Pupils and staff at Salen Primary were delighted to hear we have been awarded a Sport Scotland Gold Award for achieving excellence in physical education and school sport. The staff found out on Friday but we decided to keep it a secret so we could announce it at the start of our Commonwealth Games Week.
PRIMARY 4-7 VISIT TO BURNS’ MUSEUM
Oban High and the Digital Commonwealth 2014
The nationwide Digital Commonwealth project run by UWS, focuses on lowering the threshold for involvement for individuals and groups so that they can be empowered to exploit creative tools and technologies to tell their stories, digitally. The project aim is to involve every Local Authority in Scotland in the digital reporting of the Commonwealth themes in the run up to the Queen’s Baton Relay. The schools programme promotes digital media literacy skills through a series of in-school training workshops, Continue reading Oban High and the Digital Commonwealth 2014
WALKING THE KINTYRE WAY
Pupils from Drumlemble and Carradale Primary Schools spent a day walking part of the Kintyre Way. We were accompanied by Duncan Leckie and Sharon Baikie.
Pupils used their map reading skills and the waymarkers to plot their route and took photographs of interesting features of the landscape.
We would like to thank Anne, Duncan and Sharon from the Kintrye Way for supporting us and engaging us in our learning.
Troll Hunting on Inchcailloch Island
Helen Kennedy, Park Ranger, got in touch with The Sunshine Room Nurture Group at Parklands School to ask for their help with some anti-social trolls on Inchcailloch Island, the trolls were causing all sorts of havoc but the pupils were able to show off their troll hunting skills and teach them to respect their habitat. We also had time to look at some native wildlife, toast marshmallows on a campfire and play some team games on the beach.
First Communion Celebration at St. Mun’s
The sun shone on Saturday, 31st May, as 7 children from Primary 4 made their First Holy Communion.
The children, under the watchful eye of their teacher Miss L. O’Kane, delivered a beautiful, well prepared Mass to a packed church, full of friends, family, parishioners and staff and children from the School and sang beautifully as they invited everyone to, ‘Come And Join The Celebration’.
Continue reading First Communion Celebration at St. Mun’s
CLEAN SWEEP AT DUNOON GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Local residents of Kirn witnessed a welcoming sight last Friday afternoon (30 May 2014) as an army of school litter pickers took to the streets with one mission – to clean up the town.
Over 100 S1 pupils and staff – equipped with grippers and high visibility jackets supplied by the school’s facilities management providers Mitie – worked tirelessly scooping up and bagging litter from the school’s surrounding neighbourhood.
Park Primary gains SportScotland Gold School Award
After a lot of hard work from both staff and children, Park School have just been awarded Gold in the School Sport Awards. We are the first school in Scotland to achieve this status.
This was a pilot award which was open to schools in Argyll and Bute and East Renfrewshire. As Park has a very strong record of promoting and encouraging Health and Wellbeing, and participation in a wide range of sports, we are delighted to have this work recognised.
Blythswood Enterprise Challenge
Primary 7 at Park School recently took part in the Blythswood Enterprise competition. For this, they were given £20 to start a business in order to raise money to provide fire engines in Eastern Europe. The class had 4 weeks to make this money grow so they decided to create a moustache themed stationery shop.
Family Day at St Joseph’s Pre-5 Unit
What a great day was had by all on Thursday 29 May as St. Joseph’s Pre-5 Unit opened its doors not only to parents but, this time, also to other members of each child’s family too! We were delighted to see grannies and grandas as well as aunties and uncles join in.
After registration the reticent newcomers to the Pre-5 Unit got their sleeves rolled up and joined in with gusto! There were grannies at the sand pit and grandas at the reading corner – a really magical ‘buzz’ of learning and fun was palpable!
Continue reading Family Day at St Joseph’s Pre-5 Unit
Lismore’s mountain adventure
May has been Mountain Month at Lismore Primary School. The children began the project by comparing the highest mountain on each continent with Ben Nevis and Lismore’s own highest point of Barr Mor. They made scale pictures of each mountain to compare the range of heights. They then went on to look at how mountains are actually formed and travelled to Glencoe to look at the volcanic and ice age activity that shaped the landscape. They also looked at the basalt, slate and quartzite layering in the Ballachulish Quarry.
Art Exhibition by Furnace and Minard Primaries
The children in Furnace and Minard primaries held an Art Exhibition in Furnace Primary on Wednesday night to raise money to help pay the education fees of children in Pelandaba orphanage in Zimbabwe. Ex Head Teacher, Mrs Cindy MacDonald, had visited the schools to talk to the children about the work she does for the charity and everyone agreed they wanted to help. The idea of holding an art exhibition was made and everyone has been very busy preparing for it. The exhibition will remain open to visitors on Thursday and Friday. The money raised so far is close to £300.
Continue reading Art Exhibition by Furnace and Minard Primaries
Commonwealth Breakfast at Parklands
School The social in-reach group at Parklands School had an interesting morning in the kitchen cooking and tasting two very different breakfasts. The pupils followed a recipe to create a potato and lentil curry, a traditional Indian breakfast and compared it to a traditional Scottish breakfast of porridge. The boys said they much prefered the curry and would have it everyday for breakfast if they could!
Busy Bees at Luss
The children at Luss Primary have been learning all about the ways in which bumblebees are very important to us.
P5-7 are taking part in the Big Bumblebee Discovery science adventure and received a free experiment pack and lavender plant. They have also been learning about habitats of bees, how to create a nesting site or bee box and how to rescue a bee that has run out of energy due to cold or wet weather.
Continue reading Busy Bees at Luss
Proud Kodu Competition Winner!
Aidan, a P6 pupil of Dunoon Primary School was delighted last week to hear that he had come joint first in a Kodu Competition for primary schools across Argyll & Bute. Using Kodu, Aidan designed an online game with the Commonwealth Games theme. He was thrilled to receive a prize of a Raspberry Pi donated by local businessman and entrepreneur Sam Coley of Samteq. Aidan now intends to submit his game into the national Scottish Kodu Competition.
Our schools celebrate the Commonwealth games!
A lot of our schools have used the Commonwealth Games as a focus for activity this term and you can look at some of the fabulous IDL, creative and sporting events that are taking place by opening THIS DOCUMENT

Kodu Results
Argyll and Bute Kodu Competition
The judging for this year’s Argyll and Bute Kodu competition recently took place and was judged by Alison Drever, senior education officer from Education Scotland. There was a total of 23 games submitted and they were of a very high standard.
The results are as follows:
Dalintober PS Pupils Encourage MOKRUNNERS
P2, P4 and P6 pupils from Dalintober PS designed posters to motivate and inspire participants in Campbeltown’s MOKRUN 10k route. MOKRUN – a 10k and half marathon – is an annual highlight in the town, and was voted the world’s number one event by ‘Running World’. All at Dalintober PS wish the competitors all the best in their endeavours, with a special mention for the staff members, parents and family members who are participating. Good Luck!
Kilmartin P7-4 Take the Bear Grylls Challenge!
To test how good our children’s survival skills are, the P7-4 children were set a task to organise an emergency camp, find dry tinder, for a fire and forage for some food. They received no help from adults and had to agree as a team who would be responsible for each task.They had to revisit what they had already learned to help them and give their best effort to achieve the outcome.
Continue reading Kilmartin P7-4 Take the Bear Grylls Challenge!
Shared Learning Training
This week Dunoon Primary and the P6 pupils of St Muns Primary have been busy working together in a Shared Learning Initiative. This was led by 5 pupils from our Sal Team and assisted by Mr Gary Clark, Mrs Mary Peek, and Mr Steven Simpson (DGS Student). The pupils from St Muns were very enthusiastic and keen to learn all the new technology skills that were on offer.