TEL: 01595 745050 www.midyell..sch.uk Schools Music Festival 2018

Escape Room S1 and S2 pupils created an Escape room inside the school library. The other secondary pupils and teachers had to solve a series of puzzles and riddles around a Crazy Cat Lady theme, using clues and hidden hints in a specified amount of time. Nobody escaped but 2 teams came very close to exiting with just 1 puzzle to solve.

On Tuesday 13th April our primary pupils took part in the Music Festival in Mareel. Lower primary entered into the choir section, singing a traditional Shetland song “Farewell to Yell”, while upper primary as a Classroom Group sang and played various instruments performing House of Gold by Twenty One Pilots. Both groups were rewarded with Gold awards. Solo entries by Lori-Ann on clarinet won a Silver and Yann on accor- dion earned a Gold. Well done to everyone, MYJHS proves to be a strong competitor repeatedly achieving great results, among over 300 entires from schools around the isles!

Confucius RAF Visit Hub Launch, On Thursday 10th May Warrant Officer Phil Stanley vis- ited our school to tell us about his career in the RAF. He 1st of spoke about all the different places he has worked at, including Cyprus, America, Belgium, Russia and Afghani- May stan. He is currently based at RAF Saxa Vord working with the Radar. He also told us about the variety of ca- reer options available in the RAF, and gave us all a key ring Prominent guests including His Excellency the Chinese Ambassa- and RAF sporknife! dor Mr Liu Xiaoming and his wife Madam Hu Pinghua visited JHS for the launch of our Confucius Classroom on the 1st May. Other guests included the Minister Counsellor of Education New teachers Mr Wang Yongli, the SIC Convener Mr Malcolm Bell, and the Director of the Confucius Institute for Scottish Schools Ms Fhiona Mackay. Among the welcomed guests was MYJHS gradu- We would like to welcome two new teachers to MYJHS: ate Jack Irvine who has recently won a scholarship to study in Mrs Emily Tulloch is our new Science teacher, replacing Mr Ronnie Tianjin Normal University. For this special occasion both Burra- MacLean who retired after 23 years of work in Mid Yell JHS. voe and Primaries entertained the guests with Chinese Miss Sophia Watts is our new Social Subjects teacher, covering songs and dance as well as traditional Shetland songs . the maternity period for Indre Sasnauskaite. A Chinese buffet provided by the New Great Wall Chinese res- taurant was enjoyed by everyone, guests could also sample some local produce including mussels from C & A Thomason Mussels.

Birdwatching On Monday the 7th of May, Jonathan, Georgia and Connie from S2 went birdwatching in the grounds around our school with Nathalie Pion from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protec- tion of Birds). We had received permission from the common grazing committee who allowed us to survey for birds on their ground. We learnt about some farmland waders in Shetland which are the curlew, lapwing, oystercatcher, redshank and snipe. The curlew is one of RSPB’s highest priority and a whole month is dedicated to raise awareness about the its rapidly declining population to try and save them. Our class will be doing another two surveys for a total of three times in spring, when the birds are nesting. The RSPB are always looking for volunteers and you can contact them at [email protected].

Jonathan Grice

Generation Science Generation Science is a workshop we did with Katie and Gary, 2 robotic scientists. We had different cubes which did different things. One of them was the power cube which gave life to the robots. The robot needed to sense the world around him, so you could attach a distance sensor, a light sensor, and a controllable button. The last type of cube did actions when the sensors were triggered; these were called action cubes. There were ones that moved wheels, a light, a speaker, a monitor and a spinner block that you could attach lego to. We had to complete different tasks in our pairs involving the cubes. Everyone enjoyed it. Joe Petrie

Lewis Hou’s Visit to MYJHS

On Monday 14th May 2018, Lewis Hou, part of the Science Ceiledh band who performed at this year’s Shetland Folk Festival, visited our school to teach pupils about the links between our brains and music. Lewis is a neuroscientist as well as a musician. He delivered work- shops on Monday 14th with all the school apart from S4, as well as more workshops on the Friday for those who were performing on Saturday night.

The performance on Saturday night was well-received by the audience and performers alike, with BIC teacher Miss Andrew saying, “It was great to see pupils from across Yell participating in a well-organised event that was put together in a short space of time”. Yann Mouat, who was performing with Lewis said, “It was fun playing with Lewis because I enjoy playing instruments with him. The night was well-organised and I would do it again”. A sum of money was raised for charity and a good night was enjoyed by all. By Calum Graham, S2 Astronomer Visit Scottish Opera - Dragon of the On Monday the 23rd April, Dr Chris Leigh came to teach the Lower primary, Upper primary, S1,2 & 3 about astronomy. Western Sea Chris is an Astronomer who works at The National Schools Primary 5-7 pupils recently took part in a Scottish opera perform- observatory and does work with the Liverpool telescope. He ance along with pupils from , , and Cul- showed us how to use LTImage so we could look at pictures of livoe. The pupils worked hard to learn all the song lyrics and move- galaxies and planets in more detail. He told us about careers ments to put on a fantastic show. As you can see they had a great available at the national schools observatory such as astro- time! naut, astronomer, space exploration and many others. He also told us about other career paths you could take with science. He told us about the Liverpool telescope in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spain and why it was in that location and where the best places and the worst places are for having a tele- scope. Kerry S2

Scottish Ballet

The Scottish Ballet came to our school, so did Burravoe school and Cullivoe school. A girl called Keira did a little dance from a scene in the nut cracker. They came on Friday 20th of April 2018. We did some dancing, then some games with music, then we got put in groups and had to make a dance using counter balance (that is when you lean against each other and hold each other's weight) in the hall. We all had a great time dancing and playing in the hall and we hope they come back again and do another dance for us. By Jodie Saunders

TRANSITION

On Wednesday the 2nd of May, Cullivoe primary school were hosting the 1st transition day. When the pupils arrived at Cullivoe, the Cullivoe pupils gave us a tour of their school. Throughout the day we did activities on getting to know each other and some teachers came in to speak about what it is like in S1. We also have been planning a trip in groups and we will present our work and where we are going in front of an audience. Everyone really enjoyed their day in Cullivoe and will look for- ward to the days in Mid Yell and Burravoe. The next transition will take place in Mid Yell on the 23rd of May. The last transition will take place in Burravoe on the 6th as well as the two days in S1 on the 12th and 13th.

By Travis Duncan P7

£500 Donation Sponsored silence

Recently 4 girls from S2 decided to do a sponsored silence to raise money for WWF (World Wildlife Fund). Malin, Martha, Honor and Phoebe were doing a stopping poaching presentation in modern studies as part of their “Pressure Group” topic. This took place on Tuesday 12 th of June. They all agree it was a challenge but worth it for the final result! They man- aged to raise £150 and would like to thank everyone who sponsored and donated. By Honor S2

Jarl Balder and the Cullivoe Jarl Squad raised £2500 this year from their head shave. This amount was split between the 3 Yell schools, health centre and the leisure centre, we were lucky enough to receive £500 from Laurence Odie, the Guizer Jarl.

John Muir Award

Our S2 are working towards the Explorer Award as part of the John Muir Award. The Explorer Award requires 8 days of outdoor learning experience. (4 led by the SIC’s Outdoor Education team. 4 spent exploring the local area). It is an environmental, non-competitive and inclusive Award scheme that cares to develop passion for wild places .

S4 leavers meal On Friday the 22nd of June, we held our annual S4’s leaving meal, this is when pupils get to celebrate their Yell schools education end with staff. The event was held in hall, and is always a great time for staff to catch up with the old S4’s and see how they are enjoying the Anderson High School and the hostel. During the evening the boys and girls each get together to write and give a speech to their peers which is always good fun.

SWAN TRIP

As it always has been certain classes get to go on the swan each year, this year P3 and half of P7 went together and the other half went with S3. The swan is a very old boat that takes groups around Shetland and shows people what it is like to be on an old sailing boat. When we got on the swan we went down to the mess room and got our lifejackets on, then Torban (a man that works on the swan) went through the rules and safety instructions. Then we left the pier and set sail on our journey. Halfway through we were treated to hot chocolate and were allowed to steer and pull up the sails. When we got back ashore we took off our lifejackets and walked back to school for the end of the day. Everybody really enjoyed their time on the Swan. By Travis Duncan Primary 7

P7’S Graduation

On Friday 22nd June we held our P7 graduation in the primary department. This year we were saying good bye and good luck to Yann, Joe, Travis, Fox, Felicity, Isla and Georgie. Karate Author Visit Over a few weeks me, and a few other people got the opportunity to try Doug Johnstone, author of “Crash Land” and “The Jump” came to karate for the first time. We started by learning the history and origin our school to talk to Yell and S2’s about his career. Doug is a of karate and then moved on to learning the basic self-defence moves. We crime writer based in Edinburgh. He did different games and exer- started up each lesson with a warm up and soon got used to bowing before cises with us to show how to develop a character. we began. We learned a few different punches, kicks and stances, we Calum G were also given different tips to improve technique that would improve the overall effect of the move, but by the end of the block we realized that karate isn’t all about punching and kicking it’s a self defence method Yell Primary Schools Sport Day that involves discipline, balance and focus. We learned lots of different was held on Thursday the 21st of June this year. Children took part skills during these few lessons, we even learned some Japanese along the in 5 types of exercise; spoon and potato race, long jump, sack jump- way. I think this was a great learning experience and would love to do it again. ing, balls throwing , fit 15, hula hoop race. Secondary 2 helped to Malin L organise the event and were in charge of explaining rules to primary pupils.

Extreme Redd Up

French Institute Award

Secondary 2 pupils won this year Concours de la francophonie com- petition, and received their price during award ceremony in Mid Yell school . Also presented on photo are education attaché of the French Embassy in UK Thomas Chaurin and Shetland Gas Plant man- Galtigirth & Kaywick agement co-ordinator Jenny Wink (sponsor).

Mid Yell beach

School grounds

The Birrier– Vatster

Whinnifirth

In partnership with Shetland Amenity Trust and with help from community people that provided their own transport to collect the gathered rubbish.

As a part of Year of Young People, this project was funded by Future Routes– to promote ’s natural environment. Open evening and prize giving

Reminder: School finishes on Friday the 29th of June and reopens again on Wednesday, the 22 nd of August. Wishing all parents and pupils an amazing summer break with lots of sunshine and beautiful memories. See you back all tanned and smiling in 7 and half weeks time!!!

Yell vs Unst LGBTQ+ S3 Life Skills Class

S3 created a presentation that explains the terminology for bet- ter understanding of LGBTQ+ as well as the rights of people that consider themselves to be one of the mentioned gender variation. This includes inappropriate language as part of bullying and its negative effects on individuals.

All this information can be found on posters hanging around school corridors both upstairs and downstairs.

The annual Yell vs Unst football and netball competitions took place in Mid Yell on Friday 1st June. First up was the primary football game which finished 5-2 to Yell. At the same time the secondary netball game finished 29-7 to Yell. Next up was the secondary football and the clos- est game of all. Yell just beat Unst 2-1 in a hard fought match. Finally the Yell primary netball players did really well to win 16-7 and complete

Music at Isleshaven New S1’s presentations

Pupils that receive instrumental lessons gave a Wednesday 13th June saw the climax of our Primary 7 Transition Project for this short concert at Isleshavn Care Centre in May. year. Working in small groups with pupils from across the three schools, each group had This is something that we hope to continue in the to plan an overnight stay to an area in Shetland, with activities planned and based new academic year. around their chosen area.

Jasmine Lawson, Travis Duncan and Georgie Hodgson's group were victorious! Our new Secondary 1 class will be looking forward to their overnight stay in the Bridge End Out- door Centre and the various activities they have planned in the new academic year.

YPI Youth and Philanthropy Initiative Scotland YPI is a programme that raises awareness amongst young people about philanthropy and their local community. Pupils in teams have to research local social issues, choose one, then try to convince others why this issue is important. To gather information they have to make personal contact with a charity that deals with the chosen is- sue. While pitching they have to explain what impact would sum of money, if granted to the chosen charity, make. On the photo: winners Kimberley and Lana with granted £3000 for local Mind Your Head charity, well done!!!