Goodbye & Thank You!

I'm about to handover the admin of the school blogs to Mrs McPherson & wish to take this opportunity to thank all pupils, parents & staff for the lovely gifts & kind wishes I received on my last day at St Fillan's.  I leave with many happy memories & look forward to an exciting new chapter!  Mrs McPherson has been leading the Media Team this session & they will continue to keep you updated on the latest school news. 

Whenever You're In Danger...

...dial 999!  All our pupils were entertained today by Hopscotch Theatre Company. They put on a fantastic show which helped remind pupils about keeping calm in an emergency situation, hoax calls & the various ways of dealing with emergency situation. 

Whilst the pupils were involved in the show our parents were given the opportunity to work with Mrs Cleary on a 'Heartstart' refresher so their focus was also on emergency situations.

George Wyllie Finale

We had the finale of our art project on Saturday at the new Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock. We took our paper boats we had made & watched them sail down the Clyde as they were launched from the Clyde tug boat. One of our ex-pupils , now in S1 boarded the crew of the tug to set off the water cannons. Artist Jimmy Watt  presented us with a special copy of his new book containing some of his paintings. We showed it to the rest of the school at assembly. Mike Russell spoke about George Wyllie & heard us sing in the schools choir. Our question mark sculptures which were donated to us by artist Alec Galloway were in pride of place at the entrance to the arts centre. We drew the articles of the Conventions of the Rights of the Child on them as part of our work as a Rights Respecting school. We did this to remind others to question if these rights are being met for children around the world today. We had a great day & the Waverley paddle steamer even dropped too! 

Preserving History

Our p6 class have been hard at work on their latest project. They have been working with members of Archaeology Scotland on the preservation project for Killalan Kirk. The project culminated in a community exhibition which was fabulous. Well done p6!

Farewell!

Good luck & goodbye to all our pupils who are leaving today. Our p7s have been a great asset to the school this year & will really be missed. Good luck at high school! 

Horsing Around

Off to see more animals before heading to the playbarn. 

Pre Lunch Fun

Pupils taking advantage of their last slides and climbs before meeting back up with the whole school for lunch. 

Llamas too!

Pupils have enjoyed seeing all the animals.

Feeding Time...

...at the zoo! All the kids are hungry!

Lunch!

Rain is off so some pupils have opted for an early lunch, al fresco! 

Wildlife

Staff are enjoying the wildlife too!

Fowl Play

Down on the farm it's hotting up! We are in the "chicken run" where our older ones are firing balls from cannons across the room. Mrs N stayed well behind the safety nets to take these photos. 

Funny Faces

Do you recognise any of these funny faces?

Fun In The Rain!

Not put off by the rain at all the pupils continue to enjoy themselves.

Arrived Safely

Pupils have arrived at Heads of Ayr Farm Park & were bouncing within minutes of arrival. The drizzle makes it more fun the pupils say!

Bug Hunt

P1 are in the playground with their big buddies on a bug hunt. P7 are showing the p1s great places to find bugs & are helping them to identify the less common ones on the computer. They found lots! Some insects are still babies so they look different which made identification trickier. A wide variety was found by all. 

Creative classrooms

P4 carried out several art projects this year. One of them, featuring the work of late Scottish artist George Wyllie featured    in a blipfoto/ Creative Scotland book. Our Wyllie reporter went along to receive his own copy of the book as well as receive a further copy for the school. Books were presented at a special ceremony in Glasgow by Mike Russell. Our St Fillan's boat from the very start of the project is still intact as you can see & waiting to sail down the Clyde later in the year. 

Final Photos

Mrs Munro has just sent a final few photos from today. All photos taken by staff will be dropped into the NAS device so pupils can select those they wish to be included in their yearbook & eportfolios. I'm sure pupils will have lots of personal achievements to write about. Hope you sang on the bus all the way home! 

Last Day

Pupils are on their way home with LOTS of dirty washing & heaps of memories too, I'm sure. The second group also made it to the summit today & a photo taken by Mrs Munro has just come through ( see above). Well done to all the pupils- you were a real credit to the school all week! 

P2's dino topic

P2 are doing a dinosaurs topic. So far they have painted a dinosaur that Mrs. Cleary (their teacher) drew. They also  wrote about the thypolaupiton (a dinosaur) on thier white boards and its quality's for example : thypolaupiton's have 35 spikes on thier sides and hips. Its also got a very very long tail!

By Anna (P2) and Michael (P6).

Evening 4 update

Not even getting phone calls through tonight so this latest update came by texts. Mrs Maher reports the pupils are still having a ball! I believe the boys however may be about to receive bed-making lessons before retiring for the night!  Mrs Maher said their room inspection was "interesting" - a definite euphemism unless they've improved drastically since Mrs Nicholson left on Tuesday evening!  

Today's events were thoroughly enjoyed by all. The activity on the Jacob's Ladder was a huge success with most making it to the very top level or second level. We have some very brave children!  The other favourite was the bell boat activity. Pupils worked together in teams to cross the loch in these larger boats. Once they reached the other side they visited the local shop for some ice creams. Well deserved I'm sure after some tiring rowing in the sunshine! After the ice cream it sounds like the children needed cooling down even further & they went jetty jumping off the pier again! The locals will be looking forward to reclaiming their pier when we leave tomorrow! 

The water slide tonight went down a treat & pupils really impressed the instructors by travelling further on the waterside than expected. Could be a camp record? Despite a midgie attack later on tonight the pupils continue in high spirits. They are currently trying to bribe Mrs Maher into letting them stay in Lochgoilhead for another 2 days. Their argument?  They don't need to be back in school till Monday! Great to hear they're enjoying their final night & relishing this great experience. 

Tomorrow's activities are the same as day 1 but the groups have swapped around. That sees one group taking their turn at abseiling / rock climbing with the other team hillwalking. Children will conclude their trip with lunch & a debrief on their week.  Pupils are expected back by the end of the day as they will be leaving immediately after lunch. 

Campaign Time

P5 have been busy exploring democracy as part of their work in social studies. The class split into political parties & prepared manifestos & election speeches. They canvassed their family members during our elections today & the two winning parties were the Health Party Scotland & the Scottish Employment Party. The voting was very close but as it was a tie for first place the parties realised they would now have to form a coalition. Well done to you all!

House Champions

Queen Margaret are this year's champs after winning sports day. Although they were out in the lead during the morning session the afternoon sports session saw a good chase by the other houses. For the next 12 months the cup ribbons will remain yellow but we still have the house shield up for grabs later in the month. 

Day 4 Update

Mrs Maher has phoned down with an update for our blog.  Everyone went over to sleep at 11pm & had a great night's sleep. Mrs Maher had to rouse everyone from bed this morning at 7.45am so the fresh air is definitely kicking in.  Weather looks great again so in for another fine day again. Pupils have all had a full Scottish breakfast & are ready for today's activities. Today's events are jacob's ladder (it's huge) combined with archery & for the second activity the pupils have the bell oats. These are larger boats where the pupils will need to work together to navigate in a straight line. Mrs Maher has warned there are lots of muddy clothes coming home after a rain shower yesterday. Tonight the pupils are looking forward to a huge water slide so hopefully we'll get an update later tonight.

Dance Off

During one part of the robot wars pupils had to collect resources by correctly answering questions. Pupils were played the first 2 seconds of each song during the music round. When 'gangnam style' came on the pupils treated the instructors & teachers to an impromptu dance which went down well. All unused photos now posted. We'll try & get new ones again tomorrow.