NEWS

P67 at Port Ellen have been recreating a letter from the time of Dunyvaig castle. They had to imagine a letter that might have been written and had a seal attached.  This is because there was a seal from 1593 discovered at this years dig at the castle; seals were used with wax to seal letters to make them official.  We have been using a seal in class to add to our letters, which we have aged using cold tea.  We melted wax in a spoon over a candle and then used a tree of life seal to imprint in the wax.  We think they look very authentic!

On Tuesday the 25th of September 2018 all p6 and p7 went to          Stramash.  We got to go on a ferry and the ferry ride seemed like it lasted a million years but it was all worth it because we were about to have  a really fun week.

My favorite activity was canoeing because we got to sink a canoe and go in one. The first activity was coasteering and I enjoyed coasteering more last year at Stramash but it was still fun. The 2nd activity was bushcraft and I really enjoyed bushcraft because making the fires and toasting marshmallows and we got to go under a tarp to keep dry in the rain.  Sharing a room with my classmates was fun and the dinners where quite nice but I missed my mum and dad and was glad to get home again!

By Alexander

On the 25th of September P6/7’s from Islay and Jura went to Oban for Stramash. Stramash is lots of exiting outdoor activities made for experience and making friends. First we got on the ferry to Kennacraig then it was a long bus journey to Oban. That was when we got to meet the instructors and get told our groups and rooms. Everyday we got told our timetable and on the first day I had cannoeing but the bus was late! The next day sounded fun anyway.

I got up out of bed and was told I had Castle adventure. Once we got there everyone had to say about the sounds around you and how we felt. My group made a very fun mud slide which caused one tragedy later on in the week. Soon after lunch my group had gorge walk. Gorge walk was really cold last year so I wasn’t looking forward to it. First we scrambled into our wetsuits then headed to the gorge. Suprisingly we got to see a red squirell. We also got to float down on our backs. I WAS ABSOLUTLEY FREEZING!

On the 2nd and last full day I awoke very tired. After breakfast my group had climbing and absailing. It came to my mind that it was going to be fun. We had to have a harness and a helmet to keep us safe. Once we got there we climbed on rock then two others. For me the last one was the hardest.

Later just before lunch we got told we were doing coasteering with Adam, so once again we had to clamber into our wetsuits and bouyancy aids. I knew coasteering would be fun because I did it last year. Coasteering was all about going around the coast climbing and then swim a bit.  Last year we got to jump of a rock and I didn’t do it but this year I was determined to jump.

That night the teachers decided to take us swimming, we also went last year but it wasn’t as fun as this year. The swirly flume was amazing and I got stuck in the middle of it but thankfully I managed to get out. Noon came and because it was the last night we had a fire and lots of games at the beach.

Sadly Stramash had to come to an end.  We only had time on the last day to do one activity which was bush craft with Rich. We did bush craft in a woods and got to make a fire. WE ALSO GOT TO TOAST MARSHMALLOWS! After that we had to say goodbye and start heading back to Islay.

Overall Stramash was really fun and I would definitly go back to Oban. My favourite activity was coasteering because you got to jump of a rock.

by Jack

Bush Craft at Stramash

On Tuesday the 25th September p6/7 from the Islay and Jura schools went on an outward-bound trip: Stramash.

One of the activities that we done was bush craft, I really enjoyed that. Excitedly I walked up the path towards the woods with my group and at last we arrived. Our instructor, (Rich) told us to go and find somewhere comfy to sit and listen to everything around us. When we came back down we listed everything we heard; cars, wind, leaves etc.

Later on Rich showed us a feather stick he made because he wanted us too have a go and try making one. All of us were told about the triangle of death, the triangle of death is in between your legs where your arteries are, we were told TO NEVER! cut in-between your legs because if your knife slips out of your hand it could hit your arteries and that could kill you. So that is why you have too always cut at the side of you and away from your body. Soon enough Rich handed out knifes to each one of us, we were all pretty psyched to get too use a real knife by ourselves. When I had a go at making my own feather stick it took me quite a while to get the knack of it but when I did I was all right at it.

Now it was time to make a fire. My partner for making the fire was Ciaran, our fire was the first to get going and I think that surprised both of us. Too make the fire we had too collect sticks, (number ones) and (number twos) were the kind of sticks we had to collect, number ones are small thin twigs and number twos are thicker and a bit bigger. Too test if the twigs were dry on the inside we would snap them and if they made a good noise then we were able to use them.

Finally we were ready to create our fire. Ciaran lit the fire and carefully I laid the number ones on top of it and the number twos width ways, we both also used our feather sticks. Whenever our fire started going out we would use the mats we sat on and blow on the fire with it and me and Ciaran would start shouting “LIFE SUPPORT” whenever our fire died down a bit. As well as making a great fire everyone got marshmallows and got to toast them over the fire and me and Ciaran got one more each than everyone. I felt pretty sneaky about that…

By now it was the end of our bush craft session and I would be able to tell my friends all about my great time building fires and making a fire stick.

By Holly

On Friday 28th of September 2 authors came to Port Ellen primary. In p4-7 class the author was called Janis MacKay and she came in and did some fun writing activities with the class. The first activity was we had to continue a part of a book she read called The Reluctant Time Traveler.  After we had written a few sentences we had to pass our work to the person on our right and then they had to right a sentence or 2 but continuing in the same style as the other writer. It was a fun little activity and she told us about how she became a writer and different places shes lived and questions linked to them. She also told us stories about how she was inspired to become a writer and what gave her ideas on what to write about.

On Friday 28th of September in p1-3 they had another author called Alan Dapre and he was talking about his book called Porridge the Tartan Cat.  P1-3 did a little activity where Alan read them a segment of the story then they got to make up their own characters and show what the character was feeling.  For example people drew spotty guinea pigs, unicorns and different patterned cats and things like that.

Written by Orla Campbell

We have all been learning about life in castles at Port Ellen this term following our exciting trips to Dunyvaig Castle to take part in the archaeological dig.  Primary 123 have made their own castles with working drawbridges from paper, and they have been researching what people who lived in the castles did.  Here is a clip explaining their work.

When we were making groups for a certain subject to debate for, we had to make a Sway. Our group was about gender equality, and our sway was explaining what our group was about and what we were trying to do. The sway also had a video of two people in our group talking about our group and why people should vote for us. Each group also had a picture of the entire group. I was in charge of making the sway and I made slides about: Our members, our manifesto, what we are trying to do and our slogan. We showed our sway in front of the entire school to try to get them to vote for us. If we won the election, we could choose an activity everyone in the school could do, but we didn’t win however.

Our class p6/7 are doing a topic about elections.  For our topic we had a visitor come to are school called Lord George Robertson.  George Robertson was an MP who is now in the House of Lords in London.  He told us what it is like to be a MP and we had asked him many questions for example; we had asked had him did you always want to be a MP.   He said “I was always a person with my own opinion”. We told him that we were doing a election topic and he gave all of are parties some advice.  George wanted to be a MP because where he lived there was nuclear navel ships showing up so they all protested to get them moved.  We had learned a lot about Politicians and MP’s we used all the key facts he told us and used it for are party presentation.  It was a really interesting day!

Last week we held an election for parties we had designed ourselves.  Every political party has policies and everyone has a role; leader, manger, canvasser, speech writer, policy advisor and public relations.  The party’s names were Party Animals, Boogie Bombers,  Super Sports Bro,  Gender Party,  Cycle Islay and  POP which is people oppose pollution.  I was the leader for Boogie Bombers the winning team of the election and we are going to hold an X Factor competition, Yeh!

Every year we have a Captain and 2 Vice Capatins for each of our school houses. This year we have 3 vice captains in one house it is also the same as last years house. This year the house with 3 Vice capains is Nave: Vice captains Orla, Aidan, Harmoni and the captain is Ellen.  Orsay’s vice captains are Morgan and Charlet and their captain is Dearbhla.  Texa’s Vice Captains are Jack, Millie and Freya is their captain.   Before the eletion for voting people from your house have to give speeches about what they would do for the school.  A lot of people took part in the voting but not everyone could win something in the election because it works by voting and not who has the best hair do!  It is about who you think is going to change the house and the school for the better.  We hope the captains have a good year.

A funfair has arrived at Port Ellen. It has everything: a rocker, a inflatable slide, a lot of prizes to be won, a jungle run, gambling  machines and dodge ems. There is bumper cars for little ones and zorbs that you are allowed in then you go on water and float.

So far i have been to the fair everyday except from one day. The money you spend starts to pile up after being there day after day. Each ride cost from £2.50 up to £5.00.

The fair will be here for just under two more weeks. Its here till the 15th of September.

The fair is really fun but it is expensive so dont go to often.

Today Bowmore primary came to our school so we could teach them how to use sway. First we showed them how to start from a subject on sway, and then they made their own sway with the information. Next we taught them how to use one note, and we told them about the collaboration space and how they could use the different subjects in their folder to work. They made there own pages about Dunyvaig and they write about their trip to Dunyvaig. Mrs. Clark showed them how the start form document feature works but they didn’t use it. We added sway and google classroom to their homepage so they could access it easily. Then they had to leave at 2:30 and they were told they could use sway, google classroom and one note at home.

We are the Cycle Islay Party and we are mostly focusing on cycling and we are trying to win a school election. We all have our roles and we have 5 pepole and things that we will do if we win. We will do stuff for our school the isle of lslay, Scotland and the world and we need to try and improve the world so everyone has a better life. You should vote for us if you want to keep fit , reduce global warming and even go on your bike in school up the path. You can vote for us in the election becuase we will try and help you.  We want to make cycling more fun becuase it is a very good way of transport because you can travel with fresh air while traveling instead of being inside while traveling and you can easily communiciate while traveling when pepole go along the path and chat to them while on the move.  So vote for us.

Were the Boogie Bombers so we’re making this blog to campaign for our party.  Vote for us if you love music, vote for us if you love instrumental music, vote for us if you love singing and vote for us if you love the x factor because if you are a huge fan of the x factor then your in great luck because if we win that means we will set up an x factor competition and you yes you might win the competition and earn a secret prize, are you intrigued yet?  Well remember folks vote for the Boogie Bombers.

Did you know that all of the plastic we use in our world goes into our beautiful seas and into sea creatures mouths causing them to die. Do you want that to happen to your favourite sea creature ?

If you vote for us we will save our seas by doing a sponsored beach clean in Port Ellen. With the money raised from the beach clean we will buy a big fishing net for the fisherman so when they go out to sea and spot any plastic they can catch it with the net we bought for them.  We hope this will make our seas cleaner and that is what everybody wants.

Please vote for us – People Oppose Pollution, The POP Party and  we will save our seas!

By Charlet Rose, Aidan, Connor, Millie and Evie.

The gender party is a group that tries to stop gender discrimination. We have made a sway about our group: https://sway.com/EZoyWpaimtukFRDx?ref=Link&loc=mysways  in the sway we made a video about why you should vote for the gender party and we put information about our group (manifesto, roles etc). We plan on trying to stop gender discrimination around Islay and out school. An idea we had in our school was for girls to play Fifa and boys to play just dance. Our slogan is: It’s not who we are on the outside, it’s who we are in the inside. We have made a poster for our group and it is on the sway as well as our slogan. We have written a speech which the team leader is practicing. We have not done elections yet but we will be doing them soon. By getting enough votes, we can try to stop gender discrimination in our school, and then the whole of Islay!                              This is our logo:

Hello, our group is the super sports bros/ sports party. Our group is about sports around the world and our island.  In our school we will get new balls, and we will organise a dodge ball tournament.  On our island we want to make a skate board park, in Scotland we want more gyms to cost less money and for the world we want rich footballers to pay money to poor countries like Africa so they have sports gear and have more fun in the play grounds. We have 5 people in our group Freya Porter, Ciaran Middleton, Dearbhla Newman, Christopher Jamieson and Katie Harrison. We all have different jobs.  Freya’s job is campaign manager, Christopher’s job is canvasser, Katies job is public relation, Derbhla’s job is policy advisor, and Ciaran’s job is speach writer and leader.

On the 22nd of August the whole class of p6/7 went down to the hall and did some B.M.T, which is activity that keeps you fit and helps your brain.  It was fun but tiring. At first we all lied down on the floor and we all had to breathe in then out for 4 seconds.   After that we did a workout sequence; first step we had to skip 4 times, 2nd step we had to side step 4 time, 3rd step we had to jump, then after that do a press up.   At the end we all lied down again and in our head we had to think about the lesson like a video.   We sat up and got told to say what we think we did best.   I think that the best thing I did in that session is  running.

In our school we are having a school election which has 6 parties. Each party in the election has to focus on one thing and the parties have around 5 or 6 people so everyone in primary 4/5/6/7 had to take part in one of the parties. The voting has not started yet but we have voting for house captains and vice captains at a very similar time.  We are learning a lot about elections, making our own  parties is very fun becuase you and your team get to choose your logo,roles  and even things that your party will do to make the world better.

Alexander

On Friday 22nd of June Port Ellen Primary went to the White Hart beach. They were going to have some fun at the beach. When they got there they were with Bowmore Primary. When they got there they were digging holes and making sandcastles. Some time later Mr Shakespeare came with a bat to play french cricket. It was fun. After that we played rounders because there was too many people for french cricket. Rounders was also fun because we were all running about. It was Port Ellen Primary against Bowmore primary.  Bowmore primary won. After that it was time for lunch. For my lunch I had a sandwich a pack of crisps and a yogurt.  It was lovely and sunny and a great day out.

On Thursday 28th June P7 are going on a trip to celebrate finishing Primary Shcool and will be going on the Seafari boat and they are going to be seeing different types of wildlife around Islay. Before we go on Gus’ boat there is a leavers assembely and after school we go on the Seafari boat. After we get to go home and get ready for the disco but before we got to the disco all of the P7’s get to go to Seasalt to have pizza as our dinner. Once we get our dinner we all walk up together to the disco after everyone else is already there. Once we get to the disco there is music, juce and crisps and sometimes there is games. When we are on they boat and out far enough we might even get a turn of steering the boat!  Here is a picture from last years trip.