NEWS

There’s been quite a lot of interest recently in monitoring apps, which allow you to track your child, alerting you to where they are and what they’re doing. Sounds like a brilliant idea, no? But experts warn you should think twice before putting your child under surveillance. We look at the pros and cons.

ooVoo is a group video chat service that has been the source of some controversy, with fears that children are giving away information to people they don’t know. Like any popular online tool, used wisely it’s great; used unwisely it can be a platform for problems. Here’s everything you need to know about what ooVoo is, how to use it safely, and how to report anything worrying.

Filters and parental controls may not be the complete answer to keeping children safe online, but they are undoubtedly the first line of defence. It’s now possible to set filters on your broadband, your devices and your applications. Here, from Internet Matters, is what you need to know.

Minecraft is phenomenally popular, especially with primary school children. Sometimes described as Lego for the digital age, it is absorbing, creative and educational – but, as with any online activity, it’s as well to be aware of the basics of staying safe. Here’s our guide to helping your child make the most of Minecraft.

In just a few years, Minecraft has become one of the world’s most popular games, mainly by word of mouth and despite the lack of a big marketing budget or a major organisation behind it. Already a hot topic of conversation in the playground, Minecraft is now moving into the classroom, as teachers increasingly find ways to use the game for educational purposes. Here’s the lowdown for parents. 

Last week was finance week. Each class learned about different aspects of finance and managing your money. P7 learned about tax, payday loans and interest rates and they also made finance board games. With Mrs MacDonald P7 made a Gaelic cafe and they had to learn and teach the customers how to ask and pay for food in Gaelic.

P5/6 were working out the proper cost of their soaps with all the ingredients prices added up together and worked out they should be selling the soaps for £1.06. Mrs Connor came in to help them with making spread sheet for their soap business. They also made board games about different aspects of money including accounting and managing money and accounts. A pupil named Murray made an animation on how to make soap.

P3/4 made up their own shops in groups using pretend money and foods. The shops were called The Square Shop, Good Food, The Yummies and Eat Up. They were also learning about saving and managing money.

P1/2 made different dips and sold them to the school for 30p. They were also learning about saving money.

By Abbie and Izzy  🙂

Last Tuesday P7 from Port Ellen Primary School took a trip to the Gaelic College along with Mrs MacDonald.   During school Mrs MacDonald has taught us about  food,  how to order it and prices, all in Gaelic.   A pound in gaelic is” not” and a penny is a sgilean.  When we went over, in order to get a cake and juice you had to order in Gaelic.    We had to say, “Ha me a geerie aun…” and then whatever we wanted.   Everyone managed to successfully order what they wanted in gaelic.    After we had our order we had to answer Gaelic questions.   Then we played Twister in gaelic colours and a Gaelic board game about how to take care of yourself.   Overall we had a great day and we all learnt something new and even Mrs MacDonald.

By Emily and Jodie 🙂

Gender stereotypes could affect girls and boys’ job prospects in the future. Here’s how parents can help

Your child has come out. That’s great: it means that they feel confident about themselves and they are trusting you to be supportive.

But what do you actually say?

The internet is a wonderful resource for young people and offers unprecedented opportunities for connecting and learning. But it can also be scary. Many parents are afraid their children will be exposed to upsetting content or meet dangerous people online. What are the facts about online risk?

2 weeks ago we went to the High School for Science week because we were doing food science with all the schools around Islay and Jura.  We went to Mr Kitching’s room first and we were testing foods for energy.  We had Peanuts, Pringles and Bread and we burnt the food with a Bunsen Burner and then put it under a test tube that had water in it. We also had a thermometer in it and we had to check how much the temperature went up.  The peanuts had the most energy then it was Pringuls and then it was bread.

The next class was Mrs Moran and we made a really gooey thing out of cornflour and water and mixed it all together  then we put it on a big music speaker and it looked like it was dancing and then we tided up and went to the next class room.

The next class room was Mrs McNaughton’s class and we were testing foods for starch, fat and protein.   We had busen burners and we put different foods into test tubes and added Benedict’s to test for sugar.   You had to put the test tube in and out the bunsen burner and also used iodine to check for starch.    If it has sugar when you put the Benedict’s and add the heat it should go orange and if you do the same with the iodine it will go blackish.

I had a great time.

 

BY William Monaghan

Yesterday afternoon Keills P67 came to our school. They came because we were getting a visit from Child Line. Child Line is for children to support you if you are worried, sad or anxious about anything. They are open 24-7 and are confidential. They won’t tell anyone about the conversation You don’t need to tell your name and you can tell them a fake name. We got put in to groups to talk about pictures and vote what we thought of the pictures.  The child line mascot is a speech mark called Buddy. We all enjoyed it and listened well.

Child line number: 0800 1111

By Annie Farrell

Port Ellen’s Primary 7’s went on an Endeavour trip to Bowmore to share their Endeavour with Bowmore’s Primary P5-7 to inspire them and help new ways to improve their Endeavour. They came around different tables talking about what they wanted to do for their Endeavours and how Port Ellen can help and give them some good tips. They also asked questions about their Endeavours and what good skills and strategies they could use to help them. In the end we ended up playing bonding games and making new friends.

By Nicholas

What does it mean to be a digitally literate child in the internet age?

When young people admit to having mental health problems, parents often blame themselves. There is still stigma and shame attached to this kind of illness, despite the fact that it’s so common. But early diagnosis and treatment have been shown to work so it’s important for parents to be open and supportive. Blaming yourself – or anyone else – doesn’t help.

We asked Bronagh questions about what she did in Westminster in London.  We firstly asked her a question on why she was there.  She went to Parliament because she was an young Scottish winner of an art competition for I love Amazon schools.  In Parliament they were taking photos and talking about the rain forest.  She had to go through lots of security when she was entering Parliament.  She was in there for 2-3 hours just listening about the rain forest and getting photos taken.  They also asked her questions like “How did you think of your slogan?”which was ‘Hands off our trees, Leaf them alone.’  She also learned that every minute a football pitch worth of trees is cut down and the situation is so critical.

But in conclusion she had a lovely time in Westminster and learned a lot about the Amazon rainforest.

By Nicholas and Torin with help from Bronagh

In school p7 we have been reading and writing short stores.  A  short stories that we read called the Examination is a story about a young boy called Richard that lives in an oppressive state. In the oppressive state when you grow to the age of twelve you have to get an I.Q. test to see how intelligent you are.  When Richard takes the test he get killed because he exceeded the test.  After reading the short story,  p7 then wrote a book review on the Examination.  We sructured the book review by answering questions like ‘how was the story structured’ and ‘what do you  think about the opening’ also questions like  ‘what is the theme of the book’ and ‘can you describe the setting of the story’ also ‘what do you think about the ending’.  I found the actual story was great but I most enjoyed  how the story is so unpredictable and twisted at the end.  Writing the book review, I found it most interesting because it makes you read in between the line to find out more about the story.

In class, p7 have been learning to convert fractions, decimals and percentages, we have been focusing mainly on fractions and decimals.         Fun Fact: If in a decimal, a number is repeated lots of times, like 1/3 is 0.33333333 etc. you would write 0.3 with a º above the 3.

We have learned lots more, like :

1/4 is 0.25 so 2/4 would be 0.5 you would keep doubling until you got to 4/4 which is 1.00

1/2 is 0.5 which is equivalent to 2/4

1/5 is 0.2 so 2/5 would be 0.4                     .

1/6  would be 0.166

1/10 would be 0.1 because there is 10 10ths in 1

We have also been learning to convert percentages to decimals for example:

20% as a decimal is 0.2 as a fraction is 1/4

25% as a decimal is 0.25 as a fraction is 1/5

50% as a decimal is 0.5 as a fraction is 1/2

75% as a decimal is 0.75 as a fraction is 3/4

80% as a decimal is 0.8 as a fraction is 4/5

100% as a decimal is 1.0 as a fraction is 1/1

These are just some of the vast array of fractions, decimals and percentages in the known world. Hope you found this intreaging and interesting. hopefully you have learned something new.

By Anwen and Izzy 🙂

 

 

On Thursday 5th March it was world book day, everyone had to bring in their favourite book and dress up as their favourite character. We dressed up as Sarah Midnight from the book Dreams and Tilly from Magic Spirit.  The first thing did was reading one of our favourite sentences from our book.  In the morning some of the p7’s had to go and read to the nursery, we read them their favourite book.  While the rest of us played games answering questions about books.  We then read a short story in our reading groups called Examination Day as part of World Book Day.  It was a really great story.   Overall we had a great day and everyone looked great in their costumes. 

By Emily and Jodie 🙂

You can’t shield your child from every risk in the online world, any more than you can offline. So how do you help them to be digitally literate (what does that even mean?) And what kind of parenting approach is most likely to help them stay safe?