FIRTH PRIMARY SCHOOL in Orkney Islands, Finstown

Education Centre Information: Firth Primary School:

Funding Type: State funded
Total Pupils: 86
Age Range: 5-12
Gender: Mixed
School roll: 66
Teacher numbers FTE: 4.3

School Type:

Integrated Community School
Primary

Additional Services:

Pre-school/Nursery facility
Videoconferencing facilities

Background:

Founded in 1875; moved to new building in 2001; serves rural parish of Firth, between Kirkwall and Stromness on Orkney mainland; has notable location on shores of Bay of Firth with nearby woods, lagoon, moorland, farmland and village. As a result of this, and of the interests of the teachers, school has won awards for work in environmental education, including Best Environmental Project in Scotland award from Living Earth. Pupils visited Millennium Dome to exhibit work; have also been on Around Country on BBC Radio 4, two Grampian Television programmes, and BBC TV's Newsround programme to discuss native tree restoration project. Wind generator recently built to power one of the school's classrooms; bank of instruments allows pupils to track how much electricity is provided by the wind and used by lights, television and heaters. School has planted wooded area in conjunction with local community; has built bird hide and regularly collects for the Worldwide Fund for Nature. Strong in ICT: all children have e-mail addresses and older pupils frequently communicate with children abroad; pilot school for the NGfL, with website which has won award from Post Office; chosen to represent Orkney at Success Stories in Scottish Education exhibition in 1998. In 2000, school received an NGfL innovation award to develop use of a virtual world creation programme as a tool in international communication, in collaboration with Middlesex University. Pupils also won Engineering Our Future competition in Edinburgh; chosen for best primary schools' science project in Scotland. Highly commended in 2004 Scottish Education Awards; 2005 Rolls Royce Science Prize; Gold Award in 2004 Schools Enterprise Programme; pilot Pathfinder school in national Motivated School initiative. Ethos: 'Children learn what they live. They acquire their attitudes not through being told what to think, but through their experiences. We therefore aim to provide a happy, caring and purposeful environment in which the children can acquire the skills and attitudes they need in order to become happy, caring and purposeful people in their turn, able to take responsibility and to make a contribution to their community.' .