All School Activities 

from August 2022 to June 2023

29/6/23 - On our last day of term we held our Leaver's Assembly - in honour of our P7 pupils Gemma and Emily.    This provided us with the opportunity to celebrate all of the school activities over the last 12 months with our pupils and parents.

We would like to thank Katie and Alison, who agreed to take in part in a Dance Off against their daughters, the competition was voted a draw.

Have a great Summer Holiday and we will see you all again in August. 

27/6/23 - Our last trip of the year was to Loch Ness RNLI Station in Drumnadrochit.  The children were able to explore the Station and also had a very important lesson in water safety.

We recently purchased a large box of Kapla building blocks, the pupils enjoyed creating a range of items with them.  There will be more opportunities in the new school year to create even more adventurous items.

With our order we received several books of Kapla design creations - Joseph recreated a Scorpion from one of the pictures.


This picture is of all our pupils at the end of our Summer Fete, I think you can tell from the picture how much they all enjoyed the event.

We would like to thank the Parent Council, School Families, Stall Holders and everyone that attended that made the Fete such a success. 


19/6/23 - Last Thursday our P7 pupils had their Leaver's Dance at Glenurquhart High School with the other P6 and P7 pupils within our ASG (Cannich Bridge and Glenurquhart Primary School).


 12/6/23 - Today the pupils had a surprise visit from Dagmar Barrowman of Highlife Highland, and she presented us with the INVOC Schools Orienteering League Rural School Trophy!!! 

We are all absolutely delighted to have won the small school section!

Dagmar also presented medals to individual pupils based on their overall running times across the 3 events.

Charlie won 1st place and Angus won 2nd place in the Boys P4-5 category, Eirica won 2nd place and Katie 3rd place in the Girls P4-5 category.

Congratulations to everyone we are so proud of you all!

7/6/23 - Victorian School Drama Afternoon

This afternoon we had a visit from a Victorian School Inspector, 'Miss Smith' who made a surprise visit to the school to assess the quality of education provided to the pupils by the teachers.

As can be seen from the pictures Victorian lessons took place in a very structured and controlled environment.  

At the end of the lesson the pupils had the opportunity to talk about the experience and how different education was in the 19th Century to today.  

7/6/23 - this morning we had a visit from Emily McCloskey to talk us about her recent trip to the Bahamas with The Sir Sean Connery Foundation as part of her Masters course in Marine Biology at St Andrews University.

6/6/23 - Trip to Aigas Field Centre

At Aigas, we enjoyed 'A Journey Through Time' and discovered how the land around us has changed over the years. We also developed our Bushcraft skills and our way-finding skills. Everyone was really  enthusiastic to explore all the natural artefacts on display at Magnus House too! Thanks to our friends at Aigas for another exciting day full of learning opportuntites!

1/06/23 Visit from Archive Centre

We had the most interesting afternoon when Lorna came to visit us from the Archive Centre in Inverness. Not only did we learn more about archive centres in general, we also learned so much about the history of Balnain Primary School! Lorna delivered a super presentation to us, showing lots of sources of evidence with information relating to our special wee school. We now know that the school was built in 1876. We look forward to finding out even more about school life in the Victorian times next week when we will have a Victorian School drama afternoon!

30/05/23 Baillie Cup

This was our first time entering the Baillie Cup with our P1-4 team and what an exciting day we had! We are incredibly proud of all of our pupils who represented the school so well today. Every single pupil did their very best and enjoyed the whole experience. Such positive attitudes and team spirit were in abundance today, which was an absolute joy to witness!! There were many medals and smiley faces on the way home - congratulations to you all! 

27/05/23 Inter School Sports

Congratulations to Gemma and Emily for competing in the Inter School Sports. Both girls achieved amazing results with medals galore! Gemma was awarded Gold medals for both her high jump and long jump and also gained a Silver medal for running 150m. Emily was awarded Gold medals for her shot putt and for running 600m and 80m. Emily also created a new record with her shot putt, beating the previous record distance of 5m 80 with her own throw of 5m 85! The girls were joined by our P4 boys to compete in the mixed relay and the team put on an incredible performance coming in first place! Gold medals were awarded to Gemma, Emily, Jospeh and Angus. Big thanks to Joseph and Angus for stepping in to support the girls. Terrific teamwork from Team Balnain! 

What a successful day!

25/05/23 Sports Day!

An afternoon of sunshine and sports was enjoyed by us all, as we joined with our friends at Cannich Bridge Primary School for our annual Sports Day today. It was super to see everyone participate with such enthusiasm and positivity! Thanks to everyone for making it such a success. 😊🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

23/05/23 Creeping Toad Workshop at Abriachan

We had such fun at Abriachan today with 'Creeping Toad' Gordon MacLellan! Along with pupils from Dochgarroch Primary School, we enjoyed his wonderful storytelling and were inspired to create our own stories, using the beautiful natural environment around us. Children created their own characters and turned them into puppets and made woodland homes for them. We were so impressed by everyone's enthusiasm, imagination and creativity and we can't wait to continue our story books tomorrow! Well done everyone! Many thanks to Abriachan Forest Trust for inviting us along to the session today and to Iain for driving us there using the GlenUrquhart Shinty Club Minibus. 

Balnain Flower Bombs have new sales outlets at The Loch Ness Hub and Drum Farm Gallery!

Everyone enjoyed delivering our Flower Bombs to our local visitor centres. Thank you to Russell and everyone at Loch Ness Hub and thanks to Karen at Drum Farm Gallery. We really enjoyed seeing the amazing art work and we would highly recommend a visit!

17/05/23 Schools Orienteering Event

Everyone really enjoyed competing in the second orienteering course today. Our terrific team navigated the course with a partner and were really pleased with their performance this afternoon. We can see that pupils are becoming more confident in their map reading abilities which is fantastic!  Thanks to our volunteers for supporting us too. 😊

Jumping for joy at the finish line!! 😃

Well done Team Balnain!!

We are delighted to have recently installed a second bird box with a camera in our school...and we are pleased to share that we have house sparrows nesting in it already! Everyone is really enjoying seeing the progress that the birds are making and we all have our fingers crossed that we might see some eggs in it soon! 🤞

3/05/23 Schools Orienteering Event

Our P4/5 pupils were delighted to take part in our first INVOC schools orienteering event today. Well done to everyone who took part and completed the course! We are all really looking forward to the next session.

26.04.23    Generation Science - Body Builders!

Today we all enjoyed an interactive show from the Generation Science team, which explored the main organs of the body, described their main functions and delved into the role of healthy eating in maintaining their function. In this funny and fast-paced show, we joined Doctor Watson and Nurse It Better on their rounds at their Touring Teaching Hospital where he met and treated a variety of patients with common ailments. Pupils discovered the basics of the musculoskeletal, circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems and discovered ways to stay healthy too!

25.04.23     Generation Science - Fizz! Boom! Bang!

The team from Edinburgh-based company 'Generation Science' visited us today. Fizz, Boom, Bang is a highly interactive workshop that encourages pupils to explore the mysteries of mixtures and learn about colour changes and solutions. As part of the Generation Science Exploratory Laboratory pupils are briefed on the challenge ahead and protocols in the lab. Pupils are divided into teams, each with their own workstation. Each team works through a range of experiments to create a cool, colourful, chemical reaction. And yes, we had fizz...and a boom... and even a bang today!

21.04.23   Orienteering Club

We had a great time at our first Orienteering After School Club today! Thanks so much to our parent  volunteers Susanna and Aaron, and our former pupil David, who helped to deliver the session today with us. We played lots of fun games which taught some important skills needed for orienteering. Great work everyone - can't wait to do some more next week!

21.04.23    Park fun!

What better way to round off the end of our first week back?! Everyone had great fun at the park and enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine today. 😎

Eid Mubarak!

We have been learning about the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the festival of Eid al-Fitr. Our class designed some beautiful Eid cards that could be sold in a card shop. Aren't they lovely?

18/4/23 - Salmon and Aquaculture Workshop at UHI

The P5-7 class visited the Newton Room at the UHI to find out about the life cycle of Atlantic Salmon and how the aquaculture industry meets the needs of growing and developing salmon.  It was a very interesting and informative session.

19/4/23 - Measurement

P1-4 have been exploring measurement this week. We were learning to use a trundle wheel to measure longer distances in metres. Once we were all confident and accurate with using the trundle wheel we set off to measure distances on the pitch that we will be running for athletic events this term. Great work everyone!!


31/3/23 - Egg Decorating Competition

We were very impressed by the creativity of our pupils today! What amazing entries for our egg decorating competition. Mr Watt, one of our local ministers, was invited to school today so that we could mark his retirement after serving 27 years in our parish. He helped to judge the entries and it was a very difficult task...prizes were awarded to Alexa, Connie and Gregor in P1-4 and also to Emily, Jasmine and Ailsa in P5-7. However, Mr Watt felt that 'everyone's a winner' and kindly gave everyone a creme egg. Thank you Mr Watt and we wish you a very happy retirement!

31.03.23 Egg Hunt

We also had our traditional egg hunt in the school grounds today.


28/3/23 - Highland Wildlife Park

On Tuesday we went on our school trip to the Highland Wildlife Park, which was a prize trip from our winning art competition entry. We got to watch the male Polar Bears having their mid morning snack and had a great tour of the Reserve. Thanks to Jasper, our super guide, we also got to handle some amazing animal artifacts including antlers, horns, a polar bear tooth and an arctic fox pelt! 

 The remaining pupils had their cooking class last Thursday, have a flick through the pictures the final pizzas looked delicious - were they eaten on the way home?

27/3/23 - This morning we had a visit from The Men's Shed based in Drumnadrochit following the purchase of 2 new bird tables for the school from them.  The Men's Shed is a relatively new venture within Drumnadrochit they meet on a Wednesday evening from 7pm to 9pm in the Village Hall, they provide the opportunity for men from the age of 18 to meet, chat and undertake small building/DIY projects.

Our new bird tables in their final position 

Gardening Sale!

Next Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2:45-3:15pm in school grounds.

22/3/23 - The McRobert Cup 

On the windiest, wettest, coldest, muddiest day imaginable our pupils gave their best effort and toughed it out!

Thank you to Susanna Edwards who was a Steward at the event and Barbara Girvan who initially turned up to watch the races but very kindly assisted with pupils and became our event photographer.

The results can be found: Inverness Schools 2023 (racetecresults.com)  

Traditional Youth Music Initiative (YMI) - The pupils on the P5-7 class have been enjoying YMI sessions with Patrick recently.  This has involved fun-filled active music-making and performing.

17.03.23 Red Nose Day!

Our wonderful P6/7 pupils organised this event today. We had a dress down/dress up non-uniform day along with a bake sale and team challenges. Great fun was had by all and we are delighted to have raised so much money for such a good cause. Your money will certainly help other children and families locally, nationally and globally to have their rights met. Well done everyone and thanks for being so supportive of our fund raising events!

We raised over £100 for Red Nose Day!!

17/3/23 - We have just seen a blue tit checking out our new bird box! We really hope it might want to build a nest in it….fingers crossed!! 

17/3/23 - We were all 'buzzing' with excitement yesterday after a visit from Margaret and Jed from the Inverness-shire Beekeepers Association.  We learned a lot about honey bees and making honey.  We had fun trying on beekeeper suits, tasting different types of honey, examining beekeeping equipment and finding out about the uses of beeswax.

This made us realise how important it is to look after our bees.  You can help bees too by supporting our Balnain Flower Bombs mini enterprise project.  More information to follow soon ......

14/3/23 - The pupils tried a new dish in the Cooking Club on Tuesday - Scone Based Pizza and it was very popular.  The recipe is included in one of the photos if they would like to make the dish again at home.

Our final group had the opportunity to make soup last week, it looks like they had fun.

Look out for a new dish over the next couple of weeks!

13/3/23 - BIRD FEEDERS

As part of our whole school project to develop our garden we would like to find ways of attracting more birds into the school garden. Pupils were given a homework challenge to make a bird feeder from recycled materials that would normally be disposed of. Have a look at some of their fantastic designs…we think the Balnain birds will be in for a treat!! 

Kapla Creations...some more budding engineers have enjoyed creating impressive designs! They went on to take photos of their work to create design challenges for others. Well done boys!

3.3.23 Orienteering Leader Training

We were delighted to host this training event at Balnain for orienteering. Big thanks to Storm for helping to organise and to Susan for delivering the session, which was packed full with information and exciting games to introduce people to the world of orienteering and the necessary skills required. Many thanks to our volunteers who came along and who expressed an interest in developing this further in our school. We all had a lot of fun and are excited to do more!

2/3/23 - Photos of the next 2 groups making Tomato Soup, if you look carefully through the pictures you can see the recipe if you would like to make it at home.

9/2/23 - The Cooking Club has returned this week, the P6 and P7 pupils made Tomato Soup.  

The other pupils will be given the opportunity over the next few weeks.

9/2/23 Fruity Faces inspired by the work of the artist Giuseppe Acrimboldo. Can you guess who is behind the fruity portraits?

1/2/23     Willow Dome

We had a very productive day today with the help of the skilled staff at Naturally Useful and our terrific trio of helpers! They worked together to create the main structure of our new willow dome for our playground and our pupils helped to do the finishing touches with some willow weaving. We think it looks great and is a super addition to our playground! It will enhance our outdoor play opportunities and also help to improve the condition of our pitch by absorbing some of the excess moisture. Many thanks to Karen and Katie from Naturally Useful and our terrific trio Susanna, Aaron and Dave! We really appreciated your help today!!

P5-7 Health Science Trip

The P5-7 class thoroughly enjoyed the Health Science session in the Newton Room at the UHI Campus.

They participated in exciting activities which focused on the digestive, lymphatic and respiratory systems in the body.  They also learned about numerous career roles that are imperitive for the successful care and treatment of patients within the healthcare environment.  There was lots of high-quality and exciting learning going on as our photos show! Thanks to the team at the Science Skills Academy for creating such an exciting programme for us today!

30/1/23 - Our latest Kapla constructions! Impressive creations today, well done team! Some budding engineers in the making here!  



26.01.23    Mikeysline

Today we had a visit from Marina who volunteers with Mikeysline, a local charity which provides support for the mental health of people from age 11 upwards. P1-4 were learning more about emotions and how important it is to be able to share and talk about our feelings. P5-7 were learning more about self-esteem. Our P7 pupils have volunteered to become Youth Champions for our school to provide further support and continue to raise awareness of how important it is to look after our mental health. Thank you to Gemma and Emily for this! Well done girls! This also supports our right to the best possible health as outlined in UNCRC Article 24.

Vet Centre

P1-4 opened up their vet centre today and had great fun treating the poorly animals that were booked in. These furry friends were in safe hands today and have made a very speedy recovery!!

Kodaly Music Sessions

P1-4 had so much fun with Rosalind today! We enjoyed learning some new songs and games, as well as some old favourites! We were delighted to be able to use our new bamboo xylophone from Alexa's family to play along with some of our songs. Angus brought in his tin whistle to play for us and Gregor managed to accompany him with our new instrument. Great job everyone!!

Alexa's trip to Indonesia

We were all very excited to welcome Alexa back and hear all about her recent trip to Indonesia! We learned that Indonesia is in a different time zone to us, so Alexa is still adjusting to the 7 hour difference. There is also a difference in climate as Alexa had lots of sunshine in Indonesia and she has arrived back to lots of snow in Scotland! She showed us her gorgeous puppet and we had a go at using it for a shadow puppet show. Alexa and her family were incredibly kind and thoughtful to have brought back souvenirs for us as well as some tasty treats! The beautiful bamboo xylophone is a gift to the school and we were delighted to use it today in our music session. Thank you so much Alexa!


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19.01.23

Everyone had lots of fun with all the snow in our playground. It's been a long time since we have had this amount of snow!! Lots of creative ideas and terrific teamwork today. 😃❄⛄

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

We prepared some tasty treats for our feathered friends today as food is scarce for them outside. Hope they enjoy!!

Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone enjoyed a happy and healthy break. It's great to see everyone again 😊

16/12/22          Christmas Jumper Day

We loved seeing everyone's Christmas Jumpers today! We raised money for Save the Children and had lots of fun too....hot chocolates, cream and marshmallows all round today!!


15.12.22    Our Christmas Show!!

We have been incredibly busy over the past few weeks preparing for our Christmas Show. Our pupils put on an amazing performance for our local community and we are so proud of them all! Here are just a few photos from the Show...


14/12/2022 - We all enjoyed our Christmas Lunch today. Thanks to all the catering staff for doing a wonderful job!

This week we had a visit from Tilley Tales, a Gaelic play and drama workshop. Our P5-7 pupils were very creative and used their own initiative to prepare a Gaelic song to welcome our visitors and introduce themselves in Gaelic. 

17/11/22 - Congratulations to our P6 and P7 pupils who helped us to achieve the John Muir Trust Discovery Award.  This involved investigating and improving the pond area in the school grounds last session.

Well done to Dubhgal, Hudson, Emily & Gemma.

The children in the P1 to 4 class created these lovely poppy pictures ahead of Rememberance Day this Friday.

1/11/22 - Visit to the school from Aigas Nature Days. 

Both classes enjoyed outdoor learning sessions with Team Aigas today. They enjoyed the Water Cycle game, where they pretended they were water molecules in various forms. We explored our own school pond and discovered a variety of species living in it, such as dragonfly nymphs, young newts (efts), diving beetles, cased caddis fly larvae and great diving beetles to name but a few!

We had great fun creating our own beaver dams as a challenge and then we tested them out. We are really looking forward to our return visit to Aigas later on in the year. 

This week we were asked if we had any spare Yellow Hi Vis jackets that we could donate to a local cycle scheme in Inverness.

The project aims to provide a complete cycling package to Ukraine refugees within the Highland area.  We are happy to donate to such a good cause!

26/10/22 - John Orr, Countryside Ranger visited to let us know that we had won the Highland Mammals School Art Competition 2022 which we entered at the end of the last school year.

The competition was judged by staff at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo and our prize is an all school trip to the Highland Wildlife Park and we will get to watch the Polar Bears being fed.

If you look carefully you can see our winning entry behind the children.

The link to the article in the Inverness Courier: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/balnain-primary-pupils-win-top-prize-in-scottish-mammal-art-291934/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook 

31.10.22     P1-4 Kodaly Music

The children were pleased to welcome Rosalind back for more singing games. They learned some new songs and games as well as enjoying some old favourites.

31.10.22 

We enjoyed some spooky themed play this morning...

6/10/2022 - Let's make a land yacht!

We were inspired by the recent event commemorating the 70th anniversary of John Cobb's attempt on the World Water Speed record on Loch Ness in 1952, to have a go at making model land yachts.  We had great fun constructing and testing our models indoors and outdoors!

6/10/22 - P6/7 Cross Country

This morning, our P6/7 pupils entered the Cross Country competition at Bught Park. They all did incredibly well to complete the course and they all had some amazing personal achievements today. We are very proud of them all for their running, but their positive attitudes, team spirit and the way they encouraged and supported each other to do their very best today was a sheer joy to watch! Huge well done to our wonderful team!! You are all super stars!! 

5/10/22 - Water Aid Coffee Morning and Bake Sale

Thank you to everyone for making our coffee morning and bake sale such a huge success! Thank you for all the generous donations of baking from families, staff, community members and Cobb's Bakery. 

It was super to see the event so well supported by our community. We managed to raise an incredible £280 for Water Aid! This is an amazing amount, especially for such a small school. We know that this money will make such a big difference to people's lives around the world.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!


A few photos of the last 2 baking groups preparing their Apple Crumble.

More Kapla construction this week! It's great when our classmates share their skills and encourage each other! These twisty spiral structures took a steady hand, careful hand eye coordination, accurate placing and good balance. Well done!

3/10/22 - P1-4 enjoyed a virtual session of Kodaly music with Rosalind today. Lots more fun with our singing games. Everyone's singing keeps getting better and better too!  

29/9/22 - Mrs Josie MacKenzie from the Glen Urquhart Heritage Group came to visit us this morning to tell us about the John Cobb 70th Anniversary Commemoration event at Blairbeg Hall.

The event is to commemorate the 70th anniversary of John Cobb's attempt on the World Water Speed record on Loch Ness on the 29th September 1952.

It was a really interesting talk and we are all looking forward to visiting the exhibition at Blairbeg Hall tomorrow.

27/9/22 -  This week, P1-4 were delighted to welcome Rosalind back for more Kodaly singing games. They all had so much fun and it was great to hear them singing so well!

20/9/22 - We were delighted to welcome Michelle from Mini First Aid to deliver first aid training to all of our pupils today. They learned what to do in an emergency situation, know how phone for help and what details to give. They also covered aspects such as CPR, choking, head bumps, bleeding, broken bones and burns. We are very proud of our pupils today as they have picked up valuable life skills which will help them to become responsible citizens. Well done everyone! 


15/9/22 - The Cooking Club are now making a new dish of Apple Crumble - made with the apples from our own tree.

I hope the first group enjoyed their desserts and the other pupils are looking forward to their lesson.

Cooking Club Preparations

It was quite hard to reach the apples high on our tree...so this group came up with a great solution!!

15/9/22 We have recently purchased Kapla construction blocks, which have been very well received in the P1-4 class! The children are busy discovering the wide variety of items you can build with them and they are using their skills in creativity, planning, engineering, designing, measuring, problem solving and many more as they play.

8/9/22 - Our final group made scones.

I hope they weren't all eaten before they got home and your parents had the opportunity to have a taste.

We are starting a new dish from next week.

2/9/22 - We had our very first visit to Glen Urquhart Library! The children were really pleased to browse the selection of books at the library and each of them got to choose a few books to take out on loan. Thanks to Glen Urquhart Shinty Club for the loan of their minibus and Iain who drove us there!

1/9/22 - Our third group of bakers were busy making scones.


26/8/22 - We took our pupils on a trip to Abriachan Forest, and provided them with the opportunity to undertake several teambuilding activities in an outdoor environment. After all the hard work they also had the opportunity to play in the park. Everyone had a fantastic time and would love to plan another visit! Thank you to the wonderful team at Abriachan for having us today! We really enjoy working with you.

25/8/22 - Our next batch of bakers were busy making scones and they also seemed to enjoy cleaning up!

24/8/22 - Our new P1 pupil Gregor, is learning his numbers.  He was very proud of the number 3's he created with playdough.

22/8/22 - Emily McCloskey visited the school for a presentation on her visit to Honduras with Operation Wallacea. She undertook research on the protection of Coral Reefs in that area. It was great to learn about this type of work and it sounded like the most amazing experience!

Emily has recently graduated from studying at St Andrews University as a marine biologist. We think that she has inspired some of our learners to follow their ambitions too! Thank you so much Emily and good luck with your further studies!

Thurs 18/8/22 - Cooking Club

We have recommenced our cooking club and the first group of children made scones.  The remaining pupils will have the opportunity to make their scones over the next few weeks.

All children will develop their food technology skills and become more familiar with processes involved in cooking  and baking.

We have a receipe book full of dishes for them to create! Thanks to Mrs McCloskey for delivering these activities.

Wed 17/8/22 - Nature Walk

To start the new school year we went on a nature walk to Loch Meiklie.  The children were given a list of plants and animals to see what they could find on the trip.

To finish off we had a game of pooh sticks at the bridge, although the water is currently very low so many got stuck!

16/8/22 P1-4 were busy counting collections of objects this week. Careful organisation and accurate counting skills were needed. Well done everyone!


Our new P1 has done a brilliant job of writing his name! Well done Gregor!