School News 2008-2009

Summer Term

Last updated: Wednesday, September 2, 2009 11:41 AM

Awards Ceremony
Headteacher, Hugh Macdonald, welcomed the large number of parents and friends to the annual prizegiving ceremony which was held on Tuesday 30 June. In taking 'enthusiasm' as his theme, he highlighted how famous people like Obama, Pele and Andy Murray had achieved so much by being enthusiastic about their particular interest and encouraged our pupils to do likewise. A number of awards were handed out for Attendance, Cycling Profeciency, Ribbit, Power Readers, Gaelic, Chanter,Piping and Sport while all the S2 leavers were presented with achievement certificates and a special clock. This year for the first time a Citizenship award was presented and the primary recepient was Hannah Hocine with Ruairidh Macdonald picking up the secondary one.

Highland Games
The 2nd Mini Paible School Highland Games began in glorious weather on Fri 26 June when Chieftain, Ruairidh Macdonald led Lionacleit Pipe Band, pupils, Carinish School, Croileagan Dhunsgealair, Saoghall Beag Nursery, parents and members of the community from the school onto the playing fields. Events like Tug-o-war , Tossing the Caber, Throwing the Hammer, Shot Putt and Weight for Distance were organised and led by our S2 pupils. Members of the Pipe Band judged the chanter and piping competitions. Police, Fire Service, RSPB, School Nurse with 'SunSmart' information and Anti-Smoking group were also in attendance.

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Langass Walk
On Friday 19th June, the whole school spent an enjoyable day in Langass.We were accompanied by Becky and Kate, two archaeologists who gave us a bit of history connected with the ancient sites. The primary classes started off in the Barpa Langass car park which is supposed to be the site of the oldest village in the Western Isles. From there they followed the path to the Barpa which is an ancient chambered cairn possibly used for burials. It consists of a round cairn with an outer kerb of stones and an inner elongated chamber. The S1/S2 group started their walk from the fish farm past Langass Lodge to the Standing Stones- Pobull Fhinn. From there, they made their way up the hill to meet up with the primary group for lunch at the top entrance to the forest. While in the forest, pupils had to name various animals, birds and other rare species!! Winners of the competition were:- primary- Anna and Trinity, Secondary- Sarah Macdonald and Kay Marie.
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Learning for Life Certificate
Mairi MacInnes travelled to Edinburgh to receive a Best in Schools Certificate for the learning for Life Programme in RME. Certificates were presented in the Scottish Parliament where Alasdair Allan, MSP joined Mairi and family for the presentation.

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Eco Schools Bronze Award

Paible School has been recognised for their achievements towards a sustainable lifestyle by being awarded a bronze award by the Eco-Schools Award Scheme Scotland. Having gained the award, the school is now eligible to apply for a £250 grant which will be used for further Eco-schools work.

Deanery Mass
Three secondary pupils attended the Deanery Mass for Vocations celebrated by the Bishop and priests of the deanery at Sgoil Lionacleit on 9th June. They were joined by pupils from Castlebay and Daliburgh schools.All four schools

contributed to prayers, readings and music.
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Annual Clean-up

Whole school with help from members of the community were busy on Thurs 14 May, clearing rubbish and litter from the roadside, ditches and beaches. It was organised by the Less Litter Eco Group.
An interesting find was a bottle with a message inside it. Room 5 pupils received a pleasant surprise last Thursday, when our message in a bottle returned. We had forgotten all about it! We sent it out to sea in March, during the sea project. The bottle was found at Aird Heisger by Hannah Hocine. Zoe thinks that the bottle made the journey via Australia. Unfortunately there were no new messages returned in the bottle, so we will never know!
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Scottish Schools Magazine Awards

Although not winning any of the major prizes,Paible School was highly commended. The school had been shortlisted in three categories for the Scottish School Magazine Competition 2009 run by the Periodical Publishers Association. 'Paible in Print' was designed, produced, edited and published by last year's S2 pupils as part of their language work under the guidance of English Teacher, Mrs Fiona Campbell. The three categories were:-
Scottish School Magazine of the Year; Best Overall Editorial Content and Most Inspirational Teacher. Three pupils who are now on S3 in Sgoil Lionacleit, Oisin Buckley, Tom Lane and Sian Donkers along with Mrs Campbell and Mr Ian Bramwell visited Our Dynamic Earth Centre in Edinburgh on June 12th when the winners were announced.
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Fun Run

Well done to all who completed the Fun Run. A number of pupils missed it because of shinty and athletics trips but they completed the course the following week.

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Click on links below to see what has been happening over the last year especially our sea project

Thanks to Hector the bus driver

Paible pupils and staff met in the school hall on Thursday afternoon to say a big thank you to a much loved personality affectionately known as Hector, the bus driver.
Hector has been taking children to and from Paible School for almost 35 years about 6825 school days. On every occasion he was always known as Hector and as Primary pupils spelt out his name he was Helpful, Easy going, Caring, Thoughtful, Obliging, Respectful.  Kay Marie Macdonald and Katie Hocine presented him with cards and a watch.
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Eco-Schools Initiative

In an attempt to raise the profile/ownership of the Eco-Schools Initiative amongst staff and pupils, 8 eco-teams have been created to represent the 8 areas of Eco – Schools.
Litter, Biodiversity, Water,  Energy, School Grounds       Sustaining our World,  Health & Wellbeing and Waste Minimisation                     
Pupils and staff have chosen an area which is of most interest to them and have subsequently been allocated to teams as shown on the appended grid.               
This term all groups will be involved. Waste Reduction are organising this year's Yellow Pages Collection during the months of May, while the less Litter group are organising our Clean up on Thurs 30 April.

Whole School Breakfast


On the last day of term, pupils and staff friends and all enjoyed breakfast in the school hall.
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term 1 news
term 2 news
term 3 news

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Chieftain

Hamish in focus!

Pobull Fhinn