Primary School of the Year 2022
On lunch break we run clubs! The different clubs are drawing, dodgeball, playground games, reading. The captains of the one house run them and everyone in there house is allowed to come. Every day it is a different house so that everybody gets to go to clubs. It is super fun because everyone gets to play with each other. We enjoy the chance to run our own clubs and this links to the right to play Article 31.
On the 14th of September we went on a school trip. We went on The Banana Bus and headed to Kennacraig. As we were waiting for the ferry, we all got out of the car and had a bit of HIIT. With a cool breeze on our faces, we done squats and lunges, which was great fun. When we were on the ferry it was so beautiful, there were dark blue wavy waters, with fish all around. With a bump, we arrived at the pier. It was so fun driving with all the big bumps of the road and the massive stag everywhere.
When we arrived at the town, the sun was shining like a fireball in the sky trying to set us on fire. When we arrived at Small Isles Primary School, they showed us where to put our stuff and where the classroom was. When we got in, we got to choose where to sit, and they were so kind they even gave up their seats for us to sit in. Not a big class, but they were all so kind. We decided to play a game… It was where you had to walk around the class and when the music stopped you had to turn around and the person beside you must tell you their name and then three facts about themselves (and vice versa). After we done that, we got into our groups that were on the board. The people in my group from the different school were: Grace and Shein. They were kind and had a lot in common with me. Shein was the same age as me and Grace was a year younger than me. We made a hilarious team name; can you guess what it was… THE GREESY BESTIES! Thirdly, we done a team quiz all about climate change and children’s rights. After that, we done a thing where we had to produce ideas to become eco-friendly. Each group produced two ideas to write to the government or Jenni Minto. We all had great ideas. Then for the main event… drum roll please! THE BEACH. We all went for a lovely walk to the beautiful beach. We all sat down and then we heard the teacher shout “The Greesy Besties please come and line up for ice cream,” a smile showed up on our whole team’s faces. We all got our ice cream and went to sit on the beach side.
We arrived at Jura at about 10:30. It was a fun journey, and we enjoyed it.
The school was in the middle of Jura, which was a beautiful place.
Overall, we all had a blast and would absolutely love to go back to the Isle of Jura.
Rachel Heads
On the last day of term Port Ellen primary school did Dance a Thon to raise money for making Blytheswood shoe boxes for children in Romania. Children in the school danced to different songs in the hall and in each class the best dancer got a prizes. Everyone has enjoyed the Danceathon and it has raised a lot of money, helping children meet the right to health care article 24.
On Thursday 14th September we all went on a trip to Jura primary school to share our Rights Respecting Schools work with each other. Small Isles Primary already has their silver award and we wanted to learn more. We went with Mrs. Mackenzie, Mrs. Clark and Miss Clark. When we got there we learned about the Outright campaign on climate change and we worked in groups to come up with a problem we want our local councillors and MSP to solve. We will work together to write to them about it to see if we can make a change. We got to go out and play at break in Small Isles playground and then we went to the beach for lunch and ice cream. We had a great day out and enjoyed making friends with children from Jura.
Rights are very important to children up to 18 all around the world. We have been working on them to help us understand the value of it all. We have learnt that our opinion should be heard, no matter what age you are, All children up to 18 should have their rights and know them but some children in wars don’t get their rights, like education, Safety, health, and to be heard. If you think that you are not getting your rights tell someone you trust. In Port Ellen school we have made a playground charter of rights so children can respect other children no matter what they look like or what country they are from.
This term we have been working with the new primary ones and twos. We have been reading them stories and they have been loving it, playing with them with the parachute and more. We all had a good time. On Friday we had a teddy bear picnic with them. We also had banana muffins when we were outside. We built houses boats and more for our and our buddies teddies. we looked after the new primary ones at their first day. After we had the muffins we did a teddy bear race, it was fun!
On Wednesday the 28th of June we took part in the Commonwealth fly fishing parade to the NO1 gardens from the school. The nursery wore yellow tops, p1,2s wore red tops ,p3 green top, the p4 wore light blue tops and we also wore purple tops. Evie designed the tops with the fish on them the design was a fish on Islay with a fishing rod going around it. We got free burgers and drinks and even pin badges and we asked all the countries for their badges to collect them. The countries what took part were Australia, England, South Africa, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Lots of people where there Heathers ices was there you got to go on the bouncy house Thomas and Marcus mum was selling stuff like bracelets key rings, bottle openers. The highland dancers were dancing outside on front of every fly fishing team was watching. We done it because we were supporting all the countries.
On June 12th 2023 Port Ellen primary school had a sports day for everyone from nursery to P7. We all had different races like the flat race, sack race and obstacle course. At the end of the sports day we had an inter house relay for the p5,6 7s. For the relay the captains chose 4 of the fastest runners form their house in primary 5,6 or 7 and then pick an order. After the relay they announced the winners for the sports championships the winner for boys was Finlay in second Hugh and in third Dylan the first for girls was Chloe in second Iona and in third Evie. The overall winning house by points for the whole of sports day was Nave. For winning sport day Nave you get a plaque/trophy.
What an amazing adventure P1,2 had today with our new friends from Bowmore Primary! We had a day filled with stickman activities from raft building to mapping. We loved our packed lunches and were very excited to see what treats we had inside them. We made s’mores and played on the swings. Only a few of us fell asleep on the bus home until we saw a helicopter carrying an electricity pole! Well done team, you were fabulous!
P1/2 have had the best day with our friends from @BowmorePrimary on our #bilingual Stickman adventure day. @sngaidhlig @abc_OCTF @EdScotOL pic.twitter.com/VUw1Z2Awvi
— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) February 27, 2023
⭐️ We had great fun today with the Kapla blocks, the big boys and girls from Primary 3 let us borrow their huge box of blocks and even came down to show us how to build the biggest tower with them! ⭐️
Some of us made cards on Valentines Day for people we love ❤️ We all love our families and they love us, we are going to be talking more about our families and who we live with ☺️ UNCRC article 9 – I have the right to live with a family who care for me. 🌟I can talk about who I love and care for. 🦶We will be talking about our families, and who we live with ☺️
On the 28th January Dolphins had a swimming championship. It was for everyone that goes to dolphins. There was 5 heats for most of the races and there was about 20 races. There was different age groups so people are racing against people their age instead of a 5 year old vs and 16 year old. The races are 25 meters for 1st session there is 25 front crawl, back-stroke, butterfly and breast-stroke. For 2nd session there was 50 meter and 100 meters which were all 4 strokes again. There was a IM (which stands for induvial medley) 100 meters which is 1 length of each stroke. At the end the older ones all jumped in. After we done all of that we went up to the high school to get all of our medals. When we were there we got cakes, brownies and lots more. After we ate all of or food that we picked. Then it was the time to go up when your name was called to get all of your medals and trophies. It was a great day.
This term we have been going tho the Celtic house and looking for books to buy for the school. Before we go upstairs we do a book scavenger hunt to see what books we can find, we get different categories to try find the book for that category. Then we get to choose a book we want. When we go upstairs we get hot chocolate with marshmallows with cream, then Mrs Clark reads the first page of two books and we vote for what book we like the most. When we are done voting we get a biscuit and the we get the three books that we voted on. We all loved reading the books and we want to do it again.
On the 10th of December, our school held a Christmas fair for the local community to attend. We had lots of merry raffle prizes for adults and children. The nursery and p1/2 had a stall, and p5/6/7 had 4 stalls for each of the tables in the class. The groups that were handling the stalls in p5/6/7 were called:
Santa’s Elves: Chloe, Teddy, Ayla, Evie, Freddy and Sani.
The Gonks: Iona, James, Jacob, Brody, Stephen and Ellie.
Da Boys on Da Shelf: Aiden, Thomas, William, Finlay, Archie and Alfie
Santa’s little helpers: Rachel, Duncan, Ella, Hugh and Dylan.
These groups made:
Santa’s Elves made Block Christmas Characters, Snowman Face Tree Decoration and Stone Bird Tree Decoration.
The Gonks made Clay Gonks, Scrunches and Block Calendars.
Da Boys on Da Shelf made phyrogrithy cooking spoons and ornaments, Christmas trees decorations made out of blocks and sock creatures.
Santa’s little helpers made keyrings made out of thin blocks, coasters and sock snowmen.
Lots of people came along and we raised loads of money for the school. There was Santa’s Grotto run by the parent council and also waffles to buy and eat. Ms Brown did face painting too. It was a wonderful Christmas Time!
This afternoon the school were invited to attend the St Andrews Day ceilidh in the Ramsay Hall with the pensioners in the village. P12 had been practising Ally Bally Bee and Wee Willie Winkie with our friends from the ELCC for this occasion. P3-7 sang S’ann an Ilè and some of the P67 did dancing as well. It was great fun!
At our school, Port Ellen Primary School. We received the National Teaching Award for Making a Difference, Primary School of the Year. The teaching award is a once-a-year award that is given out to special schools across the UK. Our school was very lucky to be given the award considering that there was 4 school who also received the silver awards in the UK, 2 in Scotland and 2 in England. Iona says, ” This is a great opportunity for our school, I am very lucky to be in such a great school” Another opinion gave by the editors are by Chloe, she says, ” We are one of the many schools who could have been picked out of all the schools that entered. We are extremely lucky to be given this golden award.” From another student, Brody, ” I was speechless.” Our school is very active with the community and brings Joy to all the students. Making a difference is important to the community as our Island is special in its own way.
By Chloe and Iona
We had a lovely game-a-thon this afternoon in aid of Children in Need.
P12 have read Katie Morag and the New Pier. The children were very excited to go on a trip down to the ferry to meet Linda and Innes who were ready to let them be ferrymen and women! We got to try on the uniform, beep the tickets, talk on the radio and even see a life jacket inflate and hear the whistle to attract attention. We had some brilliant questions about the pier, the different ferries and the jobs available at Calmac. Thank you to the team for letting us come and visit!
We had the most amazing trip to the sorting office today to learn about how our mail gets to our houses as this weeks book is Katie Morag Delivers the Mail. We were astounded by the volume of mail that our wonderful posties have to contend with everyday. We learnt all about the different areas of our island and how there are secret messages on our letters. We think our posties are fabulous and are working so hard for our community especially at the moment. 
We had a very exciting afternoon, the fire brigade came to see us! We got to use the BIG hose and make our own rainbows with the reflected water. Some of us were brave enough to try on the fire helmet and turn on the sirens!
We have had a fantastic day in the woods as part of our Maths Week Scotland learning. We walked the whole way to the woods, set up our base camp, had some healthy snack and a good explore before getting into our groups. We then had to follow our map to find all the teachers hiding at different points. After collecting all four signatures it was time to head back to base for some lunch and then a trip to the distillery to use the toilets! It was back to base camp for our final mapping activity – a scavenger hunt to collect items to work out our treat…. Thank you to all our grown ups for our yummy lunches and giving us cosy clothes to wear!
Last week in the playground Mr Heads fixed our basketball hoops! It went from rusty poles to our new and improved basketball hoops. Loads of us enjoy them. So we are writing him a thank you card. Thanks Mr Heads!
Jimmy’s mum gave us a worm world so we filled it up today with soil and put 5 worms inside from our garden wormery 🪱🪱 We talked about what the worms would do in our worm home and what they could eat 🍃 We will keep an eye on them and keep them in nursery this week then let them go back in to our womery 😄 ⭐️ We are learning about worms and the important job that they do. 👣 Continue to watch our worms and feed them.
What Is Citizenship?
Citizenship is something that Port Ellen Primary have been doing for many years, in recent years of covid the whole school has not been able to do it together. However, in covid times primary 5/6/7 have been doing it in their class by themselves. Just this year, Port Ellen Primary has been able to start doing together again. The school has been split into Citizenship groups, Bee Eco, Bee Respectful, Bee Readers and Bee Healthy. All of these groups are led by teachers of different years in our school, all of the teachers have different groups and are the leaders of the groups.
What Do We Do?
In our Citizenship group, we did a questionnaire and the older students had to help the younger students write down and read out the questions to them. As this was only recently, we went round in a circle and we introduced ourselves to everyone and told them a thing that we like or dislike. We talked about children’s rights and how we should respect them, we went through a slideshow and we had a look at different children’s rights.
Why Is Respect Important?
Respect is important because it is a happy motion also known as esteem. Respect is something that you show to someone or something a feel of happiness, gratefulness, kindness or politeness.
Iona
On Monday the 26th of September the whole school had the first citizenship meeting of the year. In citizenship there are 4 groups: the Eco group, the Healthy group, Rights respecting schools group and the reading group. In the meeting we thought of ideas for what we could do for our group.
Some of our ideas were to cook healthy food so that people would be encouraged to eat healthy. We might sell the tuck for money so that we can buy more playground equipment.
We are going to make things like smoothies and fruit salads. We will make the in the morning at the first break so you can get some food for your break as well as fruit.
We are going to run sports clubs so that people will be able to have fun while getting exercise from running and it will show people that exercise can be fun. To encourage people to be healthy we are going to make videos on why being healthy is good. To see what game to play we are going to do a survey on what game to play we are going to put games like football, dodgeball and basketball.
By Hugh
Every Thursday we go the Ramsey hall to do carpet bowls with Ms Brown the people who teach us are Eddie and Terry. There are two carpet and four people per carpet and two people in a team.
Last week we had point sheets to keep track of our score and see who wins we play five rounds per team. there is a white thing in the middle you have to get past and if you hit it your bowl is out. When you get it past you have to make it in a square box on the carpet. There is a big circle and a small one you always need to have the small one in the inside of the ball. When someone is playing and you aren’t playing you can do a job which if it goes out you can get it and put the white thing back in place. Thank you south Islay development for sponsoring us to play carpet bowls.
On Friday 16th the whole school went outside and planted a tree in memory of the Queen. The oldest and youngest pupils in the school planted the tree and we also planted tulips around the base. We held a minutes silence as well.
The Queen used to be a mechanic in the war. She has visited Islay before. She became queen at 25 years old and she was the longest serving queen, reigning for 70 years. She was still working two days before she died, and was very dedicated to the country.
As part of their transition activities, P7 went on the bus to Bowmore to do orienteering with other P7s.
The course was in the high school playground and the football pitch. You would get a map and a compass to find a thing that snips your map and it makes a shape.
At the end we were talking and playing on the grass and then went on the bus and went back to the school.
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