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 3rd March we held a Fairtrade Assembly to highlight how paying a fair, minimum price to Fairtrade farmers can make a real difference to their livelihoods. Mr Hutchison is organising a Fairtrade Craft and Tuckshop (with the support of the One World Shop based at Nicolson Square) on Thursday 9th March and will provide further details next week.
We watched a video of Kid President meeting Former President Barack Obama where his key question was, "How can adults and children work together to change the world?" and the answer was to treat everyone with kindness and respect,
Mr Obama has encouraged the next generation to 'take up the mic' through his Obama Foundation and we are encouraging pupils to get involved in Red Nose Day by 'saying something funny for money.'
We are mindful of our 1 in 5 Child Poverty Awareness project and so pupils need only bring a donation if they wish, rather than be sponsored. Pupils will be asked to share a joke, funny story, rhyme, poem or drawing with their class as part of our whole school Comedy Festival later in the month and we are looking forward to encouraging their confidence in performance and their Listening and Talking skills in a fun way, and as part of Health and Wellbeing programmes.
P7 pupils will soon be selling red noses in school and their P7 Comedy Book "BaDUMtsh", professionally published by Sciennes' parent Mary Turner Thomson through her Whitewater Publishing Company launches on 17th March, with profits donated to Comic Relief. Please respond to the email you will shorty receive to place advance orders by 8th March, ahead of printing dates.
P7 Comedy Book
Sciennes' parent Richard Melvin, comedian and compere at The Stand, has very kindly offered to provide comedy workshops for P6 pupils and we continue to use the BBC Learning resource "Comedy Classroom" to develop literacy skills through comedy. We are very grateful for the support and encouragement we have received from the Gilded Balloon. We began to learn the new Red Nose Day song for Comic Relief and everyone who takes part in our Comedy Festival will receive a certificate.
P5 pupil Cole blew everyone away with his outstanding street dance skills and he gained deserved applause for his confident performance. P7 Sports Captains congratulated pupils on many recent achievements.
What a superb return visit to Sciennes on Wednesday 7th December2016 from WE, again arranged for us by Schools Co-ordinator Harriet Morgan.
In June 2016, Jacob, a Speaker and Facilitator from WE Free the Children, worked with half of
our (then P6) pupils and it was a superb and inspirational day,
providing a wealth of opportunities for our children to embrace pupil
leadership. Wednesday 7th December 2016 marked a welcome return visit from the
charity, where two Speakers and Facilitators, Frankie and Chloe, kindly accommodated the remaining
half of our P7 pupils.
P5, P6 and P7 pupils were invited to a special assembly at 9am and then
half the P7 year group took part in WE workshops
throughout the day, while Ms Sellar led the remaining pupils in a
repeat of her excellent Global Goals workshop, focusing on Gender
Equality.
The format of the workshops fitted ideally with our aims to develop pupil-led social action as part of the Junior Award Scheme for Schools:
Team Building/Issues Module – exploring prevalent issues in society, and globally to build confidence,
identify leadership skills and also get pupils thinking about issues
they care about. Reflective Module - enabling pupils to think how they can use their skills for
issues that are important to them. Action Planning - putting pen to paper to create a
tangible action plan for children to develop and put into practice.
What
a wonderful, highly inspirational and motivational day which we are certain will have impressed the visiting VIPs, Anne,
Kate and Alison, as
much as it did the children and staff. Frankie
and Chloe skilfully led the children through complex issues, channeling
their ideas and thoughts very effectively and giving them a strong sense of empowerment to make a difference. We are very grateful that WE has
been able to accommodate our entire year group of 97 P7 pupils who now
have a shared experience that we will use not only to assist them with
taking on social action themselves, but also cascading what they have learned to others
in school. The feedback from the children evidenced how deeply they had
thought about the issues raised and how positively they had responded to the
session. Our
P5 and P6 pupils who also attended the Assembly with P7 in the
morning have been equally positive and the visit was a huge help in
taking forward our engagement with WE as a school. The WE pack of learning resources is superb (which includes many UNCRC-linked,Curriculum for Excellence specific materials) and P5 pupils have already begun using the 'WE Won't Rest' Homelessness Section. We are very fortunate to have established a working relationship with this dynamic, pro-activecharity, which has such a strong focus on pupils taking the lead, firmly rooted in the UNCRC and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
Frankie's P5-P7 Assembly - "Be the Change"
Special visitor from The Queen’s Trust, Alison and Kate Likely, UK
Director of WE
Craig Kielburger founded WE Free the Children aged 11 with his brother in Canada in 1995 and it is now an international charity and youth movement.
Iqbal Masih's story inspired Craig Kielburger to establish WE Free the Children.
Chloe and Frankie inspired and empowered P7 to be change makers.
Getting to know you and establishing respectful interaction.
Trust exercises
Issues Pictionary
Pictionary issues included litter, hunger,
dirty water, homelessness and child labour.
Great to see the classes getting on so well in mixed Pictionary Teams.
This group 'blew Chloe's mind' with their great ideas for social action.
Quality co-operation in planning their campaigns.
Each Dream Team was made up of pupils from all three P7 classes.
Presenting ideas for making a difference
Global Goal 5 - Gender Equality
Ms Sellar capably led the remaining half of the group in her innovative workshops designed to familiarise pupils
with the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular Goal
5 Gender Equality.
Firstly, pupils in mixed teams from each class considered the Global
Goals, decided which three were most important to them and explained
why.
In the afternoon session, they were then asked to list as many jobs as
they could, categorise them into male and female occupations on Post-Its
and display these. Their ideas were discussed with the whole group and
pupils naturally began to recognise and realise many stereotypes in
their initial attitudes.
Pupils explored how phrases such a "Act like a man" and "Be ladylike" can limit people.
Ms Sellar explained how Global Goal 5, Gender Equality, is a fundamental
goal in achieving the other goals and showed the pupils this
thought-provoking video, "Like A Girl":
Pupils were asked to pledge actions they will take to support gender equality.
"I pledge to let people be who they want to be."
"I promise I'll include everyone whatever their gender is."
"I promise to try to make the world a better place. Even if I fail I will try again."
"I pledge to make the Global Goals a reality."
About WE
WE is an
international charity and educational partner that believes in a world
where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as
change-makers. Over the last 20 years, WE has grown into
an international movement supporting youth empowerment through
educational service-learning initiatives in North America and the United
Kingdom, and a holistic and sustainable international development
model. It is supported by the Queen's Trust, the UN, Virgin Atlantic and
has many international supporters - Malala, Desmond Tutu, Prince
Harry, Oprah will give a flavour. Their model is 'children helping
children' and they promote pupil
leadership and taking action, here and abroad. The scheme began in
Canada, initiated by one of the CEOs when he was 12, and is a social
enterprise
endeavour.
For more information about WE, visit their website.
The 'WE' programme fits extremely well with our well established Junior Awards
Scheme Scotland (JASS) programme in P6 and P7 where pupils are asked to
take their own action to achieve a 'Me and My World' element. JASS is a
children's version of The Duke of Edinburgh Award, and the idea for it
actually came from Sciennes! It is now adopted throughout Edinburgh and
beyond so has been retitled Junior Award Scheme for Schools.
The Junior Award Scheme Schools
(JASS) is an accredited learning programme, celebrating wider
achievement, for young people (P6-S2). Sciennes and Tollcross Primary
Schools have been implementing this scheme since we piloted it in 2009. The concept emerged from a discussion during a Sciennes P7 visit
to Lagganlia between Alice Brown, Gael Logan and Barry Hewitt who came
up with the idea to set up a 'Duke of Edinburgh' style award scheme for
upper primary pupils. The scheme has since been developed into a city
wide programme.
There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold), each requiring a
higher degree of commitment. Each level also includes four sections to
be completed:
My interest - a hobby or interest
Get Active, Stay Active - involvement in a sport or physical activity
Me and My World - a community or environmental project
Adventure - a teamwork challenge through involvement in an outdoor activity (e.g Benmore and Lagganlia)
Sciennes helped develop an online version - eJASS.
WE also fits well with our Unicef Rights Respecting Schools programme. We have recently achieved Level One and our next
steps are to continue to extend knowledge of UNCRC and to expand
global citizenship. The WE programme will assist us with that. We
have highlighted the relevance of the Global Goals for Sustainable
Development since their launch in September 2015 and the programme also
supports this extremely well, as well as our involvement in the #iwillcampaign, promoting pupil social action.
