isle.

The event embodied what we are always striving for as a school – To be a Connected Community of Learners who take opportunities to learn from one another and support one another.

This event would not have been possible but for a lot of time, dedication and effort from multiple organisers behind the scenes. To Mrs. Hamilton, our Business Management and ASN teacher, a very sincere thank you for making and developing many connections with local businesses. To Emily van Tonder, Emma Chittick and the team at Developing the Young Workforce, a very sincere thank you for your skills and expertise in coordinating and communicating with multiple parties to ensure the day ran smoothly. A big congratulations to our pupils for asking lots of questions and being keen to learn about opportunities that may play a prominent part in their future after school. To our staff here at the school, who supported with logistics and arrangements as well as representing the school as a potential place of employment in the future, a sincere thank you.

Finally, to all our exhibitors, a very sincere thank you for your time and efforts for showcasing your work in various capacities. It has inspired lots of great conversations in school today and prompted plenty of thinking and reflection amongst our pupils and staff.

Screen Free Zone – Secondary break times

Health and Creativity – Following discussions with parents and pupils, we are introducing a ‘screen free’ zone for Secondary pupils for first break (10:35 – 10:50)

Pupils are welcome to the Music classroom on the ground floor where pupils can read, draw, play board games etc as an alternative to being on screens.

Supervision for the area will be rotated between different staff volunteers.

Thanks (again!) to Miss O’Dwyer for kindly creating the digital poster to raise awareness of this initiative.

Responsibility – Taking responsibility for our learning and our homework.

At the request of pupils and parents, we have launched an after school Homework club.

The Homework club will run on Wednesday afternoons from 3:45 – 4:45 in the Music room.

Different staff members will be supervising on different weeks and will provide support with learning as much as is possible but this may not be in a specialist subject area.

Sincere thanks to Ms. O’Dwyer for creating the poster below:

Homework Club

There is no club running this week (Wednesday 26th November) due to the S3 Parents Evening.

Thank you to Mrs.Carr for organising a litter pick in and around the school grounds – both Primary and Secondary areas.

Well done to the pupils for taking Responsibility for making sure that our school is looking its best!

S1 class have started a new block of gymnastics. In the above lesson pupils were given pictures of Olympic Standard gymnasts and had to select a couple of the SALS that they believed fit best to “what it’s important for a gymnast”. We gathered some of them skills and created our SC and LI. This lesson focused on balance and control

. The class had time to work on individual balances and then air balances. (Where we played competitive balance bingo)! We then spoke about if we transferred that into a group balance – talking about communication and trust! And put some of the skills together in group balance work.

Pupils then needed to put the group balance into a routine! Lots of fun and great skills and discussion.

Pupils in S3, accompanied by Mrs.Carr and Mr. Healy, visited Market House in Lerwick for a charity showcase event as part of their Youth Philanthropy Initiative studies. Engagement in the YPI program allows our pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding  of different social issues that impact the quality of life for people in Shetland.

There were a number of different Shetland charities in attendance including:

The Shetland Befriending Scheme

Shetland Bereavement Support

Dogs against Drugs

Clan Cancer Support

Shetland Foodbank

Ability Shetland

OPEN Project

Royal Voluntary Service

McMillan Cancer Support

Alzheimer Scotland

Fisherman’s Mission

This afternoon we held our draw and create together event which was kindly hosted by Mrs.Carr.

What a lovely event to bring different generations of families together in the spirit of art and creativity. Some highly skilled artists were creating drawings of the local pelagic boats, coastline and local scenery.

Thank you to all pupils, parents and staff who attended and supported. Continuing to have our community involved in school life means a lot to all of us.

Mr. Healy