December 2021

Christmas
Newsletter
Message from the Head Teacher
It is nice to have the opportunity to read our 2021 Christmas Newsletter and reflect on all that we have achieved together
despite the challenging circumstances. The staff, pupils and parents/carers at SJHS have remained positive and resilient in
our determination to give our young people the best opportunities to learn and develop and this newsletter is testament to
that. Our Christmas celebrations have required us to be creative and resourceful. Staff have gone above and beyond to make
sure that the pupils still get to experience their concerts, parties, Christmas dinner and ‘SJH Got Talent’ competition. It has
been a busy and happy time.
I know I speak on behalf of the whole school community in saying a huge thank you to all the staff at SJHS for all your hard
work this term. I would also like to thank the Parent Council for their continued support as we navigate our way through
these challenging times but remain committed to making the school the best it can be.
A special mention to Andrea Henderson and Wilma Sineath who are both leaving their posts as HT’s of Dunrossness and Cun-
ningsburgh respectively. We wish Wilma well for her retirement and all the very best to Andrea in her new post as QIO with
the School Service. We have had a very positive relationship as a school cluster and I am sure this will continue to be the case
when the new HT’s take up their posts.
Finally, on behalf of everybody at SJHS I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2022.
Stronger Together, Reaching High,

Best wishes,
Mr Clubb
Head Teacher

Staffing update
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Richardson for
her time as acting Principal Teacher ASN since the summer and also
to Mrs Smith for covering as Teacher of ASN. We would also like to
thank Mrs Gear and Mrs Hawkins for the work they have done in the
school covering classes to allow us to continue to deliver our curricu-
lum. We are delighted to confirm that Mrs Barry will be starting Last day of Term—Tuesday 21st December
with us in January as our Permanent Principal Teacher ASN and she In-service—Wednesday 5th January
is looking forwards to getting to know all our pupils and families. Term 3 starts —Thursday 6th January
We look forward to welcoming the
Miss McLennan will be leaving her HE post at the end of the
pupils back after the holidays.
term. We would like to thank her for the work she has done, espe-
Have a lovely festive break!
cially with the developments of the sensory garden and outdoor
space and wish her well for her future.
 S2 Outdoor Day
Pupil Council Representatives
The S2 pupils enjoyed their outdoor day as part of the
This term the pupil council completed training that they John Muir Award. The pupils went to Fladdibister and
needed for their PDC award. This included working on com- took part in several activities such as exploring the ar-
munication skills, team working and decision making. This ea, engaging their senses as they followed a stream
meant they could start meeting and discussing issues that and exploring as they climbed over the rocks down by
need to be resolved. the waterfront. All pupils enjoyed the experience as
well as battling the cold and snowy conditions.
We have voted for our office bearers, Maya as chair, Christie
as vice chair and Mi-
chael as secretary. We
have made a survey to
present to our classes to
ask them what they
would like us to work on
this year. This will be
presented to classes
next term.

SCHOOL IS PEANUT, PINEAPPLE AND FEATHER FREE

COVID Mitigations
Covid Mitigations remain in
place and are mostly un-
changed from before the
holidays.
Please reinforce the re-
quirements to keep every-
one safe by following the
guidance and
recommendations.:
 Lateral Flow Testing is
still available from
school.
 Facemasks are still re-
quired inside the build-
ing in corridors and
classes and should only
be removed to eat.
 Pupils should sanitise
hands on entry and
exit of the building and
while entering and ex-
iting classes.
Wider Achievement
Throughout this term our pupils right across S1-S4 have been involved in
Wider Achievement activities on Friday Afternoons. Pupils got to choose
from a wide variety of different classes and courses including, Drama, Wa-
ter Safety, Bike Maintenance, International Cookery, and Earth Re-
sources. These courses have involved pupils being in mixed classes with
pupils from other year groups and have been an excellent way to strength-
en the community spirit and Ethos of our school. The courses have been
very successful and we are looking forwards to being able to continue to
expand the wide range of additional opportunities available for our pupils.
S4 Spanish—Mr Harpe
As a relaxed revision activity the S4 Spanish
class decided to cook a Spanish paella for
the staff to enjoy. Of course, the pupils had
the first plates of it for themselves! Mr Harpé tried to speak in Spanish as
much as possible so that the students would keep working on their listening
skills and revise some vocabulary. The pupils shared the tasks: frying the
meat, chopping the vegetables, cooking the whole lot for what seemed like a
long time. adding the spices, rice and stock. Eventually after an hour or so,
the dish was ready. The big Spanish paellera (a very large frying pan really!)
was brought to the central table and pupils and staff dug in and had lunch.
Thanks go out to the pupils, all the staff who came to share this with them as
well as Mrs MacLennan and Gus for the help.

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 Guest Speakers
Over this past term we have been lucky enough to welcome guest speakers into the school as part of our Personal, Social, Health
Education (PSHE) programme.
S1
Women’s Aid—2 lesson (Introduction to Domestic Violence and Abuse, Session Two – Behaviours – OK or Not OK?)
OPEN Project—1 lesson—Online Safety
Shetland Library—4 lessons (Understanding websites – look critically at their purposes and uses, understand URL extensions, Hoax
websites, Fake news & Propaganda techniques in videos – watch The Vampire Conspiracy)
S2
Samaritans—Emotional Health workshop
Active Schools—5 lessons—Leadership Academy
Open Project—2 lessons (Alcohol & Drugs)
Shetland Library—4 lessons (Understanding websites – look critically at their purposes and uses, understand URL extensions, Hoax
websites, Fake news & Propaganda techniques in videos – watch The Vampire Conspiracy)
Dogs Against Drugs- Cancelled and will be rescheduled for the New Year (COVID permitting)
S3
Women’s Aid—3 lessons (Young People and Coercive Control, Spiralling & Session Three – Excuses, Excuses: There’s No Excuse of
Domestic Abuse)
OPEN Project- 3 lessons (Sexual Health, Sexual Health Clinic & Positive Relationships)

S4
Anderson High School—AHS Depute and Pupil Support staff discussing with S4 pupils about transition to the AHS
OPEN Project—Mental Health
Road Safety—Talk from Police, Fire and Ambulance service
Train Shetland—Post school opportunities available to school leavers

Parents’ Evenings
I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding as we adjust to life with Covid and the impact it has on
the life of the school.

During this time we have always followed the guidance from the School Service and this included no parent evenings.

We are delighted, that following very positive feedback from pilot events organised by the School Service in a small
number of Shetland schools, we now have permission to move forward with parent evenings at SJHS next term.
We are currently engaged in conversation with the School Service prior to submitting our final proposal to them. As
things currently stand we are proposing:

Year Group Date Delivery Method

Primary Wednesday 16th & Thursday 17th February 2022 Face to face
th
S1 Thursday 13 January 2022 Virtual
S2 Wednesday 16th March 2022 Virtual
th
S3 Wednesday 30 March 2022 Virtual
S4 Thursday 10th February 2022 Virtual

We will confirm the times and instructions for the parent evenings at the start of the new term.
As with everything these days we must add that all events are subject to possible change due to the very fluid
situation with Covid infection across Scotland.
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Technical classes - Mr Gillespie and Mrs Gear
S1 technical have had the opportunity to manufacture a metal keyring using aluminium, learning the processes of
filing, and drilling as well as become more familiar with the other aspects of the workshop and some materials
theoretical knowledge. They have also been working through a Graphics DTP project on Advertising and Mar-
keting. Pupils will have the opportunity to expand their workshop practice next session when we move onto to
manufacture a woodwork model. They will also be working on a product design and analysis task in the new year.

S3 GC and S2 Technical classes have been working through a marketing and advertising unit focusing on Desk Top
Publishing skills and techniques. Using the brief of a Rock Band from Glasgow pupils have been applying the
design process to produce a new logo, tickets, poster and album art work for the band. Once successfully
completed from a manual perspective pupils will then enhance their skills by developing their digital DTP skills
using the computer software. To complete the project the final part will be to pull their design journey into a
presentation to deliver to the client showcasing their final ideas, relating to the design principles and design brief
requirements while using their subject knowledge to take the client through their design journey and justify their
design decisions explaining their colour theory choices etc.

S3 PMW have been working on the manufacture of a box using comb Finger joints and corner lap joints. They
have also been practicing planning and learning how to set the blade and adjust the guards on a rebate plane. The
pupils in this class have also been working hard on developing their theoretical knowledge of wood finishes, differ-
ent joining methods and are currently working on producing their unique sequence of operations for their models.
S4 pupils in PWW have been working hard on Before and after photos
refining their skillset with various practice joints of the new extraction system in Technical
and have just moved on to their final model for
their project, a Mirror Cabinet. They have cov-
ered a number of different joints including, Mortise and Tennon,
Dovetail, Half Lap, Rebates, Dowel joints as well as getting an experi-
ence of woodturning on the lathe. The final project combines all 3
unit skillsets of flat frame, carcass construction and woodturning into
the final model.

Library news—Zuzanna O’Rourke

S1 have taken part in research skills and digital literacy lessons delivered by the library in cooperation
with subject teachers. They discussed differences between facts and opinions and examined non-fiction
books and websites and their usefulness for research. They also reflected on fake news and interned
hoaxes and strategies they can use to detect them.

S2 have been working on World War 2 in Social Subjects in preparation for Elizabeth Wein author visit
next term. Elizabeth Wein will run a number of creative writing workshops based on the 1944 Mosquito
crash in Cunningsburgh hills. Workshops are fully funded as part of Scottish Book Trust's Live Literature
School Residency programme. Our school is one of only 10 schools in Scotland to be awarded the
funding this year. Pupils have visited Cunningsburgh History Hut and shown the Mosquito exhibition
and Home Guard gun site by the History Group members.

S3 have been invited to read 4 books with diverse characters (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, neuro-
diversity, poverty, disability, refugees) by the end of the school year earning stickers, badges and a reward period at the end of
term 4. ReadDiverse project is run by all Shetland school libraries and aims to expand pupils' understanding of people with lives
that are different than theirs. Staff have also been invited to take part with some having already earned their badge.

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Social Subjects and Physics—Dr Irvine

My third years have been studying Climate Change in Geography which is quite fitting, considering COP26. They have been
carrying out surveys of staff and pupils, gauging the impacts we were having as a community on this issue (good and bad).
You may wish to add this.

For fourth year Geography and Physics we have begun to turn our minds to revision and school revisions sessions have
begun in earnest and these have been well attended.

S2 Social Subjects/English had a visit to The Cunningsburgh History

Group at the end of November. This was a follow up to their walk to
the Mosquito Memorial, which was in October. This has laid the
groundwork for their subsequent work on the “Live Literature School
Residency” in the New Year when they will be working with Elizabeth
Wein (our visiting author).

Table Tennis Competition

Excellent finale to the table tennis competition!

We completed a round robin and put the top four after the round
robin into a knockout to decide places.

Placings noted in the picture (Euan 1st, Ali 2nd, Sonny 3rd) ….(Robbie
was 4th so also did really well)

Well done to everyone who took part.

Science and Biology—Mrs Turnbull

We’ve been very busy in Science / Biology this year!

S1s had an introduction to Science and learned all about the different forms of energy. We carried out some experiments
to see different types of kinetic and potential energy, and tested out some materials showing the force of friction.

S2s learned all about Micro-Organisms and took samples from all around the school to
grow in agar plates. This is what we found! A good reminder to us all to clean our mobile
phones and devices, they can harbour a lot of micro-organisms!

One of the topics S3s studied was “Reproduction and Growth”. They made some excellent posters showing
the harmful effects some substances can have on a developing foetus.

S4s completed their unit on Cell Biology, learning all about the cell and processes that give us
energy. We carried out several experiments to demonstrate how enzymes work and how or-
ganisms gain energy from food. Here you can see we investigated what factors yeast need to
grow best.
Here you can see we used balloons to demonstrate that yeast produce carbon dioxide when they break
down glucose via the Fermentation Pathway. Yeast are used in the brewing and baking industries, and
during the last week of term we demonstrated this by baking our own bread!

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 Army Workshops
We were very fortunate to be able to have input from the Army at the start
of November delivering workshops to our S1 and S2 pupils as well as our
P5/6/7s. The Army lead our pupils through a 6 different activities:
Codebreaking developing Memory and Recall skills,
Spiders Web focusing on Physical Movement and teamwork and problem
solving skills,
Escape Rope, again developing teamwork and problem solving skills.
Hydrogen Stick, requiring Leadership and Listening skills,
Skipping rope Capture, where our pupils had to use Logic and Leadership to
move a small bottle with skipping ropes and Hoover Bazooka, requiring
excellent teamwork and timing to use a Vacuum Cleaner to fire projectiles
across the games hall at a target.
All our pupils thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and we are hopeful that the
Army will be able to provide other input later in this session or next.

“I really enjoyed the Army input, having to think outside the box and solve the
problems. It was great fun!”

Supported Study
As we move closer towards the Exam diet for our S4 pupils we need to reinforce the importance of regular
revision and study on top of what is being taught in classes. To support our pupils with this there are a
number of Supported Study Sessions being run after school and at lunchtimes.

Day Time Subject

Monday 1540-1640 English
Tuesday 1540-1640 English and Physics
Wednesday 1240-1310 Biology and Maths
Wednesday 1540-1630 Chemistry
Thursday 1240-1310 Biology and Admin/Computing
Thursday 1540-1640 Geography, Modern Studies, History

There will also be 1-1 Music support arranged individually to support with practical performance.

In addition to the scheduled sessions listed S4 pupils should speak to their subject teacher directly if they
are requiring and further additional information and support.

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 Primary Snippets
Primary writers of the month P4/5 working with money
November December
P1/2: Kaylee Riise P1/2: Olivia Sykes
P2/3: Charlie Henderson P2/3: Freya Smith
P4/5: Elana Leask P4/5: Rio Welsh
P5/6: Maggie Wild P5/6: Grace Henderson
P6/7: Anthea Hagon P6/7: Norah Flaws

Well it’s quite clear that Sandwick does indeed have

talent, in many different areas. In the past few weeks we
have seen and heard the acting and singing talents of all
our nursery and primary children through our two
school shows: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and
the Wriggly Nativity. We also had a performance by our
fantastic African Drummers and heard musicians,
laughed at comedians, marvelled at magicians and were
impressed by gymnasts during the Sandwick’s Got Talent
Show.

The Grand Old

Duke of York

The children had a great day learning about and raising money for Children in
House Groups: Thank you to
Need, raising a phenomenal £400 for the charity.
Mrs McClelland and Mrs Bray
for all of their work putting
together our Early Years and
Primary House Teams. These
teams will be used to organise
pupils for mixed age group
learning events and
competitions as well as giving.

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 Primary Snippets
Thank you to all of our catering staff for the wonderful Christmas Dinner,
and all of our nutritious and delicious meals throughout the year.

The Grand Old Duke of York

Some of our P4/5 pupils have shown great core strength and balance
while learning Yoga poses.
Our Primary and Early Years chil-
dren put on their business hats and
made and sold products at our sell
out Christmas Fayre. Between all of
our stalls and the House colour
raffles, we raised over £630!!

P5/6 and P6/7 enjoyed the Army visit

where they took part in a variety of
team building activities.

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 Primary Snippets
The P6/7 Shanty Group resumed after the summer break and have been working really hard
to learn some of the super shanties and songs composed by the class last year.
Another exciting aspect of the project is that the group are going to be recording some of
the songs with the help of Sound Engineer Tim Matthews through funding from Creative
Scotland Youth Arts Fund. The group members will learn how to work all the equipment and
we are hoping that we will be able to travel to Mareel at some point to use the full record-
ing studio there as well.

This term Reading Ambassadors helped with Bookbug Explorer and Bookbug Family
bag gifting for EYD and P1/2 and Read Write Count bag gifting for P1/2 and P2/3. All
P6/7 pupils wrote letters to P1/2 sharing their own favourite books and
encouraging younger pupils to read.

To celebrate Book Week Scotland Reading Ambassadors ran a successful second-

hand book fair, which raised £207 for primary class novel sets.

All classes visit the library once a week to borrow and return
books, listen to stories, read quietly and explore our collection.

All Primary school children celebrated Roald Dahl Day.

Primary 6/7 at Sandwick Junior High School enjoyed launching

their learning through the Lockheed Martin Spaceport
Competition.

They learned about what space does for us all in terms of GPS
and satellite television, the UK launch sites, including our very
own Shetland site, and took on the role of Spaceport design
engineers, considering design trade-offs and constraints. It was
really important to our pupils to consider environmental
impacts as we have also been studying Climate Change this
term in preparation for COP26.

It’s beginning to look a

lot like Christmas!
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 Early Years Department Snippets

Eating a delicious Christmas lunch.

Making Christmas pudding for a wall
display for parents.
Christmas numeracy and fine motor
skills activities.
Making Reindeer food to take home.
Advent calendar.

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