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October 2022:

• PTA Halloween Crafts: Thank you so much to the PTA for organising a great afternoon of Halloween Crafts for the children. They all made some fantastic things and had a lovely time.
• End of Term Harvest Assembly: It was super to see so many parents at our End of Term Harvest Assembly. The children sang some great songs and learnt how many food miles there were to make a pizza. Many thanks to everyone who donated tins / packets of food which will be sent to the Aberdeenshire North food bank.
• Forest School: After the success of our first Forest School session for the term we had high expectations for our second session, and it was just as good! This time the pupils cooked bread over the firepit!

September 2022:

• Parent / Teacher Consultations: It was lovely to be able to hold these in school again after the last couple of years of telephone consultations.
• Forest School: Our first Forest School session of the term was held on Friday 23rd September. We had three sessions during the day allowing all pupils to have time in the Forest School area. They made wood cookies, built dens, made popcorn over the firepit, did some beautiful prints of leaves, studied bugs, and overall had a fantastic time. We can’t wait for the next one!
• Tullynessle Football & Netball Tournament: Our P1-4 and P4-7 football teams played really well at the Tullynessle Tournament, demonstrating some great footwork and ball skills. There were some good shots made at goal, and some super saves made as well. Our P4-7 netball team showed fantastic team work, passing the ball well, getting in to spaces, and scoring goals. They finished as Runners-Up – Well done!
• Wildlife Garden Bash: What a difference a few hours and hard work can make. The wildlife garden / outdoor learning area had become slightly overgrown during the summer, but with three large bags of weeds collected and some pruning done, it is now all ready for our first Forest School session. Thank you to the parents and pupils who stayed after school to help with the transformation.
• Library Sessions: Many thanks to the parents who have come to school to help us rejuvenate our school library. There are lots of books to be sorted for our new library area, and we hope to have it all up and running very soon.
• Informal Open Afternoon: It was lovely to see so many parents at our Open Afternoon. The P7s did a fantastic job serving tea and coffee to everyone, and passing round the delicious cakes. The children were delighted to be able to show the parents their classrooms, and some of the things they do during the school day.

August 2022:

• Start of Term 1: We were very excited to welcome everyone back to school and hear all about their holiday adventures. We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new P1 children and our two new members of staff, Mrs Stoddart who is our Acting Head Teacher, taking on a dual headship with her other school, Tullynessle, and Miss Christie who is teaching the P4-7 class. We are all looking forward to a great 2022/23 session.

July 2022:

• End of Term Awards Ceremony & P7 Leavers Ceremony: It was super to see so many parents at our Awards Ceremony, and what a lot of great achievers there are at Craigievar School! Awards were given to our Sports Champions, our out-going House Captains, and a new award for Achievement was presented by our minister, Simon Crouch. The House Trophies were awarded, with the Foxes winning the Inter-house Netball, the Pine Martens winning the Inter-house Football, and the Wildcats winning both the Overall Sports Trophy and the House Cup. Pupils who go to our popular Football and Netball After School Clubs were all given a special medal to show their commitment to training. It was sad to say goodbye to our six P7s, but we know that they will all enjoy moving on to Alford Academy. They all received a picture of photos of them during their time at Craigievar School. And our last goodbye was to Mr Birch, who is leaving his post as Head Teacher at Craigievar School after four and a half years. We wish him all the best in his new role as Head Teacher of Torphins Primary School.

June 2022

• Sports Day: A lovely sunny day dawned on what was to be another fantastic Sports Day. Pupils took part in the potted sports events competing in their house teams, before moving on to the individual races, the house tug-of-war, and the house relays. We particularly enjoyed seeing the children dress up in funny hats for the novelty race!
• Inter-house Football & Netball Tournaments: These events are hotly contested each year, with pupils showing great team work and determination to do their best for their house. The netball had two tournaments – one for P4-7 pupils, and one for P6,7 and staff! The football also had two tournaments, P1-3 and P4-7, with goals being scored in every game! Well done to all our pupils!
• Jubilee Event: After two years, we have at long last been able to invite parents back in to the school building, and what better way than to celebrate with a Jubilee Tea Party. The pupils and their parents took part in a Commonwealth Cook Off and we had a vast array of fantastic home bakes which were judged by Mr Birch. The P1-3 pupils sang some lovely songs and the P4-7s performed a memorable haka. Everyone then went back in to the hall to enjoy the delicious spread of food, with teas and coffees being served by our P7s.
• Transition Week: The P7s spent the whole week at Alford Academy, getting to know their way around the school and following the timetable of lessons that they will have next year. Whilst they were away, the P3s spent the week in the P4-7 class, and we had a couple of Induction Days for our New P1s. It was a great week for everyone!

May 2022:

• River Dee Trust: The P4-7 class had a visit from Jane Lilley of the River Dee Trust. They learnt all about the wildlife that can be found in and around our ponds, streams and rivers, and studied some tadpoles which were later put into our wildlife pond so that we will hopefully have our own frogspawn next year.
• P7 Link Day at Alford Academy: The P7s enjoyed their second visit to the Academy where they had a very exciting science lesson and met up with pupils from all the other cluster schools.
• Craigievar Tournaments: What a fantastic atmosphere there was at the school, with teams coming along from many of the other small schools in our cluster to play netball and football. The PTA did a fantastic job serving teas & coffees and cooking delicious burgers and bacon on the BBQ.
• Tournaments: Football and Netball Tournaments are back! Well done to all our players who are doing really well, playing their best and showing excellent team work.

April 2022:

• Netball Training: After two years of no training, this has started up again for pupils in P4-7. Our netballers are working hard learning the rules and practising their skills ready for the upcoming festivals and tournaments.
• Football Training: Thank you to our football coaches for continuing to provide this wonderful opportunity for all our pupils. It’s great that Covid restrictions have now been lifted so that tournaments can happen again.

March 2022:

• House Point Winners: Very well done to the Pine Martens who are the House Point Winners this term. They had a fun afternoon tackling a series of robotics challenges using our robots, Dot and Dash.
• End of Term Assembly: Well done to all our Book Prize Winners this term!
• P7 Tree of Knowledge – Transition visit to Alford Academy: Our P7 pupils enjoyed a visit to Alford Academy where they listened to some inspirational speakers from the Tree of Knowledge along with pupils from other small schools in the Alford Catchment Area.
• World Book Day: For World Book Day pupils in P1-5 brought their favourite book in to school to share with everyone whilst enjoying a mug of hot chocolate. Pupils could also dress up as their favourite character and there were some super costumes. The pupils also worked in groups to make traditional tale videos, creating the characters and then retelling the story using imovie.
• Pancake Day: You can’t have pancake day without making some delicious pancakes at school! Pupils in P1-5 weighed the ingredients, mixed them all together, poured the mixture into the frying pan, flipped the pancake and then ate the finished product – delicious!
• P6/7 Residential Ski Trip at Glenshee: 11 pupils headed for the slopes in glorious sunshine for an exciting four days away along with pupils from Dunecht, Echt, Tough, Cluny and Midmar Schools. With ski lessons every morning and afternoon, the children all made massive progress with their skiing and new friendships were formed with pupils from the other schools.

February 2022:

• What a month! First the school was closed because there was no power following Storm Malik, then we had a large number of Covid cases amongst pupils and staff which meant we had to postpone the Whole School Photograph as less than half the school were present. The February mid-term break was very welcome as a reset, but was then closely followed by another school closure due to snow! Fortunately, the Whole School Photograph was able to go ahead at the end of the month.

January 2022:

• P1 Registration Week: Monday 10th – Friday 14th January. We are looking forward to meeting our new Primary 1 pupils who will start at Craigievar School in August.

December 2021:

• Christmas Party: Lots of fun was had by all on the last afternoon of term, with some super games for everyone and team games at the end. There was a special surprise for the pupils when they went out to the school bus – Santa was waiting for them in the Playground Shelter!
• House Point Winners: The winners this term were the Wildcats who were just 10 points ahead of the foxes.
• Book Prize Winners: Well done to our pupils who won book prizes this term!
• Forest School Activities: It was a chilly morning and unfortunately, owing to Storm Arwen, we had to hold Forest School in the playground and wildlife garden. The whole school were involved and made some beautiful Christmas wreaths, some super stars out of willow, some bird feeder hangings, and then warmed up with a lovely mug of hot chocolate by the fire pit in the wildlife garden. Thank you to all the parents who came and helped out at this event.
• The Smartie Challenge: Well done to everyone who took part in the Smartie Challenge which was organised by the PTA. Pupils were given a tube of smarties to enjoy, and asked to then fill up the tube with coins that they had earnt by doing little jobs for their family and friends. Over £200 was raised for the school!
• Christmas Concert: The pupils all worked so hard to put on a fantastic performance for their parents, families and friends. We were so lucky with the weather as, owing to COVID restrictions, the concert had to be held outside this year. The playground shelter was decorated with lots of fairy lights, and Craigievar Marquees very kindly lent us some floodlights to light up the playground and pathways. On arrival, our audience were treated to warm, spiced apple juice, mince pies and shortbread, while the pupils all gathered ready for the show to begin. Both classes sang beautifully, accompanied by Mrs Nichol on the keyboard, and the P4-7 class delivered their lines with great clarity and confidence. We have had many comments about how fantastic the evening was!
• Christmas Jumper Day: Everyone looked very festive in their Christmas Jumpers which this year was held on the same day as the Christmas Lunch (which was delicious!). We raised over £40 for Northsound 1’s Cash for Kids!
• Storm Arwen: It’s great to see many of our pupils back in school after three days of closure following Storm Arwen. Power came back to the school on Wednesday 1st December, having been off since Friday 26th November, and internet connection was restored on Thursday 2nd December. We would like to thank everyone who has been working so hard in some horrible conditions to restore power to the North East of Scotland.

November 2021:

• ALEC visit: Both classes really enjoyed the visit from ALEC. The P1-3 class looked at ‘My Wonderful Body’, while the P4-7 class learnt ‘It’s Great to be Me!’.
• Poppy Scotland: Once again, the school supported Poppy Scotland, with money raised going towards life changing support to the Armed Forces community in Scotland. The whole school learnt about what the Poppy means, and held a one minute silence at 11am on Armistice Day.
• Our Master Classes are up and running again! So far we have had: monster drawing, stop-motion, coding, dance, designing comic books and cooking – all the pupils look forward to this on a Friday afternoon!
• Rotary Boxes: Well done to all our pupils who filled a Rotary Shoe Box. We managed to fill 24 boxes which will all be going to Eastern Europe.
• Kodaly: We are looking forward to welcoming back Mrs Malone this term to teach Kodaly to the pupils in both classes every Monday.

October 2021:

• Student Placement: We would like to welcome Mrs Erikkson to the school. Mrs Erikkson is a student teacher who will be in the P4-7 class until Christmas.
• Halloween Crafts: A big thank you to the PTA for organising some fantastic halloween crafts for the pupils on the last day of term. Due to COVID restrictions, this had to take place outside, but fortunately the sun shone and everyone had a very enjoyable morning.
• House Point Winners: Well done to the Wildcats who were the House Point Winners this term. Their special treat was to use the firepit in the wildlife garden to cook some popcorn!
• End of Term Assembly: Our end of term assembly was held and book prizes were awarded – well done to all of this term’s winners. Sadly we are still unable to invite parents to the assembly.
• School Photographs: took place at the beginning of October. The Whole School photo will be taken in January.
• Flu Immunisations: took place at the start of October.

September 2021:

• The P4-7 class are enjoying their Viking project this term. They are created wonderful artwork using a variety of materials and techniques, made special Viking bread, and created models of Viking longboats.

August 2021:

• Blue Peter Green Badge Award: We are thrilled to announce that all pupils who took part in the Climate Hero Pledges last May have successfully been awarded a Blue Peter Green Badge. Particular mention must go to the Environment Group who were in charge or instigating this challenge.
• Start of Term 1: Welcome back to the start of a new school year, and a big ‘hello’ to our eight new Primary 1 pupils. We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead at Craigievar School.

June 2021:

• End of Year Awards Assembly: The end of another year, and a rather strange one at that, but we are so proud of all our pupils and what they have managed to achieve under challenging conditions. Sadly, our awards assembly was not able to be held outside due to the weather, so no parents were able to come along to join with us in acknowledging all that Craigievar School has managed to do this year, despite the difficult circumstances. This year, there were no sad farewells as we had no Primary 7 pupils. We said a big thank you to our outgoing House Captains who were given a little trophy keepsake, and we welcomed three new House Captains for the next academic year. Members of the Craigievar School Football Club all received a medal for their commitment to training, and we hope that next term the School Netball Club will recommence with a new coach. The Individual Sports trophies which are hotly contested each year were awarded to very worthy winners, and then came the presentation of the House Cups and Trophies. The winners of the Inter-House Football Cup were The Foxes; The winners of the Overall Sports Cup were The Pine Martens; and the winners of the Overall House Cup were The Wildcats. A huge well done to everyone!
• P1-3 Teddy Bears Picnic: The P1-3 class enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the wildlife garden having a teddy bears picnic. They made sandwiches and teddy bear bibs, and then played some games.
• P4-7 Wilderness Camp: Pupils in P4-7 spent the afternoon in the forest, building dens/shelters in which they were going to sleep for the night. Using the knowledge learnt during the term, they made sure the shelters were weather proof. After a barbecue supper, pupils then split in to groups and explored the forest using a night-vision scope so that they could see what animals were around. They saw a couple of badgers playing, and several deer. After a relatively good nights sleep were up early clearing away all their equipment and bedding and then enjoyed a hearty breakfast of bacon rolls, before being picked up by parents at 10am.
• Health Week: The curriculum group organised a super health week, with various different activities to get us moving, plus healthy eating tips and some delicious smoothie making.
• Jazzamatazz:  We are so pleased to have Jazzamatazz back again after it was stopped because of the first lockdown in March 2020.  We have had two fantastic sessions where we got to play the xylophones and really enjoyed making music.
• P1 Induction Tour: Two tours of the school were set up for the new P1s and their parents and it was lovely to have them in to school to show them their classroom and the other areas of the school.
• Sports Day:  The sun shone for us on Monday 14th June for our annual sports day.  What a great day it was, with potted sports first with pupils competing in their house groups, and then the individual races followed by the team relays and tug-of-war.  Results and winners of the individual and house cups will be announced at the end of term assembly.

May 2021:

• P1 Induction afternoon: We welcomed our eight new P1 pupils and their parents to the school.  Due to Covid restrictions, we had to stay outside, but the pupils had a lovely time in the playground, while the parents met with Mr Birch in the wildlife garden.  And the sun shone!
• Blue Peter Green Badge Pledges:  The 24th May marked the start of the two week pledges that the pupils will be doing in order to achieve their Blue Peter Green Badge award.  Pupils made pledges regarding power, plastic and plants that they are doing at home, whilst at school, the pupils are focusing on the power pledge and will be making sure all light switches and devices are turned off when not in use.
• Wildlife Garden: This month saw a huge transformation with the wildlife garden.  A new entrance to the garden was created making it feel more accessible to everyone, some overgrown shrubs were cut back and three of the flower beds were planted out.  The tap was moved to make it easier for watering, and all the flower beds were mulched with wood chippings.  Most of our plants have been donated by staff and parents, with a few also being given to us from the Castle Fraser Gardeners.  This has completed the first phase of the garden improvement plan, and we have already seen more bees and other insects in the garden.

April 2021:

• Back to school, and we very much hope this is going to be a much more ‘normal’ term. The pupils have come back fully energised after the Easter Break, as have the staff, and there are lots of exciting things planned.
• Pupil Groups: Pupil Groups have started up again for the P3-7 pupils. The Citizenship Group is looking at the Rights Respecting School bronze award; The Environment Group is working on achieving the Blue Peter Green Badge; The Curriculum Group is busy organising a Health Week for the middle of June.

March 2021:

• P4-7 Pupils return to school. It’s great to finally have all the pupils back in school for the last three weeks of term. The children have settled back in to the school routine very quickly, and it has been full steam ahead with their learning, plus planning lots of exciting things for next term if Covid restrictions allow.

February 2021:

• P1-3 Pupils return to school: It is so lovely to see all the P1-3 pupils back in class and to properly welcome Mrs Bosson to Craigievar School. Hopefully it won’t be too long before the P4-7 pupils can return, but in the meantime they will continue with home learning, including live lessons, set by Mr Birch and Mrs Robertson.

January 2021:

• More Home Learning: The start of term hasn’t gone quite according to plan, with all schools back to home learning for now. The school remains open for children whose parents work in Category 1 or 2 and who are unable to work at home, plus children who may be vulnerable. All other pupils will do home learning. We look forward to seeing everyone’s happy faces through google meet and hope it won’t be too long before the school re-opens for everyone.

December 2020:

• Christmas Party: The pupils all enjoyed an entertaining party on the last day of term with lots of fun and games, finishing with a fantastic line up for ‘Strip the Willow’. Santa was even able to deliver presents for all the children to Mrs Middleton, who found a note from him in the wildlife garden!
• Whole School Performance: The whole school put together a short performance of ‘The Night Before Christmas’. They did a super job learning their lines and the younger class were fantastic as reindeer, plus there was a very jolly santa!

• Christmas Jumper Day: What a lot of colourful jumpers there were in school today! As well as wearing their festive jumpers, the children also enjoyed a delicious christmas lunch, accompanied by crackers and music. The afternoon was spent making festive treats for the wildlife and then drinking warm, spiced apple juice while sitting around the firepit in the outdoor learning area.

November 2020:

• Enterprise: As part of our Citizenship responsibilities, the school has decided to raise funds for the Northsound ‘Cash for Kids’ appeal this year.  To do this we have launched a whole-school enterprise topic where groups are given a £10 start-up capital investment and will create tasteful Christmas ornaments, decorations and crafts to sell to the local community.  We will hopefully have a catalogue of gifts for you to peruse available soon (think Etsy/Not on the Highstreet) and will be taking orders.  All profits will go to the Christmas appeal.  There’s a really positive buzz in the school about this, so make sure you ask your children plenty of questions about their roles in their business!
• Seesaw: Unfortunately, Aberdeenshire Council have informed schools not to use Seesaw anymore so we will not be renewing our subscription this year. For the time being, any information to and from parents will be sent via the school email.

October 2020:

• Pumpkin Carving Competition: We had 21 fantastic entries in our pumpkin carving competition.  All the pupils and staff voted for their favourite pumpkin – well done to the winners!
•  Chocolate Spiders: The P1-3 class had a fun morning making chocolate crispy spiders.  They mixed all the ingredients together, put the mixture into cake cases, then decorated them with white chocolate drops for eyes and strawberry laces for legs.  Then they ate them!
• Well done to the Wildcats for winning the most house points this term!

September 2020:

• School Mural: work has started in creating a lovely mural for the wall by the main entrance to school.  Mrs Robertson has done an amazing design and all the pupils are going to be involved in painting it.  We can’t wait to see the finished result!