CULTER SCHOOL

SINCE August 2002, the whole school and nursery have been implementing 'Circle Time'. In 'Circle Time' the children, with their teacher, sit in a circle. They sit in a circle because over time it emphasises honesty and trust. The children take it in turn to speak and join in activities that clearly convey a message of authority and control to all taking part. The teacher acts as a facilitator and ground rules are agreed by the class.

The structures and techniques within the Circle Time teach the children to become more clear, direct and honest with each other. It aims to motivate the children involved to share thoughts and feelings willingly in a safe environment,and to initiate a collective responsibility for the promotion of self-esteem and positive behaviour.

Circle Time ensures that everyone feels valued as the whole class celebrates all personal and social achievements.

From the middle of November, the children and staff were busy not only preparing for their Christmas production and the Christmas Church Service at Peterculter Parish Church but also for their Christmas parties. Both staff and pupils invested much energy into all the events and were justly rewarded by local support from parents and friends of Culter School , to whom we are very grateful. We also managed to raise a significant sum of money for the Archie Appeal, due to the overwhelming support and generosity of our audiences, from the sale of our concert programmes, designed and sold by pupils.

Since returning to school in January, our Badminton Team (under the tutorage of Gillian Moore) took part in the Aberdeenshire Schools Area Badminton finals on Saturday 18 January at Kemnay Academy - and they won! As a consequence of their success,
they have proceeded to the next round, the North East Scotland Primary Schools final, which takes place on Thursday 6 February at the Garioch Sport Centre, Inverurie. They have to play Anderson Primary School from Forres, who won the Moray area final.
Success in this competition would take them to the National Finals in Grangemouth on Saturday 22 February.

Jayne Glover Head Teacher