“Four p7 pupils from Taynuilt Primary won the Rotary Club’s annual p7 quiz which was held earlier this week in the Royal Hotel. The six teams who took part from local schools had to answer ten rounds of questions on subjects such as geography, famous people, logos and James Bond. There were many relatives, friends and teachers there to cheer on the teams in what was a fun evening for all. The Taynuilt team goes on to the final in Glasgow on May 20th.”
Bat Boxes at Ardrishaig Primary
On possibly the wettest day of the month Brian and Laura from SNH and the Forestry Commission visited Ardrishaig Primary to tell the eco-committee all about bats!
Brian and Laura hold special bat handling licenses and they explained that you need a licence to legally look into bat boxes or to relocate bats. They told the committee about the work they do in Argyll to protect bats and also about the work he and Laura do to help people who find bats in their houses.
Continue reading Bat Boxes at Ardrishaig Primary
Election Fever
S1 pupils recently held their own mock elections in school as part of their learning in the “Living in a Democracy” unit in Social Subjects. Pupils were divided up into 6 groups, each representing a political party and had to elect their own candidate. The groups organised their own campaign, canvassed support around the school and made their own campaign posters. A husting was held, where each candidate was able to deliver their parties manifesto of policies and promises. This was followed by questions from those in attendance.
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Bunessan’s Grand March
Thanks to a beautiful Spring day Bunessan’s Grand March took place on Friday 19th April. The P5/6/7 class organised this sponsored walk to raise money for school funds and led all who were walking in a very energetic Zumba warm up before we set off. Two walks took place. A 2.2 mile walk for younger children and a 4.6 mile walk for older children. Everyone completeed the walks in record time and should be very proud of this achievement.
BAG2SCHOOL IN TOBERMORY
Tobermory High School had a fantastic response to their Bag2school collection. A total of 110 bags of textiles were donated on the day to raise funds for the school, This is a great effort from our small school. Pupils have really embraced the challenge to beat last year’s collection total. In doing so they have helped to reduce items going to landfill and helped to contribute to the “sustainability” topic of the eco schools programme.
New Polytunnel at Barcaldine Primary
Children at Barcaldine Primary School are excited and eager to get started planting in their new polytunnel which was funded by Scottish Sea Farms.
Here is Barcaldine Primary School showing off their new Fourth Green Flag.
The children were commended for the steady progress that they had made since their last award in 2011 and also for having so many sound ideas for the future. Families, local community, local business and environmental organisations were involved in this journey. The children were particularly commended for the progress that they made with their transport topic via events such as the Big Pedal and the assessors were delighted to hear of the wonderful use the children were making of their local cycle path. Continue reading Here is Barcaldine Primary School showing off their new Fourth Green Flag.
Magnet Workshop was a power to be reckoned with!
Achaleven’s P1/P4 and Dunbeg’s P1/P2 discovered the power of magnets today when Edinburgh International Science Festival’s Generation Science team brought their Marvellous Magnets workshop to Achaleven Primary.
We learnt all about magnetic attraction and repulsion, fields and poles and explored what effect magnetic forces have on the world around us.
Continue reading Magnet Workshop was a power to be reckoned with!
Mr & Mrs (Hostel Style!)
Dunoon School Hostel held a Mr & Mrs on Thursday 18th April. Steven Simpson Top Presenter and Co Presenter Mary Peek started the 6 couples off with their own intro music and videos. The multi-choice questions followed with a set of paddle questions. The kitchen staff prepared coconut hearts and delicious goodies with the Mr & Mrs logo on them and the hall was skillfully adorned with an array of heart decorations by our houseparents.
Furnace P5-7 Rainforest Presentation
The children in P5-7 at Furnace gave a presentation of the work they had been covering on their inter-disciplinary topic on the Rainforest to friends and family this week. Some of the children explained to all who came along about the animals and plants that were on their wall display explaining about the different layers of the Rainforest.
Minard’s Duck Derby
The children at Minard Primary organised and ran a Duck Derby on the last day of term. They sold ‘ducks’ at a £1 each and raised £295 for school funds!
They had written to local businesses around Inveraray asking for donations for the prizes and received some wonderful ones for which we are very grateful.
The children at Furnace Primary joined in the fun. This was after we had celebrated a joint Easter service at Minard church and a buffet lunch at the school.
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Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons
In spite of the weather and the cancelled boats our 3 intrepid travellers had a great time on their recent trip to the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons. They undertook keyhole surgery (I hope none of them actually have to operate on any of us in the future because they kept dropping things), watched a live operation online, attended a lecture on dentistry and learnt about the dangers of mosquitoes. They also enjoyed dining out, a little bit of shopping and a large hot chocolate.
Bird Box Making on Luing
Corey, Fergus and Kyle were all eager to make bird boxes so they asked Clare our classroom assistant, who helped them find instructions on the internet. Then under the close supervision of Clare they carefully measured and cut their pieces of wood to length. After lots of discussion, drilling and hammering three very happy boys appeared from the workshop with three unique bird boxes.
Gaelic Pupils Explore for Dragons at Dunollie
Children in Oban’s Gaelic-medium P1 and P2 classes experienced a fabulous day of exploration and outdoor learning recently, organised by Stramash. The activities were linked to the children’s Knights and Castles topic, and the day started at Dunollie Castle with a scavenger hunt. The natural materials the children collected were used to make special crowns, and other activities included creating dragon potions and exploring the castle itself.
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Hermitage Primary School New Playground Development
Excited pupils from Hermitage Primary School thought that Christmas had arrived again when they returned from their Easter holidays. In just two weeks an exciting imaginative play area had grown up in a previously disused section of the grounds. As part of a larger redevelopment the playground has been extended to include an imaginative play area. There are zones devoted to story-telling, drama, music and a fabulous Viking long ship. Here you can see that the Primary Seven pupils approve whole heartedly.
St Columba’s Primary Fairtrade Fortnight
Congratulations to Primary 7 and Mrs Wotherspoon for providing us with an interesting and exciting Fairtade fortnight. Among other things they set up a ‘Fairtrade Cafe ‘during breaktimes, serving homemade fairtrade banana loaf, coffee, tea and biscuits, all guaranteed fairtrade produce.
GO GREEN DAY AT CLACHAN PRIMARY
The children of Achahoish Primary and Skipness Primary joined the pupils in Clachan for their Go Green Day. We shared a morning of Geocaching and all had fun using the GPS receivers to locate buried treasure clues. After our lunch we shared four workshops together. We planted sunflower seeds in handmade newspaper pots, we created a human tree, we used fairtrade ingredients to bake Easter nests and we worked together to build a Go Green Scarecrow.
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Kodu Kup 2013
If you are interested in game design then a good place to start is with a free application called Kodu. This is a visual programming language and games lab environment which allows students from Second Level upwards to design and build three dimensional games using either a PC or an XBox and XBox controller. When using an application such as Kodu learners can begin to learn the core concepts of computer science within the context of a project which includes narrative writing, design and maths. Kodu was developed in the Microsoft Research Labs and is completely free to download and use.
If you are interested in submitting an entry to the Kodu Kup then full details are available here.
Cardross Primary Health week
Cardross Primary finished the Easter term with their annual health week. Some of the highlights were ‘Healthy Hearts’ with Andy McKechnie, ‘Funky Fitness’ with Julie Smith and the Chest, Heart and Stroke – Cardio Hoop Fundraiser. Thank you to Mrs Sharp for all of her efforts in planning and organising such a wonderful week for pupils and staff.
Daffodil Tea at Dunoon Primary
“Outstanding! Superb! Moving!” These were some of the comments made to describe the Daffodil Tea performance by Dunoon Primary School Choir on Tuesday 26th March. The choir performed their programme in the afternoon for invited guests within the community and also in the evening for parents, relatives and friends. The hall was decorated with artwork produced by all the classes and refreshments were provided by the PTA.
