Yesterday the boys and girls of Primary one and two were very busy in the preparation of a feast of organic delights. Come along to our restaurant and you could sample a moss stew, some mud muffins or a sandy pancake with a drizzle of grass syrup. The outdoor kitchen has proved so popular that there is now a playtime rota for every class!
Staff have found that taking a back seat brings up lots of interesting observations- already we know that the children need writing materials for menus, they need plates and cups to serve up their delights and possibly a set of scales to measure with!
Continue reading Dalmally Restaurant Opens for Business
Category Archives: Outdoor Learning
Dunstaffnage Castle Visit
This term Primary 2 and Primary 3 in Park Primary School are working co-operatively to learn about Life in a Local Castle. As part of this we visited Dunstaffnage Castle on Friday 12th September and had a great day exploring the remains of a real castle. We identified the main features of a castle and imagined what life would have been like for those living in the castle hundreds of years ago.
Outdoor Learning at Strone Primary
The P1-4 class took their maths lesson outdoors this week, and went in search of brambles. Back in the classroom they used ten and twenty frames to count the brambles and are hoping to collect enough to make some jam!
Gaelic Transition through Local History
Ms Howitt from Dunoon Grammar School initiated a transitional topic for the Gaelic medium pupils of Sandbank Primary School where they could gradually get to know the staff, subjects and building during their last couple of years at Primary. The pupils were already working upon an enquiry based local history project which allowed many opportunities for interdisciplinary work, some of which were suitable for the Grammar staff to lead.
Success at Barcaldine
Barcaldine Primary School have won a total of 11 firsts, 11 seconds and 9 third prizes at two local horticultural shows at Benderloch and Connel, over the past weekends. They put on fine displays of vegetables, flowers, baking, arts and crafts. The pupils are delighted to be the first primary school to win the Duncan MacPherson Trophy for a selection of mixed vegetables. Many thanks to Marion Fisher for all her hard work gardening with us.
Furnace Primary “Brave”ly explore Carnasserie Castle
Furnace pupils spent the day at Kilmartin House Museum and Carnasserie Castle learning about the early historic period in Scottish history. They looked for items left behind by Merida and her family around the museum, investigated the carved burial stones in the neighbouring church yard and then prepared pottage, oatcakes and fruit & honey for lunch over an open fire. In the afternoon we explored Carnasserie Castle to try and picture how Merida and her family lived. The castle will feature in an upcoming film to be written, produced and performed by the pupils.
Tuesday Afternoon Skills Clubs at Strone Primary
This week was the start of our weekly skills clubs and pupils could choose between Golf, Cookery, Outdoors and the Mystery Minibus Club. The pupils who chose the Mystery Minibus club were transported to a magical mystery tour of Pucks Glen! The clubs enable pupils to take the curriculum outdoors whilst experiencing different activities which develop new skills in community settings.
Luing Pupils Visit Atlantic Island Site
All of the pupils of Luing Primary School were invited to visit the building site of the Atlantic Islands Centre in Cullipool. In preparation of this, they compiled a long list of questions. On arrival they were met by Andrew Pinkerton, the project development manager, Shona Cameron the architect, and Neil the site manager from McLeod Construction. All children were given a high vis jacket and a hard hat to wear. They then ventured into the building taking great care not to stand on the underfloor heating pipes, Andrew explained the layout and then answered lots of questions.
Strone Primary School’s Benmore adventure
Strone Primary School attended an activity day at Benmore Gardens, and had great fun making amazing colourful creatures from willow and tissue paper. Here the P5-7’s show off their creations.
Achaleven investigates life on a fish farm.
As part of their topic on the sea Achaleven Primary asked Scottish Sea Farms if they could visit. The staff were fantastic organising all the health & safety involved (including buying in special child lifejackets) and arranged for a trip out to one of their farms at Shuna.
They were taken to the workboat, ‘Endeavour’ and headed out to the farm. It amazed them that amount of technology there is in the middle of the sea – all the computers and cameras!
Continue reading Achaleven investigates life on a fish farm.
Would you like mud with that sir?
Achaleven Primary have taken mud to a whole new level with a new addition to their outdoor learning space.
To co-incide with International Mud Day at the end of June, the school had a grand opening of our mud kitchen which Mrs MacPherson designed and Mr MacPherson very kindly built for us. The toddler group came along and shared in the mud-themed ceremony (which also included some very delicious edible goodies). Continue reading Would you like mud with that sir?
commonwealth passport
Today we were handing out commonwealth passport medals at Cardross Primary for pupils who completed lots of Commonwealth sports.
Cycling Proficiency Success at Rothesay Primary
After many weeks of studying cycling and road safety theory and practical sessions in the playground and on the road, Primary 6 were finally ready to sit their cycling proficiency in June. We were all very proud of everyone who took part and passed with flying colours.
Rothesay Primary would like to thank the parents and staff who worked with the pupils enabling them to achieve success. The smiles in the photo say it all!
Rothesay Primary Young Green Fingers!
After months of sowing, weeding, transplanting, weeding, watering and weeding (!) Rothesay Primary were delighted to have some fine produce for the Rothesay Horticultural Society Show. We carefully choose our best fruit and veg and got them ready for the show bench. We entered two varieties of tomato, black grapes, peppers, yellow courgette, runner beans, peas, curly kale, pears, rhubarb, onions, carrots and a whopping marrow!
Minard Primary School
The children of Minard Primary School conducted surveys last term to discover how much litter there was in school and around the village. They realised that there was quite a bit of dog mess in the village but nowhere to dispose of it. After writing letters to The Environment Officer in Lochgilphead they were very pleased when David came to meet them and to discuss what they wanted. They decided to install a special bin and display notices round the village to encourage people to pick up after their pets. The bin was installed during the summer break much to the delight of the children.mi
Dervaig Primary School Know Their Onions
Dervaig Primary pupils successfully grew onions and peas in their raised beds area this year and were delighted to win a 1st for the peas and a 3rd for the onions at the Tobermory Horticultural Show on Saturday 23 August 2014. The pupils are now looking forward to making a large pot of soup with the rest of their produce. They also won a 1st and 2nd in the photographic category, and a 3rd for a commonwealth painting.
Auchindrain / Achadh an Droigheann
On the last week of term, June 2014, the pupils of Sandbank Gaelic Medium Unit visited Auchindrain as part of their local history project and Crofting Connections work. They had brainstormed a set of questions that they wanted to ask the curator, Mr Bob Clarke, which would help us to understand the forces of change in the lives of local people through the last couple of centuries. Mr Clarke took us on a tour of the houses, telling us about some of the inhabitants and their way of life. We learned so much that we would not be able to write it all down in one report!
Continue reading Auchindrain / Achadh an Droigheann
Whole School Orienteering at Sandbank Primary!
A whole school orienteering event took place at Sandbank Primary School on the last Thursday of the June term 2014. The pupils of Gaelic medium P6/7 had walked up to the Heritage trail the previous week, chosen a safe but challenging area for a star-orienteering exercise, drew the maps and planned the course. Back at school they prepared the materials (bilingually (Gaelic & English) and laminated the maps ready for the big day. Miss Wombwell split the rest of the school into mixed ability teams.
Continue reading Whole School Orienteering at Sandbank Primary!
GUARD at Tigh Caol
Sandbank Gaelic Medium P6/7 class were fortunate enough to be invited to participate in an archaeological dig at Tigh Caol near Glendaruel along with many other schools in the area. The dig was performed by GUARD (Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division) with support from the local community (Forestry Enterprise and Strachur and District Local History Society). Kilmodan and Sandbank both attended on the same day and the pupils were given the opportunity to metal detect, trowel and bag finds, draw the plans of the site and sieve the spoil heap.
Continue reading GUARD at Tigh Caol
Allt na Blàthaich
During May – June 2014 the pupils of Sandbank Gaelic Medium Unit P6/7 began to explore and record some old ruins amongst the trees at Ard na Blàthaich on the side of Loch Eck. First of all we mapped the area, photographed the ruins, and measured the walls using tape measures and measuring wheel. We also used a compass to give us the direction that the walls were running in and used some GPS machines that we’d borrowed from Clyde Muirshiel Countryside Ranger service. These gave us a grid reference number that we can now plot on a map.
