PLANT YOURSELF Amazing Parent Led P1-S1 Planting Project

Runner beans grown from seed and planted in tyres

"The idea is the p7's to grow some at Sciennes to be a happy welcome  for the new P1's starting, and to have some planted in  the high schools to welcome the new S1's as they get  rooted in their new schools."

 Kirstin Unger, Parent ECO Group

Parent Kirstin Unger has successfully led an extraordinary and ambitious project enabling all our 655 pupils to plant throughout the year.

Kirstin Unger, Parent Council ECO Group

Sciennes' Parent ECO Group  is a dedicated subgroup  of our Parent Council  which supports pupils, staff and our Pupil ECO Group, in close liaison with Business Manager Angela Christie.

An ambitious whole school aim this year to provide an opportunity for each of our 655 pupils (22 classes from P1-P7) to experience planting and tending for plants throughout their school year has been realised, thanks to the tireless dedication and efforts of our Parent Council ECO Group and most particularly parent Kirstin Unger. Kirstin has in fact also managed to extend the project to S1, by passing on sunflowers grown by P7 from seed to James Gillespie's High School, putting down roots to help them establish themselves as S1s in August.

For several years our Parent Council ECO Group has supported a project whereby each of our new P1 pupils has an opportunity to plant something soon after they arrive, to 'make their mark' on the school and feel an immediate sense of belonging. This year the Parent Council ECO Group has managed to extend this to all our pupils as part of a planned, seasonal programme, to build a school career long love of and interest in the environment and to improve our school grounds. A main theme has been 'Giving Nature a Home' and P6 pupils recently planted some of the sunflowers P7s grew from seed to encourage more bees and birds into our school grounds. In January, Kirstin kindly spoke at our Assemblies to promote participation in RSPB' s Big Garden Birdwatch which stimulated a great deal of interest in our pupils.

Raised beds have already been introduced as well as pallets for our school grounds with inbuilt watering facilities which allow pupils to tend plants in school time and to maintain plants in the summer holidays. 

The Parent Council ECO Group also work throughout the year with our Primary Three pupils in a programme of planting, tending and harvesting. Produce from the ECO Garden is harvested by pupils and used within curriculum healthy eating and cooking lessons. This year has also seen potato chitting and cultivation in the Meadows by P2s and P3s.

We are extremely grateful for the ongoing support of Kirsin and our fantastic Parent ECO Group, who continue to enhance pupils' practical experience and environment at Sciennes.

P6s and some of their parents helped plant strawberries in pallets

P5A planted this lovely display

Lavendar tree planted in Quiet Area by P5A

Growing from seed

P2 potato chitting

Planting in the Meadows

P3 planting in the ECO Garden at the rear of the school

P3 potato planting with parent Laura Bird

Thank you parent Cath McCormack and all the other parents who have supported the Parent Council ECO Group with an extraordinary amount of planting!

This visitor also enjoyed the ECO Garden!

We also thank parent Colin Sim for submitting a successful bid for funding and Gus and his team from Earth Calling for planting fabulous willow structures

Thank you very much, wonderful Kirstin, for all your time and efforts!

Sciennes Cone Pit Creation

The Eco Group did a great job carrying and filling our new cone pit with all the fabulous cones collected during the holidays. KEEP COLLECTING!

Eco Team Pine Cone House Competition

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

The Eco Team is organising a competition to collect pine or fir cones for our wonderful playground. During the October holidays we would like you to collect as many cones as possible and bring them into school by 23^rd October when your class Rep will collect them in. The House Team that collects the most will win house points and an extra playtime. There will also be 6 individual winners (3 from P1-3 and 3 from P4-7). Cones brought in after the 23^rd October will still be used but won’t count in the competition.

Please bring your cones in bag labelled with your name, class and House.

If you have any questions please speak to your Eco Rep.

Many thanks,

The Eco Team

Successful Bid for SportScotland Funding for Playground!

The Minister for Sport, Jamie Hepburn, today announced that Sciennes Primary has been successful in its bid for match funding towards our ambitious Playground Improvements, receiving the full amount of £56,000. Thrilling news!

Report from STV News  By Jack Aitchison on Wednesday 22 April 2015

Sporting projects from across the country are set to receive a funding boost thanks to the success of last year's Commonwealth Games.

A total of 34 projects across Scotland will share over £1.5m from the Legacy 2014 Active Places Fund.

The awards are the fifth and final allocation of the £10m project, which aided a total of 188 projects across every local authority in the country.

Jamie Hepburn, minister of sport, announced the projects to benefit from the final tranche of money at the Cumbernauld Centurions BMX Club, one of the first facilities to receive funds.

"These 34 new awards are part of almost 200 projects to receive investment from the Legacy 2014 Active Places Fund which is playing an important role in improving and creating excellent facilities all over the country.

"This £10 million investment has helped deliver an impressive breadth of community, school, outdoors, and sports-based projects and is an integral component of the significant and positive legacy."

Sciennes Community Active Play Experience

An innovative consultation process in 2013-2014 by the Parent Council Communications Group, driven by Parent Council Chair Claire Wheeler, led to a sector leading example of best practice in action planning. Surveying our families identified how our playground could be improved and focused minds on how to make improvements a reality. Fellow members of the Parent Council subsequently formed a Playground Improvement Group, working alongside Headteacher Mrs Alison Noble and Business Manager Ms Angela Christie to shape the vision and enlist the dedicated support of the Parent Council Fundraising and Events Group (FEG), led by Chair Aileen Nimmo.

Plans formulated by the group are indeed ambitious - £55 000 is our target for school based fundraising - and with today's announcement of our successful application to SportScotland to match fund that sum, we hope that our entire community will continue to see and seize this as a remarkable, long dreamt of opportunity. We are indebted to parent Tanya Boughtflower particularly for her assistance in preparing the successful bid. An incredible £38 000 has already been raised by the school and we hope our forthcoming Swimathon will edge us further forward towards our target.

One of our Playground Improvement Group drivers, parent Stuart Sheehan, has rightly acknowledged the wealth of talent and resourcefulness within our community and convincingly appealed to all to grasp this landmark project as an ideal opportunity to create a legacy for all Sciennes' pupils - current and future. Sports Minister Jamie Hepburn's announcement today fortifies Sciennes' motto that if we Believe we can indeed Achieve.

New Games in the Playground

Great to see pupils making up lots of new games in and around the hedging, bamboo and logs.

Fantastic New Bamboo Plants in the Playground

A parent very kindly managed to obtain some fabulous bamboo plants, compost and tyres, at no cost to the school, so our Eco Team got busy planting on Thursday 27th November. A fabulous addition to the playground! Thank you!