The Jive

Class 7 have enjoyed some wartime tunes and dances this term.

Here they are practising the Jive!

                                     

Red Nose Day

We have some new pupils at school today! Some pupils from St Trinian's have joined us as well as prime ministers past and present. Very disconcerting... I hope the government is managing without Mr Cameron.

Little Miss?

The queue for the bake sale.

Lots of lovely cakes!

Lets hope we raise lots of money for Red Nose Day and Comic Relief projects here in the UK and in Africa.

Beautiful Fair Trade Bunting

Fair trade bunting.

Our fair trade cotton bunting is finished and ready to send off for the world record attempt at the longest ever bunting . When Fairtrade Fortnight's over, the bunting will be stitched together in an attempt to break the world record for the longest continual piece of bunting to help tell more people about how Fairtrade cotton protects the livelihoods of cotton farmers and to pressure decision-makers to make trade fairer for cotton farmers in West Africa.

Book review of Friend or Foe by Michael Morpurgo

Carrie's War book review - the glog

Ness battery

Today we visited the Ness battery which we saw from the MV Graemsay last week. Anne Bignall of the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership met us and showed us around the site.
First we looked out to sea and thought about the route we took aboard the MV Graemsay, then we looked around the gun emplacements and the lookouts and the engine room. We had already passed the buildings on the shore on the way where the lights would have been.

Arriving at Ness battery.

What a great view, with Skerry battery on the opposite shore.

Looking out from one of the gun emplacements.

The single Nissen hut - not enough room for 100 men!

The lookout station.

Sitting outside the engine room.

Then we went into the mess hall and saw the famous mural. In the mess there would have been a curtain across the room so the mural stops where it would have been. The area which would have been curtained off would have been used for entertainments.

Outside the mess hall.

Part of the mural.

In the mess.



The officers' mess - with an open fire!



We finished our day by thinking about if and why we think it is important to preserve the Ness battery. Though it is only 70 years old it lets us have a look back in time in a very special way.

Many thanks to the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership for bringing our project to life!

Goodnight Mr Tom

Our map of Scapa Flow

Have a look at our map of Scapa Flow - we will add more information over the next few days.

              

View Larger Map

Scapa Flow aboard the MV Graemsay

Equipped with de-classified maps Class 7 went aboard the MV Graemsay, on a reconnaissance mission around Scapa Flow to see for themselves the remains of 'Fortress Orkney' with Anne Bignall of Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership. On route Tim Dean of the RSPB informed us about the natural environment, birds and wildlife which we were observing  as we made our way from Stromness, through Burra Sound, past Scad Head, between Cava and Fara, past Houton and over Bring Deeps and back to Stromness.

Our reports can be seen on our wiki page, 'Scapa Flow report'.

Many thanks to Julian Branscombe and Anne Bignall of Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership for organising and making this opportunity available to us.

Fraction powered dolphins!

This week you need to click the picture to go to the fractions game.

Don't forget to read your book for Friday when we will be beginning filming for the book reviews.

Spelling champions!

The stats are in and the numbers are crunched.

 We played with spelling whizzes from around the world and the same table group.

We cheered each other on, we improved and moved up the levels and we have a class champion!

Redland part 2

Our final parliament has been held for this session at which the woeful situation at our border with Green-land has been discussed. Due to the current economic climate we are unable to send a negotiating party to the borderlands at the moment. We wish the Green-land folk well within their own country for the time being.



Preparing for The Tempest

We have had a few sessions with Mr Giles in preparation for the performance of The Tempest we will be involved in at The St Magnus festival. At one sessions we served and were served as and by 'snooty' waiters, when suddenly all the food magically disappeared - just take a look at the diners' faces!!!

This week the director Andi Ross, and Chris Patfield, who is a performance artisit, came to work with us.

Spot the ball.

Working together.

Working on a roll.

Controlling the movement.

We have lots to think about and practise for next time.

Our favourite books

Our favourite books!

For world book day we brought in and shared our favourite books. There was a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, old favourite picture book and books originally published on the internet, modern day classics and perennial good reads. Two of the books had been made into films and a couple had been Christmas presents. It was nice to see one of our most prolific readers with a book from the Kirkwall Library too!

Thanks for sharing - hope it has given you a bit of inspiration to seek out a new book or author or re-visit an old favourite from your early years.

Scapa Flow 1943

Our map of Scapa Flow is finished and will be on display at parents evening.
Each section of the map shows how well defended Scapa Flow was in 1943.

The south isles.

Cava and Fara

Flotta - covered in anti-aircraft balloons!

Our key to the map - top secret information during the war.

Stromness and Graemsay showing the Ness battery location.

Our operations HQ.

World War 2 Radio Play and Scapa Flow HQ

We have published our WW2 radio play on our wiki. 

We hope you enjoy it!

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Meanwhile back at operations HQ we annotated our map of Scapa Flow with the help of Anne Bignall from Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership. We even added the route we will be taking next week on the MV Graemsay. Here is hoping for good weather!

We found out just how well defended Scapa Flow was in many different ways. There are very few photographs of Scapa FLow at this time. Can you guess why?

There were lots of anti-aircraft balloons deplyed as well as nets and cables stretched across the entrances to the Flow. We will be visiting one of the places where the forces were stationed next week - the battery at Ness near Stromness.

We will post some photographs of our boat trip and our visit to Ness battery here on our blog