The countdown is on!

Everything suddenly seems a little more sparkly at Abbeyhill! The lights are up, festive music is playing, Jack has his Santa hat on, Nativity rehearsals are at fever pitch, Mr Woodhouse and P7 are sawing something….what?! It turned out to be a sustainable Christmas tree made out of reclaimed wood – phew.* Mr McNeil and P5 were also working hard turning single use cups into something that could be enjoyed for a little longer and their homemade decorations will be adorning the P5 tree once they’re dry. There’s still lots of hard work going on as well, P4 have been working on probability this week and P5 created a function machine challenge!

*Yes, there was a risk assessment in place!

Here’s one they made earlier…

Which is your favourite?

Head Teacher Recruitment

I’m pleased to say that the recruitment process for our new Head Teacher is moving forward with final interviews being held on the 14^th December. As the notice period of the successful candidate could be up to 12 weeks, I have agreed to stay at Abbeyhill until the new Head Teacher is able to start. I’m absolutely delighted to be able to relax and enjoy Christmas at Abbeyhill now without worrying about packing my office up! Thank you once again to the parents who are supporting the recruitment process.

Coming up…Christmas!

Next week we will be celebrating Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children and, inspired by South Morningside Primary, we are having a ‘Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle Christmas Jumper Day Boutique’ where any Christmas jumpers from years gone by which don’t fit anyone in the family any more have been donated and will be gifted to smaller children who will be able to get some more wear out of them. Younger siblings are being encouraged to wear an older one’s jumper that might now just fit them, or just to wear it big and silly and borrow a grown up’s! We can’t wait to see what everyone wears and no doubt there will be an extra special Christmas Disco Daily Mile where we can all show off our Christmas Jumpers. A donation will be made by the school to Save the Children so there is no cost to Abbeyhill pupils for this event and we hope the focus on sustainability will encourage everyone to think twice about the true cost of ‘fast fashion’.

Christmas parties will also be starting up and, as we can’t have them in the large groups we used to, there will be a party almost every day from Tuesday right through to the end of term! Extra coffee will be required by the staff I think!

Thank you to everyone, staff, pupils and parents who have been so understanding while we have worked extra hard this week due to staff absence. We wish all our absent staff well and look forward to welcoming some of them back next week. Special congratulations to Ms Gordon who becomes Mrs Gordon tomorrow and will be back on Tuesday to show off her wedding photos!

Best wishes,

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

And we’re off!

The 2021-22 session is well and truly underway and it’s been lovely to welcome all of our new and returning families back to Abbeyhill for the start of term. Click below to view our latest news on Sway!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

Our first weeks

Welcome to our first update of the 2021-22 session! The first few weeks of term have whipped by and I’m so enjoying being back to school and seeing everyone. Although it feels like I’ve nev…

Go to this Sway

Pizza Express Trip

Primary 4 have been learning all about eating a healthy, balanced diet and also about the nutritional value of food. We have been learning to read food labels and have been thinking about the content of sugar, fat and salt in the foods that we eat. As part of our learning, we have been thinking about how home made food is often healthier than ready made meals. In our class, pizza is defintiely a favourite food so we took a trip to Pizza Express at Victoria Terrace to find out how to make fresh, home cooked pizza. We learned about the importance of using fresh ingredients and herbs to make our food tasty. It was a great trip where we enjoyed going on the bus and eating our pizza when we got back to school!

P3b at the museum!

On Monday P3b visited the National Museum of Scotland!

We saw lots of fantastic animals and we knew loads about them. In class we have been learning about animal adaptations to different climate zones. This seal has blubber to keep it warm in the icy artic waters!

We found poison dart frogs, who love the moist rainforest climate, and a camel adapted to the desert as well.

We couldn’t believe the size of this crab!

Although the trip there was a bit soggy, we had a lot of fun and are looking forward to our next day out!

Problem Solving in P2

We are really enjoying learning about Scottish Islands in Primary 2 just now.  We enjoy hearing about all the islands our classmates and their families have visited.

We have also been reading some of Mairi Hedderwick’s stories about Katie Morag. 

Today, we looked at maps of the Isle of Struay, the fictional home of Katie Morag. With a partner, we tried to find some key features on the map and matched them to our own blank maps.

   
    
    
    
 
This task was a real challenge, but we worked so well with our partners.  The discussion we had was very impressive, andyou could almost hear our brains ticking!