Maths week Scotland was from the 28th of September to the 4th of October 2020. Maths Week Scotland is where all of the schools around Scotland have been doing lots of maths for one week. We do Maths Week Scotland to help the children around Scotland how to do all of the complicated maths.

Maths Inside is a competition that our school entered. We entered the competition and some people in the class won a prize.  There were three categories, Oot An’ Aboot, In The Home and Complete The Pattern.  The

Winners are: Dylan McDonald for In The Home, Teddy Denby for Oot An’ Aboot, Elena Miteva for Complete The Pattern, Dylan Mackie for The Best Commentary and Christopher Jamison for The Best Commentary second level. The whole of the school won The Highly Commended School.

Dylan McDonald’s entry was what the length was between his hair and Katies. Teddy Denby’s entry was how high he could jump. Elena Miteva

In the school P2/3/4 read a book called The Perfect Square and P5/6/7 did lots of things like: The Scottish maths Challenge, The Maths Inside Challenge and some other maths games.

In school this year we have bean learning about the history of racism. We have been learning about this because of all the racism going on in the world right now.  We learnt some facts about Maya Angelou these are some facts:

. Maya Angelou refused to speak for 5 years.

. She was a poet, actress and author.

.She got a medal from Obama in 2009.

Before the holidays P5,6,7 did paintings of one of the scenes of Maya Angelou’s famous poems. The poems we did were “I know why the caged bird sings and I will rise”. We had to paint things that were lines in one of the poems and we also used collage that looked like the things in her poem.

We also read about her and  other people who  did things about racism in America in the past. We also learnt about what racism is and all the different types of racism. We also learnt about when it started in the UK and the racism that is going on in the UK now and in the past.

Racism is when someone treats someone differently because of the colour of their skin, their culture and the country they’re from and we have learnt about this because we think it is important to know what racism is and the effects it can have on people.

By Dylan

The Port Ellen Primary School Community was extremely saddened to learn of the sudden death of Drew Brown on the 13th September.  Drew was a much loved pupil at Port Ellen from Nursery until he left at the end of primary 7 in June this year.  He had only been at Islay high School for a few weeks when this tragic event happened.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Drew joined us at Port Ellen Nursery in 2011 at the age of 3 .  He took a while to adjust but quickly grew into the school and everyone in the school soon realised we had a real character.  One of his earliest reports said – Drew responds to a firm voice when he is up to nonsense!!

Drew Brown was part of a class of 13. They just moved to Islay High. He was a good friend to his classmates, kind, sympathetic but he was also very good with younger children. His popularity earned him status of the School House Captain for Orsay – a job he took very seriously. He ran clubs from P5 and was an excellent leader.

It was clear from very early in his nursery days that Drew had a particular flair for number – he excelled, he was quick, could see problems very quickly and work them out at speed. This year (P7) he participated in the Scottish Maths Challenge and achieved a bronze award for his efforts. He was really proud of himself as it was not an easy task .

He also had very good digital skills and this was also identified at the age of 3. He could reset the computer or do something/ hack files and we still don’t know how he managed it!! In P7 he decided to do Robotics and coding for Endeavour and took great interest in subjects like this.

Drew always had a very good relationship with the staff and his mischievous sense of humour endeared them all although there were times they didn’t know what he was going to surprise them with next, he always seemed just that one step ahead. We have talked a lot about Drew over the last week about his antics and the nonsense he could get up to and not only has this brought a smile to all our faces, it has helped us to support and comfort one another at such a sad time. Drew’s personality struck a chord with everyone.

Who could forget the Pantomime in December- Drew was Bolt , the jester . He had the audience in the palm of his hands and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house – tears of laughter. His timing was impeccable and he spoke so clearly . He brought the house down. Some people came back the next night for seconds just like Drew did at lunch time

He loved good food, when he went to high school Mrs Holyoake just couldn’t find anyone who was so keen on seconds and who would sit and blether to her for virtually the whole of the lunch hour – often with his dinner hall partner in crime, Dearbhla . Although Dearbhla would be still eating her normal quota while Drew was often on his second lot of seconds!!

He enjoyed a laugh and often you could hear his laughter and see his excitement. He attended the leaver’s assembly in June – with some anxiety, however as always Drew quickly settled and enjoyed the videos. Drew’s was a very encouraging message telling everyone to go for it , never give up summing up his can do attitude to life . He wanted to be the same as everyone – that was his goal and at the end of P7 he achieved this, he was completely independent.

The tradition in Port Ellen is to write messages on everyone’s school jumper. Drew and I shared many conversations about Rangers – both fans so it really appealed to his sense of humour when I wrote on his good friend Scott Hope’s jumper ( Celtic fan) – Scott you’re Simply the Best!! That was right up Drew’s street.

On Thursday we started our remembrance / quiet area for Drew and planted an apple tree. Every day staff and children walk past the tree, they will remember Drew . Some days it will fill us with grief as we have had to say goodbye to a dear and good boy but it will also fill us with happiness when we remember the memories he has left behind. Ones that will always put a smile on our faces.

Remembering someone like that can’t be engineered, Drew’s personality, his uniqueness and resilience has left a legacy and he has touched all of our hearts.

We are learning about Shanarri in class because it is very important to know what we need and what other people need. All our class made a mini movie about shanarri we were all a bit of shanarri what we had to do was pick a section from shanarri i was safe so what we had to do was go outside and make a mini movie about safe then we would put all the videos together and make a movie about shanarri.

There was also people vandalizing our school so we had to send the Ileach writing about the vandalism. I am going to show you what shanarri.

Shanarri Stands For:

SAFE, HEALTHY, ACTIVE, NURTURED, ACHIEVING, RESPECTED, RESPONSIBLE, INCLUDED

Safe: You should have a safe house with a good shelter.

Healthy, you should be allowed to have fruit and vegetables daily.

Active, you should have the right to exercise and go out and play

Nurtured: you should have a right to have a loving family.

Achieving, You should have the right to

Respected, you have the right to be respected by your family, friends and anybody.

Responsible, you should have the right to be responsible and know what to do when you are injured.

Included, You should have the right to be included in party’s and so on.

We were leaning about shanarri. Shanarri is import because its child’s rights and the child’s rights is very important.

At Port Ellen Primary School, we have houses sort of like a clan. Our clans are Orsay, Texa and Nave.

Every year we normally vote for one captain and two vice captains, after we have voted, the chosen people would run that house and make it better.

We decided to change the system this year so that everyone could have a shot of leadership, most of us wanted the change but some of us were not on board with the change so we had a vote. The majority of the school voted for change so we changed our system and now we alternate.

Every term we change captains for each house. The captains would be primary six or seven. Most of the time the captain was primary seven and the vice captains were primary sixes.

By Kayla Gowler

In 1989 a really important decision was made around the world. World leaders came together in the United Nations and made an important promise to the world’s children. They made a promise to every child to protect and fulfil their rights, by adopting an international legal framework – the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children are human beings and individuals with their own rights. The Convention says childhood is separate from adulthood, and lasts until 18; it is a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity. The Convention went on to become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history and has helped transform children’s lives.

Here are some of the Rights

Article 9: Separation from parents

Children must not be separated from their parents.

Article 3: Best interests of the child

The best interests of the child must be a top priority.

Article 31: Leisure, play and culture

Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

I think that all children should have all of these rights.

Coming back to school was a bit confusing because it looked like a hand sanitizer shop. It was weird because we had our own pencil cases with pens, pencils and all of the supplies that we needed. We weren’t allowed to share supplies either and we aren’t allowed to go outside when any other classes are outside, we have staggered break times. But this does mean we can go on the all weather pitch whenever we want.  We also have lunch all at different times for social distancing.

The good thing about school now is that we get to do P.E with out changing which saves a lot of time, and PE is always outside.  We also get to go out in the rain with the water proofs that the school gave us and we stay dry and get to play games at the same time. We spend a lot more time outside.  We also have our own laptops to do our work on. It is different but we will soon get use to it.

Lock down was not the best but not the worst, what I mean is we couldn’t leave the house but that was alright because me and Kayla had our own ways to entertain ourselves with our families. Lock down stopped us from going to school which was not  the best but now we are glad to be back at school!

To start things off with some great news from lock down Kayla got a new puppy called Thora, who just happened to be Odin’s sister from another litter and he was really excited. I was really happy when lock down rules were eased I got to see Mya and Callie but before that we both were not happy because we couldn’t see friends. Kayla also got a new headset so she could talk with step brother Riley.  My cousin in Ireland got baby chicks too.

Then the bad news from lock down.  1 week in lock down my mum and dad were not too happy because Jess our dog is very old and she can not really get out side so she pooed all over the house. Kayla’s new dog Thora also learned to jump the out side fence so that was not good.  But overall we are glod to be back in school!

I thought it might be nice to share some of the writing the children have done through home learning.  Enjoy!

Due to the school closures our annual Easter egg decorating competition has had to take place online this year, but standards and creativity are as great as ever!  Mrs Macdonald had some great comments to make “I couldn’t pick one winner , it was so hard and I am giving you all a virtual prize . I did pick 4 and categorised as follows; Elena – prettiest egg, Millie – funniest / topical, Caitidh – Great play on words / lots of effort, Orla – best use of digital skills”

Argyll and Bute Education Services are committed to ensuring that none of our pupils have to go without access to free period products during the Covid-19 crisis when the usual availability in schools is restricted and when it is more difficult, and indeed expensive, to get products from shops.

Many schools distributed period products from their stocks to pupils before they closed. However, as the current Covid-19 Government restrictions continue, we want to ensure that our pupils’ wellbeing needs continue to be met.

For this reason we have made an arrangement with Hey Girls, one of Scotland’s main providers of period products, that enables you to order from a range of products using a survey monkey link that simply requests your chosen package, school and your delivery name and address.

To order your products please click here:  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZDQC8JT.  You can then click the packs you need (and it’s ok to order more than one type), enter your details and click ‘done’ at the bottom of the page.   Hey Girls will then process your order and post it to the address that you have given.  The link will be refreshed at regular intervals to ensure that you can make repeat orders.

As this system is just getting started and given the current delay in some postal service deliveries, please allow up to two weeks for your delivery to me made, although Hey Girls would hope to reduce this in time.

This Hey Girls order form link will also be sent out to parents and carers via text and email.   To avoid multiple orders at the same time from the same family, and to ensure that you get what you need , we would be grateful if children and parents/carers could consult with each other before ordering.

Please note that these products are free and are available to children and young people in Argyll and Bute schools from P6 to S6.  While the closure of schools continues, you can place an order whenever you need it.

We will continue to monitor the success of this system and will review it when restrictions are lifted and when the crisis is over.

If you need any more information on this system or wish to make any comments please contact Cathy Cameron at  catherine.cameron2@argyll-bute.gov.uk.

Schools are officially closed from the 20th March until futher notice due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.  This means much of your child’s learning will continue at home with the support of their family.  Teachers will be available online via Seesaw in the weeks to come to support you with ideas and acitivities to maintain a semblence of normality, in what are decidedly not normal times, unless they are busy in school looking after vulnerable children and key worker’s children.

Here are some top tips to help you in the coming weeks:

This is a quiz about the book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

1.) Who goes with Charlie to the chocolate factory?

A.)  Mrs Bucket

B.) Grandpa Joe

C.) Willy Wonka

2.) Who gets sucked up the big pipe in the chocolate room?

A.)  Veruca Salt

B.)Violet Beauregarde

C.) Augustus Gloop

3.) How does Charlie leave the chocolate factory ?

A.) Through the roof

B.) Through the door

C.) Through the wall

4.) Who finds the first golden ticket ?

A.) Charlie Bucket

B.) Mike Teevee

C.) Augustus Gloop

ANSWERS:

1.b

2. c

3. a

4. c

On the 12th of March Port Ellen Primary School had a science day,when parents could come into school to what we have been learning in STEAM. STEAM stands for science,Technology,Engineering,Arts and Math’s.In the p7 class we had programmed Microbits to solve a problem in Islay. We also had a experiment table were you separate ingredients from a mixture using sieving and more.In the hall downstairs we had Kapla and this group had made a massive tower but then it fell over.Then in the lunch hall bit we had dash and spheros and programmed then to draw and play games.The reason we held this science day was to let parents and children to test out are new STEAM room and to play around with all of are new science equipment.One of the really interesting things was the merge cubes that you could scan and make it do things on a app.

This is my favourite book, Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree by Andy Stanton.  One of my tasks I had to do was draw a picture of your favorite event that happened in the book and mine was when everyone surrounded the cherry tree at night and goblins circle around the tree and sang a song to Mr Gum.

If I was to rate this book I would give it a 5/5 stars.

By Caitidh

My book is from the First Aid for Fairy’s collection and Helen is the main character.

The first present I would give to Helen is a new fiddle because all she wants to do with her life is play music; she already has a fiddle but it is old.

The second present I would give her is a new first aid kit because she likes to help her friends get better and heal them so she gets called the healers child.

The last present I would give is a a secret spy house so she could hatch plans and figure out how to save people in trouble.

I really  recommend this book and think you should try out the collection and I’m pretty sure Helen would love these presents.

This is the collection of books go check them out.

Port Ellen Primary School has a thing when the p6/7 get taught by Victoria Renwick about Young Sport Leaderships,That means we get trained to run are own club in school for any age group.This term we are running different types of clubs some are sports related and others are more indoors.Listed below this they’re are clubs that we are running this term.

Monday-Creativity club is run by Caitidh,Orla and Morgan.

Tuesday-Coding club is run by Katyn,Kayla,Phoenix and Evie.

Wednesday-HIT club is run by Braeden and Drew.

Thursday-Cross country club is run by ,Christopher,Scott,Dearbhla Rhuraidh,Aiden and Dylan.

Friday-Dance club is run by Charlet,Millie,Harmoni and Robyn.

Those were all are clubs and we hope all the children like them.

February the 11th is the UK Safer Internet Day.  The internet, on the whole, is an inspiring and positive place that provides opportunities and experiences we could never have imagined 30 years ago.  It is an amazing resource which enables children and young people to connect, communicate and be creative in a number of different ways, on a range of devices.  However, the internet is always changing, and being able to keep up to date with your children’s use of technology can be a challenge.

Talking to your child about online safety can be hard.  Parents are often confused and bemused by technology online and at a disadvantage when talking to their much more knowledgeable offspring.  We can lack confidence in knowing what to do and how to get help when something goes wrong.  However children and young people still need advice and protection when it comes to managing their lives online.

While Cyber Security protects digital devices and networks from harm by third parties, Online Safety is about keeping people safe when using digital technologies.  By being aware of the nature of the possible threats that you could encounter whilst online, whether it is security threats, handling and safeguarding your personal data, management of your digital footprint, or avoiding harmful or illegal content, you are keeping yourself and your family safe.

Issues that your child may encounter on the internet will vary depending on their age and online activities, and can be grouped into 4 areas according to the UK Safer Internet Centre.

Conduct: children may be at risk because of their own behaviour, for example, by sharing too much information.

Content: age-inappropriate or unreliable content can be available to children.

Contact: children can be contacted by bullies or people who groom or seek to abuse them.

Commercialism: young people can be unaware of hidden costs and advertising in apps, games and websites.

Through funding from Education Scotland’s #STEMnation, an expert from the charity SWGfL will be visiting Islay on Wednesday the 19th of February to work with teachers, pupils and parents on a range of internet safety issues.  There will be a parent workshop (community members also welcome) from 5.30-6.30 at Bowmore Primary school  where you can come along and find out more about how to keep your family safe online and where there will be a chance to ask any questions you may have.  We would love to see as many people as possible coming along to find out more about this vital topic.

On Thursday 19th December primary 1and 2 and the nursery performed their nativity. The nativity is about an angel who came to Mary  and said you are going to have a baby. So they rode a donkey to Bethlehem  and tried to get a room at the Inn.  But the innkeeper said there is no room here.  But you can stay in my stable. The angel spoke to the shepherds, the shepherds came and visited the baby first with their lambs. Then 3 kings came to visit and they brought gold, frankincense and myrhh. The nativity was very well performed and we really enjoyed it.

By Rhuraidh

P 6/7 class have been doing clubs and me, katyn and Kayla have been doing an art club for primary 3-7.  The kids were very happy and got along with each other.  We also helped the nursery make snowflakes.  We also drew a little observational drawing of the Christmas decorations in the hall.  We had 6 children come to our club they made a lot of pictures and they are asking and asking if we can do the club again they said that they enjoyed the club and they would come again.  If the club was on they said they would want to make snowman out of paper.   I said that would be fine and show them how to do them.

On the last day we showed all the club our drawings and we were seeing if   they improved on their skills; we did, shading, observational and imaginative they had smiles on there faces and they were calm and relaxed.  I enjoyed teaching them skills and being around them it was a very calming and relaxing time.  When it was time to pack away they did exactly what they were told.  We did a cool down and a warm up.  Our warm up was we had to shake our hands about and we had to wiggle out fingers. Our cool down was laying on the floor and relaxing our hands, arms and fingers.

By Evie Rose    p6/7

Primary 6/7 are learning RME. There is loads of religious people around the world. There is five pillars of Islam; the first one is Shad Ah. Shad Ah means all Muslims pray for the same God called Allah.  The second one is called Salah which means Muslims pray five times a day. This is my favorite pillar Zakat. Zakat means Muslims give half of their savings to the homeless. I enjoy learning rme because you get to find out about other peoples beliefs.

By Aiden

At the HIT club you set yourself a goal and push, for you are not trying to defeat other people and you cannot stop since it is “high intensity” training unless you have asthma or some other thing that stops you.  Drew,Braeden and Orla ran it for p4-7 on wednesday and since it was HIGH intensity you could not stop but there was groups that were ran in groups of easy, medium and hard.  Also there was a lot of restrictions in our club since it was in the hall for example we can’t use balls since there is a packed lunch table in there. The good things about this club since you need to push yourself to the goal you’re setting, doing it high intensity means that you can get more exercise in less time and more goals than limits since there is more pushing that relaxing and letting your body feel stiff.  Also since there is not p.e all the time (although some people wish) it is a kind of lesson of p.e in less time. Finally there is other kind of sports clubs ran by p6/7 throughout the week.

In school this term we were all doing a club and me, Charlet, Harmoni and Elena were doing a dance club. This club was for primary 1/2/3/4. we split up into groups me and Harmoni had primary 2/3/4 because there wasn’t a lot of them and  Charlet and Elena had primary 1.

For the first few weeks we made dances in our groups but then we made a big dance adding everyone’s idea from the little groups we had before. Before they left we did a cool down were they lay down on the floor with the lights off and thought about what the enjoyed most and some of them like to share what they liked. Then they line up and we say if they want to come back which most people do.  I really enjoyed running this club.

The Perfect Panto
On 12th of December Port Ellen Primary School put together a fabulous pantomime called “Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies,” I had overheard in the co-op from an old lady that the panto was absolutely amazing she had never laughed so much. The panto was fully packed and we sold out instantly the director of this panto was are P6/7 teacher Mrs. Clark.
ROBIN AND THE SHERWOOD HOODIES!

P6/7 were the main actors of the panto but it included the whole school.Are main person taking lead role was Harmoni as Robin Hood.The people on stage like to include the audience we had many scenes when we did things to the audience for example,we threw a bucket of confetti on them. Personally I thought that the panto was amazing everyone put so much effort and they were happy and cheery the whole way through.

Character-

Caitidh-Gloria Gutrencher(This is me)

Elena-Genghis(My evil assistant)

The acting

The acting was on point every one was always doing something on stage either saying their lines or reacting to what people where saying. It wasn’t just acting it was also the singing and dancing.Most people said it was fine when the curtain was closed but when it  opened and saw the crowed they’re heart started pounding.

The Design

The costumes were absolutely beautiful and I cant miss out on the scenery,There was a dungeon/castle which I had helped out on making it and then there was the forest with amazing green glitter all over it.

Conclusion

When it finished so many people started to say to us that it was the best panto that they had ever seen and loads of people congratulated us. Personally I thought it was the best panto I have ever done.

By Caitidh