Author: Mrs Clark

This afternoon all the classes worked together in their houses to complete three World Book Day challenges; a scavenger hunt, costume design and healthy snack. We had a great afternoon together celebrating reading!

A’ comharrachadh na Gàidhlig air feadh an t-saoghail / World Gaelic Week – Celebrating Scottish Gaelic across the globe. 20-26 An Gearran // February 2023

Gaelic weather with P4. #SeachdainNaGàidhlig ⁦@bordnagaidhlig⁩ ⁦@sngaidhlig⁩ pic.twitter.com/1VLW0DiPOq

— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) February 22, 2023

We had lots going on in Port Ellen for Gaelic week.  P12 made pancakes using Gaelic words, P567 made Gaelic healthy tuck for the whole school, P3 designed Gaelic T-shirts and as you can see, P4 made Gaelic weather forecasts! Sgoinneil a h-uile duine!

As we came around the final bend a blue sign came into sight, a sign that said Ardentinny. We drove up the drive and I saw a building, a building that looked like a dank grey box. This was Ardentinny.  We were coming here for a residential trip will all the P6/7’s from Islay and Jura on the 14th of February. Ardentinny is an outdoor education center that has activities like kayaking, archery and abseiling.

When we arrived, we went up to our dorm and unpacked a few things and went to dinner. After that we went on a night walk through the forest. I stepped into the jet-black forest. It seemed like my light got dimmer as we trekked into the forest, adrenalin keeping me going. I clung onto the rope for dear life and then we were told to switch our lights off, and we were plunged into blackness. When we were allowed to switch them back on, we quickly walked back. The next activity we did was a team challenge which was an obstacle course. In the afternoon, we did rock hop, which involves jumping from rock to rock and climbing.

The next day we did the climbing activity. Everyone was in a rush to the first activity. For climbing we climbed up three different slopes easy medium and hard in partners. Next, we abseiled where you must climb down a slope.  It was all so much fun!

Evie

The bus pulled up to an old dejected looking building. A building that somehow looked like a 1990’s prison. One at a time, we all made our way off the almost luxurious bus we had been sitting in for the last 2 hours. Lazily we all dragged our vast luggage towards the open door leading to the building. All P6/7 from Islay and Jura were very excited to be there.

After an introduction we briskly made our way up to the dormitories where we were supposed to get our room numbers. Without thinking, everyone ran towards their room. Everyone quickly unpacked and was down at the boot-room within 30 minutes. I headed outside and down the hill to the boot-room. We tried on our wellies and fitted them. Everyone got waterproofs for outside activities.

After the boot-room we walked up the hill, through the door and to dinner. About 15 minutes into dinner, a boy in group 6 ( Everyone was selected into groups 1-6 I was in group 1.) dramatically tipped the table and ran out the room. Everyone was talking about it for the rest of the night but it eased off as dinner continued. We all got about 20 minutes after dinner to unpack a bit and get changed, and then we went on a night walk. After that, we came back and had supper, and went to sleep.

In the morning everyone was complaining about the rooms but were still excited for all of the activities. We all sat and ate breakfast in our groups. I had 9 people in my group. That included: me, Evie, Maria, Catherin, John, Ruddy, Johnny, Jacob and Thomas. Our group leader was Catriona. We started off the day by meeting our group leaders and doing a team challenge, an obstacle course and an “Laser escape room” which actually wasn’t a laser escape room. Just some old rope attached to a tree to make a pathway to go through. I made it through on my second try, the main objective was to make your way through the rope/laser escape room without touching the rope. Everyone in my group thoroughly enjoyed it. But, I think everyone also enjoyed the obstacle course. It was a wonderful experience. After lunch we went rock hopping, rock hopping was probably one of my favourite activities out of everything we did. It was an activity that involved a bit of rock climbing, but with rock climbing you usually climb up the rock; with rock hoping you climb across. Rock hopping is an adventurous activity that consists of squeezing into tight spaces above ground. We took the Ardentinny bus to a beach nearby and walked up the path till we were at the place where we were to start rock hopping. We clambered across rocks and made our way towards the end, at one point we actually met team 3. Eventually, we made it to the final rock. We walked all the way back to the centre and packed up all our stuff and lay it down to dry. We all went upstairs to change if we got wet and then went down for dinner.

In the dinner hall we were given macaroni and cheese. There were also some side dishes that you could take instead, most people were fine with the macaroni and cheese but I took chips, garlic bread and pasta. After dinner we went downstairs to the boot-room to get ready for search and rescue, that was our night activity. We all did extremely well. Everyone was tired after a long day, we all fell asleep quickly.  It was so much fun!

Iona

This afternoon during our citizenship group time, we went through all of our book swap shop designs and chose a piece from each which we loved. We now have a specification to work with. Some of us also went to the front of the school to measure the space we are planning on using. We would love to hear from any of our grown ups who might be able to help us out with the building process!