On Wednesday 1st June we celebrated The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a Jubilee Picnic and Open Afternoon where we finally welcomed back parents as visitors to the school after more than 2 years!
Parents were invited to come in for the Open Afternoon and look around the new nursery building which was opened in 2020 and also see pupils work showcased in both Primary and Secondary.
For the past few weeks, Primary pupils have been busy learning about The Queen, the Platinum Jubilee and they also managed to squeeze in a whole school Decades topic. Each class were assigned a theme – crofting and peats, fishing, schools, fashion, technology/houses, local photos and compared each to 1952 and today. Pupils worked hard to gather information from home to help with their displays and each class enjoyed a visit to the Heritage centre.
Pupils have enjoyed learning about The Queen and the Platinum Jubilee and wrote letters to her. We will be sending a few of the letters to The Queen soon. Pupils have also produced some beautiful art work with Ms Rainey during art classes including portraits of the Queen and designing coins, plates and t-shirts.
In preparation for the picnic, all pupils decorated a picnic box for the canteen staff to fill. The plan was to eat the picnic outside but with typical Shetland picnic weather we opted for a street style party in the primary corridor. This turned out to be a great alternative and everybody enjoyed the street party vibe.
To mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we presented all pupils with a pin badge and funsize Mars bar, which replicates the gift pupils received for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.
The Open Afternoon was also an opportunity for us to showcase and celebrate the work completed by primary pupils for Little Lighthouse Week in May 2020 during the first lockdown. We also displayed the lighthouse painted by Miss Rainey and the secondary pupils that was part of the Light up the North trail in September 2021.
Also on display was Primary 7’s Folklore project led by Ann Marie Anderson. This was a collaborative project with Fernlea where the pupils worked in small groups to create Payt sculptures from wire, recycled plastic bottles, newspapers and masking tape. They then plastered them and painted them before finishing them off with the gravits that Fernlea had made. This project had an emphasis on dialect with the pupils researching some of the words the Fernlea residents came up with. The finished articles with their dialect names were very effective and the feedback from everyone indicated that it had been a very enjoyable project.
Work is continuing on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Garden between the nursery and primary. During the Easter holidays, members of the Brae RTA detachment came to plant 5 trees as part of the Queen’s Canopy. Since then the primary pupils with Mrs Hutchison have been busy weeding, painting pallets and planting plants bought with money from the parent council. We will continue to develop this space and will officially open it next session.
The nursery also got into the Jubilee spirit by learning about the Queen and having some interesting discussions about her life. The pupils decorated the nursery with bunting and ate some traditional British food for snack such as scones with strawberries. They took their art outdoors and painted with Jubilee colours and took inspiration from London bridges to build some of their own
It was lovely to join in with the whole school picnic event before welcoming our families into the setting. This was the first time visitors were able to visit since the extension was built so it was a busy afternoon.
Over in the Secondary department on Monday, the 30th May they suspended the normal Secondary timetable and invited P7 pupils to join them for the day. Pupils were organised into six groups; two from each House. They began with an Assembly and a short video about the Queen’s reign. Groups were then given the challenge to develop a presentation/display on an aspect of life “through the decades” of the Queen’s reign. The themes chosen were Fashion and Music (Shalder), Sport and Transport (Maalie) and Entertainment and Food (Tirrick). Pupils were also tasked with writing quiz questions on their theme for a quiz the next day and decorating their room.
The pupils worked well together to complete their tasks and submitted their efforts to a public vote. Visitors to the Open Afternoon on Wednesday 1st of June cast their votes after touring the displays.
The Shalder groups won the public vote with their impressive wall display on Fashion and Music. Maalie took the honours in the decorating competition which was judged by a member of staff. Shalder were also successful in the quiz which was very close with the winning team on 30 and the other teams finishing second equal on 29.
Here are some photos
