P5 Carol Singing Raises £510 for @crisis_uk!

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 

Read more about P5 Homeless project here.

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.

Article 26

You have the right to help from the government if you are poor or in need.

Article 27

You have the right to have a good enough standard of living.
 

Sciennes Pupils' Voices Heard on Food Insecurity

In May 2016, pupils from current P5B (then P4B) gave their opinions on a variety of issues relating to Food Insecurity, in a wonderful morning of engaging and thought provoking activities designed and led by Dr Chelsea Marshall and a team from Nourish Scotland, based at Summerhall. You can read the full report they contributed to here:

http://www.cypcs.org.uk/ufiles/limitjs.pdf

Listening to what children think about food insecurity

    Acknowledgements

This report was commissioned by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland; all copyright permission belongs to the Commissioner’s office. Photographs by Alan McCredie, design by graphics coop.

The authors of this report are: Elli Kontorravdis, Olga Bloemen and Bella Crowe from Nourish Scotland. With kind thanks to Home-Start UK Scotland for co-ordination of the activity session logistics, and to children’s rights consultant Dr Chelsea Marshall whose support was integral to the design and delivery of the activity sessions. Thanks also to Sciennes Primary School for hosting a pilot session providing valuable feedback, and to Dr Flora Douglas for comments and feedback throughout the research. Most importantly, thank you to the children and families who gave their time to share thoughts on food insecurity, and the children that contributed drawings and photographs, we hope this report is an accurate reflection of your views.

Article 12

You have the right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously.

Article 27

You have the right to have a good enough standard of living.

P3 Led Foodbank Harvest Appeal P1-3 Assembly

Thank you to all our families for such generous support of the P3 led whole school Central and North West Edinburgh Foodbank Harvest Appeal. Ewan Walker (Co-founder, Trustee and Operations Manager) gave a presentation to pupils at both the P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Friday 28th October, explaining how the donations will make a real difference to families across Edinburgh.

P3 pupils, their teachers and Ms Anstruther are congratulated on a hugely successful project which allowed all the P3 pupils to plan, lead and organise the whole school event.

 

 Article 27

The right to have a good enough standard of living.

P3 Led Foodbank Appeal WE Scare Hunger Assembly

Sciennes WE Scare Hunger Foodbank Assembly 28.10.2016 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 28th October, Ewan from Edinburgh Central and Northwest Foodbank thanked all the pupils and families for their tremendous generosity in donating non perishable food items in response to the P3 led whole school Harvest Assembly. Ewan explained to the pupils how their donations will make a real difference to families across Edinburgh. P3 pupils, Ms Anstruther, Mr Scott and Mr Reid helped Ewan and his team load up their van at the end of Assemblies.

WE Free the Children is a charity sponsored by the Queen's Trust that we have been working with and the P3 Appeal linked very well with their 'WE Scare Hunger' Halloween Foodbank campaign.



Parent Kirstin Unger contacted us to let us know about the 'Carve A Heart' in a pumpkin campaign for Syria. Families wishing to take part can text HEART to 70060 to donate £3 and can use the hashtag #carveaheart to Tweet their support.



Pupils sang along to a Spanish song "Los Monstruos" suggested by Miss Stewardson and learned a new song about self belief by Will.i.am.





We were delighted to see that even more pupils have taken up the challenge of joining a library and we continue to aim for all our pupils to become members as part of the First Minister's Reading Passport Challenge.

We shared exciting news that Google Expeditions will visit school on Wednesday 30th November with special Virtual Reality Google Goggles!

P7 will begin selling poppies to classes on Monday 31st October for the next two weeks and will accept any donations offered. (Our poppies have stickers rather than pins.) Mr Howie told everyone about white poppies and explained how money raised in our poppy appeal will help ex-service people, as well as showing that those who lost their lives in war are remembered.

Article 27

The right to have a good enough standard of living.

P4-7 Foodbank WE Scare Hunger Assembly

P4-7 Foodbank Assembly 14.10.2016 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 14th October Mrs Noble led the P4-7 Assembly and told everyone about the forthcoming P3 led whole school Foodbank Appeal. Our Harvest Assembly will take place on 28th October when representatives from the North West Edinburgh Foodbank will collect donations of non perishable food items.

Ms Owen was congratulated on her seconded appointment to City of Edinburgh's 1+2 Languages team and everyone wished Ms Gaffney well as she begins her maternity leave.

Safe and happy holidays to all our families and we will welcome pupils back to school on TUESDAY 25th OCTOBER.

Article 27

The right to have a good enough standard of living.

 

 

 

Challenge Yourself! P4-7 Assembly 7.10.16

Sciennes P4-7 Challenge Yourself Assembly 7.10.16 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 7th October we issued the First Minister's Reading Challenge Passports to P4, P5 and P6 and reminded pupils what is involved in the Reading Challenge. P7 pupils have already received their passports and have begun using them.

One of the entries in the Reading Challenge Passport asks pupils to name their local library and librarian and we again encouraged all our pupils to join their local library. There are many free resources to pupils and families through the Library Service via the Overdrive app - eBooks, audiobooks, free Mathetics maths resources and games, language resources. Not signed up yet? A great challenge to complete in the Ocober holiday!

Ms French's Reading Challenge continues to be a great success with many more of her pupils achieving Gold awards for reading 15 books!

We congratulated many pupils on recent achievements and enjoyed a wonderful, confident performance on guitar from Kevin, Riley, Hannah and Eloise.

Our P3 whole school led Harvest Appeal for Foodbank launches next week and the P3 teams are busy organising. A collection will be made on Friday 28th October and ties in with international charity WE Free the Children's 'Scare Hunger' campaign. Free the Children will visit school in December and we are looking forward to welcoming them back again to help us with pupil led social action.

P7 will be at Lagganlia Outdoor Education Centre next week and we watched a video to help us think about how team work, belief and encouragement can help us achieve!




Class Teachers in P4-7 will inform pupils if and how their classes will celebrate Halloween this year.

Article 28

The right to learn

Article 27

The right to have a good enough standard of living.

P2 Pupils Address CEC 1 in 5 Child Poverty Conference

Confident Individuals, Emma and Bella, with Ms Anstruther

Audience at Faith Misson, Edinburgh 1 in 5 Child Poverty Awareness Conference

Sciennes is one of six city schools taking part in a City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) pilot project to raise awareness of 1 in 5 Child Poverty and explore ways to reduce the cost of the school day. Depute Head, Ms Carolyn Anstruther, and Headteacher, Mrs Alison Noble, accompanied P2 pupils, Emma and Bella, to the Faith Mission in Edinburgh on Tuesday 22nd March. In front of a huge gathered audience of Headteachers and school leaders, the P2 girls spoke about their award winning idea to 'Make a Difference.' They realised that events like World Book Day can cause expense for families so cleverly suggested that school could keep a 'dressing up' box of costumes for pupils to borrow and their idea was awarded £250! Ms Anstruther has invited everyone to donate any old, grown out of, costumes to school to add to the collection for borrowing.

Everyone is immensely proud of the terrific confidence shown by Emma and Bella and they were congratulated at the P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Thursday 24th March.

Article 12 The right to be heard
Article 26 The right to have help if you are poor or in need
Article 27 The right to have a good enough standard of living

Make a Difference Award of £250!

Sciennes is one of six city schools taking part in a City of Edinburgh pilot project to raise awareness of 1 in 5 Child Poverty and explore ways to reduce the cost of the school day. Depute Head, Ms Carolyn Anstruther, accompanied five Sciennes Pupil Council members to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 14th March and she announced at Assemblies on Friday 18th March that two of our P2 pupils, Emma and Bella, have won an award for their idea to 'Make a Difference!' They realised that events like World Book Day can cause expense for families so cleverly suggested that school could keep a 'dressing up' box of costumes for pupils to borrow and their idea was awarded £250! Ms Anstruther invited everyone to donate any unused costumes to school to add to the collection for borrowing.

Sciennes Pupil Council at the Scottish Parliament

Article 26 The right to have help if you are poor or in need
Article 27 The right to have a good enough standard of living

 

Making a Difference

Sciennes Make A Difference and Sport Relief Assembly 18.3.16 from SciennesPS

Pattie Santelices and Ms Anstruther present at Assembly

 

Pattie Santelices, City of Edinburgh Principal Officer Health and Wellbeing, joined our Assembly on Friday 18th March to share information about City of Edinburgh's 1 in 5 Child Poverty Awareness project. Ms Anstruther accompanied five Sciennes Pupil Council members to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 14th March and she announced that two of our P2 pupils, Emma and Bella, have won an award for their idea to 'Make a Difference!' They cleverly suggested that school could keep a 'dressing up' box of costumes for pupils to borrow and their idea was awarded £250! Ms Anstruther invited everyone to donate any unused costumes to school to add to the collection for borrowing.

We were all absolutely delighted when Pattie announced that P6B pupil Asma's poster, highlighting 1 in 5 Child Poverty, has been selected as overall winner and will be used in campaign literature throughout Edinburgh! Pattie presented Asma with a framed copy of her artwork and a certificate. Runner up P6C pupil Samara also received a framed copy of her artwork. All the children who entered the competition received special highlighter pens for their contribution in highlighting 1 in 5 child poverty. Thank you to Art Club Teacher, Heather Lucchesi, and to Ms Anstruther for helping the pupils express their ideas so well visually.

Overall 1 in 5 Poster competition winner, Asma, with Pattie Santelices

Great achievement, Asma!

Runner up Samara

Highlighting 1 in 5 Child Poverty

All the pupils were congratulated for helping to Make a Difference by dressing up in sports gear and P.E. kit and donating to Sport Relief. Our end of day total was £450! Congratulations to Ella, Ailsa and Sarah for showing great initiative in organising their own bake sale and raising £14. Very well done to P7A and P5C girls who raised an incredible total of more than £400 rollerskating across the Forth Road Bridge! We look forward to hearing about any other personal fundraising efforts from our pupils since many are taking part in local run, swim or cycle events this weekend.

Extraordinary Sport Relief fundraising P7A and P5c girls!

Ella, Ailsa and Sarah baked to raise £14 for Sport Relief. Great initiative!

P7 Sports Captains congratulated pupils for their achievements this week and led everyone in singing the Sport Relief song, "Step It Up".

Special commendation to Alex, Rory and Alex for their initiative in Making a Difference by organising a school collection of Easter eggs for Foodbank. Outstanding citizens! Thank you to everyone who donated.



Article 26 The right to have help if you are poor or in need
Article 27 The right to have a good enough standard of living

Angela Burdett-Coutts' Philanthropy

Mr Howie led our P4-7 Assembly on Friday 11th March, cleverly linking recent learning in P5 Old Edinburgh, P6 Jacobites, World Book Day and International Women's Day with Rights Education in his tale of the mightily impressive Victorian philanthropist, Angela Burdett-Coutts. Her philanthropy and influence were even more remarkable at a time when women could not yet vote.

Mr Howie encouraged everyone to keep thinking about how we can each make a difference and praised pupils Alex and Rory for their initiative in organising donations of Easter eggs for Foodbank at school.

P7 Reader Leader, Toby, explained how everyone can help keep the Playground Reading Shed organised and Lena told us about the Eurochild Drawing competition. 

Sport Relief is on Friday 18th March and our P7 Sports Captains demonstrated Out of the Ark's "Step It Up" Sport Relief dance. They informed pupils about signing up online to local Run, Cycle, Swim events next weekend and invited us to dress up in sports gear or P.E. kit on Friday. Sports Captains will collect any donations on the day.

Philanthropy P4-7 Assembly 11.3.16 from SciennesPS

Article 2 The right to protection against discrimination
Article 26 The right to have help if you are poor or in need
Article 27 The right to have a good enough standard of living