Beautiful Henna Hands!

Some of the families in our school community celebrated the end of Ramadan last week.  Here is a photo of one of our pupil's hands.  She had them adorned with intricate Henna designs.  This is an ancient art using an orange-red dye that comes from the leaves of the Henna plant.  The Henna is mixed to a paste and mixed with other ingredients which are safe to apply to the skin.  Once the Henna design is dry, it is scraped off the skin and leaves a beautiful stain behind which lasts for a few weeks. 
Women have their hands painted with henna to celebrate important events.  Click on the link to find out more about the Muslim festival of Ramadan. 

Scottish Learning Festival 2009

For the second year running, St. James's Primary were asked to showcase the work they have been doing in school at the Scottish Learning Festival.  This national two day event is held at the SECC in Glasgow and is usually attended by 7,000 people.  Mrs Nicholson presented on the first day with Lynne Lewis (East Lothian Council) on a National Literacy Project which they had jointly set up.  On day two, four of our Primary 2 pupils went to the SECC to show teachers round Scotland the variety of ways in which they had used GLOW within their classroom last year.  Go to the P2/3 class blog to see photos of their visit.

Good Luck Sister Margaret!

Today we said a sad goodbye to Sister Margaret from our local church by holding a special service for her. The pupils and staff have enjoyed working with her over the past four years and we wish her well as she begins a new chapter of her life in London.