Dunoon Primary Learning Centre meet Julia Donaldson

Literacy, School trips

On Monday 17th September the Learning Centre children went to Dunoon Library to meet Julia & Malcolm Donaldson.  Mrs MacDonald put the children forward for this event as they had been so interested in Julia’s books and were delighted to be invited to take part alongside children from other local primaries. 

The children of DP Learning Centre performed the Gruffalo’s child for the Donaldson’s and in turn they performed Room on the Broom for them.  Lucky James Ballantyne was picked to be the bird in Julia & Malcolm’s performance.  What a superb day out, the children loved every minute!

Vote for our scarecrow!

Events, Primary schools

This week Lismore Primary School are taking part in the island’s first Scarecrow Competition.  The children began by drawing some designs and suggesting how a scarecrow might be constructed.  Next,they stuffed old bolier suits with rags and hay before dressing the scarecrows in school uniforms.  Last week, “Miss Strict, with her pupils, Jimmy and Caitlin” were finally finished and put in position close to the roadside.

There are about 20 scarecrows dotted around the island and members of the public are being asked to vote for their favourite one before Saturday 22nd September.  There are photographs of all the scarecrows on our community website so why not go onto isleoflismore.com and click on “Recent Updates” to vote?

Continue reading Vote for our scarecrow! →

Dalintober elects Pupil Council 2012-13

Events, Primary schools

This year’s elected Pupil Council members held their first meeting of the new school year on Friday.   Their first task for the school curriculum aspect of their role will be to audit pupil responses to ‘Big Writing’ and look at what is working well and what could improve – a big task!

They were also able to share the news with their peers and staff that our PTA Coffee Evening on Thursday raised £1659.71 – a fantastic sum!Thank you to our new Pupil Council members for committing themselves to their role.

George’s Marvellous Medicine

Literacy, Primary schools

 Primary 3 of St Joseph’s have had great fun reading the story of George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl.  They studied the illustrator Quentin Blake’s work and represented it in their drawings.

They made a list of super adjectives to describe George’s Grandma.  They also wrote their own descriptions of what happens to Grandma when she took the medicine.  The children have been set the challenge of reading more of Roald Dahl’s work which they have embraced wholeheartedly.

Strone Primary’s Twin Munro Bagging Champs

Outdoor Learning, Primary schools

If you’ve been reading the national press lately you may have seen two of Strone Primary School’s record breaking celebrity pupils!

Our P7 twins, Nuala and Cliona have just completed all 282 munros, breaking records for being the youngest twins, as well as the youngest Scottish girls to complete the challenge.  They completed the 282 together with mum and dad, Neil and Diane, and their dog, Aonach.  The girls started their challenge when they were just four years old, and have been travelling around Scotland ever since, in their quest to “bag” them all.

Continue reading Strone Primary’s Twin Munro Bagging Champs →

Butter Fingers!

Health and Wellbeing, Primary schools

As part of this term’s food and farming work, P6/5 in Garelochhead have been investigating dairy products and the journey they make to reach our plates.  We have been looking at dairy farming and the milk industry in Scotland. We also tasted many of  the different types of milk and discussed the similarities and differences.  We then went on to making our own butter.  It was really interesting to see the cream separate into curds and buttermilk. 

The butter was put into the fridge overnight and in the morning we had hot toast with our butter. P7/6 loved the taste of the butter too.

Continue reading Butter Fingers! →

Thank You RHET For A Farmtastic Day at Duchlage!

Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, School trips

As part of our Food and Farming work P6/5 from Garelochhead Primary visited Duchlage Farm on Luss Estate.  It was a fabulous day and we all had such a great time and learned a lot from all the experts there.  We were able to milk ‘Mable’ the fibre glass dairy cow, make butter, look at various pieces of farming machinery, investigate biodiversity, make delicious venison burgers, learn more about Scotch beef and Scotch lamb. Thank you so much for such a great event!!

Continue reading Thank You RHET For A Farmtastic Day at Duchlage! →

Animal Antics

Events, Primary schools

Primary 1 pupils at Lochnell have been finding out more about how to care for pets.  As well as visits from kittens, a terrapin and some day old chicks with a mother hen they were treated to some snake handling and a visit from Barney, the new pup who we all decided looked exactly like Floppy from the stories we’ve been reading in school.

Next in store are our investigations of animals who can help us ….. with a guide dog and a horse poised to enter the playground.

Continue reading Animal Antics →

Roald Dahl Celebrations continue

Literacy, Primary schools

Children in Lochnell primaries 2 – 7 were delighted, on Author’s Live day, to have  the chance to find out more about one of their best loved authors.  As Primaries 2 and 3 have been enjoying the BFG and P4 are investigating writing their own “revolting rhymes”, Roald Dahl  is already a firm favourite.

Many children have read and continue to read his stories and poems in school and at home and use him as a role model for their imaginitive writing.

Recycling

Eco Schools, Primary schools

Friday at St Joseph’s brings everyone’s mind to recycling.  The Eco Committee have worked hard to develop a recycling policy to which all children and adults adhere.  P7 are responsible for collecting all recyclable materials on Friday and placing them in the requisite containers for the council.  The Eco Committee has worked hard alongside parents to produce an environmentally friendly school.  We easily earned our Green flag status and will continue towards making our school as ‘Eco Friendly’ as possible.

Mid Argyll Orienteering 2012

Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, School trips, ,

On the 6th September 2012 the P4-P7s from Lochgilphead Primary took part in the orienteering event organised by Stramash.  The day was held in Kilmory Gardens and attended by many schools from across Mid Argyll.  The four different courses challenged all the children, the longest being 3.6km for the P7 girls and boys.

When you weren’t taking part in the orienteering, there was a natural art competition and a scavenger hunt.  The winners of the natural art competition were Tayvallich Primary.  The fabulous day impressed everyone and Stramash is thanked for the spectacular day and we hope that there will be more to come!

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Primary 7 at Park School celebrate Roald Dahl Day

Literacy, Primary schools

As Primary 7 are currently setting up the school library, they thought celebrating Roald Dahl Day would be a great way of promoting the library and encouraging younger pupils to read.

The class organised a shared reading session with Primary 1 to show them that reading can be fun.  They chose Roald Dahl’s ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ to read to the infant class and what a success it was!  Primary 7 showed great patience and enthusiasm throughout the session and it was thoroughly enjoyed by Primary 1, so much so, that the classes are now talking about setting up a weekly slot to continue promoting reading within the school.

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Dream Catchers at St. Mun’s

Literacy, Primary schools

Celebrating 30 years of the BFG 

With lots of celebrations going to celebrate the BFG’s 30th Birthday, the Primary 7 pupils at St. Mun’s decided to investigate some really ‘Big Dreamers’ who had their dreams come true.  They were set the task of working collaboratively in small groups to produce a fact profile for a number of famous people including Thomas Edison, Galileo, Amelia Earhart and Marie Curie to name just a few.  The children then had to present their findings to their peers.  Amazingly, some of them had never heard of these ‘Dreamers’ and admitted they were much more knowledgeable after everyone had presented their findings.

Later the children wrote about their own dreams  and stored them in jars just like The BFG.

P6 Finance Assembly

Primary schools,

P6 children of St Joseph’s displayed their excellent learning on their ‘Finance’ topic at assembly recently.  The children staged a drama for the whole school where ‘mum’ took along her child to speak to the ‘bank manager’ about the advantages of saving with a credit union.  This of course helped re-launch the ‘Supersavers’ scheme in school where all the children have the opportunity to save and belong to a subsidiary of the ‘real’ Credit Union.

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SD5 Fitness Club, Oban High School

Health and Wellbeing, Outdoor Learning, Secondary schools

As part of their Personal Development Award a  group of students from Oban high School have formed a Fitness Club and have been participating in different aspects of Outdoor Education since returning from their holidays. 

The group have been working with Stramash and have experienced Canoeing in a local Loch and Coasteering at Ganavan Sands.  For many of the group this was very challenging and was fantastic to see them all joining in and coming out of their comfort zones!

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Luing exploring differences

Primary schools

All of the children from nursery to P7 had the opportunity to experience what it felt like to be in a wheelchair.  The children each had a turn sitting in and pushing the wheelchair.  They found the experience interesting, the scariest thing they found was that they had to trust the person pushing them.

The children also wore blindfolds and had to find their way around the school.  A new experience of goalball (with blindfolds) was introduced in the classroom and then extended into a full P.E. experience in the hall. Continue reading Luing exploring differences →

LOCAL MOD & FOREST PARTNERS

Expressive arts, Primary schools, School trips

On Friday, 7th September Bunessan Primary went to Tobermory to the local mod.  Some people sang a solo and some people were in the choir which came second.   Byron came first in the chanter.  Everyone got a certificate.  We liked seeing other people singing and everyone had a good time.

At An Tobar we looked at leaves which we had made at school as part of the Forest Partners project.  They were made from clay, glass and bronze.  There was a film that the P5, 6, 7 class were in.  We wrote our names on leaves and they were put on the floor of the exhibition.  The whole exhibition looked really cool and amazing.  There were lots of leaves hanging down with fairy lights shining.  It looked like an enchanted forest.  We had lots of fun and got goody bags.  By Claire, Iain & Amy – P4

Intrepid campers on Lismore!

Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, School trips

Friday 7th September was Camping Day at Lismore Primary School.  Following the disappointing cancellation of last term’s planned camp due to high winds, everyone was determined that  this one would go ahead – even if there was a little rain!  The children arrived at school with tents and sleeping bags.  Some were a little apprehensive as this would be their first night away from home or in a tent.

During the morning, the children learned a bit about survival skills, finding out about equipment they would need to survive in the wild for the night, and what to do if they were lost or injured in the wild.  They then pitched their tents and made a fireplace before going home. Continue reading Intrepid campers on Lismore! →