Author: Mrs Clark

Well here it is, P1/2 class of 2021 Christmas Nativity. The children have worked so hard to create this for you and hopefully have had some fun along the way too! Thank you to all of the other classes for their contributions, we really appreciate it! We hope you enjoy it!

We got out to the library van today and got to choose a book to bring in to nursery. Charlotte enjoyed looking through the books and chose “A Piglet Named Mercy” 📚 🐷 ⭐️ I can explore and choose books to read and listen to. 👣 We will look at and read the books we chose from the van in nursery.

We are pleased to announce that 3 of our pupils have achieved the highly Commended place in the Scottish Civic Trust’s My Place Photography Competition this year in the primary category.

The theme this year was climate change and the pupils had to take photos of their local environment that reflected this theme.

Katie took a photo of an abandoned house with the maltings smoke in the distance and called it Distant Threat.

Caillin took a photo of the electric charging point at the pier which looks very rusty and called it Charge Up!

William took an interesting photo of different building materials and called it Green Build- Stone, Metal ,Wood.

Well done to our three photographers!

For Maths Week Scotland this year the school took part in the Maths Inside photography competition.  Maths inside is a photo competition open to everyone in Scotland and asks people to take photos and then comment on the maths that relates to those photos.

There are three categories-  in the home, in the wild, and climate change.  We have 2 children who have received a Second Level Commended Entry and certificate; Iona for her picture of the logs from chopped down trees on the Oa in the ‘Climate change’ category and Connor for his use of maths to estimate the number of words he read in a book in the ‘In the home’ category.  We also have a highly commended at Early Level for Elana’s photo of the sea and questions How many fish are left in the sea?

Even more exciting we have an overall winner at second level; Finlay for his photo of fishing boats in Port Ellen- he talked about the different maths you needed to be a fisherman in the ‘In the wild’ category. He gets a certificate and £20 Amazon gift voucher.

Even MORE exciting we have the Overall Category Winner for ‘Climate Change’; Evie for her photo of one a locally caught fish we filleted for our food topic. She wondered about the maths needed to calculate how many fish and other creatures are left in the seas and how we know if we are overfishing. She receives a £50 Amazon voucher and certificate.

We also were a highly commended school for the number and quality of our entries.

Congratulations on your success in the maths inside photo competition! This really is an enormous achievement!

Earlier in the year we had Fiona from the INHT taking us out and about around the Ard and teaching us all about peat.  As a part of this project the children in P567 wrote peat poetry.  The winners and runners up of the poetry competition can be read below.  Well done to those who took part.

We have had a mathstastic week in Port Ellen primary!  All the classes have been busy outside snapping pictures for the Maths Inside competition, where you have to take photos of the maths you see in the world around you.  P567 have been baking cupcakes this week using their maths measuring skills and had a masterclass online from Peter Sawkins from the Great British Bake off.  P234 had to find their way out of a class escape room using their maths skills, it was very tricky but we can report that they all managed to escape!  P12 have been using the story Cuthbert goes on and on to learn all about infinity! 

P567 have been learning all about sustainable food choices this term as well as developing their cooking skills.  They have looked at food miles and created their own low food miles bramble jelly and rosehip jelly from foraged local produce.  We also made harvest chutney from locally grown vegetables.  After learning some key chopping skills, how to make bread and how to scale, gut and fillet a fish they chose and cooked healthy meals from around the world.  During maths week Scotland they used measuring skills to create a range of cupcakes: bramble, rosehip, citrus, chocolate orange and bubble-gum flavour.  Finally they chose to give a gift of the products they had made to the people in the community who helped during Covid.

Primary 1 and 2 had already collected and distributed food for the senior citizens in the village.  On Tuesday we delivered the 6 gift bags we made up to say thank you to our local covid heroes​.  Each bag contained jars of the jellies and chutney and a selection of the cupcakes.  P234 made lovely harvest loaves of bread to share as well.  They delivered the bags to the Co-op, the Post Office, the Ferry, Local Carers, the Doctors surgery and the School.  As a community school we feel it is important to support and say thank you to our wonderful community for supporting us!

We have new citizenship groups this year in Port Ellen, read more about them below:

We are delighted that Katie Harrison in P6 has won the Ileach front cover competition, alongside 2 children from Port Charlotte Primary school.  Her design is on the cover on sale now, so don’t forget to pick up a copy.

In Port Ellen School we had a Christmas Jumper day and it was for the charity Save the Children.  People wore Christmas jumpers in and brung a donation in and all the money was to help children around the world. It will help to give them clean water and food and education so they can get smart.  It is kind to donate to charity.  We raised £112 for Save the children.  my christmas jumper had snowflakes and Xboxes on it.

By Ben

The Port Ellen Primary School Community was extremely saddened to learn of the sudden death of Drew Brown on the 13th September.  Drew was a much loved pupil at Port Ellen from Nursery until he left at the end of primary 7 in June this year.  He had only been at Islay high School for a few weeks when this tragic event happened.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Drew joined us at Port Ellen Nursery in 2011 at the age of 3 .  He took a while to adjust but quickly grew into the school and everyone in the school soon realised we had a real character.  One of his earliest reports said – Drew responds to a firm voice when he is up to nonsense!!

Drew Brown was part of a class of 13. They just moved to Islay High. He was a good friend to his classmates, kind, sympathetic but he was also very good with younger children. His popularity earned him status of the School House Captain for Orsay – a job he took very seriously. He ran clubs from P5 and was an excellent leader.

It was clear from very early in his nursery days that Drew had a particular flair for number – he excelled, he was quick, could see problems very quickly and work them out at speed. This year (P7) he participated in the Scottish Maths Challenge and achieved a bronze award for his efforts. He was really proud of himself as it was not an easy task .

He also had very good digital skills and this was also identified at the age of 3. He could reset the computer or do something/ hack files and we still don’t know how he managed it!! In P7 he decided to do Robotics and coding for Endeavour and took great interest in subjects like this.

Drew always had a very good relationship with the staff and his mischievous sense of humour endeared them all although there were times they didn’t know what he was going to surprise them with next, he always seemed just that one step ahead. We have talked a lot about Drew over the last week about his antics and the nonsense he could get up to and not only has this brought a smile to all our faces, it has helped us to support and comfort one another at such a sad time. Drew’s personality struck a chord with everyone.

Who could forget the Pantomime in December- Drew was Bolt , the jester . He had the audience in the palm of his hands and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house – tears of laughter. His timing was impeccable and he spoke so clearly . He brought the house down. Some people came back the next night for seconds just like Drew did at lunch time

He loved good food, when he went to high school Mrs Holyoake just couldn’t find anyone who was so keen on seconds and who would sit and blether to her for virtually the whole of the lunch hour – often with his dinner hall partner in crime, Dearbhla . Although Dearbhla would be still eating her normal quota while Drew was often on his second lot of seconds!!

He enjoyed a laugh and often you could hear his laughter and see his excitement. He attended the leaver’s assembly in June – with some anxiety, however as always Drew quickly settled and enjoyed the videos. Drew’s was a very encouraging message telling everyone to go for it , never give up summing up his can do attitude to life . He wanted to be the same as everyone – that was his goal and at the end of P7 he achieved this, he was completely independent.

The tradition in Port Ellen is to write messages on everyone’s school jumper. Drew and I shared many conversations about Rangers – both fans so it really appealed to his sense of humour when I wrote on his good friend Scott Hope’s jumper ( Celtic fan) – Scott you’re Simply the Best!! That was right up Drew’s street.

On Thursday we started our remembrance / quiet area for Drew and planted an apple tree. Every day staff and children walk past the tree, they will remember Drew . Some days it will fill us with grief as we have had to say goodbye to a dear and good boy but it will also fill us with happiness when we remember the memories he has left behind. Ones that will always put a smile on our faces.

Remembering someone like that can’t be engineered, Drew’s personality, his uniqueness and resilience has left a legacy and he has touched all of our hearts.

I thought it might be nice to share some of the writing the children have done through home learning.  Enjoy!

Due to the school closures our annual Easter egg decorating competition has had to take place online this year, but standards and creativity are as great as ever!  Mrs Macdonald had some great comments to make “I couldn’t pick one winner , it was so hard and I am giving you all a virtual prize . I did pick 4 and categorised as follows; Elena – prettiest egg, Millie – funniest / topical, Caitidh – Great play on words / lots of effort, Orla – best use of digital skills”

Argyll and Bute Education Services are committed to ensuring that none of our pupils have to go without access to free period products during the Covid-19 crisis when the usual availability in schools is restricted and when it is more difficult, and indeed expensive, to get products from shops.

Many schools distributed period products from their stocks to pupils before they closed. However, as the current Covid-19 Government restrictions continue, we want to ensure that our pupils’ wellbeing needs continue to be met.

For this reason we have made an arrangement with Hey Girls, one of Scotland’s main providers of period products, that enables you to order from a range of products using a survey monkey link that simply requests your chosen package, school and your delivery name and address.

To order your products please click here:  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZDQC8JT.  You can then click the packs you need (and it’s ok to order more than one type), enter your details and click ‘done’ at the bottom of the page.   Hey Girls will then process your order and post it to the address that you have given.  The link will be refreshed at regular intervals to ensure that you can make repeat orders.

As this system is just getting started and given the current delay in some postal service deliveries, please allow up to two weeks for your delivery to me made, although Hey Girls would hope to reduce this in time.

This Hey Girls order form link will also be sent out to parents and carers via text and email.   To avoid multiple orders at the same time from the same family, and to ensure that you get what you need , we would be grateful if children and parents/carers could consult with each other before ordering.

Please note that these products are free and are available to children and young people in Argyll and Bute schools from P6 to S6.  While the closure of schools continues, you can place an order whenever you need it.

We will continue to monitor the success of this system and will review it when restrictions are lifted and when the crisis is over.

If you need any more information on this system or wish to make any comments please contact Cathy Cameron at  catherine.cameron2@argyll-bute.gov.uk.

Schools are officially closed from the 20th March until futher notice due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.  This means much of your child’s learning will continue at home with the support of their family.  Teachers will be available online via Seesaw in the weeks to come to support you with ideas and acitivities to maintain a semblence of normality, in what are decidedly not normal times, unless they are busy in school looking after vulnerable children and key worker’s children.

Here are some top tips to help you in the coming weeks:

February the 11th is the UK Safer Internet Day.  The internet, on the whole, is an inspiring and positive place that provides opportunities and experiences we could never have imagined 30 years ago.  It is an amazing resource which enables children and young people to connect, communicate and be creative in a number of different ways, on a range of devices.  However, the internet is always changing, and being able to keep up to date with your children’s use of technology can be a challenge.

Talking to your child about online safety can be hard.  Parents are often confused and bemused by technology online and at a disadvantage when talking to their much more knowledgeable offspring.  We can lack confidence in knowing what to do and how to get help when something goes wrong.  However children and young people still need advice and protection when it comes to managing their lives online.

While Cyber Security protects digital devices and networks from harm by third parties, Online Safety is about keeping people safe when using digital technologies.  By being aware of the nature of the possible threats that you could encounter whilst online, whether it is security threats, handling and safeguarding your personal data, management of your digital footprint, or avoiding harmful or illegal content, you are keeping yourself and your family safe.

Issues that your child may encounter on the internet will vary depending on their age and online activities, and can be grouped into 4 areas according to the UK Safer Internet Centre.

Conduct: children may be at risk because of their own behaviour, for example, by sharing too much information.

Content: age-inappropriate or unreliable content can be available to children.

Contact: children can be contacted by bullies or people who groom or seek to abuse them.

Commercialism: young people can be unaware of hidden costs and advertising in apps, games and websites.

Through funding from Education Scotland’s #STEMnation, an expert from the charity SWGfL will be visiting Islay on Wednesday the 19th of February to work with teachers, pupils and parents on a range of internet safety issues.  There will be a parent workshop (community members also welcome) from 5.30-6.30 at Bowmore Primary school  where you can come along and find out more about how to keep your family safe online and where there will be a chance to ask any questions you may have.  We would love to see as many people as possible coming along to find out more about this vital topic.