Once a year we all come together in the Hall – twenty two classes from Primary 1 to Primary 7 – for our End of Year Assembly, led by Headteacher Mrs Alison Noble.

On Friday 29th June 2018 we held a very special whole school end of year Assembly, which marked the retirement of Class Teacher Mrs Ruth McVicker and also of our wonderful Head Teacher, Mrs Alison Noble. We began our Assembly by singing the Sciennes School Song, composed by Mrs Claire Ford with lyrics by Mrs McVicker.

A Heroic Year
The video below captures just a glimpse of another (particularly) busy year at Sciennes Primary School. Very well done to all our pupils, staff and families for their heroic efforts, working so hard together to make 2017-2018 such a successful year, rounded off with a stunning musical “The Adventures of Super Stan” by our ‘Incredibles’ Primary Seven.

End of Year Review 2017-2018@SciennesPS from Sciennes Primary School on Vimeo.

We were delighted to welcome Parent Council representatives. Mrs Noble thanked Dr Phoebe Cochrane (Chair of Parent Council), Tim Pask (Vice Chair of Parent Council),  Dr Jayanthi Sanahanam (Convener of Events and Fundraising) and Emma Kirk (Convener of Communications Group) for the huge contribution they have made to the school throughout the year, particularly in creating opportunities to for our P4-7 pupils to take the lead with Year of Young People Fairs. Phoebe, Jay and Emma will continue in their posts in August.

Mrs Noble invited everyone to take part in the Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge taking place at libraries across the city, including Newington Library.

 

Mrs Noble led everyone in our fond farewells to staff and pupils who are moving on.

The Sciennes Family wished Mrs Ruth McVicker, Class Teacher and pianist extraordinaire, a very happy retirement after 19 years of tireless dedication at school. Mrs McVicker has had such a positive impact on hundreds of children, has made a wonderful contribution to the life and work of the school and is loved and respected by all. We will miss her sorely, as a colleague and friend but we are keeping our fingers crossed we might be able to entice her back from time to time for musical events!

We are very grateful to Gerry McMurtie, Lead Adviser for Unicef in Scotland, for expediting receipt of our Gold Level Two Banner in time to unveil at the Assembly with a special announcement to the whole school that we are now officially a Rights Respecting School. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with our fabulous Primary Sevens and with our solid gold Head Teacher, Mrs Noble. We plan to invite Mrs Noble back to a celebratory event early in the new session to mark this fantastic achievement for the whole school.

Congratulations to P5A and Ruth who won the Sciennes’ First Minister’s Challenge to read the most books.

 

 

 

Hannah, Maeve, Chiara and Catherine sang stunningly beautiful solos from their P7 musical “The Amazing Adventures of Super Stan” and were joined by the rest of P7 who also sang a special tribute song to Mrs Noble called ‘Super Noble!”

David Ferguson, father of Class Teacher (and former Sciennes pupil) Miss Jen Ferguson, gave a special tribute to Mrs Noble from her time as Head Teacher at Preston Street School.

Staff presented Mrs Noble with a book of personal messages and photographs of each of us wearing her famous Tina Head Turner wig! Thank you very much to Ms McGrouther for compiling. Each of the children made Mrs Noble a personal Thank You card which were presented and Ms Anstruther spoke for us all when she wished Mrs Noble a happy retirement, returning her from the Sciennes Family to her own family after fourteen years of tireless, endlessly enthusiastic and dedicated service to the school. After singing ‘Thank You’, the entire assembled audience gave Mrs Noble a standing ovation.

 

 

 

Thank you very much to Mr Hutchison and Ms Gaffney for filming and editing a special video of staff and siblings dancing to Despacito for our ‘Marvel’ lous Primary Sevens. We wished them fond farewell, very proud of their confidence and readiness for the next steps to secondary school and beyond.

It was also lovely to welcome great friend and support to the school, Pattie Santelices (Principal Officer Mental Health & Welllbeing, City of Edinburgh Council).

Very well done to all our pupils, staff and families for their heroic efforts, working so hard together to make 2017-2018 such a successful year. A year of Superheroes and one where with heavy hearts but all good wishes for healthy and happy retirements we bid the fondest farewells to our very own Superheroes: Class Teacher Mrs Ruth McVicker, Business Manager Ms Angela Christie and our most wonderful Super Head Teacher marvel, Mrs Alison Noble.

Happy holidays everyone and we know that new Head Teacher, Mr Andrew Hunter, is very much looking forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Wednesday 15th August.