Newsletters

8th December 2023

What a fantastic day yesterday at the Panto in Inverness. Thank you and well done to our pupils who were a respectful and well-behaved audience. We are so proud of you! Thank you to all the staff who helped to keep our pupils safe. Finally thank you to our Parent Council for all their hard work to raise the funds to pay for our trip. We hope the pupils are now inspired and ready for their performance of Peter Pan on Thursday the 14th of December.  

Also, a massive thank you to local business Love from Skye who have now raised over £600 for our school fund from their raffle!

Congratulations to our certificate winners this week: ‘Aim as high as the mountains’ / ‘Bi Ag Amas Cho Ard Ris Na Beinn’ this week was awarded to Ameila P5-7E and David P1-4E. ‘Resilient’/ ‘Làidir nam inntinn’ for Innes P1-3G, Eilidh P4-7G and Jac P1-4E.

Yesterday our Nursery pupils enjoyed a trip to Aros to see Arthur Christmas, we are delighted to hear that they were very well behaved and enjoyed their Christmas treat too.

Rehearsals continue for our Peter Pan production. We are currently aiming for a matinee performance starting at 1:30pm on Thursday 14th December, followed by an evening performance at 6pm.  We would suggest that the afternoon is an ideal opportunity for younger siblings to come and watch, ensuring that the children have a respectful, quiet audience for the evening performance, after having worked so hard to prepare.

As you most likely are aware tomorrow at 11am at Broadford Church is Harris’ Special Day. After a request from Peter and Ruth, within school this week pupils have recorded a song to be played and made stars and moons to be used to decorate the church. In the new year we as a school will do something to pay tribute to and celebrate Harris.   

Coming up this week,

Monday 11th – Nursery visit to An Acarsaid

Tuesday 12th – Flu immunisations in school 

Wednesday 13th  - P5-7E final swimming block

Thursday 14th  - P6/7 Dance festival at Broadford village hall, smart/party clothes are allowed.

Also Broadford Primary School Presents Peter Pan ( see above )

School Meals

A reminder that all P6 and up pupils need to pay for school meals (£2.30 per meal). However if anyone feels they may be eligible for free school meals / clothing grants etc, even at the P1-5 stage, I would urge you to apply, we are happy to help if required, as it also adds addition funding to our budget - info on how to apply is here – https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/899/schools_-_grants_and_benefits/10/free_school_meals_and_assistance_with_clothing?utm_source=Twitter,+Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Afypsy2inlqUgOqEP4nB8TGG-MTtZJgH819-dJOVn8xErQ0oy9ZuGQyA

Pupils are also asked to bring a healthy snack from home for morning break time.

NEW menu there is also a new menu which can be viewed here School menus | Primary and Early Years 3-choice Grab n Go Menu (highland.gov.uk) or on SeeSaw.

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help –

broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk Many thanks and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries or questions.- Mr Atkins - Broadford Primary School  

17th November 2023

Nursery & Sgoil-àraich have been out on adventures again this week this time to our local fire station. P1 pupils had their routine eyesight tests yesterday from See 4 Schools. Our older pupils visited the village hall to learn all about the proposed windfarms in our area.

Congratulations to our certificate winners this week; ‘Safe’ / ‘Sàbhailte’ for Holly P1-3G, ‘Aim as high as the mountains’ / ‘Bi Ag Amas Cho Ard Ris Na Beinn’ for Jack P5-7E, & for Cormac P4-7G. ‘Resilient’/ ‘Làidir nam inntinn’ for Jac P1-4E.

It’s important your child attends school on a regular basis for their education and for our school community, remember to adhere to the stay home 48 hrs rule if they have a tummy bug. Also please contact the school office via email or phone and let us know if your child is absent.

We have a busy month coming up and it might be helpful to have some dates for your diary: more info will follow.

Broadford Primary present Peter Pan the panto! – all pupils P4-7 have a line in the show and the whole school will be singing the many musical numbers (you may have already heard some songs from you child!) We are encouraging as much practise as possible and have been rehearsing in school throughout the week. This will be performed for parents on Thursday the 14th of December. There will be an earlier performance for those with young children, and an evening performance open to friends and family.

Whole school pantomime trip once again we have booked the whole school into Eden court in Inverness to see Sleeping Beauty the pantomime. This will be on Thursday the 7th of December like last year pupils will return back to Broadford later in the evening ( hopefully without any bus drama this time )

Broadford Xmas fair at Camping Skye 2nd December from 10-4pm Soup and Sandwich takeaway stall. Plans are well underway for this, thank you to all who are helping. If you would like to help but you’re not on the parent council chat message, please let the school office know and we can help.  The Parent Council funds are essential in allowing us to provide every child at the school with that little extra.

School Christmas Lunch – A final reminder to get any Xmas lunch forms back to school by Monday.   

Raasay – All our P7s have received their packs about the Raasay trip in June 2024. Remember to book your child’s place online Raasay House - P7's Booking & Consent Form (google.com)and send in the £75 deposit to the school office.

School Meals

A reminder that all P6 and up pupils need to pay for school meals (£2.30 per meal). However if anyone feels they may be eligible for free school meals / clothing grants etc, even at the P1-5 stage, I would urge you to apply, we are happy to help if required, as it also adds addition funding to our budget - info on how to apply is here – https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/899/schools_-_grants_and_benefits/10/free_school_meals_and_assistance_with_clothing?utm_source=Twitter,+Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Afypsy2inlqUgOqEP4nB8TGG-MTtZJgH819-dJOVn8xErQ0oy9ZuGQyA

Pupils are also asked to bring a healthy snack from home for morning break time.

NEW menu there is also a new menu which can be viewed here School menus | Primary and Early Years 3-choice Grab n Go Menu (highland.gov.uk) or on SeeSaw.

Happening locally this weekend;

Seall Small Hall traditional music concert at Broadfrod Hall tomorrow night more info here SEALL Festival of Small Halls – Broadford Hall - SEALL

Also Book Week Scotland Cartoon Ceilidh at Portree Library on 18th November, drop in between 11am and 2pm.( see poster attached )

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help –

broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk Many thanks and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries or questions.- Mr Atkins - Broadford Primary School  

6th October 2023

Today was the house team quiz the winners were Scalpay.  Answers ranged from ‘Mars’ to ‘Uluru’ and from ‘Cylinder’ to ‘jumping out of the bath and running round the street with no clothes on’.  Ask your child and they may remember! We have also been working in age-appropriate groups across the school to cover SHANARRI, focusing on ‘Safe’ discussing how pupils can be safe and healthy inside and outside of school and even online.

P4-7G visited An Acarsaid on Tuesday and performed the dance they have been working on with Allison Macdonald from Skye dance.  The residents loved seeing the children perform and also got the chance to hear a couple of our pupils perform the poems they are performing at the Royal National Mod during the holidays. Good Luck to those who are performing!

Congratulations to our certificate winners this week. 

‘Ready’ / ‘Deiseil’ for Arnie P1-4E, ‘Resilient’ / ‘Laidir nam intinn’ for Sam 4-7G, ‘Aim as high as the mountains’ / ‘Bi Ag Amas Cho Ard Ris Na Beinn’ for Imogen P5-7E and Eleanor P1-3G And the Canteen Star of the Week is Ava.

Well done also to the pupils from P4-7G who have completed there swimming block and achieved some new badges. It will be the pupils in P5-7E who will be swimming after the holidays (we will send a letter out after the holidays)

Coming up after the October holidays.

School resumes after the October holidays on Monday the 23rd of October. We will continue with our focus on the school improvement plan where we hope to put on a Christmas performance and to take the whole school once again to the pantomime at Eden court. We have been delighted with the progress pupils have made this term with their writing and we thank parents and carers at home who have been helping to ensure homework task are being completed.  Badminton will resume after school at 3:30 until 4:45 on Thursday the 26th  this cost £1 and is open to P5-7 pupils please contact the school office if your child would like to take part.

Parent Council

Thank you to those who have already contacted us about helping out at the below event we will be in touch next term to figure out a plan but we could do with some more volunteers for the 2nd December from 10-4pm to work on the Soup and Sandwich takeaway stall. At Broadford Xmas fair in Camping Skye. Parents will also be needed to provide soup and sandwiches. The Parent Council funds are essential in allowing us to provide every child at the school with that little extra. Just like last Christmas we would love to be able to afford to take everyone away to the panto again! Please let us know if you are available to help on this date by emailing the school office - broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk 

School Meals

A reminder that all P6 and up pupils need to pay for school meals (£2.30 per meal). However if anyone feels they may be eligible for free school meals / clothing grants etc, even at the P1-5 stage, I would urge you to apply, we are happy to help if required, as it also adds addition funding to our budget - info on how to apply is here – https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/899/schools_-_grants_and_benefits/10/free_school_meals_and_assistance_with_clothing?utm_source=Twitter,+Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Afypsy2inlqUgOqEP4nB8TGG-MTtZJgH819-dJOVn8xErQ0oy9ZuGQyA

Pupils are also asked to bring a healthy snack from home for morning break time.

NEW menu there is also a new menu which can be viewed here School menus | Primary and Early Years 3-choice Grab n Go Menu (highland.gov.uk) or on SeeSaw.

What’s on in the holidays

Lots of things are happening locally during the school October break…

Good luck to our 3 pupils who are taking part in the National MOD over the holidays.

There is Corey Capers October camp see flyer. The Plock activities see flyer and Also Active Schools Activities planned in Portree, and Broadford taking place from the 12th to the 18th of October. All activities will be bookable through their online booking system at https://booking.highlifehighland.com/ and chose the Schools out October option. You do not require to be a highlife member, but you will need to create an account for your child through the Pay as you go option. If you have any questions or are having difficulties getting booked on then please get in touch with sarah.ross@highlifehighland.com or through the Portree Active Schools facebook page, they can support and guide you through this process. The easiest way to find activities is to put the venue into the search bar- The Third ridge sessions can be found by putting Skye Gym into the venue search! Bookings are essential to ensure they have enough participants to go ahead!

We hope you have a fantastic 2 week October holiday.

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help –

broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk Many thanks and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries or questions.- Mr Atkins - Broadford Primary School  

15th September 2023

It has been a short week but pupils managed to squeeze in Choosing Champions today and a visit to the Library Van yesterday. We are delighted to share the news that after a nursery inspection last week our Nursery and Sgoil Àraich has had fantastic feedback, thank you to our nursery staff for their continued hard work. We will share the detailed report with you when it becomes available.

Congratulations to our certificate winner this week. Nursery/Sgoil Àraich Star of the Week/Rionnag na Seachdain for Sandy.

Coming up next week ( back to a full 5 day week )

Wednesday P4-7G will continue with their swimming block.

Thursday Parent Café – Please join us for a Parent Café at the school at 14:30 on the 21st of September our sporting champions will be hosting. Pupils have also been asked to think about a specific target they would like to share with parents/carers when they visit.

Strike Action – You may have heard in the press about a potential strike from some school staff. We have been given no information about this, we hope to hear more information from highland council very soon and will off course share this as soon as we receive it.

Great news - It was agreed at a full Highland Council meeting yesterday that Broadford Primary should stay on the Highland Capital Plan.  Therefore, progress with the new school will continue…

Parent Council

Broadford’s PC needs your help! Volunteers needed for the 2nd December from 10-4pm to work on the Soup and Sandwich takeaway stall. At Broadford Xmas fair in Camping Skye. Parents will also be needed to provide soup and sandwiches. The Parent Council funds are essential in allowing us to provide every child at the school with that little extra. Just like last Christmas we would love to be able to afford to take everyone away to the panto again! Please let us know if you are available to help on this date by emailing the school office - broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk 

Music Tuition in School

For any pupils P4 and up there is the chance to enrol your child in Chanter, Fiddle or Drumming at the school.  This is offered free of charge by Highlife Highland, Music tutors deliver lessons online or in person during school time. You can sign up here - High Life Highland Music Tuition (myhighlife.co.uk)

School Meals

A reminder that all P6 and up pupils need to pay for school meals (£2.30 per meal). However if anyone feels they may be eligible for free school meals / clothing grants etc, even at the P1-5 stage, I would urge you to apply, we are happy to help if required, as it also adds addition funding to our budget - info on how to apply is here – https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/899/schools_-_grants_and_benefits/10/free_school_meals_and_assistance_with_clothing?utm_source=Twitter,+Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Afypsy2inlqUgOqEP4nB8TGG-MTtZJgH819-dJOVn8xErQ0oy9ZuGQyA

We have been asked to share below information with parents/carers -

Feasgar math, Tha Eden Court agus Fèisean nan Gàidheal a’ tabhainn latha dràma Gàidhlig do sgoilearan a tha ann P6  - S2 air Disathairne 23 Sultain 11m – 4f at Eden Court. Bhithinn fada nad chomain nam b’ urrainn dhut am fiosrachadh seo a sgaoileadh do sgoilearan agus pàrantan/luchd-cùram aig am biodh ùidh. Eden Court and Fèisean nan Gàidheal are delighted to offer a Gaelic medium drama day for P6 – S2 pupils on Saturday 23 September 11am – 4pm at Eden Court. We would be very grateful if you could forward to any pupils and parents/carers who might be interested.

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help –broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk Many thanks and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries or questions.- Mr Atkins - Broadford Primary School  

1st September 2023

Dear Parents/ Carers. 

Classes have enjoyed lots of outdoor learning this week with visits to the shore, The Coop for cooking supplies and the school garden. We are very proud of the responsible pupils who have been picking up all the rubbish which is unfortunately found in the playpark and pitch. All our pupils continue to support our primary 1s as they settle into school. Thank you to the nursery parents who joined us for stay and play today. 

Congratulations to our certificate winners this week.

‘Aim as High As The Mountains’ for Innes P5-7E, and Finlay P1-4E. ‘Resilient’/’Laidir nam intinn’ for Abby P1-3G and ‘Respectful/’Modhail’ for Ryan P4-7G  And the Canteen Star of the Week is Adele.

House Captains

Every pupil from Nursery to P7 pupils are assigned a house team, throughout the year house points can be earned by taking part in house team activities and competitions, they are also awarded points by class teachers. At the end of the year the House Team with the most points is awarded the house cup. This year’s House and Vice captains are;

Pabay House Captain -  Indy, Vice Captains: Jensyn & Freya

Raasay House Captain – Skye,  Vice Captains: Alexander & Aaron

Scalpay House Captain – Ryan, Vice Captains: Eilidh & Danielle

Crowlin House Captain -  Charis, Vice Captains: Liam & Remy

Pupil Council

Every year each class votes for 2 pupil council members to represent their class and put forward the views of the pupil. This years are : P4-7G Ryan & Max, P5-7E Skye & Indy, P1-3G Evie & Ada, P1-4E Abi & Olivia.

Paperwork coming home this week

Thank you for your help and patience with the amount of paperwork coming home now it tends to always be the case at the start of term!

- Flu vaccination forms to be returned to the school by Wednesday please!

- Data Collection forms to be returned to the school by Friday please!

- Fluoride Varnish forms which will be sent out next week.

What’s on this week in school?

P4-7G will continue with swimming lessons. Pupils will also have more Skye Dance lessons with Allison MacDonald. P1-3G and P1-4E have Kodaly Music lesson on Wednesday. And we have Ellis O’Connor starting art classes as part of a Seall project working with the different classes on a project that engages with the environment here in Skye. On Tuesday we wish our pupils who are playing in The Shinty World Cup in Inverness ‘good luck!’ 

Parent Council

Broadford’s PC needs your help! Volunteers needed for the 2nd December from 10-4pm to work on the Soup and Sandwich takeaway stall. At Broadford Xmas fair in Camping Skye. Parents will also be needed to provide soup and sandwiches. The Parent Council funds are essential in allowing us to provide every child at the school with that little extra. Just like last Christmas we would love to be able to afford to take everyone away to the panto again!

Music Tuition in School

For any pupils P4 and up there is the chance to enrol your child in Chanter, Fiddle or Drumming at the school.  This is offered free of charge by Highlife Highland, Music tutors deliver lessons online or in person during school time. You can sign up here - High Life Highland Music Tuition (myhighlife.co.uk)

School Meals

A reminder that all P6 and up pupils need to pay for school meals (£2.30 per meal). However if anyone feels they may be eligible for free school meals / clothing grants etc, even at the P1-5 stage, I would urge you to apply, we are happy to help if required, as it also adds addition funding to our budget - info on how to apply is here – https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/899/schools_-_grants_and_benefits/10/free_school_meals_and_assistance_with_clothing?utm_source=Twitter,+Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Afypsy2inlqUgOqEP4nB8TGG-MTtZJgH819-dJOVn8xErQ0oy9ZuGQyA

This Weeks Makaton sign is

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help –

broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk Many thanks and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries or questions.- Mr Atkins - Broadford Primary School  

Friday 2nd December 2022

And just like that its December!  

Congratulations to our certificate winners this week. We gave certificates out in assembly for ‘Ready’ for Patrick in P1-3E and Caleb in P4-7G,  ‘Aim as high as the mountains’(Bi ag amas cho ard ris na beinn) certificate, for Maria in P7E & Max in P1-3G, there was a ‘Respectful’ certificate for Indy in P4-6E. The ‘Canteen Star of the week’ goes to Willow D in P1-3E.   

Well done to all our P7s who took part in Youth Speaks yesterday at Broadford Village hall. Thank you to all who came and watched and to all our judges.  Once again, we were impressed by the independence and commitment shown in preparing for the event and the speeches were all of a very high quality, something commented upon by the judges. Well done to the winning team Crowlin – their second win of the year after the quiz.  Everyone should be proud of themselves for taking part, including the rest of the school who came, supported their team and provided a respectful audience. We will make a decision after the holiday with regard how we choose our team for the whole-Skye event. 

It is the Broadford Christmas Fair tomorrow in the Village Hall from 10a.m. until 2pm, so please come along and support that if you can.

Around school, there has been a lot of preparation going on, both for Youth Speaks, but also for the Christmas performance in a couple of weeks.  We look forward to all the busy activities Christmas brings but after one of the speeches yesterday on ‘The cost of Living Crisis’ we are keen to make sure we don’t put any extra pressure on families.  We have suggested to the children today that they can send Christmas cards as usual, using the post box from Monday or as an alternative may prefer to just send one card to the whole class.  Likewise, we certainly wouldn’t expect children to have a brand new Christmas Jumper (for Friday 16th – see below).  Either get creative and make one, reuse one, or if anyone has old ones that don’t fit anymore, we can hold a ‘jumper swap’  after school one day.

Miss White’s class (P1-3G) continue their collection for the food bank. Any donations of cereal, tinned food, pasta, rice, tea, coffee, UHT milk, biscuits and washing detergent would be welcomed. The local food bank is particularly low on toiletries like toothbrushes, shampoo, hand soap and deodorant. 

As you know, we will be visiting Inverness  for the Panto visit on 14th of December. You should have received a letter for this and we should have received a permission slip back -  if not, or if you have misplaced the letter please contact the school office.  As its quite a long journey we thought it was better suited for the nursery to head off to Portree to watch the Grinch on this day. Thanks to Stagecoach who have kindly provided transport for our trip across. Again, we will confirm details nearer the time, and use SeeSaw on the day to keep you informed of when we should be back in Broadford.    

The day after the pantomime trip, we will hold our Christmas performance, so the children should be excited after a live theatre performance to hold their own show. We aim for the show to start at 6pm, but we will ask the children to arrive and come to one of the back rooms from 5:30pm so we can be prepared.  Nursery parents will be invited during the afternoon at 2pm to see their children perform.  We would like all those in the audience for our Christmas show to remember that just as we always treat our children to be a respectful audience, we ask the same of the audiences for our shows.  It is only fair if the children have spent time practicing that we show them respect in the usual way.

The P6 and7s will be meeting up with children from other local schools on Monday 12th December for the dance festival, so they are getting excited about being their ‘dashing white sergeants’ and ‘strip the willow’.

Bookfair payments have now closed if you have not paid for your child’s book please contact the school office. Also please inform us if your child’s book is a Christmas present and we will make sure to keep your book order secret. 

P7 Raasay trip Consent form and info is also now with parents - Both Broadford Parent Council and ourselves are very keen to ensure that nobody misses out due to finances.   Please don’t hesitate to contact us or someone in the Parent Council if you feel that the  cost is prohibitive, and we will find a way to help.   Likewise, if anyone can think of or can organise some fundraising opportunities for the group, therefore bringing the cost of the trip down for everyone, we would be delighted to support with this. This year, the booking and consent is by an online form: https://forms.gle/bPBbxTzPJ6MGo1Dx7 -  

Other activities coming up in the school, this month-  

 Wednesday 21st - Nursery Christmas Craft –

Stay and Play session 

Friday 16th Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 20th School Christmas lunch  

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk  

Many thanks, have a great  weekend when it comes and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries

or questions. 

Mr Atkins

Friday 11th November 2022

Dear Parents/ Carers. 

This week throughout the school our classes have been learning about and creating poetry and artwork for Remembrance Day. Due to the weather a group of our older children made it to the war memorial today.

 Congratulations to our certificate winners this week. 

‘Ready’ for P1-3E Zander & P1-3G Evie: ‘Aim as high as the mountains’ for P7E Arianah, P4-6E-Dylan & P4-7G Seamus.

There has also been a Highland wide Sumdog challenge on which P4-6E has come 26th place and P7E 25th place. On an individual level Arianah from P7E won 2nd place out of all of the Highland schools! Arianah has been awarded a head teacher award for her achievement.

Shoebox sorting and wrapping has continued this week where every class has contributed time to making up shoeboxes. Well done everyone we were able to donate over 15 shoeboxes from our school and community.

For those children absent on the day of the flu immunisation clinic; parents can directly contact Jane Inglis for an appointment for their flu immunisation at their nearest clinic if they wish.  She prefers email but she is also happy with a call. Email: jane.inglis@nhs.scot  Tel: 07816200435 

Now that we are having some more wintery weather please remember the procedure for a school closure – Clearly we would have to make the decision to close school if it was deemed unsafe for a majority of children and staff to attend. It may be, however, that although the conditions around school mean it is ok for school to stay open, conditions might be different where you are. It is then up to yourselves as parents to make the decision based on the conditions as to the safety of the journey into school. Please let us know if you are going to be late in or will not make it due to difficulties with the weather. Should we need to shut school, we would put an announcement on SeeSaw, it would be put on Highland Council’s website and also be on local radio bulletins. There will also be a message on the school adverse weather line - 0800 5642272 Using the PIN – 04 1590 for our school. Please also make sure we have up to date emergency contact information for your child/children in case the school was to close during the day.

This week Makaton is all about the weather –

The week ahead is another busy one: -

P4-7G have been busy preparing their entry for film G, which they will be filming and editing on Monday.

Attached is a very short questionnaire from Counselling Care Skye and Lochalsh, please take 2 minutes to complete and return it.

You should now have been contacted about parents’ evenings which are on Tuesday, if you are having any difficulty booking yours, please call or email the school office and we will help. There will be a Scholastic book fair and our uniform swap/take/donate table set up in the rainbow room on the evening too.

Earlier this week school Christmas lunch forms went home if you have not retuned this please do.

The fluoride varnishing that was scheduled to take place next week has now been rescheduled - information to follow.

P4-7G swimming will continue Wednesdays.

P1- have received Child health programme questionnaires if you can fill these asap.

P7 Rassay trip Consent form and info is also now with parents - Both Broadford Parent Council and ourselves are very keen to ensure that nobody misses out due to finances.   Please don’t hesitate to contact us or someone in the Parent Council if you feel that the cost is prohibitive, and we will find a way to help.   Likewise, if anyone can think of or can organise some fundraising opportunities for the group, therefore bringing the cost of the trip down for everyone, we would be delighted to support with this. This year, the booking and consent is by an online form: https://forms.gle/bPBbxTzPJ6MGo1Dx7 -

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office and we can help – 

broadford.primary@highland.gov.uk 

Many thanks and as usual, please get in touch if you have any queries or questions.

Mr Atkins - Broadford Primary School   

1st April 2022

Good afternoon,

I trust that you are all well and you managed to avoid the perils of April Fools’ Day.  I am sure you are all excited for the Easter holidays as we are and I hope you have a good break together if you have the chance.

Certificates this week went to:  Seumas (P1-4g) and Jac (P1-3e) both for being Resilient/ Laidir nam Intinn, Ruairidh (P4/5e) and Lola (P5-7g) for being Ready/ Deiseil and  Isla O P6/7e for being Respectful (and Safe)

Danielle in P4/5e also got a special Head Teacher’s Gold award.  She has shown a great attitude to school recently, being positive and bubbly and is desperate to learn. She helps others out in the class and takes delights in the successes of others not just her own. She is a star!

You will hopefully have seen attached a poster from Corry Capers for the Easter Holidays – please contact Tracy for more information or if you are interested.

We come back on Tuesday 19th April (Monday 18th is Easter Monday bank holiday so school is closed) We look forward to welcoming all the pupils back into school for the summer term. There are a number of changes with regards to Covid regulations and we are still hopeful this will allow for parents to come into school again, have a cup of tea  and see the learning in each class after well over 2 years of being unable to. Obviously watch this space for more information. 

There are still some circumstances in which we are still expected to isolate:

Children, young people and staff must stay at home and self-isolate if they:

a. have symptoms of COVID-19, whether they feel unwell or not

b. have tested positive, even if asymptomatic

c. are required to self-isolate for any other reason in line with the requirements set out on NHS Inform

d. are identified as a close contact and are over 18 years and 4 months and not fully vaccinated

If you are unsure, please ring school and we can help you to know what is best, especially as we are still protecting those children and staff who are particularly vulnerable. Again, openness and honesty are important so we make the correct decision.   To this end, it is no longer a requirement that we send a letter from NHS Highland Health protection in the event of cases in school. As a school we feel it is important to stay connected and therefore we will continue to keep classes informed as any cases or outbreaks happen.

After the holidays we plan to complete and submit an entry for the First Minister’s Reading Challenge. We also have a week looking at Careers and future aspirations.  We are looking for those in different jobs who would be willing to come and share their skills and experiences with us.  Please let us know if you can help!

Many thanks and have a great Easter.

Mr Atkins

25th March 2022

As usual, I hope the latest update finds you well and ready for another weekend.  The weeks in school seem to have flown by recently and we are only a week away from the Easter break.  Please remember the clocks change this weekend - we don’t want anyone arriving at the wrong time on Monday!  We will finish as usual at 1pm next Friday and school reopens on Tuesday 19th April.  It has been an incredibly difficult term, with easily the most cases and absences we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.  Thank you to the staff in school who have all had to help in different ways, covering other staff absence and being flexible in their roles to ensure we maintain safe staffing levels.  Hopefully the next term will be easier but it is a credit to the children and staff that learning has continued well over this period and children are still focused and hardworking.

It is important you know that Annette will be working elsewhere on Skye for a period of time. She has been asked to provide cover at a different school who have not been able to appoint a cook after it being advertised. We are not entirely sure when she will be back with us, but she is not leaving.  It is definitely ‘see you soon’ rather than ‘goodbye’. We have met Lisa, who will be coming to Broadford as cover for the duration and we welcome her to our school. If you know of anyone who may be interested in a job in Portree, please ask for more details…then we can have Annette back!

Congratulations to those who were presented with certificates in the different classes this week: Finlay in P1-3e (Aim as High as the Mountains), Shea (P4/5e) and Struan (P6/7e) both got awards for being ‘Ready’ and the whole of P1-7g received a ‘Sàbhailte’ (safe) certificate for their excellent behaviour and safety on a Gaelic hunt through the village.

It has been a brilliant week for ‘Seachdain na Gaidhlig’.  We have learned Gaelic songs, watched Gaelic films and TV programmes and listened to Gaelic music.  The Gaelic Medium classes went on a walk in the village and noted down lots of different places where Gaelic was used on signs etc.  We all designed T-shirts and some of the designs have been chosen to make into t-shirts to be displayed in the hall. We have also started the initial process of making badges.  We want to encourage more people in the community to speak Gaelic both as an important part of our local culture, but also to help support tour Gaelic learners and Gaelic Medium pupils.  We are looking at the possibility of getting a few local businesses to help with sponsoring us to buy a badge making machine so we can produce some professional badges to give out for our campaign.  If you know anyone or have any ideas we are looking at raising a total of £200 so even if we had 10 businesses giving us £20 each that would hit our target!    The Gaelic tuckshop on Thursday was also a great chance for all the pupils in school to use the language in a meaningful way.   Bha sinn cho traing!  If anyone is interested, there is Gala Day at Sabhal Mor Ostaig tomorrow from 12 until 4pm. Entry is free and any proceeds raised will go towards charities supporting Ukraine.  

During the Easter holidays there is also the opportunity to attend Feis Earraich - Registration can be made at    https://bit.ly/feisanearraich2022 If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact fios@feaianearraich.scot.

We also had some awareness sessions and good discussion around the school this week regarding different elements of diversity.  We mainly focused on elements such as ADHD, Autism and Downs Syndrome but some of the discussions branched into other things. It is important we raise awareness and help with the understanding of these important things. Often misinformation and lack of knowledge leads to misunderstandings and potential problems so it is good to talk about these things.

There is an event on Easter Sunday (17th April) at 5pm in the Church of Scotland -  Sing for Ukraine. Kirsteen Graham has taught some of the classes ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ in English and Gaelic and anyone is welcome on the day to turn up and join in!

Many thanks, take care and have a great weekend.

Mr Atkins

18th March 2022

Happy Friday! It looks like it will be a glorious weekend of weather so hopefully you will get out and enjoy it somehow. It is nice when it gets to this time of year and we can get out a bit more and get some much needed sunshine!

The weather, apart from being a bit windy meant we could get outside and enjoy some Comic Relief/ Red Nose Day activities.  It was fun watching the children chasing after their noses when they blew away during the Red nose and spoon race, and they hunted superheroes in the garden. Thank you to Mrs Nicolson and the house captains in her class for helping to organise our activities.  

Certificates this week went to: Daniel M in P1-4g and Aaron in P4-5e both for Modhail/Respectful, Isla R in P6/7e got a certificate for being Resilient and Zander in P1-3e for Aiming as High as the Mountains!

I was delighted to receive a certificate and thank you card from Young Lives vs Cancer after our fundraising activities in the Autumn. The grand total was an amazing £3022.75.  As their fundraising manager said in her card. This amount is enough to pay for every single one of their rooms in every house they have across the whole of the UK to be open to families needing support overnight. What an amazing achievement for our school.

As you know the planned Fluoride Varnishing session was postponed recently.  We have been given a new date of Monday 28th March, so those in P1-4 across the school who have returned forms will have that on that day.

In order to have everything sorted for the Easter holidays, and to avoid families receiving  invoices etc we would like to request any  outstanding dinner money to be in school by Friday 25th March. The school kitchen still has quarantine protocols in place, so this allows Annette to leave it for the required period, then process it before the break.

There was a Raasay trip instalment due this week for P7 pupils. Clearly some pupils haven’t been able to do this as they haven’t been in school. Please ensure this is in as soon as you can.  We are sending information across to Raasay with numbers for room allocations and any additional information. It has been confirmed that our week is going to be starting on Tuesday 7th and we will return on Friday 10th of June.

Seachdain na Gaidhlig – we have a number of exciting plans for Seachdain Na Gaidhlig next week, which is a global celebration. We have a different focus for each day with music, media, food, tshirt designs, and we are planning to start a campaign!  Watch this space.  We are no longer planning for every child to design a tshirt as the resources are too challenging! We are now holding a design a t-shirt competition, so every child will do a design, then the best ones will be made into actual t-shirts to be displayed in school.

We are also having a ‘Diversity Awareness Week’ The House Captains in P6/7e led us today in assembly explaining about diversity in its different forms.  They highlighted how important is to celebrate being different and unique. Some of main focus for raising awareness and understanding will be on Autism, Downs Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The pupils in P4 and P1 in English medium may be asked to complete some activities on the Chromebook in the coming weeks. These are for the SNSA (Scottish National Standardised Assessments) and are nothing to worry about. The children will complete online questions focusing on literacy and maths  but they should certainly not feel like they are under pressure at all or even feel they are being ‘tested’. 

If you want to discuss anything or have any questions, as always get in touch.

Mr Atkins

P.S. Please see included information regarding Easter activities

11th March 2022

As usual, I hope this finds you well and ready for another weekend. After having been away from school for a period of time it is great for me to be back in and to enjoy some freedom! Thank you to the staff in school who have stepped up and made sure things continue to run smoothly. 

It is clear that Covid is still making its presence felt in the area as well as nationally. Whilst the impact for many is hopefully reduced and we are clearly moving into a period of relaxing the rules that are in place, I would ask you to continue to think about the more vulnerable people we have in our school population. The best thing you can do in this regard is to continue to keep in touch and keep us informed. That allows us to make plans and discuss with those who need to act more cautiously. 

British Science week has started and many of the classes have done some extra work on Science and scientists which will carry on next week. We also had chance to focus on International Women’s Day this  week, learning about famous women through history and up to the present day.   Many of the pupils chose their mums and other family members as their ‘inspirational women’, and I know we are not short of inspirational women on the school staff either!

We have a couple of events coming up which we are in the planning and preparation stages of.  We want to focus on and celebrate diversity; particularly raising awareness and understanding of different developmental and neurodevelopmental differences such as Downs Syndrome, ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Disorders.   If you want to know more about what me might be discussing get in touch.

We also have our ‘Seachdain na Gaidhlig’ starting week beginning 21st March.  We are still working on getting different visitors in and deciding on songs to practice across the school and prepare other activities to celebrate the language and culture. If you have got any plain t-shirts, even ones which don’t fit anymore which other children could use, there will be the chance for children to make a gaelic slogan T-shirt during the week.  We will try to get a few cheap t-shirts in various sizes as well, but any donations or even if every child could have one each brought in, that would be great!

We are waiting to hear about a replacement date for the postponed fluoride varnishing sessions from earlier this week. We will let you know when we expect this to happen.

It is exciting to hear that the new hospital has opened and is starting to be used. It makes our new school feel like a not too distant reality. There have been further positive meetings around the new school and hub project, recently focusing on the outside sports facilities which might be possible.  Thanks to all those who continue to focus on this and put a lot of hard work in to get the best for both the school and the community.

We are now in a position to begin putting the time capsule together for the hospital as we discussed last session.  Please watch this space, as we will be asking for different objects to be brought in over the next few weeks.

As usual, if there is anything you are unsure of, or want to ask please don’t hesitate.  Have a great weekend.

Mr Atkins 

4th March 2022

What a difference in the weather we have had this week. It has been great to have the sun shining and finally see some blue sky. It certainly made our weekly assembly more pleasant this week being able to stand outside in the sunshine.

On Monday, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday and most classes got to explore the origins of the day and also got to have pancakes. Some children were able to cook their own pancakes with lots of great maths and science learning. Some children were cutting fruit to top their pancakes and one class even managed to link it to their maths topics of fractions. It is great to see so many creative and fun learning opportunities going on throughout school.

Thursday was also a busy and creative day as we celebrated World Book Day. The children were all really engaged in talking about their favourite books. It was fun to try and work out which books they had brought in through the clues. Another exciting way to get children engaged and enjoying reading. Well done to the school council who set up a ‘Where’s Wally?’ hunt for the whole school around the school garden.

P5-7G started online art sessions with E-sgoil, focusing on different art techniques with a theme of wildlife and mini-beasts. They will continue with these over the next 6 weeks each Friday and we are looking forward to seeing some of their artwork.

March also saw the start of the Highland Highlife Virtual Running Challenge. Please see the attached information for how you can get involved at home and the suggested route. We will continue to encourage children to stay activate with our daily mile and do some additional running in our PE sessions. We are also hoping that we will be able to take groups up to Skinidin to use the marked out route once the children have had chance to practice.

On the theme of being active, there is a poster attached about a training course being run of Saturday 12th March for any parents who may which to be more involved in Bikeability.

This week we had three certificates for ‘aim high as the mountains’-  Eilidh (P1-3E), Imogen (P4/5E), Maria (P6/7E) and two for Deiseil/ready for Sorley (P1-4G) and Alexander (P5-7G). In a week where there has been many difficulties globally, it is great to see how well our small school community continues to work hard, be respectful of each other, and be ready for learning.

A reminder from last week’s newsletter. We have had a big tidy up through the school and have several computer chairs that are available. If you are interested, please get in touch. We are asking for a small donation towards the school fund.

Have a great weekend.  As usual if you have any questions, queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Mr Atkins 

Friday 25th February 2022

Parents/carers,  just a short Friday update after a short week in school.

Hopefully you all had a restful long weekend.  We had a busy but useful In-service day on Wednesday.  Part of it was to ensure the school staff were all informed about the progress with the new school. It was a useful session for us to see very initial thoughts and designs for the new building and to give our opinions. The main things which became apparent were that we had a much greater focus on the impact of wind and weather on the aspect of the building, bearing in mind shelter for breaktimes and outdoor learning etc. We have suggested to the team that they come and do lunch duty one day to understand how it is ‘on the ground’.  Hopefully this is the start of the process in terms of looking at designs, and tweaking them to fit our purposes, ensuring we get a building fit for our purposes. There will be opportunities for the wider school community participation in due course so please keep an eye out if you are interested. Thankfully, we were reassured that nothing is set in stone yet, so no major decisions have happened yet!

When we returned after the first lockdown, we had to clear classroom spaces and especially remove anything which couldn’t easily be wiped down. We have had a number of computer chairs in storage since then and we no longer need as many.  If you could make use of a computer chair (they are blue) mostly in reasonable condition, and would like to make a small contribution to school fund, please let me know. We will do this on a first-come first served basis if there is a rush on them and if not we may put them on Skye Free Ads, again proceeds to school fund.

Parents of P7 pupils – the next instalment is now due (on Monday) for the Raasay Trip. We discussed ways to reduce the cost for the trip back in the autumn, so will return to this soon and see if the P7s could do a bit of fundraising to help.

On Thursday, next week it is World Book Day. You may be relieved to hear we are not dressing up this year, so don’t panic about costumes.  All the classes are discussing ideas which the Pupil Council will bring to our meeting on Monday. We will then communicate further ways we intend to celebrate, but for now we are planning lots of opportunities to celebrate different kinds and opportunities for reading in all forms.  Instead of the usual £1 book voucher (which in my house, often gets left to expire on a shelf somewhere) we are working with Highland Bookstore to get books delivered to school. There are a number of books to choose from and these will then be delivered to school and handed out.  If you are still keen to receive the voucher instead, that is an option, just let us know. The children have been given a form to complete, most of which will have made their way home.  Please make sure they are sent back into school on Monday.  Some of the older pupils got a chance to research the books and choose their own one in school.   Reading is incredibly important.  We often find in school that those who are used to reading regularly, those who are read to and those who read for pleasure have a much wider vocabulary, and often find learning across the curriculum much easier. Remember it doesn’t have to be Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. Comics, newspapers, magazines, books (both non-fiction and fiction) as well as audiobooks and even joke books are great ways of developing reading.

Part of our In-service day was to have a Gaelic department meeting. We are planning Seachdain na Gaidhlig later in March and looking at further opportunities to develop the opportunities to develop the language both in school and in the community.  One of our thoughts was that many schools have a ‘Comann nam Pàrant’ ( Parents’ organisation).  It is something we are keen to explore, in order to further support Gaelic across the school. Naturally this will mainly be with regards to Gaelic Medium pupils and supporting their parents but it would not be limited to this -  supporting with Gaelic learning across our bi-lingual community.   If you are interested and would like to support this, please get in touch.

Have a great weekend.  As usual if you have any questions, queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Mr Atkins

Friday 11th February 2022

As usual, I hope the latest update finds you well and ready for another weekend.  The weeks in school seem to be flying by at the moment.  The staff in school are all working incredibly hard at the moment both with the day to day teaching and learning, but also supporting the children with their health and wellbeing and the continued recovery from the strangeness of the last few years.  Thank you to all the staff for continuing to be positive and practical in tackling all the challenges we have faced. A big thank you especially to Annette, who has been cleaning the school each evening, after finishing her normal job in the kitchen to cover for staff absence.

It was wonderful to hear the exciting news from Mrs Robertson at the beginning of the week and from Miss Haswell at the end of the week, that they are both pregnant and expecting later in the year.  Heartiest congratulations to both of them and their families.  Clearly we will keep you informed with regards our plans for staffing as the year progresses but for the time being it is ‘business as usual’.

Congratulations to those who were presented with certificates in the different classes this week: Michael in P1-3e and Emma in P4/5e both got a certificate for being Respectful.  Ryan in P5-7g was awarded for his Resilience (Làidir nan intinn) and Bronwynn in P6/7e was  given her certificate for Aim as High as the Mountains. I was excited once again to give out a Duais a’ Cheannard ( Head Teacher’s Award). This was awarded to Daniel in P1-4g.  I taught the class at the beginning of the week and noticed how he was engaged and ready to learn and also noticed in the playground at lunchtime how good he is at playing with all the others children in school. Mrs Robertson brought him along to show me some excellent sentence writing the other day too.  Sgoinneil Daniel, agus cùm suas an obair mhath!

This week all the children in school completed a piece of writing using ‘Magic Key’ stories as a stimulus. They planned different adventure stories using different magical objects and wrote their own stories accordingly. This has given us another opportunity as a group of teachers to moderate and agree on the respective levels for different pieces of writing.  It was brilliant to read stories across the whole range from those just starting to form sentences independently up to those who are writing with technical skill and at considerable length with accuracy. It also shows clear progression in pupils individual work over time.

We now want to use the stories children have done to make their own books.  We would like them to make their own audio books to share and will be starting this during February and March. Please watch this space for more information as we will probably publish them on the new school website – again more details to follow!

Once again there have been a few Covid cases cropping up in the area.  Thank you to those families who have kept us informed and sensibly isolated away from school as this minimised onward spread.  As usual if any positive cases are reported for a child or staff member in your child’s class, we will inform you of this via a letter.   We are gradually being informed of changes likely to happen as (hopefully) things begin to ease.  We will share any big changes with you as they come into play.

There is an information evening hosted by Comann nam Pàrant and Bòrd na Gàidhlig on Thursday 24th February. This is predominantly aimed at those who are new to,  and those who are considering Gaelic Medium Education. There will be practitioners in attendance that are involved in Gaelic Education at each level - early years, primary and high school who will be providing further information about Gaelic Education and the support and resources that are available for parents. There will then be an opportunity for you to ask questions. – Please see link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seisean-fiosrachaidh-ftg-information-session-gme-tickets-265896221757?ref=estw

We are also making plans to get involved in ‘Seachdainn na Gàidhlig’ – ‘an opportunity to celebrate Gaelic across the globe’.  If you have any ideas or opportunities for us to share and enjoy aspects of Gaelic language, culture and traditions, please let us know and we can plan for this across the whole school.

It was great to see our House Captains in the Free Press this week. We have everything packaged up ready to be sent off!

Finally, just to remind you that we will be finishing this time next week (Friday 18th February) and will be reopening on Thursday 24th February.  School will be closed to the children on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Staff will be in school on Wednesday for an Inservice day.  As part of this we have an update on the new school again and hopefully the Stakeholder group will be able to share some information more widely with parents soon.

Many thanks, take care and have a great weekend.

Mr Atkins

Friday 28th January 2022

Dear parents,   I hope you are all well.  Despite the wild weather, it was good to get together on the front playground for an assembly before it got too wet. It is important that we continue to get together and share the successes of the week!

Certificate winners this week were:  Mathew P1-3e and Kieran in P6/7 (Aim as high as the mountains) Heidi in P4/5e and Cormac in P1-4g (Resilient / Làdair nam Intinn),  and Emily W in P5-7g (Modhail)

Thanks to Annette for providing an excellent Burns Lunch on Tuesday and to the Pupil Council representatives who stood up in front of the school and read ‘ Address to the Haggis’ and the ‘Selkirk Grace’.   

Thank you to all those families who donated items to be sent to The Philippines.  We have a good selection of items which I am sure will be appreciated by those affected by the Typhoon and it also saves these older items going into landfill in this country.  Ben Yoxon was in school this week as a follow up to the COP26 discussions we had earlier in the year.  It was great to hear the children discussing the issues with a real and relevant recent event in The Philippines possibly caused or worsened by climate changes.  The money mile challenge was won by Pabay!  They managed to join their coins up along the whole length of the school corridor and were almost half the way back on a second line.   We will count the total amount of money donated and let you know next week. Thank you all for your generosity for such a good cause.   Look out for photos in the Free Press next week

We have a couple of new staff who will be working in school.  One is a familiar face – Mrs Keenan, who the children all know. She will be working a couple of mornings each week until the summer, mainly teaching different classes, allowing the class teachers time to work closely supporting individuals with their learning and providing more focused teaching and learning than is possible when working in a whole-class environment.  We also have a student teacher starting with the P6/7e class. Her name is Ms Duffus.  She is on a PGDE course, previously completing a placement in Sleat Primary School  before Christmas.  We look forward to welcoming them both to our team.

Next week is the enrolment week for those who will be moving into P1 next session. Due to the ongoing pandemic, there will be no face-to-face enrolment again this year.  Those completing enrolments are asked to complete the process online using the link here: https://www.highland.gov.uk/enrol   If you have any difficulties please get in touch and we will help where we can.   The week after that (beginning 7th February) is the enrolment week for those wishing to enrol for Nursery.  If you know of any families in the area who this might apply to pleas encourage them to complete the enrolment process.

To coincide with the Winter Olympics and with the possibility of some winter weather coming up we are going to complete a whole school art project entitled ‘Winter around the world’.  This will replace our wonderful ‘Island Home’ artwork in the school hall and give the children the opportunity to complete different pieces of art, but also to see what other classes have been doing – staying connected.

Many thanks for your continuing support, and as usual, please don’t hesitate to get in touch  with any queries or questions.

Mr S Atkins

Friday 14th January 2022

Madainn mhath agus bliadhna mhath ùr.

It is great to have been back for just over a week since the Christmas break and good to see all the children back in school and getting back into their learning.   The children seem to have settled back into school really well and are proving how brilliant they are in approaching their learning with renewed enthusiasm.

I am sure you have noticed/been aware that there has seemed to be an increase in positive cases both nationally and locally.  We have not heard of any positive cases in pupils in school since January and thank you to those who have isolated and booked tests etc when they have been in close contact with others. It is important we continue to be pragmatic and keep everyone as safe as is feasible, whilst  also keeping school as normal as possible.   You may have been told by the children that they have had a different teacher from usual recently, and indeed there has been some staff absence.  Not all of these have been covid-related and any which have been have not been in school since before Christmas.  Clearly, if there are any positive cases reported in your child’s class – either staff or pupils, you will be informed and given guidance as to what to do.  If you have any questions or queries, please get in touch.

We are planning a Burns’ Lunch for the children on Tuesday 25th January, therefore there will be a change in the menu for that day. Some of the children will lead us in this celebration and thank you to Annette for helping us and putting Haggis, Neeps and Tatties on for us!

Well done to those who were given certificates this morning :  Finlay in P1-3e and Abby in P1-4g (Respectful / Modhail ) , Skye in P4/5e (Aim as high as the mountains), Caleb in  P5-7g ( Làidir nam inntinn/Resilience)  & Caitlyn in  P6/7e  (Ready)

We spent some time in our staff meeting this week discussing the situation in The Philippines which was impacted by Typhoon ‘Rai’ just before Christmas. Just like we did after the Australian Bushfires a couple of years ago, we would like to do something in school to help with this and will be talking to the children about this next week.   More information will follow, but as a heads up, we are looking into what useful items could be collected and sent over, so please delay any clear-outs/charity shop trips for now…

Please remember that P5 children are now eligible for a free school meal after the holiday,  as well as all those from P1 to P4.  As usual if you have outstanding dinner money, please send this into school in a clearly marked envelope.

Due to current staffing and needing to ensure all classes are adequately covered, there are often times when nobody is in the office.  If phoning, please leave a message.  This will be checked as often as possible and we will phone you back if necessary.  Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter. On a lighter note there is a good news staffing story!  We have three new members of staff starting.  Ryan McAllister is the new Facilities Assisstant for the South Skye and Lochalsh area, so will be in school usually one day per week supporting us around the school site. We have two new PSA staff coming in on different days; Mrs Connell and Mrs Rennie.   A warm welcome to Broadford to all of our new staff.  It is great to have more people in school allowing us to further support the children in their learning and development.

We are looking forward to another busy term in school, with a continued focus on Reading.  We plan to have children using their reading skills to produce audiobooks and stories to share both in school and with parents, so watch this space. 

Looking ahead, school will be closed on Monday 21st, Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd February for the usual mid-term break.  (Staff will be on an Inservice day on Wednesday 23rd)  School will reopen on Thursday 24th February.

Please continue to keep us informed and to keep in touch, If you have any queries or concerns please get in touch as usual.

Many thanks

Mr Atkins

Friday 10th December 2021 

It was great to see so many children looking so festive in their Christmas jumpers today and the countdown does feel like it has definitely started!  We have some Christmas performances which we are going to be filming next week and putting together into a concert video to share with you all, we have Christmas Lunch next Thursday (16th) and a number of activities with children going to sing locally around the village.   We are also practicing our dancing ready for a whole-island  dance on the last day before Christmas (Wednesday 22nd December)

We will not be finishing any earlier than normal on Wednesday 22nd so it will 3:30pm as usual.   All the schools on Skye will hopefully be joining together from their classrooms to take part in various dances.   The classes will also be having their parties on Tuesday 21st.  That means on those two days the children will not require school uniform.  They can wear party clothes to school on Tuesday 21st and something Christmasy on Wednesday 22nd.

We had a couple of alarm drills this week. One on Tuesday was to ensure the children still remember what to do when they hear the fire alarm, and to ensure we are getting out of the building safely, quickly and accounting for everyone.  This went well. We have also recently had a second alarm installed due to Highland Council policy. The second alarm we are calling ‘stay in, stay safe’.  We practised what to do this morning, ensuring the children all know there are two different sounds, and they mean we have to do two different things.  We obviously handled this sensitively and gave the children chance to ask questions.  The main reason we discussed was that it is for when something is outside which we need to stay in and stay safe from – e.g something causing smoke, so rather than going outside, we would be best to be in classrooms and ideally away from windows.   Similar to a fire drill,  it is best to be prepared and to have a plan which the children know and to have a go at practising this periodically so we can make changes and adapt the plan where necessary.  If you have any questions about this, please get in touch.

 As usual, we had a mixture of different certificates.   Congratulations to Phoebe – P1-4g (Deiseal)  Maisie– P1-3e (Respectful) Shea and David– P4/5e (Safe), Freya– P5-7g (Bi ag amas cho àrd ris na beinn) and Fiona – P6/7e (Ready)

Whilst I was chatting to the P4/5e class in their class assembly, the whole room was very fragrant with all their soap making. I know they advertised on SeeSaw and have been taking some orders, but I think they are going to be working until Christmas Eve making up the orders!  Well done to them for this enterprise project.

We also raised over £30 with less than half an hour of carol singing with P1-4g at the Coop. As part of their topic on their local community, they have been on a couple of walks this week, once to the fire station, where they were welcomed and had a great time, and then again walking in the other direction through Broadford and returning via the Coop for a bit of singing.

I am currently putting together a Broadford Primary School website so that current and prospective parents can see information about our school and any other visitors who might be interested can find out more about what is going on in school. If you have any ideas or suggestions for what we might include, please let me know.

All the P7 pupils across the school have completed their SNSA (Scottish National Standardised Assessments) this week and they worked hard to ensure they were trying their best and showing what they are capable of.   Here is an example of one of the questions for you to try!

If 4 x 13 = 65, what does 20 x 13 = ?

a.       2 x 65

b.       4 x 65

c.       6 x 65

d.       8 x 65

e.       12 x 65

If anyone has dinner money outstanding or if children are having a Christmas lunch when they don’t usually eat a school dinner, the last day for money to come into Annette is Monday 20th December. If money comes in after this she will have to leave it to be quarantined until after the holiday.

Thanks to those who have returned the fluoride varnishing letter for Nursery – P4 pupils. If you still have a consent letter for that, please make sure it is returned to school.

Just so you are aware, we start back after the holiday on Thursday 6th January.

Please continue to keep us informed and to keep in touch, If you have any queries or concerns please get in touch as usual.

Many thanks

Mr Atkins

Friday 26th November 2021 

I hope you all remain well.  There are obviously a few bugs going around still, with a bit of sickness and some nasty colds etc. We have heard of a couple of positive Covid cases in the area still, but again no positive cases of children or staff in school that we are aware of.   We have also been informed of a few cases of Head Lice, so please check and treat as required.

Nearly all our certificates this week were for ‘Bi ag amas cho àrd ris na beinn’ ( Aim as High as the Mountains)- P1-3e – Roddy, P4/5e: Liam and Skye, P6/7e: Arianah, P5-7g: Peter. The certificate from P1-4g was ‘Modhail’  (being respectful) and that was given to Ada.  I also gave out a special Gold Head Teacher Award to Katie in P6/7e for being such a friendly, kind role model around school and for always showing all 4 of our Values – Ready, Respectful, Resilient and Safe.

A big thank you to Ella’s mum – Sarah MacInnes who is doing a lot of work on the school garden.  She has also tidied up the front steps to the school from the village hall / car park which has made a huge difference and has been commented upon by many staff, pupils and parents.

The two older classes in school had a further session of Drama and Music on Monday. which is a fortnightly project which the children seem to be enjoying and learning from.

Mhairi Macdonald, our link Collaborative Lead Officer  spent the day in school with us yesterday.  Mhairi has been a Head teacher for some time, and now spends a great deal of time visiting schools in our part of the Highlands, so sees lots of good practice and can share that between schools.  She particularly commented on how calm and focused the atmosphere of school was, how well the children were learning and could also0 talk about their learning, and also how keen and welcoming everyone was to talk and share things with her.  We will continue to work with her as we continue to find ways to improve but it was another great chance to share a lot of the positives going on in school.

I have included a poster regarding ‘Squid Game’ Although we have not had particular difficulties with this, it is clear that a number of children are very aware of what it is and what it entails. I am totally in the dark, but after a quick search it is clearly something entirely inappropriate for children of primary school age.   Hopefully the poster attached can help explain to you in case you are as ignorant to these things as I am.

Most people have now managed to have a Parents Evening conversation, picking up those who didn’t manage on the night.  Please don’t wait for another Parents Evening session to get in touch if you have any queries or questions.  It is important we know what is going on in the children’s lives especially if it might be occupying their thoughts in school, and if there is anything concerning you, we can only do something about it if you let us know.  Hopefully you are seeing lots of work on SeeSaw and you should also being seeing what the children have been reflecting on, as they have been discussing their own learning recently.

Please take care this weekend as the forecast looks set from some pretty strong, cold wind and wintery weather.

Friday 12th November 2021

After a busy week of COP26 activities and continuing to engage with different activities surrounding reading, drama and remembrance, it is great to see the children exploring a varied curriculum and engaging with important discussions in a very mature way.  

We welcomed Paul from the Coop to school to talk to us about soft plastic recycling including the scheme started by the Coop, and all the classes have been discussing both the problems of climate change and their possible solutions. It is important we remember that it is not too late to make a difference, and indeed it is possible for even very small acts done by individuals to make a big difference.   We have all made footprints which are going to make up a map of the world, and each child has added their ‘pledge’ to their footprint to go to our whole school artwork. Hopefully there is somewhere big enough for us to put it!  It was also good to see some staff, parents and pupils who took part in the Skye bridge walk last weekend in the wind and rain.

As you may have heard, there has been an increase in positive cases on Skye, requiring many people to isolate and undertake PCR tests etc. I would like to reassure you that we have not heard of any current positive cases in our school, relating to children or staff.  We are mindful, however, that it is obviously in the vicinity.  We need to continue to be cautious and protect each other as far as we can.  Please continue to keep us informed of absences, especially if they are covid-related. This helps us to respond quickly and efficiently to any issues as they arise and keep other children and adults in school safe.

Well done to our certificate winners this week –  Congratulations to those who have shown our school value of keeping safe: Daniel (P1-3e), and Struan and Oscar (P6/7e).  Well done to Emma in P4/5e for showing Resilience , and to Louise in P5-7g and Teigan in P6/7e  for being Respectful (Modhail).  Finally there was another ‘Bi ag amas cho ard ris na beinn’ (Aim as high as the mountains) certificate for Flora in P1-4g.

Thank you for your understanding earlier in the week when we had to make the decision to cancel the individual photographs happening in school. We have spoken to the photographer and are planning to rearrange the date for spring all being well.

Many of you have already managed to book appointments for Parents’ evening on Tuesday (16th).  If you have not done this yet, we have extended the booking window to Monday.  If you are having difficulties please get in touch. As far as we can see the system requires people to use exactly the same info we have on file for you to log on too.  It is sensitive to changes in lower and upper case, so it might be advisable to try a couple of alternatives e.g. Mackinnon/McKinnon/MacKinnon.

We all went to the War Memorial safely standing in our class groups to take part in an act of Remembrance. Rory joined us from the church and there were a couple of members of the public who shared our minute silence, and enjoyed the poems and music shared by different classes.  Thanks also to those classes who tidied up the area around the memorial and for making bunting etc to hang up on the steps.

We learned some Makaton signs to go with Remembrance which might be useful/interesting.