We were incredibly proud of all the Primary 5 pupils today, for
the continued effort and hard work they have put into our homelessness
project.
This morning's carol singing was a huge success and we have managed to raise an incredible £510 for the charity Crisis. Thank you to all the families that turned up to support us. It was really appreciated! And grateful thanks to Hometech Integration for their very generous donation.
We hope you have a cosy weekend to warm up and rest those voices!
Ms French, Ms Pearmain, Ms Mackintosh, Miss Ferguson, Mr Howie, Miss Mitchell
Very well done to Miss Mitchell for braving the freezing cold to take part in Social Bite's Sleep in the Park last weekend https://www.sleepinthepark.co.uk/social-bite
and to all P5 pupils and staff for their inspiring commitment to raising awareness about Homelessness.
What a wonderful, memorable experience for our young people - Arwen, Thomas, Alma, Luis,
Eilidh, Isaac, Eamon and Rachel - to have an opportunity to present their Together Alliance UNCRC mural of Children's Rights at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 13th December, hosted by Deputy Presiding Officer Linda Fabiani MSP and with a presentation from Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Childcare and Early Years.
P7 Sciennes pupils with MYSPs Joel, Suki and Thomas and Maree Todd MSP
Juliet Harris and Liz Millership (Together), Maree Todd MSP and Linda Fabiani MSP
We
were all rightly proud of our pupils' fantastic artwork and their confidence
in presenting to such an esteemed group of adults, gathered Together to launch the 2017 Report into the State of Children's Rights in Scotland. It was a delight to see their artwork feature in the newly released publication and a joy to see Arwen find a picture of herself when she opened the booklet.
Thank you very much to Juliet Harris and Liz Millership from Together for looking after us so well and making everyone feel welcome and at ease. Particular thanks to all the parents who accompanied and supported the children's participation in this very special event.
Rightly proud pupils and parents
P7 explain the journey along the seven panels of their child rights mural, from 'The Policy Factory' panel where children's voices are excluded to 'The Meadow of Rights' panel where "everyone can be who they are" and have their voices heard.
As
part of a seminar series on children's rights in law,
practice and policy, Together and the Scottish Universities Insight Instituteworked with international delegates to ensure that
children
and young people play a key role and that key messages from the seminars
are accessible to everyone. Together commissioned artists Joanna Boyce,
Yonnie and Lyver to work with our then P6 pupils to present key messages in a
creative and engaging way. Three young people who had attended the seminars (Joel, Thomas and Suki) interpreted the key messages and themes then our P6
pupils (now P7) worked closely with the artists to
visualise the imagery suggested, for example 'rights in the clouds', 'a
policy factory', 'a meadow of rights' and 'connected Together in a daisy chain.'
Having adopted the name 'The Clan of Children's Rights', this group of pupils will continue supporting and developing our rights based learning at Sciennes (particularly in the Year of Young People 2018) and we sincerely thank all involved in this project for helping them gain the confidence, understanding and enthusiasm to take a lead role within our school.
On Friday 24th November our three P6 Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) took the lead to encourage everyone to be bright and be seen this winter and showed a video to explain why 20mph speed limits make roads safer. Mrs Gibb and P4C received reflective prizes for being the most brightly dressed.
The Pupil Council is leading a consultation on a proposal to extend the playground and everyone in the Hall was asked to signal with a show of hands if they were in favour. Pupil Council reps from P2-P7 are also debating this proposal in class and collecting feedback comments for Mrs Noble.
Mr Howie led an inspirational presentation, designed to help pupils realise how they can take the lead to work individually and as a team to create and leave a lasting legacy, using the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team's philosophies as a theme.
P7 Sports Captains led congratulations on pupils' recent achievements and issued certificates to P7 Sportshall Athletics Finalists.
On Friday 6th October 2017 at the P4-7 Assembly, we promoted Primary
Three's Harvest Appeal and celebrated the many other ways that Sciennes'
pupils are taking the lead in school events. We encouraged everyone to
think about they can get involved in making a difference in The Year of
Young People 2018.
On Friday 17th November we celebrated the many ways our pupils continue to take the lead, ahead of UN World Children's Day on Monday 20th November. We watched a UNICEF film, made by children, for children, to inspire action.
Sixteen House and Sports Captains were introduced and we congratulated everyone who applied, encouraging all Primary Seven pupils to keep being excellent prefects and role models.
P7 pupils Niamh and Alice approached our Senior Leadership earlier in the term, inspired to take action by a BBC documentary (No More Boys and Girls - Can Our Kids Go Gender Free?) on gender bias, set in a school in England. Both girls recently spoke at a whole staff meeting, inviting all classes P1-P7 to take part in a survey designed to investigate gender bias in our own school. 650 boys and girls were asked to draw their future occupations and Niamh and Alice analysed results to explore attitudes. They presented their findings at Assembly and have many other ideas for challenging views and raising awareness of gender equality.
Mr Howie gave an inspirational presentation designed to encourage everyone to be the 'best version' of themselves possible, taking small actions to make a difference to others.
Six classes - our entire P6 and P7 year groups - are working with Ms Pearmain and class teachers to take the lead in supporting the Winter Fair on Saturday 25th November 12pm-3pm in #iwill Week. Sorla and Eliza explained how P6 have taken on Virgin Money's challenge to 'Make £5 Grow' and Henry explained P7's equally enterprising approaches to fundraising. Thank you to Mr McKenna for all his support in creating magical boxes in the Science and Technology lab.
Our ECO reps met with Mr Hutchison and Miss Ferguson this week and are taking the lead on Switch Off Fortnight. Our P6 JRSOs asked everyone to wear something bright or reflective next week at their Road Safety Assembly.
P4B girls highlighted the need to ask first if equipment or toys are being used, before taking. They reminded everyone to 'treat others as you would like to be treated', follow the 'Three Steps' and work together to make sure we respect everyone's right to be happy and safe in our playground.
Pupils were reminded that they should always come back into school if an adult is unexpectedly not there to pick them up at the end of the day.
House Captains congratulated pupils on recent achievements and announced that Tantallon is leading in House points this week.
Grange House - Maisie, James
Grange Sports - Iain, Flora
Lauder House - Fraser, Molly
Lauder Sports - Eilidh, Sam S
Sienna House - Sophia, Sam B
Sienna Sports - Louis, Emma
Tantallon House - Alice, Caspar
Tantallon Sports - Saad, Arwen
Next week's P4-7 Assembly will take place immediately after P1-3 Assembly 9.50-10.30am to allow Hall space for nativity rehearsals.
Sciennes is a Dyslexia Friendly school. On Friday 3rd November we featured Dyslexia Awareness in both P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies, following Dyslexia Scotland's theme of 'Positive About Dyslexia'.
A slideshow showing famous scientists, inventors, business people, musicians, writers, artists and actors, who are said to have dyslexia, was shown as pupils were entering and leaving the Hall.
Ms Kennedy and Miss Thistlethwaite have been working with groups of dyslexic pupils who will deliver year group presentations to P4-P7 next week, in Dyslexia Awareness Week. A group of P7 pupils gave an excellent presentation at the P1-3 Assembly and P7 pupil Catherine is leading the distribution of blue ribbons next week. Video clips were shown to help explain dyslexia and develop positive attitudes towards having dyslexia and also towards dyslexic pupils who have to work hard to overcome associated challenges.
Interested pupils were invited to speak to families about attending the launch of a new Dyslexia Scotland website 'Unwrapped' for dyslexic children to be held at Central Library on George IV Bridge Thursday 9th November 5.30pm-8pm.
On Friday 27th October Mrs Noble led the P1-3 and P4-7 Harvest Assemblies and we welcomed local Minister Stuart Irvin from St Catherine's of Argyll who told an Old Testament story about Ruth to help us think about how we can help others.
Mrs Noble led both Harvest Assemblies
Rev Stuart Irvin, St Catherine's of Argyll Church
Robert Stephens made a welcome return to accept a cheque from P3 on behalf of Send A Cow
Robert Stephens, Send a Cow Ambassador, joined us to collect a cheque for an amazing £1660! The Government has undertaken to match fund that amount, doubling it to an incredible £3320! Thank you to all Sciennes' families for such kind generosity in supporting the Primary Three led Harvest charity appeal by contributing donations in their handmade envelopes and providing or buying wonderful homemade treats at the P3 Bake Sale held before the October break. Congratulations to Ms Anstruther and the P3 Team of pupils and staff for such a successful initiative, making a real difference to families in Africa through Send A Cow's commendable sustainable development projects.
Parent Mrs Lorna Nunn spoke at the upper school Assembly to inform pupils that the P6/7 Tuesday lunchtime Scripture Union club resumes next week. Interested pupils can pick up a form from Mrs Noble and online registration details have been emailed to families.
Pupils taking the lead is a feature at Sciennes and we noted the many existing and new initiatives driving forward pupil participation and pupil voice, including P7 pupil Catherine who is working with Ms Kennedy, Miss Thistlethwaite and a group of pupils in next week's Dyslexia Awareness Week. Our JRSOs distributed reflective Be Seen Be Safe badges, donated by a local Coop business, to all 650 pupils in readiness for the clock change at the weekend and the darkening evenings ahead.
Recent pupil achievements were celebrated and Primary Seven pupils were highly commended for their team work, positive attitudes and kindness in an excellent week at Lagganlia Outdoor Education Week, praised by our staff and Lagganlia Instructors alike.
On Friday 29th September 2017 at both Assemblies, a group of P3 pupils joined Send A Cow Ambassador, Robert Stephens, in presenting how they are taking action as global citizens in support of four of the Sustainable Development Goals and acting to 'Make A Difference.'
Our three Primary Three classes are again leading the whole school Harvest Appeal with their Class Teachers and DHT Ms Anstruther, which this year is in support of the Send a Cow charity.
Each child in P3 is producing hand drawn collection envelopes which will be distributed to each of our families. If all our families contributed £1 we would reach a goal of £640 and be able to gift a cow to a family in Africa. Primary Three pupils are taking on different young workforce lead roles for their appeal campaign, such as Communications Teams, Publicity Teams and Finance Teams.
Send a Cow Ambassador, Robert Stephens, spoke with passion and eloquence to explain to the children how the charity works with families in Africa to provide training in not only animal husbandry but also in sanitation, irrigation and keyhole farming. He relayed the story of Jennifer whom he had visited in Uganda and saw first hand the huge difference the project had made to her life and that of her family. Jennifer was able not only to provide milk and vegetables for her own family, but could sell surplus at market to pay for tools, medicine and schooling. Perhaps most telling was Robert's final slide which showed that Jennifer had reached such a self-sufficient stage that she was able to purchase an ornamental vase, merely because she 'liked it.'
Primary Three invited everyone to help Make A Difference by supporting their appeal with donations in the envelopes and also contributing to their planned bake sale on Friday 13th October. We wish them great success in their endeavours and thank Robert for his gracious time supporting the children.
On Friday 22nd September we celebrated Global Goals Week with a look at what action is already taking place at Sciennes Primary to support the Sustainable Development Global Goals (SDGs). We invited the children to design their own Global Goals glasses to reflect the world they want to see by 2030 and asked them to think about which actions they could take this year to be Global #Goalkeepers. We asked pupils to take their Global Goals glasses home and ask their
families if they are aware of the Sustainable Development Goals. Which
of the Global Goals does your family support and why?
Our three P3 classes are taking action on SDG1, SDG2 and SDG3 by leading a whole school Harvest Appeal in support of the charity 'Send A Cow to Africa' and a speaker will address both Assemblies next week.
This week, in Scottish Climate Week, P7 have been taking action on SDG13 (Climate Action) by presenting 17 000 consultation responses to the Scottish Government's forthcoming Climate Bill with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and Friends of the Earth. Eco Schools Scotland invited Faye, Sorley and Lucy to participate as a direct result of P7A's work on air pollution last year with Mr Hutchison, Mr McKenna, Ms Christie and SEPA. The pupils cycled to Parliament from school to hand over the responses to Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment.
Faye, Sorley and Lucy told everyone about their visit to Parliament with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland
Newly elected P6 Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) Lyall, Essie and Anna shared details about their invitation to a training session at City Chambers, designed to support them in their lead role this year. Lyall explained that there had been workshops and one was on air quality, as a direct result of P7A's involvement with SEPA last year. Essie updated everyone on the Hands Up Scotland Travel Survey they organised and that baseline information has been added to our Living Streets Travel Tracker. Anna shared that the JRSOs will work with classes to help them use the Travel Tracker again this year to track active travel.
Supporting the world's plan for sustainable development using the Global Goals will help us all stand up for rights and P7C pupils this week articulately explained their understanding of the UNCRC to the Minister for Young People, Mark MacDonald, at a special celebratory event arranged by Together Scotland. Many thanks to Juliet Harris and Liz Millerfield for organising a very special 'picnic' lunch for the children, in recognition of all their hard work with artists Joanna, Yonnie and Lyver in creating fabulous UNCRC artwork on panels destined for the Scottish Parliament.
P7C pupils meet Mark MacDonald MSP at Together Scotland offices in Rosebery House
There was recognition for Ms MacKintosh in successfully leading engagement with Maths Week Scotland and for Ms Christie in leading a uniquely innovative and adventurous programme of cycling for P6.
P4A showed their wonderful 'Resilience Role Model' posters and Anjalie in P4 was also congratulated on her terrific Mindset poster.
We reminded pupils that to stay safe they should come back into the School Office if the person coming to collect them up is delayed.
We look forward to hearing pupils' ideas for being part of the Global Goals plan, making a difference at Sciennes, in the local community and beyond.
On Friday 15th September 2017 we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first ever House Assembly for Grange, Lauder, Sienna and Tantallon.
In November 2015 Sciennes achieved a Bronze Award and in May 2016, Sciennes achieved a Silver (Level One) "Rights Respecting School" award. We are working towards Gold accreditation (Level Two), achievable within three years of Silver. Our journey so far has been recorded on our Rights Respecting Sciennes Timeline. We asked pupils what it means to be a UNCRC Rights Respecting School and reminded them this includes being a Global Citizen, respecting other people's rights.
End extreme poverty Fight inequality & injustice Fix climate change
On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) Two years on, we watched a rap to help us understand all the goals better.
2018 is the Year of Young People and we asked the children to think about and share their ideas for being #Goalkeepers, like Malala, Barack Obama and Bill and Melinda Gates. What world do they want to see by 2030?
'The World's Largest Lesson Part Three' has a food theme this year and we will be exploring this and other relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) throughout the year. P3 will again be leading a whole school Harvest Appeal. Last year they successfully led donations to a local Foodbank charity and this year they are supporting the Send a Cow to Africa charity.
15th September is the International Day for Democracy. Congratulations to our newly elected Pupil Council members who will be the voice of their classmates throughout the year and will also be our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors. The results of the ECO Rep elections were also announced for each House.
On Friday 8th September we explored 'Challenge Your Mindset' which is one of ten strategies in City of Edinburgh's Health and Wellbeing programme for "Building Resilience." The programme complements Sciennes' existing HWB work, successfully led by DHT Ms Carolyn Anstruther and staff and parent School Improvement groups over many years.
Pupils were encouraged to maintain a Growth Mindset and were reminded that their abilities need not be fixed. Believing that achievement is possible is important, but lots of effort and determination and being open to make and learn from mistakes are also keys to success. We watched videos from Class Dojo and Sport Scotland to encourage us to keep challenging ourselves and keep persevering in our efforts.
Miss McGrouther's P6B class has created a display with inspiring quotes on self belief entitled "Believe in Your #Selfie." Ivy and Alba researched leadership quotes for homework, working hard to impress their teacher with their extra efforts, and shared these at Assembly.
The first Maths Week Scotland takes place next week and Ms Mackintosh is leading many maths events and activities in school. Some classes are also taking part in a national Sumdog competition, in school, at home or both.
Today, 8th September, is International Literacy Day and pupils have been invited to take part in the First Minister's Reading Challenge again this year. Reading passports have been ordered and reading challenges will take place throughout the year. One of the first is to join a local library, which then gives access to dozens of free resources such as Mathletics and ebooks.
This week P7C pupils assisted at Assembly in a quiz and in celebrating pupil achievements.
On Friday 1st September 2017, Mr Howie led the P4-7 Assembly, continuing our 'Building Resilience' Health and Wellbeing focus by exploring Resilience Role Models and different types of role model. Mr Howie particularly focused on Teddy Roosevelt, engagingly telling the story of his fascinating, inspiring life and how he strove to overcome adversity and take on personal challenges. Mr Howie also highlighted links with some of the ten 'Be Resilient' toolkit strategies (from a City of Edinburgh HWB programme) that we will be exploring further this year.
On Friday 25th August 2017 we introduced pupils to Skipper, the lead character in a Health and Wellbeing programme called 'Building Resilience' which has been developed by a group of Edinburgh staff led by Karen Richmond (South Morningside Primary) and Pattie Santelices (Principal Officer Mental Health & Welllbeing, City of Edinburgh Council.) The programme complements and re-enforces our own Health and Wellbeing programme, developed by Carolyn Anstruther and staff, with support from our Parent Council Health and Wellbeing group, and well established over several years.
Primary Seven pupils from P7B helped introduce ten strategies that we will focus on throughout the year to help our pupils build resilience to support good mental health. We all got on our feet to sing 'Stronger' and considered Kid President's message that things in life may not always be 'awesome', but our response can be. Pupils were invited to research 'Resilience Role Models' at home and create a poster. A selection will be shared at next week's Assembly.
We congratulated our two Fringe Festival actresses Hannah and Faye who have had rave reviews on stage. Zoe in P4A wowed us with her Spanish language skills and we celebrated Aiden and Louis' tremendous achievements competing in an international mathematics competition in Beijing over the summer holiday.
Pupils were reminded that Pupil Council and ECO rep elections will soon take place and to prepare speeches if they wish to stand for election.
On Friday 18th August we welcomed Primary Four pupils and all new pupils to their first upper school assembly. We also welcomed Miss Jennifer Ferguson and Miss Sophie Mitchell to the Primary Five team.
This year, we are revisiting our school vision and values so pupils were invited to think about what is most important to us in the Sciennes Family. We are extremely grateful to parent Emma Kirk (CEO User Vision and
Convenor of the Parent Council Communications Group) who recently led an
excellent session to help the whole staff revisit and reflect on our
vision and values. Pupil Council leaders will soon be elected, one from each class P2-P7, who will then be able to join in on discussions and support the process.
We explored ways to respect everyone's right to be safe and right to learn at Sciennes. Primary Seven pupils helped explain what 'The Golden Rule' means.
Showing respect universally unites us all: in the classroom, in the school and beyond, as global citizens. Brad Montague's moving film ' Smuggling Hope' was shown to help us all continue to believe that we can all make a difference by upholding our values.
UNCRC panels destined for Scottish Parliament in the Autumn
Juliet Harris and Liz Millership visiting to see UNCRC panels created Together
We
hope that families will take the opportunity to come into school before
the end of term to see the wonderful UNCRC (United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child) panels currently on display in the foyer outside the
Gym Hall. They will also be on display in the Scottish Parliament in the Autumn. Below, the children explain the themes and messages in the panels.
Over the past
few months, Together and the Scottish Universities Insight Institute hosted four seminars on children's rights in law,
practice and policy, sharing national international examples of good
practice with a diverse group of delegates: http://www.togetherscotland.org.uk/resources-and-networks/the-uncrc-in-scotland-seminar-series-2017 As
part of this seminar series, Together has been working to ensure that children
and young people play a key role and that key messages from the seminars
are accessible to everyone. Together commissioned artists Joanna Boyce, Yonnie and Lyver to work with our P6 pupils to present key messages in a creative and engaging way. Three young people who had attended the seminars (Joel, Thomas and Suki) interpreted the key messages and themes then P6C pupils from Miss Katy Stewardson's class - Arwen, Thomas, Alma, Luis, Eilidh, Isaac, Eamon and Rachel - worked closely with the artists to visualise the imagery suggested, for example 'rights in the clouds', 'a policy factory', 'a meadow of rights' and 'connected Together in a daisy chain.'
During the project on 7th, 8th and 9th of June, Miss Stewardson's whole class discussed and worked on visualising UNCRC articles, particularly Article 42 Everyone should know about the UNCRC (finding ways to depict 42 of the articles) and Article 31 The right to play and rest.
P6C have included their own images of 42 articles of the UNRC
P6C's ideas will help create a new Playground Charter
Juliet and Liz from Together Alliance visited P6C on Election Day 8th June when Emily illustrated Article 4
PANEL ONE Isaac - The Policy Factory
"My panel showed all adults trying to let children have the rights but the children aren't actually involved in the process. I enjoyed working with the people and painting the mural." Isaac
"My panel shows the children reaching for their rights. They aren't getting their rights because the adults are not letting the children help them make the policies. It is important children are involved in things about them." Thomas
How can we help all children to reach their rights?
" My panel was the one about not getting heard. And children not getting respect. There was a teardrop in the middle because the child was sad that no one was listening to her." Luis
"Painting the mural was really fun. The artists were nice and helpful. I learned that I could change rights for other children in Scotland. I got better at painting over the two and a half days and enjoyed myself. I hope the mural changes the MSPs' views on decisions about kids' rights." Eilidh
The Clan, all Together for Children's Rights, including Noel, Leo and Suki
"This panel is where kids are well heard by all the adults. Instead of doing homework straight after school, this girl went outside, had some fresh air and learned more insects. Her teacher teaches mindfulness to her at school and all the children are well treated and well heard." Alma
"I think I got a lot out of painting the mural. I developed my teamwork skills while having fun with my friends. The panel I worked on the most was the Equations board which is about three people talking to each other about how rights should just be there, that every child has them." Eamon
It All Adds Up - every child born equals the same rights
PANEL SEVEN Rachel -The Meadow of Children's Rights
I really enjoyed working on the mural because it involved being very creative! I liked the ideas Joel, Thomas and Suki had come up with, so it was fun painting and building on them. The mural shows a powerful message to me and I hope it will do the same for anyone else who sees it!" Rachel
Journey along the panels to reach the Meadow of Children's Rights
When I painted this mural I learned that everyone has rights and that my voice should be heard. My panel/talking bit was about passing on the word of rights and that everyone should know about them. The mural was very fun to do and I learned lots about rights." Arwen
