News

Posted on

Easyfundraising

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for Port Ellen Primary School with easyfundraising? There are over 8,000 retailers on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis & Partners, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds. All you need to do is:

1. Go to link  and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to Port Ellen Primary School at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and Port Ellen Primary School will be really grateful for your donations. Thank you for your support.

Posted on

Trip to Bridgend Woods

P12 from across the island had a literacy filled trip to Bridgend Woods. What an adventure they had! We loved our trip on the big bus, even if it was a little cosy, meeting all our new friends from across the island and having our yummy packed lunches too! Our focus today was ‘Room on the Broom’ and we began by listening to the story in English and Gaelic. We had a witches cauldron to make s’mores, we had to help find all the characters in the story using a map, scavenge for things in a hunt and even made magic wands too!

 

Posted on

Nature Wands and Sycamores

ELC have been enjoying exploring the different seasons and are beginning to identify the different features of Autumn time as we move in to a new season. We are aware of the different features of Autumn and has enjoyed looking at sycamores and making them fly. We enjoyed going a wee walk this morning to collect some autumn materials we can use to make pictures !🌸 We have also been enjoying learning a song about sycamores.⭐️ ⭐️ I am aware of the different seasons. ⭐️ I am beginning to identify features of Autumn. ⭐️ I can be creative using a range of different materials. 👣We will continue to learn about the different seasons and explore Autumn further over the next term.

Posted on

Snail Fun!

P12 have been doing a Julia Donaldson topic and we went on a snail hunt! This week we have been reading Snail and the Whale and wanted to do some snail investigation. We also were kindly given some snail shells from Miss Clark who told us some super facts about them. You can see our Snail floorbook is full of questions.

Posted on

Our Floorbooks

Floorbooks are used to record the children’s thoughts and ideas. They can mark make, draw pictures and we scribe their learning. This term we have been learning about ourselves- what age we are and what our favourite thing to do in nursery is.

⭐️ ⭐️I am learning to mark make.

⭐️I can share my thoughts and ideas.

👣 The children wanted to draw and talk about their families. Please can you send us a family photo. This could also be airdropped in the morning if you are unable to post it to seesaw.⭐️

✨I have the right to a name. (Article 7)

✨I have the right to an identity. (Article 8)

✨I have the right to an education. (Article 28)

Posted on

NAVE BEE RIGHTS RESPECTING GROUP

We are the rights and nurture group and we are working on supporting the children in the school to meet their right to good health (24).  We have decided to make a friendship bench and a happy boxes and then put them around the school.

People are voting for different  types of bench designs:   flower, Dinosaur, fish, boats, rainbow.

People had paper and there where righting out different ideas we were in groups of three. We also had to write ideas for where to put the boxes around the school or the playground.

Posted on

Bee Readers Citizenship Group Meeting

We are the Bee Readers group.  Today we recorded for the Islay podcast to say about what our favourite  book is and why.  Also we wrote a letter to Laphroaig and Mrs Mcgilvery to ask if it is OK to set reading rocks so when tourist or locals come over there will be a QR code for them to scan. So they can listen to our stories and our amazing podcasts!.

Posted on

Bee Eco Citizenship Group Meeting

Today we had a eco group meeting to start working on our action plan.  Our plan today was to save water because one of our rights(24) is the right to clean water.   Water uses a lot of energy to be made safe to drink so we should not waste it.  I learned that hoses use lots of water so when washing a car we should use a bucket of water and a sponge.  We learned to reuse the  water in our school water bottles rather than throwing it away.

Next time we will be planting fruit and vegetables so we can grow them in school instead of buying them.  Here are some potatoes we grew in our garden this year and we had them for lunch!

By Finlay.

 

Posted on

Endeavour Competition with Kew Gardens

During the holidays we received great news, that Port Ellen were a commended school in the Kew Gardens Endeavour competition!  The competition was to find out about the secret life of trees in your local area and write about them.  P67 had learned about how Islay has actual rainforests! They are some of the last temperate Rainforests in the UK. They visited one of the places at Olistaidh, where they did observational drawings of the trees.  They then researched them and created presentation fact files about the rainforests and where they are.  One of these files are featured on the winners page on the Kew Gardens website.

Posted on

Scottish Water

On 2nd of September 2024 the Scottish water came to our school and two of them were dressed as a tap and a toilet! They were talking about how they were doing a bunch of roadworks in Port Ellen because the pipes were getting old and rusty which would have meant we would have gotten rusty and dirty water. 

 Some pipes were bursting around Islay and Jura. They showed us the new plastic pipes that they were putting in. They told us the 3 Ps to put in the toilet; pee, poop, paper!  

They came in to show us what they have been doing around our village. They set us a mission called H2O and it basically is we got a card, so we must fill it in and at the end of the week we show our class what we have done to save our water. 

They told us about the water cycle and in the summer whem its really hot we start running out of water so that’s why we need to save as much water as we can. 

At the end we got to stay and try on the uniform, tap and toilet outfit so we could take pictures. Altogether, it was really fun and the whole school had a blast! So, save your water everyone because it is not unlimited. 

Posted on

Kildalton Trip

Monday the second of September 2024

We visited Kildalton cross with a few more people following which are 2 people from a computer science university named Saint Andrews and a person from Islay museum.

We and the scientists visited the Kildalton cross because of a school trip to investigate the cross because a fungus called lichen was eating away the carvings of the cross, that was made in the 8th century. The cross is about Christianity and had carvings about a lady holding a baby and had more cravings which looked really interesting which people think is Jesus.

We were split up into groups for different things like, making a little clip about Kildalton, taking photos, drawing anything at the place and 360 degree photo which was really fun because we had to hide from the camera when it takes a photo. After everyone finished each group we went back to the school a few kids that was: Hannah, Brody, Ella and Freddy. Went to take more 360 photos around the school, but unfortunately we couldn’t do much pictures outside because it was raining. But we still had fun! And that’s the end of our amazing and interesting trip Kildalton trip! Hope you enjoyed reading this!

 

 

Posted on

Stem Day At High School

On Thursday 29th August we went to Islay High School for a STEM day. There  was workshops about different stuff. The opening speech was a lady from a stem company encouraging STEM for young people. The next speech was a worker from the SSE that was talking about the SSE. Then there was an SSE graduate that moved from the Philippines talk about his time in the SSE.  The first workshop we went to was a coding workshop. The little bright lights on the bots were glistening like a stars in the middle of space. The main thing about this workshop: Coding spheros. We got to make spheros weave in and out of cones and do challenges with it. The next station was outside in a polytunnel.  It was about bees and other animals. We got to make paper Mache balls. During lunch we asked to get raffle tickets. and the final workshop was about birds. We went to see birds outside with binoculars. We didn’t see much birds. nor variety. But we had a great time!

Posted on

The Book Festival

It was a normal day in Port Ellen primary but then Nadine Aisha Jassat came in to speak to us, she was speaking about her stories and how every story had a bit of her in them. 

She also said how her parents met, one lived in Africa and one in the UK and they met because both went on a trip to the same place. 

At some point we got to say story name ideas to go on the board then she asked people to come up and one person would say a part of the story the next person would say the next.  She did a thing where she would pick a random story and that was the one they would make up, the story name chosen was the mystery of the mountain, they made it about a tree house on the mountain. 

Then we did a poem thing where we had to say positive things to put in a poem, it went like this “We are here for you, you are always so good at everything you do, so go out and do your best.” 

At the end she sold some of her books that were signed by her.   She was fantastic!

Posted on

Glasgow Warriors Rugby

On August  the 28th P5,6,7  went to Bowmore football pitch and played rugby with 4 people from Glasgow Warriors. We played a passing game  and after we passed to 4 different people and then make a Pyramid and we had to make it 3 people then 4 and so on and so on  .Then we played a wee game of touch rugby. There were 3 teams blue, orange and non bibs and we had to try and score a tri at the other side of the pitch. We also played a skills game and had to circle the ball around our back as much times as we can, and had to put it through our legs in a figure of eight. At the end we all felt exited because they said they would sign out shirts and it was really good and I would recommend it to people who like different sports and being outside doing sports.

 

Posted on

Saint Phnx

On Friday the 22nd of August we visited Bowmore high school and met Saint Phoenix. Saint Phoenix was a band of two men who sang the song happy place. All of Primary 5 and upwards from Port Ellen, Port Charlotte and Bowmore primary came with us. P56s went on the Mundell bus while P 7s went on the mini bus that we use for the school bus. They showed us how to practice our vocals and it goes like “mmm” they also showed us some exercises they do like wiggles and wobbles! Their icon was a blue feather and they told us a story about why they choose a blue feather as there logo. The story was, he was scrolling through TikTok at night because he couldn’t get to sleep but he found this video about a blue feather and he watched it and it was quite interesting and it made him fall asleep. as he woke up to go to work he told his wife about the video his wife didn’t really believe it but when he went out the front door, she shouted stop to him so looked around and when he looked down he saw a blue feather and that’s how it started! After that they played us their song happy place.  It was really helpful.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!

 

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.

 

Posted on

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!

 

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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. 

Posted on

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.

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy