A word from
Miss Mackay!
Welcome back to school after the October break! I hope you have all enjoyed your holidays and that the children had a good rest!
Now that the weather is becoming colder, could I remind you to provide your child/ children with a warm, waterproof coat as well as a pair of indoor shoes.
We have a busy term ahead in school full of lots of exciting events and activities, including: the Halloween Disco, our school trip to see ‘Peter Pan’ at Eden Court Theatre, our Christmas Productions and the children’s Christmas party.
Events coming up this term and beyond
 Aigas Outreach Nature Days
 Halloween Disco
 Playground Leader training
 Pantomime at Eden Court – this year it is ‘Peter Pan’
 Parents’ Maths Workshop
 ‘Children in Need’ day
 Open Afternoon
 Christmas Performances
Aigas Outreach Nature Days
All classes (including our Nursery class) will be taking part in sessions relating to ‘Soil and Food’ on Tuesday 27 th and Wednesday 28 th October.
Halloween Disco
This will be in school this Thursday 29 th October! The disco for the Nursery to Primary 3 children will take place from 6.00 – 7.00pm. The disco for the Primary 4 to Primary 7 children will take place from 7.15 – 8.15pm.
‘Peter Pan’ at Eden Court Theatre
The children are already very excited that they will be going to watch the Pantomime on the afternoon of
December 17 th !
Playground Leader training
A group of our older pupils will be taking part in playground leader training sessions led by High Life Highland.
This will enable them to support younger children at playtimes and help them to learn new games they can play with their friends.

Eco-Warriors for our Eco Council
Each class has voted on who will represent them on the Eco Council. I know these children will be fantastic eco-warriors and that Miss Scarr and Miss Gordon are already enjoying working with them.
P1
Keoni Fraser
Brodie Nicol
P2
Rudy Callaghan
Olivia Kerr
P3
Evie Nicol
John Gillies
P4/5
Lily Moukaoume
Alister Morrison
P5/6
Alasdair Dibble
Teagan Geddes
P6/7
Tor Yildirim
Hannah Leslie
Emma-Rose
Butterfield

Parent Council Update
We had a good welcome to the new Head, Miss Mackay and had a good AGM in early September. I am also pleased to say that we now have class representatives throughout the school on the Parent
Council which I hope will enable the full school body to feel more involved in the committee. A very public thank you to those who have stepped down for their time & efforts over the past years, your continued support is greatly appreciated.
The Smarties challenge was a great success bringing in more than £400 - thank you for your generous support & I hope many of you will be looking forward to the children's own Christmas cards arriving.
The results and points raised in the Survey Monkey survey have been most encouraging & all ideas are being carefully considered for the future. We will provide further feedback on the PC and external notice boards in due course - thank you to all who responded. One of the most interesting questions was in regard to how the money we raise is spent & resources came high on the list. We have therefore already this year committed funds to new maths equipment and & will continue to best support the school as budgetary constraints remain challenging. Indeed a big cost to the school is photocopying & printing. If anyone is able to offer support for such resources I am sure this would be welcomed.
I hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday and look forward to the term & will be able to support the various events & activities in the run up to Christmas.
As always further support in any form is welcomed as many hands make light work. Our next committee meeting is planned to occur on 17th November from 7.30pm onwards in the school staff room - new faces are always welcomed and there will hopefully be an update following the Highland
Council Parent council conference which is due to take place in early November.
Should you wish to contact me or any member of the Parent Council, contact details are available on the school notice board or please email northkessockprimarypc@gmail.com
.
Jon Greenhowe
Parent Council Chair

CLASS NEWS
Nursery News
Nursery have been having lots of fun learning about where our food comes from. Mr Renwick told us all about the harvest and we are making pictures using corn, barley and leaves. Mr Renwick is joining us for a harvest snack before we put our nursery bear to hibernate.
Thanks to Eimer Beattie who came in to talk to us and Primary 1 all about Japan when we got to taste sushi!
Can we ask that all children have a change of clothes left on their peg along with a hat, scarf and gloves.
Primary 1 News
It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of the first term already! Primary 1 have made me so proud with all the hard work and learning they have been doing so far, they are superstars! Recently we’ve enjoyed joining other classes in the daily 1 mile walk, it’s great to chat to others, learn about and observe our outdoor space and most importantly keep fit and healthy.
As well as doing lots of work in the class, we’ve been doing other things too! Dancing with P2, understanding more about whales and dolphins with a visit from the Dolphin centre lady and learning about Japan with the nursery.
We’ve been lucky to have Miss McLaughlin join us for the last few weeks too, she is training to become a teacher and the class have really enjoyed showing her the best things about being in P1. We wish her well in her future placements and subsequent teaching career!
Primary 2
“We went to the beach in North Kessock. We got litter pickers and put gloves on and we picked litter because we are trying to keep the Moray Firth clean. Martin the ranger came too. It was good fun. I found glass and tins.” Ellie
Calum, “We have been counting in doubles, we are doing lots of sums. Sometimes we use bits around the class, like construction stuff, pencils and counters to help.”
“We do yoga. We have been doing the triangle pose, dog pose, tree pose and lion pose. We have to listen very carefully. We are quiet in yoga. I feel very good doing it.” Brooke
“We have been handing out little awards each day for Star of the Day. It’s exciting because it’s always a surprise and I like cheering for the person who gets it.” Ellen
“We have been doing autumn art. We used pastels and we had to use our fingers to rub in the colours. It was fun.” Lewis
Primary 3 News
It has been a busy and productive term for Primary three who have worked hard throughout. The class have enjoyed investigating their local area and have found out lots of interesting facts about local wildlife and iconic landmarks. The class investigated and wrote a report on the history of
Covesea Lighthouse, a famous local attraction.
The children enjoyed a visit from the local dolphin centre and learnt lots of facts about dolphins, whales and other sea life in the Moray Firth.
The class have also studied artworks from Scottish artists and used some of their ideas to create their own artworks of birds and seascapes.
In term two we look forward to learning about Weather around the World.

Primary 4/5 News
At the start of this term for maths we have practising our 2, 5, 10 and 4 Times Tables to make sure we know them really well, we use Education City as well. Primary 4-7 are now set for maths so P4/5 go to different classes. We went into the garden and used some leaves to help with our addition and times tables too.
In grammar we have recently been looking at connectives and trying to put these into our writing.
For Spelling we have been doing our HLP words but now we are going on to our Nelson Spelling groups.
Mrs Beattie came into the school and gave a fantastic talk about Japan – we even got to try Sushi!
She came back into our class and helped us to write our names in Japanese – it was great fun  We have also been doing origami and making Samurai masks. We looked at the Japanese form of poetry called Haiku and made our own, which we have displayed outside our classroom door.
Primary 4 have enjoyed a block of swimming while Primary 5s got together to do French.
We really enjoy going out every day for our “Walk a Mile”. We get to chat to different people and it’s helping to keep us healthy as well. Miss Munro likes it a lot too!
Next term we are looking forward to choosing a new topic to study and going to Eden Court for the
Pantomime!
By Jamie Martin
P5
Primary 5/6
Primary 5/6 pupils have been very busy over the last few weeks as you can see!
Congratulations to Mollie and Georgia who completed a challenging Skype interview with the BBC for the programme Pocket Money Pitch. The girls came up with their idea during the summer holidays and were interviewed about their clever pop-up tent design “Crazy Caves.” The girls performed magnificently and will soon know whether or not they have reached the final. Good luck from us all!
Well done to the hockey team who competed in a tournament last Saturday. Ryan, Abigail, Euan,
Fraser, Georgia and Ollie said it was hard work and tough at times, but good fun. Great attitude !
A round of applause to the runners who competed in the Baxter’s River Ness 5km run. Fraser, Euan and Ally all took part and showed us the medals they collected at the end of the run. Well done boys.

Primary 6/7 Newsletter
Written by Rosie Martin, Hannah Leslie & Tahreema Jahan
This term Japan is our topic. Cian’s mum Emer came in to talk to us about what it was like when she was living in Japan teaching English. It was really interesting. She showed us her school case which had all the equipment that she used to write/paint with. Japanese writing had to be very precise and if it was too thick or thin then she would get marked wrong. Emer showed us how the Japanese language is broken down from picture symbols, into words. Then she came and handed out some sushi.
Some of us were a bit unsure but it was tasty! Books in Japan start at the back. Emer showed us a book painted and written by a man who was paralysed from the neck down so he held the brush with his mouth. In Japan, they wear Kimonos which are basically like a dress, made of silk and with lovely patterns on them. At the end Emer taught us how to count to five- ichi, Ni, san, shi, go!
In class we drew our names on a piece of card, using the Japanese alphabet. In Japan they write down the way instead of along the way like we do. We also made our own Samurai masks. The Samurai warriors wore these masks to make them look fierce. In addition to the masks we made origami helmets. Origami is a very popular craft in Japan. We have also been learning about different islands, cities and water areas in and around Japan.
In Science we are learning about how sound travels. We did an experiment to see if sound would travel through string with two cups tied to each end of string. One of us would speak into one of the cups while the other would hold the cup up to their ear. We had to make sure that string was tight otherwise it wouldn’t work. We have learnt that sound travels through gases (like the air), solids (like the string, cups, and even through the door), and also through liquids (like under water). Vibrations are made from a sound and the vibrations travel until it goes into our ears and then our brains figure out what the sound was.
This year for Maths, we have different Setting classes from our normal class. In Miss MacKenzie’s
Math class we were learning about surveys, graphs and charts first and then one group went on to algebra while the other group did place value numbers up to a million. Now one group are learning about calculating salaries and the other group are doing chimney sums with ÷, ×, -, + and decimals.
So far this term we have done a lot of writing. One of the pieces of writing we have done this term is a report on Children’s Day in Japan. We learned that on Children’s Day families put up big Koi carp flags to celebrate the healthy growth and happiness of their children. Children’s day used to be celebrated by boys 5 th May, and girls celebrated on 3 rd March until the government decided in 1948 that they should have it on the same day.
Also in writing, we had to write very detailed instructions on making our origami paper samurai helmets. Some people used photos to visualise the steps, while others drew pictures themselves.
Each class voted for Eco Warriors to work on the school’s Eco committee. The winners for our class were: Hannah, Emma-Rose and Tor. They have lots of hard work to do and have already started working towards the school’s next Eco flag.
We are all looking forward to the October holidays since we have been working so hard!

Our ‘Dress Down Fridays’ continue to take place on the last Friday of every month as decided by the
Pupil Council as a way of fundraising for local charities that are special to North Kessock Primary
School. For those parents new to our school, the last Friday of every month, the children are allowed to come in their own clothes and in return they bring a £1.00 for charity. At the end of the Term 2
(December 2015), the money raised by this event will be counted up and divided between two worthwhile charities, namely: DEBRA (DEBRA is the national charity that supports individuals and families affected by Epidermolysis Bullosa) and Clic Sargent ( CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people, and their families). As of January 2015, we will be looking to raise funds for two different charities; any suggestions would be most welcome.
Several members of staff ran in the Baxter’s Loch Ness 10km run on Sunday 27 th September and raised money for the ‘Debra’ charity which supports individuals and families affected by
Epidermolysis Bullosa. I am pleased to say that we raised over £1000! Many thanks to all parents, friends and family members who donated to this worthwhile cause.
Many thanks to those of you who donated goods for the Inverness Food Bank as part of our Harvest
Festival. We have had a fantastic response and the goods have been delivered to Blythswood Care who organise the Food Bank.
Congratulations to Rianna Mackay for winning our first term’s Flint Award! Rianna was awarded the
Flint Award for her kindness, for being helpful and caring and for always cheering everyone up.
A big thank you to Mr Martin who kindly worked with a group of children to plant vegetables at his farm in the Summer term. He harvested the crops for the children and delivered them to school prior to the school holidays. Each child involved received a bumper crop of potatoes and other vegetables!
Many thanks to Mrs Walker, Mrs Butterfield and Mrs Grist for their help with our school’s gardening club! They have been helping the children and Mrs Reid with painting the dolphin, weeding and planting. Mrs Reid is looking for any volunteers to come along and help on a Saturday with the school garden. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided – more details to follow.

On Saturday 3rd October, the North Kessock Primary School Hockey Team took part in a hockey tournament in Nairn. The team came 5th out of the 15 teams competing. They played really well and were a credit to the school. The team looked super smart in their new strips - a huge thank you to
Claire Jack for providing them ! Many thanks to Mrs Cumming and Mrs Deplacido for running the hockey club and organising for the children to take part in this event.
Netball Club continues to take place every Monday morning for the children in Primary 4 to 7 from
9.00am until 9.30am. Many thanks to Mrs Maclennan and Mrs Grist for running this club.
Gymnastics Club continues to take place every Tuesday after school for the children in Primary 4 to
7. Many thanks to Miss Mackenzie for running this club.

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