P6 Comedy Festival - Thank You Richard Melvin, Julia Sutherland and Al Lorraine!

What an extraordinary opportunity for our three P6 classes this week to work with accomplished comedy writer, comedian, producer and The Stand Comedy Club compere, Sciennes' dad, Richard Melvin and his friends from Dabstar Productions! Using the BBC RND Comedy Classroom resources, groups of P6 pupils scripted, rehearsed with help from Richard and fellow comedian Julia Sutherland on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday then performed their comedy sketches in the Hall on Friday 31st March, again encouraged and supported by compere Richard, Julia and also radio producer Al Lorraine.

As well as being a fun and engaging way to develop literacy skills, this project was a huge boost to confidence in performance and all our children benefited greatly from taking part. As Miss Stewardson, who successfully led the P6 project said, "The children had the best time!"

Very well done to all our P6 comedy stars and their hard working teachers Miss Stewardson, Miss Rogerson, Mr Hutchison and Mr Howie and a huge thank you to inspirational Richard, Julia and Al. Fabulous! A joyful way to end the term. Happy holidays, all!

Comedian Julia Sutherland helped the children prepare for their performances 'backstage'

Class Teachers Miss Stewardson, Miss Rogerson and Mr Hutchison

BBC RND Comedy Classroom resources an excellent framework for developing literacy skills

Accomplished comedian, The Stand Comedy Club compere and comedy writer and producer, Richard Melvin

Selfie!

Richard with daughter Molly

Mrs Noble Leads the Easter Assemblies

Headteacher, Mrs Alison Noble, led the end of term Easter Assemblies

Stuart Irvin, Minister at St Catherine's of Argyll

Mrs Noble led the P1-3 and the P4-7 Easter Assemblies in the Hall on the last day of term Friday 31st March and wished everyone a safe and happy Easter holiday. Stuart Irvin, Minister from St Catherine's of Argyll Church, spoke about Palm Sunday and Mrs Noble told everyone about the Community Easter Egg Hunt. P5A have illustrated Easter eggs  that can be found in various locations.  See map below for details on how to take part:
http://stcaths.church/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Egg.Map_.2017.pdf

We look forward to welcoming everyone back on TUESDAY 18th APRIL.

Sciennes P1-3 Easter Assembly 31.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School

Sciennes P4-7 Easter Assembly 31.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School

Swimathon 2017

Sciennes School Parent Council

Monday 24^th April – Friday 28^th April 2017

This year we are aiming to raise £10,000 to support school’s technology, Health and Wellness projects (which includes sports tuition e.g. swimming and cycling).  ALL children at Sciennes will benefit from the funds raised.
The Swimathon has been great fun in the past and we would like as many children as possible to take part again this year.  Children will have the opportunity to swim as many lengths/ breadths of the school pool as they can in a specified time.  Non-swimmers are encouraged to take part, using swimming aids in the shallow end of the pool, never going out of their depth.  The Swimathon is well staffed, with a qualified life guard on duty at all times.
House points are issued to all participants, including enthusiastic supporters!  A variety of rewards are given to pupils, rewarding special efforts (P1-3), participation and achievement.
How far do the children swim?

• Primary 1-2 will swim breadths for 5 minutes
• Primary 3-7 will swim lengths/ half lengths for between 5 and 10 minutes

When does my child swim?
A timetable is attached to this letter, showing the day and time slot for each class.
Can I assist?
Yes please!  As with all Parent Council events we rely on volunteers.  You are welcome to come and count the pupils efforts as well as general support for your child’s class.  To signup, please use the following doodle poll link https://doodle.com/poll/4rgxf94zwbg5kxqs.
How to raise sponsorship money?
To make it easier for funds to raise money we have set up a BTmydonate page which in turn enables you to set up your own online sponsorship page.  You can access this by going to the following web address:

• https://mydonate.bt.com/events/sciennesswimathon2017 (If you have any trouble with the link just google ‘mydonate Sciennes’)
• Click on ‘start fundraising’ to set up your child’s own online giving page. You can then send a link to relatives and friends who may want to sponsor your child.
• If required, Click here to access a Swimathon Sponsorship Form for pupils wishing to use them

Sciennes Mental Health Focus Week

Sciennes Mental Health Focus Week

8th - 15th May  

We will be focusing on looking after ourselves and celebrating our uniqueness during our Mental Health week in May this year.  There will be events for pupils including Relax Kids sessions, Emotion Talks lessons and plenty of opportunities for fun and exercise. Two superb events have been organised for parents: a talk by international speaker Nicola Morgan on adolescence, and our very own Alison Outred speaking about the introverted, shy children and the benefits of being ‘quiet’. Book early as these will both be very popular. There are also lots of activities for staff, but we are keeping them secret for the moment!

Carolyn Anstruther DHT

Scottish Government's Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00516047.pdf

Sciennes Red Nose Day in Edinburgh Evening News

Edinburgh Evening News Saturday 25th March

Thank you very much to everyone who supported our Red Nose Day events. At next week's Assemblies we will announce the total amount raised.

Particular thanks to Emily's mum (pictured above) and Niamh's mum for all their help with P6 fundraising stalls on the day and to all our P6 bakers and craftmakers!

P7 "BaDUMtsh" Comedy book is still on sale in the office, priced £5, in support of Comic Relief.

WoW! World of Work Summer Fair Sat 3rd June

SAVE THE DATE!

SCIENNES WORLD OF WORK SUMMER FAIR

SATURDAY 3rd JUNE

12.30-3.30pm  

Come along and WoW our children with career possibilities!

Sciennes' Parent Council Events and Fundraising Group (EFG) is busy planning our Summer Fair. The theme is 'World of Work' and the idea is to WoW our children with career possibilities. This ties in with one of our overarching improvement priorities this year to 'Develop the Young Workforce', which is a national initiative. P5-P7 have access to a new website 'My World of Work' and P1-P3 are using 'Future Me',
We are inviting parents and local agencies to man stalls and activities for the children on Saturday 3rd June between 12.30 and 3.30pm.

We hope to see you there!

More details to follow after the Easter break.

Sciennes Football Club Newsletter #6

CEC Multi-Sports Easter Holiday Programme

The City of Edinburgh Council Sports Development Team Multi-Sport Easter Holiday Programme

The two week programme consists of a Multi-Sports Holiday Camp taking place at the following venue:

-          Forrester/St Augustine’s Community Sports Hub 

multisport@ea.edin.sch.uk

Dance Division Holiday Camps

Red Nose Day 2017

Sciennes Red Nose Day P4-7 Assembly 24.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School

 

On Friday 24th March 2017 Sciennes celebrated Red Nose Day with a whole school Comedy Festival, designed to develop confidence in public speaking and as part of our Health and Wellbeing programme, in support of Comic Relief. We watched a film about 12 year old Hassan from Sierra Leone and found out how Comic Relief has supported him return to school following the Ebola crisis.

Generous donations and support for P6 led bake sales, friendship bracelet, bath bombs and key ring sales as well as P7 Comedy Book and Red Noses sales have helped our school community come together to make a difference to others, in the UK and abroad. Thank you.

Some of our pupil jokers took to the stage at Assembly to share funny stories, knock-knock jokes, slapstick and one-liners. Thank you to everyone who took part and all will receive a special Red Nose Day certificate next week.

Our P7 House and Sports Captains celebrated many recent pupil achievements and P7 Sports Captain, Robert, reported on recent runaway Cross Country success.

The Evening News took a photograph yesterday which is on Page 17 of today's newspaper and another photograph taken today will appear in Saturday's edition (see below).

Article 1

Everyone under 18 has these rights.

Winners of Euroquiz Edinburgh Trophy 2017!

Winners of Edinburgh Heat of Euroquiz 2017!

 

 P6 Sciennes Team Winners with Mrs Sally Nowell

An exceptional result for P6 pupils Alice, Ali, Hamzah and James at the Edinburgh Euroquiz event held at City Chambers on Monday 13th March. After some very challenging rounds of questions, the Sciennes' team took the Edinburgh title this year and will now progress to the national final!  Huge congratulations to the team, to Runners Up Bruntsfield Primary and to all the schools who took part in this fun, interesting and exciting annual event. Grateful thanks to families for all their support. Thank you very much to Mrs Sally Nowell who, after many years of accompanying and encouraging our teams, retires this year so it was particularly special for her to witness the delight on the children's faces. Thank you to SEET and Monika Wantoch, City of Edinburgh Council Global Citizenship Development Officer, for organising the event. The date for the final has been confirmed for 15th May, venue tbc.


Very well done, P6 Euro stars!


City of Edinburgh Council’s Global Citizenship service and the award-winning Scottish European Educational Trust teamed up to run Euroquiz 2017, with the support of the European Parliament Office in the UK.

Now in its fifteenth year, Euroquiz is a national competition which helps Scotland’s pupils broaden their knowledge about Europe and the European Union, as well as develop core skills such as teamwork and communication.

The event brought 20 teams of P6 pupils who gathered in the Main Council Chamber on 13 March. The teams answered a total of 60 questions on a whole range of European-related topics including history, geography, sport, culture and European Union. They also had a language comprehension round which consisted of ten spoken language questions devised by SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, and recorded by students at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

The winning team was Sciennes Primary School with Bruntsfield Primary School as the runners-up. Well done everyone.

The winners picked up a trophy and will be representing Edinburgh at the final in May where they will compete against 30 other local authority teams. Good luck. 

Monika Wantoch, CEC Global Citizenship Development Officer

Euroquiz Sciennes Team Runners Up 2016

https://sciennesnewsflash.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/p6-euroquiz-runners-up.html

Euroquiz Third Place 2015

https://sciennesnewsflash.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/third-place-in-euroquiz.html 

Euroquiz 2014
https://sciennesnewsflash.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/euroquiz-at-city-chambers-2014.html
 

Euroquiz Runners Up 2013

https://sciennesnewsflash.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/euroquiz-2013-at-city-chambers.html

Whole School Homework Task : Comedy Festival

P7 Book Launch in Support of Comic Relief

P7 Book Launch BaDUMtsh P4-7 Assembly 17.3.17 from Sciennes Primary School
 

On Friday 17th March we held a special assembly to launch our P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh", professionally formatted and published by Sciennes' parent and published author, Mary Turner Thomson, through her Whitewater Publishing Company. Mary addressed the P4-7 Assembly and explained the significant achievement of our pupils officially becoming 'published authors' themselves. It was wonderful to welcome so many parents to the event and we were also delighted to welcome City of Edinburgh's Literacy Development Officer, Evelyn Love-Gajardo.

Mary Turner Thomson and Evelyn Love-Gajardo (CEC Literacy Development Officer)

This is the seventh book Sciennes' pupils have produced with Mary and we looked back at our involvement with her over several years. We gave Mary a small token of thanks with a Love Hearts Thank You cake and Fairtrade flowers.

We are thrilled that celebrated and much loved comedian Patrick Monahan (who came to an Assembly in August and joined us for a Daily Mile run) so kindly sent a foreword for the children's book. Laura took to the stage to read aloud Patrick's thoughtful and encouraging words to the children.

Laura reads Foreword by Patrick Monahan

Thank you to P7 teachers Mrs Jane Maguire, Mrs Fiona Barker, Ms Fiona Sellar and Mr Mark McKenna who worked so hard with their pupils to create and organise the content for the book.

Thank you Mrs Maguire, Mrs Barker, Ms Sellar and Mr McKenna

A group of pupils from each of our three P7 classes confidently 'took the mic' to deliver a selection of jokes, funny stories and cartoons from their book, with all P7 pupils supportively calling out "BaDUMtsh" at the end of each punchline. All our pupils from P1-P7 have been asked to 'Stand Up for Comic Relief' and deliver jokes or funny stories to their classes as part of a whole school Comedy Festival in support of Red Nose Day next week.

P7 pupils 'took the mic' and shared jokes, funny stories and cartoons from their book.

Richard Melvin, accomplished comedy writer, producer and comedian has generously offered his time to provide comedy workshops for our three P6 classes where they will also learn about different jobs and roles in comedy production.

In support of Comic Relief, P6 pupil Emily is leading a bake sale for her year group and P6 pupils Niamh, Faye and Amelia are organising a sale of bath bombs and keyrings. All pupils have been invited to wear red and bring a donation on Friday 24th March.

Niamh, Faye and Amelia share their plans for Red Nose Day fundraising

Thank you very much to all the parents and to Pupil Support Assistants Mrs Tariq and Mrs Wilkins who helped cut up and distribute celebratory cakes, printed with the children's book cover.

Celebratory cakes!

An additional box of books should arrive from the printers on Monday. Pre-ordered books can be collected next week and copies can be purchased for £5 each with profits to Comic Relief.

Mary with her son, P7 pupil Zach

The Eco Group and Mr Hutchison were congratulated on their successful Fairtrade stall last week which helps Sciennes to work towards FairAware status. Louis and Henry in P6 announced that their football match in support of the Fairtrade Foundation will take place for P6 and P7 pupils from 1.30pm on Saturday 25th March on the Meadows.

Participation in the annual SEET Euroquiz held at City Chambers is an interesting, fun and exciting event, worthwhile in itself, but we were extremely excited to share that this year's P6 team - Alice, Ali, Hamzah and James - won the Edinburgh heat! Congratulations to the team and grateful thanks to families for their support.

Winners of Euroquiz 2017 Edinburgh Heat!

P5A pupils, Rory, Isla and Ella announced that they will be organising an Easter Egg Foodbank appeal and asked for donated Easter eggs to be handed in to the School Office by 31st March.