Sponsored by Mintlaw Gala Committee

Issue 32 email: jmwhyte@hotmail.com

Spring 2020

FREE!

The Gala Committee is pleased to able to say that the gala will be back once again on the second week end of June, with plenty of activities for all age groups. The weekend kicks off with an under-18s disco with DJ Jasper on Friday June 12th, and on Saturday night,13th, there will be a Battle of the Bands for over-18s featuring a variety of local artists. Throughout the weekend a wide selection of events and attractions will be on offer, including inflatables, many stalls, football, the return of the Bonnie Baby competition and Dog Show - more information in the next issue of The Claik!

The legendary Mintlaw Mudder event is also scheduled to make a return on Saturday 22nd August at Aden Park, and following the huge success and popularity of the Pipe Band Competition, the 2020 event will be held in Aden Country Park on Sunday 23rd August. All profits will go to gala funds as we continue to plan to build on last year’s success for future galas.

Many thanks to those who have managed to attend the fundraising events to date - the prize bingo, quiz nights and commu-nity concert have been SO well supported! Those who came to watch the concert will NEVER forget Mintlaw Seniors’ take on ‘YMCA!’ Keep your eyes peeled for posters around the village for future events, including a bingo night in the indoor bowling club on Friday 20th March and the ‘Black & Bling’ Ladies Afternoon Tea in the Garret. We are looking for helpers to volunteer both in the planning of events and hands-on-help on

the weekend of the gala. Everyone is very welcome to attend any of our meetings in the Garret Lounge - the next one is on Thursday 5th March. You can also find us and make contact via our Facebook group - just search Mintlaw Gala and leave a message!

MINTLAW SENIOR CITIZENS CLUB - 47 YEARS OLD ON 12TH FEBRUARY 2020!

T he CLUB continues to go from strength to strength and has enjoyed 47 years of making happy memories and forming many good friendships - quite an achievement, don’t you think?? From turkey to haggis the festive season is well and truly behind us, and now we are waiting to

leap into Spring after a balmy January. Wishful thinking - after all the festive eating and drinking, more like leaping in to a slimming club! The photos show some of our members enjoying our Christmas party and Burns Supper at the Ban Car Hotel. Fun and games indeed with popular band Montana at the party and excellent food, service, com-bined with superb entertainment, provided by Harry Macfadyen, who both piped in and addressed the Haggis made the Burns Supper memorable. After the meal Harry continued to entertain us, singing many old favourite songs, with audience participation. Harry fairly sang for his sup-per! This year we finish up on 22nd April with an open concert featuring PAULA MACASKILL A limited number of tickets will be available to non-members and posters will be displayed locally when they be-come available. New members very welcome. - For further information about the Club please contact Irene Ingram (Secretary) on 01771 622675.

VE Day 75 to be celebrated at Aden Country Park

B uchan Development Partnership is working with Mintlaw & District Community Council, Mintlaw Hall & Park Committee and The Royal British Legion Longside Branch to coordinate a VE Day celebration at Aden Country Park on Friday 8

th

May 2020. Members of the public are invited to attend the event com-memorating 75 years since the end of WW2. An afternoon of celebra-tions will be held around the mansion house within Aden, delivering a range of entertainment including: music, dance, crafts and drama per-formances. Members of the public are encouraged to bring along a

picnic to enjoy on the day while watching and/or participating. Nominated local veterans will also be invited to attend a light celebratory lunch. WW2 began in 1939 and lasted for six years. On 8

th May, 1945, Winston Churchill declared the war

officially over, and now, 75 years on, we will mark this day with a dedicated VE Day community cele-bration in Aden Country Park. The celebration will allow us to remember those who fought in the war and those who lost their lives. It is envisaged that the event will bring people of all ages together to celebrate the occasion. The celebrations will begin at 1.00 pm in the area around the mansion house. The entertainment will also commence at 1.00 pm and will include dance demonstrations of the jive and charleston with Elma- Events, performances from the Ugie Voices, the Aurora Choir and the Blue Toon All Stars. There will also be children’s activities including face painting, bouncy castles and crafts. The local community will be heavily involved in the event, including the organising, creating decora-tions to adorn the walls of the mansion house. The local primary schools have been invited to create WW2 themed bunting which will be hung from the mansion house. Decorations will also be created at regular craft sessions in the lead up to the event at the Aden allotments cabin and in the Aden Theatre. Joan Whyte of Mintlaw Hall and Park Committee and Mintlaw & District Community Council said: “We hope as many people from Mintlaw and the surrounding areas will come along on May 8

th to par-

ticipate locally in what is a nationwide event marking the cessation of hostilities which cost so many lives. Many memories will be re-lived by the older generations, and for us post-war generations many new, happy ones will be created as well as the opportunity to experience ‘live’ history!’ Justine Tough, Skills Development and Events Officer for Aden Country Park added: “The VE Day Event at Aden Country Park is an opportunity to remember those who fought for our country whilst sharing the day with friends and family. We hope that the event will be a celebration for all generations to enjoy with entertainment suitable for all of the family.” Everyone of all ages from the local community of all ages is invited to attend the free event on Friday 8

th May which has kindly been sponsored by ALM Safety and LXM Event Services, amongst others

The event will give an opportunity to remember those who fought in the war for our country whilst celebrating an important day in history. If you would like to find out more information about the event or would like to get involved with spon-

soring the event please contact the Aden Skills Development & Events Officer at

justinetough96@gmail.com or visit the Aden Country Park Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/Aden-Country-Park-399672043382638/

C h u r c h

N e w s

DEER PARISH CHURCH Spring is on its way, and spring brings with it the season of Lent and our preparations for the celebration of Easter – the most important time in the Christian calendar.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 26 Febru-ary, and for the six weeks leading up to Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, we are joining with our friends from Longside Parish Church for our Lent Discussions. Our meetings will be at Deer Parish Church, Old Deer, and this year our

theme is #Live Lent: Care for God’s Creation. We begin with a special launch meeting at Deer Parish Church on Sunday 23 February at 3 pm, and thereafter we will have three Sharing Times of discussion, all at Deer Parish Church at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 10 March, Thursday 19 March and Tuesday 31 March. Anyone is welcome to join us on any of the evenings. Palm Sunday is on 5 April and marks the beginning of Holy Week. We will be hold-ing Holy Week evening services in the church at Old Deer at 7pm on each of the evenings 6 – 10 April. These services provide us with a special time of reflection as we follow Jesus through the events of the week he spent in Jerusalem leading up to

the crucifixion. On Easter Day, we will have an early morning celebration of Christ’s resurrection, down in Aden Park behind the rear wall of the churchyard at 7.30 am, followed by breakfast at the Kemp Hall and then our usual morning worship at 10.30 am. We do hope that you will find time to come to some of our special times of wor-

ship and reflection over the whole period of Holy Week, and on Easter Day, and in doing so, come to know more deeply the amazing sacrifice God has made for us in giving his Son for our salvation. Mainly Music, for pre-school children and their parents/guardians, meets weekly on Tuesdays during school term time at 10 am in the Kemp Hall (for more details contact Aileen on 01771 622019 or Kath-leen on 01771 622912. Messy Church meets on 3 March, 7 April, 5 May and 2 June at 3.30 pm in the Kemp Hall, Old Deer (for more details contact Kathleen on 01771 622912). The Guild meets on 5 March and 2 April at 7.30 pm in Old Deer Church, and will be hosting the World Day of Prayer service on 6 March at 7 pm (for details contact Lorna on 01771 623672). On the second and fourth Thursdays of each month we have a regular coffee morning and book sale in the Kemp Hall from 10 am to 12 noon, so if you are near Old Deer on those days, do come and have your morning coffee with us.

Our Knitting Group meets in the Session Room in the church (enter by side door) on Thursday evenings from 7pm – 9pm, except for the first Thursday of the month when it meets at 2pm in the afternoon. New members welcome – contact Margaret on 01771 622546.

We also now have our Fetterangus Café Church. This is a new way of coming together to explore faith and praise God. On certain Sunday afternoons we meet in the village hall at Fetterangus at about 2.30 pm for a fly cup and a news, and then we explore scripture using art, craft, poetry and music. Do come and join us.

Forthcoming dates for the Café Church are 8 March, 19 April, 24 May and

14 June

Throughout the year we will be participating in Bible 2020. This is a global movement. It is the biggest public reading of God’s Word the world has ever seen. Every day people all over the world will be following the Bible 2020 Reading Plan reading verses of scripture aloud in their communities in over

1,000 languages. We will participate in Bible 2020 with Bible Prayer walks throughout our parish, in Old Deer, Fetterangus and Stuartfield. Our friends in Longside will be participating with weekly read-ings in their village. On certain days both minsters will be reading God’s word in Mintlaw. Look out for us as you go about your daily business.

M intlaw Group Practice has gone through some tough times recently and we thank you for your patience. We are very proud of our exception-

ally hard working team, and recognise all of their hard work. Our workload has increased immensely over the last 5 years for various reasons, and we have been making changes as they have been re-quired. This has meant growing our hard work-ing, experienced team which now includes, ad-vanced care practitioners’, physiotherapists and a pharmacy team, as well as the long standing roles which you will all be aware of. We are currently at a time when big changes are needed to ensure continuation of a service which meets all of your needs. This means a different way of working, to ensure that each patient is seen at an appropriate time, by the most appro-priate member of the team. Please be assured this will not affect the level of care that you are each offered.

So what does this change mean for you? To en-sure you are seen by the correct team member, we will be asking more details from you when you first contact the surgery. This will all be treated with complete confidentiality, but means appointments won’t be wasted, which translates into a shorter waiting time for you.

Once we have enough details, each request will be triaged by our trained staff. This means you will be phoned by a clinical member of staff to further identify the best way to deal with your problem, and a plan will be put in place for whatever is needed, be it an appoint-ment, referral etc

Some problems can be dealt with at an adminis-trative level, and this new system will mean less delay in these being actioned too. However non urgent tasks may now take slightly longer to be completed.

As with any change, there will be some disrup-tion as we put this new, better system into place. We ask that you bear with us and be reas-sured we are all working as hard as we can. Unfortunately as a practice we still have a high ‘Did Not Attend’ rate, with 167 appointments wasted in December, which equated to 39 hours and 25minutes consulting time – I hope you un-derstand how this impacts appointment availabil-ity and ask that you let us know, no matter how short notice, if you are now unable to attend an appointment. We kindly ask for your continued patience whilst things are under strain, regarding changing how the practice runs and the unfortunate staff illness we have been dealing with at a professional and personal level. If you have concerns please voice them to us in an informal manner and we assure you all concerns will be given proper con-sideration.

This offer is available for ALL block school holidays (Summer, October, Christmas and Easter) as well as every weekend (Saturday-Sunday) all year round in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highlands and Orkney. To qualify, children must be aged 15 years or younger. To take advantage of the offer simply board

any bus in the North

Scotland Network and

ask the driver for the

‘kids for 50p’ when

you buy/show your

tickdetdayrider,

The seasonal garden waste facility at the Council depot in South Street, Mintlaw is currently closed, but will be open again for business in April.

The nearest recycling centre is at Dales Industrial Estate, Peterhead. Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 9.00 am - 4.30 pm

Tuesday (late night) 9.00 am - 7.00 pm

Friday 9.00 am - 4.00 pm

Saturday & Sunday 9.00 am - 4.30 pm

M intlaw and District Men’s Shed continues to meet from 10.30am - 12.30pm on the second Thursday of the month in the Buchan Indoor Bowling Club, South Street, Mintlaw. Here we enjoy a cup of tea, a blether and listen to what our guest speaker has to say. We also discuss our progress and plans, with updates on all.

Now that the siting of the containers in Aden Park has been approved, we have been doing some spending of the grant money we received from Aberdeenshire Council. We have now bought our in-sulation and plywood linings to allow the containers to be used as workshops, once it is all fitted out. We have also bought roofing sheets to cover them. We have had several donations of tools and equipment and are looking forward to getting these used on the containers as soon as the weather improves a little. In the community, the Men’s Shed has recently been involved in tree planting in Aden and in assisting with the Christmas lights in Mintlaw. Further into Spring we are hoping to have a car boot sale for funds. Look out for the advertising later. Men’s Shed membership is free and is open to all males 18 years and over living in Mintlaw and the surrounding area and villages. Don’t worry if you feel you are unable to help with practical tasks - just come along anyway and enjoy the company! Sandy Thom Chairman. 01771 622912

INDOOR BOWLING - MINTLAW PUBLIC HALL

Fancy a game of indoor bowls? Then why not come along to Mintlaw

Public Hall’s large hall on

Thursday Nights - 6.30 pm to 9.30pm

The 2020 winter/spring session ends on 2nd April, and new and old mem-bers will be most welcome.

Buchan Heritage Society - What’s Happening Over the Next Few Months

March 18th

Longside Parish Church Hall : 7.30 pm : Pay at door An evening with Fyvie Folk Club April 15

th Longside Parish Church Hall : 7.30pm : Pay at

door Michael Shepherd -’Slains Castle and Bram Stoker’ Slides and talk with musical entertainment

Festival

Friday Pre-Festival Dance with the Garioch Blend : Ritchie Hall, Strichen : 8.00 pm 22nd May Tickets £6 : Licensed Saturday Day of competitions : commencing 9.00 am 23rd May Prizewinners Concert : Ticket £6 or pay at door Ceilidh and Dance with the Garioch Blend and guests : approx 9.00pm : Licensed Sunday Farewell Ceilidh in Royal British Legion,

24th May Strichen. : 2.00 pm : Pay at door

See website for further

The Mintlaw Cancer Self Support Group restarted Monday 4th Febru-ary and will continue on the first Monday of each month until December 7th in the Macbi centre at 7.00 pm, where we offer comfort, support and sign post other agencies for anyone who has been affected by cancer. We were delighted to receive substantial cash donations from both the Robertson Trust, Glasgow and the Friday Shoppie. These donations

will ensure the continuation of our group that started in Mintlaw, thirteen years ago! To all those who have donated to us over these years we also give a heartfelt thank you. For more information contact Christine Moir on 07930530759 : Email Moir820@btinternet .com or come along to our very user-friendly meetings in Macbi on the first Monday or each month from now until December.

Christine Moir

CLAIK CONTACT DETAILS:

Joan Whyte, 01771 622588

jmwhyte@hotmail.com

Myra McCredie, 01771 622517 mccrediem@hotmail.com

CLOSING DATE FOR NEXT ISSUE COVERING

LATE MAY, JUNE, JULY and AUGUST

TUESDAY 19th MAY 2020

Look out for all the exciting Gala news!

Mintlaw Senior Citizens’ Friday Shoppie

The Shoppie is held in Mintlaw Public Hall (small hall) every Friday from 8.30 am - 11.00 am. Donations of books, clothes, bric-a-brac etc are always gratefully accepted and greatly appreciated, but unfortunately neither furniture nor electrical goods can be accepted. The success of this project depends on your help so please come in and browse - and buy! There are bargains galore to be had! Following very successful trading in 2019, £3,300 was distributed amongst various local groups: Mintlaw Senior Citizens £950 Mintlaw Public Hall £950 Mintlaw Cancer Support Group £300 Mintlaw Carpet Bowls Group £300 Buchan Childminder’s Group £200 Mintlaw Community Council £100 Mintlaw Ramblers £200 Mintlaw Boy’s Club £100 Mintlaw Academy Happy Cafe £100 Mintlaw Academy Therapeutic Garden £100

T he annual Stuartfield Flower and Produce Show is now in its 47

th year, with this year’s event taking place on Saturday 15

th

August.

If you fancy taking part now is the time to start planning - and planting! Schedules are available from the Happy Plant Garden Centre and the Friday Shoppie, which meets every Friday in the Public Hall from 8.30 - 11.00 am.

The above charity is still appealing for used postage stamps as highlighted in the last addition of The Claik. Stamps, or whole envelopes, can be handed into Sandra Robertson at Mintlaw Academy Office or into the Friday Shoppie each Friday in Mintlaw Public Hall from 8.30 - 11.00am. Some of the stamps donated have had to be destroyed because there isn’t a big enough border around them. It’s vital that a finger width of the envelope remains otherwise the donations are of no value. Thank you. Alex and Elaine Mair

M intlaw is so much luckier than many other communities in that we have a dedicated village orderly. How-ever, we can all still make his job

easier - so.................... Instead of leaving your take-away rubbish lying in the Pleasure Park, why not simply BIN IT? Is that so hard to do? There are several bins at the park - why not play fair and use them?

P olice Scotland has a relatively new face at the helm - Inspector Mark Lambley, who

has taken this opportunity to introduce himself to the com-munity of Mintlaw. ‘I am delighted to be given this opportunity, having worked for

a number of years in the North East corner. I have 22 years’ Police Service having joined Grampian Police in 1997. I have served across Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City in both frontline uniform and Criminal Investigation roles. I have previously worked as a Community Beat Officer and understand the time and effort members of the public commit to by attending community council meetings, working together to make their communities a better place. I understand how important it is for a member of the local Policing team to attend these meetings to be made aware of any local issues and answer any questions. I will endeavour to ensure that, where operational commitments allow, Officers will be present. I will continue to build on the positive work and partnerships already forged by Inspector George Cordiner and lead the Officers covering the Mintlaw beat in addressing the local policing priorities of anti-social behaviour/violence/disorder, road safety, acquisition crime, protecting people at risk of harm, seriiouss organised crime and counter terrorism and extremism. I aim to continue to deliver Policing that is visible, accessible and responsive to the needs of the people of the Buchan corner. Policing in the North East is challenging due to the geography of our area ,with officers often having to cover a geographical area covering hundreds of miles. Remote residential houses can be seen as a target by criminals due to their rural location. By providing communities with basic crime prevention advice such as keeping all outside doors locked, ensuring motor vehicles are locked and secure and no valuables are on open display within, we hope to prevent you being a victim of what is often an opportunist crime. Officers in Mintlaw and our designated Community Beat officers have carried out lots of good work in the past few months, including drug awareness talks to over 700 hundred pupils at Mintlaw Academy, tackling anti-social behaviour by working with our partners to have anti-social behaviour contracts served on notable youths in the area and by carrying out high visibility patrols in Aden Park to address reports of anti-sociable behaviour there. Following my attendance at the Community Council meeting in January, I was advised that youth annoyance is still a concern for the community and in particular around the old railway line and in the Square. I have passed this information onto my local officers who will endeavour to target and address any issues identified. I am pleased to say that Mintlaw remains a low crime area and the main concerns centre around youth issues and anti-social behaviour. We will continue to look at ways to address these issues by working with partners to look at diversionary activities, engaging with the young people in the community and tackling any criminality robustly in an effort to prevent and deter those responsible. I look forward to continuing in my new role in helping Peterhead and the surrounding communities.

#keepingpeoplesafe’

S pring is in the air and that can only mean one thing – the start of fun activities and events in Aden Country Park. Buchan Development Partnership has lots of great events planned f

or the coming months with something for everyone to enjoy. Seedy Sunday is the first event in the calendar and will take place in the polytunnel on March 15

th

from 11-3.30pm. The event is a fantastic opportunity for like-minded folk to gather, share gardening seeds, pick up free seed potatoes, talk to other green fingered folk, watch cookery and floristry demonstrations, browse the many stalls selling local food and drink and crafts. There will also be hot food available throughout the day too. Admission is £2 per adult and £1 concessions. The following month we have our popular Easter Eggstravaganza in the park on Sunday, April 12th. As well as the Easter Egg hunt around the arboretum there will also be a display of farm ani-mals from Waulkmill Menagerie, face painting, bouncy castles, train rides and fun activities in the museum. Tickets for the Easter egg hunt will be on sale at Eventbrite soon. For more information Buchan folk are being invited to attend an awareness raising session to learn more about the new community plans and how they can inform them. With so many plans it can be difficult for individuals to understand how local priorities fit within them, or to know the differences between all the plans. These awareness raising sessions will provide attendees with a better understanding of the new 5 year community plans and by the end of the session they will hopefully understand the importance of community plans and be able to address any gaps between the needs and aspirations of commu-nities and make use of their ability to inform them. The event will be held on April 1

st at Stuartfield Village Hall.

For more information contact info@bdp.scot.

Dates for your Diary Buchan Development Partnership’s Summer Forum will take place on June 4

th. More details will be

available nearer the time. This year’s Wild About Aden will take place on July 7

th and 8. The family friendly two day event will

feature lots of fun activities and attractions throughout the park. There will be quite a few new addi-

tions to the programme this year so watch this space. More information will be available on our

facebook page in the coming months.

Constituted Community groups in the Buchan area looking for funding of up to £750 are encouraged to apply to the Shell Small Grants. The application form is very simple and all we require is your group’s constitution and quotes for the work or equipment you would like funding for. The deadline for the next round of funding is Monday, May 4

th.

For more information about the Shell Small Grants email info@bdp.scot.

Music at Aden continues its 2019/20 pro-gramme with the eagerly awaited return on March 28th of Tenement Jazz, a much loved Edinburgh Jazz Band who will fit us in at the

end of an extensive Tour of the UK from Southampton to Nairn! They are Patrick Darley on Trom-bone, Chuck Dearness on Trumpet, Steve Feast, Reeds, John Youngs Banjo/Guitar and Doug Kemp on Double Bass, They will play Jazz numbers based on New Orleans Jazz from 1.00pm to 3.00pm on Saturday 28th March. On 25th April we have a group of musicians who have chosen the name ’Name by April’. This is a fund raising event for us - do come along to hear and enjoy this band with well known vocalist Morag Skene. This groups of Peterhead based musicians will perform an exciting mix of music across different eras covering many different genres in Aden Theatre from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm on Saturday 25th April. On 16th May, ‘Further On,’ an Aberdeen-based 5-piece Band comprises one of Aberdeen’s most soulful vocalists, Ian Crawford, lead guitar and lead vocals Charlie Brusatori, lead guitar and vocals, Richard Champion, keyboards, Keith MacRae, bass and Stuart MacIntosh, drums. They have played in Aberdeen at the Blue Lamp and the Aberdeen Jazz Festival, and will perform from 6.00pm to 8.00pm in the Theatre at Aden. Don’t miss this opportunity! Interval refreshments are included in the ticket price of £12.

On 14th June Jazz at the Blue Lamp/ Aberdeen Community Jazz Big Band will play in the Courtyard, Aden Country Park. Time to be confirmed. Tickets are available for the above concerts on line at music-at-aden.co.uk, at the Aden Craft and Gift Shop or on the door on the day. Contact 01771624268 or 07729791482 hello@music-at-aden.co.uk

A dog who makes many local visits has recently received a prestigious award for his outstanding work with people.

Labrador Mannie, has been named the joint runner-up in the Therapet of the Year Award 2019 by Canine Concern Scotland Trust. Mannie and his owner, Fiona Redford, visit schools, day care and care homes. His work with children in a reading project has encouraged many with reading difficulties to be able to read more confidently as they are not being judged. He also visits adults with mental health problems as well as older adults in care homes - and loves them all! Mannie was assessed as a Therapet six years ago, but be-

fore being eligible to work with children had to work with

adults for a year first.

Beautiful dog!

Thereapet Mannie with his owner, Fiona

The nursery children have been exploring the story ‘The Disgusting Sandwich,’ from making their own disgusting sandwich to a healthy edible one!

They have been also learning about people who help us, en-joying visits from different parents and carers who are employed in these roles, and we cannot thank them enough for taking time to come see us in nursery and giving us the opportunity to share the children’s learning.

Work on our new outside areas are nearly complete. Staff and children can-not wait to be able to use both. It has been very exciting seeing all the con-

struction going on.

This term Primary 1/2 have been learning about minibeasts. We have spent time outdoors looking for minibeasts and have learned that most hibernate in the Winter. We did find lots of worms though. We had discovery boxes and learned about one minibeast in our groups by dis-cussing what was in the box and what this meant about our minibeast. We shared the learning with the rest of the class, meaning without much input from Miss Wishart we now know a lot of information about 4 minibeasts. Using our knowledge of minibeasts we have been learning to use WOW words in our writing. We have also measured pictures of minibeasts

using cubes. We have recently made clay models using the facts we know. Primary 2/3 have been learning about pirates. We have been learning about all the famous pirates such as Black Beard and Anne Bonny. We have been learning about pirate ships and Jolly Roger flags and created our own flags. We shared our learning in our class assembly. Over the past few months P3/4 have been embark-

ing on weekly Outdoor Learning ventures. We have

explored a variety of maths and numeracy out-

comes in the great out-

doors. Recently we

travelled outside to explore what 2D shapes we

could find around the school grounds. Here are

some of the shapes we found. During our Out-

door Learning lessons before Christmas we

looked at Data Handling. Over a few weeks we

gathered different types of items from nature

and sorted them into different categories. We also made picto-

grams on the playground to display the nature data, as

well as Venn diagrams to show the similarities we man-

aged to find. P.3/4 have been managing really well work-

ing outdoors, especially as the weather has been very

cold and, on one occasion, very wet!

Pitfour Eco Group We have started work on our Eco Brick Constructions. We received a very impressive amount of Eco Bricks from the community and we are very grateful for everyone’s contribu-tions! An Eco Brick is simply a plastic bottle filled with non-

recyclable plastic rubbish. We have started turning some into classroom stools by covering them in recycled newspaper. Our next step is to decorate them and they will be ready for use!

Pitfour Primary 6’s recently took part in an Enterprise event held at Mintlaw Academy. We learnt that enterprise is all about being enthusiastic, having ideas, using our skills, being confident, having a positive attitude and never giving up! We had to create a business and pro-duce products to sell, and made a lot of friends along the way!

P6’s have also been learning how to support other pupils

by being school reading buddies. Every week, we listen to

P3s read their books and ask them comprehension ques-

tions to check that they are using their skills of remember-

ing, understanding, applying and analysing. We also then

read to our buddies to practice our skills of pace, sharing

and explaining.

Pitfour School P7 Using the recent cold weather as inspiration pupils in Primary 7 at Pitfour School enjoyed creating their

Winter scene paintings. They blended colours to achieve the effect they wanted and the finished results

were beautiful. I’m sure they are now hoping for some snow!

MINTLAW PRIMARY SCHOOL

On Tuesday 4

th February the school held a Scottish

assembly, complete with a piper!, which parents were invited to attend. The children recited poems, sang songs by Robert Burns, Les Wheeler, Sheena Black-hall and Helen Harrower to name but a few.

After the assembly parents enjoyed a ‘fly cup’ before visiting their chil-

dren’s/grandchildren’s classrooms to see their work and to play some

games.

As always, we were delighted with the turnout of adults from our school community - and the children were proud to show off all their hard work!

UNICEF SHOE SHARE APPEAL

In December Mintlaw Primary School Rights Respecting Group held its annual Shoe Share Appeal for UNICEF, collecting shoes in good condition to donate and reuse. We were overwhelmed by the support we received from both school and community donations. There were so many dona-tions, in fact, that they had to be taken in two deliveries to Clarks Shoes! Once again, we would like to thank you for your kind support.

I BIKE’ PROJECT As part of the ‘I Bike’ project at Mintlaw Primary, a project which aims to empower children, parents and teachers to travel actively, safely and confidently to school, we will be having a Dr Bike event. In January the children were de-lighted to be involved in the ‘I Bike Cinema,’ where they had to use their own pedal power, to run the projector and speakers for the films and videos – this was a great success and our P1 and P2 classes were grateful to the P7s for their pedal power help! The children are currently completing their applications for the Bike Crew, our new group for P4-7 children to help run and organise our I Bike events in school. This group will work with Ashley

Armstrong who is our I Bike Officer for Aberdeenshire.

W e are very excited to let everyone know that our Macbi Community Hub Extension works are now well underway!! We are hoping to have the extension open early October 2020!!

Within the extension we will have a new Community Hall suitable for all ball sports including indoor football, 5 new multi–purpose rooms to allow us to accommodate new bookings and put on new ac-tivities, and a seating area looking out onto the all weather pitch for parents/supporters to stay inside and keep warm while watching astro users. One of our new multi-purpose rooms will be used for our new Mini Mac’s Nursery! Although we will be a private nursery, we will be working in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council which means we will be able to provide the funded nursery spaces as well as private ones. Our nursery will be for age 3 to 5 year olds only and will be opening in August with a pop up nursery. One of our other multi-purpose rooms will be used as a youth area to give the youths in Mintlaw somewhere to go in the evenings and weekends to chill out, meet new people and participate in dif-ferent activities. For further information on anything to do with the extension including booking your child into our

Nursery opening in August 2020 please email conniemacbi@outlook.com or call the hub on 01771

624593 and ask to speak to Connie.

Mintlaw Ramblers Walks Nov/Dec 2019 and Jan 2020

November 13th

Walk – Oldmeldrum. A bright but chilly day as we set off on our walk around Old Meldrum, up the bypass to the Whin Roadie Viewpoint, where clear skies unveiled lovely panoramic landscapes towards Bennachie and as far as the eye could see. We stopped at the In-verurie Roundabout to pay a visit to Robert the Bruce’s chair, a large chair-shaped stone taken from the battlefield at Hill of Barra. A visit to the lovely Meldrum Café followed before our return home. November 27

th Walk – Fetterangus. “Doon the

Ducker an’ up the Pole” This article on Facebook attracted great interest and goes to show the historical interest that lies practically on our own doorstep, it is just a case of seeking it out. We walked from Fetter-angus Village Hall, around what is known as “The Gaval Loop,” out at the foot of the village towards Bridge of Gaval then left past the old ruined Mill of Gavel. On up the hill to Gaval Farm and the little known Fetterangus Airstrip came into view. At the top of the hill we turned back towards the village again, stopping to pay homage to the lovely War Memorial in the cemetery gateway before returning to the vil-lage itself. Thank you Fetterangus, (Fishie tae wir freens) for what was a truly delightful day. December 11

th – Christmas Dinner. The Ramblers’ Christmas Dinner this year was at the White Horse

Hotel Strichen, a lovely meal served by friendly and efficient waitresses. Good to see some old faces who managed to come along as there was some catching up on past times to be done. As the next outing of the Ramblers would have fallen on Christmas Day, this was the final meeting of 2019. January 8

th 2020 Walk – Mintlaw/Local. First walk of 2020 and as tradition demands a walk local to

Mintlaw. A cold but bright and sunny morning, when after a few words of welcome from Brenda, we set off for Aden Country Park. A visit to the Fairy Woods was our first stop then on for a coffee in the foyer dis-play area at Aden. We continued on up through Old Deer village and took the pathway down by the old manse on to the old Maud – Peterhead railway line. Lovely sunshine blessed our way back to Mintlaw and even an early ladybird ventured out to greet us, and a very welcome lunch was enjoyed at the Happy Plant on our arrival. January 22

nd Walk – Rathen. Many years ago there was a story going around Mintlaw that an English

traveller had stopped a local in South Street and asked for directions to ‘Rat Hen.’ The local scratched his head for a minute and replied “Weel, thirs plenty o’ rats an’ hens up here, bitt I doot ye maun be lookin for Rathen.” ’ We set forth on the Invernorth road today, turning left at the south end of the Philorth Estate dykes. After a mile or thereby, we reached a crossroads and some confusion reigned there for a few minutes. Decid-ing to follow our noses we headed back in the general direction of Rathen but again took a wrong turning along the Fraser-burgh – Peterhead railway line. Some-what shamefaced we then had to phone our driver to come and pick us up! The short walkers spent a lovely morning in Rathen Village however, looking at the many historical sights the village has to offer.

Ramblers at Hill of Barra

LOST? LOST? Never......!