Term 1 News 2008/09
Cycle Training
Primary 6 and 7 have been cycle training this term and will be assessed on Wednesday 8th October. Let's hope they do well.
Slave for a Day
THe cross-curricular day on Tuesday 7th October saw S1 and S2 sold off as slaves ... we'll let you know of they got better prices than they got at the pony sales last week ;-). PS It wasn't real, they were just acting!
EcoAction Day
Thursday 2nd October was our EcoAction Day, combined with our harvest and one of the cross-curricular days for S1 and S2. The whole school, from Nursery to S4, were involved before morning break, harvesting and clearing out the metre square plots and the rigs. After break, P6 to S2 carried on the good work, weeding and planting in the sensory garden, painting flower boxes and benches, updating the Eco noticeboard and generally getting thier hands dirty. For lots more photos click here - big page hope it works!
Congratulations, Mrs Tulloch
We have a new name on the list of members of staff this week, as Science and Maths is now taught by Mrs Tulloch - although you may still know her as Miss Emily Priest. She was married on Saturday, on the top of the hill of Valla Field in Unst.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
On Friday 26th September 2008, we had a coffee morning in the school to raise money for Macmillan, a cancer support charity. At the last count, over £350 had been raised.
Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic
On Tuesday 16th September the upper primary class had a visit from Christine de Luca, a writer in Shetland dialect. She has just translated the Roald Dahl story George's Marvellous Medicine into Shetland dialect as Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic. She read some passages from the book and everyone got a free copy, as well as a CD of Shetland stories read in dialect. Noo dan, yon's a brawly guid hansel.*
More about the publishers of Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic as well as some games in Shetland dialect can be found at the website for the Hansel Co-operative Press (BJHS is not responsible for the content of external links).
Christine de Luca (back left in pale blue) with upper primary and some staff members
* For non-Shetland readers, that translates as 'Now then, that is a really good gift'.
Heritage Centre and Boat Haven
On Friday 12th September pupils from Primary 7 to Secondary were involved in a Crosscurricular day for Citizenship. The Unst Heritage Centre and Boat Haven had requested that pupils from the school produce some materials for younger visitors to the two Unst museums. We had visits from Margaret Hunter and Duncan Sandison, who talked about the reasons why the two museums were set up, and separate groups visited the two places to get ideas. We then brainstormed some ideas for things which will be produced during Enterprise Week.
In the boat repair shed
Dressing up clothes
Back to school already
Committee News
Both the School Council and Ecocommittee have had their first meetings of the year and the minutes from the meeting are on their respective webpages - School Council * Ecocommittee.
Erin comes to visit
You may have noticed on other occasions that we like to make sure that new arrivals on the island get their first experience of school as soon as possible. This time it was our clerical assistant Lynette Spence's new niece Erin Heather who came to visit on Friday 5th September.
Erin and her auntie
Erin can't wait till she's on solids as she's heard how good our school dinners are!
Old news but ...
Right at the end of last term we had a big surprise. It was too late to get on the webpage but its worth reminding everyone that we had a visit from Scotland and Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon. He has relatives on Unst who he had come to visit and called in at the leisure centre to say hello.
Spot Craig Gordon (clue goalkeepers are tall)
The scramble for autographs
(left to right) someone forgot to bring some paper; start teaching them young; did Craig used to play for Hearts by any chance Mr Thomson?
Car Washing
Pupil members of the School Council were washing cars on Wednesday 3rd September to raise money for new cues for the pool table. They raised so much money that they now have some left over! The new cues were handed over to Chairperson Kaylee Palmer the very next day.
Hokum Blues Band
It is the Shetland Blues Festival this weekend so we were lucky to get a visit from one of the artists who are performing. The Hokum Blues band came along and played a whole host of songs on their various instruments - guitars, Hawaiian guitar, mandolin, ukulele, kazoo - even a washboard.
Off Timetable Days
A new development this year are Off Timetable Days, when the usual timetable will be replaced by themed days. These will be aimed mainly at Secondary 1 and 2, but some days will involve other pupils in Primary or Secondary or even the whole school.
On our first day back was a Social Education day and S1-S2 were involved in making a staff board for the school entrance and S3-S4 started a Secondary yearbook.
On Tuesday 26th August it was Africa Day, while a whole host of activities organised by Mrs Smith, our social studies teacher. Pupils from Primary 6 to Secondary 2 were involved, as well as Secondary 2 from Mid Yell JHS. Activities included learning African songs, a trade game based around chocolate, African cooking, how to keep houses hot in Shetland and cool in Africa, African languages, African textiles ... in fact we were so busy we almost forgot to take any photos, but here are some groups from the trade game.
