For several years now, renowned Tarbert Chef, Pascal, has supported Tarbert Academy’s pupils in a unique way. Teachers Christine Inglis and Heather Dixon from the French and Home Economics Departments work together to prepare pupils to receive a special cookery lesson delivered in the French language. During this lesson, pupils have an opportunity to work with Pascal as he demonstrates the dish and then assists pupils to prepare it themselves. Continue reading Tarbert Academy French / H.E. interdisciplinary project
Tarbert Academy S1/2 Work Experience/Enterprise Project
On Tuesday 20th March, all S1 and S2 pupils were given the opportunity to experience the world of work for a day. Where possible, pupils went to work with parents, family members or family friends. Where this was not suitable, pupils took on work experience in school. In S1, pupils’ placements varied from the Fire and Rescue Service to Scottish Water, and included hotel work, fish farming, agriculture, office work and Mundells. In S2, pupils worked with cars, Cal Mac, shops, primary schools, catering and hair-dressing – to name but a few. Continue reading Tarbert Academy S1/2 Work Experience/Enterprise Project
Port Ellen’s Selfish Giant
THE SELFISH GIANT
by Harry Rennell
P4/5 have just performaed their play named The Selfish Giant, which is adapted from a short story by Oscar Wilde. Firstly, we had to write the script so we all wrote a different part of the story. Then we put it all together. Our teacher, Mrs. Clark, added a few more lines and jokes, so everyone in the class has a part. Continue reading Port Ellen’s Selfish Giant
‘Bridges to Schools’ from Strone
Strone Primary pupils took part in an activity based session where they constructed a 12m long cable-stayed bridge, and then walked across the bridge. Pupils learned about civil engineering and the importance of team work and communication when they were dressed in their safety clothes – hard hat and fluorescent jacket – and worked in 2 groups, with the help of real civil engineers, to construct their side of the bridge. The sessions were run by Glasgow and West of Scotland branch of the Institution of Civil Engineers and are designed to raise awareness of civil engineering and encourage some to see it as a possible career.
The sessions were free and were a highly enjoyable, educational and motivational culmination of the Bridges topic for P4-7. For further information contact Strone Primary or ice.org.uk/Scotland/education.
Kilchrenan’s ‘Forest Schools’ update.
Look what has emerged in our Forest School this springtime. Our tree friends are wakening up.
Southend’s successful Open Day
The sun was shining for our recent Open Day and lots of parents came to see what their children had been up to in school recently. Pupils presented their learning to the parents through presentations, demonstrations and by inviting parents to have a go at some activities. Primary 2 and 3 got into role play and became Vikings for the day. Continue reading Southend’s successful Open Day
Kilcreggan Sports Relief fundraising update
We said we would keep you posted re our Sports Relief Fundraising activities. As well as our Sports Relief Mile our whole School took part in a production of The Selfish Giant (a musical). We gave two performances and donations have been given to Sports Relief.
In total over the two events our small School of 84 pupils has raised £882.60 and we still have some money to collect!
Continue reading Kilcreggan Sports Relief fundraising update
Events at Castlehill Primary
Pupils from Castlehill Primary School in Campbeltown have been involved in several events recently. These have included the Kintyre Schools Badminton Competition, the Sport Relief Mile and a School Concert.
Over 50 pupils from the school participated in the badminton competition with several receiving trophies, medals and other awards. Continue reading Events at Castlehill Primary
‘Composition to Exhibition’ in Tobermory
‘Composition to Exhibition’ is a visual arts and music collaborative project aimed at secondary pupils. After visiting Islay, Bute and Tiree the Creative Arts in Schools Team (CAST) held a two day workshop on Mull offering pupils from Tobermory High the opportunity to work with a musician and two visual artists.
The concept for the project is ‘recognising and celebrating potential opportunities for our islands through harnessing natural energy sources in particular tidal/wave energy.’ We have reflected this concept by focusing throughout on applying modern technologies such as film, sequencing and digital art to craft/art and music. Continue reading ‘Composition to Exhibition’ in Tobermory
Oban High’s New Manga, Anime and Comics Club!
Manga: food, mineral or comic? Not sure of the answer? You’re missing out on a whole world of possibilities when it comes to literacy and young people. Manga quite simply means “comics” in Japanese and is a term applied to an international market with a huge influence, especially when it comes to teens. Much of Manga’s growth in popularity is down to the impact of Anime films and series (Japanese animations). If you haven’t already, check out some of the visually stunning Studio Ghibli productions like Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Here at Oban High, we’ve been harnessing the popularity of this genre in building a new and thriving club. Continue reading Oban High’s New Manga, Anime and Comics Club!
SWIM AND WALK FOR SPORT RELIEF
Today was Sport Relief and at Port Ellen we were very sporty, celebrating in style. It was great to see all the children wearing red to raise money for Sport Relief. In the morning the whole school went to the swimming pool to take part in our swimming gala. It was very exciting, with some close run inter-house races! In the end the winners of the relay were Orsay, who also won the house swimming cup. The winning team were Maisie, Emily, Angus and Daniel. The winner of the boys swimming was Daniel Smith, and the girls Emily Logan. Thanks to Karen Siddell for all her help. Continue reading SWIM AND WALK FOR SPORT RELIEF
OUR WORLD IN MOTION at Port Ellen
From the 12th March-16th March it is science and engineering week. Primary 4-7 are all taking part in a whole week of science and all the activities we do is about forces. The first thing that we learned was Newton’s 3 laws and they are very important because they describe forces very well. The first law is “when forces acting on an object they are balanced,it will remain at rest or move in an straight line at constant speed”. The 2nd law is “force=mass x acceleration”. The 3rd law is “every action has an equal and opposite reaction” and that is Newtons 3 laws. Continue reading OUR WORLD IN MOTION at Port Ellen
Southend celebrates Sports and Ecoschools
Southend Primary pupils have had a busy couple of days. Yesterday they completed their Sport Relief Mile with the help of Active Schools Co-ordinator, Robbie Kupris. The 12 pupils in Primary 4-7 raised a total of £233 for the event and the younger children cheered them on as they ran the course.
Earlier, pupils demonstrated their knowledge of CPR after a recent training event. They will be teaching parents at our Open Day about how to act quickly if a person collapses and stops breathing. Continue reading Southend celebrates Sports and Ecoschools
Cooperative learning courses
Last week, on the 14th and 15th of March, Argyll ran the latest in its long series of cooperative learning courses. This particular one was a 2-day residential presented by Jay Helbert and Matthew Boyle. Participants covered a variety of major cooperative structures like Jigsaw, Carousel, Graffiti, Team Games Tournaments, Stand and Deliver to name but a few. In addition participants were kept wide awake and involved by a regular interspersal of shorter, pacy “Kagan style” structures like Rally Robin, Group-Pair-Share, Fan’n’Pick etc. Continue reading Cooperative learning courses
Kilcreggan Primary School – Sports Relief mile
What a beautiful day to go for a run! Today pupils, staff and parents from Kilcreggan Primary School took part in a 1 mile run in aid of Sports Relief. The sun shone, the children were smiling and everybody had a great time. Our event was sponsored so we hope to raise a good sum for the cause. We will keep you posted.
Forest Schools at Rhunahaorine Primary
Forest Schools is a great activity where we learn about interesting things to do in the forest .We get to do things like learn new knots,make shelters and make fires in addition we also help to look after the environment by doing things like making shelter for the various kinds of creatures that live in the forest. – by Kirk p7
P1-7 go to forest schools in Largie and will be going for the next 7 weeks. We do games,dens,climbing trees, showing us knots and finally we make hot chocolate in the storm kettle. – by Finlay p6 Continue reading Forest Schools at Rhunahaorine Primary
Kilchrenan Primary Forest School Update
The woods have been our classroom for 7 months now. We started our Forest School venture in August and have explored there weekly, bar a few weeks when things got a bit hectic with the Christmas play. You know how it is!
There are 12 of us, 10 pupils (P1-P6) and 2 members of staff, although we’ve also had 7 different visitors, including our Education Scotland inspector and Miss Teen Argyll (Galaxy)!
Priority is safety and comfort. The pupils are becoming proficient at putting up a tarpaulin shelter, using timber hitch and tension knots. They’re also pretty good at retrieving it from the trees on windy days! Teamwork is essential and they know their roles. Continue reading Kilchrenan Primary Forest School Update
Kilmartin P.S. Take the Blytheswood Trust Challenge!
The children at Kilmartin Primary School recently helped raise money for the Blytheswood Trust by taking their £20 Enterprise challenge. The Trust gave the P.5-7 class £20 and challenged them to turn that into a profit.
The children thought of many interesting ideas but finally decided to bake and sell flapjacks to the other children in school. They had to use their maths skills to find out how much it would cost to make the flapjacks and then calculate what price they could sell them for to ensure a good profit. Continue reading Kilmartin P.S. Take the Blytheswood Trust Challenge!
Rhu Primary School Third Green Flag
Written by Anna Ferguson – Primary 7
Rhu Primary School have been working towards their 3rd green flag for the past two years. Success came on Thursday 26th January when they achieved their goal. Pupils and staff were delighted and teachers shed tears of joy.
The Eco Committee held many meetings making sure the required criteria would be met, which was no easy feat. The challenge involved pupils, parents and the wider community. Mrs. Mackay, Principal Teacher and Eco Coordinator said,
“It’s made me aware of being more eco friendly.” This seems to be felt by the pupils too. Continue reading Rhu Primary School Third Green Flag
Easter Island Heads!
What could you do if you had a big stone head in your playground?
CAST has funding to take part in a national arts project called ‘Giants in the Forest’ and has offered primary schools the chance to take part in an Argyll and Bute off-shoot. To date we have 71 primary schools signed up to take part. Each school is being sent a large ceramic ‘Easter Island’ head, which can be planted up with seedlings/plants of their choice. A bag of compost is also being supplied.
GITF involves enormous heads being erected in woodland in Argyll as well as Borders and Dumfries and Galloway. These are being planted up with indigenous growth from the surrounding habitat and used as a catalyst for a wide variety of arts and education events. The national project is run by ‘vision mechanics’. Continue reading Easter Island Heads!
