The Rainbow Light School

Lawberin’ days are traditionally associated with February when the drier weather allows for access to the fields for ploughing or the vegetable plot for digging. Because of the wet winter, this has been impossible. Today we were able to ‘lawber’ thanks to a second day of sunshine. The ground was still wet but, with plenty of effort for all concerned, turf has been removed and the sites for three of our raised beds have been dug over.

Hazel collected the dinner money in the morning and the visiting art teacher was in during the afternoon.

With bright sunshine all day, we have all been outdoors as much as possible.  We have been marking out the position for our raised beds and fixing up  some of the new wind-brake fencing in the garden. Weather permitting, we will finish tomorrow. The mobile library van arrived in the middle of our work.

The workmen have replaced the slates on the school roof after the severe gale at the weekend. They plan to do cement work along the skews when they can be sure of two dry days and no frost.

The time has come to decide what to grow in our greenhouse when it is built. Seed catalogues are always good to look at on a dull and rainy afternoon. Cucumber, tomoato, mushrooms, fruit trees all had supporters. We assembled one of our raised beds, one metre square, and thought about vegetables to grow in four of them. The tried and tested, like tatties, carrots and neeps, seemed to be the favouries.

Fraser, the janitor from the secondary school, shared with us some of his photos from his trip climbing Aconcagua in South America. Amazing to be looking down on a whole mountain range. So high up that the horizon looked curved. Wow! Well done, Fraser.

 Monday

Well you have the HMIe on Friday and your QIO for a quality Assurance visit on Monday! Hoops and more hoops. A workmen is laying the foundation for the greenhouse. Bookclub has arrived. Pre school pupils in for the afternoon painting.

Tuesday

A Baltasound day which includes a screening visit by the dentist. Before Baltasound we spent the mroning putting together a garden shredder together. A lot of technology involved.

Wednesday and the Health Visitor arrived with her light box and  we saw how dirty our hands are , even after washing! Mothers and Toddlers in the afternoon. Figured out a report format for a meeting in Lerwick as we need to report bacvk for Orkney and Shetland.

THursday - 2 probationers arrived for a visit and to discuss our way of doing things. They seemed impressed and stunned. Mrs C wrote an article for a research news letter. The Music teacher’s car broke and she is coming on Monday instead.The French teacher and P5-7 started to cost their trip to Paris in June. Hazel was in the middle of invoices and budgets.

Friday At last!We are all dressed up for red nose day.Terrible weather. Chasing a missing check.

Today we had a visit from the HMIe in the shape of  Anne Mc Gachey. Initially her visit was to look at Attainment in Modern Languages in the primary school, but after doing some research on the school she added Curriculum Flexibility and the new Curriculum for Excellence..

P5-7 and Miss Bates our Fench teacher were very impressive and did very well indeed.They shared their plans for a trip to Paris.Ann was taken aback when they told her they wanted to go and see the Mona Lisa and not Disney World.

Our work in the Curriculum was met with approval and all our paperwork was handed over.

All in all it was both a challenging and enjoyable experience.

 Thursday 8th

Today we had an amazing morning with Mrs Nowak, the librarian from Mid Yell School.Jeanette spent 9 weeks before Christmas in the Tsunami ravaged area of India known as Tamil Nadu. She went as a volunteer with the Hope Foundation .

She brought a treasure chest of wonderful items. We watched video clips and enjoyed her folder of photographs. COlours ,textures,smells and even tastes. A feast of the senses. A little piece of Tamil Nadu came to UYeasound.

The headteacher of the school she worked at visitted our school last summer and loved our paintings. Jeanette painted 2 Shetland murals on the wall of the school. We think we have come full circle.

 We gave her a donation for the relief work. She gave us Tsunamika dolls.

AAaaaargh ! What happened there? Two days just disappeared. Full of work and business. Maybe it was the fact we had our three peerie boys start school. On a Monday afternoon we take our next seessions P1.s into school from Up Helly Aa until summer.In june they will begin to come swimming with us.

 Mrs Coutts is on the last of the budget money and has ordered some good books for us all. She tells us we might even get some more things.A lot of paperwork for Hazel at the moment. Mrs C also had a video conference on Monday with a man from SEED in Glasgow about the coaching project.

 The workman spent another afternoon preparing our site for the greenhouse.It is becoming a bit more real this week.

 Sorry for not blogging this few days it just seemed to get left out.

Archaeologists Chris and Robena visited the school today with real Viking artifacts - a rusty axe head, pieces of steatite pots,  a rusty rivet, fishing and loom weights  and replica brooches, woollencloth, lamp and dyed wool and a model long house like the ones being excavated on the island. Archeology tells a story and we learned a lot about the Vikings who came to Unst.

We told our own story in the afternoon. When we were digging up bluebells from the site of our greenhouse, we also dug up an interesting piece of wood. After much scrutiny and debated, it was decided that it was part of an old window.  The bluebells will be planted at Nordalea, the local care centre.

The International Students arrived to make use of our computer system.They also photocopied a survey for households on renewable energy.They are based in Germany but come from all over the world. They are here working with the PURe energy team.

Music and French as usual with our two probationery teachers.The music teacher is composing music to go with our stained glass windows. The French teacher is preparing for inspection nect week.

We did a lot of paper shredding in the afternoon.

Normal days for Uyeasound.

Budgets and paperwork for Mrs Coutts.Mrs Priest ,Anna and the rest of us worked on our maths , language and project work.The girls set up a mini French computer lab in the corridor.

The mother & toddlers sprawled all over the lower room.

 Some grannies arrived with old photographs. Three generations  and & nationalities in the school.We have some over seas students using our wifi facilities at the moment.

Yup! Anormal few days in Uyeasound.