Snowdrops or just snow? It remains to be seen!

Happy holidays everyone! 5 weeks have whistled past since we resumed in January and we have all enjoyed slightly lighter mornings and evenings over the last few days. When we return, spring will hopefully be just around the corner – or possibly not if the severe weather forecast is true. Whatever you are doing over the next week please take care and have a lovely time.

I have had the privilege this week to attend a fantastic learning event with Education Scotland’s South East Improvement Collaborative (SEIC) and for 3 days I worked alongside other Head Teachers and Education Managers from across Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians, as well as Education Scotland attainment advisors, on one of the most powerful pieces of professional learning I’ve experienced. It was three days very well spent and I have plenty of ideas for next steps following it. I look forward to reconvening with the group over another six days spread across two sessions in May and September.

On Monday, Mr Chetwynd took a group of P7s to The Crags Centre to take part in an Edinburgh Primary Schools Sports Association basketball competition against other Edinburgh schools. They fought hard for every basket on the court and had a great time – even though they sadly didn’t make it through to the finals. Well done for taking part P7!

Thank you to everyone who supported my first ‘pop-up’ coffee event this morning, hot drinks were definitely welcome on such a cold day and the money raised will go into school funds. The parents accompanying P1 on a frosty Forest Schools expedition were especially glad of an opportunity to have a hot drink in their hands as they set off although Mrs Pender was delighted that for once there was a café in the ‘forest’ as they headed up Calton Hill! 

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When we return, look out for information about which show your child will be going to see as part of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival in May; all our choices and ticket allocations will be confirmed today which is very exciting! P6 will also be starting the tricky task of designing what they would like their P7 sweatshirts to look like; next session we will be moving from the traditional red to navy blue in line with the rest of the school but they will be able to have something special on the back. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Enjoy your holiday and I look forward to seeing you when school and Nursery resume on the 17th February.

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher 

Wilderness Explorers

The Nursery took a trip to the Highlands on Wednesday…oh no wait a minute, it was Holyrood Park! You could be forgiven for making the mistake from the photos though. They managed to find a spot where the sights and sounds of the surrounding city melted away and they could have been far away from Edinburgh. Mr Martin explains more about their day below…

“With the sun shining as we left the Nursery and headed over to Holyrood Park, we were already deciding what we would be doing on our adventures; felled tress were to become horses, boats and trains and (inspired by P1) we were going to use sticks to make spiders webs.

Whilst exploring the park, we used ropes to help each other climb, jumped on the ‘bouncy grass’, relaxed on our hammock and swung on the rope swing. Forest Adventures is such a fantastic experience for our children whose enthusiasm shone throughout the day – so much so we didn’t notice the clouds which had appeared as we headed back to Nursery ”

What an impressive backdrop for some outdoor imaginative play!

We all love a snooze in the sun

Leslie talks trees with one of our explorers!

They were lucky to be joined by a special visitor, Leslie Evans, who is the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government. She came to see the excellent outdoor learning practice our nursery engages in and they were delighted to have her along for part of their Forest Adventures. Leslie was impressed with how well the children worked together,  using their imagination and creativity as they engaged with the local environment.

 

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be running Homework/Literacy Sessions in partnership with Lifelong Learning. It’s no secret that, as with all professions, teaching and teaching techniques are constantly evolving so if you’re ever left thinking “This isn’t how they did it when I was at school” and out of your depth when it comes to helping with school work or any other literacy activity, please feel welcome to come along! 

It’s impossible to get a time to suit everyone so if you are interested but unable to come due to the time, please let us know for future events.

Spotlight on….P7

The P7s have started an extended art project based at the Palace of Holyrood House and being run by the Education team there. This project will give the children free access to the Queen’s Gallery where they will be using their extraordinary collection of Leonardo da Vinci sketches as a stimulus for developing their own skills and creating sketch books.

The course started with a marbling workshop where the children made their own  unique book covers which will form the cover of their sketch books. Check our twitter feed @AbbeyhillPS next week for photos as the detailed work begins!

And finally, please keep an eye out on this blog as well as the Parent Council Facebook page and Twitter feed @AbbeyhillPC for some very exciting outdoor learning news at Abbeyhill. The Parent Council have worked tirelessly to secure funding to bring something special to our playground and got some very good news this week. Mr Woodhouse and Mr Hamilton have also been involved and we expect to see some exciting additions to our learning spaces before the end of the school year is out. Watch this space!

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Next week I am looking forward to taking part in a South East Improvement Collaborative ‘think piece’ on Evolving Systems Thinking whilst back at school, P7 will be travelling to The Crags Centre to represent Abbeyhill at the Edinburgh Primary Schools Sports Association Basketball tournament, P6 will be going to Dynamic Earth for the Space Showcase and the rest of Abbeyhill will be thinking about the holidays – whilst continuing to work hard of course. Please don’t forget that we break up for half term on Friday 7th February and resume as usual on Monday 17th February.

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

Haggis-tastic!

Last night saw the third annual Parent Council Burns Supper and it was bigger and better than ever before! Thanks to our Parent Council Chair (who slaved over several hot stoves all day!) we ate a delicious meal of homemade roast cauliflower soup, traditional haggis, neeps and tatties, finished off with fruit and shortbread made by P1 in our Cooking Classroom – with all the cutlery presented in tartan cutlery holders handmade by P2. Tickets for dinner were sold out (as word has spread over the last few years) and we were delighted to welcome even more families for the ceilidh at 6pm. Before the dancing started, we were treated to performances of both traditional and contemporary Scots poems and songs by our very talented Abbeyhill pupils. We had had the dress rehearsal for this in school on Wednesday where every class from P1 – P7 prepared a performance piece with the highlights being P5’s enthusiastic rendering of ‘A Dug, A Dug!’ by Bill Keys and P6’s premiere of the song they helped to write as part of their involvement with the Burns and Beyond festival. £362 was raised for Parent Council funds and this will go towards the creation of our Outdoor Classroom which Mr Woodhouse is leading on. Well done everyone!

Speaking of which, P6 enjoyed their final event of the Burns and Beyond festival at the Assembly Rooms yesterday with pupils from Flora Stevenson’s, St Joseph’s and Corstorphine Primary Schools. The Bairns’ Burns Supper also included guests from the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and Culture United.

P6 entertain the crowds at the Assembly Rooms!

Thank you Lochcarron for our very own Abbeyhill tartan!

Heads together to decide where to display it in school…

Tired but happy after a very successful event!

Live music was featured as well as Burns poetry, guest speakers, traditional Burns Supper food and the showcase of each school’s creative ideas. It ended with a mass ceilidh with music from a live band and instructors from Dancebase before it was time to head back to school. Everyone agreed that it was a fantastic experience which we were very lucky to be part of (thanks to Miss Stamati being quick off the mark with Abbeyhill’s application!)

P1-3 were lucky enough to enjoy a visit from Generation Science on Thursday and experienced their ‘Get Fizzy’ workshop where they learned about mixing liquids and solids with often surprising results! We definitely have a few budding scientists at Abbeyhill – well done everyone!

STEM is for everyone at Abbeyhill!

STEM is for everyone at Abbeyhill!

Generation Science is the schools touring programme from the Edinburgh International Science Festival. Each year, they run interactive science workshops in schools all over Scotland from January to May and we always enjoy getting fully involved. This year the Science Festival will run from 4th – 19th April so make a note in your diaries!

Earlier in the week, I attended a Leadership Conference at our local Drummond Community High School and heard from inspirational speakers on a range of topics including assessment, middle leadership and Lesson Study, a practice originating in Japanese schools where several teachers work together to develop teaching practice in an agreed target area. It’s something we’re very keen to try at Abbeyhill so it was useful to hear more about it. Most interestingly was the acknowledgement that our young people learning in schools today need to be taught to foster creativity, critical thinking, be able to collaborate and communicate in order to be able to take successful next steps when they leave school and that the age of needing to retain endless facts may be coming to an end.

This week also saw a new Artist in Residence, Anna Danikwicz start work with P4. Anna will work with the class for 7 weeks and is a sculptor, ceramicist and writer so we’re very excited to see what she develops with the class. All the work produced with our Artists in Residence will of course be available to be viewed by the public at the Colony of Artists festival later this year (19th & 20th September 2020). Next week, P6 will be continuing work with Holly McCulloch from the Collective Gallery who we have built up a sustained and productive relationship with over the last 5 years. Check back here to see what they get up to!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

Burns…and Beyond

Burns and Beyond

This week has seen P6 embark on a host of exciting activities as part of ‘Burns and Beyond’, a project run by Culture United for Abbeyhill and 3 other lucky Edinburgh primary schools who will have the opportunity to participate and engage with Burns Night and Scottish culture through live performance, workshops and a special Bairns’ Burns Supper event in the Assembly Rooms Culture United is an ERASMUS+ funded project that partners cultural events with education providers to deliver multidisciplinary education in schools. In Edinburgh, the partnership is being delivered between the Council’s Creative Learning and Culture Services through the Burns and Beyond Festival, working with four Edinburgh primary schools. 

 

P6 visit the Assembly Rooms with the other schools taking part in ‘Burns and Beyond’ to

As part of the ‘beyond’ section of the project, to celebrate Chinese New Year and Burns Night falling on the same date of 25th January in 2020, Burns & Beyond is also collaborating with Edinburgh’s China Ready initiative and key attractions, to present a programme of activity and events celebrating the national events, Scotland’s friendship with China and the work Edinburgh has produced in recent years to attract and welcome Chinese visitors to the capital. We’re very excited for the culmination of all Miss Stamati and P6’s hard work next week!

Don’t worry, be happy!

That’s the message that the Abbeyhill Ambassadors are spreading over the next few weeks as we carry on from our ‘Kindness’ focus in December and spread positive vibes throughout the school. They’ve decided to use playground chalk to write positive messages in the playground and post-its inside. The tricky part is, they need to try to do it without being seen! Keep your eyes out…you might just catch one of them in their next act of kindness.

 

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While this is fun and makes everyone (hopefully) feel good, they have also decided that they would like to explore supporting children less fortunate than themselves and over the next few weeks we will look at whether we can donate book packages to care centres and get involved with our local homeless shelter. Watch this space! 

Spotlight on P1

P1 have been busy consolidating their growing knowledge of 2D shapes this week and took to the playground to show Mr Hamilton what they’ve learned. 

 

Next week…

…I’ll be at a conference for Edinburgh Head Teachers on Tuesday, our whole school Burns celebration assembly is on Wednesday, P6 have two Burns and Beyond events on Wednesday and Thursday including their Bairns Burns’ Supper AND it’s the very popular Parent Council Burns’ Supper which is returning for its 3rd year on Thursday. Tickets have already sold out so if you haven’t got yours yet….you’ll have to be faster in 2021!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher 

We’ll be doing plenty in 2020!

Welcome back to our Abbeyhill school community after what was hopefully an enjoyable holiday. The days are still dark but we’re drawing closer to spring and there are lots of exciting things to come this term. For instance, tickets are now on sale for the Parent Council Burns’ Supper later this month so please contact either the Parent Council or the main school office for more details of how to secure yours. This event has become very popular and involves delicious food that has been prepared in our Cooking Classroom, ceilidh dancing, an address to the haggis and the all-important Scottish poetry recitals! Poems are being selected this week before rehearsals begin in earnest next week and it’s possible that there may be some friendly rivalry between the classes as to who can remember all their words…watch this space! Vast swathes of tartan, kindly donated by Kinloch Anderson, have appeared in P2 which have been transformed into cutlery holders whilst P1 will be perfecting their recipe for home-made shortbread.

P2 team hard at work

Mrs Pender in support!

Fantastic sewing P2!

 

Next week, P7 will have a visit from Lifelong Learning Development Officer Alan Stewart, who will help them to complete a ‘Youth Talk’ along with 200 other children from the ’10 Villages’ area of Edinburgh. Alan will talk to them about the Neighbourhood Environment Programme and help them to communicate their own ideas for environmental improvements in their area. This is a hot topic in Abbeyhill, as indeed it is everywhere, so I’m confident that P7 will have plenty to say!

P6 will be heavily engaged with ‘Burns and Beyond’ with Miss Stamati as part of a wider Culture United project. They will visit Flora Stevenson’s Primary and the Assembly Rooms next week for dance rehearsals with the other 3 schools taking part before enjoying a Scottish Dance workshop on Friday where they will create a song and musical accompaniment with the main aim of building confidence, encouraging participation and having fun! They’re all looking forward to the ‘Bairns Burns’ Supper’ later in the month before welcoming international project delegates to Abbeyhill to talk through their experiences of learning about Scottish culture through such an exciting series of events.

I will be attending the annual schools launch of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (formerly known as Imaginate) to get a sneak preview of the festival programme and the opportunity to hear from the Festival Director. This festival gives us an opportunity for our children to access live theatre in various venues close to Abbeyhill and the performances are always of the highest quality. Check back next week to find out which shows we’re tipping to be the best this year!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher