Endeavour 2016 Final Thoughts

Lots of community interest

Lots of community interest

The purpose of this blog has been to share the Endeavour project at Port Ellen Primary, and over the past year we have detailed the challenge and enjoyment of this learning  journey.  It was also set up to highlight how Endeavour can help children make links and develop skills for future careers, as part of Education Scotland’s Developing the Young Workforce.

Upcycling

Upcycling

In their final evaluations all children were able to make successful links to how their projects would help them in future careers; with some of the projects like architecture, interior design or card making business the career links were obvious, but all were able to identify specific skills like time management, risk assessment or presenting to others.

Children could say what new learning they had achieved; learning how to use a sewing machine, working a jigsaw cutter to make a wood toy, reading a map, building a model plane, coding a game, creating a mood board, filming and editing a documentary.  They were also able to identify problems they had solved in the process of their project; how to read scales correctly when cooking, how to reinstate accidentally deleted video footage, understanding Shakepeare’s language, correct use of a knife for chopping and getting notes out on time for advertising a jewellery sale.

Sweet making

Sweet making

Sharing their learning during the Endeavour fair was the final stage of the process and the variety and depth of learning on show was excellent, with those who had truly pushed themselves in their learning able to talk in depth about their Endeavour projects.  There was jewellery, wooden toys, graphic design t-shirts and cards for sale; a video game to play; cakes, sweets and mexican food to try; videos on Shakepeare, horse riding, fitness, card making and diving to watch;  a book and magazine to buy and read and lots of models of farms, houses and planes.

And those who took part this year were already coming up with exciting new ideas for next year…

Leavers Assembly and Prize Giving

We said goodbye to our current primary 7 pupils at Port Ellen yesterday in a very moving leavers assembly.  Their music video can be seen below.  We also had the prize giving, with lots of great achievements over the year celebrated; Junior Saltire award winners, Kaitlyn Clark getting a silver in the Maths challenge, Pocket picnic garden design winners, finalist in the national swimming chmpionships and Jasmine coming second in a writing contest.  Texa won the house cup, and Bronagh in P7 did the double winning both the citizenship trophy and the Endeavour Award.  Good luck for the future P7!

Diving Endeavour

Here is the video produced by Bronagh for her Diving Endeavour.  She learned to scuba dive with her dad and wrote about the wrecks around Islay and created a risk assessment as well.  Bronagh was the winner of this years Endeavour Award for her independent work, successful management of time, learning of challenging new skills and excellent self evaluation.  Well done Bronagh!

WINNERS!

IMG_0995  saltire

Last week Joe, Bronagh, Kaya and Murray traveled with Mrs Clark and Mrs Leask to Glasgow and Edinburgh to take part in the Celebration of Science and Engineering run by @scdiYESC at the Glasgow Science Centre.  They were finalists in the Junior Saltire Awards with their Wave Islay design, made with help from Bronagh’s dad Gus, an excellent boat builder.  They tested their devices at the Flowave facility in Edinburgh along with 6 other primary schools and 5 secondary schools, before attending the event and presenting to the judges.  They also took part in STEM challenges as a team, with around 40 other schools, where they had to correct a listing oil rig, calculate pH for crops, stabilize a bridge, build a train and identify oil products.  When we got to the awards ceremony  the Imax cinema was full.  We were shocked and amazed when Heather the weather announced the winners of the primary STEM challenges as Port Ellen Primary School!  We got a great trophy and went and sat back down, only to discover we had also won the Primary Junior Saltire Awards!  What a day!  Above is a video of our Junior Saltire Journey.

Our visit to Islay Airport

IMG_2491 IMG_2376 IMG_2394This term we have been learning about journeys and holidays so as one of our our end of term outings we visited Islay Airport.   We climbed the tower, put our bags through security, went through security ourselves, we even got to sit in the fire engines and spray water from the hoses. The highlight of our trip was sitting in Mr Sandy MacTaggart’s plane and talking to Pat the pilot.  We had a great time with all our children and their parents.

Our Endeavour Fair



















On Tuesday 7th June Primary 5,6,7  of Port Ellen Primary showed everyone their Endeavour Projects. The fair was all afternoon.  Some people sold things they had made and some had videos to show. Kaitlyn sold jewellery, Sarah sold her book, Jasmine sold her magazines, Sophie sold her jigsaws, Abi sold her cards, Joe sold T-shirts and Katie was selling sweets and popcorn. Some people had things for other people to try; Matthew, who was doing House building, had children  cementing bricks and Ronan had his video game for people to play and Ellie had mexican food for people to eat and Kaya had made a strawberry cake and some people had quizzes. Everyone had a different project and we had lots of visitors from the local community who really enjoyed the afternoon. Most of the people that came bought something. Everyone had fun showing people their Endeavour.

by Sarah

One Picnic Pocket Pallet Garden

planet

On Thursday 2nd June Mirren and Rebecca traveled to Edinburgh to set up their Picnic Pocket Pallet Garden. When they arrived, they set up their garden for the next morning when the show would be held. The Garden Show was held in Ingliston. They next morning Mirren and Rebecca and their families went to the show. There were lots of really good gardens from other sections and the section Mirren and Rebecca’s garden was in. They looked around all of the gardens and then they went back to theirs because a politician came to look at our garden and asked us questions about it. Then we got our picture taken by a photographer. After that we all went to look at other gardens and got ice-cream before we traveled back down the road to the ferry.

Cooking Around The World

For my Endeavour I am doing cooking around the world. Endeavour is an independent topic that you work on for a few months. I chose Cooking around the world because I love to cook and I don’t know where foods come from and I would love to know. I have used books from different places that has lots od different recipes on it. Mrs Mcfarlane has helped me when I have been cooking.  I have learned how to chop vegetables and I now know how to be safe in the kitchen. I have also improved my math skills and my chopping. On the day when I showed what I had achieved I had 2 posters, some recipes, a video, foods that I brought in and my quiz and pictures of what I made.

The Mod

actionmod

On Saturday 4th June Port Ellen Primary School choir went to the Local mod on Islay.  The mod was held in the high school in Bowmore. The choir won the unison and came 2nd in the peaurt a bheil.  Also ten people from the choir won the psalm. For the unison you have two songs and in our first song Mrs Macdonald made a mistake so we thought there was no chance of us winning but with our second song, Latha Math, we did really well and we got high marks for Gaelic and music from the Judges which meant we won.  Lots of individuals did well also- Rowan was covered in gold medals!  The Primary 1-3 class also did a fab action song.  We really enjoyed taking part and improving our Gaelic.

Endeavour Showcase

We are nearing the end of this years Endeavour projects.  On Tuesday afternoon the children will have an opportunity to show off their learning to visitors; parents, students, teachers and the local community.  They have worked hard all year improving their planning, management, organisation, evaluation and presentation skills.  Now they get to present that learning to a wider audience.

After the showcase children have one final task- to review and reflect on their achievements.  They have to answer questions:   What new learning did I achieve?  How was my project challenging?  Did I have any problems to overcome?  Who or what helped with my project?  What did I create with my new learning?  Did I achieve all my targets?  How did I share my learning?

Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 14.42.03 Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 14.41.55 Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 14.41.40 Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 14.41.25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They will look at the universal learning with regards to planning,reviewing, researching and presenting and the success criteria and decide how successful they have been.  From their they will decide on next steps.  These reviews, in the form of a PPT will be printed out and shared with parents in their learning logs.

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy

Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.