On Tuesday the 17th June 2025 P67 went to Port Charlotte with our P12 buddies and went to the Islay Museum, Wildlife center, Port Mor cafe and the play park. At the museum we had to find the oldest thing, something that would be used in a job, on boats or the sea and a toy from the past. I found the oldest thing was a Mesolithic arrow head one of the oldest finds in all Scotland. There were farming things like sheep wellies, the ships bell from the Hebridean Isles and a dolls house. It was very interesting. At the field centre we saw wrasse and crabs in the tanks, it was great. Finally we had a fantastic lunch at Port Mor and played in the park til we had to go home. Thanks to the museum for paying for our bus trip and to the Parent Council for paying for our lunches.
Sports Day
Sports Day
On Monday 14th of June, Port Ellen took place in their sports day. We do a lot of races like the p6/7s do 100 meter sprint, mini marathon and a flat sprint. The whole school does an egg and spoon race, an obstacle race, a flat race and a mini marathon starting at the pitch. The adults who come do a egg and spoon race. Our house captains’ pick 4 people to present their houses for the relay race: Orsay, Texa and Nave. The first place in the really race is Nave. Second is Orsay. Last is Texa. The girl champion this year was Bonnie Cresswell and the boy champion Freddy Munro. Well done everyone!
Scottish Math Challenge Trip
This is a blog about the Scottish math challenge that me (Hannah) and Brody went on. We achieved a silver award in the Scottish maths challenge and we went on a trip to the mainland. We got to go out for a nice meal and we visited Strathclyde University with other schools who have achieved, including Bowmore primary. There actually was a lot of schools that came across the mainland and even some P5 won silver!
At the start the professor said hello and gave us some questions, that were actually quite hard. I was impressed because the P5’s answered those questions!
At the end the schools went in groups that were named A B C, Port Ellen was group B though, went we went down we got a mug and a pencil and shook the professors hand and went back up till every school went. It was really fun. I got to go shopping. I am proud of myself because that was the first time I did the Scottish math challenge ever and it was really hard but in the end I got Silver! Anyways that was the school trip and it was really fun.
Minibeasts in ELC
This term ELC have been very busy learning all about the minibeasts they find out and about. They have raised caterpillars in the class and gone on bug hunts at the ard, as well as learning how to measure, take photos and all about symmetry. They have been very busy bees!
Sea Story P12
This term our topic is the sea! We went in search of sea creatures at our local beaches and planned in our floorbook. Breagha had told us she had met a lovely wee fish and some hermit crabs at black rock and would like us to venture down to meet them. We took out friends from ELC with us and found all sorts of exciting things! Unfortunately thought we saw lots of rubbish too and we decided to go back and to clear up what we saw, we know this isn’t good for the marine life so would like to help them out a little.
🌟 WALT find sea creatures and learn about their habitats.
🌟 WALT be concerned about our environment.
Having looked at different varieties of seaweed on another trip we brought some back to school to cook and try! We were all very brave smelling and then tasting sea kelp which we thought was pretty good all things considered…some of us like the crunch and others the salty flavour.
Finally in our Sea Story learning from our Floorbook. You will see on page 16 we have adopted a sea turtle 🐢 as we loved learning about them so much and wanted to do something to support them! We are just waiting our welcome pack arriving!
Dinosaur Visit
At the end of last term he Natural History Museum of London came into our school to show us their amazing dinosaur facts! First he was showing us the massive sizes of the dinosaurs, one of the dinosaurs had a wing span from the size of the end of the gym hall to the stage!
We also got told that Nessy was real but the type dinosaur was named the plesiosaur, now that is cool! We also got told that there was a massive dinosaur with a huge long neck called the brachiosaurus and it was huge! Around 23 feet! After he showed us a big dinosaur foot. We also got to meet a T-Rex in the playground which was fab! Well done to P12 who raised over £2600 pounds to bring the Museum over to visit.
Climate Smarter School
Last term we have done a school topic on building and creating a climate smarter school. We had to put a renewable source like wind power ,hydropower and solar panels and we tested them outside and seen where the best place was to put them. The best place to put a wind turbine was on top of a hill because we got the best reading.
Talking about readings we did reading for the wind turbine’s and also solar panels and we tested them with anemometer. We put the solar panels on the school roof because it got the most sun light because it’s up high. The winning group were the P7 boys called the climate warriors, and the boys in the climate warriors names were Alfie, Brody, Archie, Stephen, and Freddy. Also the boys that won are going on a amazing trip to Oban to talk about their model school and speak about renewables and also how it helps the environment.
After School Walking Club
Every Monday we get to go to walking club and it is a blast, we get to go on 1 mile walk with our friends and its a great exercise for our legs! Ms Brown and Ms Khan take us up the path near the school. We can’t walk past a bench at a certain time. After the walk we get hot chocolate! This club helps our right to be healthy!
Lunchtime Coding Club
Coding Club
The captains and vice-captains run clubs at lunchtime. The stuff that we done at coding club was spheros, and we looked at like scratch stuff and talked about how we can do that stuff and how it is so cool.
And we also done a bit of Micro:bits and on the Micro:bits we could write like welcome and other stuff like hi and it was like really cool and some of them could write there name and they done it really well.
What I liked about it was every one was like really interested in all the stuff we were saying and doing . And they work really well together. And I think it worked really well.
The Leaders Were Ellie Erin Brody Elijah Adian Stephen Archie.
Easter Assembly
On the second on April, Wednesday 2025 The Port Ellen Primary School had an easter assembly with all the teachers and pupils in the school, and Mr. Hunter also came. The assembly was performed by primary 5 and was about a new teacher. It had amazing acting, singing and dancing in it. Mr. Hunter talked about celebrating easter about Jesus Christ. We had amazing people playing there musical instruments like flutes, saxophones, clarinets, everyone did so well as the crowd applauses to all the performances. You could hear Ayla’s amazing flute skills! P5 then went with their teacher and enjoyed tea and coffees at the end and the reason why they did this amazing assembly is because they raised money for Beach Mission!
Science Club
Every Wednesday after school we have a science club run by Mrs Clark. On the first day we did reactions. For the first reaction we put mentos in a bottle of coca cola it was so much fun. The cola spilled every where and it got onto our shoes it was crazy! After we cleaned it all up and then we headed up stairs to the fab lab to do an experiment on eggs. When we got up stairs we put one egg in salt water another in citric acid and the last one in vinegar we left them for about a week before we looked at the final product.
The second day of going we looked at the eggs and what happened. The egg in the vinegar was bouncy when we took it out and the salt water egg was like a normal egg finally the citric acid one looked like it had bubbles on the shell. We did lots of other experiments and I really had fun!
Egg challenge and the Egg Hunt
On 1st April we held our annual Easter egg decorating competition in school. This year it was judged by the workers from the village who were putting in water pipes and they really kindly donated easter eggs as prizes!
There was so many cool looking eggs. There was a sponge bob egg pants! I made a pool table. The winners in Nursary was Holly, P1 Rowen, P2 Rosie, P3 Lewis, P4 Aria, P5 Emily, P6 Erin and P7 Ella and all of them won a chocolate egg. Everyone got a creme egg for participating in the egg challenge.
The egg hunt was hosted outside in the afternoon. Everyone was there from the bottom of the school to the top of the school. My partner was Finlay from Nursery and there was a golden egg that if you found it you would get a huge chocolate egg. Elana found the golden egg and got the huge chocolate egg. We had a creative Easter themed day!
Comic Relief
21.3.25 Port Ellen Primary School
For Comic relief we did an event where you had to bring in anything other than a bag. People brought in all kinds of stuff like trolleys, tool bags and even dog cages. The winner was ….. Ellie with her dog cage. “I loved seeing all the different crazy thing people brought in!” said Finlay. We did this so we could raise money for Comic Relief by selling red noses to all the boys and girls. We raised £345.25! This supports a lot of children’s rights like the right to health and a safe home.
Simoa the Safety Elephant
Simoa is our safety elephant in nursery. We have been spending lots of time in nursery over the last term learning about why it’s important to keep safe and what we can do to help us keep safe.
⭐️ We just love Simoa and take her on all of our nursery adventures and we were very excited to take her with us today. She even wore her seatbelt on the bus, the same as all of us!🐘
⭐️I am developing an awareness of how I can keep myself and others safe.
⭐️I am learning to assess and manage risk to keep myself safe in a variety of situations.
⭐️I am aware of how to travel safely.
👣Simoa will continue to come with us on all our nursery adventures and will reinforce safety both indoors and outdoors. Emmie knows how to keep herself safe and is learning why it is important.
P6/7 Lochgoilhead Trip
Day 1 : Erin and April
We started by going on the ferry and I felt worried but so excited at the sometime. Erin felt happy and scared. We got on the ferry, and I was fine, and Erin was exited. I was playing cards with: Bonnie, Ayla, Hannah and me. And Erin was drawing and playing card games like uno with: Ellie, Ella, Ellouise, Kirsty, and Tilly. Next thing you we were getting on the bus for one hour and fifthteen minutes I sat next to Sorcha and she was eating a brain licked. And Erin sat next to Ellouise and we were giving magazines Mustaches. We arrived at Lochgoilhead and we went straight away to and activity witch was all aboard it was like a big pole, and it had blocks and you had to climb up the top of it was scary. For dinner in was macaroni and spaghetti carbonara but i did not like it so they made chicken nuggets then we went to bed.
Day two- Neil
Mrs Clark woke us up with music I didn’t even hear it i was a big deep sleep I did not want to wake up after that long travelling from yesterday. So, when we woke up, we were told we were going to do abseiling from a mountain. We walked up the mountain and we had to do a little bit of climbing, and we had to take turns holding these bags they were well heavy and not heavy at the same time but it was this massive fall and we had to go down it everyone was pretty good at it to my Suprise. So yeah it was successful in a way. We also passed some frog spawn that reminded me of little gooey bubbly version of bubble wrap that you cannot pop that would not be as satisfying as bubble wrap so remember to not pop them!
Our second one was one of my favourite ones mountains biking we got to do a free ride it was so peaceful the first one, the second one not so peaceful as there was a big bump at the start that send me flying! It was hard but we all powered through to the end- our instructor liked triceratops- fun fact. Night walk next where one of the teachers told us we walked eleven miles! And we crossed lots of little frogs and we almost stepped on one but no little toads were harmed.
Day 2: Ellouise
Miss Hannett woke us up with her lovely singing voice then we went to breakfast after we went to go canoeing with a guy named Sandy. Mr. Pye had to put his head into the sea because he said the last one to the boat had to dunk the head into the water he was the las to the boat. We went to lunch after lunch we went to get the equipment for climbing a thirty foot pole three people made it to the top of the pole including me! The top was the size of a pizza box. After that we went to go and get dinner and go to bed.
Day 3 Scarlett
Miss Hannet woke us up again and then we started the day off with some nice breakfast. Then our first activity was abseiling it was super scary but once you got onto your second step it was eventually super fun! We just had to climb down the cliff, and it does sound scary but you will be connected to a harness so it will be okay if you slip or fall! We went to lunch, and we got fish fingers, and we had an option to get noodles and cheese. After lunch we done raft building! We had to tie stuff together we also made Mr Pye jump in the lake for when we were testing it! But after all that we got dinner and most of us had lasagne and some desert, but then we had to go to the dorms for bed.
Day three Findlay
The first activity was mountain biking I loved it we were going down narrow slopes I was in the air for a for a second it was so fun. Then we went back to our dorms rested and then it was lunch was very tasty. We couldn’t go and do canoeing because of the wither So, we did archery James hit the bullseye with his first lot of arrows, and we made some fun games to. We also made friends then it was dinner and after dinner we play the Olympics it was allot of fun games that you will play. the first game was like red light green light the instructor would have his bag and you would have to make it to bag before the end if he turs around with his light you need to stop and hide and if he spots you your out. The second game floor is lave you had 5 bricks and you need to put them on the ground and try get to the other side with your hole team and back to the first side you were on. The next game was the team work game were one of your teammates is blindfolded and an other one of your teammates was looking at the other that was telling you to say were the blindfolded and you need to get a Frisbee. Then we did the chute game and teamwork was key I loved that game. Then we went to bed.
Day 4 Elijah
For the last time Mrs Clark woke us up and the first thing that she said was to get packed because we were leaving for the ferry to go back home. The funny bit while we were packing is that we had to all help close Neils suitcase- oneperson was sitting on it, two people were closing it with the zip, and I was pulling the zip down to close it. At the end we got it closed and then we got all our stuff together and, on the way, back on the bus I was sitting next to Casper from Port Charlotte. When I got home I hugged my Mum and Dad so hard.
Dinosuars P12
Our topic this term is dinosaurs and we are raising lots of money to have the Natural History museum in Scotland come and visit us! We have carried out a bingo, a map quest and a sponsored walk. We have also started a floorbook of learning. We have been busy creating a dinosaur display for our classroom complete with palaeontologist lab!
Having talked about the extinction of the dinosaurs and the asteroid, we investigated how impact craters were made. We looked at some craters that you can see on the Earth and looked at the moon’s surface. Our idea was that the bigger craters were caused by bigger asteroids so we tested this out with a variety of balls, marbles and rocks. We also changed the angle of impact to see what difference this made.
We loved having the museum visit and learning about dinosaurs!
Litter on the Path
This afternoon we went a walk up the path to collect litter. We couldn’t believe how much rubbish there was, some of the bins had blown over from the big storm which meant there was even more. We counted the cans and found 21 just at the first little bit of the path! We are going to go further up another day to collect more.
⭐️ ⭐️We are learning how to take care of our environment.
⭐️We are strengthening our hands using the litter pickers.
👣We have been doing such a good job at looking after our environment by collecting litter. We wanted to know how much litter we collected and wondered if we could count it up one day!
Port Ellen Primary Nativity
This year our nativity was called the Twinkly nativity. It was performed by the P 1/2 and they did amazing with their lines and songs. The songs were performed using Makaton and it was great. They had a few tricky words but they spoke so clear and it was super impressive. The nursery came up and joined in on one of the songs. Their outfits were so cute because they were little stars and they also done some Makaton as well.
For their characters they all had a special outfit and they were amazing. Well done!
Christmas Lunch & Movie
The Christmas lunch was on the 13th December 2024 in our school. It was also Christmas jumper day. We had a lovely lunch filled with goods like: Turkey, carrots, stuffing and pigs in blankets. The staff are brilliant at cooking our amazing meals but this one is the best. We went to the lunch hall at 11:45am and we all sat down. The luxurious tables where set up perfectly by the teachers and the P6/7 class had one long table for all of them! The whole school inhaled there lunch and went outside to play!
Not long after lunch we watched the new Inside Out 2! Before it started we talked about our emotions because this movie relates to our rights topic we have been doing. Inside Out 2 is almost the same as Inside Out but there are new emotions in her head trying to take over. It was a great day!
Christmas Fair
7th December was the Christmas fair in Port Ellen primary school. Children there have been working real hard for weeks making crafts and wonderful baking! For an example they each had stalls which would sell soaps, bath bombs, games, decorations or even hot chocolate! Yum!
Every year there is a Santa’s grotto would would make things even more exiting and Christmassy, because kids would get presents and a hello from Santa himself! Teas coffees and biscuits were served and even better… Raffles! There was Lego raffles, wine and food!
And all of this amazing event was to save up money for things the school needs like the schools Loch Goilhead trip! Which p67 get to go there once a year!
The Christmas fair was amazing! Was so fun and magical!
From Hannah Schleicher Wang and Bonnie Creswell!
The Cupcake Challenge
P67 made some delicious cupcakes for the cup cake challenge this year. They made them for the Christmas fair. The taste testers were Mrs McDonald and Mrs Hamilton. They were sold in the Christmas Fair on Saturday 7th December 2024.
The teams were called the Ginger Bells, Crazy Christmas Trees, Rocking Reindeer and the Christmas Crazys. The winning team were the Crazy Christmas Trees. They were only 1 point in the lead in the end. Second place was the Rocking Reindeer with 16 points so that means that Crazy Christmas Trees got 17 points. The Christmas Crazy`s got 3rd and the Ginger Bells got 4th.
Port Ellen Football Trip
On a Sunday two weeks ago, the Islay Football Team were heading up the road to Oban for a football trip to play against Fort William, and Lochnell. The score against Fort William was sadly eight two to them but the two goals that got scored were by a Young man called Freddy Munro.
Next game we came onto the pitch with our heads down, because of the last game… first half zero zero. Then we went in hard second half- one nil now to Port Ellen scored by Freddy Munro. Then Elijah Kicks the ball up the line to Freddy he dribble through the defenders and…. SCORES! Five minutes left of the game now a lot of passing going on the a wee tap to Freddy by Alfie then Freddy shoots and score bottom left!!!
By Freddy Munro And Alfie Addison.
Maths Inside
For Maths Week Scotland Port Ellen primary School have entered the Maths Inside competition. We enter it every year and p1-7 enter and this year for the competition and there were 4 highly commended people.
There was Rowan Gordon in p1 and she did the maths of one of Ardbeg distillery walls. Tilly Johnston in p6 talked about the maths behind how a sea hare breathes. Findlay Cunningham looked at the maths behind different patterns on shoes and how they relate to animals and Archie Logan did lorry logistics and they all got highly commended in the competition. Well done!
Book afternoon!
On November 20th 2024 we had Scotland book week! Before we done anything we separated into our houses. We had lots of activities such as, charades, dressing up as book characters, making book marks, A book quiz and to finish the day off hot chocolate! We also read some of our favorite stories and we got to bring into school our favorite pajamas! We got some delicious biscuits! We also got a small group from our house to help make some cool newspaper hats and accessories for our book character.
Anti-bullying Week 2024- RESPECT!
We have been writing essays on what respect means to us. Here is Brody’s:
Respect is a very important thing. It shows that you care for others. Respect is important to me and many others, and you can show respect daily. It can be helping someone up or holding the door for people. It can be easy as saying please and thank you! Anti bullying week is very important, and it is from 10th November – 17th November.
Respect matters. The reason is that people will feel happy and pleased that you have treated them in the right way and might help you bond with one another and help you make more friends. When you show respect, you will be respected back. Respect always stops bullying when you stand up for one another. As proud as an owl. That’s what you will feel if you show respect to one another.
Disrespect is a very serious thing and should not be used in any situation even though it can be used. It could be violence like punching or kicking, or making fun of people for their appearance or accent etc. Bullying is serious and respect is very kind and humble.
I pledge to not Disrespect or bully anyone because that would be mean and disrespectful.
The Talent Show for Children in Need
On the 15th November 2024 there was a talent show called Port Ellen’s Got talent. There were many contestants from nursery to p7 and it was to raise money for Children in Need. The nursery did the song Rob is a Rusty Robot. Some of the p5s did skipping, and Elsie did a song by herself and her sister Tilly did a puppet. Findlay did the piano and the song was walking through central park. Murdo played the accordion and Porter was doubling numbers. Shamus, Nola and Jimmy performed gymnastics. Stephen was doing a comedy act and Robert sang it was raining taco.
The winners were Murdo first place, second place Porter and third was Findlay with the piano.
We raised over £300 for Children in Need and also got to pie all the teachers at the end!
Invisible Fiends Review
Barry Hutchison, is the author of many books! He was born in 1978 in Ireland and right now is 46! He made his first book in 2010; INVISIBLE FIENDS and then started making more series and books. In total he made 70 books, for children and teens!
I Have just finished the book INVISBLE FIENDS’ MR MUMBLES by Barry Hutchison; to be honest I thought it was called Invisible friends but anyways! It was AMAZING! I loved every single bit! It starts off with the main character that is named Kyle properly about 11 who thinks he has an imaginary friend and turns out he is right! But his once friendly friend wants to unleash mayhem on the WORLD! With his new friend’s help called Ameena they will work together to survive!
This book’s theme is a spooky scary monster type of theme, and I just love it! The author had exceptionally good descriptions about the main character, but at the same time I feel that he could have added more description about the other character’s but here is an example of one is my favorite quote: “He had had jolly, rosy cheeks, but now they were paled and wrinkled” It describes one of the main characters which I love! Because it reminds me of how once a character was but is not anymore and Mr. mumbles is one of my favorite characters, I really recommend this to people who love to read spooky stories especially on Halloween month! It makes it even better, in my opinion of course! But in the end, I really enjoyed this book, it just lives rent free in my head and properly always will. So overall I am going to give this book… Drumroll! 5/5!!!
Hannah P7
Book Review Of Marcus Rashford Breakfast Club
This book is an adventure book. This is written by Alex Falase Koya. This book was inspired by Marcus Rashford for kids to like books and football. My favorite quote from the book is “Now, that deserves an investigation.” I chose this quote because I liked it, and it sounded cool.
This book is good for people because it’s about an adventure and football and monsters. This book is set in a high school of a couple of kids who are in a club. They made they investigate strange characters and the mystery of the treasure hunt. Marcus Rashford is a brave person who is always destined to find out what is going on and he likes football. He finds the mystery with his friends. The theme of the book is Marcus working together with his friends.
Children would enjoy this book because it is about finding a monster and at the end it is a person or a dog. I liked this book because it reminded me of a comic because it is easy to read. This book should be recommended for 8-year-old’s because it a bit tricky. I really liked the fonts of the books. I think the author done an excellent job to make kids read this book really remind me of planet Omar. Both are funny and cool. I would recommend this to kids who like adventure books and mystery. I would give this 5/5.
By Alfie P7
Book Review of Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox is an adventure book written by Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is a world-famous author, and he wrote 37 books. My favourite quote from the book is “One fat, one short, one lean” as it describes the three main characters.
This book is like other Roald Dahl books because it is funny and has got all sorts of different characters. The setting of this book is the three poultry farms, and the tree where the fox lives. The story is about a fox how steels from the three poultry farms to feed his growing family, but they are not happy. Mr. Fox is very brave because he goes to the three poultry farms without getting Cotte.
The theme of this book is looking out for family. Children would like this book because it makes you laugh out loud, like when Mr. fox went out of the tree and the tree farmers are hind a bush and shot of his tail. I enjoyed when Mr. fox and the Littel foxes went on an advencher to get out of the tree because it was getting dug up because it was exiting. I liked that the writing was funny and interesting. The dinner scene in the book reminds me of the Mad Hatters Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland.
I really enjoyed this book, and I give it a four out of five.
Bonnie P7
Book Review Of Cherry Tree Farm
Cherry tree farm was written by Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton has written 762 books but she sadly died in 1968. This book is an adventure book. My favorite quote out of cherry tree farm is “We’re going to go wild, we’re going to go wild.” This my favorite because it shows that they are going to have fun. Books that have kids in them make you feels that you are in it.
The setting of the book is on a farm surrounded by countryside and woods. This is a story that tells you to look after wildlife and it tells you about different animals. Tamilan is a wild man who lives in the wild and meets lots of animals and loves watching animals.
The theme of Cherry tree farm is a farming and the countryside. Children would like this book because it shows you lots of animals and lots of facts too. I enjoyed it when the kids thought that it was raining frogs in a thunderstorm. I think that this book is for people who like wildlife and I think that this book is for people over 8 years old. I think this book is a wee bit funny. This book reminds me of Mr Galeano’s circus because there is animals in both books. I really enjoyed this book because I can learn about different animals so I give this book 5/5 rating from me.
Kirsty P6
