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June 24, 2024
by Miss Irvine
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P1/2 Summer Assembly

Last week P1/2 held the final class assembly of the year all about Summer holidays.

They told us some of the exciting things they’re hoping to get up and showed off their maths skills by asking pupils their summer plans, using tally marks and creating a graph of their results. Then they told the audience about Whalsay Summer Days before finishing off with a lovely summer song accompanied by Miss Simpson.

Whalsay Summer Days coincides with the sailing regatta and there are a lot of fun activities organised for people of all ages. Check out their page on Facebook for more info.

Here are some photos from the assembly

June 18, 2024
by Mrs Constable
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S2 John Muir – Ronas Hill

S2 had their first John Muir trip of the year today.

We were picked up at Laxo with no clue as to where we were headed! We set off North and it soon became apparent that we were heading to Ronas Hill.

Kitted out in full waterproofs, we traversed the arctic tundra terrain, working together to clamber towards the summit! The sky was heavy with rain but this didn’t dampen our spirits, with many embracing the wet surroundings on the way.

We stopped off at the highest loch in Shetland to refuel with lunch before carrying on to the highest peak at 450 metres above sea level! We found the trig point and learned how they came to exist and how to use them. We also explored the burial chamber nearby.

Then it was time to hike back down to the starting point, which proved tricky to navigate in the mist. We took advantage of a freshwater stream on the way to have a much needed refreshment!

John Muir leaders John and Grant were most impressed with the resilience of everyone and how they coped with the weather conditions!

Well done S2! 👏😄☔️

June 6, 2024
by User deactivated
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Community Cafe

Our first Café in 2024, held on Monday 27^th May, was again very well attended by members of our Whalsay community.

S3 pupils set up a classroom as a café, welcomed guests, took orders, made hot drinks, and prepared food, whilst S1 pupils contributed baked items made during their Home Economics lessons.

Thanks to very generous donations from customers, pupils will be able to meet the school’s contribution towards the £3000 which was given to the winning charity at the recent Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) event, as well as a small donation to each of the other two charities involved.

This year, the S3 group who won our YPI event were representing MacMillan Cancer Support (Shetland), who hope to use the donation to help set up a weekend phone helpline for people living with cancer in Shetland.

The other two groups of pupils were representing the Fisherman’s Mission and Shetland Woman’s Aid.

Many thanks to everyone who supported the café.

June 5, 2024
by Miss Irvine
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Voar Redd Up

Pupils at Whalsay School have been doing their bit helping keep the local community looking clean and tidy by taking part in the Voar Redd Up.

Secondary 2 pupils tidied around the Secondary School, Hillhead loop and down rocky road and made a super display of their litter pick.

Primary 5/6 tidied the main road from Fernlea to the Primary school and P6/7 took responsibility for Harbison Pitch and the Crudens. The younger classes also did their bit with the Nursery cleaning Charlestown Playpark and P1/2 an P3/4 tidying around the school and Leisure centre.

June 5, 2024
by Miss Irvine
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P7 SmartSTEM trip to NAFC

Primary 7 were lucky to be one of the classes attending the SmartSTEM event at Scalloway a few weeks ago. It gave pupils a chance to explore the career opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

It was a very well organised event with lectures, workshops and information stands where pupils could ask questions for raffles to be in with a shout of winning prizes at the end.

Pupils got to see around the college and attend workshops including aquaculture, where they were learning about salmon and shell fish around Shetland. They also took part in an App designing workshop and had the chance to fly a drone! A really interesting day giving pupils the chance to explore a range of career opportunities.

May 6, 2024
by Miss Irvine
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Primary Netball and Football Leagues

During the Winter months the Primary netball and football teams across Shetland have taken part in the Primary Leagues organised by Active Schools. Both the netball and football teams had to play 3 rounds of group matches with the teams with most points going through to the finals.

The Whalsay Netball team received a Sportsmanship award for displaying enthusiasm, encouragement and respect towards their team mates and opponents.

We really appreciate the support from Nicola and Ailidh from Whalsay Netball Club and Ian Robert, Jamie, Louise and Sean for taking overall responsibility for both teams and also the parent helpers who taxied pupils to the games. Finally well done to the pupils for representing our school and doing their best.

April 29, 2024
by Miss Irvine
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PeerieMakkers

Before the Easter holidays, a second group of PeerieMakkers enjoyed their visit to Fernlea to knit with daycare.

The PeerieMakkers knitting group runs weekly through the winter months and will come to an end tomorrow. We would like to thank the volunteers who have given up their time to come in and teach the bairns to knit Fair Isle to help keep this traditional skill going.

April 25, 2024
by Leona Sandison
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School Photos 📸

A reminder that Ben Mullay will be in school on Thursday 2nd May to take our school photos. As S4 are on Study Leave, we are requesting that they come into the Secondary dept. at 12.30pm to get their class photo taken.

We look forward to seeing them.

April 17, 2024
by Mrs Irvine
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Whalsay School ELC Duty of Candour Report 2023-24

Whalsay School Early Learning & Childcare Duty of Candour Report 2023-24

All health and social care services in Scotland have a duty of candour. This is a legal requirement which means that when things go wrong and mistakes happen, the people affected understand what has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve for the future.

An important part of this duty is that we provide an annual report about the duty of candour in our services. This short report describes how Whalsay School has operated the duty of candour during the time between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. We hope you find this report useful.

About Whalsay School ELC

Whalsay School ELC is a local authority provided day-care service for children based in Whalsay. The setting offers 1140 hours per annum to our users during school term time.

How many incidents happened to which the duty of candour applies?

In the last year, there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied.

Information about our policies and procedures

Where something has happened that triggers the Duty of Candour, our staff would report this to the Head Teacher, who has responsibility for ensuring that the Duty of Candour procedure is followed. The Head Teacher records the incident and reports as necessary to the Care Inspectorate. Should an incident happen, the Head Teacher and staff would set up a learning review, allowing all staff involved to review what happened and identify learning outcomes and changes for the future.

In any instance of a severe incident we will seek occupational welfare support to help any member of staff who has been affected by a Duty of Candour incident.

In any instance where parents/carers, children or other service users are affected by the duty of candour we have arrangements in place to provide welfare support as necessary.

Other information

If you would like more information about the Duty of Candour please do not hesitate to contact us.

March 19, 2024
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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Shetland Youth Music Festival 2024

On Monday Primary 6/7 travelled to Lerwick to take part in the Shetland Youth Music Festival.

The children have been preparing two pieces for performance, ‘Patrick’s Reel’ and ‘ Ye Banks and Braes’. The children gave a confident performance and if they were nervous it didn’t show.

Use the link below to see their performance.

Our fiddle players were up next with a group performance of ‘Gunners March’ and ‘Mam Tamar’s Hymn’. A snippet of which can be viewed using the links below.