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.
Category Archives: Communities and Culture
Primary 7 St. Mun’s At The Edinburgh Fringe
Primary 7 Turn Theatre Critics At The Edinburgh Fringe
Returning from the Summer holidays, you would think pupils would want to break themselves in gently to their final year at Primary School, but not the Primary 7s at St. Mun’s who are studying Shakespeare this term.
On the 19th of August, pupils travelled to Morningside, Edinburgh and Venue 132 of the world famous Fringe Festival, where they were due to watch Shakespeare’s A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, as performed by the students of Fife College.
Continue reading Primary 7 St. Mun’s At The Edinburgh Fringe
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.
Food to Fork Adventure for Rothesay Primary
Rothesay Primary Eco Committee visited Tesco in Greenock this week to learn more about where their food comes from. Ruth Sharkey set us our first task – to find a rainbow of fruit and veg, name them and find their country of origin. Robin was amazed to find his bananas came all the way from the Cameroons! Next we ventured into the deep freeze! At -12 degrees we had to dress up very warmly. Ruth told us that it is important to keep the food very cold and that the freezers usually run at minus 20 brrrrrr!
Continue reading Food to Fork Adventure for Rothesay Primary
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.
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.
DGS Time Travellers Captivate the Clans Pupils re-enact Dunoon’s turbulent past
On Cowal Games Friday, 13 pupils from DGS put on a marvellous performance in front of members of the Lamont and Campbell Clans in Dunoon’s Queens Hall – re-enacting the siege of Toward Castle and the Dunoon Massacre of 1646.
The pupil’s had been given an initial story line from the Clan Lamont Society on the lead up to the performance – but then had to develop the story into a creative re-enactment.
Continue reading DGS Time Travellers Captivate the Clans Pupils re-enact Dunoon’s turbulent past
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?
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.
Essay Success – What does ‘sustainable living’ mean to you?
Each year the Trust for Sustainable Living organises a global essay competition, which this year invited schoolchildren to outline their ideas for sustainable living and the steps needed for societies to achieve them. This year 73 countries participated and essays were received from 1,094 children. We had several finalists from Port Ellen and in July Asher travelled down to Oxford to attend the international schools debate, which was attended by children from 23 countries.
Continue reading Essay Success – What does ‘sustainable living’ mean to you?
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
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.
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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.
Game On – A Lasting Legacy
As part of the Scottish Government’s Legacy Gift initiative, Education Scotland was allocated 1000 Games tickets to distribute to children and young people who had engaged with the Game On Scotland programme, as part of the Commonwealth Games.
Schools were invited to apply for tickets by completing a survey about activities held in conjunction with the Game On website and Commonwealth Games, to be put in the ballot for a chance to win 10 tickets for sporting Games tickets.
Continue reading Game On – A Lasting Legacy
Danke und auf Wiedersehen
Pupils, parents and staff from Dunoon Grammar School gathered at the school at 6.30 am last Thursday (26 June) to bid a fond farewell to German partners as the 2014 edition of the Dunoon Grammar School and Hardenberg Gymnasium exchange came to a close.
The tearful goodbyes from both sets of pupils as the German bus pulled away from DGS illustrated the success of this year’s exchange and the bond forged between the pupils involved. Continue reading Danke und auf Wiedersehen
Sizzling Summer Spectacular to end school year at DGS
Over 180 S6 pupils, staff and their families enjoyed a samba inspired BBQ last Thursday evening (26 June) to mark the end of a successful school year.
The school yard was transformed into the ‘Copacabana Courtyard’ – complete with inflatable palm trees – as pupils and staff enjoyed a World Cup themed afternoon that included a bbq, beach volleyball, limbo dancing, football target challenge and trampoline.
Continue reading Sizzling Summer Spectacular to end school year at DGS
Kintyre Care Home Art Competition’s Dalintober Winner
Kintyre Care Home, Campbeltown recently held their Open Day and asked Pre-5 to P3 pupils to design posters depicting a sporting event. Fraser from P2/1 in Dalintober’s drawing of Wimbledon won a prize. Pictured with Fraser are some of the staff and residents from Kintyre Care Home.
DPS Commonwealth Concert
Dunoon Primary hosted a spectacular Commonwealth Grand Concert on Tuesday 24th June. The Concert began with a parade of all the countries and the choir then sang ‘Heres to our Commonwealth’. P1 – P7 then followed with a selection of songs relating to their chosen Commonwealth Country.
