Category Archives: Communities and Culture

“Take One Picture”

The Creative Learning in Schools Team (CAST) have been piloting a project in primary schools in Kintyre, “Take One Picture” installing artworks from the Argyll Collection in six schools to inspire cross curricular creative learning. Pupils and teachers from Carradale, Castlehill, Dalintober, Drumlemble, Gigha and Rhunahaorine Primaries have been working with artists Sian MacQueen, Nicole Heidtke and Stefan Bamberger and dancer Tony Mills to create new work inspired by the artworks, taking part in workshops on conductive printmaking, relief sculpture, dance, digital sculpture, life drawing, shadow puppetry, collage and painting.
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St Andrew’s Primary School (World Down Syndrome Day)

Our HT Miss Seery introduced the teaching of Makaton and BSL and the children LOVE it. They sing and sign simultaneously and it is wonderful to listen to and watch. It has become a normal part of our school week so we don’t really think it’s out of the ordinary.

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St Andrew’s Primary – This is My Island

St Andrew’s Pupils in P3/4/5 took part in a project organised by Mount Stuart resident artist, Malcolm Mackenzie. The project saw the children decorating pieces of wood which Malcolm used to make a boat. They wrote letters detailing what their island means to them, the things they love about living on Bute. Rothesay Primary and North Bute Primary took part too. The pupils attended the boat launch at Mount Stuart and class teacher Miss Rae said that it was “A celebration of community, commonality and sharing amazing outdoor spaces”.

Butterflies Exhibition at Campbeltown Museum

An exhibition of work by pupils from Dalintober Primary School will be on display at Campbeltown Museum until April 2019. The pupils worked with staff from Kilmartin Museum and Campbeltown Museum, as well as musicians, photographers and natural historians to create the exhibition.

For an opportunity to enjoy the photography, music, sound and artwork created by the pupils, alongside the Robert Weir Butterfly Collection visit Campbeltown Museum, which is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (9am to 12.30pm, 1.30pm- 5pm) and Wednesday (10am – 5pm).

Funded by Ernest Cook Trust.

Literacy Fun at St Mun’s Primary

St Mun’s Primary staff and pupils enjoyed a very successful evening when they invited family and friends to an end of term Family Literacy Night.

The evening began with Primary Seven pupils reciting a famous Roald Dahl poem ‘Television’ that warns of the danger of too much TV, whilst reminding us of the joy to be had from books and reading.

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Campbeltown residency

As part of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Campbeltown residency, pupils from Campbeltown Grammar have created interactive posters with digital artists from talc, which can be used to trigger images to launch an augmented reality experience on your mobile.

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Residency in Campbeltown October 2018

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) have been working with primary and secondary school pupils across Kintyre as part of a week-long residency in Campbeltown. Pupils have taken part in performances and song writing workshops with BBC SSO musicians, including a special workshop on Gigha. The pupils created their own songs based on Mussorgsky’s “Pictures From an Exhibition”, inspired by characters in the paintings which inspired the music, including the “Troll King” and the “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks”.
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Fyne Homes Competition

Last term, pupils at St Mun’s Primary, Dunoon, were set an unusual family challenge. The school worked in conjunction with Fyne Homes, who were building a new housing development near the school. Families were invited to choose a name for the estate. There was a good response to the competition and a wide range of names were suggested.

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Drumlemble School Committees

Drumlemble Primary School has formed four pupil committees to encourage the children to take an active part in many aspects of school life.

The purpose of the committees are to be able to work in smaller groups that deal with only one issue. The committee system keeps the meetings focused on the issues, one at a time. Each committee is headed by a member of staff and will meet each Friday morning.

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Sandbank visit to Benmore Gardens.

The upper primary classes at Sandbank Primary enjoyed a fabulous day at Benmore Botanical Gardens where they took part in fun, outdoor learning activities inspired by the book ‘The Lost Words’ by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.

The children were split into two groups. One group worked with the poems in the book and had to guess the subject of the poems by a series of clues in a bag.

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Luss harvest

Early Harvest for Waitrose Grow to Sell at Luss
Children at Luss have been enjoying eating the vegetables that they have grown from their Waitrose Grow to Sell box. They have grown lettuce, radishes, spring onions, pak choi, rhubarb , raspberries and herbs. They have been enjoying eating the salad with their lunch and have taken the extra lettuce home. They have also painted signs to show all the skills they use when working in the garden.

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Kirn visit Scotland Street School

P4 and P5 enjoyed a fun day at Scotland Street Museum in Glasgow. P4 learned about the design of the famous building and how Charles Rennie Macintosh used shapes and colours to tell stories throughout the school. P5 were given an insight as what life was like for Scottish children in school during Victorian times.
Thank you to all our volunteer helpers.

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Christian Aid Netball Tournament 2018

On Thursday 22nd May, 9 teams from different Primary schools in the Helensburgh and Lomond area took part in the annual Christian Aid Netball tournament. The tournament took place in Lomond Sports Hall and was a most enjoyable evening with some great play and teamwork shown by all the pupils involved. In the preliminary rounds Hermitage Primary and Cardross Primary came out top, with Colgrain Primary and the All Stars coming runners-up.
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Kirn Eco Committee visit Sky Academy

The Eco Committee from Kirn Primary School, along with some pupils from P4-P7 visited the Sky Academy in Livingston. The pupils were there to film a short news report about the environmental problem of plastics in our oceans and waters.

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DEVELOPING OUR OUTDOOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AT DUNBEG PRIMARY SCHOOL.

Whilst Dunbeg Primary School is treasured by its local community; its grounds are a treasure in their own right. Over the past seven months pupils, staff and parents have begun to develop them as an accessible, fun and exciting place to learn.
August 2017: The wetland/woodland area hinted at past projects but was thoroughly overgrown and boggy. An inspiring place however with clear educational and well-being potential!

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Fundraising Fun At St Mun’s

During the Lenten period, the pupils of St Mun’s Primary were challenged to organise and run events to help raise money for two important charities: SCIAF and The Cowal Hospice Trust. Throughout March, a variety of activities took place: a Bring ‘n’ Buy Sale, Easter Egg Hunt, Guess the Name of the Easter Bunny Competition and a Chocolate Tombola. P.6/5 researched Scottish recipes and produced their own Cookery Book and P.7/6 ran a Coffee Morning to which parents and parishioners of Our Lady and St Mun were invited.
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Bravo Taynuilt Primary School!

Bien joué! ¡Bien hecho! Gut gemacht! Molto bene! (Well done!)
On Monday 15th May five Primary 6 pupils from Taynuilt Primary travelled to Edinburgh to the Euroquiz National Final 2108. The competition involved 470 schools from all over Scotland taking part in Euroquiz heats to represent their own areas. Taynuilt Primary won our area quiz to represent Argyll and Bute. There were 31 schools at the Final, from the Borders to Shetland to the Western Isles, and was it held in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament. Continue reading Bravo Taynuilt Primary School!

World Book Day

Dunoon Primary School had a tremendously fantastic day! The pupils took up the challenge of dressing up as their favourite book characters! This was to celebrate World Book Day. It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind,designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

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Achahoish report from Auchindrain museum

We went to Auchindrain Museum to see the houses and how people lived in the olden days because our school topic is Our Heritage.
We saw the new house which is already about 75years old! The owner of Auchindrain is called Catty Cat and he looks after Auchindrain. (He is a cat)
We had a look at the Wise woman’s house – she made people better by using herbs and some poisonous plants, but by using a little bit of them it made people better.
The word for Wise woman and old lady is the same in Gaelic and it means witch.
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