News (January - March 2008)
The Third Dimension
We have nearly finished our 3D Map of Fetlar. It just needs roads and the information compiling. We've made this to go in the Ferry Terminal building at Hamars Ness, along with 3 display boards to tell visitors all about Fetlar. We hope to have it all in place by May 1st.
Spring has sprung
The Daffodils have began to appear. Spring is almost here. Time to produce the 2009 Calendar.
Filtration
We have also been separating materials by filtration. This has included: coffee, sugar, salt, soil & sand.
Fetlar's Third Dimension
We're making a 3D model of Fetlar to go in the ferry terminal building at Hamars Ness. Its going to have all the places of interest marked on it. We are recycling by constructing it out of unwanted cardboard boxes and covering it with calendar misprints from last year. Nothing is wasted in this school! More pictures later.
Burning
We have been conducting experiments on a variety of materials. Our first was to prove that we need Oxygen to burn something.
When the Oxygen was used up, the water rose into the vacuum to fill up 21% of the jar.
We added paint to the water to make it easy to see.
Fetlar Tourism
As a school we have been given permission to design, make and erect a Tourist Information Board at the ferry terminal at Hamars Ness. This is our prototype at the moment.
Jumble Sale
We held a jumble sale in the school on the night of Thursday 21st February. There was lots to sell, as people tried to make our cashier happier.
Click here to see the end result>>
A Viking Visit
Kirsty came up from the Shetland Museum & Archive to show us some Viking artefacts that were discovered in Shetland.
Discovery Box
Our pupils joined up with the Primary and Nursery Pupils in BJHS and went down to the Baltasound Hall during our usual visit to Unst on Wednesday 20th February. They experienced various activities organised by Arts Play Shetland. Even the teachers had fun (especially the one pictured)!
Silk Painting 2
Mrs Gibb came in to complete our silk paintings on Monday 18th February.
Please click here to see more>>
Hark! Where's the Otter?
On Friday 15th February we went Otter Spotting with our local nature guide Brydon Thomason, who is an ex-pupil of our school. We had a good morning and were lucky enough to see a total of five otters along the coast of Fetlar: a mother with 2 cubs, a dog otter and another otter which shot past us as we headed back to the cars.
This is the best photo that we could take, as the otter was too quick for our camera.
We did take video though!
Silk Painting
As we don't have our Art Teacher at the moment Mrs Gibb came in from Baltasound to show us how to paint on silk. It was really good and very relaxing.
Materials
We are looking at changing materials in our Science topic at the moment. We took this opportunity to see how some changes are reversible & others are irreversible.
We cooked our own lunch to see which changes would be irreversible. We heated the cheese so that it melted, but when it cooled it had solidified. It did taste nice though!!
Uyeasound Up Helly Aa'
We went out to Unst to see the Uyeasound Jarl Squad at Baltasound Junior High School on Up Helly Aa' day. We also stayed in Unst to see the burning of the galley.
There are too many pictures to put on this page so please click here to see pictures of this event.
Vicious Vikings
Like last year, we went out to Unst to see the Uyeasound Jarl Squad at Baltasound Junior High School. We made our own shields and swords so that we looked the part. Here's some pictures of them.
Hnefatafl
As part of our Viking topic the pupils have been learning about the everyday life of the people who settled in these islands over 1200 years ago. This has involved the pupils researching what the Vikings ate, how they lived & farmed, what they did (other than raid) & what their leisure activities were like. As a result they have learned to play the Viking board game of Hnefatafl.
They have also made their own sets out of clay, which are due to be fired in the kiln of Baltasound Art Department soon.
Fetlar hopes to hold a Hnefatafl Tournament in the summer. The pupils will be ready.
Whether the Weather...
Weather Eye now has pictures featuring the changable weather experienced by Fetlar this January. Click here to see our recent weather.
The Weather Eye section is now managed by our P7 as part of an ICT project.
Vikings
Its that time of year when Up Helly Aa' is celebrated in Lerwick. (Click here for an external link) As we are studying the Vikings we are busy making swords, shields, model galleys and helmets to take out to our nearest Up Helly Aa' which is in Uyeasound on Feb 8th. Click here for pictures of the 2007 Uyeasound Up Helly Aa.
Hnefertafl
Although Fetlar’s population is now too small to have an Up Helly A’ of its own, that didn’t stop the pupils practising some of the tactics used by Viking Warriors. They have begun to learn how to play Hnefertafl. This is a chess-like game in which Viking warriors try to catch the King of their opponent. This was an interesting part of their Viking history studies.
Local Resident Peter Kelly came and told the pupils about the game’s history, before challenging them to play a game. All the pupils picked it up really quickly and enjoyed the tactical play and the double bluffing of their opponents.
Fetlar hopes to hold the World Series of Hnefertafl this August.
No More Chocolate!!
Cooking chocolate has been removed from the list of approved ingredients for use in the school. So we had to use the last of our supplies up. We decided to bake a Chocolate Praline bar as the Head of Schools was coming to visit us this week and we wanted to produce a school bake that she and the parents would enjoy.
Unfortunately the visit was cancelled so we had to eat the chocolate ourselves. A bit of an own goal really. A delicious own goal though!
Consultation
A big consultation exercise is being held on the future of transport across Bluemull Sound. We had a visit from the consultants to find out what the staff and pupils thought should happen in the future.
Meet Boris
Boris is the newest creature in Fetlar School. He travels around with some of pupils stopping in scenic or interesting places. So far he's been to the Geowall at Funzie. To see his adventures click here>>
First Birthday of 2008
It was our teachers birthday recently. 21 again. He enjoyed the birthday meal & the custard, of course.
The Storm
We had a raging sea recently which caused a lot of debris (or bruck) on to be thrown onto several of our previously clean beaches. We went out to take a look at four of Fetlar's beaches: Funzie, Aithbank, Houbie & Tresta. These are some of the pictures taken by the pupils.
Tresta:
Houbie:
Aithbank:
Funzie:
