Primary School of the Year 2022
This year for my Endeavour I have been baking cakes and tray bakes. So far I have written a blog and I have made balance sheets for the cakes that i have sold in the last few months. Endeavour is a long term project that we do every year. Every year we choose something that is challenging and not something that we have done already or too easy. In baking i had to overcome a lot of problems because i forgot to add some of the ingredients into the mixture.
On Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th of June the P7 went to the high school for their induction days for high school. Me Sarah and Taylor are in McBean. Rowan, Sophie and Matthew are in Winnard and Abi and Lauren are in Bryce. My favorite class in high school was P.E because we got to play bench ball and at lunch break the S1 girls got to go and try touch rugby. Now I am really looking forward to high school when I go to it in August.
By Rebecca Morris
On Monday 11th June 2018 Port Ellen primary school had their sports day. Every year for sports day, their is a girl sports champion and a boy sports champion, so to be able to do that primary’s 6 and 7 had to do some sports activities to be able to win the sports champion winners trophy. All the class of 6/7 did activities from high jump and long jump to cross country and football dribble, as well as many more. As tiring as it seems everyone whom participated did exceptionally well and really tried their best which pleased lots of people. On the day of sports day all the school (as well as some of the adults) did the races to add points onto their house for the shield. All of the school was stunning and they were all fantastic at giving everything a go and not giving up. The sports champions where announced, Boys: 1st Jack, 2nd Taylor, 3rd Matthew and Donald. Girls: 1st Lauren, 2nd Sophie, 3rd Rebecca. Thankfully the sun was shining, meaning everyone was having a splendid time.
For my Endeavour I am doing HTML/JAVA coding. I am making a webpage and I am going to use the website CodeCademy to help me. I have completed a planner covering what I will achieve in a certain space of time and answered questions like: how is this project ambitious and how this Endeavour will help me with my world of work. I have written a letter to a creator of a coding boot camp however I don’t know what I am going to do on my webpage. I am hoping that I get a reply for my letter and that it can help me with my Endeavour.
For many, the perfect summer holiday is one spent lounging on the beach without a care in the world.
This year for endeavour i decided to do healthy diets and keeping active, i chose this endeavour because i wanted to improve my health and activeness and inspire others to keep healthy as their has been a huge increase in the amount of obesity in the world and i wanted to try and do something about it, So i have been doing an endeavour on it. So far i have been working mainly on healthy eating more than keeping active because i feel as though eating more healthily will improve to help others more efficiently than keeping active. so far my main achievements are making m=my milkshakes an how to make milkshakes i movie. my favourite milkshake recipe is called purple gem fruit. i like it the most because it has a twist with the berries that gives the drink an extra flavor, also because its purple and that my favourite color. Soon the endeavour fair will be on and the following i would have completed on my table: healthy testers (drinks,snacks) research on activeness/healthiness, Imovie, power-point, posters, G suite, question sheet activity to test others knowledge. If i was to change one thing about the way i have did my endeavour would be to focus on both active and diets equally instead of just mainly focusing on one.
This year for my Endeavour I have chosen something that I really like. Crocheting. I really enjoy this Endeavour.
I hope to achieve a blanket, a hat, scarf, granny squares and some little things. So far I have made some squares for my blanket, my scarf, I have made lots of granny squares, a flower, a heart, a very long chain and a coaster. To make all of these there are different stitches of crochet you have to learn. These are some examples of those stitches. Chain stitch which you learn at the start, then you could learn the double crochet which I used to do the squares for my blanket. There is also treble crochet which I used for my scarf and half treble crochet for my hat. There is also single crochet which I used for my finger puppets. I am really enjoying my Endeavour this year and I have learned lots from the project like how to crochet, to be patient, to be fiddly with my hands and to be ambitious. I have asked my questions and answered my questions. I have learned a lot from this project and when I am finished with it I will still crochet things.
For my Endeavour I am doing Islay walks, so far I have walked to: Waterfall Bay, Ben Solum, the Leache, Killeyan and Cliftons Hill. In this Endevour I hope to also walk to the American monument, Ben Vicar, Solum/ Plague Village and Soldiers Rock. For my Endeavour I have made a blog, a Gsuite, I have planned a Walk to Soldiers Rock, I have taken photos of the places I’ve been and I’ve learnt how to read a map. By the End of this Endeavour I hope to Have finished my blog, made a photo-album and finish my research.
In this Endeavour I have learnt how to read a compass and a map, I have learnt how to make a blog on glow and a website on glow. I’ve learnt how to plan a walk and I’ve learnt how to manage my time more successfully.
My endeavour is making an I-movie about bullying. I wrote a letter to Chris Columbus the director of Harry Potter, he didn’t reply I think he is too busy. I wrote to Chris Columbus because I am inspired by the way he edits movies and how he creates them. I am also currently making a G-suite, it is going very well. I have also finished recording my I-movie, I am now in the middle of editing the I-Movie. I have also finished my planner.
With the World Cup in full swing, we look at some ways that you can support your child to make the most of exercise and use it to help raise their self-esteem
Thanks to all parents and community members who came along to our Community Open Afternoon to celebrate the end of our year-long Rolls-Royce project and share with the children all the fantastic learning that had taken place. Comments we received were all very positive about the experience and impact on children’s learning. It was lovely to see children and parents building together and having just as much fun! Happy engineering!
P1/2/3 enjoyed sharing their learning about solar power to visitors to our Community Open Afternoon.
We have been learning about healthy eating and all the different food groups. We have designed our own sandwiches and got to make them! We also learned about hygiene in the kitchen, how to use sharp knives safely and Mrs Holyoake explained all about the different chopping boards and how to store food correctly.
Many parents worry that their child could be groomed online. Here’s what you need to know to help protect them
Facebook Secret Conversations allows your child to send and receive private messages and images you won’t be able to see, even if you have the log in details to their account. Here’s what parents need to know
My Endeavour is art and I’m basing my art on Andy Warhol, Bansky and Keith Harings.
My aims are:
In February I finished of my planning , then wrote my letter to Miss Roberts, the art teacher in Islay High School and also started my research.
In March I looked at Pop Art, Graffiti Art, Modern Art and a little bit of perspective drawing. I tried to copy these styles of art to understand the process. I had planned to see the art teacher this month but did not achieve this.
By the end of my Project I hope to improve my art skills and put on a mini exhibition for the Endeavour Fair in June.
I have done 3 pieces of art so far for my exhibition.
I am doing an endeavour about clay animation. Right now I am making an animation about a volcano eruption because of global warming. I just have to animate it now and do the volcano eruption. But it is quite hard because I have to move the volcano and take pictures, it is hard because I forget where I took the pictures and it makes the animations bad sometimes so I need something to put it on so I can make the captions right. The reason I picked this endeavour is because animation is fun and I haven’t really done much with clay so I thought it would be fun!
This year for my endeavor I am doing Port Ellen and its history. Endeavour is a long term project that lets us use learn and get better at new skills. Every year you have to have created something that you can show at the endeavour fair. Everything you do is put into a folder and you keep it all year. You also need to plan all year.
Port Ellen has changed allot over the years and I wanted to identify the changes by presenting a timeline, sway and a map of Port Ellen to show where people in the war live. I have learnt about the monuments and lots more changes. WW1 was a big event for Islay having that the Tuscania and Otranto sinking just of the coast. We had a memorial at the start of may where Princess Ann came over to celebrate 100 years since the incident.
I have learnt how to use a timeline on power point. For my endeavour I need to now how to work a computer. I also needed to plan my year and show what my ambitions and aims are. Every week you also need to plan what you are doing.
This year I made a sway on Port Ellen and the changes that took me a couple of endeavour sessions. I also made a map with all the people in the war and where they lived. That was displayed in the Ramsay Hall for the Princess to see. Im also in progress to finishing a time line on power point.
I think to get finished I would need to do some at home but I will hopefully have enough to show on the endeavour fair.
by Jack
On the 31st of May 2018 we had an engineering fair. We were showing other people our learning about engineering. We had made sections about things such as engineering new things out of Lego and K’nex and we had sections for global warming.
There were also things to do with the STEM club. There was a simulation of the great pacific garbage patch. We were shown a video about a large net pulled by a boat that went to the great pacific garbage patch to collect as much garbage as possible. Some of us went to try and make something to collect as much of the stuff inside the simulation of the great pacific garbage patch as possible. One of the designs was a bunch of pipe cleaners with beads on them on the handles which would make it float. Then it would be pulled along to collect as much rubbish on the surface as possible.
In the hall there was a save the polar bears desk where two people were sitting at the desk, getting donations so they could save polar bears. There were lots of posters explaining how polar bears are endangered and how they could be saved. Just down from the polar bear desk there was the engineering endeavour table. There were four people. The first person was doing mechanical engineering, the second person was doing coding engineering the third person was doing electrical engineering and the fourth person was doing biomedical engineering.
It was a great day and lots of people from the community came and it was even filmed for BBC Alba.
This year for my endeavour I am doing kitchen skills. I chose to do this because I am really interested in it and I really like helping out at home and the skills that I have learnt will help me when I am looking for a job. Through the weeks of endeavour I have learned a lot of new skills. I have learned how to chop, peel, core and I have learnt about hygiene. At the end of my endeavour I am hoping to make an i-movie to be able to show and teach other people about hygiene in the kitchen and different skills. I am really enjoying endeavour this year and I hope that I can learn more skills even though I won’t be doing endeavour anymore after this.
By Rebecca Morris
Here are links to some of the G-SuiteEndeavour websites the class have created.
Endeavour is when you get to choose your own project and do it for the whole year. For this year I have choose to do highland dancing . I am learning how to get better at it, learning to talk with people if I am stuck with a step.Only p5/6/7 do Endeavour but the rest of the school do mini projects. This year I achieved lots, I also learnt new things, I had to overcome lots of problems and I learnt new skills like; learning how to put my costume away properly, how to tie my pumps and how to put everything away in its right place for the next time I go dancing. I learned how to put my sash on my white dress by my self.
I had to over come some problems like; my kilt would not fit me so I had to get it ajusted, my pump laces were to short so I had to get new laces, I went over my ankle and I could not dance, I staved my toe and I had to wear special socks to protect my foot and I was not able to dance for a whole week, I lost my pumps and I had to borrow someone elses, I was going to a competition and I forgot to bring my blouse to wear so I had to wear my sisters when she was not dancing and I was going to a practice and I for got my pumps again and I had to dance in my pumps and it was really painful and my socks were white at the start and at the end they were black on the bottom.
I have learned about the history of highland dancing, I have also learned that it is different than today, I have learned what they wear in the history and what they wear in different countries. I also learned that it was only men that did highland dancing untill the 20th century. I also learned that highland dancing builds up your muscels and makes you stronger.
To get all of my research I have been using SOBHD, wikipedia and youtube videos that have been teaching me how to choreograph a dance and how to dance properly. I chose Highland Dancing as my endeavour because I already do highland dancing and I wanted to learn more about it like the history, what other countries do it and what do they wear to dance, is what they wear the same as us in scotland, were the out fits in history the same as today in scotland. I also chosed it because I want to learn more dances becuase when I am older I would like to be a dance teacher.
On 23rd May P1/2/3 went on a trip to see the different renewables being used in Islay. First we went to Dunlossit Estate where David Gillies showed us the biomass boiler and we saw that the store where all the wood chips were stored was like a giant slushy machine. Then we went to Ballygrant to see the hydro power station…it fitted inside a shed! Finally George Dean took us to the wind turbine and we got to go inside it. All were very intrigued by the upside down computer. Thanks to David and George for a great day.
You may have heard of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Made in Chelsea and Love Island. These are all popular reality television programmes, especially among younger viewers.
Renewables Engineering Islay – May Diary
As the end of our year-long project approaches there has been no slowing down here in Port Ellen….
Mentor Visit
Again, we were delighted to have our mentor, Neil Chattle, visit the school at the end of April. He toured the school to see what the children had been up to and looking at displays of their work. The children in nursery with Alison Logan were very keen that he see the boat that they’d built…and check out the tadpoles! In the afternoon Neil introduced all the children to jet engines and let them assemble amazing model engines used by apprentices at Rolls-Royce. There was lots of adrenaline running in the competition to see which team could assemble their engine fastest.
Learning about Solar Energy
P1/2/3 and Maggie Harrison have been finding out about life in rural Africa. Having read the story of Handa’s Surprise they have investigated what it’s like to live in rural Africa and how homes there don’t have electricity. Evie’s mum came in to talk to the class about her experience of living in a remote part of Tanzania and she showed the children a kerosene lamp that people might use to light their homes. The children learned how solar energy might be helpful. They built models of African homes and added solar panels and lighting – a great addition to the sand tray which was full of wild animals. They also built and tested solar ovens!
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind
Also thinking about how renewables could be used in developing countries were P4/5. They read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamwamba. Everyone was amazed that this was a true story of a 14 year old boy. Scott said I was surprised it was a real story. I think the boy was sad when everyone called him crazy but he showed resilience and kept working on his idea. Kate Brown used the story as a novel study and the children worked in groups to understand more about living in rural Malawi. They then watched William Kamwamba as an adult presenting his story to an audience. Kate was amazed about the impact this had on the children in her class and told us I heard one of the children at a family party tell everyone about this amazing real life story of a young boy in Malawi and the incredible things he did to help feed his village.
Gael Force Test Run
Kate Brown and the group from P4/5 tested their floating wind turbine, Gael Force, for the Knotts to Watts competition on the day that the Rolls-Royce media team visited. It was typically wild, wet and windy! The dads who had been involved in supporting the build were just as keen to see if it worked on the sea….and they were not disappoionted. The group are looking forward to seeing how the device performs in the giant wave tank when they go to Glasgow in June.
Climate Change
This month Jo Clark’s class have focused on climate change, who it affects and how we can help. They have looked at the carbon footprint of different countries and heard stories about women around the world who are working to help communities adapt to climate change. Rowan said I was surprised climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally. Poorer countries are more affected by severe weather than we are, which isn’t fair because rich countries are contributing more to climate change. Now they are working on inventions that can help save people from climate events around the world. They created climate change spiral poems for the visit of author and scientist Nicola Davies, who writes stories for children with an environmental theme.
We are Engineers
One of the main aims in the project was to raise the profile of engineering among our children. This is already showing some impact. Primary 6&7 carry out Endeavour projects every year; long term projects chosen by the children which are ambitious, look at developing new skills and have to be shared with the local community at the end. This year our focus on engineering has led to some interesting project choices. Sophie is currently building a hydraulic robot arm as part of her Endeavour on biomedical engineering. I chose this project because I think girls should be able to do engineering and I would like a job that helps people. Taylor has built a model Haynes combustion engine as part of his project on mechanical engineering; To build the model was ambitious and challenging and Donald is learning about electrical engineering and has built a capacitor circuit to store energy for the P123 class solar lights in their African huts. The same impact is being seen throughout the school. In nursery Erin asked Alison Logan Are we going to be engineering today? Jo Clark also arranged for P6/7 from Port Charlotte Primary to visit Port Ellen for some paper plane engineering!
Upcoming Events
Although this will be the final diary entry we will keep you updated on our upcoming events and continued progress with our project. George Dean is organising to take P1/2/3 to see the hydro dam, wind turbine and solar panels at the Gaelic College now that the weather is better and these younger children have a better understanding of renewable energy. The team are planning a large community event to share our journey on 29th May and Maureen MacDonald has been in discussion with BBC Alba to come along and film. Maureen is also in discussions with the council and liaising with the Islay Energy Trust about the possibility of us installing a wind turbine in the school,– a lasting legacy from this project
Budget
We have not spent any money this month so we still have £3280.99 in the budget. Alison and Maggie are planning to to buy some additional construction material for the Pre-5 unit and some solar lighting for the school; remaining money will go towards our legacy projects.
Children in the ELCC have been making massive marble runs using their giant wooden blocks. The have discovered that you need to start marbles at the highest point to make them go and have had lots of opportunities to build different marble runs.
P1/2/3 were all excited this morning when we had a visit from MacLeish…Callie’s pet lamb. Cute….and he had just had a shampoo.
P1/2/3 have been learning about the benefits of solar energy – it’s renewable, free and good for the environment. They have been using their knowledge to design persuasive posters. This amazingly neat poster was made by Rachel in P1.
Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.