The BBQ and day 3 at Nethy

Wednesday night ended with a barbecue and some songs round the campfire with all the schools together as the sun set and the moon rose in a clear sky.

 Day 3 started with  the silver maze and problem solving in the forest. Team work and cooperation helped. Some of the problems required perseverance and quite a few attempts.

In the afternoon we went canoeing and did archery. The canoeing at the pond was great fun as we competed at picking up the balls to win points and had the obligatory jump in to freezing water at the end of the session.

It looked inviting in the hot weather, but it was a little more refreshing than expected!

The winers of the art competition with their work and their prize.

Tonight a DVD and a good sleep, then a Forest Adventure tomorrow morning before we leave.

Nethy Day 2

Another day of glorious weather and the groups split up to do the climbing wall and abseiling at the big tree. The new climbing wall is fantastic! A few warm up games and everyone had a free climbing challenge before attaching harnesses, and climbing up and abseiling down.

Can you get all the way round without touching the floor?

Belaying team.

 The other climbing activity was at the big tree.

Climbing up one side and abseiling down the other.

Claire goes up...

and Claire comes down!

I did it!

After lunch it was time to get kit organised for dry-slope skiing.

Height and weight needs to be measured and boots, helmets and skiis adjusted - lots of mental maths involved for the instructors, and Miss Gillies.

 The ski slope was bathed in sunshine so it was hot work getting around on the skis, but worth it!

Glaitness Ski Team - ready to go!

Future pros.

Half way up.

Up we go.

 As the afternoon progressed, everyone's skills improved until they were flying down with good control and only the occasional bump!
The button lift helped in the heat.

Getting the hang of the button lift.

We ended our activities with a competitive game of polo - with very relaxed rules...

Later, Time Out and supper.

Day 1 at Nethybridge.

We have had beautiful weather for our first day of activities, which started with orienteering. Based on the front lawn, we used increasingly complex maps to look for locations using photo clues. 

Taking a break on the front lawn.

Off with another photo clue.

Getting the answers checked.

A short break - time to catch up with our Michelle Paver books.

Arriving at the zip wire tower.

Zipping!

Made it!

The adventure course was fun.

Morgan makes it look easy.

Finally time for a shower and a swim before tea, games, Time Out and supper. Phew!

Water polo.

Michelle Paver

Michelle Paver, the author of The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, visited us today courtesy of the Scottish Book Trust. Children from Rousay, Papay and Shapinsay joined us to hear about how Michelle became an author and research for her books. Always fascinated by wolves, Michelle also has had a keen interest in the Stone Age since early childhood. We hope her visit to Orkney will provide her with some more inspiration for future stories.

We were particularly interested in the stories set in the forests 6000 years ago about a boy, Torak, and his wolf 'brother'. For these books Michelle found out about the animals and technology and beliefs of the Sami in Finland and Inuit in Arctic Canada, as well as drawing on experiences with bears in California and learning how to communicate with real live wolves. Through our topics this year we have learned a lot about traditional technologies and a little about belief systems and myths. This introduction to the world of the wolf clan will provide us with rich material for literacy work in our final term.

It was great to speak to a real author and hear Michelle read an extract from her own stories. After answering a few questions Michelle undertook a lengthy signing session and a chat with the children.

Many thanks to Mrs MacRae and the library staff for organising this visit for us and many thanks to Michelle for coming to Orkney!

To find out more about Michelle and her books visit The Clan.

Ness Battery

We visited Ness Battery in Stromness to find out about how Scapa Flow was defended 

during World War 2.

Thanks to Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership and Stromness Tours for a great visit.
When we came back we designed our own tourist leaflets using the
Stromness Tours flyer as a starting point and the Ness Battery website to check our facts were accurate and correct.

Here are a few sample pages:

BBC School Report Broadcast Day!

The BBC School Report team 2012

Our BBC School Report Broadcast is now live on our dedicated blog: BBC School Report at Glaitness 2012. Please visit and see our broadcast which is in three parts. Or find us on the map on BBC School Report webpage.

World War 2 radio play

We have finished our radio play and it is now on our wiki.

Listen here.

BBC School Report

We are busy gathering and writing news for our BBC School Report broadcast on March 15th. Please make sure you are tuned to our dedicated blog at BBC School Report at Glaitness 2012.

The Olympics interviewers.

The new swimming pool interviewers.

The marine litter reporting team meet Mr Ian Harcus to find out about the 'Fishing for Litter' project.

Bin questions and answers...

Today Maria Cuthbertson, Waste Services Manager for Orkney, and Dennis MacDonald, Team Leader Waste Operations, visited our school to answer some questions we had after thinking about bin design and what would be good for collecting marine litter at Scapa. We found out that a plastic bin would be best as it wouldn't rust and it could be picked up by the lift on the bin lorry. A large sliding lid which opens wide enough to take big items would be best. Dennis thought that locking wheels would be enough to keep the bin in place and that it wouldn't need an anchor post. This type of bin already exists and is used in our school grounds. At 1100 litres it has a big enough capacity and there is no need for bin liners. In winter the bin would be emptied once a week but in summer the bin would be emptied three times a week. We thought this was great! When the beach is busiest more people might help remove the marine litter and more capacity would be needed.

Our next job will be to design signs and decide how to tell people at Scapa what the bin is there for and try to encourage them to use it!

The S Team : Research and Development

Back in class the S Team continued their work by sorting and cleaning smaller items to be used in art work.

We identified some of the livings things that make up the ecosystems at Scapa and started compiling our 'biodiversity' list - a list of all the living things we find on our visits.

Some of the larget items have to be hosed outside.

Next we designed and made models of bins which we thought could be used at Scapa to solve the problem of where to put marine litter. If visitors to Scapa used the bins that are there at the moment for marine litter they would fill up very quickly and that would create another problem. Some of the items are quite large and don't fit in a regular bin.

'The Rubbish Digester'

'The S bin'.

The Scaspa Box

Scapa Litter and Information Station

The Green Giant

The Wheely Bin 7000

Evaluating our designs meant we had to think critically about the problems of collecting and removing litter as well as how to encourage visitors to Scapa to help.