Da Ooricks

Recently the nursery was lucky to have a visit from Ann Marie Anderson who read her new children’s dialect story “Da Ooricks” to both the nursery sessions. She also brought in her hand-made Ooricks and some of the raw materials she uses to make them to show the bairns. We used the materials –“oo” – fair isle and yarn to create our own Ooricks for a display. We all had a really enjoyable day and would like to thank Ann Marie again for giving up her time to come in.

I hope that you will enjoy reading about some of

the many activities which our pupils have been

involved in this term. Thank you to all our Staff who work hard to give pupils

these opportunities and also to Amanda, Leona and Caroline who put the news-

letter together for us.

As I write, our S4 pupils are busy completing assessments and preparing for

their final exams as well making decisions about their future options. This is

an important time and I, along with all staff, wish them all the best for the

future. Meanwhile, our S2 and S3 pupils are involved in subject choices,

ready for the new timetable which begins

on the 1st May.

We have enjoyed lovely weather over

the past week and I hope that it will

continue into the Easter holidays, so that

you, your children and all our Staff can

enjoy a very well deserved break.

Brenda Hughson—Temp Head Teacher

DIARY DATES March

Thurs 24th—Musical Evening

Fri 25th —Last day of term!

April

Mon 11th - In-Service

Tues 12th - Pupils return to school

Wed 20th—School Photos

Fun in the Snow! The Nursery bairns took advantage of the cold wintery weather recently, and got out and about in the snow. They really enjoyed some outdoor play, dressed for the occasion – of course. Some made little snowmen, snow castles and snow angels. It was also an opportunity for making – writing our names with sticks in the snow and making patterns. There were also opportunities for numeracy – uncovering numbers hidden under the ice with shovels and scrapers.

SHAPES ALL AROUND US

The Nursery bairns have spent a lot of

time finding out about shapes. Some of the

activities have included – finding and re-

cording shapes in the environment around

us, playing “shape hide and seek”, musical

shapes and making pictures from shapes.

There were lots of fun and interesting

ways to find out about shapes.

They also created some magic with the magic tray which can mysteriously make

shapes disappear!

P2/3 have been doing “The Vikings” as their topic this term

On Tuesday 16th February, a letter arrived for each co-

operative group in P2/3. The letter was in Runic but there was

a key to help us read it.

We helped each other by using the key to translate each let-

ter and we wrote the words on the paper underneath each line.

We found out that the letter was from a little Viking boy called

Ufi, who had been left behind after a Viking raid on Whalsay. He

wanted us to draw him a map to get to Skaw to meet up with his

father’s longship.

As a group we then planned how we could help Ufi and found the

resources we needed.

In his letter, Ufi had told us

that he was very scared and

just wanted to go home. We

decided to write letters to

him, telling him a little bit

about ourselves so he wouldn’t

feel so frightened but there was a problem........ Ufi didn’t speak any English.

One solution we came up with was to write to Ufi in Runic. We used the same key

that we found in Ufi’s letter and set out to reassure him that we were all hope-

fully going to be friends and told him a little bit about ourselves and our families.

We found this quite tricky but we kept going and the letters were

finished.

We think Ufi got our letters and reached the longship as there

haven’t been any Viking raids on Whalsay since.

We formed our new ECO committee in September 2015. We meet on Mondays to discuss what we can

do. At the start of this term we made a poster with plans of our projects for the year. One of our plans

is to make a fairy garden outside our school in the summer time when the weather improves.

Recently we have started the Green Gorillas that encourages people to

turn off lights, computers and taps. Every play time we check the

classes for turned on lights and running taps and if that is happening

they get a sticker and the worst offender gets a Green Gorilla at the

end of the week.

We have also started a litter rota every Monday,

Wednesday and Fridays. A group goes around the school

picking up litter to help keep the school tidy. We asked

classes to see who wanted to do it.

Recently the committee had a meeting and we all decided we

would take in a reasonable sized bottle for the following week.

Then we got goose fat and birds seeds to put in the bottle. We

had to cut a hole for the birds to fit in so that they could eat

out of them. At the end of the first week we saw that our bird

feeders were very successful as all the seeds were gone, so we

are going to keep this up.

Our next project is to make bird tables and bird houses for the birds. We have diagrams of what the finished bird houses will look like and we have instructions from the RSPB on how to make them.

By Ellie, Katie, Annie and Jenny

Junior Road Safety Officers We have taught P1 to cross the road safely, we managed

that by taking them up to the play park. We went down to P1’s class to do a ‘Be Bright Be Seen!’ talk.

We wore reflective clothing and explained the importance of being seen at night and day!

We handed out reflectors to the whole school including Nurs-ery too. We read stories about Ziggy to P1, 2 and 3 and gave them reflectors too.

We did a whole school competition on road safety. They had to draw a poster on ‘Be Bright Be Seen’ and the overall winner was Ellie Sandison who won a bike helmet.

We are currently working on a life size ZIGGY. We are planning to use our Ziggy at the town hall in June. Meantime we will be using him as a prop for promoting road safety in the school.

Whalsay JRSO committee

Cara, Grant, Magnus, Lauren, Jasmine, Krissie

We have been running a primary 5-7 writing club during Tuesday

lunch break. Since November we have looked at different techniques

and styles of writing such as poetry, report writing and listening to a

story then drawing a picture to replicate what you’d listened to.

These sessions are aimed to show how writing can be fun.

Golden sparks

All around

Leaping

Light

Exciting

Yellow flames

Scott P5

Up Helly Aa is such a delight

People travel far to see the sight.

Happy children waving and screaming

Everyone’s face seems to be gleaming

Little Viking having a row

Little princesses take a bow

Yelling and shouting for ages on end.

All this stuff is such a blast

And it’s funny because it’s in the past!

Ellie P7

The Day I Went To The Moon!

One day I woke to hear the rain lashing against my window. Just then Mum came

in holding the phone, looking sorry for me. “Your school field trip to the fire sta-

tion is cancelled!” Mum said as tears ran down my face. I was completely heart-

broken. I had been looking forward to it for 2 weeks! “Well I guess I can have a

Saturday morning lie in!” I said angrily and with that I hid under the bed sheets

to cry.

Suddenly I heard a deep rumbling echoing through my ears. I sprang out of

bed and ran towards my window as I peered out I saw a gianormus rocket.

“Major Eleanor, do you read me?” I heard a man’s voice say.

“Major whatie, what, what?” I spluttered and I looked down and I saw I was in a

space suit. Suddenly the rocket extended a bridge for me. So I crawled on to the

bridge with excitement that I could feel trying to burst out. As soon as I got in

the cabin the countdown began 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1....ignition! Boom the

rocket rumbled and shook. I felt sick and poorly at lift off but I felt much better

now. I felt all floaty as I flew around in the rocket. Finally I reached the moon

and I put a flag on it. Suddenly I heard a voice calling me just as I set foot in the

rocket. I saw myself sitting on my bed. It was just a dream aww!

Eleanor P5

P6/7 Literature—WWII

The Luftwaffe Attack Stay Strong Britain. German bombers also known as the Luftwaffe attack London during the night. Nearly 2000 people died or got seriously injured during the first night of the Blitz. Hitler plans to destroy the RAF so he can send in troops to take over Britain. There are several different types of bombs Oil, Fire and highly explosive bombs that Hitler will throw at us but Chur-chill says we must be strong during these dark times. Britain is taking a terrible beating but we must do all we can to help the war effort. We don’t know what will happen but we must not fear, one of Churchill’s speech. This is an interview with Kathleen Brockington who had a lucky escape “when the bomb dropped I wasn’t even under the table! I heard the plane and recognised it was a Jerry because I’d heard so many. There was a tremendous BANG! And I ducked. All the win-dows came in and the ceiling and a couple of walls came in and there was incredible smoke everywhere. I was shaking like a leaf but I wasn’t hurt!” Michael P7

Why Did Evacuation Take Place? Learning Intention: I can write an explanation text

When you think of WW2 you usually think: guns, bombs, war. But there is a different side to things, more about the children, or even more, evacuees. This explanation will tell you all about evacuees. The main reason for children being evacuated was that since WW1, planes had been invented, planes that could drop bombs over big cities like London or Liverpool. The Government feared bombs would be dropped and children would be injured, pregnant mothers would get injured or even whole schools. So while war was feared months before it started the Government made an operation called “Operation Pied Piper.” Citizens and schools were then informed about evacuation. You could choose if you wanted to be evacuated – if you were pregnant. Whole schools were evacuated, teachers took the bus journey, boat journey or train journey to the countryside, they had to actually teach because there wasn’t enough teachers in the country. Children were leaving home with their belongings in a pillow case or maybe a suitcase, a gas mask and a nametag with the information such as their name, address and age.

The travelling/evacuation started on Friday 1st September 1939 just 2 days before war was declared. Over 1.5 million people got evacuated. Families stayed together, so siblings all lived together. When the evacuees reached their destination they were met by Billeting Officers who made sure people got a home. Some people went home after 2 weeks but some stayed for the rest of the war, 6 years away from home. But mothers or family came to visit. Hopefully this report has helped you learn about evacuation.

The Great Raid

The British army plan out an attack on the German war base the Atlantic wall. British men are taken onboard a royal Navy ship for food as the Navy thought they would fight better on a full belly. Two people here are Ray and Billy they are brothers they always do things together but as they are put on the landing craft they are sepa-rated. Ray’s landing craft land first at the beach. Within seconds of the ramp going down men got mowed down. Ray wasn’t one of those men but he had to do what they had been told never to do...jump over the side. So Ray jumped over the side. All his brother could hear was the sound of the men screaming and the sound of Hitler’s most deadly weapon...The FG42. It was named the buzz saw because 5 FG42’s, in one second, fired 125 shots. Five mins on the beach and Ray had died. The second landing craft was Billy’s one. Billy had to do the same as Ray and jump over the side. 10 mins on the beach and the tide is coming in. As Billy progressed up the beach all he could see pools of blood and dead bodies one of them being Ray! Billy just had to fight the devastation around him. All he could smell was the smoke of the grenades. British troops needed back up quick. It wasn’t coming soon. Britain tried to put a tank ashore but 5 out of 30 made it ashore. All that made it ashore was destroyed. It was now under the power of Britain’s men. It’s going to be a long day for the British troops on the beach. Britain is still making slow progress Billy being one of that people. It is getting harder hour by hour, minute by minute it’s nearly suicide this mission and people are dying every second as the troops progress up the beach they look back to the amount killed but fight on. They get to a fence of barbed wire impossible to get through without explosive. The men take a long explosive and throw it at the barbed wire. They are through. Now the surviving men can progress in to the line of German defences. The British move in to the base and clear it out. The men clear the first section and can now move through. The men have a rest so they can move through they can get en-ergy for what stands ahead of them. Now the first section is clear Britain can land even more people on the beach. After all of this when the new men landed on the beach they had a meeting to discuss who had what job in the next part of the base. Billy was still alive at this point and had the job of the sniper he moved out. He got in position and re-ported back to base. “2 FG 42’s” he shouted. He got back to position and took the first shot. “1 KIA” he whispered. He took the second shot hit again. After the sec-ond shot German troops surrendered and Britain had taken over. Tom P7

Read more P7’s literature on Whalsay School’s web page

P6/7 WWII POSTERS

Modern Studies visit Monday the 8th

of February 2016

On Monday afternoon we had a visit from Malcolm Bell (SIC Convenor), Tavish

Scott (MSP) and Kaylee Mouat (MYSP).

We all had questions for them. They introduced

themselves and their roles, and we started asking our

questions. Theo started us off by asking the first

question, which was one for Kaylee.

Kaylee was asked quite a few questions on what her role as an MSYP was; what

inspired her to run for MSYP; and how much say they have within the Scottish

Youth Parliament. The answers people got were good. Kaylee explained that

her job is to represent us and the young people of Shetland.

She told us that she was involved in youth voice before, and also that her sister

was an MSYP before her and she saw and knew what she did during her time as

an MSYP.

Kaylee also said, in the Scottish Youth Parliament their job is to say the feedback

they get from the young people of Shetland on whatever topic they had been

focusing on.

Tavish got a fair few questions, a lot of which were asking for his opinion on is-

sues.

Tavish replied with good, mostly agreeable answers. One question Tavish got

asked was what inspired him to want to become a MSP. He replied by saying

that he always wanted Shetland’s issues to be properly handled.

Malcolm Bell mostly got questions on our problems proposed by the council.

My question for him was about how that on Saturday the bus from Lerwick gets

to Laxo half an hour before the next ferry, meaning that we have to wait till

then. He replied by saying that he knew it was a problem, also a common

problem with buses which go to Toft, but he would mention it to the people in

charge.

He usually tried to make points to go against the things we found as issues. One

thing he said that I didn’t agree with, when he was asked about school closures,

was that bigger schools mean better education.

I think the visit was worthwhile and that everyone got something from it.

By Catherine Williamson S2

Young Engineers ROV

This term after school on Thursdays, we attended an after school club

called Young Engineering (ROV Building). During this after school club

we built a ROV submarine. The kit was supplied by Delta Marine.

An ROV stands for a Remotely Operated Vehicle. It can be used for

taking photos, finding boat ruins, reaching places for divers.

We worked together and used soldering irons to build the electronic

parts. We measured and cut the pipes in the workshop to make the

framework. We really enjoyed making it and would like to do more

Young Engineering projects.

We would like to thank the Whalsay

Leisure Centre for letting us test the ROV.

The first time we tried it, it wouldn’t sink, so

we made the floats smaller and it worked

well the second time.

Young Ambassadors Football/Netball Tournament - 21st December 2015

The Young Sport Ambassadors decided to organise a sport tournament for P7–S3 pupils.

The first thing we had to do was organise the teams which took us a few weeks , during

our lunch-time breaks! The aim of the whole tournament was to have a non-gender sport

event. We made it so all the teams of girls played only the teams of boys, same rules for

the boys too.

The tournament started at 1:10pm and had

netball rings put up straight away.

We explained to every team the rules for both

sports in the hall and how long the games were

going to be. We began the tournament with

netball. Young Ambassadors, Cally, Ellie and

Lianne umpired, score kept and timed as much

netball games as possible, but also got help

from other secondary pupils. All the games

were 6 minutes long, so there would be enough time to organise in between games!

There were no problems or arguments and the netball was smooth throughout. S3 Girls

won the netball, winning all their games!!

Next was the football matches. Pupils helped put away netball rings and put the goals in

place. Young Ambassadors, Brendan and Clive refereed most games with help from Miss

Spence. It was really helpful for all the pupils that helped score keep and time. Same for

the football, the matches were 6 minutes long. S2 boys won the football, winning all their

games as well. Sometimes it was a bit of a hassle to find people to score keep!

The pupils played very well and made it a very successful day.

School News Report Our class was presented with a task. We accepted the challenge willingly and began making our

school proud!

Back in January, our English Teacher, Mr Carmichael, had the idea of us participating in the BBC

School News Report. We obliged and it became a thing that every Thursday was School Report

Thursday.

P7 joined us and we started doing our research. The national deadline was the 10th March 2016 so

we had quite an amount of time to prepare for it.

We watched videos from the BBC website on how to write a report. Every Thursday we were shown a

new video starring the famous Huw Edwards. We learned the keys to a perfect news report:-clear,

concise and correct.

We began gathering ideas for our reports and jobs were handed out. I was granted the esteemed job

of editor, meaning that I had to keep everyone on track.

News day came faster than expected and we began the writing of the reports. We had reports about

our Knitting Group, the youth Philanthropy Initiative, Miss Shetland and Northlink Ferries.

Each report was read over and corrected till they were close to perfect as possible. We took the leap

and the reports were uploaded to the school website!

We all want to thank Mrs Hughson,

Mr Carmichael and Mrs Shearer for

helping us with our reports and giving

us the opportunity to take part in the

day.

Your favourite editor

Amber

Whalsay School News Team 2016