Stronsay Junior High School -
Stronsay -
Orkney Islands, KW172AE -
Tel: (01857) 616 246 -
Head Teacher: Dr Petra McLay -
admin.stronsay@glow.orkneyschools.org.uk
Last week Lower Primary spent an amazing morning at Ayre of Myers completing a seaweed survey. If you want to find out more about this National History Museum project or indeed conduct your own survey then everything you need can be found here:
The children had a wonderful morning, they impressed everyone with their existing knowledge of seaweed and we learnt a few new ones thanks to Jenny the marine biologist. Jenny had such a lovely time with the children that she is very keen to work with the school again in the future, she just loved their curiosity and enthusiasm!
A huge thank you to all of you for helping make this happen and in particular Anne Bignall from the North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme for organising it.
We had a lovely visit to the beach today and discovered some more new plants. I have included some photos in the video. We talked about why Nettles sting and thought about how other plants prevent themselves from being eaten by prickles, thorns and tasting awful etc. We reassured the children that boiling the nettles would stop the nettles from stinging and then set to work picking the tips for our soup. The children wore latex free gloves to prevent them from being stung. There was some superb teamwork preparing the rest of the ingredients and the fire ready to cook up our delicious soup. It was pretty well received on the taste test with four children going for seconds. Rosie thought the nettles tasted of broccoli! It must have been good as it all got eaten up with nothing left to bring back to school. Here's Marion's recipe for anyone that would like to recreate it:)
Spring Nettle and potato Soup
Ingredients
200 g nettle tips
500 ml stock
Half an onion
1 medium sized potato
Method
1. Put gloves on
2. Pick the nettles tips only.
3. Get rid of any stalks and wash the leaves.
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and potato, and cook for 10 mins until the vegetables start to soften. Add the stock and cook for a further 10-15 mins until the potato is soft.
5. Add the nettle leaves, simmer for 1 min to wilt, then blend the soup.
Well done everybody for getting out there and tracking down so many bears! Did you get to say 'Bonjour!' to Camembear here at the school? Or did you join the Teddy Bears' picnic? Was our explorer bear the biggest bear you saw? What else did you hunt down? There was lots to see with so many folk kindly joining in. Let us know how many bears you found using your tally sheet.
A few of the staff at Stronsay school would love to organise a Bear Hunt around the island for the children (adults are very welcome to join in too!). However, we need the community's help by providing the bears: All you need to do is to put a bear (or bears) in a window the weekend of the 20th and 21st February. They need to be easily seen from the main roads around Stronsay but if you are off the beaten track and would still like to join in then let folk know where to hunt by posting a rare bear sighting on the Stronsay Facebook page. Please join us in the fun that weekend and set off for a walk or drive to go on a bear hunt!
Lower Primary made it to the beach last week, it was a little windy and cold but thankfully dry! We got our imaginations warmed up by lying on the beach and doing a little cloud gazing, looking for shapes that reminded us of faces, dolphins and unicorns. We even made up little stories for these characters. We then headed for the rocks and searched for some with natural features that reminded us of faces, human and animal. Taking some clay, we worked to enhance these features working to make details such as eyebrows, teeth and noses. Then it was time to go gathering and collect seaweed and shells etc. to add our finishing touches to our characters. Using the ipad we captured images of our creations and used an app to help bring them alive - take a look at our video to see what we created!
Cooke Aquaculture On 2nd October 2019 two people from Cooke Aquaculture came to present us with a giant cheque of £3985. Their names were Sarah and Erlend. The money they gave us was to make our school a better, happier and friendlier place than it already is. Specifically to help create our friendship garden and outdoor learning space. The Pupil parliament came up with 5 main aims for the Friendship garden these are the aims: To make the school a better place And a happier place To make more friendships To discover and learn Help the environment The pupil parliament involves the whole primary (1-7). Steve helped us by giving us guidance for the learning space. He organized for Castlehill Construction to flatten the wild area to make room for the learning space. Also to try and get the waterfall working. We are very happy with what we have organized so far. Mrs Groat, while the pupils were off school, applied an entry form for Cooke Aquaculture to present us with a cheque. So if she hadn’t done this, none of this would have happened. So big thanks to Mrs Groat, Steve and Cooke Aquaculture. We would like to say a big thank you to Cooke Aquaculture for their support. By Millie, Dorothy, Sam and Melvin.
The lower primary music class have been creating a soundscape for the story of The 3 Little Pigs. Pupils explored various instruments and classroom items to provide sounds/music to represent the different materials used for the 3 houses. The boys and girls wanted to create some effects for the Big Bad Wolf blowing the houses down too! Mr Duncan
The nursery and primary pupils and the staff of Stronsay school recently put on a production of “The Wizard of Oz”. They have been working very hard on it for over four months as their primary class project. The show took place on Saturday 2nd of June 2018 at 6 pm in the school hall. Over one hundred people were present in the audience.
Way back in January the primary pupils all watched the film version of Wizard of Oz, and they loved it. After that they all read through the script which helped them all to decide which parts they would like. All of the pupils auditioned for at least two parts. The teachers watched the audition tapes and allocated roles.
After that they repeatedly rehearsed their lines and they practised getting into character. They also practised the songs and chose the lines where the characters sang their solos. Meanwhile Gaynor, Barbara and Mrs Evans started making costumes and props. The cast and teachers worked on improving the script. The three new pupils that arrived (The Dailys) were given roles at the last minute. They worked very hard, doing a perfect job!
Lots of staff and visitors helped put the show together and to make it happen. As the day got nearer the pupils put together three long to do lists. Some people set up the stage, painted the scenery and made some final touches to costumes and props. Soon it was the dress rehearsal which the secondaries and teachers seemed to enjoy. The next day it was the real performance which some people found nerve-racking but most found exciting. After all the hard work, everyone felt proud and a sense of achievement. The show was very well received. Thanks to everyone for coming to support the show and SOS. It has created many lasting memories!!
One of the funny moments was when the Wicked Witch of the West (Lilly) threw her burning torch at the Scarecrow (Melvin) but it accidentally landed in Dorothy's basket. The second funny moment was when the witch wailed, "I'm still melting!" as she was waiting for the music to stop! Another little mistake which was amusing was when Dorothy (Millie) went to oil the Tin Man (Sam) but could not find the can so decided to mime. Lion (Wilbur) came to the rescue with the real prop! Also, in the dress rehearsal, Lion had a bit of a bad mane day and threw it off stage.
