Here is a picture of our Lucky Squares Board as mentioned in today’s newsletter. This is a fundraiser for the P7 trip to Fairburn, to coincide with the work P7s are currently doing around Robert Burns. Squares cost £1 each and there are great prizes. Be quick to secure your lucky numbers!

A football tournament took place at the Academy pitches on Saturday, 15th January, with the support of Highlife Highland, Active schools and the SFA. Two Millbank (P1-3) fun four teams played against Tain Juniors and Duncan Forbes Primary School. All teams had 5 games each. Millbank teams worked really hard and showed great sportsmanship throughout. Coaches from Duncan Forbes chose Tobias Keir and Matthew McKinstrey as players of the week.

Very well done to all our Millbank players –

Back row – Tobias Keir, Matthew McKinstrey, Archie Stoddart, Douglas Petrie, Callum Morrison.

Front row – Magnus Henderson, Josiah Keir, Harrison Ellen, Brodie Nichols.

This year’s winner was Aonghas Birnie from GM7, who impressed us all very much with his skills in animation.

In 2nd place was Ruaraidh Abenheimer from P1/2 who gave an excellent cookery demonstration.

In 3rd place were Georga Irwin and Sienna Clark from P7 who performed a very impressive dance routine.

The Millbank Talent Show has been a much anticipated event in our Christmas calendar for many years and for the last 2 years the show has been done virtually. It is sad that we cannot all gather together for these events but, on the plus side, it does allow pupils to show off a wider range of talents.  This year’s finalists included singers, dancers, a drummer, magicians, joke-tellers, a chef, an animator and people showing off their skills with a ball, in golf and with a hula hoop.

All pupils watched the finalists this morning and voted for their favourites, results were then announced via Google meet this afternoon –

Many congratulations to this year’s winner, Aonghas Birnie from GM7 who impressed us all very much with his skills in animation.

In 2nd place was Ruaraidh Abenheimer from P1/2 who gave an excellent cookery demonstration.

IN 3rd place were Georga Irwin and Sienna Clark from P7 who performed a very impressive dance routine.

Well done everyone!

Aonghas, Georga and Sienna were not in school today, we will post a photo of them in January.

Pictured here is Ruaraidh –

We had a Christmas Quiz today, in place of our usual assembly. There were 25 questions about all aspects of Christmas from carols and movies to reindeer and the Nativity. Pupils took part in pairs, groups or as a whole class and the results are as follows –

1st place – Calum MacBean, Harrison MacKenzie and Kegan Walsh from P6/7, their team name was ‘Hello Kitty’.

2nd place – the P2/3 class, their team name was ‘Christmas Koala’.

3rd place – Eilidh Cannon and Eilidh Morran from P3/4 – their team name was ‘Anime Cat girls’.

Very well done everyone!

The Parent Council nominated the school to be a recipient of Co-op’s community funding and thanks to the generosity of customers we received a cheque for £5734.09 from the Co-op today.  This is a marvellous amount of money and we are so grateful to the Parent Council for their support and to the Co-op customers for their generosity.

We will use the money to further develop outdoor learning and play opportunities for pupils.

Pupil Parliament Reps Daniel, Tom and Mason accepted the cheque on behalf of the school – well done boys, you represented the school very well.

Our Technology Team (TT) are a great support to both staff and pupils; their confidence and knowledge is much appreciated.  Teachers can request the support of TT members when planning technology lessons with their class; it’s so helpful having senior pupils to help younger pupils with logging on to Chromebooks and accessing all the programmes and resources.

The TT recently ran a competition for pupils to design a poster around online safety, they judged the entries last week and the winners & runners up are as follows –

P1-3

Winner: Ben Williamson

Runners-up: Keavy MacBean & Maggie Surtees

P4-5

Winner: Sophie Read

Runners-up: Lily Lenton-Kirk & Moray Robertson

P6-7

Winner: Emma Whitelaw

Runners-up: Kirstie Read & Miley Crichton

Today we had a live kahoot quiz, instead of our usual Wednesday afternoon assembly. There were 60 teams; some pupils worked as a class, others worked individually or in pairs or small groups. There were 20 questions about COP26 and climate change and pupils really impressed us with their knowledge. Teachers have provided many activities and opportunities for discussion around this very important topic over the last few weeks, the enthusiasm and understanding that pupils have gives us great hope for the future.

In first place was the GM 4-7 class, their team name was ‘No CO2’.

In second place was the P2/3 class, their team name was ‘The thunderbolt’.

In 3rd place was the P3/4 and P4/5 classes working together, their team name was ‘345 masters’.

Well done everyone!