Bus Stop Press
Wheels rolling again!
The Reading Bus is back in action again after the October holidays. It has been a very busy and productive week. The Bus has visited Causewayend School, Cornhill School, Hilton Nursery, Donbank School and Hanover Street School.
Some of the highlights have been:
- storytelling sessions with Sheena Blackhall and Grace Banks - all were thoroughly enjoyed by pupils, staff and parents at Causewayend, Cornhill, Hilton and Hanover Street Schools.
- a Readtogether session at Donbank School with the afternoon nursery children and their parents.
- an interactive white board story called "Seal Skull" at Hanover Street School with Elma Hampton, Curriculum Support Teacher for English Language. This was followed up by the Primary 7 pupils writing their own diary stories. These will be used as our first blogs - more details to follow.
Over the week the Reading Bus has had over 1,000 enthusiastic and very happy visitors !
Next Stops:
For the next two weeks the Reading Bus will revisit the schools mentioned above.
Saturday 4th November - Tesco Extra at Danestone - 10am - 4pm
Station House Media Unit
The Reading Bus was at Station House Media Unit on Wednesday 25th October for a twilight session for teachers. The teachers joined Jenny Watson on the Reading Bus for a fascinating two hour session about Broadcasting. Murray Dawson and Adele Keith from Station House shared their knowledge and skill and the group of teachers managed to record, edit, produce and present their own live show!
Find out more about Station House Media Unit by logging onto www.shmufm.net
Thanks to Murray and Adele for a fascinating course - thoroughly enjoyed by all!
The Reading Bus is planning a series of broadcasts in its programme - with the first one going live before Christmas.
St Machar Academy
The Reading Bus spent two days at St Machar Academy on the 2nd and 3rd October. Seven first year classes visited the bus as well as different groups of pupils from throughout the school. One group of fourth year pupils even created their own puppet show!
The bus caused huge interest in the playground at breaktime and lunchtime - it will be back at the Academy in December.
Next Stops
Wednesday 4th October - Ashgrove Children's Centre
Friday 6th October - Donbank School
End of first tour!
The Reading Bus has been launched for five weeks and has now completed its first tour of the schools in the St Machar Area. Since the launch on the 31st August 2006 the bus has visited ten primary , one secondary school and three nursery schools as well as visited the Royal Aberdeen Childrens Hospital, Tesco Extra at Danestone and the Learning Festival in Glasgow.
During this time over 3,000 people have visited the Reading Bus and the enthusiasm has been incredible. The Reading Bus is now having a two week period of rest to allow for minor maintenance and servicing.
The Reading Bus will return to the schools and the community after the October holidays -
First Stop
Monday 23rd October - Causewayend School
Donbank School
The Reading Bus finished off its grand tour on Friday 6th October at Donbank School. All the pupils and staff visited the bus during the course of the day as well as numerous parents at the end of the school day. As with all the schools the excitement and enthusiasm was fantastic!
All aboard at Tesco
The Reading Bus added a splash of colour to the carpark at Tesco Extra in Danestone. The bus and its crew were there from 10 am - 4pm on Saturday 30th September. Over 200 families visited the Reading Bus and thoroughly enjoyed sharing stories, using the interactive "smart" board, creating bookmarks and having impromptu puppet shows. There was also a Literacy Trail for youngsters to do in the Tesco supermarket.
Tesco are one of the sponsors of the Reading Bus and their generous donation paid for the grahpic design by pupil Hope Simmers to be painted onto the exterior of the bus. This first visit to the Tesco was a huge success and the next visit will be on Saturday 4th November.
Next Stop
Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd October - St Machar Academy
Conference hit
The Reading Bus had pride of place outside Pittodrie Stadium on Wednesday 27th September for the second Literacy and Learning Conference.
Delegates gathered from an inspirational day that included a fascinating key note address from Peter Wilson who travelled from London for the event. Morag Russell and Geoff Lewis shared their latest illuminating research findings from their work on the bus. Chris Aldred shared absorbing insights from her work with adult learning and Kathryn Ross enchanted everyone with her enthusiasm for books for children.
There were also 9 different bus stops to visit that gave a glimpse of the diversity and breadth of learning that is taking place in the St Machar Community with partner agencies. And ofcourse the Reading Bus itself was there to explore.
The day was opened by Pete Leonard, Corporate Director for Neighbourhood Services and all the speakers were introduced by youngsters from the Primary Enterprise Committee. Jenny Watson, the conference organiser, also gave bus update of all the many and exciting "bus tales" that have taken place since the launch four weeks ago.
Some of the comments from the evaluations included:
"I thoroughly enjoyed the fun element. The storytelling made me feel like a 5 year old again! Enjoyed the keynote from Peter Wilson very much."
"Thoroughly enjoyed Kathryn Ross - the "Read Together" presentation - must be a wonderful job working with chi books for children all the time! Great to hear more about the research from Morag and Geoff. Workshop with Station House Media Unit was fantastic - would love to learn more about creating tv/radio broadcasts. Thanks for an excellent day!"
"Everything about today has been informative and fun! I have taken something from all guest speakers."
"Thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of the day. The enthusiasm from the speakers for their subject was inspirational. Made us think about the wider picture and the many and varied routes to learning."
Next Bus Stops
Woodside School - Thursday 28th and Friday 29th September
Tesco Extra at Danestone - Saturday 30th September - 10am - 4pm
SETT at Glasgow
The Reading Bus was a huge hit at the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st September.
The Reading Bus looked superb outside the SECC and attracted numerous visitors. The Reading Bus crew including staff, parents and pupils delivered two seminars and received excellent feedback.
Here are some of the comments left in our Reading Bus Visitor Book:-
"Wowee! Brilly Brill Bus - bursting with such wondrous folks - Well done all!!"
"Fantastic Bus! Well done on getting it on the road. I look forward to seeing the second bus hitting the road!"
"The most enticine and welcoming enviornment in the SETT Exhibition."
"Fabulous encouragement of literacy! Roll on!"
"Presentation yesterday was inspirational! Thank you"
Next Stops
26th September - EAL Unit at St Machar Primary
27th September - Literacy Conference at Pittodrie
All Aboard!
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The Reading Bus was filled with youngsters, staff and parents at St Machar Primary School on Friday 15th September. The Nursery children and their parents enjoyed a reading together session on the bus - and look forward to many more!
Next Stops - St Peter RC School on Monday 18th September and Sunnybank School on Tuesday 19th September
The Reading Bus will be at SETT - the Learning Festival at the SECC in Glasgow on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st September. Over 5,000 delegates are expected at this prestigious event - it's a busy week for the bus!
Proud Day for Seaton
The Reading Bus made a colourful and vibrant entrance at Seaton School on Thursday 14th September. The visit was very special because the exterior design of the bus was created by Hope Simmers from Seaton School. All the pupils, staff and parents were very excited and proud to see the bus in their school playground.
Hope received a special presentation at the end of the day to honour her remarkable art work. Councillor Collie gave a short speech highlighting the exceptional talent at creating such a bold and unique design. Hope received a huge parcel of art materials.
There was also press coverage from the Evening Express and the Independent.
A memorable day for Seaton and for Hope and her family.
Next Stop St Machar Primary School - Friday 15th September
