Welcome back to a new school year, 2025-2026!
Very Good Work!
On the 17th of June Port Ellen ELC were visited by the Care Commission for an inspection of their early years provision in school. We are proud to announce we received all level 5, Very Goods across the board!
Key messages from the report were as follows:
• Children experienced warm relationships with staff who knew children and their families well.
• Children were empowered to lead their own play and learning, supported by a skilled staff team.
• Children enjoyed a fun environment that inspired their creativity and wonder.
• Children enjoyed free flow access outdoors and a wide range of outings in the local community.
• Strong leadership was creating a nurturing and responsive environment where children and staff felt safe and valued.
You can read the inspection report below.
From Sea to Sustainable Solutions and Products
My Endeavour is sustainable seaweed solutions I chose this because I wanted to raise awareness on how much better seaweed can be for the environment than other products like plastic. Seaweed can be used for many different things such as plastic; seaweed can be made into plastic by turning the plastic into sugars and then fermented into plastic. This is better because if the seaweed plastic gets picked up by the wind and blows into the ocean it will not matter because seaweed grows in the ocean anyway therefore it cannot harm the oceans, and the animals can just eat the seaweed. It can also replace paper and many other things.
Seaweed is home to many different species because it protects them and provides food for them. Many animals choose seaweed because it has lots of nutrition for them. It also provides shelter from predators for them.
I have made; one video on why we should save seaweed; some posters; dried seaweed; I made some fertilizer; a letter to the founder of Ishga (a seaweed beauty brand); I done an essay about some things to do with my Endeavour; wrote two pages full of notes about my Endeavour; cooked some seaweed.
My Endeavour Project
My Endeavour project is the evolution of farming over the years and I chose this because I like farming and wanted to do something related to farming and it is ambitious because connecting all of the cable on the smart farm and on the well i hade to I have made a smart farm with a moisture sensor, light sensor, led light, animal house, wind turbine on the side of the house, Top tips to make the farm do not connect the cables with out looking at the diagram showing you what cables go where. Also test the sensors and lights before you plug all the cables in test them first. I also built a well and it pumped water for 1 try but then it does not work so i think air is getting in to the tubes and the syringe and it just lets air in so i hade to hot glue gun it together so air does not get in. I am going to think about making a kahoot on what was the first tractor powered bye and what year it was made in and who made it. I will also make a power point on the first tractor made and combines, telehandlers as well.
Archie logan
My Endeavour Project
My Endeavour project is soldering i chose this project because i wanted to try something new. I never done this project before so i though i might give it a go. the first thing i done in my Endeavour was write a letter to colin furze about top tips in soldering i told him what i made already and the fact i done and what i am trying to achieve and the first thing i should do in soldering. And after that i done some research and then got in to soldering. the first one i made was tricky and hard because. I burnt myself a couple times and the rainbow LED didn’t work but i try the rainbow LED a couple more times but then i thought of trying the candle light.
And then the candle light work so then i made two. and both of them work so i thought if i can make a candle light i can make make a rainbow LED but i still couldn’t the rainbow LED. So i done more research and thinking how i should make the rainbow LED and how people in world think of soldering world wide and how i should be a good job.
My Sea to Plate Endeavour.
My topic is I catch sea food then I filet/shuck them then a fish then cook a my sea food. I think it’s important because I am learning all new different skills like cooking skills learning how to fish and I will need cooking skills in life when I’m a dad or cooking for me or my family. I chose this topic because I fish when the boats go out and lift my creels and i love doing that. Also because i didn’t know how to cook anything and now I’ve made fish fingers and in the next paragraph i will tell you how to make it, and i also made lobster mac n cheese. I love my endeavor it’s so good being outside and also being in a boat out at sea. And it’s fun spending time with my papa.
So I caught a lithe and then in school i thought i would make fish fingers so i seasoned the fish with salt then cut it up into wee strips then after i done that i made breadcrumbs by getting bread and wising it up then putting it into a bowl then putting flour into a bowl then whisking up eggs and putting it into a bowl after that I bread crumbed it by dipping the fish into the flour the the egg then the breadcrumbs and i repeated that till all the fish was breadcrumbed. That’s my recipe for fish fingers, your welcome! And that’s what I’ve done right now but we have all still got 5 week left I’ve also done most of my power point. Oh yeah and I’ve also make lobster mac n cheese but I’ve kind of forgot the recipe but i will think on that when I have more time. Also when I remember haha.
Thanks for listening
FREDDY MUNRO
My Endevour
My Endeavour
My endeavour is hair, and it is working quite well. So far, I have made a how-to video, and I have made a few inspire photo. Also, I have made a poster of what they can have in their hair, and I am going to put ow much it costs when I find out.
The only thing that is ambitious is that I will need loads of stuff .And if I’m always practising hair styles and if I’m doing peoples hair then I won’t have as much stuff, so I do need to try and get more posters and so far, I think I have enough, but I do need more.
And the reason I chose to do hair is because it’s a skill that I’m surprisingly good at and I do enjoy it. I hope that people like the things that I have managed to do it because I worked hard on it, and I hope that it works out well.
I have learnt new styles and new stuff I have rote to Suzie Mcgill, and she has not rote backer yet buts that’s ok because we still have 4 weeks, so I hope it comes. And I have been practising on my Manicone head doll to try different styles.
My Sea Glass Endevour
My Endeavor is sea glass Jewelry and I have a really big sea glass collection. The first thing I did with my endeavor was take notes and write the time line and every day you need to do the daily planer. The sea glass is really beautiful piece of nature and this a picture of what made.
This is a wraped one and i really like my design.
Why it is ambitious because it is hard to tie the knots and rap the the metal around the sea glass because it is a weird shape and I accidently stabbed my self with this thing that came with the set.
What I should have at the end and poster that is how to make and time line of the different lots of sea glass jewelry presentation and i would like to make a profit and sell out but I need to make enough jewelry to make it to the end of endeavor so that is a lot of jewelry and also need to learn how to drill the sea glass and thread the string thought the sea glass so I better get my head down and get to work that is my endeavor thank you for reading the blog bye!
My Easter Island Endeavour
My 2025 endevour is easter island, easter island is a small island in Chile with lots of ancient statues. The reason i picked this topic is because i found it very interesting that people years and years ago could build such big statues with volcanic rock and use handmade advanced tools.
What have i already done?
The first thing i done for this topic was taking notes and watching a few videos about the history of easter island and what peoples theory are about how they have moved the statues, one popular answer was tying the statues to a slippery piece of wood making it able to slide over onto the piece of land they wanted it to sit on. The next thing i done was write a letter to a staff working in the Rapa Nui museum i was asking them about why they picked this job and about the museum but she hasn’t replied yet. i have made a book creator too about how life is on easter island! i have also made a little diorama inside of a cookie jar with a few clay moai statues and moss at the bottom.
How is this project ambitious
This project is challenging because its sometimes quite hard to find the correct information for the topic and finding out information more detail and key details!
What will you see at the end?
At the end you will see many facts and information too see and a small book to read about easter island you will also see a diorama and an animation of easter island people building a little statue and a drawing or a painting of the moai statue, you may also see a little poster too!
My Endeavour
My endeavour is landscape painting it is coming along very well I have made 5 paintings for the endeavour fair. A few weeks ago I sent Dietmar finger a letter about if he can help me with my endeavour I picked landscape painting because I have Allways loved painting things in primary 3 I painted a picture of a bird and in primary 4 I painted a picture of a cherry blossom tree.
I will probably sell my paintings for £1.50 each I think that my project is going to be a little bit hard because landscape painting is very hard and challenging for me I think my 5 painting look pretty good. I think my endeavour is going to go really good and I hope I will make at least £35 when the endeavour fair ends.
I think painting was a very good pick for me I hope that the people like them when the endeavour fair starts so far I have painted pictures of: mounters, and the moon in the clouds, and the woods
By James baker
My Endeavour Project
Hi, I am Elijah, and I am going to tell you about my Endeavour. This year I picked crofting because I have always wanted to take care of animals but at the same time, I wanted to grow some crops and take care of them like they are my baby because that is what they basically are. You must feed the baby for it to survive, and you must water the plant to keep it alive.
I hope to achieve to plant lots of crop and make my own potato salad and sell it at the Endeavour fair and make some money to buy more soil and grow more plants/crops.
I have grown some crops at my house and also in school but the ones at home are at the point to take them out and wash them then peel them and make chips or make a potato salad.
The trickiest part of my Endeavour is to find potatoes that have roots that have come out so they can grow more potatoes because you can get about 6 potatoes from one if it grows well in the wright condition and also make sure they have been watered well and to make sure the bed that you plant them in has holes and has rocks at the bottom.
Elijah Norwood
My Endeavour
For my endeavor, I chose to write a book about Islay history. I chose this endeavor because i am very interested about Islay’s history and what the living conditions were like. I am learning all about Islay’s history and what happened during that time. Then I gather that knowledge and write it down in my book. My format is that I find a point in Islay’s history and put that on my timeline. And when i get to that point, i write a page or two about it and then i move on. I plan to have about 15-20 pages by the end of endeavor. then, i would have covered about all 10,000 years and i will have finished my book.
My Endeavour Project
Hello I am Aidan Ambrose and this is about my Endeavour.
Endeavour is a long-term project where we learn something that we want to learn about and make something about it like a book PowerPoint or model. we all do our own endeavor. I like seeing what everyone does for there endeavour and what we all can achieve.
My endeavor has changed a couple times but that’s fine. My first endeavour was comic writing but it got changed because… um i forgot but anyway, my next endeavor was digital art on the school iPads but it the Apple pencil for the iPad did not work so now i am doing THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES... sorry caps lock was on… I so far have 8 pages done on it with a couple jokes here and there. The reason I chose history of video games is i do game designing… actually if you look at the ling for this post if may say go play monster clicker… might say it ha ha ha ha ha… sorry awkward laugh.
i am aiming to get more pages… And Lots more JOKES… so bye…
this is private text to not read
Endeavour
Anatomy And Human Body
Hi, I am Honor and my Endeavour is Anatomy and the Human Body I have always wanted to do this as an Endeavour, but I never got a chance because of time. I have always been interested at the skeletal system.
So far, I have made a skeleton replica of the body, labelled the human body, did a quiz about the human body, coloured in a human body colouring book, wrote about the skeletal system, sent a letter to a girl named Hannah Shaw and learned some first aid.
My threat is Not getting an interview and not able to get an interview, my opportunities are that I know someone a doctor who can help me. Its ambitions because I need to learn of the bones, Learning CPR, learning code words in hospital and remembering FAST to see if they are having a stroke F= Facial dropping. A= Arm weakness. S= Speech difficulty. T= Time to call for help.
In the future I want to have an interview and a poster, an animation to show how the human body works, learned all the bones in the skull, learn the hand and feet bones, paint the human body I made and make the patella/kneecap out of polymers clay.
Honor Hart
My Hydrogen Endeavour
My Endeavor is hydrogen. It’s a big topic and the reason I did it is because my dad works for a hydrogen company called Protium I was very interested in hydrogen and all its facts like it’s the most abundant element in the world. Also it can be used for cars and planes we could stop oil and fossil fuels. But its about what I have been doing let’s see.
So far I have made three sheets of information, mascot and a presentation but at my house where me and my dad make hydrogen we have made a model of a car and and we have clear water with no minerals just clear so we pour that into the electrolizer and it separates the o2 ( oxygen) and the h2 (hydrogen) we store the hydrogen and then release the oxygen and we put that hydrogen through a chute and into the model car to power it . and that’s how I am making hydrogen but there is some obstacles like getting the clear water getting the time to do it but I just push through it I really enjoy doing this Endeavor finding out all the different facts like OVER 70% OF THE UNIVERSE IS MADE UP OF HYDROGEN! and there is even more facts and I just can’t wait to tell everyone at the Endeavour fair.
Animal Care And Community Awareness.
My endeavour is animal care, the reason I chose this project is because I wanted to share awareness about animals and animal care. Animals are much more important than people think, animals help the world and help produce food that’s why it’s important to care for them right. Another reason of why animal care is important is as their scientific species and deserve to have the right to have protection and care fairly.
So far, I’ve made a few posters about how to care for each family animal like pets I’ve also done a video about animal care and vetinary. I’ve wrote a letter for the Islay vet (Beth Newman) I’ve done my essay which was based around my endeavour Aswell, I’ve wrote notes and researched a lot I’ve also found out some facts of the topic.
I plan to visit the vet to ask a few questions and maybe even look at some equipment. I want to make some more poster of how to care for different animals and maybe even a different video and a presentation. by Scarlett
Robotics Endeavour
My Endeavour is robotics and I wanted to do it because I saw a friend do it and after I really wanted to. I am really excited about this Endeavour. I was really happy when I built the first micro bit. I also was coding a robot. I coded the robot to follow a black track and too not bump into tables or chairs. What is an Endeavor? Endeavor is a fun project what you can choose like game design. Endeavor is for p5 to p7 endeavor my last endeavor was games creation like on scratch and on Kodu games lab.
MY RECYCLED CLOTHES ENDEAVOUR
My Endeavour: Designing Recycled Clothes
The reason why I chose sewing is because I have always had a passion for it. I think sewing is a really good hobby because of all the interesting techniques you can learn but some of it can be hard. My favourite thing to make is pillows because they aren’t as difficult. There are different stitches that you can learn. My mom taught me how to do most of it. Now I know how to do circles, squares and even know how to make scenes. The hard thing is trying to figure out where everything goes, what happens and what happens if the sewing machine breaks and where everything goes. I really enjoy it, and I think you will too. There’s a lot of things I don’t enjoy like when the wool runs out and I have to reset the whole thing which is really annoying.
I think you should start to recognise it’s a really good hobby. And you can make your own clothes and not have to chuck things out and you can make your own business and then you won’t have to buy all this material. You can make teddies, you can make stockings and you can even make calendars for Christmas.
My Writing Endeavour
My Endeavour is writing a book. I picked this topic because I really like writing books and stories especially adventure stories with all sorts of mythical creatures.
So far I have done 5 pages of the book and quiet a few other small things like drawing a pictures and some diagrams of my characters and lots of notes about the book. characters I have made so far I have a lot more characters planned but so far I have made 3 and two of them are big monster that the main character ben has to fight them on his quest.
What am I planning to do. I am planning to get to page 10 so that means 5 pages a day my target and the end is 20 pages and draw pictures of the scenes that are going on in the story. Also I want to manage some more drawings of the characters and label them and make some more characters to help the main character and his quest.
How can I fix the book a little more I could maybe add more adjectives and make the sentences shorter so its more of a picture book than a book with lota and lots of words.
Neil
Buddy Trip To Port Charlotte
On Tuesday the 17th June 2025 P67 went to Port Charlotte with our P12 buddies and went to the Islay Museum, Wildlife center, Port Mor cafe and the play park. At the museum we had to find the oldest thing, something that would be used in a job, on boats or the sea and a toy from the past. I found the oldest thing was a Mesolithic arrow head one of the oldest finds in all Scotland. There were farming things like sheep wellies, the ships bell from the Hebridean Isles and a dolls house. It was very interesting. At the field centre we saw wrasse and crabs in the tanks, it was great. Finally we had a fantastic lunch at Port Mor and played in the park til we had to go home. Thanks to the museum for paying for our bus trip and to the Parent Council for paying for our lunches.
Sports Day
Sports Day
On Monday 14th of June, Port Ellen took place in their sports day. We do a lot of races like the p6/7s do 100 meter sprint, mini marathon and a flat sprint. The whole school does an egg and spoon race, an obstacle race, a flat race and a mini marathon starting at the pitch. The adults who come do a egg and spoon race. Our house captains’ pick 4 people to present their houses for the relay race: Orsay, Texa and Nave. The first place in the really race is Nave. Second is Orsay. Last is Texa. The girl champion this year was Bonnie Cresswell and the boy champion Freddy Munro. Well done everyone!
Scottish Math Challenge Trip
This is a blog about the Scottish math challenge that me (Hannah) and Brody went on. We achieved a silver award in the Scottish maths challenge and we went on a trip to the mainland. We got to go out for a nice meal and we visited Strathclyde University with other schools who have achieved, including Bowmore primary. There actually was a lot of schools that came across the mainland and even some P5 won silver!
At the start the professor said hello and gave us some questions, that were actually quite hard. I was impressed because the P5’s answered those questions!
At the end the schools went in groups that were named A B C, Port Ellen was group B though, went we went down we got a mug and a pencil and shook the professors hand and went back up till every school went. It was really fun. I got to go shopping. I am proud of myself because that was the first time I did the Scottish math challenge ever and it was really hard but in the end I got Silver! Anyways that was the school trip and it was really fun.
Minibeasts in ELC
This term ELC have been very busy learning all about the minibeasts they find out and about. They have raised caterpillars in the class and gone on bug hunts at the ard, as well as learning how to measure, take photos and all about symmetry. They have been very busy bees!
Sea Story P12
This term our topic is the sea! We went in search of sea creatures at our local beaches and planned in our floorbook. Breagha had told us she had met a lovely wee fish and some hermit crabs at black rock and would like us to venture down to meet them. We took out friends from ELC with us and found all sorts of exciting things! Unfortunately thought we saw lots of rubbish too and we decided to go back and to clear up what we saw, we know this isn’t good for the marine life so would like to help them out a little.
🌟 WALT find sea creatures and learn about their habitats.
🌟 WALT be concerned about our environment.
Having looked at different varieties of seaweed on another trip we brought some back to school to cook and try! We were all very brave smelling and then tasting sea kelp which we thought was pretty good all things considered…some of us like the crunch and others the salty flavour.
Finally in our Sea Story learning from our Floorbook. You will see on page 16 we have adopted a sea turtle 🐢 as we loved learning about them so much and wanted to do something to support them! We are just waiting our welcome pack arriving!
Dinosaur Visit
At the end of last term he Natural History Museum of London came into our school to show us their amazing dinosaur facts! First he was showing us the massive sizes of the dinosaurs, one of the dinosaurs had a wing span from the size of the end of the gym hall to the stage!
We also got told that Nessy was real but the type dinosaur was named the plesiosaur, now that is cool! We also got told that there was a massive dinosaur with a huge long neck called the brachiosaurus and it was huge! Around 23 feet! After he showed us a big dinosaur foot. We also got to meet a T-Rex in the playground which was fab! Well done to P12 who raised over £2600 pounds to bring the Museum over to visit.
Climate Smarter School
Last term we have done a school topic on building and creating a climate smarter school. We had to put a renewable source like wind power ,hydropower and solar panels and we tested them outside and seen where the best place was to put them. The best place to put a wind turbine was on top of a hill because we got the best reading.
Talking about readings we did reading for the wind turbine’s and also solar panels and we tested them with anemometer. We put the solar panels on the school roof because it got the most sun light because it’s up high. The winning group were the P7 boys called the climate warriors, and the boys in the climate warriors names were Alfie, Brody, Archie, Stephen, and Freddy. Also the boys that won are going on a amazing trip to Oban to talk about their model school and speak about renewables and also how it helps the environment.
After School Walking Club
Every Monday we get to go to walking club and it is a blast, we get to go on 1 mile walk with our friends and its a great exercise for our legs! Ms Brown and Ms Khan take us up the path near the school. We can’t walk past a bench at a certain time. After the walk we get hot chocolate! This club helps our right to be healthy!
Lunchtime Coding Club
Coding Club
The captains and vice-captains run clubs at lunchtime. The stuff that we done at coding club was spheros, and we looked at like scratch stuff and talked about how we can do that stuff and how it is so cool.
And we also done a bit of Micro:bits and on the Micro:bits we could write like welcome and other stuff like hi and it was like really cool and some of them could write there name and they done it really well.
What I liked about it was every one was like really interested in all the stuff we were saying and doing . And they work really well together. And I think it worked really well.
The Leaders Were Ellie Erin Brody Elijah Adian Stephen Archie.

Easter Assembly
On the second on April, Wednesday 2025 The Port Ellen Primary School had an easter assembly with all the teachers and pupils in the school, and Mr. Hunter also came. The assembly was performed by primary 5 and was about a new teacher. It had amazing acting, singing and dancing in it. Mr. Hunter talked about celebrating easter about Jesus Christ. We had amazing people playing there musical instruments like flutes, saxophones, clarinets, everyone did so well as the crowd applauses to all the performances. You could hear Ayla’s amazing flute skills! P5 then went with their teacher and enjoyed tea and coffees at the end and the reason why they did this amazing assembly is because they raised money for Beach Mission!
Science Club
Every Wednesday after school we have a science club run by Mrs Clark. On the first day we did reactions. For the first reaction we put mentos in a bottle of coca cola it was so much fun. The cola spilled every where and it got onto our shoes it was crazy! After we cleaned it all up and then we headed up stairs to the fab lab to do an experiment on eggs. When we got up stairs we put one egg in salt water another in citric acid and the last one in vinegar we left them for about a week before we looked at the final product.
The second day of going we looked at the eggs and what happened. The egg in the vinegar was bouncy when we took it out and the salt water egg was like a normal egg finally the citric acid one looked like it had bubbles on the shell. We did lots of other experiments and I really had fun!