Craighill UpdateNaidheachdan Cnoc na Creige

December 2015There has been a lovely atmosphere in the school in the lead up to Christmas. We have managed four nativities from Tain Nursery and the P1-3 classes, two pantomime performances from P6/7. As I write this we have had six parties with another three to go today and tomorrow and the church service. It has been a very busy end to a busy and

productive term and both pupils and staff are looking forward to the Christmas holidays.

Christmas HolidaysThe school will close on Tuesday 22nd at the usual time for the holidays. We reopen for staff and pupil on Thursday 7th January.

StaffThere have been a few changes to our staff this session due to a combination of retirements and staff moving on. Mrs Savage

and Mrs Stewart retired at the end of the summer term, Miss Orwin, Mrs Gray and Ms Ekblom moved to pastures new. Miss Carnegie joined the staff and Mrs Gordon returned from her sabbatical. Miss Bain has joined the Tain Nursery staff, Lyndsay Jackson took up the post of crossing patrol assistant and Miss Anderson has joined us as Pupil Support Assistant.

School BlogIf you haven’t already subscribed to our school blog we would encourage you to do so as it is a very good way of keeping in touch with what’s happening at Craighill. Why not become a “follower” and start receiving email alerts when new posts are added. https://craighillprimary.wordpress.com/school-blog/ At the beginning of next session offered parents and carers the option of receiving notes by email and through the BLOG rather than on paper. This has helped to reduce our huge photocopying bill and is a more reliable way for you to receive information. There was a good uptake for this and I would encourage anyone who hasn’t signed up for email updates to do so as it seems to be by far the most reliable option.

SportsInver Fun RunA team from the school participated in the Inver Fun Run on 22nd September. The children participated well and enjoyed the run. They came back to school very proud of their medals.

Highland Swimming Gala On 4th November Isla McDonald, Alex McDonald, Marcus Ritchie, Eleanor Ross, Ellie Sutherland, Emily Vass and Claire Wood participated in the Highland Schools Swimming Gala in Inverness. Isla won a silver medal in the 50m back crawl and the 4 x 50m freestyle relay team, Isla, Emily, Ellie and Claire brought back gold medals for their race.

Trips out of SchoolMrs Gordon’s primary 5 class enjoyed a series of bushcraft sessions with Ian Paterson the countryside ranger. Thank you to the parents who gave their time to support these trips, the children thoroughly enjoyed learning outdoors.

The children in Mrs Hayes class enjoyed a day out to Urquhart Castle on 29 th October as part of their project on the Scottish Wars of Independence.

Mrs Patience and Mrs Hayes were invited to TRA on 8th October for the S1 Maths Challenge. This was a follow up to the visit the maths department made to the P7 class before the

summer holidays and gave the teachers a chance to see how well the pupils are doing following their move to secondary. Nursery NewsTain Nursery joined us at the school in their new purpose built nursery in August. As there were delays in the work on the portacabins, the Gaelic Nursery didn’t move up to the school until after the October holidays. However both nurseries are now with us and settled into their new rooms. There is still work to be done and to be finished in both nurseries but hopefully this will be completed soon and both indoor and outdoor play areas will be fully fit for use. There are many benefits to the nurseries being at the school and we will be looking at how we use the new location to support transition when we come back in January.

St Andrew’s Ceilidh at AnkervilleA group of our children visited Ankerville nursery on 27 th

November to help them celebrate St Andrew’s Day. The children sang, danced and played their violins for the Nursery children. Both groups of children enjoyed the ceilidh and were extremely well behaved.

Fundraising and CharityThe children in Primary 4 held a very successful coffee morning on 18th September. They raised a total of £727; £552 of this went to MacMillan and £175 to the local palliative care team.

We collected a filled 70 boxes for Blythswood Christmas Shoebox Appeal. Thank you to Muriel Wallace, Joy MacLeod and Marianne Maltby for supporting us with this.

The Primary 7 pupils have been very busy fundraising for their residential trip to Craggan with the help of some parents and staff. Their efforts, supported by the Charities Group, have raised over £900 which will be used to reduce the cost for the children. Included in the total is an amazing £228 which was raised by Isla McDonald who has been very busy at home

making and selling snowmen.

The Ragbag Appeal has been a success and we have already raised over £150 which will go towards reducing the cost of Craggan for Pupils.

We ran and walked 2103km in our sponsored event in September to raise money for school funds. Every child from P1 – P7 participated and the event was a success both in raising money and in getting the pupils more active.

House CaptainsOur House Captains and Vice Captains were elected by pupils and are:Morangie Captains Caitlin Burns and Angus Chapman

Vice-Captains Savannah Martin and Cameron RavenhillScotsburn Captain Isla McDonald and Dylan Macphee

Vice-Captains Sophie Milburn and Aaron WaddellDuthac Captains Emily Vass and Ben Loy

Vice-Captains Ellen Milne and Harry Spence

Pupil CouncilOur Pupil Council has been busy. Elections were held and returned the following representations:Peter Brown P1-3G Imogen Farquhar P3/4 Freya Macangus P5Luke Wakeman P2 Roisin Abbott P4-7G Noah Edwards

P5Zoe McDermid P2 Innes Nicholson P4-7G Claire Wood

P6

Vaila Thompson P3 Sinead Swann P4-7G Alex MackenzieP6

Melissa Nimmons P3 Lewis Ubych P4 Leah MacKenzie P7Bradley Rooney P3/4 Brooklyn HutchisonP4 Ryan Kirkwood

P7

So far this year the Pupil Council members discussed and agreed the responsibilities of the house captains and vice captains and have agreed how house points will be awarded and recorded.

Eco CommitteeCarson Sutherland P2 Andrew McLaughlin P4 Angus MacGregor P5Jasmine Nicholson P2 Alison Wood P4 Jodie Gilbride

P6Logan Round P3 Eleanor Ross P4-7G Cian Martin

P6Ellie Clark P3 Hannah Paterson P4-7G Rebekah Cowper P7Boyd Knox P3/4 Angela Nankivell P4-7G Arran Syme P7Antonia Fraser P3/4 Kelsey Ross P5

The Eco Committee has carried out environmental surveys on litter and recycling having identified these as areas we need to work on. They have completed a litter survey and have had a visitor in to give a presentation on reducing waste. They now have recycling monitors in place and plan to improve our litter policy and increase composting.

Our other citizenship groups (the wider Eco Group, Gardening Group, Charities Group, Junior Road Safety Officers and Hymn Leaders) have also been busy. As the year goes on you will be able to see what they have been up to on the walls outside the school offices.

Choir Once again the choir has had a busy term and has been in demand. The children performed at Ankerville Nursery and the Duthac Centre for St Andrew’s Day and sang Christmas carols at our own Christmas Fayre, at Innis Mhor care home and at the Christmas Tree Festival in the church hall. Thank you to Miss Bond for all her hard work with the choir.The choir will enter the Inverness Music festival in March and will be practicing hard for that after the holidays.

Live TheatreOn 5th November the M&M Theatre Group visited the school with their production of Jack and the Beanstalk. Pupils (and staff) from Primary 1 to Primary 7 thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

VisitorsWe have had lots of visitors to the school over the term.On 3rd September our Gaelic classes were treated to a play in Gaelic. On 8th September we had workshops with Jon Davies for P2 – P4 classes as part of the BLAS festival.We had taster Kempo sessions on 15th September.The children in P1-3G, P3 and P3/4 have had Kodaly sessions with Heather Muir.P6 have had music sessions from Feis Rois.On 30th October Colin from Scripture Union led our assembly. P3 and P7 have had lessons in German from Jan Kroeplin, a German Assistant who has been based at TRA this term. On 18th December Dr Pat Rae visited Primary 2 to talk to the pupils about her trip to Antartica.

We have had lots of parents in over the term to help with lots of different activities throughout the school. Thank you very much for all of your support. Dates for Next Term11th Jan 2pm Nursery pm - Safe Strong and Free parents session12th January (6 weeks) Ross County Climate Challenge Football sessions for P3/4, P4, P4-7G, P5 and P612th January Soccer Sevens TRA26th January Junior Sevens TRA15th & 16th February School closed or February long weekend17th February In-service Day – school closed to pupils2nd March Rotary Quiz (team to be selected)3rd March 7pm Tain ASG Scottish Country Dance Competition9th March Euroquiz (selected P6 team)10th March Parent Contact24th March School closes for Easter holidays11th April School reopens for Summer term

A few festive photos to finish with …

Have a lovely Christmas and we will see you all in 2016.