An Energetic Week at School

From Gael Cameron

The children of Kilchoan Primary and Nursery had a very energetic week last week when they got involved in a week of walking to tie in with 'Walk to School Month', which has been running for the whole of October. The month is part of 'International Walk to School Month', where schools across the world join forces to cut carbon and pick the healthy option for getting to school.

Tuesday morning saw a slightly wet and windy start to the children's day as they headed to Sanna beach to take in some fresh sea air, accompanied by their teachers and a few brave parents. The younger children were kitted out in all-in-one waterproofs provided by the school, and wellies were a must.

It was extremely windy on the beach and we had to dip our heads at times to avoid being sand-blasted. The waves were huge and crashed in on the rocks and along the length of the sandy beach. The children were of course unphased by the weather and ran about enjoying themselves.

The clouds began to turn a darker shade of grey as we headed back to the car park and Innes informed us there was a 'squall' coming in. He was correct. Just as we reached the car park, the heavens opened and we avoided being completely drenched by seconds.

On Wednesday, the Nursery children took a walk up the hill to visit the pigs in their new field.

They also went to see some local chickens and picked the eggs, and then helped pull up an enormous locally grown turnip. This tied in with another project the school is involved in, 'Crofting Connections'. It is an educational project which enables youngsters aged 5 to 16 living in remote rural communities throughout the Highlands & Islands to learn about their crofting past, present and future.

The final big walk took place on Thursday when all the children again headed out to face the elements, this time to Fascadale. Various numbered tags had been placed in the trees along the route to make thing more exciting for the them: finding a tag resulted in a reward so there was a lot of enthusiasm to get going. The weather this time was a little kinder and allowed them to have a ramble in the woods before returning to school for the rest of the day's lessons.

Well done children for embracing the challenge of our ever changing Kilchoan weather.