On Tuesday 27th we had a picnic lunch to celebrate us winning the STEM awards, we got told there would be a surprise at the end so we were all very excited. When everyone got downstairs there was music playing and everyone was dancing around, they all looked very happy. There was cakes and sandwiches. We all then got told to look out the door and listen. We then seen and heard the ice cream van, we were all very surprised. Everybody got a free ice cream. We went outside for a break and to eat our ice cream, when the bell rang everyone went into the hall and we watched Sing the movie. At the end of the day everyone was really happy.
By Ellie M
On Tuesday 20th June all of the p7’s and S1’s joined together to do a problem solving morning in the high school. We had to go round to different stations and complete lots of different challenges. After we have completed the challenges we have to get a mark form the older people that were at each station. We had to get either a mark of 0,5 or 10. You got a 10 if you figured out the answer to the problem and got it right. You got a 5 if you nearly got it and had good teamwork and talking and you got a 0 if you didn’t work together and didn’t get the answer. I enjoyed doing this because it made us think about lots of different types of questions and how to work them out. It was also good fun because it was like an early induction day and we got to meet and talk to lots of people who we will go to high school with. Doing this challenge we did numeracy and literacy. My team won the numeracy and the overall points. I think everyone enjoyed those tasks and had lots of fun.
On Wednesday 8th June, two members of staff and three pupils from Port Ellen Primary flew to Glasgow to attend the Scottish Education Awards. The school had got through to the finals of the Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Award along with another primary school and a high school. Assessors visited the school back in March to see STEM activities in class, speak to children about their experience of STEM learning and talk to staff about the development of STEM in Port Ellen.
On Thursday 8th June sports day will be held at Port Ellen Primary School. For the sports championships we have/will be doing cross country, distance throw, football dribble, long jump, baskets, obstacle course, high jump, hurdles and on the day of sports day we will be doing 100m sprint. We are doing sports championships because we like to have fun, enjoy ourselves and to play sports to get fitter. We also have trophy’s and medals that people win for coming 1st, 2nd or 3rd. When you do the activities you get points, 1st=100 points, 2nd=75 points, 3rd=50 taking part=25 points.
On Thursday 18th May Port Ellen primary made a timeline out of tapestries. It was right from the Mesolithic times to WWII. Some of the timelines we made were The Battle of Trigh Guniart, Port Ellen in 1820s, Kildalton Cross, Finlaggan, Higland Clearenses, WW11 Boat Planes, Tuscania and Kilbride Chapel. Everyone in the school took part, with help from the Islay Quilters and other members of the local community and some people made a banner for the Feis as well. A lot of the tapestries are for monuments in the past and the timeline will help us remember our history.
Over the past year all the primary schools on Islay and Jura have been involved in an Island wide history project in conjunction with Islay Heritage and archaeologists from the University of Reading. 
The children have been learning about their history and heritage, as well as the many STEM skills required to be an archaeologist. The results of their learning are now on display in the Gaelic College, Ionad Chaluim Chille Ile, in the Islay and Jura School’s Heritage Exhibition.
The project started with a party from every primary school on Islay visiting the Giant’s Grave site, 90 children in all. This involved a lengthy walk from Nerabus up through the forestry to the site, where the archaeologists were excavating and surveying. The children were then able to experience the different fieldwork techniques, from geophysics to troweling to photography. They learned about life in the early Neolithic period, and discussed with the experts what the grave was for, how it might have looked and how the people at the time lived. They then returned to the classroom to continue the learning, carrying out many different tasks; timelines, brochures, reports, sways, story telling videos, den building, pot making, art and imaginative writing. Some of these can be seen on the 
Then in late March the archaeology team returned for phase 2 of the project, in which schools adopted their own local monument and carried out surveys. Children applied some of their previous learning on Geo-physics and photography, whilst also learning how to make scale drawings and documentaries. They then got to see the results of the survey transferred into 3D representations of the site. Bowmore surveyed Cill a’ Bhulig, the remains of an old chapel, Port Charlotte surveyed Carnduncan, a Bronze Age burial cairn, Port Ellen surveyed Kilbride Chapel and Small Isles and Keills surveyed a crannog at Loch nan Deala.
It has been a great learning experience for all involved and made us grasp just how much fascinating history we pass on Islay everyday without even realizing it. The process of revealing Islay’s past through the use of modern archaeological techniques has been a truly great experience, and the children have a far better understanding of their Island as a result. We would like to thank all those involved for providing us with the experience, including the Mactaggart fund for enabling the project to take place. We hope people will visit the exhibition over the next two weeks for a unique insight into Islay’s past.
Through this year P5/6/7 have been using lots of technology to help with their learning. Some people have been using technology for their Endeavour project like Rebecca, Rhys, Sophie, Rowan and Taylor.
Rhys is doing Kodu for his Endeavour so everything he does is on the computer. He has completed 11 levels already and is hoping to create as much levels as possible.
Every year Mrs Clark’s class take part in the Scottish Maths Challenge, a competition where you have to complete tricky maths problems that require you to think outside the box. It is a great way to improve your maths problem solving skills and learn to apply strategies to help you work out the answers. Children can opt to take part in the challenges, and there are three sets of questions over the year. One of the questions this year was:
worked by sending an electrical current through the ground and if there was a higher reading then there was a rock under the ground this is because it takes more energy to get through the rock. If there was a lower reading that means that there would of been water because it didn’t use lots of energy to get through it. To use the geophysics you would stick both spikes into the ground and wait for a beep then move onto the next spot a certain distance away. We were all glad that people from the University Of Reading to come over and help us as they were very interesting and taught us lots. The data we gathered from the geophysics will actually be used in the final report on the site which is very exciting.
We were also doing archaeology photography with Alex. Before you take the picture you have to remember two things. The first thing to remember is you need to put the measuring stick onto where you are taking a picture of so you have a scale to know how big the things in the photo are, and you have to remember to use the right size measuring stick. The other thing to remember is to put a chalkboard with the sites name, where it is, what it is and what direction it is taken from. You also need to put a north arrow pointing to north. You have to fill in a register after taking a picture. You have to write the site name and the description from the chalkboard, what direction it was from and lots more. This is so that people in the future know what it was about. The site name was KIL17 for Kilbride chapel in 2017. We enjoyed taking accurate photos.
the camera on and you have to make sure that the camera is screwed on properly so it won’t fall off. The archaeologists helped us with all of this. We also made a documentary and it was about what we were doing at Kilbride Chapel and we had to use a radio microphone to record. Showing us how to do things properly is one of the reasons Islay Heritage is so good.
looked really cool and showed us what the chapel looks like-it had really thick walls and was a lot smaller than we thought it would be. We checked our drawing was correct using a GPS positioning pole. We learned lots of new skills and at the end we got to see the results of the geophysics in school and it showed that there might have been an enclosure around the chapel and we were the people who found out that evidence which was very exciting! We then drew pictures of what we thought it might have been like in the past before it fell down.
noses. All the money goes to Comic Relief. We are pleased to say that we raised £200!!! Hopefully we raise that much next year. Thank you to everyone who took part in this fun day and to all the people who brought some cakes in.