Welcome to the start of the 24/25 learning session!
Welcome to a New Year!
Leavers Assembly
We said an emotional farewell to our P7 pupils on Wednesday with our leavers and achievement assembly. After a great musical introduction from Mr McDermid’s musicians, Rachel, Evie, Freddy, Brody, Ayla and Ella, we watched the P7 memory videos. We had a lip dub in the middle and then the final song.
After it was the achievements:
- Ayla and Thomas were sport champions
- Evie won the Drew Brown Memorial trophy for maths
- Hugh won the Endeavour Shield for his Hydraulics project
- Rachel won the citizenship trophy
Good luck P7!
Port Ellen Primary School’s Endeavour Fair
On the 17th of June Port Ellen held their Endeavour Fair. The Endeavour Fair showcases everyone’s endeavors, from healthy tuck to a guideline on paddle boarding safety. This fair is held every year with primary six and seven in the hall and all of the other classes showing their work in their class rooms.
Endeavor is a personal project that we do every year, where you pick a topic to research and to produce something at the end that’s physical not just a power point, or presentation. Every single class takes part in endeavour, from primary one to seven. At the endeavour fair, you are expected to have a main thing that you have done, like something to sell or to showcase that has been your focus. You should also be able to answer some simple questions and know about the history of what you are studying. Say your endeavour was hatching and raising chickens, you would need to know about different breeds of chicken, the rarest and most popular chickens and maybe even about the native breeds of chicken.
Some examples of Endeavour in P67 were Hydraulics-building of hydraulic bridges and a website, Coopering- making crafts from whisky barrels and learning how to be a cooper, Bird and Bat Boxes- making them to sell and finally creating a school newspaper.
In P12 we had a pancake palace, an ice cream stall, all about the Titanic and Tree frogs. In P34 we had baking, squirrels and bath bombs. In P45 we had sewing cushions, digital art and a nail salon.
Lots of enterprising Endeavours throughout the whole school!
Sports Day
On Friday the 14th of June Port Ellen Primary school hosted our sports day where there were races for nursery all the way to primary 7. The winner of the inter house relay was Texa, second place Orsay and third was Nave. The winner of the sports champion boys was Thomas Edwards in 1st Freddy Munro in second and third was Hugh Mackinnon. For girls it was Ayla Denby in first Evie Wood in second and third was Ella Barford. The winner out of all houses was Texa.
Trip to Olistadh Archaeological Dig
On Wednesday the 19th of June, we went on a school trip! When we parked the bus we walked about 15 mins up to a beautiful landscape full of old ruins of buildings. The first thing we did was get introduced to our tour guides, and then sorted into groups. They took us around the whole area and showed us everything they had been doing. We got to clean things we found in the dirt, guessing what the old things used to do, digging in the ground, it was so much fun. Hannah found a big piece from an old pot and Jacob found some clay pipe. We learnt lots of things and it was really interesting. Then we headed down to Port Mor and got to eat our packed lunch, and then we got delicious ice cream. A really fun day!
ENDEAVOUR HEALTHY TUCK
Hi, my Endeavour is healthy tuck which is learning how to make healthy food and what healthy food is. In the end of Endeavour I would like know how to know different recipes off by heart.
Healthy baking is when you do your normal baking but adding some health to it to make it healthy. Maybe put a piece of fruit into it. For example, banana muffins, it’s making normal bread but mushing bananas and adding them in.
I am raising money for breakfast club which is a club that starts at 8:30 every Wednesday, anyone in school can come. We get all different things like toast, cereal, scrambled eggs on toast and sometimes even waffles!
Animation
My Endeavour is stop motion animation. Stop motion is just one of the many ways of animation. My favorite part of it is seeing all of the pictures go together to make one animation. I chose stop motion because I saw a lot of stop motions and that made me want to make one. To make a stop motion you would need phone, camera or iPad and puppets or Lego.
Herbal Tea Endeavour
This year we are doing Endeavour! Endeavour is about something you want to do about, like I’m doing herbal teas. I want to do herbal teas because I am very fond of them and I think its interesting, and think I’m doing pretty well on my Endeavour so far, I’ve made tea, and did tea testing, researching, and collecting! I also sold tea bags for free and some more tea testing in health afternoon which was really fun, the only thing I need to do now is a power point which I have started and a interesting poster that includes the benefits of tea.
When I started my Endeavor I wrote a letter to James Donaldson who collects herbs to make gin. He responded with lot of helpful tips and answered my questions which I was very happy for!
The Endeavor fair is very soon which I’m looking forward to! And that’s the end of my blog!
COOPERING ENDEAVOUR
On the April 15th we started our Endeavour endeavor is when you get to pick your own mini topic and It is challenging and it has to be learning you don’t know a lot of and you want to learn. Mine is coopering if you don’t know coopering is making whisky barrels.
I got to go on a trip to Bowmore Distillery and I got to learn about all the different tools the coopers use I also made my own cask. I also sent a letter to my uncle peter who is a cooper and to a coopering place in England. But since coopering Is quite dangerous I had to fill in a risk assessment. I have got a Website and I made stuff from barrels like candle holders which I’m going to sell. I picked this because I was interested in How barrels where made.
Here is a link to the website I made.
My Endeavour: Gardening
This year we started our Endeavors. My Endeavour is gardening, Like growing food like Pumpkin, Broccoli, Tomato etc. I have been busy planting loads of plants to sell. I have already sold some at the health day in May. Some of my plants are in the school, or not some have done good, some have done not as good.
All of my plants have been grown from seed, and have all been in a propagator Which is a see-through container to store plants when they have sprouted. Animals are a nuisance when growing plants outside because they might eat them. So I recommend using a propagator until they have reached a certain height.
My Endeavour
On April the fifteenth we started a project called Endeavour. It is a project that we do every year in school you pick it on your own. It needs to be ambitious related to the world of work and and you need to know new learning (something you didn’t know before).
My Endeavour is bird and bat boxes the first thing that you needed to do was if it is something dangerous like drilling and sawing you would need to do a risk assessment. Then you would start off your plans and create a proto type . After that you could actually start to build the bird and bat boxes the best thing about this Endeavour is that you can easily do it from home. I have also created a power point and a poster.
Lobster Fishing Endeaver
This year my Endeavor is lobster fishing and when I go out fishing I take lots of photos, so when I am in school I can edit the videos.
Well anyways I chose this Endeavor because my uncle is a fishermen and I go landing some weekends, and also because I have got a creel. And last year I loved going out and lifting it so I thought it would be a good Endeavor.
Also I went and visited my uncles yard and I also got a reply from Conner, he told me lots of thing like different knots and that he likes that their are still young fishermen.
WEAVING
I chose weaving because it was fun to do. And it was a fascinating thing the class done a thing about weaving. That why I picked it the weaving is a long prosses to make a mini rug its about 2 to 3 days to make a mini rug.
We started about on March or the end of February. I wrote to Marcus at the Islay Woollen Mill so he could tell me about what he dose in the Islay Woollen Mill. I went to the Islay Woollen Mill to see what Marcus does there. They gave me some woven mini rugs.
Paddle Boarding- Ayla Denby
Hi my name is Ayla and my Endeavor is paddle boarding and so that means that I take photos when I am on the paddle board and make them into a video. I get taken out of school by my mum to take photos for my video. i also have a sway and a trip to Texa.
I have contacted the life guard and they came on our health day and I will be doing paddle boarding safety with the whole school.
Chicken Endeavour
This year we started Endeavour, it is a independent project where you get to choose a subject to focus on and at the end we have to review it.
My Endeavour is all about chickens, I am going to be making a chicken coop, and I have already hatched chickens, polish ones which are so cute, there is also a black one which is growing really fast, it’s the biggest one.
At the end of Endeavour we have a fair, it is where everyone has a table and we get all the parents/family to come into school and we show them all of the work we have done for our Endeavour.
ENDEAVOUR DOG CARE
My Endeavour is dog care which is basically like finding out about how to look after dogs and researching how to train your dogs different tricks like sit, paw and lie down. I found out that you can make dog treats with just peanut butter, water, flour and eggs. I researched different dog behavior because it is important to know how your dog is feeling because they can sometimes be nervous or scared. Here are some dog behaviors.
- Putting there ears back: When dogs put there ears back it often means they are guilty and know they are getting in trouble or it can mean they are happy and excited.
- When they pee on the floor: When dogs pee on the floor it either will be an excited pee or a nervous pee or it could just be that they aren’t house trained.
- Tail wagging: A loose, floppy tail means they are excited but a tense, slow one means they are angry and in attacking mode.
- Barking: When a dog barks it can mean fear and pain but it can also mean they want more attention.
- Putting there paw on your leg: If you sit down and your dog come up to you, sits down and put its paw on you leg then that means it wants your attention so you give it attention.
At the end of my Endeavour I hope to have made a dog training video and have remembered how to train a dog off by heart and know how to look after a dog correctly.
SILVER AWARD WINNERS
On May 21st we had a virtual online visit from a UNICEF education advisor, Jenny Price and another teacher from the Borders. They had a busy morning, meeting lots of children, staff and parents online and talking about our Rights journey. She spent lots of time looking at our evidence and discussing with the rights steering group how Port Ellen Primary were rights aware. She said children were able to talk about their rights and were able to expand on their knowledge and understanding, talking about how they were safe in school and how they learned to be healthy.
We are proud to announce that we have been successful in achieving our Silver Award and are now Rights Aware. The award is granted by UNICEF UK to schools that show good progress towards embedding children’s rights in the school’s policy, practice and ethos. Our children and staff feel rightly proud.
Thanks to all who have supported this journey so far – we are now going to take the next steps towards being a Gold Rights Respecting School.
Islay’s Chough; An endangered species
Mrs Clark’s P6/7 Class have been learning about Chough. The Topic, suggested and designed by Evie Wood with help from her Dad David Wood from the RSPB has seen the class learning all about one of Islay’s most endangered species – The Chough.
Chough are members of the Corvid family, along with Crows, Ravens and Jackdaws. There are less than 50 pairs in the whole of Scotland, occurring in only two places in the country, Islay and Colonsay. They are predicted to become extinct in less than 50 years.
An iconic species with their curved red beak and matching red legs – they are a culturally significant species on our rugged west coast landscape.
The children learnt that the Chough are at risk because of habitat change, lack of food, inbreeding, destocking and possibly climate change.
The class visited the RSPB Oa Reserve one afternoon in early June. There they met the Site Manager David Wood. The children were shocked to find out what the main features of a Chough diet are.
One of the main food stuffs they were surprised by, were dung beetles, which can be found in cow pats and other nutritious poo!
All the children were given gloves and a tray, they proceeded to go to David to get their trays filled with cow poo! They had to search through the poo to find as many dung beetles as they could. In one cow pat, there was over 20 beetles!
The children found 4 species of Dung Beetle: Geotrupes stercorosus, Aphodius rufipes, Aphodius pedellus, Teuchestes fosser. As well as Clown Beetles, Rove Beetles and all sorts of beetle larvae.
The children learnt that to help the Chough we should support nature friendly farming, provide them with nest sites, in old barns and caves, reduce the use of veterinary medicines in livestock, grace the right habitats and closely monitor the population.
The children were lucky enough to see Chough flying to and from their nest site through telescopes and binoculars during their visit.
David Wood travelled to Somerset to the Yeo Valley Farm to speak at a conference with leading experts from the Dung Beetle World – he will be sharing details of his work with Port Ellen Primary School for all to hear.
By Evie Wood
Generation Science
On May the 9th we had Generation Science visit the school for a Chemistry Workshop called Fizz Buzz Bang. We had to mix liquids and powder and we also had to mix liquids and tablets. If the color was red it was and acid and if it was green it was a neutrals. Then we had to tell the people if it was an acid or a natural. At the end they showed us a experiment what was elephant toothpaste and they had to put a board around it and it was so cool and then they showed us a normal party popper and then there was a big party popper. We had a great time, thanks Generation Science!
Zero Waste Fashion Show P34
Recycled Couture at Port Ellen
P3/4 in Port Ellen Primary recently put on a fashion show to highlight the issue of clothes waste. They have been learning about where their clothes come from and what happens to them after they are outgrown. The children were shocked to learn how much clothing goes to landfill each year and how some designer labels end up being burned. They watched an inspiring video about a New York design label called Zero Waste Daniel that reuses left over scraps from the fashion industry to make unique items. The children brought in lots of old clothes and they designed and made new items of clothing that they modelled brilliantly at the Green Ninja Fashion Show, to parents and members of the community who had helped out teaching sewing skills.
Niamh Dunn, P3, writes..
Have you ever thought about the clothes you throw away? Did you know that 300,000 tonnes goes to landfill every year! Some people just bin their clothes when one button falls off and don’t bother to repair them! That is horrible so we need to do something about it!
It is bad for the environment because it releases toxic gas and can get into the water and harm the wildlife and the world. It also uses lots of the world’s resources.
Everyone can try to stop wasting beautiful clothes. Everyone can help. You could recycle your old clothes or repair broken ones, don’t just bin them!
Finn Shakespeare, P3, writes..
Have you ever through about the clothes that go to landfill? The average person in the UK spends £980 every year on clothes but 7kg of clothes waste per year goes to landfill! That is crazy so we need to do something to stop this!
It is bad for the environment because it releases bad gas and uses lots of resources. Some clothes get burned or get buried. Is that all we can do! We can do better.
Don’t just bin your jumper if one button falls off. Repair it! Another thing you can so is recycle at the clothes bank.
Signs of Spring in ELC
ELC have been looking for signs of spring. They visited the Cherry blossom trees and they met a baby lamb.
🌸 Cherry Blossom Tree day today and what a day for it ☀️ the children had great fun explored the secret garden. We had snack under the blossoms, swung in the hammock and did some beautiful blossom tree art. Amazing Spring day 🌸
We had a lovely wee visitor in our garden today, Willows mummy and daddy brought a little lamb 🐑 in to see us, she was very cute and a big hit with all the boys and girls 🐑☺️ ⭐️I am learning about sheep and how to care for them 👣👣we would love to have a trip to a farm to see lots more animals
P12 are Pirates for the Day
Well me hearties, what a day we did have!! Today we learnt to be pirates, we dressed the part, found buried messages in bottles, used maps, followed and created instructions and problems solved to find the hidden treasure! Well done boys and girls, we hope you had a super day! A special thank you to The Copper Still Coffee for being awesome and providing us with our treasure! All part of our explorers topic!
Solar Punk Outdoors
P67 have been involved in an Education IDL pilot called Solar Punk this term. THE PROJECT-A challenge to design and brand your unique neighbourhood on an island that is based on the principles of the 15 minute neighbourhood rules and Solarpunk movement.
The children became passengers on a shipwrecked boat and had to work together to create Solar Punk Island, turning a section of the island into their own habitat based on ideas of sustainability.
They created designs for architecture, built renewable devices, learned to filter water, made gardens and spent a day practicing skills in the woods and the beach. See the video:
P45 Drumming with Giles
P45 have been learning Sea Shanties and Drumming with Giles from Jura this term. They have improved their rhythm skills and learned new songs.
P67 TRIP TO STIRLING
27/02/24 Tuesday
It was a dreary Tuesday morning, and the air was full of adrenaline and anticipation as cars turned up one by one at the vast pier in Port Ellen. The sound of trundling suitcases and animated children speaking enthusiastically; soon after the trailers were loaded to the brim with luggage the ferry set off on its course, sailing smoothly towards Kennercraig.
After the trouble-fr
ee boat trip and the long bus ride we arrived at the majestic Stirling Castle to meet our tour guide. The regal Queen Ellie May Chandler (a P6 from Port Ellen Primary School) lead us around assisted by our guide. The magnificent ancient structures towered around us in the courtyard, the immense sandstone structures looking down at us like skyscrapers.
Soon after Stirling castle and a swift trip back to the hostel we went to Hollywood Bowling. We split into teams of six and claimed our lanes; many students knocked all the pins down, many even got strikes! Adversaries met in bowling battles and many new friendships and rivalries.
28/02/24 Wednesday
On Wednesday we set off on the long journey to Edinburgh. The schools were ecstatic and excited to get to the activities; the first thing we did was a snappy trip around the National Museum of Scotland. We walked through history, exploring the ancient timelines, identifying prehistoric noises, smells, and objects, and even seeing how much we weighed compared to various dinosaurs! But sadly, our journey came to an end, and we moved on to the next educational attraction.
We took a rapid bus ride to our next stop, the fascinating Dynamic Earth! The schools were eager as we adventured through time learning how the world was formed, first we got a brief explanation of how mountains were formed with shifting plates and so on. Then we hopped into a time machine to witness the big bang and the beginning of our universe and the making of our then young galaxy. Then we went and witnessed earth being formed and felt the vibration of our planet as vague landscapes were formed. After that we saw glaciers and snowstorms shaping the fantastic views we have today.
After that we went around Edinburgh Zoo to see adorable Red Pandas, Meercats on patrol and sun bears basking on their playpark. Then we went to Tony Macaroni in the lower floor of the cinema and then travelled upstairs to settle into the cinema to watch the marvellous movie, Wonka.
29/02/24 Thursday
Today we travelled to Stirling play park, a happy enjoyable experience, but then we took a brisk trip into the heart of Stirling, to Stirling prison where everyone was scared out of their skin by the incredible actor who impersonated the ancient historical figures who were instrumental in the history of Stirling prison. Later that day we travelled to Bannockburn the place a key battle was fought in the wars of independence we acted out the battle in the way the historical figures would have and learnt about the hard ship the knights had to go through. Finally we visited the majestic Kelpies at night, a fitting end to a fabulous trip that will provide many happy memories.
Evie
Trip to Stirling
At an early hour on Tuesday the 27th of February, we arrived at the Port Ellen pier ready for a long day of travelling…
After what felt like years travelling on the bus, we arrived at our first stop Stirling castle! The castle walls were reaching to the sky and were as old as time First, we went into the magical garden of the castle then we went up to the cannons (the majestic views stretched for miles)
Soon after we arrived at the comfort of the youth hostel, ate our dinner, but the excitement was not over yet we were going bowling! Some people were scoring strikes and spares but the others, let’s just say that they did not do so great.
The next day we took a trip to Edinburgh the first stop was the museum the best part of the museum was when we got to see all the animals some of them were extinct! After a long trek we arrived at dynamic earth. After we had gone back in time we went to the zoo where we saw mystical meerkats and amazing penguins. Then we went to Toni Macaroni where we had spectacular pizza and magnificent chicken. Then there was more excitement because we were going to watch Wonka!
On Thursday, the first thing we did was go to the Kings’ park where we had heaps of fun. Soon after we went to the prison of Stirling where we walked through the history of all the evil inmates that had stayed there. After that we went back to the warmth of the hostel to eat our lunch and soon, we were going to the battle of Bannockburn! After that we went to the hostel then we went to the Kelpies!
I loved the trip to Stirling and would definitely go again my favourite thing was going to the cinema.
Hugh
Myths and Legends
P12 and P67 topic is myths and legends. They have been learning all the myths and legends all around the world. Its fascinating for the P12 to learn all the mythical creatures. The animations were very fun to do with the mythical creatures that we made it was very fun for all the children to learn their myths legends.
What was the mythical creatures called one of them are called penfin and the other is called dogor the animations were like there was a bad guy and a good guy who save the day. and they live happily ever after.
P6/7 Microorganisms Topic
In the first term of 2024 primary 6/7 started a topic on Microorganisms. Their aim was to understand different types of Microorganisms and how they helped and harmed the world.
One part of their project was researching different Microorganisms and making posters about them. The things they needed to have on their posters were an explanation of Microorganisms, a list of helpful and harmful Microorganisms, a fact file about two different Microorganisms, and fun facts. Almost all of the children were successful in this and some even had to use two sheets of A3 paper!
Another part of the project was looking at things through microscopes, the class looked at a lot of different things through microscopes like worms, moss and sand. They were fascinated by this and spent a long time looking at different things.
They did two small mold experiments, one where they did different things to two slices of bread to see which grew more mold. They also got a variety of different food, some that was processed a lot and some that was not processed much, and out them all in an airtight box to see what grew the most mold.
In conclusion this was a great project and the class enjoyed it a lot.
CLUBS
We made clubs and put it on our pitch time table and thought of clubs what we could do, and we also put our names under the club we wanted to do and p67 run the clubs also anyone is allowed to come. There is about 6 or 7 people in each club to run it.
READING
Reading club is on a Monday afternoon and it is in p67 class, you can either read a book, make one, read to a partner or the people who run the club can read to the whole club .you can get 30 points if you behave and be kind.
ECO CLUB
Eco club is on a Tuesday afternoon it is in p67 class and you can play with Knex, Lego or even Kapla. If you make a tall building and it is the tallest we will give you 30 points also if you have the coolest on you get 30 points. With the Knex is you make a car we will give you 30 points.
RRSA CLUB
You learn about rights and also respect other peoples right as well you can play a board game and that is the right call to play and relax it is on a Thursday afternoon at lunch bread in p67 class you learn about rights and that is the right to education.
Our Children Their Future
We had a google meet with Argyll and Bute Council about Learning for children- Our Children Their Future. There was other P7 and their teachers in the google meet with us. I said I think they should be more help with Children’s Mental Health in schools. I told them this in the google meet. I thought this meeting was cool and gave hope in children’s future in Scotland. We got to express our right to have an opinion.
