Burns lunch and hoolie in the hall at Mount Pleasant
Pupils and staff at Mount Pleasant in Thurso celebrated Scotland’s national bard – and also enjoyed a hoolie in the school hall while the weather happened to be blowing a hoolie outside!
A Burns lunch was served up to nursery, enhanced provision and primary classes on the Thursday leading up to Burns Night.
Prior to that, Lara Simpson, one of the teachers responsible for leading the FLAG (Food for Life Action Group) group at Mount Pleasant, had arranged for all children to take part in a Scottish-themed “design a placemat” competition.
Pupils then brought their placemats along to use at the Burns lunch and a winner was selected for each stage by the FLAG group. The winner from enhanced provision was Jakob Taylor, the choice for P1-3 was Willow Devlin (P3) and the P4-7 winner was Evie McLean (P5).
Some members of the FLAG group also helped to decorate the dining tables with tartan runners.
The lunch started with P7 class teacher Shona McNicol piping in the haggis. Pupils clapped along while listening to the pipes and watching the procession of the haggis by school cook Sarah Farquhar.
P6 pupils addressed the haggis once it had been presented on stage. The P6 pupils then gave the Selkirk Grace before everyone tucked in to their lunch of haggis, neeps and tatties, and there was a traditional treat for dessert too – cranachan.
Skye Foubister from P6 said: “It felt really good when we were on the stage and all we could hear was people cheering and clapping after we had done our poems. The food was actually really good too.”
During stormy weather on the Friday, the children and staff who made it safely into the school held their very own hoolie in the hall.
Gaelic medium teacher Lynsey Macfarlane (on violin), her sister Eilidh Sutherland and niece Isla (on accordions) were joined on stage by High Life Highland tutors Carol-Anne Farquhar on accordion and Andy Macleod on drums.
All pupils were welcomed into the hall and, paired up with different classes, took part in the Virginia reel. Afterwards there was a display of Highland dancing, and the whole school finished up with an Orcadian strip the willow.
Elaina Smith from P2 said: “It was so much fun getting to do the dancing. I paired up with Hollie from primary six.
“We did the Virginia reel and a really big strip the willow. I had to spin round and round lots and lots of times!”
