Whalsay School – A Connected Community of Learners 

We are fortunate at Whalsay School to work with a number of different community partners to enhance our pupils’ learning experiences. Similar to our recent post which focused on the work of SDS, our collaboration with Youth and Employability Services greatly adds to our pupils’ learning experiences.

Our link Youth work officer, Sadie Simpson has been guiding pupils in working towards an award with The King’s Trust Achieve Program.

Young people taking part in Achieve are developing the skills and confidence they need to shape their futures. Through hands-on projects and group activities, they work towards personal development, improved wellbeing, and  stronger teamwork and communication skills.  The program helps them set goals, gain qualifications, and prepare for their next steps.

Over the past couple of weeks, pupils have been focusing on teamwork skills. The group took on challenges like building the tallest free-standing tower using only marshmallows and spaghetti, and the cup tower challenge where they had to stack and position cups using just strings tied to elastic bands.  Both activities got everyone thinking, communicating, and using their problem solving skills! Photos of the activities here:

As part of our continued focus on ensuring our school is a ‘Connected Community of Learners‘, I would like to highlight the vital role that Skills Development Scotland play in supporting and advising our pupils and families in the form of career information and guidance. Our link SDS officer is Katie Clubb who works closely with pupils and Miss Irvine as our Principal Teacher of Pupil Support. A few words from Katie below summarises the work that she does in our school on a regular basis:

I work with pupils to develop their own Career Management Skills and support them to make informed decisions about their future career path and highlight the range of career routes out there.  I do this through one-to-one appointments, group sessions and parents evenings.

I come up to school regularly, so look out for me if you want to come and speak or have any questions! Or speak with Miss Irvine if you’d like an appointment made for you.

Katie can also be contacted directly – katie.clubb@sds.co.uk

Our thanks to Katie for her ongoing dedication and hard work in supporting our pupils, parents and teachers as we look to make the most informed decisions for our young people and their futures.

Through our partnership with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), pupils in S3 and S4 were able to learn about different types of careers in the army; from medical to finance, engineering and logistics. Pupils enjoyed practical learning activities in map reading, physical training, code breaking and problem solving skills. Our pupils were well engaged throughout and have had follow up sessions with Miss Irvine in Personal and Social Education to connect their learning with the skills that we work on and develop in school on a day to day basis.

Sincere thanks to Emily van Tonder (DYW) and our visiting army team for a thought provoking, well delivered day of learning for our pupils. Photos of the activities here:

Our Academic Year is now well under way and what a delight it has been to welcome our pupils to school following the summer break.

New beginnings

Our S1 class have now formally made their move up to the Secondary School following a number of days of transition, lessons and activities last term.

With the new school year, we also have a number of new staff working in different departments of the school. We are delighted to have Mrs. Alison Shearer (Play support worker), Ms. Dione Pottinger (Learning Support in Nursery), Ms. Emily Robertson (Senior Practitioner in ELC), Ms. Chloe Cheyne (P.E. – Probationer) and Mrs. Kari Hamilton (Business Management – in addition to ASN Secondary) as part of our team.

Revised Mission

Following extensive consultation with pupils, parents and staff, we have updated our school’s mission to be a ‘Connected Community of Learners’. This recognises the power and strength of our community in Whalsay whilst also recognising the importance of being on a continued lifelong journey of learning. I would like to thank all staff, pupils and parents for contributing to our various school self-evaluation tasks at the end of last term.

Raising the profile of Reading in Secondary

One of the most powerful and important skills that we can continually practice and develop is reading with and to our young people. Developing our language skills helps us to understand, interpret and respond across a range of curriculum areas.

With the importance of reading in mind, Ms. Holzheimer has designed an exciting and engaging reading challenge for all pupils to take part in.

Part of the challenge is to read with an adult for 10 minutes every night. I would be grateful if you can support and engage with this challenge as a family. We will certainly be promoting the reading challenge very visibly in school!

To further support the development of the pupils reading skills, we are trialing a further initiative of ‘book in a bag’. This ensures that pupils always have a book accessible to them and teachers in other subjects may dedicate 5-10 mins of their lesson to reading to further instill the positive language development habits.

Celebrating pupil success

Last term, we had a group of pupils working with the Heritage Centre as part of our community engagement and Wider Achievement program. I am delighted to share and notify you that the group’s film has been selected to be shown at the Homemade event in Mareel on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September. I would like to pass on my congratulations to all our pupils who were involved and everyone who was part of the process. We have our fingers crossed for securing a prize for the Shetland dialect category.

S3 pupils at Whalsay School have continued to take part in the national Youth Philanthropy Initiative this year. YPI is the largest independent programme delivered in Scottish education and provides young people with the opportunity to research and explore social issues that exist in the local community. Under the guidance of Ms.Carr and Mrs.Dunbar, pupils followed a structured program of study which required the use and development of research, teamwork, presentation and competition skills with the opportunity to secure £3,000 for the chosen charities.

This cohort of pupils, who have recently made the transition to S4, had groups who liaised and connected with The Fisherman’s Mission, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Whalsay Heritage Centre, Alzheimer Scotland and Shoard charity shop, Whalsay.

With thanks to Miss Irvine for coordinating arrangements, Mrs. Irvine for presenting the event and our judging panel, our school YPI finals event was held on the afternoon of Wednesday 7th May. We were delighted to welcome members of the local community, representatives from the different charities, Lavinia Schmidt as local YPI leader, Gayle Duffus from the Wood Foundation and pupils from a range of year groups. Thanks to Kate Wills and Ella Irvine who were on the judging panel and analysed all presentations in great detail before the winning team was selected

Our pupils impressed us all when sharing their knowledge and insights on the day; highlighting different social issues and the important work carried out by charities in the area. Congratulations were extended to Brooke Robertson and Carrie Lipthorpe representing Shoard charity shop who were selected as the Whalsay School winners.

Accompanied by Mr.Healy, Brooke and Carrie joined fellow winners from Brae High School and the Anderson High School and travelled south to attend the National YPI finals which were held at the Perth Concert Hall. We were lucky enough to listen to inspiring key note speeches from a range of contributors from different areas of society and a host of pupil led presentations from different schools across Scotland which highlighted issues such as addiction, mental health and support for new parents. It was an insightful, informative and inspiring trip and we congratulate all pupils and staff who contributed to the delivery of this year’s YPI programme.

A quick selection of photos from a tour of the different Wider Achievement groups this afternoon. What did I see? Firstly, happy and engaged pupils. That’s always number 1! Enjoyment and taking pride in your work is always so important

Creativity? Absolutely… from works of art to knitting to our sports stars on court.

Teamwork? 100%. I spoke to all Secondary pupils this week about the power of teamwork and looking out for each other. Lots of really great collaboration on show this afternoon.

Community – Wider Achievement offers us a great opportunity to engage with members of our community. To develop skills that can be passed through the generations. To celebrate what is unique about Whalsay, our community and where we are in the world. Our net mending group are a perfect example of this. Kudos to Mrs.Hamilton who was developing her skills too!

Delighted to share the outcome of our recent participation in Sumdog challenges; a national initiative where pupils answer questions to consolidate and further develop their knowledge in Mathematics.

Of the 2,944 nationwide that took part,

Our S1 class finished 63rd

Our P6/7 cohort finished 119th and our

S2 cohort finished 122nd.

This is a huge success for our school and testament to the hard work and dedication of our pupils to their learning in Mathematics. I’d like to extend thanks to teachers, parents and support staff who provided encouragement and support along the way.

Well done, Whalsay School!

Mr.Healy

Lots of great physical activity happening at Whalsay School today with football club at lunch time and badminton after school club. Big thanks to Eoin from Active Schools for facilitating both of these sessions.

Mixed netball will also be taking place on Monday lunch times for our Secondary pupils.

In English we have been learning about Shetland dialect.  The Picts and the Vikings were the first people that lived in Shetland. Some Viking words still exist in Shetland dialect today. Then Shetland became part of Scotland in 1469 and the language changed even more.

We learned about Shetland names and families, then we compared Shetland dialect and English and we also learned a secret language, the International Phonetic Alphabet.

At the end of the unit, everybody has chosen a topic and is making posters. Harry Bruce and Henry are doing pelagic boats, Sandy and John James are doing Shetland recipes, Kristopher and Sam are doing the Serene and the Antares, Lola and Geordie are doing family trees, Una is doing Shetland recipes, Alyshia and Mollie are doing family trees and Morgan and Bella are doing animals.

By Sam and Kristopher

S3 Graphic Communication pupils have been learning about, using and comparing: 2D computer aided drawing, 2D manual drawing and 3D computer aided drawing techniques.

The pictures show some of the 3D CAD models they have created and rendered. CAD features used include: line, circle, extrude, revolve, fillet, decal, mate, align, centre axis, material, lighting, shadows and reflections.