Skye pupils’ Education and Enterprise project promotes Scorrybreac

Pupils at Portree Primary School will this (Saturday 3rd September, 2005) launch the results of their year-long enterprise and education project in the form of a unique calendar for 2006 entitled "12 Months at Scorrybreac".

The making of this calendar took a year and the pictures in the calendar depict the changes the children observed during their regular visits to this special part of Portree, along with environmental experts and a photographer.

The pictures, which are unique and stunning, were all chosen by the pupils and factual and anecdotal comments appear beside each picture. For each month, a picture reflects the particular topics studied by the pupils during their trips to Scorrybreac and cover areas such as: habitats, biodiversity, archaeology, history, geology, birds, mammals, insects mapping and colour.

The class and their teacher Mrs. Forrest devoted a great amount of time and effort to producing this special calendar and the experiences the children were involved in were both exciting and academically rewarding in a cross curricular way.

Pupils also got the opportunity to develop their enterprise skills during this project and they worked closely with various people from the business world getting advice and producing the finished calendar.

On Saturday when the calendar will be launched the pupils are organising a special tour of Scorrybreac for any interested parents, community members or visitors. During the tour pupils will happily answer questions about their project and will also pass on to those present some of the knowledge they have gained over the last year.

Anyone who would like to take part in this walk is asked to meet at the start of the Scorrybreac walk at 11.00 a.m.

After the walk soup and sandwiches will be available at the primary school and the calendar will be on sale for the first time.

As well as a calendar the pupils have also produced a high quality and informative work book which visitors to Scorrybreac can take with them when they visit the area. This work book is also a great resource for other schools or groups who want to explore a special area of Skye as part of an Environmental Studies project. Workbooks are already on sale and available from the school or other local outlets.

The class involved in developing this unique project received a great deal of help and support from a variety of individuals and bodies over the last year and special thanks are particularly extended to: Richard Smith, James Cryer, Sarah Kay, Rob Forrest and Donnie G. Macdonald.

Thanks are also extended to Highland Council, Leader Plus, Careers Scotland, Pelican Design and Strath Print for all their help and support.

Any individuals who would like to place orders or sell calendars at their place of work or school, should e-mail Maggie Cowie at Portree Primary School Maggie.cowie@highland.gov.uk.