Primary School of the Year 2022
Welcome to the start of a new school year at Port Ellen Primary!
We have some changes this year- we now have 4 classes and a new teacher Miss Tait has joined. She is teaching P4. P12 is taught by Mrs Hannett and Ms Brown, P3 by Mrs Harrison and Ms Brown, P4 by Ms Tait, Ms Brown and Ms Northcote and P567 by Mrs Clark, Ms Brown and Ms Northcote.
We look forward to a great years learning!
Miss Tait Outdoor Learning
For my architecture Endeavour I made a model house I had to learn how to draw to scale. I made a Lego house and drew the elevations and a plan view I drew the elevations to a one to one scale and drew the plan at one to two scale and 1 to one scale. I also got the elevations of my house I cut them out and stuck them onto card to make the model with. I also mad a sway a website and a Kahoot for people to play.
To make my model house I got he house plans I cut them out and stuck them on card then cut the card and stuck it to together in the shape of my house. I made the sway and website on glow with google sites and Microsoft sway.
An endeavor is a project that you choose every year. Everyone does it and picks a subject to do with the world of work. You have to pick something new to learn. You have six months to finish it. Then there is an endeavor fair on 26th of June.
My endeavor is a beautician. A beautician is were you do facials, hair, makeup and nails. I mostly did facials and makeup. This is one of the ways to relax and be calm. My project was hard because there is so much more to a beautician than you think. It’s not just to make you all pretty it’s a way of mindfulness and can really relax you.
I learnt so much from this project. Before I had no clue how to do a facial. Now I know all the steps to facial. I also thought that facial and massages were just for fun but it’s actually so good for your mental health
Over all this was a really fun experience I have leant so much. It will really help me if I want to become a beautician. There is so much cool facts I learnt at Megan’s as well. Like when you are doing a facial you have to always keep your hands on the persons face.
This is my website that I made:
P5,6,7 went on a swimming trip because we did good at the rugby festival. We went over in the school bus or in Miss Brown. We parked at the high school and walked down to the swimming pool. We had to wait because the changing rooms where full. After we got changed everyone raced for the floats. Everyone was jumping of the floats and sitting on them. We were also playing catch with the balls and dives of the steps and racing. At the end we all jumped of at the deep end in to the water.
By William and Jacob 102 Words
Every year we do sports day. Sports day is where you do races every year like running, sack race and etc. Sports day happens on 21st of June. Mrs. Macdonald presents the winners. It happens in Port Ellen Primary School in our play ground.
We first did basket ball. We had 20 shots each. Secondly we had long distance throw. That’s wear we throw a beanbag as far as possible. Thirdly was cross contrary. You run round the school 4 times which is like a mile. Fourthly was obstacle course. Where you balance a circle on your head then go through a hoop then balance a tennis ball on a racket lastly skip your way to the finish line. Next we did high jump. That’s were you jump over a beam and it gets higher each time. Next we done hurdles, That’s were you jump over the hurdles and and you get timed. Lastly we done long jump, That’s were you get a run up and jump the get measured wherever you land.
On the day of sports day this is what we done. First for the champion ships for the boys we done the 100 meter dash then we done the girls 100 meter dash. Then 5/6/7 did a running race all together. Then the p5 did the sac race then p6 and p7 done it. Then we done a relay first was nave second was Texa third was Orsay. Last was the trophy giving. The girl champion was Katie Harrison And the boys was Dylan Atkinson Macdonald.
On Thursday the 23rd of June, we went to a Dig at Port Charlotte. We went to the dig on the banana bus and when we got there we had to walk down a long path to the ruins where we were to be learning about. First we were welcomed into their headquarters and were introduced to the team members, and we were split into our year groups. P5 went to dig first as P6 were looking at a ruined house that was being dug up, the P7 went to go find a white button in a tray of soil and pottery.
When the P6 went to our first station we learnt about on of the ruined houses and we got told about what they had found out already because they had already been doing it for 2 weeks. They found the the house was split into two parts, one part was for animals and the other part was for people.
P6 then went to go dig, we got told about a house that has a pipe. Then we went to dig and we dug at the ground and we also found some pottery.
We then had lunch while sitting on deck chairs. We had to bring packed lunches because we would not bring school lunches with us.
After lunch P6 went to go look for the white button in the trays, we went to the trays with our partners and looked for the button and cleaned the pottery that was hidden in the muck. We finished off digging and they showed us some pottery and metal that they found.
We finished off and said goodbye to the people that were there. We walked back done the path and we went back onto the bus and we went back to school, on the way back home people were dropped off and some people were dropped off at the school.
On Monday the Glasgow science centre came into our school to do science with us. Their names were Ross and Sebastian. There were lots of fun things when the science centre came in like games, and other information games and stuff like that. They were in our school for about half an hour. They gave us lots of facts about your body and how it works. There was a really cool machine that tested the temperature of your body when you stood in the camera. The hottest it went was black and the coldest it went was white. One of the men drank something really hot then stuck his tongue next to the camera and his tongue was really white. They were asking us lots of questions about quite a few things when they were in out school with us. There was a hospital game where you have to put all the patients in different beds and treat them with different lungs to keep them alive but if you gave them the wrong lung they would die or if you left them for to long the would die. It was very fun having the Glasgow science centre in school. It was also very interesting. We had a great time with them.
This years panto was The Pirates of the Curry Bean, with many characters with different personality traits. This was on the 9th of June 2022, it was exiting and very funny. The characters were:
We really enjoyed performing the play twice for an audience.
This year Hugh and Jack received a bronze medal in the Scottish Maths Challenge competition. The challenge is where you have a week to solve a bunch of problems and they get sent to some people to mark it and then the results come back to tell you what place you came. The Scottish math challenge is a challenge with three parts and it is designed for p7 but you can do it in p5 or 6 as well. All schools in Scotland get to compete if their students want to. We got a certificate for being 3rd but the people in 1st get to go to Glasgow for a trip.
In the math challenge you get points from how well you explained how you solved the problem. at the end of the challenge you get the results on how well you did. The Scottish math challenge is sorted into 3 part each part has 3 questions. This year was harder for it because covid so some people couldn’t do it. We had practice for it the week before so that we were confident. Some people that were doing it quit because they couldn’t get it done in time because they had covid.
Today was the endeavour fair and we got all our stuff and showed it to parents/ carers and some people sold stuff. They came in at 10:30 and they left at 11:30. There was two rooms you could be in, You could either be in the steam room or the p5/6/7 classroom. You were also aloud to go downstairs to the p1/2 and the p2/3/4 class to see what they made. We needed to make a website, a kahoot and a poster to show people.
This year I did a music writing Endeavor I wrote two sheets of music. I also did a website .
This is my song:
Verse 1
The Beast of the Oa
Is bounding through the snow
Running like a lizard,
Faster than a blizzard,
A heart made of solid ice.
Running like she wants to
Running like she’s supposed to
Running like a rocket
Faster than a hurricane
Chorus
It’s proud to prowl
but it’ll wait until the night to howl
It’s the beast of the Oa
And every night it will prowl across the Oa
It’s black and it’s hairy
And it’s also kinda scary
It barks and it growls and it also sometimes howls
And it knows, to never go slow
That’s cause it is, the BEAST OF THE OA
Verse 2
The Beast of the Oa
She knows not to oo go slow
Running across be ee chs
And over the seas
She knows every nook and cranny of the isles coast
Eating every thing
Crashing through the waves
Speeding past the bays
Never to betray
Chorus
It’s proud to prowl
but it’ll wait until the night to howl
It’s the beast of the Oa
And every night it will prowl across the Oa
It’s black and it’s hairy
And it’s also kinda scary
It barks and it growls and it also sometimes howls
And it knows, to never go slow
That’s cause it is, the BEAST OF THE OA
My Endeavour is about French baking and I was able to make pate sablee, profiteroles, Praline Lyon de Tart and strawberry and apple shortcrust pie to sell at the Endeavour fair. I made a poster to put up on my board, I did a Endeavour report and I made a recipe book with everything I made in it. My favourite recipe was probably Praline Lyon de Tart, it was very good for desert and I loved to make it because of how fun the process was. I also wrote some letters to some French bakeries and a famous French baker. I loved my Endeavour and I mainly wanted to do French baking because I love baking and France as I go to France every year.
We were very excited to receive some classroom pets this term! We have ten tiny wriggly caterpillars we are watching metamorphosis into beautiful butterflies. We’re very much looking forward to watching this process.
We were very excited to see how much our caterpillars had grown after a few days, they’re huge! We’re wondering how long it will be until they go into cocoons? Some of us were also delighted to see that our sunflowers have started to grow! We’ve added another page into our diaries to track their progress. Laurie’s is 4 cm tall already!
On Wednesday we held a street party style lunch for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. She has been on the throne for 70 years! Mrs Holyoake and Ms Brown provided us with a fantastic lunch which we enjoyed in the bright sunshine despite the midges. Thanks to Mrs Leask, Ms Mackie, Mrs Mcfarlane and Ms Murney for setting up.
Primary 7s helped to sell lots of goods for the parent council at Laphroaig today. They sold tea towels and water bottles and bags. They even sold cakes and sandwiches on the path on the way up! We even had little helpers from ELCC helping up at Laphroaig after nursery today to raise money for the School.
On Friday it was the Endeavour fair. We got all our stuff and showed it and we needed to make a poster and a web site and kahoot and if wanted you could do a sway. For my endeavour I done farming so I made a website and a kahoot and model farm with a barely field and hay field then a old ruin shed and a cow pasture sheep and horse field then a chicken coop and a forestry bit.
Port Ellen Primary on Islay has received a silver award in the Pearson National Teaching Awards for ‘Making a Difference – Primary School of the Year’.
The awards celebrate excellence in education and recognise the life-changing impact that an inspirational teacher can have on the lives of the young people they work with.
Port Ellen received recognition for its commitment to achieving excellence for all, enabling pupils to flourish in an environment that values every child, promotes high expectations and provides opportunities for achievement. The school has now been shortlisted to win one of just 16 Gold Awards later in the year.
Maureen Macdonald, Head Teacher at Port Ellen Primary School, said: “At Port Ellen Primary we endeavour to provide an education that enables all our children, from early years right through to primary seven, to acquire and develop the skills, knowledge and attributes needed to thrive in and to shape our ever changing world.
“We aim to give our learners the confidence to develop and celebrate their individuality and creativity and to help them see their worth and value in society.
“I feel so privileged to work alongside passionate, conscientious staff and so proud of everyone within the school community who collectively support our children to be the best they can be and to realise their potential. That’s what makes the difference!”
Argyll and Bute Council’s Policy Lead for Education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: “The Pearson National Awards are widely recognised for celebrating the best educators in the country, so it is wonderful news that Port Ellen Primary has been selected for a prestigious silver award.
“Teachers play a vital role in our young peoples’ lives. From their earliest school days right through to their senior years, a good teacher can have a massive impact. They can help young people grow in confidence and, with the right encouragement and teaching methods, they can inspire our young people to achieve their goals.
“I am extremely proud of everyone at Port Ellen for the commitment they continue to provide pupils on a daily basis and I wish them all the very best as they progress through to the gold awards.”
We had a lovely morning in the sunshine this morning. We had our snack at the park then headed down the front beach to measure the wind speed with our new anemometer to see how windy it was to fly our kite.🪁 ⭐️. We really enjoyed using the anemometer and flying the kite, it was a bit trickier than up on our school hill. We will be looking at getting a weather station and learning more about the weather.
As part of our biodiversity topic we have been learning all about bees in P12. Bees are very important to keep our world healthy as they pollinate all the plants we eat. Fiona from the Islay Natural History Trust came in and told us all about bees and how they live and make honey. We also had a visit from Jacob in primary 5 who is doing Beekeeping for his Endeavour topic and showed us his Bee suit and model hive he made with his Papa. We now know lots about bees!
In school we are all using a plastic count sheet to tally mark all of the plastic items we throw out or recycle from tonight until Thursday night. On Friday we are will use these sheets to create a class graph of all of the plastic rubbish we have thrown away. This is part of our Eco Schools work to reduce plastics use.
This term Port Ellen Primary have been getting visits from the local musician Keira who has been teaching them how to play some Scottish instruments like the Tin Whistle, Harp and Fiddle. The aim is that at the end Kira will pick the people who are best at playing each instrument and we will all learn a song all together.
We learnt how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the Tin Whistle, and everyone got a go on the Harp and Fiddle. Everyone learnt what the different colored strings mean on a Harp and that the thing you play a Fiddle with is called a Bow. It is very interesting learning new instruments.
We are doing a panto this year. A panto is where we do a show for our family and school. The panto that we are doing is Pirates of the Curry Bean! We have all got our parts. I am Dead Eye which is the narrator. The panto is on the ninth of June in the primary school hall.
The Curry Bean is hilarious. Its where a fearless pirate called Captain Swaggersword buried all his booty in a far distant land. But then the captain vanished! All his treasure lost forever never to be seen again well that is until now…
This is going to be funny, dangerous and a big adventure! We are learning lines and what to do on stage just now, and making props. We hope everyone will enjoy the play!
In school we made a distillery and a company for whisky. Our group was called Port An Eas. We made the distilleries in groups of five people and our group had Evie, Hugh, Connor, Iona and Calin . Everyone in the group had a different role in our Distillery: Evie is milling and mashing, Hugh is casks and ageing Connor is distillation, Iona is malting and peat and Callin is fermentation.
To make our whisky drinks we had lots of whisky smells and we had to pick the three smells that we liked best. Together we chose rose, caramel and coconut. A few Days later we made teas that replicated the smells that we chose with different flavours of tea. You can make it with 4tsp of black cat caramel tea, 3tsp of rose black tea ,1 pukka relax tea bag and 6 leaves of stevia.
We made are distillery with card and some modelling card to make it stand up because it is a circle it couldn’t stand up on its on own so we cut up strips of card to hold it up.
Our Loch Lili distillery is near a loch and it is located there because it is near water. Our distillery’s special features are we grow our barley on the roof and we have a windmill outside. It is located there because it is near a ferry so we would have some tourists around. But the negatives are too many tourists about and that could be a problem. We made a model distillery and this is a picture.
Our distilling topic is about whisky. We made our own distillery models with stills, wash backs and mash tuns and we made a barely farm on one of the sides. Our distillery also had a car park with cars then a truck with draft in the back of it. We have a mash floor above the ground we have an outside seating area.
We made are own non alcoholic whisky from different flavoured teas and identified the smells we wanted in our drink. We also made an advert for our drink including a photo.
In school we have been making distillery’s. My distillery group was called Glenastle. The different jobs are; manager which is William; casks and ageing which is Jack; Jacob is the still man and Teddy is the malting and peat. Our distillery its sited on Glenastle because there is 2 locks for water and the bottle is like a triangle shape so it can be packaged easy. The disadvantages is the roads are dirt tracks and the ground is not level so you have to level it or the distillery will be squint. We designed our own drinks and made the distilleries as models. We will be presenting to parents so they can see what we have learned.
Dolphins is a swimming club and we did a championship which was 5 hours. We had to bring a packed lunch and 2 towels; one to sit on and one to dry with.
I all of my races I got gold; breaststroke , front crawl, butterfly and back crawl. I won 2 shields, one of the overall winner for my year and I also got a shield for the fastest IM in my year: I got 1 min 45 secs. An IM is 4 lengths of all the strokes together and it is butterfly first, then back-crawl, then breaststroke and then front crawl.
At the end off all of the races we went and got all of our medals and trophies and we got sweets crisps and juice. Matthew Campbell got the club record.
We started to set up our vets surgery today. We have lots of patients in already and lots of resources to make them feel better. We read a story about Mog the cats visit to the vet. We also have a lovely story sack with lots of puppets that goes with a book called Old MacDonald. We sang Old MacDonald had a farm and shared the puppets.
On the 30th march 2022 port Ellen Juniors FC played Tarbert at their pitch and we won 4-1 with Finlay scoring 2 in the first half. We enjoy travelling around Argyll to play matches and we have had a very successful season so far.
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