Highlights 21/22
P5/6/7 undertook Bikeability during the week beginning 23rd August 2021. The pupils have now learned how to check their bikes, signal left and right and cycle safely on the road. They received Certificates at the end of the week to acknowledge completion of the course.
The Parent Council were able to hold the Tom’s Cairn Race this year on the 11th September. It was a great success. Thank you so much for organizing the Race and raising money for the school.
Pupils in P1/2/3/4 learned about Diwali, Rangoli and the importance of the Festival of lights.
P1/2/3/4 made a Guy for the Bonfire which was held at the Finzean Village Hall on Friday 5th November.
We held a Remembrance Day Assembly.
Pupils from both P1/2/3/4 and P5/6/7 got dressed up for Children in Need on 12th. We had it a week early as it is an In-Service Day next week.
Finzean School and Ballogie Nursery closed at 2 pm on the 26th November due to adverse weather conditions caused by Storm Arwen. The effects of Storm Arwen have continued and has resulted in the school and the nursery being closed on Monday, 29th, and Tuesday 30th November due to the establishments having no power.
Happy St Andrew’s Day
Finzean School and Ballogie Nursery remained closed to pupils and staff on Wednesday 1st December due to there being no power due to Storm Arwen.
BCT/Finzean School Woods Project
Toni Wattt, BCT Manager ran sessions at the School Woods for P1/2/3/4 and P5/6/7. They looked at the Trees and collected biological records. If they found anything, the information would then be sent to the North East Scotland Biological Records Centre (NESBReC), Aberdeen. This created a meaningful and worthwhile project, not only for the pupils but for the collection of data.
The P5/6/7 pupils got their first biological record – a moth found by one of the pupils on a tree trunk. The photos were sent to an expert to check and it was confirmed that this was a Yellow-barred Brindle. Well done.
Yellow-barred brindle
(Source: Toni Watt, BCT Manager)
2021/2022
Birse Community Trust, BCT, and Finzean Primary School have been involved in a biodiversity project recording wildlife on their local patch, School Wood and the Community Path.
The children have learnt about the importance of biological recording, and started to find out what is living in their local woods. They have identified trees, set spider traps, emptied moth traps, done sweep netting and held bug hunts. We have found an uncommon moth, studied acorn galls and recorded lots of bugs and beasties. The children are now quite expert at carefully emptying the moth trap and potting the moths up for photographing and identification.
Therefore, to try and increase the biodiversity of our local patch pupils and BCT decided to sow yellow rattle seeds into the rough grassy areas. The yellow rattle is parasitic on the grasses and will reduce their vigour, reducing the competition and thus allowing more wildflower species to start growing. More species of wildflowers also means more insects and hopefully a general increase in the biodiversity on the paths.
The yellow rattle seed and the educational equipment we have been using have been funded by Action Earth. The activity is part of the Volunteering Matters’ Action Earth campaign which wants to help local communities respond to climate change.
