Our School News & Events Newsletters Pantomimes and Ceilidhs Volunteering/Charity work Sporting achievements Mod Community Links Nursery Classes Primary Classes Virtual Office Parents Contact Links News & Events PG6/7 pupils are involved in an exciting project this session, following on from their successful venture with the RSPB in 2020/21. They took part in co-design workshops, led online by RSPB staff, and with the class teachers, over 6 weeks. Biosecurity is locally-important and this project provided a range of opportunities for real-world engagement outside the classroom. The programme was structured around Curriculum for Excellence's four fundamental capacities as well as explore CfE areas of sciences, social studies, expressive arts and health and wellbeing, plus provided opportunities for holistic assessment. Pupils in schools in the Highlands, Shetland, Orkney, Argyll & Bute and Dumfries & Galloway were also involved in workshops too, to build a curriculum-led programme for teaching biosecurity that is relevant to pupils and will be available in Gaelic and English. The RSPB were “blown away with their fabulous creations and excited about incorporating these ideas into the final biosecurity pack”. These are to be shared with pupils across the world, including the Caribbean and New Zealand from January 2022. The key message that the children learnt were · Invasive non-native species are species that have been introduced to an area/island by humans, survived and breed there and caused harm to the native species/ecosystems. Biosecurity is the practice of preventing the spread of non-native species. The class are currently working with their teachers and Matt Campbell, of Culla Creative, to produce a short film incorporating the key messages, using music, Gaelic song, drama and set in our local landscape. Thank you to MacLennan's Supermarket and their Making a Difference fund for their kind donation towards our purchase of an outdoor classroom and a set of 10 tents which we can use for camping expeditions for our older pupils. We were fortunate to have 10 of our pupils were involved as members of the Children’s of Parliament last session, as part of the Climate Assembly in advance of COP-26. The work is continuing this session with Atholl joining Margaret (now in S1) and Seumas, as Climate Changemakers. They meet weekly to contribute their ideas and participate in virtual workshops with children across the country. This week Margaret & Seumas, met with Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary - Rural Affairs & Islands and Mairi McAllan, Minister, Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform at a meeting of the Climate Assembly on Teams. They discussed their Calls to Action including tackling erosion and sustainable farming / crofting. Katie and the Children's Voices team reported that “they all did brilliantly, sharing their calls to action with the cabinet ministers and secretaries” As a result of the children's work for the Climate Assembly, they have been invited to COP26 in Glasgow this November. This is an amazing opportunity and an exciting moment for all the children to have their voices heard in an international setting, and to be able to bring this learning back into their schools after the conference. More information available · UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, https://ukcop26.org · https://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/climate-change-for-the-climate-assembly/ 2020 Nativity performed by PG1-2 and PE1-3 with readings from P7 pupils. Filmed by Matt Campbell. https://youtu.be/zdB1AZlVLdE © 2021 Balivanich Primary School. school website, mobile app and podcasts are created using School Jotter, a Webanywhere product. [Administer Site]