Category Archives: environment

St Andrew’s Primary – Junior Award Scheme for Schools

JASS is our award for our young people. This award is progressive, with increasing commitment, learning and challenge at each level and all our children are taking part in this scheme. Parents, staff and pupils alike look forward to their Friday JASS sessions covering the four sections – My Interests; Get Active, Stay Active; Me and My World and Adventure. JASS is fully inclusive and our children have developed greater self confidence, self assuredness and (most importantly) enjoyment!

St Andrew’s Primary – This is My Island

St Andrew’s Pupils in P3/4/5 took part in a project organised by Mount Stuart resident artist, Malcolm Mackenzie. The project saw the children decorating pieces of wood which Malcolm used to make a boat. They wrote letters detailing what their island means to them, the things they love about living on Bute. Rothesay Primary and North Bute Primary took part too. The pupils attended the boat launch at Mount Stuart and class teacher Miss Rae said that it was “A celebration of community, commonality and sharing amazing outdoor spaces”.

The delights of a rural school

The delights of a rural school where the pupils sow, nurture, harvest, prepare and distribute the harvest from the school grounds. The pupils of Minard Primary school made plum and apple crumble to give away to members of the community along with harvested parsley, carrots and leeks. The gifts were delivered almost as soon as they were gathered from the gardens. The feedback from our small community was excellent with several pots of soup on the go locally that night.

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Sandbank visit to Benmore Gardens.

The upper primary classes at Sandbank Primary enjoyed a fabulous day at Benmore Botanical Gardens where they took part in fun, outdoor learning activities inspired by the book ‘The Lost Words’ by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.

The children were split into two groups. One group worked with the poems in the book and had to guess the subject of the poems by a series of clues in a bag.

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Luss harvest

Early Harvest for Waitrose Grow to Sell at Luss
Children at Luss have been enjoying eating the vegetables that they have grown from their Waitrose Grow to Sell box. They have grown lettuce, radishes, spring onions, pak choi, rhubarb , raspberries and herbs. They have been enjoying eating the salad with their lunch and have taken the extra lettuce home. They have also painted signs to show all the skills they use when working in the garden.

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Mini Beast Quest for Minard and Furnace Primaries

Minard and Furnace Primary Schools had a fantastic shared Summer trip out with a Mini beast hunt at Bellanoch on the Crinan Canal. This was at the end of our Nature detectives and Minibeasts topic. Oly and Pete from the Heart of Argyll wildlife Project took the pupils and staff on an amazing quest for wildlife and flowers in the wild grass verges of the canal. It was amazing what we found from spiders to caterpillars and even some unidentified egg-like items. Oly and Pete have promised to let us know what they are.

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Kirn Eco Committee visit Sky Academy

The Eco Committee from Kirn Primary School, along with some pupils from P4-P7 visited the Sky Academy in Livingston. The pupils were there to film a short news report about the environmental problem of plastics in our oceans and waters.

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DEVELOPING OUR OUTDOOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AT DUNBEG PRIMARY SCHOOL.

Whilst Dunbeg Primary School is treasured by its local community; its grounds are a treasure in their own right. Over the past seven months pupils, staff and parents have begun to develop them as an accessible, fun and exciting place to learn.
August 2017: The wetland/woodland area hinted at past projects but was thoroughly overgrown and boggy. An inspiring place however with clear educational and well-being potential!

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Clachan Primary School – 6th Green Flag

We are delighted to announce that Clachan Primary School have been awarded their 6th Green Flag. This shows we have been an Eco School with Green Flag Status for 10 years! Well done to all involved.
Here is the report we received;

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Achahoish report from Auchindrain museum

We went to Auchindrain Museum to see the houses and how people lived in the olden days because our school topic is Our Heritage.
We saw the new house which is already about 75years old! The owner of Auchindrain is called Catty Cat and he looks after Auchindrain. (He is a cat)
We had a look at the Wise woman’s house – she made people better by using herbs and some poisonous plants, but by using a little bit of them it made people better.
The word for Wise woman and old lady is the same in Gaelic and it means witch.
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Fifth Eco-Schools Green Flag for Luing Pupils

The children of Luing Primary were very pleased to receive their fifth green flag, which involved studying Sustainability, Transport and Litter.

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Southend Primary – Eco Schools Green Flag

Southend Primary School have successfully renewed their Green Flag Award by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful in recognition of their Eco-Schools journey.

Part of the focus has been on beach and marine litter with workshops undertaken with the GRAB trust and developing their outdoor space as a resource for learning and recreation. They have also been improving their natural habitat for birds and insects. The children’s health and wellbeing has also been a major focus with the installation of a play/climbing frame to provide exercise and role play whilst outside.
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Where does the fish for our dinner come from ?

During December Andy Crabb (filmmaker) and Dr Suzi Billing from SAMS came to Taynuilt Primary to teach the children how to make short animation films based around aquaculture.

One of Taynuilt’s entries (The animation of Billy the Scallop and the naughty Octopus, by Bernadette McMullen P7) was judged to be 3rd overall. The film will shortly be available on the Aquaspace website.
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Citizenship at Dunoon Primary

The P7’s at Dunoon Primary School have been working on their IDL on Citizenship. Working in groups they have been researching and interviewing people in different sectors of the local community. Groups have been focusing on Care in the Community, Caring for the Environment, Other Cultures, The Law in Scotland, The Scottish Government and The History of Dunoon.

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Drumlemble Primary School – Farewell to Mrs. McIntosh!

Drumlemble Primary have had a fun filled week in the lead up to Mrs. McIntosh’s last day prior to commencing her maternity leave.

The children have been partaking in lots of outdoor learning focusing on the subject of Wood, sometimes even catching the sunshine.

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Argyll school submits winning garden design

Easdale Primary School pupils picked as winners of Keep Scotland Beautiful competition.
Environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, has announced that pupils from Easdale Primary School have been selected as winners of the nationwide competition to Design a One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden – which will see them now bring their creations to life for display at the Gardening Scotland exhibition in Edinburgh this June.

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Recycle, Reuse and Reduce

    Recycle, Reuse and Reduce was very definitely the message that the children got from a great session delivered at Minard Primary school by Andra McShannon. Andra talked about pollution and the ways we can contribute to a greener planet. The emphasis was on the sea and coast and the Minard and Furnace Pupils made marine animals from the recyclable materials they had bought in from home.

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Maths Week Challenge at Lochgoilhead

Lochgoilhead Primary School participated in Scotland’s Maths Week Challenge with some exciting enquiry based learning. As soon as the pupils arrived on Monday morning, they attended a specially arranged assembly where they were all invited to help solve a problem. The large grass area surrounding the school was too long and needed to be ready by Friday for a sports event. With the usual gardening maintenance team not able to visit the school until the following week, the children were put into mixed age groups to try and come up with possible solutions.
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