Trip to Craigievar Castle: We had a fantastic last day of term with a trip to Craigievar Castle for some ranger activities and a tour of the castle itself. Many thanks to all our parent helpers, our super tour guide, and our ranger Ewan for making this a memorable day. The weather improved during the morning and some of our pupils opted to walk back to school which was very enjoyable.
End of Year Assembly: This is a special assembly to award all our cups and trophies to our winners, and to say farewell to our Primary 7 pupils. A lovely movie of the school year reminded us of all that we have squeezed in to a busy 40 weeks of term.
Fun Day: To reward the children for all their hard work over the year they were treated to a bouncy castle and obstacle course set up in the playground, as well as a visit from the ice cream van. Many thanks to the PTA for helping fund this event.
Forest School: The sun shone for the last of our forest school sessions this term. It is lovely to see how the children's skills have developed over the course of the year.
Sports Day: Well done to all our pupils who showed great team work in the house events, and then determination and sportsmanship in the individual events. We always look forward to the tug-of-war!
Water Fight: A much looked forward to event by the pupils (not so much the staff!). P7s and House Captains teamed up against the teachers, resulting in everyone getting soaked. Great fun was had by all!
Inter-house Football & Netball Tournaments: There was great competition from our house teams, with staff joining in with the netball tournament. Well done to the Wildcats who won both the Football and Netball Cups.
P7 Link Week at Alford Academy: Our 5 P7s enjoyed their week at the academy, where they followed their timetable for next year, met their teachers, and made lots of new friends.
River Dee Trust: A big thank you to the River Dee Trust for a couple of super visits for our pupils. The P1-3 class had a lesson in the playground learning about rivers, the wildlife that lives in and around them, camouflage, and predators & prey. They also studied a selection of freshwater invertebrates and tried to identify them. The P4-7s has a visit to the River Don at Haughton Park and learnt about salmon and freshwater pearl musses, with the highlight being going in to the river to see what they could find in the shallows.
Football & Netball Tournaments: It is a busy time of year with the football and netball tournaments. Our own tournament, organised by the PTA, took place in May and was a great success. A big thank you to all our parent helpers, our football and netball coaches, and of course all the players. Over £1,700 was raised!
Egg Challenge and Easter Egg Hunt: The whole school were put in to groups for the afternoon with each group being given a hard-boiled egg. They had to come up with a way, using whatever junk material they wanted, to protect the egg from cracking when dropped from a height. Well done to everyone for working so well together, and especially to the four teams who protected their egg from any damage! These four teams got a 10 second head start in the easter egg hunt, where they had to find 180 pictures of eggs that were dotted around the school playground. Each picture had a letter on it, so after finding as many as they could, the pupils then had to make as many words as possible using the letters - the top team found 48 words! Well done!
Cluny Netball Festival: Despite the cold, damp conditions, the netball team played really well at this event, winning most of their games. Well done!
Primary School Quiz: Well done to our P7 team who competed against teams from all the other local schools in the annual Primary School Quiz. A big thank you to the Rotary Club for organising this event.
Science Centre: The whole school enjoyed their trip to Aberdeen Science Centre where they explored a huge variety of hands on exhibits based around energy, forces, construction and life science. A visit to Hazlehead Park on the way home was great fun too!
P1-3 Bug Hunt: As part of their project on mini beasts, the P1-3 class went searching in the wildlife garden to see what creatures they could find.
World Book Day: To celebrate World Book Day, pupils came to school in their cosy pyjamas and brought along a teddy and their favourite book to share with their friends. They enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate while our minister, Simon, read everyone a story, and also took part in a fun quiz.
Pancake Day: The pupils learnt about Shrove Tuesday and made some delicious pancakes, and also learnt about Mardi Gras and decorated boxes to look like carnival floats
P7 Residential Trip: An exciting few days away for our P7s and Mrs Dennison!
ALEC visit: The pupils always enjoy the ALEC visits at school, with their life tent. The P4-7s topic this year was 'The Brain: Calming the busy mind', and the P1-3 class talked about 'taking care of our feelings'.
Live Music Performance: Both classes enjoyed a live music performance from JKL Duo. Kerry & Jacopo played music from all types of genre, and the children recognised many of the tunes. Having been inspired by this, several items in the classroom were turned into drums for the afternoon!
Kemnay Netball Festival: The first netball festival of the season, and the team played really well. It's a great way to learn about playing as a team, and against other schools, without any pressure of keeping score. Thanks to Active Schools for organising these events.
P1-3 Class Reward: The P1-3 class have worked so hard that they have earned a class reward. They were all allowed to bring in a teddy from home, and a game, and they had a fun afternoon playing their games with their friends, and enjoyed hot chocolate and popcorn.
P7 Transition Event: P7 pupils, along with pupils from Keig, Tough, and Lumsden, had a fun morning building dens and doing some team building games.
Burns Lunch: To celebrate Robert Burns, one of our pupils played the bagpipes as we went in to lunch, where we all enjoyed a delicious meal of haggis, neeps and tatties. We have also been learning some ceilidh dancing, and parents joined us for a fun ceilidh afternoon.
Rugby: Both classes have enjoyed their first sessions of rugby which have been organised by Active Schools and Deeside Rugby Club. The sun was shining and it was good to see everyone outside having fun.
Christmas Crafts: A big thank you to the PTA for organising a super morning of Christmas Crafts for all the pupils. A great way to end the term.
Christmas Party: What a fun time we had! And a very special visitor came along too!
School Shows: Both classes performed brilliantly in their shows, and Craigievar Hall was full of friends and family who had come to watch. Well done everyone!
Pantomime: We had a super trip in to Aberdeen to see 'Dick Whittington' at Aberdeen Arts Centre. There was a lot of booing and cheering, and thank goodness Dick and his cat won the day and defeated King Rat!
Christmas Lunch and Jumper Day: The pupils all looked very festive in their Christmas Jumpers, and they all created some lovely origami Christmas trees to decorate the tables at lunch time.
P4-7 Forest School: The P4-7 class enjoyed some Forest School sessions in Term 3. A big thank you to all our parent helpers.
Halloween Crafts: A big thank you to the PTA for organising a super craft afternoon for all the pupils.
Red Cross Workshop: Pupils in P5-7 had another super workshop from the Red Cross on 'Empathy and Migration'.
End of Term Assembly: It was great to see so many parents and friends at our end of term assembly. The pupils shared their learning, with a focus on writing, and read out some super poems and stories. The P4-7 class sang a calypso, using percussion instruments and singing in rounds. The P1-3 class told the story of 'The gigantic turnip' which was beautifully read by one of our P3 pupils, with the class performing actions to the words. Thank you to the PTA for once again providing book prizes for this term's winners. Assembly finished with a super performance by our Line Dancers. Thank you to everyone who donated food to our harvest collection.
P1-3 Forest School: The P1-3 class have got a block of six forest school sessions this term, and so far the weather has been lovely. The pupils have been bug hunting, cooking bread and popcorn over the firepit, using a bow saw, made dens, and been very creative with clay.
Open Afternoon: Our older pupils did a super job showcasing their learning and work during our open afternoon. The younger pupils enjoyed showing their parents the classroom and some of the things they have been doing so far this term.
New Term: It is lovely to see everyone back at school and to welcome all our new pupils. We also welcome back Miss Pittendreigh who has returned from Maternity Leave and will be teaching the P4-7 class.