Primary School of the Year 2022
P1,2 had a great morning doing all things STEM in class, lots of investigation and science fun!
We’ve had a super #STEM investigation day in P1/2. Lots of amazing questioning, predicting and exploring. @STEMedscot @STEMLearningUK @STEMAmbassadors @STEMscotland pic.twitter.com/1hXNcOV0PA
— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) February 23, 2023
⭐️ We had great fun today with the Kapla blocks, the big boys and girls from Primary 3 let us borrow their huge box of blocks and even came down to show us how to build the biggest tower with them! ⭐️
Primary 3 and 4 from Port Ellen met with Primary 4 and 5 in Bowmore to do a Harry potter Maths themed escape room. There was lots of problem solving to do, including sorting the potions and spells. It was great to meet with our friends in Bowmore to do some maths.
Pleased to report that everyone got out of the Hogwarts Escape Room! Fantastic fun, lots of great maths problem solving and meeting new friends from Bowmore Primary. Well done everyone. pic.twitter.com/lBQet11vcI
— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) February 15, 2023
Some of us made cards on Valentines Day for people we love ❤️ We all love our families and they love us, we are going to be talking more about our families and who we live with ☺️ UNCRC article 9 – I have the right to live with a family who care for me. 🌟I can talk about who I love and care for. 🦶We will be talking about our families, and who we live with ☺️
For our Robotics topic we partnered up with p1/2. We showed them how to program robots like Spheros and Dash and Dot and how to program micro:bits to count how many things were out in the playground. We had to code it all ourselves and de-bug it if it was wrong. Then we all decided to make our own robots. We had planning sheets and had to decide what we were going to make our robot do- they had to solve a world problem linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. Then we had to code the Micro:bits and then make the robots. We junk modelled them and then papermached. We will present our robots at the end of the week. For example we have a robot that can detect when the soil gets too dry and plants need watering.
This afternoon we used our plans from last week to code and build our own robots designed to solve various sustainable development goals. @DigitalXtraFund @microbit_edu @STEMedscot pic.twitter.com/3jo6we9YaH
— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) January 30, 2023
On the 28th January Dolphins had a swimming championship. It was for everyone that goes to dolphins. There was 5 heats for most of the races and there was about 20 races. There was different age groups so people are racing against people their age instead of a 5 year old vs and 16 year old. The races are 25 meters for 1st session there is 25 front crawl, back-stroke, butterfly and breast-stroke. For 2nd session there was 50 meter and 100 meters which were all 4 strokes again. There was a IM (which stands for induvial medley) 100 meters which is 1 length of each stroke. At the end the older ones all jumped in. After we done all of that we went up to the high school to get all of our medals. When we were there we got cakes, brownies and lots more. After we ate all of or food that we picked. Then it was the time to go up when your name was called to get all of your medals and trophies. It was a great day.
This term we have been going tho the Celtic house and looking for books to buy for the school. Before we go upstairs we do a book scavenger hunt to see what books we can find, we get different categories to try find the book for that category. Then we get to choose a book we want. When we go upstairs we get hot chocolate with marshmallows with cream, then Mrs Clark reads the first page of two books and we vote for what book we like the most. When we are done voting we get a biscuit and the we get the three books that we voted on. We all loved reading the books and we want to do it again.
Every Wednesday P5/6/7 go to the swimming pool to get lessons with Miss Northcote. There are 3 different swimming groups. Group 1 are people who know how to swim but don’t go to dolphins. Group 2 are the people who know how to swim well and go to dolphins. Group 3 are people who are not confident swimmers or don’t know how to swim.
In the 1st group we practicing different strokes like front crawl, back-stroke butterfly and sculling. In group 2 they practiced breast-stroke and back-stroke. Group 3 practiced front crawl and back-stroke. Living on an island it is very important to learn how to swim.
P12 have been busy getting ready for their nativity. They have been busy learning the Christmas Story alongside practising our Nativity this week. We worked as a team to create a Nativity scene in the classroom.
Today we put on our Fireside nativity for all the parents to see. The hall was packed and we even had the ELC join us as sheep. We were very proud of what we achieved. Thanks to everyone who helped!
Last week P567 made Christmas Cupcakes for a competition in school. There were 4 groups and they had to design a cupcake for each group. They then had to make and bake the cupcakes and then they needed to ice the finished cakes.
One group made 24 mint swirl cupcakes, one made 24 chocolate orange unicorn cupcakes, one made 24 penguin Oreo cupcakes and the last made Christmas Tree candy floss cupcakes.
We had to measure the correct amounts using our maths skills and we also had to calculate how much profit we would make if we sold them. We then got to take them home for our parents. It was really fun.
Our school have all been learning Yoga with Ms Brown for our PE this term. Yoga helps us develop core strength and flexibility but also helps us relax and be mindful. We can now do lots of poses!
On the 10th of December, our school held a Christmas fair for the local community to attend. We had lots of merry raffle prizes for adults and children. The nursery and p1/2 had a stall, and p5/6/7 had 4 stalls for each of the tables in the class. The groups that were handling the stalls in p5/6/7 were called:
Santa’s Elves: Chloe, Teddy, Ayla, Evie, Freddy and Sani.
The Gonks: Iona, James, Jacob, Brody, Stephen and Ellie.
Da Boys on Da Shelf: Aiden, Thomas, William, Finlay, Archie and Alfie
Santa’s little helpers: Rachel, Duncan, Ella, Hugh and Dylan.
These groups made:
Santa’s Elves made Block Christmas Characters, Snowman Face Tree Decoration and Stone Bird Tree Decoration.
The Gonks made Clay Gonks, Scrunches and Block Calendars.
Da Boys on Da Shelf made phyrogrithy cooking spoons and ornaments, Christmas trees decorations made out of blocks and sock creatures.
Santa’s little helpers made keyrings made out of thin blocks, coasters and sock snowmen.
Lots of people came along and we raised loads of money for the school. There was Santa’s Grotto run by the parent council and also waffles to buy and eat. Ms Brown did face painting too. It was a wonderful Christmas Time!
We love painting and enjoyed painting a branch outside in the garden this morning, we want to make an outside Christmas tree 🎄. 
We had lots of discussion about ice and how cold it was in the nursery garden. We decided to make our own ice and added some bits of nature from the garden. Our freezer in the nursery was to small so we went and asked Mrs Holyoke if we could use her freezer!
We also went on a hunt round the village to find the Christmas numbers to 6! Fred knew that number 3 was at the Ramsey and Nola knew that number 5 was at Campbells 🎄 ⭐️ we are learning to notice numbers in our environments and all around us. 👣 We have loved looking at all the house numbers and in the windows, we hope everyone doesn’t mind.
We had some amazing visitors today as part of our animals topic- snakes! We learned all about them and how to look after them. A huge thanks to Caroline and Terry and their snakes -I’m sure this is something the children will always remember!
The boys and girls had so much fun this morning turning our home corner into Santa’s grotto 🎅 they used lots and lots of tinsel to decorate the tree ☺️🌲 over the next couple of weeks we will add all our Christmas crafts we make to it and also use it to write our letters to Santa 🎅 👣👣To turn it into a post office to send our letters to Santa
This afternoon the school were invited to attend the St Andrews Day ceilidh in the Ramsay Hall with the pensioners in the village. P12 had been practising Ally Bally Bee and Wee Willie Winkie with our friends from the ELCC for this occasion. P3-7 sang S’ann an Ilè and some of the P67 did dancing as well. It was great fun!
The One Show came to film our school because we had won the Pearson National Teaching award for Primary School of the Year. P5/6/7 were filmed at the woods where we got to do special activities like orienteering.
We arrived at the woods and got sorted into our clans the clans were MacDonald clan, MacLeod clan, MacKinnon clan and Macrae clan. Each clan had a teacher and when we went to get the orienteering flag and bring back the answer from the flag and give it to the teacher the answers were all in Gaelic the clans were split into two groups one group would find the colour one group would find the object. We thought that going to the woods was really fun.
In the woods we were lighting a fire to cook bread on a willow stick. But we needed to whittle the stick to get the bark off the stick. Then we had to sterilize the stick in the fire and then we put bread dough to cook it over the fire. Then we ate the bread and it was really delicious. After we got to try light the Kelly kettle with Mrs. Hannett. AND WAS REALLY FUN.
While we were in the woods part of the film crew were in the school filming the other classes do their activities like doing the beach clean.
Once the P567s came back from the woods, we had to get changed a quick as possible because there was a big surprise in the hall.
Once we sat down, we all got ready for the big surprise- We had won the Primary School of the year award!!! Then Joe (the tv presenter) said that he brought the choir back together without us knowing. The P3 and P4 were practicing their song S’ann an Ilè. But when they performed it, they did it with Skipinnish!
It felt amazing that Skipinnish were here! They sang songs like Walking on the waves. It was so cool! We Thought that it was amazing seeing them that some of us got our t-shirt or jumper signed. We are really proud of winning the award and had great fun with the One Show!
By James Norwood and Brody Shakespeare.
At our school, Port Ellen Primary School. We received the National Teaching Award for Making a Difference, Primary School of the Year. The teaching award is a once-a-year award that is given out to special schools across the UK. Our school was very lucky to be given the award considering that there was 4 school who also received the silver awards in the UK, 2 in Scotland and 2 in England. Iona says, ” This is a great opportunity for our school, I am very lucky to be in such a great school” Another opinion gave by the editors are by Chloe, she says, ” We are one of the many schools who could have been picked out of all the schools that entered. We are extremely lucky to be given this golden award.” From another student, Brody, ” I was speechless.” Our school is very active with the community and brings Joy to all the students. Making a difference is important to the community as our Island is special in its own way.
By Chloe and Iona
This week was Book Week Scotland. For Book Week Scotland we read books and we were doing loads of activities. The first station that we went to was the book quiz with Mrs. Harrison. We did some drawing with Mrs. Brown then we drew a picture of Harry Potter. We went orienteering with Mrs. Hannett and Miss Tate where we had to go round the school and find the name of a book or a person from a book; it was so fun! In the hall we did loads of things like shades and story making and we all got to play games. I really enjoyed Book Week Scotland. It was my Favourite afternoon.
P4 have been learning all about space this term. They made their our own solar system on their IPads and have done lots of experiments about gravity and air resistance. They created a solar system in class.
We had a lovely game-a-thon this afternoon in aid of Children in Need.
Last week Finlay and William from P7 went away on a high school/ dolphins trip and we were swimming for Port Ellen Primary school in Helensbrugh. There were 5 girls that went in total, two of them were in p7 and 3 of them were in high school. There was 8 boys; two of them were primary school and the rest of them were high school. When we got of the ferry we went to the chippy we both got a battered sausage. That night we stayed in a very nice youth hostel near Helensburgh. In the morning we got up and made our beds and then we went down to make our breakfast at 7 o’clock. Then we got on the bus and went to the brand new one month old pool in Helensburgh. The pool was very cold and the blocks (that you jump of) were giant and you could a just them by kicking them. We were sitting on the side the pool and the changing rooms were very posh and the benches that you sit on were air heated. We both got all Personal Bests.
By William and Finlay
P12 have read Katie Morag and the New Pier. The children were very excited to go on a trip down to the ferry to meet Linda and Innes who were ready to let them be ferrymen and women! We got to try on the uniform, beep the tickets, talk on the radio and even see a life jacket inflate and hear the whistle to attract attention. We had some brilliant questions about the pier, the different ferries and the jobs available at Calmac. Thank you to the team for letting us come and visit!
We noticed that the sun was shining down the front beach so we quickly got on our all weather gear and went for a quick play, paddle and afternoon snack down the front beach! ☀️
Math’s inside is a good thing to have in school because you get to learn math’s in a fun way. You have to take a photo and explain what the maths is in the photo. You find something to do that is to do with math’s it can be shapes, things in the wild or objects. Ella came first in the 2nd Level category In The Wild and Ayla was the overall winner of the In The Wild category. We loved doing the math’s inside we hope people can do this too.
It’s easy to choose gifts for people who have so little. Shampoo, a pair of socks, a notepad, a small toy, a bag of sweets – things we take for granted will seem like luxuries to people living in poverty. By filling a shoebox with simple things you can bring hope this Christmas.
Shoeboxes will be delivered to vulnerable people in Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania and Serbia.
We sent 65 Blythwood boxes this year to send to children around the world.
This afternoon during our citizenship group time, we went through all of our book swap shop designs and chose a piece from each which we loved. We now have a specification to work with. Some of us also went to the front of the school to measure the space we are planning on using. We would love to hear from any of our grown ups who might be able to help us out with the building process!
We had the most amazing trip to the sorting office today to learn about how our mail gets to our houses as this weeks book is Katie Morag Delivers the Mail. We were astounded by the volume of mail that our wonderful posties have to contend with everyday. We learnt all about the different areas of our island and how there are secret messages on our letters. We think our posties are fabulous and are working so hard for our community especially at the moment. 
