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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.
• 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!

ugust 2020:

• It is so lovely to see the pupils back at school after nearly 5 months of lockdown.  We would like to say a special welcome to our four new pupils in the P1-4 class.

April – July 2020:

• School closed due to Covid-19.  Teaching continued online with staff setting daily work for all the pupils.

March 2020:

• P7 Residential Trip – the P7s had a fantastic time at Cromdale Outdoor Centre where they had a go at canoeing, gorge walking, biking and more.
• Judo Taster Sessions – Both classes had a go at judo with one of the instructors from the Alford Judo Club.
• Mad March Science Festival– both classes had a good time at the science workshops provided by Cromar Future Group.
• ‘Draw Your Mum’ – Our P1-4 pupils have taken part in the Evening Express ‘Draw your Mum’ event.  Pictures will be in the Evening Express on Friday 20th March.
• World Book Day – We held a fantastic World Book Day.  Everyone came to school dressed as an adjective and brought in photos of them reading in strange places for our ‘Extreme Reading Competition’.  We drew pictures of book characters to decorate the inside of our classroom doors, with clues as to who they were to put on the outside of the doors.  In the afternoon we held a Literacy Open Afternoon and parents visited the school to find out all about how we learn literacy at Craigievar School.  We were also selling our own book which we have written and illustrated called ‘The Found Words of Craigievar’.  It is very popular!

February 2020:

• Rotary Primary School Quiz – Well done to our two P7 teams who did really well in this year’s Rotary Primary School Quiz.
• Rugby Festival – The pupils in P4-7 had a fantastic morning at Huntly, taking part in a Rugby Festival organised by the Huntly Rugby Club.  Craigievar had two teams and, following on from their rugby training sessions, there were some great performances on the rugby pitch.
• Rotakids – On 11th February the P3-7s had a visit from the Rotary who told them all about what they do and what it means to be a Rotakid.  The pupils in the citizenship group then took the Rotakids pledge to become members of the Rotakids.

January 2020:

• Sooyang-do Taster Session – The whole school took part in a taster session for this exciting martial art.  Sooyang-do is a system of martial arts training which is designed to enable the practitioner to enhance all aspects of physical fitness – speed, stamina, strength and flexibility and to acquire self-defence skills in a safe and friendly environment.  It was enjoyed by all!
• Pupil Groups – We have re-established our Pupil Groups and look forward to working hard in each area.  The Environment group are working towards another Green Flag award and developing our wildlife garden; the Citizenship group are looking at fundraising ideas and charities to support; the Curriculum group are focused on enhancing our Library and making it more usable for everyone.
• Registration Week for Primary 1 is 13th – 17th January.  All children who reach their fifth birthday by 28th February 2021 are invited to register for Primary 1 for admissions in August 2020.  Parents are asked to visit the school, bringing a copy of their child’s birth certificate and proof of address.  An information pack will be issued to you, with details on how to apply.

December 2019:

• The Stars Come Out for Christmas – The whole school did a fantastic Christmas production which was performed at Craigievar Hall to an audience of over 90 parents, family & friends.  The singing was wonderful and the pupils really enjoyed the songs, one of the favourites being ‘Boogie, Woogie, Santa’.
• Cash for Kids – The pupils held a Christmas Jumper Day, with donations of £1 to wear your jumper going to Northsound 1’s Cash for Kids.  We also held a raffle at the school play, and in total the school raised a fantastic £212.00 for this charity.
• SSPCA Visit – We had a very interesting visit from the SSPCA.  They explained some of what they do and also told us ways to look after our animals and wildlife in the winter.

November 2019:

• Name the Gritter – Everyone got involved in Aberdeenshire Council’s competition to name the 32 gritters that keep our roads clear in the winter months.  ‘Snow Slayer’ was the winning name chosen by the school, and it’s great to see that one of the gritters in our area now has that name!
• Rugby Taster Sessions – The P4-7s really enjoyed their first Rugby Taster Session, organised by Active Schools and led by Huntly Rugby Club.  We are looking forward to the next session and the Rugby Festival next year.
• Rotary Shoeboxes – Once again we took part in the Rotary Shoebox Scheme, filling up special boxes which are sent abroad to people in need.

October 2019:

• Forest School – The whole school had a great morning up in the Forest.  Pupils chose a name associated with the Forest as the word for their ‘Lost Word’ project which they will be working on during the term.  Some of the pupils saw a deer in the Forest, and we also made spiders and broomsticks.
• Macmillan Coffee Morning – We had a fantastic coffee morning and raised over £100 for Macmillan.  There was ‘Guess the Weight of the Cake’, ‘Dunk your biscuit in the Cuppa’ and our Brilliant Biscuit Beetledrive!  Pupils came to school in home clothes, but had to try and wear purple or green if possible!
• Rotakids – Our Rotakids gave a fantastic presentation at the Rotary Club Evening. They talked about our Environment Day, our links with the Craigievar Castle Kitchen Garden, our work with Oor Wullie, plus the Ride the North Cycle Event.

September 2019:

• Theatre in Schools – Both classes had a great experience going to the Theatre in Alford Community Campus.  The P1-4s saw a play called ‘Cloud Man’ which was all about a scientist searching for Cloud Men in the sky and the P5-7s saw a play called ‘Mikey and Addie’.

August 2019:

• Ride the North Cycle Event – On Sunday 25th August, Craigievar School welcomed over 800 cyclists to our playground.  We were a refreshment stop for the Ride the North Cycle Event and our P5-7 class made lots of delicious homebakes for the cyclists to eat.
• Welcome back! We hope you have all had a fantastic summer holiday and we particularly want to welcome all our new pupils to the school.