New sound system for Infant Hall

A £2,759  grant from Awards for All added to a kind donation of £900 from Mr and Mrs Spence, who are both part of the staff team at Papdale, means that funding is now in place to purchase a new state of the art portable sound system for our Infant Hall. The system will also include a portable hearing loop to provide for those with hearing difficulties.

This new system should greatly improve the quality of sound for all the events held in the Infant Hall, including school assemblies, business meeting as well as concerts, discos and other evening events. Although the new system will be based in the Infant Hall its portability means it could be used anywhere throughout the school and beyond adding to its flexibility.
It is hoped that the system will be ready for use in April or May 2015.

A special thanks must go to our funders, Awards for All and Mr and Mrs Spence.
Mrs and Mrs Spence were married last summer and had the innovative idea to use their special celebration as an opportunity to raise funds for their chosen charities, of which we were one.

What a great idea!

Pedometer Challenge Week clocks up 350 miles!

As part of the Healthy Working Lives initiative all staff at Papdale were invited to take part in a pedometer challenge to measure the number of steps taken during the course of a school week.
Strict rules were applied to ensure that only miles that were part of the normal working day were included. Running on the spot or attaching your pedometer to a child at break or lunch time were banned!
27 Staff took up the challenge and were divided into seven teams. After a close competition the overall winners were the Auxiliary Team closely followed by the Office/Janitors and the P1-3 Class Teachers. The Individual winner was Auxiliary Mrs Mackay with Janitor, Mr Linklater in second and another Auxiliary, Mrs Rosie in third place. During the week of the challenge the total distance walked was over 350miles.
Special thanks must also go to the Health Promotion team at NHS Orkney who kindly supplied pedometers for the challenge.

Gold for the Auxiliary Team - Mrs Berry (mascot!), Mrs Mackay, Mrs Walls and Mrs Rosie,

Silver for the Office/ Janitors Team - Mr Linklater, Mr Mackinnon, Mrs Gray and Mrs Banks

Bronze for the P1-3 Class Teachers - Mrs Drever, Mrs Kennedy, Mr Brown, Miss Archibald and Mrs Clouston

Individual Winners - Mrs Rosie (Bronze), Mr Linklater ( Silver) and Mrs Mackay (Gold)

Papdale Stores put the Carrier Bag Tax to good use

Papdale Primary School were honoured to be chosen by the staff and owners of Papdale Stores as the first benefactors of their new scheme to donate the proceeds of the new carrier bag tax to support chosen charities and worthy causes. The picture shows Fiona Flett, owner of Papdale Stores handing over a cheque for £205.33 to Mr Balfour representing Papdale Primary School.

Fiona said, "all of us at Papdale Stores felt we wanted to do something positive to help the community so we decided we would choose a good cause to support that meant something special to us all.  Between October and December 2014 we chose Papdale School because we wanted to support all the children in our area and know that they are always fundraising for trips and other school resources and equipment. For the next few months the money raised will be going to CRY (Cardiac risk in youth) in memory of Freya Dalrymple, one of our co-workers who tragically died last year aged 17 and is greatly missed by us all".    

Papdale wins the Christmas and New Years Day Ba's

It doesn't matter if you are an  'Uppie' or a 'Doonie' this years Ba threw up four winners with strong Papdale School connections. Both Boys Ba winners were previously pupils at Papdale School and both Mens Ba Winners have children who are current pupils. To celebrate the success both Dads were asked to come in to school to show off their trophies to the children at the Business Meeting and assembly.

Ryan (4E) and Josh (2S) with their dad, the Christmas Day Ba Winner for the Uppies

Stanley (Pre school B) with his dad, The New years Day Ba winner for the Doonies

Papdale Parent Council reinforce the safety message.

In response to concerns raised by several members of the public the Papdale Parent Council have issued a letter through the school newsletter to remind everyone of the importance of behaving responsibly when picking up and dropping off children at School. These concerns also prompted them to arrange a site visit and meeting with local Councillors, representatives from the OIC Roads Department and local Police. It was agreed that the letter should also be submitted to the Road Safety Forum for discussion at their next meeting.
Local Police officers will also be carrying out spot checks around the school at the key times with the possibility of fines being issued to anyone found to be parking illegally.
To view a copy of the letter please click on this link

New Playground Survey

The Games Parliament, which has pupil representatives from all P4 to P7 classes, recently decided it would be a good idea to see what everyone felt about the playground now that the major playground development work has been completed.

Click on this link to view a copy of the Playground Survey Results

The Christmas Concert

A total of over 400 people came to see this years Christmas Concert either on Thursday 11th December or the afternoon performance the following day.
Although the program was slightly smaller than in previous years due to staff absences in the music department there were still lots of talent on show which went down well with a very appreciative audience.
A new feature this year were performances from two of the finalists in the annual talent show organised by the children called, "Papdales Got Talent".
Once again the children in P3 rose to the challenge and performed brilliantly in their play, this year called, "Its a baby", which was a fitting finale to a very enjoyable evenings entertainment.
For video footage of the concert click on the links below.

Brass Band

Electric

The Little Frozen Girls

Cello Ensemble

P6 & 7 Chanter Group

P7 Bagpipes

P4 & 5 Vocal Ensemble

Junior Choir

P3 Play -Part 1

P3 Play - Part 2

P3 Play - Part 3