Term 3 News 2008/09
Travelling Musicians
Our talented musical pupils are much in demand and on Wednesday 26th March they visited the Nordalea Care Centre in Baltasound to play at a party.
School telescope
School pupil Will Paterson has been very keen to get a school telescope so he can encourage more interest in astronomy. Thanks to funding from the Society for Popular Astonomy we now own an astonomical telescope, and here is Will showing it of to other members of his class, and Mr Spence.
Advertising Slogans Quizsheet
Thankyou to everyone who entered. The winner was Janice Priest of Uyeasound, with Hazel Sinclair iof Haroldswick and Alan Jamieson of Muness coming equal second. The answers are here.
Red Nose Day
It was Red Nose Day on Friday 13th March, as well as being one of our Cross-curricular Days, with Mr Thomson and S1/S2 producing the annual newspaper in a day, rather than the usual month or so, and it was also National Science Week so we built giraffes out of paper and sellotape. Just an ordinary day at BJHS!
Nursery took a lead in fund-raising for Red Nose Day and baked cakes, with a bit of help from some fo the Secondary childcare pupils. The cakes were sold at morning break. They were very popular - and yummy! For more Red Nose Day photos .... click here .... or here ... or here.
Making the cakes, selling the cakes and the S1/S2 newsroom
Music Festival
The week ending Friday 13th March was the Shetland Schools Music Festival. Upper Primary went off to Cullivoe for drumming and singing workshops and a succession of groups and individuals headed south to Lerwick to perform, picking up several silver and silver + commendations, although pride of place went to Chelsea Jamieson and Karis Burns for winning gold.
Concert
The female vocalists from the Musical Monsters aka Primary 7
On Friday 6th March there was a concert in Baltasound Hall to raise money for a trip to Edinburgh.
The concert was mainly organised by Primary 6 and 7 with the help of Miss McCormick, who organised a similar concert last year to raise money for the Swan trip.
There were performances from Primary 7, Primary 6 (both with assistance from Fetlar pupils), Primary 4 & 5, Secondary 2, Da Young Eens (Secondary fiddle pupils at the school) Dodo Elphinstone, Alison & Ronnie (aka Miss Dobson and Mr Martin), ex-pupils Michael & Mairi, Pauleen Wiseman (our fiddle tutor, but playing the flute) Jennifer (aka Miss McCormick) & David Farrell and ZE2, while Mr Pennington was the MC.
It was great fun - and many thanks to everyone who helped, by performing, working behind the scenes or donating raffles. For some photos click here.
Connecting Classrooms
Ghanaian dancer
Our Connecting Classrooms schools in Ghana and Kenya paid a visit to their partner schools in Lerwick, Yell and Unst in February.
Some of them were up to see the procession at Norwick Up Helly Aa on Saturday 28th February, and then they were all up on Unst for a night on Thursday 5th March.
The Unst Music & Dance Group played in the school hall in the evening and lots of pupils came along to meet our visitors.
The African visitors learnt some Shetland dancing and we learnt some Ghanaian and Kenyan dancing. It was a great night. For some photos click here.
Norwick Up Helly Aa
On Friday 27th February, Norwick Jarl Lesley Stickle visited the school to collect shields painted by Primary pupils which will be used to decorate the galley at Norwick Up Helly Aa.
Pancakes
It was pancake day on Tuesday 24th February! Lots of pupils had the chance to make pancakes - and eat them!
Primary 4 and 5 pupils making pancakes!
Certificated
Primary 7 received their Sports Leader certificates on Friday 20th February.
Uyeasound Up Helly Aa 2009
Snow last week rather disrupted the proceedings, but we were all back in school for the visit of the Uyeasound Jarl's Squad on Friday 13th February.
The galley arrives in the snow
Some pink Vikings
The school fiddlers and some Nursery vikings
The Jarl with Mr Spence and the S2 sketch, featuring the Grand Wizard Dumbeldore III and his Band of Merry Mice
Health Promoting School
We have now been officially awarded Health Promoting School status. Full details will follow once we are presented with the award.
The health promoting schools website is here.
Curriculum for Excellence
Parents, in particular, may be aware of the new initiative in education called Curriculum for Excellence, planning a new approach to education for ages 3-18 and stressing a wider holistic view of education, and with its four capacities:
- Successful learners
- Confident individuals
- Responsible citizens
- Effective contributors
Parents will notice that our reports will increasingly refer to these capacities and their constituent parts.
A new booklet for teachers on Curriculum for Excellence in Shetland Schools, highlighting interdisciplinary working in secondary departments, highlights three recent initiatives from Baltasound Junior High School: the mock excavation carried out in the school grounds along with Viking Unst (for some photos click here), the Connecting Classrooms project with its links to Ghana (for some picture of Mrs Smith in Ghana click here), and the Wearable Art project which culminated in the fashion show (for some photos click here).
Play leaders
Congratulations to Primary 7 who have completed their Young Leaders course. This term they have sorted pairs who will be organising activities for the rest of the Primary pupils at lunchtime twice a week. They started off this week by organising parachute games for Friday afternoon.
