Primary School of the Year 2022
On Wednesday 8th October Port Ellen Primary Gaelic Choir, had a Pre Mod Concert with lots of sing and poetry recitals plus lots of Gaelic and music. That evening we had fiddlers whistlers and accordionists, and best of all lovely home baking and tea, along side a big raffle with lots of Islay whiskey and prizes.
At the end we sang Fama Clamosa with a big last song sorry life, and that night =The Best Concert Ever!!!!! 🙂
A teacher from Switzerland came to Port Ellen Primary School. She has been here for 3 weeks, but sadly she is leaving on Sunday 
Mrs Regli has been so much fun and she is great when it comes to music. She helps us with everything. She came with us to the Islay Life Museum and to Port Charlotte. Mrs Regli makes sure that everyone is working hard and not chatting. For her leaving, the class has given her presents and cards made by us. When she is teaching us music, she teaches us Swiss-German songs, a french song and an English song and we play a game called Peter called Paul and an animal version of it.
The whole class is sad that she is leaving but are very happy and grateful that she came and will hopefully come back.
Bye-Bye Mrs Regli :’(
By Abbie and Izzy 
On Tuesday P7 of port Ellen primary school went to an opening of the the commonwealth war graves information board at Kilnaughton. We went there because there are doing a topic on WWI and we were asked to put crosses on the graves. They put up a plaque to tell you about the people that served on the Tuscania and died in 1918. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. Heres a little fact: the Tuscania was 175 meters long, nearly the size of the Titanic.
Last week we had some interviews to see who would be our new committee. If we wanted to become part of the committee we had to fill in an application and say what we wanted to be and why we wanted to be part of the eco committee. So now we have chosen our committee we can tell you.
Chairperson- Oliver
secretary- Annie
Media managers- Ciara and Mirren
Treasurer- Torin
Fundraiser- Anwen
P1/2 eco monitors- Katherine and Scott
P3/4 eco minitors- Rebecca and Mathew
P5/6 eco minitors- Jasmine and Eva
On the 24th of november we will be getting assessed by the green flag committee.
By Annie Farrell
I have been researching on my great grate grandpa because he was involed in world war one. In world war one he had sent post cards talking about how life in the trench was and what it was like training. All the post cards were sent to his wife Jenny and her children. The day that he comes home his wife and family are waiting at the door for him to come in. when he does come in hes boucing around happy that he is not dead at least that what my granny said. A few years later whilst playing golf he contracted phmonia and died. he was born in 1893 and died 1930.
By Emma and Nicholas
On Thursday 2nd October we went to the Islay museum to learn about WW1 for our topic. I found out about what life was like living on Islay, there were lots of amazing artefacts to look at. While I was there I learnt about all the people from Islay who went to war, I also found out about a nurse who was sent to the Somme, it was very generous of the people at the museum to let us come I had a great day.
By Torin
On Wedensday 8th October p3/4 held a harvest assembly for parents and the rest of the school to watch. A week before the harvest assembly we collected lots of harvest gifts for the old. We do this every year and everyone puts in a tin of food and lots of other things in. When all the food was collected they started their Harvest Assembly which was called the little black cloud. Ellen was the little black cloud. It was about a little black cloud who was trying to help by watering everything but everyone was unhappy but at the end the farmers needed the water for the plants and then the cloud was happy again. The moral of this story is that everyone has different points of view. It linked to harvest because when they watered the plants they could use the food as harvest food! We interviewed Abi and Jack they were very kind to let us do this. They both said that they were very nervous at first but they really enjoyed it in the end. Abi was a narrator which she was very good at and Jack was a builder and he was good as well.
By Emily and Jodie 🙂
Yesterday we went to Port Charlotte Primary School to do some team games and bond with some of the P6/7s there. When we got there we had a chance to get to know the P6/7s better. After our long break we had lunch inside the school and went back out to have lunch break. Then at last we finally started team games, I was in a team with Annie, Jodie, Seumas and Mohit. We worked great as a group and won the game with 44 points. I had great fun and can’t wait to do something like that again.
On Monday P5,6,7 went to the high school to smoke free me. The people that were doing smoke free me they were telling us about how dangerous smoking is so they did a little drama. There names were Claire Air, Willy Try it and Justin Time. Claire Air and Willy Try it were best friends and they met a man called Justin Time and he smoked because he thought it made him look cool. so they said to him jump on the time machine and took him to the past were he met the tobacco lord and met a Doctor and they were persuading Justin not to smoke. So he jumped back on to the time machine and it took him back to the present. Then the time machine and it took him to the future but Justin didn’t have a future because he died young by smoking when he got back to the present and he quit smoking.
There are 4000 chemicals in tobacco.
By Ciara Johnston 🙂
For a couple of weeks p5/6 and p7 have been learning about elections and have been organizing their own parties. We all got split in to groups and there were six parties. The six parties were, the peace party, t.a.p which stood for the animal party, the green team, the fun party, fruitastic and w.o.f which stands for world of fitness. They all had slogans,
Peace Party- Make Peace, Have a Break
Green Team- We are Green and we are Keen
t.a.p- We stand for the Animals
Fruitastic- Fruity Fun
Wof- Fitness for Life
Fun Party- Fun for one and Fun for All!!!!!!
On Monday was our hustings, each group took it in turn to come and present their party on front of the school. In the presentation was the party leaders speech, the groups power point and the video which told you about them and how they would help people.They also went round at breaks handing out stickers so people would vote for them.
On Tuesday was the voting day where everyone in the school voted for who they thought would be the best. We set it up like a proper election, we had an electoral register, a ballot paper and everyone voted separately in the polling stations.
On Wednesday Mrs Clark and Miss Brown counted up all the votes: here are the results;
6th place- The Peace Party with 6 votes
5th place- wof with 7 votes
4th place- The Green Team with 9 votes
3rd place- Fruitastic with 11 votes
2nd place- Tap with 18 votes
1st!- Fun party which had 26 votes !!! 🙂
This was all part of our election topic and to finish our election topic, we are going to write our captains speech and use as many techniques as possible.
By Emily and Izzy 🙂
We are currently learning all about how to run an election with Primary 5-7. We have learned about democracy and how elections work and the different sorts of government. We are now organising our own political parties for an in school election next week, debating, writing speeches, making party political broadcasts and a manifesto. Who would you vote for and why?
Hello, we are the FUN party and if you vote for us we will make breaks 5 minutes longer, write a letter to the council to fix the swings at the playing fields, and we will make it a rule that everyone must smile at least once a day. So vote for us, All for FUN and FUN for all!
We are the Peace Party and we are going to stop bulling in schools, build a peace garden, stop war in scotland and if any country is at war we will give them a reward if they stop.
Please vote for the Peace Party its the right thing to do.
Make Peace, have a Break
Vote 4 The Peace Party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Please)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are the WOF party which stands for World of Fitness and we want everyone to do more exercise and get fit. We are a party standing in the Port Ellen mock elections. We want to encourage not just Port Ellen and Islay but Scotland and the whole of the UK to get fit. Here is our logo.
Vote for us!
Hello I am a member of T.A.P, The Animal Party. P5/6 and P7 have been working on a mini topic on elections and we have divide
d our self’s into six groups each group created their own party we are presented all the stuff we did in our party groups on Monday afternoon. The Animal Party helps the animals. our slogan is We Stand For The Animals
Please vote for the green team, WE ARE GREEN AND WE ARE KEEN. If you vote for us we will stop the poloution in the world, to use less electricity we will get solar panels in our school, we want to have clean beaches so we will encourage people to have more beach cleans and we will use the car less and then walk instead.
We are fruitastic vote for us because we are trying to make the world a better place by getting people to eat fruit more. We have a fruit shop in school, we will get a fruit van for islay and lower the price of fruit and higher the price of fatty food. We will also support the farmers that work hard and dont get much money. Vote for us !!
On Saturday 14th Beach Rugby took place in Port Ellen. There were lots of stalls, walls, bins and posters. There were female teams and male teams. Lots of interesting stuff happened at the beach and the playing fields both of them had fun things going on. Up at the fields there was a Beach Rugby dance. There were 32 teams altogether 22 male teams and 10 female teams.
By Nicholas
On Wednesday Cameron and I took a trip to Bowmore to talk about Endeavour in front of the public and other head teachers and councillors. We were asked to go and speak about this because one of the focuses in our inspection was independent learning and part of this was endeavour. Cameron spoke about planning our endeavour session and his progress in his log. Also his connection with Beech Grove garden and how he has kept in touch. He then spoke about his Endeavour learning log then handed it over to Me. I talked about what my Endeavour was on and why I chose it. Then I talked about plan do review because it helps us plan our next steps. We showed the councillors our work and what we had achieved within the amount of time given.
By Cameron and Danni
On the 9th of June, Miss Macrae, Anwen Baker, Maisie Logan and Katie Middelton went on a trip to Glasgow for the night for the Scottish Education awards, we were nominated in the Enterprise category. We got to Glasgow at 7 and went to the world buffet king for dinner at 8. It was lovely and everything we tried was really tasty, we got back to the hotel and had showers ready for the morning. We woke up and went down to breakfast in our jammies! We went back up to the room, got all glammed up and set off to the Thistle Hotel where it was held. Everyone was really nice and the smoothie we got was delicious. The tables were all set out like a circus with tiny horses hanging from lights! At the beginning of the awards these drummers came out dressed as tin foil men. It sounded great and was really enjoyable. When the awards started it was really nerve racking, it finally came to our catagory and there is 3 finalists, we were one of them. Unfortunately we didn’t win but it was great to even get into the top three. At the very end we got given an envelope with £250 in it! There were people on stilts walking around the tables, and magicians and balloon makers. The lunch they served was really nice, it was nachos with chilli mince and for dessert, it was a mini cone with ice cream, sorbet and a mini pastry scone type thing with popping candy! It was a great trip and I enjoyed it lots!:)
On Wednesday 26th June there will be a leavers assembly. All last week we have been preparing. Also this week we will be too. We have been making movie trailers with help of p6. Also the p7s had to choose a program and make it with themselves in it. The songs that we are doing are best day of my life. We are also doing a other song called don’t stop me now but in lip dub using teachers in it and actions. We all hope this will be a good success.
Everyone have been enjoying preparing for it.
By Jodie & Ciara 🙂
Over the last six months pupils from Primary 6/7 have been working on, planning and creating an Endeavour project. Everyone has worked really hard and have managed to achieve a lot. Just some of the Endeavour projects are keeping chickens which we hatched in the class room, cooking from around the world and story writing. There are a variety of different projects and they are all very unique. Our old school head teacher, Mrs Cusworth, has been taking a look at all the Endeavour projects in our class and asking us questions. She will pick the person that stands out as having put in lots of effort and has come the farthest on their Endeavour journey and has thought positively about their Endeavour. On Friday it is the Endeavour learning festival where they will show what they have achieved.
By Emily and Abbie xx
On Tuesday 3rd June P6/7 went to Edinburgh to talk about science. They went on the Tuesday and came back on the Thursday night. On Wednesday some of the P4/5’s went to Social Enterprise awards they were doing Scent-Citizens soap business. They enjoyed being at the presentation and receiving an award. On the Thursday some of P6/7 went to Murrayfield to show off their science knowledge. At Murrayfield P6/7 were getting tested their knowledge about science, they’re was 3 judges that came round every stall and listened to all the schools talk about science and what they have created. P6/7 were against a lot of primary schools all over the UK. They took part in a number of STEM challenges run by different company’s one challenge was you had to build a tower of cups but you coulden’t touch they cups all you had was string and a rubber band and there was 5 all together. They also did a PINGPONGPENTATHALON were they had to create a number of things to carry a ping pong across the obstacles. At their stall they had science gadgets like (robotic arm) (Lego Mine storms) and a presentation that they performed in front of the judges they all really enjoyed it, sadly they didn’t win anything but they participated that’s all that counts.
By Alicia & Asher
It was the turn of Donald, Braeden and Scott to organise their expedition over the Ard. They learned to think about possible dangers and had to do a risk assessment. Before we set off, Donald spoke to the class to remind everyone how to stay safe. While we were on the Ard we learned about what to do in an emergency – getting help, calling the coastguard if you are near the sea, and trying out an emergency shelter.
P1/2 went on the first of their planned expeditions to the beach. It was a lovely afternoon and the children worked in groups to create sand sculptures.
Over the past few weeks P1/2 have been learning about explorers. They have found out about lots of famous explorers – from Captain Cook, Scott & Amundsen, Charles Darwin and Shackleton to Neil Armstrong, Edmund Hillary and Jacques Cousteau. They have tried to think about why these people explored where they did and how they went about it. They re-enacted Scott’s expedition to the South Pole in the school grounds and pretended to climb Mount Everest like Edmund Hillary. They have also been working in groups to plan their own expeditions.
On Saturday 17th May Port Ellen Primary School had an eco grounds day.
Pupils brought their mums and dads granny and grampas. And some adults came that didn’t even have children that go to the school. Two women that couldn’t make gave us a donation. but it was a hard working in the rain. Then at 12 o’clock we had lunch. Then we got back to work then at 2o’clock we finished up and then we went home.
By Ciara and William 🙂
My topic is on horses and I’m enjoying learning about them. I have found out about their teeth, and they have more teeth than humans. I did something very exciting, I sent a letter to Beth to find out more about horses and I got a letter back. I’m really enjoying doing my topic.
By Millie Clark P1
Explorers is our new topic and we drew pictures of explorers. We also got giving a map and we had to colour in the country they were going to, it was good fun. We got a explorer diary and we had coloured in the front cover and decorate it. We all learned that explorers go all around the world on a boat. I’m really enjoying this topic so far.
By Millie
