Thank You

Thank you from all of us to all of you for working with us to provide the children with such a memorable, beneficial residential trip together. It was a genuine pleasure to escort the pupils and we thoroughly enjoyed their company. Primary Six pupils impressed their Instructors as much as us with their 'can do' positive attitudes and they were also great fun! We hope you notice how well they can do household chores and keep their rooms tidy at home, because all scores improved over the week in daily dorm inspections! It was great to witness P6s make lasting bonds with each other, as well as with the staff.

The Sciennes staff also gave it their all and sustained the 24/5 duty by working very closely as a team. We took lots of photographs but always struggle with trying to get a signal and with very slow upload speeds. The wifi at Benmore is via satellite and via Italy. We know it was disappointing to provide limited updates but the five photographs we managed to post took three hours to upload so ultimately we believe it was a better use of time to spend it with the children.

Thank you to P6 teachers Miss Stewardson, Miss Rogerson, Mr Hutchison and Mr Howie for devoting their time, energy and above all care to their children, making sure all the pupils had the best possible experience.

It was great that Ms Anstruther, who knows the children so well, came along and supported all the groups. She worked her mindfulness magic at night on several of the pupils who were finding it tricky to get to sleep in new surrounds and helped them to nod off gently. Many thanks to Miss Vanessa Beziat, our French teacher who is at Sciennes for the year, for accompanying the group. Grateful thanks to the entire team and also to the extended team back at Sciennes, particularly Mrs Noble, Ms Christie and Mrs Ellis who have an even busier week than usual without us. Mr Scott and Mr Reid also deserve a thank you for helping us get safely on and off the coaches.

We are indebted to all the magnificent staff at Benmore who go out of their way to make our stay with them as comfortable as it can possibly be, always going the extra mile to accommodate our needs, and for the great skill,  expertise and dedication of the Instructors. We consider them not only trusted colleagues, but also our dear friends. After a full day's activities from 9am till 5pm, two Instructors per night also organised evening meals and evening activities for the entire group. All pupils who took part this week have achieved the 'Adventure' certificate; one quarter of the way towards full Bronze JASS award accreditation. Thank you to Instructors Euan, Angela and Morna for providing additional floating support to all the groups throughout the week and it is also always a pleasure to see Senior Benmore Instructor Graeme Adam who oversees the entire programme.

Thank you to Mrs Tariq and Mrs Yaseen and all the staff back at school who ensured that the children who did not participate also had an enjoyable and interesting week.

Thank you most sincerely to all the families who support us, not least of all financially, in providing what we believe to be an invaluable educational opportunity for our children.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to building on the success of the trip. Well done, Primary Six!
Ms Gallagher