Over the past year all the primary schools on Islay and Jura have been involved in an Island wide history project in conjunction with Islay Heritage and archaeologists from the University of Reading. 
The children have been learning about their history and heritage, as well as the many STEM skills required to be an archaeologist. The results of their learning are now on display in the Gaelic College, Ionad Chaluim Chille Ile, in the Islay and Jura School’s Heritage Exhibition.
The project started with a party from every primary school on Islay visiting the Giant’s Grave site, 90 children in all. This involved a lengthy walk from Nerabus up through the forestry to the site, where the archaeologists were excavating and surveying. The children were then able to experience the different fieldwork techniques, from geophysics to troweling to photography. They learned about life in the early Neolithic period, and discussed with the experts what the grave was for, how it might have looked and how the people at the time lived. They then returned to the classroom to continue the learning, carrying out many different tasks; timelines, brochures, reports, sways, story telling videos, den building, pot making, art and imaginative writing. Some of these can be seen on the Islay Heritage site, as well as at the exhibition.
Then in late March the archaeology team returned for phase 2 of the project, in which schools adopted their own local monument and carried out surveys. Children applied some of their previous learning on Geo-physics and photography, whilst also learning how to make scale drawings and documentaries. They then got to see the results of the survey transferred into 3D representations of the site. Bowmore surveyed Cill a’ Bhulig, the remains of an old chapel, Port Charlotte surveyed Carnduncan, a Bronze Age burial cairn, Port Ellen surveyed Kilbride Chapel and Small Isles and Keills surveyed a crannog at Loch nan Deala.
It has been a great learning experience for all involved and made us grasp just how much fascinating history we pass on Islay everyday without even realizing it. The process of revealing Islay’s past through the use of modern archaeological techniques has been a truly great experience, and the children have a far better understanding of their Island as a result. We would like to thank all those involved for providing us with the experience, including the Mactaggart fund for enabling the project to take place. We hope people will visit the exhibition over the next two weeks for a unique insight into Islay’s past.
Through this year P5/6/7 have been using lots of technology to help with their learning. Some people have been using technology for their Endeavour project like Rebecca, Rhys, Sophie, Rowan and Taylor.
Rhys is doing Kodu for his Endeavour so everything he does is on the computer. He has completed 11 levels already and is hoping to create as much levels as possible.
Every year Mrs Clark’s class take part in the Scottish Maths Challenge, a competition where you have to complete tricky maths problems that require you to think outside the box. It is a great way to improve your maths problem solving skills and learn to apply strategies to help you work out the answers. Children can opt to take part in the challenges, and there are three sets of questions over the year. One of the questions this year was:
worked by sending an electrical current through the ground and if there was a higher reading then there was a rock under the ground this is because it takes more energy to get through the rock. If there was a lower reading that means that there would of been water because it didn’t use lots of energy to get through it. To use the geophysics you would stick both spikes into the ground and wait for a beep then move onto the next spot a certain distance away. We were all glad that people from the University Of Reading to come over and help us as they were very interesting and taught us lots. The data we gathered from the geophysics will actually be used in the final report on the site which is very exciting.
We were also doing archaeology photography with Alex. Before you take the picture you have to remember two things. The first thing to remember is you need to put the measuring stick onto where you are taking a picture of so you have a scale to know how big the things in the photo are, and you have to remember to use the right size measuring stick. The other thing to remember is to put a chalkboard with the sites name, where it is, what it is and what direction it is taken from. You also need to put a north arrow pointing to north. You have to fill in a register after taking a picture. You have to write the site name and the description from the chalkboard, what direction it was from and lots more. This is so that people in the future know what it was about. The site name was KIL17 for Kilbride chapel in 2017. We enjoyed taking accurate photos.
the camera on and you have to make sure that the camera is screwed on properly so it won’t fall off. The archaeologists helped us with all of this. We also made a documentary and it was about what we were doing at Kilbride Chapel and we had to use a radio microphone to record. Showing us how to do things properly is one of the reasons Islay Heritage is so good.
looked really cool and showed us what the chapel looks like-it had really thick walls and was a lot smaller than we thought it would be. We checked our drawing was correct using a GPS positioning pole. We learned lots of new skills and at the end we got to see the results of the geophysics in school and it showed that there might have been an enclosure around the chapel and we were the people who found out that evidence which was very exciting! We then drew pictures of what we thought it might have been like in the past before it fell down.
noses. All the money goes to Comic Relief. We are pleased to say that we raised £200!!! Hopefully we raise that much next year. Thank you to everyone who took part in this fun day and to all the people who brought some cakes in.
On the 22nd March 2017 two pupils from Port Ellen Primary School went to the Lighthouse in Glasgow to receive their reward for the My place photography competition run by the Scottish Civic Trust. Those two boys were Matthew Campbell, overall winner in the primary category, and Ruaraidh Macdonald, runnner up. Ruaraidh and Matthew got two canvases, one for the school and one for their family and Matthew also got a camera for himself and for the school. The two of them went up to the front one by one to accept their awards. After the ceremony Matthew had to stay for more photos with the rest of the winners from the My Place Awards and My Place Photography Competition. They both enjoyed the day and were really proud to have done so well in a national competition. To read more go to http://www.scottishcivictrust.org.uk/news/my-place-award-winners-2017/
On the 22nd of March, everyone in Port Ellen Primary School was excited to be showing our STEM learning to the Education Scotland visitors that had came to Port Ellen for the Scottish Education awards. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
P4/5 have been investigating 
how craters are made. They thought about the different variables that might change the size of the craters – things like the size of the meteorite, the weight, the shape and even the angle that it hits the surface. Here they are testing out their predictions.
This week, everyone in the school participated in this years Science week. P1/2/3 also took part in this years Science Week. They learned about different forces and they did some experiments to demonstrate how forces work.
forces there. They also looked at our playground toys to find out what forces they used. Then they invited parents in to help make their own play-park 3D models and will test them to see which forces the objects use. The forces that they have been learning were push, pull, twist, air resistance, friction and gravity. Next week, on Wednesday, they will be having a visitor who knows about STEM, and will teach the P1/2/3’s more about forces and things to do with STEM. Robyn, one of the class, said that she would like to do more about science and forces, and the class enjoyed it a lot, even though it is not the end of science week yet. They are eager to learn more and they seem excited to learn more about forces and science. Overall, I think that the P1/2/3 class enjoyed themselves very much, and the experiments with the toys went well, they would love to learn more about STEM and how it works.
about STEM in class. At the high school there was a lot of things to do. My favourite thing to do was Kodu. You got to make your own game and then once you are finished you swapped with the other people in your group. We learned to make our own game on Kodu. In my game you had to dodge all of the hills and try to get to the big castle and if you bumped into the castle you would win but you only have 60 seconds to complete the level and if you don’t get to the castle in that amount of time you would lose. When I was making my game I had to program my character to jump so it would go over the hills and before that I had to program him to move. Before I played the game I thought it would be very easy but when I played the game I thought it was very hard so I had to fix the game. To fix the game I had to put down the hills so people will get to the castle easily. After I fixed the game I could play the game and so could the other people in my group. By Rowan
On the 15 March 2017 all the primary 5/6/7’s from Islay went to the Islay High School to do some STEM which stands for Science Technology Engineering Maths. There was lots of things there like: Minecraft, 3D printer, Spheros, Computational Thinking, Kodu game programing, Micro Bits, Lego We do. My favorite was the spheros because you got to program them. Then we got to drive them round the room and it was really fun because you can change the speed, colour and the direction with an analog stick. I learned from this how to program on a different app on a different device instead of using Kodu or Scratch all the time.
On Wednesday 15th March all the p6\7 from Islay and Jura came to the Islay High School to do technology and science. First we were put into groups with people from other schools. We then got to learn about different technologies. The microbit was hard to use because first you had to program it, then download it, then put onto the microbit. First I made the lights on the middle to say hello. After I did that I made the lights say ‘hi i am a micro chip’. You had to use skills like perseverance a lot for the microbit. At the end Ithought that it was easier than at the start.
On Wednesday the 15th of March P6/7 all over the island went to the high school to do STEM and there were different activities to do.One of the activities was Lego Wedo. What is Lego Wedo? Well Lego Wedo is when you get to make your own robot. There were three different choices and the one I did was like a bumblebee with a long neck. There were other ones to do as well. To build the robot you had to go on an app on the iPad and you chose the robot that you chose of the sheet and then tap on to it and it will come up with the instructions to build your robot.