Primary School of the Year 2022
On Tuesday 19th February 2013 p5,6 and 7 had a rugby trainer called Alan teaching us how to play tag rugby. We learned how to do a tag and to pass the ball backwards. We had mini teams of 5 and played some games. There were the greens the oranges the blues and the non bibs. We also had some races so we had to run to the bottom of the pitch and do a touch down and run back up to the top, turn to the side and then throw the ball to the other person. It was great fun!
by Reece and Connor
Every year in the February break there is a 3 day workshop, which has many different instruments to learn or expand on what you already know. In the February break I went to Feis, I went to Tin whistle( that was taken by Fraser Shaw)Accordion(that was taken by Murdo) and there was Drama, that was taken by Mr Murray. We all came together at the end of the day and learn’ t a couple of songs, La Math( that was a song about LAMAS), and we were taught by Norrie from Manran. I had great fun we danced with Ray and sang with Norrie.
On Friday our last workshop, at night we put on a concert for all the parents to show what we had learn’ t in the 3 days of workshops, the tin whistle players played a Gaelic tune called Struagh nach do fhairich mi tioram air tir and The humors of Tulla. The Accordion players played Fairy Lullaby and Lovely Stornoway and Norrie’s choir sung a tune from RunRig, there was the younger kids from Feis Bheag performing with the choreography by Paula Davidson. There was many more performances. At the end of the concert we all went up onto the stage and sang our songs with Feis Bheag followed by a raffle.I really enjoyed it and will go back next year.
By Ruby
On the 25th January it was Robert Burns day, so Port Ellen Primary had a traditional ceilidh! Robert Burns is a famous Scottish poet and he has written loads of poems in the past. Everyone in the school had learned a Burns poem and 6 got through to the final, we had 2 people come in and judge us.
For p1-Ciaran Middelton p2-Rebecca Morris p3-Natalie Logan p4-Ross Thompson p5-Abbie Morris p6 Maisie Logan and for p7-Liam Campbell.
Mike Russel, the scottish minister of education came to our burns lunch and ceilidh. Everyone had fun dancing traditional dances and we all sung Old Lang Syne. There was musical instrument solos, and we even had highland dancers.
For a traditional lunch we have, haggis. Haggis is a meat, made with sheep insides in it! Everybody likes it and they serve it with neeps and tatties (turnip and potatoes). We all say the address to the haggis, while they cut into it.
Everyone had a great afternoon and everyone enjoyed listening to the poems!
On the 25th January it was Robert Burns day so Port Ellen Primary School had their annual Burns Ceilidh. Robert Burns was a famous Scottish poet. Every child learnt a poem six children got through to the final were two judges would judge them . This is all the people who got !st .
Liam Campbell-p7 Maisie Logan-p6 Abbie Morris- p5 Ross Thompson-p4 Natalie Logan-p3 Rebbecca Morris-p2 Ciaran Middleton-p1.
Every one who won had to say their poem at the ceilidh. At the ceilidh everyone done some Scottish Country Dancing while Neil played the accordion. Some children in the school played Scottish musical instruments. Eilidh was on the accordion;Abbie on the fiddle;Maisie and Ruby on the tin whistle. We didn’t only have people doing musical solos we also had highland dancers. You can listen to p7s poem (A mans a man for a that) at the bottom.
On Wednesday 23rd January Claire and Ciara came to our school. They taught us a gaelic song and put it together with some instruments. Emily,Elinor and Eilidh played their accordians, some people played the tin whistle and the rest of us played percussion instruments. When we had finished we put it together and it sounded really good!
By Emily
Our topic is Rivers In The Classroom. Two weeks ago Mr Brazier came to set up our tank for our topic. In class we made a giant river display with mountains and trees on the wall. We also made a floor book to record things that we learn. Today Mr Brazier came in to give us our salmon eggs and we were so excited about it. Mr Brazier showed us a power point to show us how to look after our salmon eggs and what to do. He told us about the water they live in. Then we all got to see the eggs. I felt so happy. Then Mr Brazier went away. By Ciara.
Today we had a visit from Mr Brazier. He showed us a presentation he had made on rivers. There was lots of interesting facts. One of the facts that I thought was very intresting was that it isn’t good to plant trees commercially near a river because it means that the river will be shaded and plants won’t be able to grow and that also means the fish won’t get all the food they need and they might die. We got our eggs and we are all very excited there are lots of them and they are very small!
By Emily
P5 are learning a new topic about rivers. We are going to be getting salmon eggs to hatch in our class. We are all excited about it. Last week Mr.Brazier came and put our tank in for us and next week he is coming to put the salmon eggs in the tank. Everyone in the class is looking forward to having the salmon eggs in the class.
By Annie
Welcome to our quadblogging partners from Bidston Avenue Primary in Birkenhead, Woodston Primary in Peterborough and Plympton Primary in Adelaide Australia. We have started off by writing a few blogs telling you what life is like living on Islay and we hope you enjoy reading them. Thank you for leaving a comment, and we we will reply to any questions left.
On Islay there are 8 working distilleries and 1 non working distillery in total. The distilleries are called Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Coal Ila, Bunnabhain, Kilchoman. Islay is the best island known for producing its whiskey. Islay distilleries produce lots of bottles a year and thousands of liters. Mundells deliver the barley to all the Distilleries except for Laphroaig who make their own like only 6 other distilleries in Scotland. Every year the distilleries hold an open day to represent their new bottle of whiskey and Ardbeg have there own theme. They all have it towards the end of Spring.
MRS CLARK ADDS: I think Bruichladdich may grow their own barley as well.
On Islay there is lots of different festivals like Halloween and new year. There is a famous poet called Robert Burns and we celebrate his life every year by saying poems that he wrote. We also eat haggis to celebrate as well. Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish that is made up of sheep brains and sheep intestines- it tastes better than it sounds. There is also some more festivals like the Islay show. The Islay show is a festival where lots of farm animals are put into a competition and can win prizes such as money. There is also a big fair, it is for the kids, there is many thing you can do that are fun like going on the bouncy castle and there is a very high rock climbing thing you can go on. Thank you for reading hope you know a bit more about Islay.
by Ewan and Robbie
Islay is a beautiful place to live. I’ll start by talking about the beaches, the beaches on Islay tend to be rocky and seaweed covered, but you can find nice sandy ones. We also have lots of peaty fields and lots of moor land that is very wet. In the center of the Island there are lots of hills. But the Oa has lots of steep clifts and is very boggy and rugged. On Islay we have eight villages, Port Ellen, Bowmore, Port Charlotte, Bruichladdich, Portnahaven, Keills, Ardbeg, Balygrant and Bridgend but only four villages have Schools. We also have 8 distillerees. Islay is known for having some of the best whiskey in Scotland. Islay has lots of cool places to visit as well.
Fishing on Islay is a way for many people to make a living normally they catch crab,lobsters and scallops. Its been around for 
thousand of years. Everyday people are heading down to the pier to go fishing for a living. Around about 20 big fishing boats are at our piers on Islay.
Farms on Islay contain animals such as pigs,sheep,cows,highland cows and horses. There are many farms on Islay. Cows eat grass,silage and draff; sheep eat mainly grass. All farmers have sheepdogs to round up their sheep if they’re running wild.
by Liam and Connor
At school we learn a language called Gaelic,we know the colours and phrases like “dearg” is the colour red and “madainn mhath” means good morning we are learning the days of the week and the weather and months and the numbers. “Diluain” is Monday, “Dimaiet” is Tuesday, “Diciadain” is Wednesday, “Diardaoin” is Thusday, “Dihaoine” is Friday, “Disathirne” is Saturday and “Diclo’mhnach” is Sunday. We all enjoy learning Gaelic in school,sometimes it can be tricky pronouncing the words and phrases.
On Islay we like to play football which there is 5 teams they are called Port Ellen, Bowmore, Kilchoman, Islay wanderers, Port Charlotte there used to be two more teams called Laphroaig and Ardbeg. Although football is very popular the Scottish national sport is shinty. We too have a tournament and a after school club. Port Ellen have won the tournament several years in a row. In shinty you are trying to hit the ball into the goals with the shinty stick. Shinty is very similar to ice hockey except it is a small round ball not a puck. Shinty can be a dangerous sport so we wear helmets. We also play rounders which is a sport that is like baseball we like playing sports in our school and we have a sports day we also have a sports club that takes place at 12:00 noon in school.
We wake up at about 6:45, and our school called Port Ellen Primary School, starts at 9:00am. We have a break in the morning to let everyone get fresh air, but if it’s raining we play games inside. Once we get in, our teacher called Mrs Clark calls out the register. We all have water bottles and we get our lunch at school for £2.00! On a Monday morning, everyone in the school, comes and has a meeting to talk about everything on at school, during the week. After the meeting we go up to our classes and have a check-up. Our homework is to copy out 10 spelling words and write 5 sentences about them. We have our first break at 10:30am and for break we go outside and classes take turn to play on our ‘all-weather-pitch’. After break we do maths and one of the things we do is, play a game called ‘fizz buzz’, to play you need a ball and you pass the ball around, you say fizz is its a multiple of 5 and buzz if its a multiple of 3 and if its not you just say the number. We play that for 5-10 minutes. Our lunchtime is at 12:00 and we are aloud to go home for lunch but we have to be back for 1:00pm! In the afternoon we get out the computers out and go on and write blogs on glow. We have an afternoon break at 2:15 till 2:30 and when we come back in we learn the history of slavery. We go home at 3:30, I have my dinner at 5:30pm and go to bed at 9:30pm!
On Islay people do many types of dancing such as- Highland dancing, Step dancing, Country dancing, Ballet, Hip hop and many more. Highland dancing is when diffrent people dance to the accordion or the bag pipes. Highland dancing is known for junior dancers and also grown-ups. There outfit is a short mini kilt and a silk waist coat worn under a white blouse with black pumps. Highland dancing is one of Islays most popular and known dancing, country dancing is also very common and known in Islay. They also dance to accordion or bag pipes, they uselly dance with a female and a male together. The diffrent names of the dances are called -The Cananadian Barn dance, Flying scotts man, Gay Gordans and lots of diffrent ones. Islay is quite famous for dancing and everyone really enjoys it.
Sometimes a cinema comes to the island. It is called the Screen Machine.The Screen Machine is a portable cinema that goes round the whole of Scotland. It comes to Islay because we don’t have a proper cinema on the island. It’s a van that has a big screen and loads of seats in it so when you go in it feels like a miniature cinema! When it comes it parks outside the Ramsey Hall in Port Ellen but sometimes it parks in the school playground! That means we get to go in and watch a movie with the rest of the school. On Friday we are going to see Arthur Christmas so we’re all really happy and excited. Right now it’s showing The Hobbit, Skyfall, Paranorman and Arthur Christmas. I really like the Screen Machine because it feels really weird sitting in a huge van watching a movie.
By Elinor
On Islay, people play many traditional Scottish instruments such as accordion, bagpipes, tin whistle, chanter, fiddle and voice. On Islay there is a 3 days of workshops called the Feis, where children all ages can go and learn an instrument or expand on what they can already do on their own instrument. The accordion is an instrument that has a keyboard on one side, on the other is buttons, to make a sound you need to pull in and out. Bagpipes is a bag with big pipes coming out the top, a pipe with a blow piece to make the sound and there is 8 holes to put your fingers on. A chanter is the instrument that people learn before going onto the pipes. A tin whistle is a instrument that has 6 holes and mouth piece, most people get it mixed up with a recorder. A fiddle is a mini guitar that you hold under your chin and play it with a bow. What music means to us, its fun to play, good to learn and many people enjoy listening to the music.
accordion
On Wednesday 19th December 2012 there was a Nativity at Port Ellen Primary School. Primary 1/2 did the nativity with nursery, we thought it was very good they remembered all their lines. They were clear and they enjoyed doing the play, they liked singing the songs and the audience laughed, we really enjoyed it. It was really good Taylor was Joseph and Sarah was Mary and it was also known as the the lucky owl and Rebecca was the Owl.
On Tuesday 18th December in the Islay High School hall was a fantastic Christmas band concert! The primary school band performed and the High School band performed. There was some solos and duets and great Christmas carols sang by the high School choir and everyone else in the audience. There was some traditional music by a high school band. All the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves performing and it certainly got the audience feeling very Christmassy.
by Ellen
On Wednesday 19th December Port Ellen Primary held a carols by candle light, at Port Ellen Primary for the run up to Christmas. There were piano players, a turkey poem, the Port Ellen Primary band and lots of readings. We had a selection of Christmas carols and songs, Mr Barlow and Mr Macnulty, accompanied us with a few prayers. Mrs Campbell, played for us, as well as David Baker, Asher Borthwick and Maisie Logan! We had lots of musical duets and trios, as well as a solo, on clarinet, flute and lots more. After our carol service there were, mince pies, shortbread, tea and juice. Everyone enjoyed it, and overall it was a really good night!
3 WEEKS AGO people from Port Ellen left for a 3 hour walk to Bowmore for the Ciara Caskie Allan Appeal. At 10:00 they left from the public toilets and very shortly got to the start of the low road. The kids collected money from the village for 10 minutes then got collected and took back to the walkers. The walkers stopped at the Airport to do the toilet and were off again. The walkers were stopping cars and getting money. The walkers came to the end and counted the money and found out that they had raised over £800.
By Calum
ON the 1st of November the dolphins club championship took place at Bowmore swimming pool and there were swimmers from all over the island that took part in the championship in Bowmore.
There were people from all over the Island who were at the swimming pool. After there was the medal ceremony, a disco and there also was a buffet that had lots of tasty foods. Then after all that the children went out in the dark and had a big game of cops and robbers-it was lots of fun.
By Connor and Ewan
A Merry Christmas For Port Ellen Primary
On the 1st December, Port Ellen Primary School hosted the Christmas fair. There were lots of stalls selling different products from chocolate crunches and mint creams to old toys and tattoos. There was a guessing stall with, guess the weight of the ginger bread house, guess how many sweets in the jar and guess where the meercat lived. There was the tombola, bottle stall and a magnificent hamper.
Half way throw the fair the Santa arrived to lift the spirit even more, as queues started for Santa’s grotto. The stalls included The happy belly deli, P6/7 trip stall, Rainbows stall, P1/2 stall, P3/4 stall, P5 stall and the nursery stall. The school made over £2,300 and they all had a great time.
Ice Hazard On Pitch
On Saturday the 1st of December there was a Islay boys football tournament in Lochgilphead. They left at Port Ellen at 10 o’clock. When we arrived they got a bus to Lochgilphead it took about 30 munutes to get there on the bus. When they were there they got into the schools changing rooms. They left all their equipment and went to the pitch. But the pitch was frozen and there was some ice on it so everyone fell over a lot. Islay took over 2 teams to the match and Oban and Lochgilphead had 2 teams each as well. We all played 4 matches each, Islay won 2 matches and drew 1 and lost 1. Then both the Islay teams played each other for fun. The finale result was 0-0. Then they all went back to get changed in the changing rooms in the school.Then they got to the bus and made our way to the ferry. Then they got back to Islay and that was the end of the football trip.
By Asher and Robbie
On the 1st of December Port Ellen Primary had their annual Christmas fair. It had lots of fun games for everyone, and there was a great hamper. P6/7 had a stall to raise money for their trip to Stirling, the stalls included: The Happy Belly Deli, Beauty stall, guess the where the meerkat lives and lots more. P5 made soaps to sell and now the IslayHotel are going to be using them in their rooms/ bathrooms. P1/2 made snow globes and fridge magnets, Pre 5 were selling candles that they had decorated them selves. Everyone loved the baking stall, and all the adults enjoyed the Treasure hunt. P6/7 also made clocks, calendars, sock creatures and draft excluders.
People from the High School came in to sell products from the Body Shop for their trip. P3/4 had to bring in bottles for the Bottle Stall. We had a special visiter from the North Pole in to say hello to all the boys and girls at Port EllenPrimary. Elinor said ” It was a great day and we raised lots of money!” Everybody was happy with what they got from Santaand a funday was had by all.
By Maisie and Elinor.
AT PORT ELLEN PRIMARY, they had a fantastic day on Saturday 1st of November where as they had the christmas fair!
In the P6/7 classroom they made cakes, clocks, sock creatures, calenders, costers, draft excluders and decorations.P5 made funkey sopes and bath bombes. p3/4 sold at there stall big black boards shaped like Islay. p1/2 made great snow globes. The whole school made lots of lovely things for the fair.
All the kids enjoyed seeing santa and getting presents with the help of his little elves. At the fair was face painting, guess the weight of the ginger bread house and guess where the meerkat lived, if you won you would win a meerkat. The school were selling all our things we made and lots more. The pupils hope you enjoyed the home baking , teas and coffees and the pupils also hope all the guests enjoyed the fair and had a great time!
by Ellen and Helen
It all started with a blow of the pipes.
On Saturday 24th November 2012, there was a Highland dancing display at Bowmore hall. All of Ella Edgar’s dancers took part in this event, some dancers got to dance inividually but others went in groups. Whilst the older dancers were dancing the younger dancers went up the top and had some refreshments like biscuits, juice and wine for the adults. After they had their interval the majorettes danced the Lights of Loch Indahl after they had completed their dances the dancer got ready for they finale.
After the finale it was time to go home so the dancers took their bows and wished for everyone to have a goodnight.
Danni Barker,Abbie Morris, Rachel Johnstone and Emily Gray danced the John-Ellis swords. Emily Logan and Isla MacCalman danced the Cakewalk.Mairi MacGilvary, Stacy Baker,Katie McNiven and Ashley Harrison danced Mairi’s Wedding.
On Saturday the 1st of December, Islay boys went to Lochgilpead to play a tournament. They played a lot of teams and they all got split into different pitches. Islay boys tried their hardest to win but they said “It doesn’t really matter, as long as we try our hardest.” A lot of people shouted at Islay boys and the coatches were very helpful they enjoyed helping the Islay boys team. The coaches wanted to make Islay boys footballers better, that’s why they had the tournament. At the end of a match they had to shake each others hands so they know they all had a good game and it showed respect to the other team. Lochgilphead had won the tournament. by James and Alicia
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