NEWS

CYPCS (Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland) is asking children to share our opinion. Living on a island means we do not have access to much stuff. We wrote them down like access to Supermarkets, Cinemas, etc. And we met Nicola. Nicola is the National Young People’s Commissioner. She informs anything we say to the parliament. This time she is doing the listening and we are doing the talking. Then we voted which of the following from what worries you the most to what worries you the least.  We discussed rights and we filled in a survey- our right to have our opinion heard was exercised.

On January 25th the school had a Burns Ceildh down in the Ramsay hall. P7 said Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns. They carried the haggis down the stairs round the front of the stage and back up And Jacob cut the haggis.

After lunch we took a mini bus over to the Ramsey hall because there was a village Ceildh and Port Ellen primary school was invited. P7 said Address to a Haggis, P6 said Scots Wa Hae, P5 and P4 said Auld Lang Syne, P3 said Street Talk and P1 and P2 said Wee Willie Winky.

Brody did auld Lang Syne on the tin whistle and Hannah did scots Wa Hae on the tin whistle. We got water and short bread and the adults got pancakes, Irnbru, scones and cakes.

Over all it was a really good day.

Here is the video of P7 saying Address to a Haggis.

 

 

Every term at Port Ellen Primary School, we have a captain’s meeting, this is where all the houses (Orsay, Texa, Nave) split up. We each go into different classrooms in the school.

We talk about things like; clubs, the rights of children. Everyone in our school gets a say at what we do, so we ask them how they feel about it! We (Captains and Vice Captains) ask them what they think we should do at clubs. They all had some great ideas which we put toward all of the clubs happening.

Overall the meetings went really well!

 

Port Ellen Primary school recently took part in the National Maths Inside competition as part of Maths Week Scotland.  Entrants must take a photo and write about the ‘Maths Inside’ the picture they have taken,  identifying and reflecting on the maths in the world around us.

This year we had commended entries from P1- Rosie Hannett  with Boaty Bubbles, P2 Noah Johnston with Rolling In, P6 Archie Logan with Dosing Sheep, P7 Thomas Edwards with Distracting Refracting Reflecting Rainsbows, Rachel Heads with Dancing into Shape, and Hugh Mackinnon with Bend it like Magnus.  Jacob Hart P7 was a runner up at second level with Angel’s Share and Brody Shakespeare P6 was the winner at second level with Taking a Photo of a Photo of a Photo…  Port Ellen Primary School itself was also a awarded best school for the quality of engagement and entries.

Finally we had overall winners in the 2023 competition: in the category ‘Oot An’ Aboot’ Aidan Ambrose P6 won £50 gift voucher for his Archaeology entry and in the category ‘In Motion’ Ellie Chandler P6 won £50 for her Bee Tornadoes Entry.  Well done everyone.

Port Ellen Primary are happy to take part in the Christmas cover competition for the ileach and we also got two very talented winners… drum roll for Aaron Ayres and Soarcha Baker very well done for winning this competition.

Star warts is an amazing panto that is set in outer space. It is about a mother who calls a doctor because her son has spots and the doctor leaves with the baby. Little does she know that the baby would gone on to become the umpire. The umpire is an evil villain who is shrinking galaxies into tennis balls when suddenly one goes missing and he tries to capture the thief by hiring 3 idiot space rangers.  

I thought that this was an amazing panto. The acting was incredible, and the scenes were amazing everything was impeccable. The solos in the songs were outstanding and the dancing was perfect. The makeup was brilliant 

For me, the dance battle was my favourite part it was closely followed by Lukewarm water’s solo who was acted by Thomas Edwards.  

“This panto was amazing I thought it was a 10/10.” says Rachel Frances Heads. “The panto was very enjoyable.” says Freddy John Allan Munro.  

 

By Hugh

 

 

Towards the end of November 2023 Primary’s 1,2,4,5,6 and 7  wrote to Blue Peter about a book we liked and drew a picture from the book . I wrote about Diary of a Wimpy kid. About a month later we got badges from Blue Peter and a letter and we also got special Blue Peter cards. All of the people that got badges or cards had a big picture together.

This years Christmas fair from Port Ellen primary school was great, there were raffles and baking, toys, wreaths and hangings. Everybody was there, outside Santa had come on his slay giving presents to everybody. The p67s made candles and door stoppers , clocks.

Santas`s  grotto was a hit- the lights, the slay it was so amazing! I hope it will be just as amazing next year!

 

We hope you all had a wonderful summer break and we look forward to a fantastic year for 23/24 at Port Ellen Primary School!

These two events were held on the 17th of June. At 5:30 the P7 class headed to Seasalt for their dinner, all of the P7s had pizza. At this dinner, the whole P7 group attended as well as Mrs. Clark, Mrs. McFarlane and Mrs. Leask. Everyone had a wonderful time and ate lots of pizza! When we left, we all expected to have to walk. That’s when a luxurious jeep pulled up to Seasalt and surprised us. Everyone was shocked as nobody expected it to be our ride back to the school. As we got in we were shocked by how fancy it was, in the moment we all felt like royalty. Once we arrived at the school everyone was waiting for us at the door, this is where the school disco was held. When we arrived some of the P7s were already at the disco, everyone was having so much fun! The school gave everyone free drinks and crisps, and also hosted fun games for P1-P7 pupils could play! Mrs. Bonar was taking amazing photos in the corner with silly props, every pupil was able to take part and take class photos. This was a really fun night for all the students and especially for the P7s!

On the 26th of June, the P7’s, Mrs Leask and Mrs MacFarlane went on a boat trip after school. On the boat trip we went from the Port Ellen pier to Ardbeg Distillery.

On the boat trip we saw some Seals and even baby Seals too! We also got a chance to drive the boat from distillery to Distillery.  When we got to each Distillery we stopped and the tour guide told us some facts about the Distillery. when we got to Kildoghtan, they told us about a haunted house on the top of a hill. They told us that the owner was buried on top of a different hill. On the way back to the pier we went really fast and we all got soaked!

On the Monday 26th of June we got a visit to our school. This year the Fly Fishing competition is happening on Islay this year! The Australian team came to our to talk to us all about Australia. They talked about what types of animals there was, there was stuff like spiders and poisonous snakes, where everyone came from and everyones names. This was the women’s Australian team that came to our school.

It was really fun to hear people with different accents from us because we usually hear the same accents everyday. It was amazing to see these people and we all really enjoyed it.

P5,6,7 went to a archaeological dig on 20th June 2023. We were close to Port Charlotte. We were  and we got split into three teams, there was P5,P6 and P7. First, we got a tour around and got to see all the black houses from around 200-300 years ago. After that we got a tray of mud that had pottery in it. Ayla, Ella and Ellie got water to wash all the dirt of and a tooth brush to scrub it. Finally, we got a small dirt patch that we could dig up and find some rocks. We put all the Excess dirt into a bucket which was dumped into a massive dirt pile. We done it because everyone would love to learn all about it. It was really fun and we would all love to go again.