Linnvale Clean Up

The three P6/7 classes planned a litter pick in the local area with help from WDC's Greenspace. They collected rubbish from different areas and also took a note of the different litter types which they collated and displayed using different forms of information handling. They have published their graphs and charts and are using them in posters to promote the responsible disposal of rubbish!

Nursery Forest School in a shell!

Forest School sessions have been focusing on taking risks and staying safe and the Nursery children have had the opportunity to learn how to set and light a fire using a flint and steel. Scallop shells are a great way of making 'fairy fires' and the flint and steel provide the 'dragon's sneeze' 9spark) to ignite the fuel. The children have shown great understanding of the harm fire can cause and they could also say how to stay safe and demonstrated a very sensible attitude around their little fires.

John Muir Awards! Round 1

The first of the John  Muir Awards were presented at the Easter Service. (Some P6 pupils are yet to receive their award as they were at swimming that afternoon.) A huge congratulations to all these young people, terrific ambassadors of our school and hopefully they will grow up to be guardians of our greenspaces in the future.

This award is a nationally recognised award and is acknowledged by employers and further education institutes. A minimum of 20 hours work is required to achieve the Discovery Level and Linnvale Primary is proud to be one of the providers of this environmental award. 

John Muir award: playground conservation

The John Muir Award consists of 4 elements: discover, explore, conserve and share.
For the conserve element, we are focusing on improving the school grounds by encouraging biodiversity by planting a wildflower highway across our grounds to encourage butterflies and bees.

This group worked extremely hard to dig out dandelions and invasive mint and they hope to add fresh top soil before scattering wildflower seeds and other pollinator-friendly plants! I was extremely impressed by their perseverance and determination as it was a HUGE task to undertake!

Forest School: Tool skills

Learning to use a bow saw can be a daunting prospect but this group got stuck in and made tree cookies. After slicing their cookie with the saw, they used a hand drill to make a hole for the string.
We also made dreamcatchers:learning to use loppers safely and then learning the skill of bending the willow sticks gently so that the fibres break making the willow really flexible and that lets it be shaped into a circle with ease. On the walk to and fro the willow we all gathered interesting natural objects to add to the dreamcatchers. Some dreamcatchers went home and others stayed in the woods!

Saw skills

Trying the hand drill

Each dreamcatcher was unique.

This one stayed in the woods.

Pupil Voice in the Drumry community

Linnvale Community Council invited representatives from our school to come on a walk around Drumry so that the young folk from our school could say what they liked about the area and also raise   awareness to the LCC of what needed improving. There were representatives from St Peter The Apostle, WDC, the Police and Fire Service too.

Our pupils spoke of what they liked and pointed out what areas had been vandalised as well as what they wanted to see in their community. The children expressed their concerns and opinions well and did an excellent job of representing our school!

🌷Spring has sprung?🌷

I hope that this bright sunny weather continues as it has just made going outside in the woods so much more fun when the signs of spring are all around! We have blossom flowering in the school grounds and daffodils in full bloom and suddenly the birds are all around looking for grubs and bugs not to mention the longer hours of daylight! It just feels like change is in the air.

It was a pleasant surprise to find this den in the woods! Another Forest  Schools group must have built it.

Risk taking or wellie cleaning as I call it!

At the newly discovered and named "Diagno Falls"

Some more risk taking but also team work as they worked hard to help and encourage each other to have a go on the rope swing,

We had a fantastic afternoon at Forest School-the children had the chance to explore the acres of land and instead of being a traditional walk, some role playing and imaginative games were added to liven things up. Auchnacraig became the hiding ground of the notorious bunch of bandits known for their cunning and hiding skills. Apologies to any dog walkers who got caught up in the middle of our fun!

During the walk, we looked at Scots Pine trees, Yew trees and Silver Birch and shared our knowledge of them; wondered how a pretty large goldfish ended up floating belly-up in the frog pond-a real life whodunnit! Also we looked at landmarks and tried to use observation skills to find our way around unfamiliar territory as well as plenty of energetic fun and games too! To finish it off we had a couple of quiet minutes lying back and watching the tree tops while listening to the birdsong and watching our feathered friends fly about. It was indeed a fantastic afternoon and here's to many more like them!