Strone Eco Reps visit the Scottish Parliament on Holyrood Apple Day

Awards, Communities and Culture, Events, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Projects, School trips, Social Enterprise

On Wednesday 18th October, 3 of our Eco Committee attended the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh for Holyrood Apple Day. We went with Merle from the Ardentinny Walled Garden Project to present apples picked from the garden. We had new varieties as well as apples from the old Victorian apple tree in the garden.

Our P1-4 class had been to pick the apples from Ardentinny on Monday and had baked apple flapjacks for people to try. Continue reading Strone Eco Reps visit the Scottish Parliament on Holyrood Apple Day →

Community Planned Partnership at St Joseph’s!

Communities, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Topics

Community planned partnership is alive and well at St Joseph’s in Helensburgh. Throughout the academic session all classes will be involved in planning their IDL studies in conjunction with a community partner. This term both P1 and P3 involved the partnership of the local Dog Groomer as they each approached the study of ‘Pets’ at a basic and more advance level respectively.
Continue reading Community Planned Partnership at St Joseph’s! →

Lochgilphead Joint Campus Head Boy and Girl

Communities and Culture, Early Years, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools, Secondary schools

Lochgilphead Joint Campus provides a safe and relaxing environment which gives us many opportunities to learn through academic and extra-curricular activities for pupils of all ages.
The high level of teaching has allowed many pupils from the school to go into further education and broadens their experiences of learning.
Continue reading Lochgilphead Joint Campus Head Boy and Girl →

SLF training at Dunoon Grammar

Conferences, Primary schools, School trips, Secondary schools, ,

16 pupils from Dunoon Grammar and Dunoon Primary took part in a training day to prepare them for hosting the Argyll & Bute stand at the SLF.
The theme of the stand this year is our SAL blog and the training included demonstrating SAL on iPads and learning techniques for engaging with visitors to the stand.
The pupils displayed a deep knowledge of IT and throughout the day they developed confidence in presenting SAL. Continue reading SLF training at Dunoon Grammar →

Roald Dahl Day

Events, Interdisciplinary, Literacy, Primary schools

Minard Primary Mischief and Mayhem

Pupils from Minard Primary School enjoyed a day of fun celebrating Roald Dahl day and the BFG’s 30th birthday. They made (and ate) Swizzlechew, practised usng imaginative adjectives like Violet Beauregarde as she chewed her gum,enjoyed the magical story of the BFG especially whizzpopping and viewed the live broadcast with Michael Rosen chatting with Lucy Dahl. A great way to end the week.

Felting at Benmore Gardens

Active Schools, Communities and Culture, Eco Schools, Events, Expressive arts, Forest Schools, Geography, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Projects, School trips, Science, Topics,

On Thursday 5th September P5 and P7 spent an amazing day at Benmore Botanical Gardens with their teachers and support staff. On Friday 6th September P6/5 and P7/6 also enjoyed a fabulous day at Benmore. Cath and Katie from the Education Service in Edinburgh’s Botanical Gardens were the superb instructors during the visits. Each class got the fantastic opportunity to make felt, incorporating an image of a plant or greenery. These had been freshly picked from the gardens to provide inspiration for the felting project.

Continue reading Felting at Benmore Gardens →

Raspberry Pi computing @ Dunoon Primary School

Learning Tech,

Pupils from Dunoon Primary have enjoyed using their I.C.T. skills to learn the basic principles of computer programming using Raspberry Pi.  The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized computer developed in the UK costing around £30.  It runs open source software and can be connected to a computer screen or TV.   It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games.

The Raspberry Pi is designed to be a motivating platform with the goal of making programming straightforward.  Pupils from Primary 5 to Primary 7 have been supported by Argyll and Bute’s, Gary Clark – a real life programmer! –  to explore and use the features of Rasperry Pi. They look forward to showcasing their skills and talents to Education Scotland next week.

Continue reading Raspberry Pi computing @ Dunoon Primary School →

HARVEST SALE @ Kilmartin

Active Schools, Communities, Communities and Culture, Enterprise, Events, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Projects, Social Enterprise

Thanks to the help and generosity from parents, children and teachers, our Harvest Sale on Friday 13th September raised £86. We will put this money to good use, buying new resources for outdoor education to continue with our good work in the garden and the woods.

Continue reading HARVEST SALE @ Kilmartin →

What a Buzz!

Awards, Communities, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Projects, Science

P7 pupils in Rhu are looking to achieve the John Muir award this term for discovering, exploring, conserving and sharing their work on bees and their local area. They made a great start to their project by visiting a local beekeeper. Fortunately, it was a lovely sunny day and the bees were out foraging for the last pollen and nectar of the season. What a good opportunity to spot the bees busy at work.

Continue reading What a Buzz! →

Kilcreggan Primary School

Communities and Culture, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools

Last Friday our Primary 5/4 class gathered brambles from our School grounds and apples from fruit trees planted by pupils and parents earlier this year. They then came back into class and made apple and bramble crumble. There was enough for every class to try some! As you can see from the pictures it was delicious.

Continue reading Kilcreggan Primary School →

Achaleven Primary School Helping out Hope Kitchen

Awards, Communities, Competitions, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Projects

When we returned from the school holidays we discovered an abundance of crops in our school garden, from peas, giant cucumbers and carrots to a bumper crop of potatoes – which also won first prize in the Connel Flower Show last weekend!
What should we do with all these vegetables? We wanted to help others so we contacted Hope Kitchen in Oban to see if they could use them.

Continue reading Achaleven Primary School Helping out Hope Kitchen →

Americans in Dunoon Report

Events, Expressive arts, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools

On the 15th of August 2013 a lady called Sue Morrison came from Strathclyde University to talk to us about how to properly do an interview.
On the white board she let us listen to bad interviews and what we should not do during an interview.
I found it very interesting and useful advice.
On Monday the 19th of August we all went to the Burgh Hall to interview four people who were in Dunoon when the Americans came or were one of the Americans. Continue reading Americans in Dunoon Report →

People Who Help Us!

Communities, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools

Rockfield Primary 2 kicked off their ‘People Who Help Us’ topic with a visit from local PC Andrew Simpson. The children enjoyed learning about what the police do and how they can help. They especially enjoyed seeing the police van with the flashing lights. The follow up tasks in class proved to be very fruitful after the hands on experience. We have many things to look forward to that include a visit from a nurse, a postman, the mountain rescue and even some school staff. We have also been invited to the local fire station and police station. Exciting times ahead in Primary 2!

Continue reading People Who Help Us! →

St. Joseph’s Pupil Scoops International Prize!

Awards, Competitions, Events, Expressive arts, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools, RME

Charlotte was overcome with emotion when John Evitt of Mission Matters Scotland came to St. Joseph’s Primary School for what she thought was an assembly on the international charity which the school supports. However, earlier this year Charlotte and her classmates had entered an art competition to mark the 170th birthday of the Catholic Church’s global mission charity and John’s real reason for visiting school that day was to present Charlotte with the Scottish prize.

Continue reading St. Joseph’s Pupil Scoops International Prize! →

PRIMARY 6&7 VISIT MESOLITHIC DIG ON ISLAY

Communities and Culture, Events, Geography, History, Interdisciplinary, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Science, Topics

On Tuesday 27th August Primary 6&7 went on an archaeological dig to Rubha Port an t-Seilich on Islay because they are doing a topic on life in Mesolithic times. The dig was run By Professor Steven Mithin from Reading University and a team of archaeologists.
The site that they were visiting was found when a gamekeeper bought pigs to dig up the bracken, but instead the pigs dug up a piece of flint that was over 9,000 years old. Continue reading PRIMARY 6&7 VISIT MESOLITHIC DIG ON ISLAY →