The number of boys self-harming is rising. Here’s what parents need to know
The Junior Saltire Awards
Over the last week, we have been trying to create our own wave power devices and see if we can light an LED light by generating electricity from waves. 3 groups in P7 are entering the Junior Saltire awards with their devices. All the groups have different designs for the wave power to make the LED light work.
The first group is called the Electricity Generators and the device is called The Electric Cradle. The second group is called The ABAE and the device is called The Wave-Inator 360. The last group is called TLWN and their device is called The Donut.
We are going to enter all 3 devices and hopefully our school will have some success with 1 of our devices.
By Abbie and Eleanor 🙂
High School Science
2 weeks ago we went to the High School for Science week because we were doing food science with all the schools around Islay and Jura. We went to Mr Kitching’s room first and we were testing foods for energy. We had Peanuts, Pringles and Bread and we burnt the food with a Bunsen Burner and then put it under a test tube that had water in it. We also had a thermometer in it and we had to check how much the temperature went up. The peanuts had the most energy then it was Pringuls and then it was bread.
The next class was Mrs Moran and we made a really gooey thing out of cornflour and water and mixed it all together then we put it on a big music speaker and it looked like it was dancing and then we tided up and went to the next class room.
The next class room was Mrs McNaughton’s class and we were testing foods for starch, fat and protein. We had busen burners and we put different foods into test tubes and added Benedict’s to test for sugar. You had to put the test tube in and out the bunsen burner and also used iodine to check for starch. If it has sugar when you put the Benedict’s and add the heat it should go orange and if you do the same with the iodine it will go blackish.
I had a great time.
BY William Monaghan
Day of Dance
Day of Dance this year started with us missing the first half of it because the bus man forgot us. Apart from that it was great. The first dance was the for the Reel for Jeanie and the last was the Dashing White Sergeant, the class favourite dance. Half way through the day they repeated the Flying Scotsman. In all the day was great and thanks to Mrs Shaw and Mrs Campbell for teaching us so well:
A Reel For Jeanie.
First you dance in a circle for four back for four.
Next the top couple walk down the middle then cast of with the rest of the people following.
Make an arch and the rest of you walk though.
Then you clap 8 times and spin with right hand.
By Anwen Baker
Learning About Rivers
At school we learned about rivers for our water topic and near the end we decided to work in our groups to make something to show our learning so we went into our groups and made things to show our learning.
One group made an animation and a small poster while another made a dance to show stages of the river and the the third did experiments to see if water can clear away sand, soil and gravel and the last made a clay mountain model to show how a river would flood and knock over small houses.
By Torin
Swimming Gala
Last Monday Port Ellen Primary School had their swimming gala. A swimming gala is a competition where each and every class takes part in swimming races. Each person races other people in their class. The boys swimming champion was Ross Thomson and the girls swimming champion was Katie Middleton. Orsay came in 3rd, Nave came in 2nd, Texa 1st. Everyone had a great time and had lots of fun.
By Beth
Child Line
Yesterday afternoon Keills P67 came to our school. They came because we were getting a visit from Child Line. Child Line is for children to support you if you are worried, sad or anxious about anything. They are open 24-7 and are confidential. They won’t tell anyone about the conversation You don’t need to tell your name and you can tell them a fake name. We got put in to groups to talk about pictures and vote what we thought of the pictures. The child line mascot is a speech mark called Buddy. We all enjoyed it and listened well.
Child line number: 0800 1111
By Annie Farrell
P7 Endeavour trip to Bowmore
Port Ellen’s Primary 7’s went on an Endeavour trip to Bowmore to share their Endeavour with Bowmore’s Primary P5-7 to inspire them and help new ways to improve their Endeavour. They came around different tables talking about what they wanted to do for their Endeavours and how Port Ellen can help and give them some good tips. They also asked questions about their Endeavours and what good skills and strategies they could use to help them. In the end we ended up playing bonding games and making new friends.
By Nicholas
What is digital literacy? A parent’s guide
What does it mean to be a digitally literate child in the internet age?
Mental health – not the fault of bad parenting
When young people admit to having mental health problems, parents often blame themselves. There is still stigma and shame attached to this kind of illness, despite the fact that it’s so common. But early diagnosis and treatment have been shown to work so it’s important for parents to be open and supportive. Blaming yourself – or anyone else – doesn’t help.
Country Dancing.
Over the last few weeks we have been doing Scottish Country Dancing , with Mrs Shaw and Mrs Cameron. We have learn lots of different dances such as, Strip the Willow, The Circle Waltz, The Dashing White Sergeant The Canadian Barn Dance and the Bamkin. Everyone had partners, and it had to be boys with girls. My partner was Oliver however, Abbie was with Annie because there wasn’t enough boys, and Emma had Ciara. One of the dances that we found very difficult was The Dashing White Sergeant because near the end of the dance we have to do a figure of eight and many people found this very hard. We are looking forward to the Day Of Dance.
Bronagh’s Trip to Westminster
We asked Bronagh questions about what she did in Westminster in London. We firstly asked her a question on why she was there. She went to Parliament because she was an young Scottish winner of an art competition for I love Amazon schools. In Parliament they were taking photos and talking about the rain forest. She had to go through lots of security when she was entering Parliament. She was in there for 2-3 hours just listening about the rain forest and getting photos taken. They also asked her questions like “How did you think of your slogan?”which was ‘Hands off our trees, Leaf them alone.’ She also learned that every minute a football pitch worth of trees is cut down and the situation is so critical.
But in conclusion she had a lovely time in Westminster and learned a lot about the Amazon rainforest.
By Nicholas and Torin with help from Bronagh
The Last Week of Swimming
This week is going to be our last week of swimming. We have been learning all about different techniques to keep our heads above the water. For example we used a techniques called treading water, the mixer and the recovery passion. We also practised doing a safe entry. A safe entry is when you sit on the side of the pool and then you put both of your hands to one side of you and then twist your body round and slowly release your self into the pool and then swim as carefully as you can over to your casualty. Last week we were starting to swim lengths. This week we are going to be doing a comic relief day swimming on Friday 13th March.
The Examination Short Story Review.
In school p7 we have been reading and writing short stores. A short stories that we read called the Examination is a story about a young boy called Richard that lives in an oppressive state. In the oppressive state when you grow to the age of twelve you have to get an I.Q. test to see how intelligent you are. When Richard takes the test he get killed because he exceeded the test. After reading the short story, p7 then wrote a book review on the Examination. We sructured the book review by answering questions like ‘how was the story structured’ and ‘what do you think about the opening’ also questions like ‘what is the theme of the book’ and ‘can you describe the setting of the story’ also ‘what do you think about the ending’. I found the actual story was great but I most enjoyed how the story is so unpredictable and twisted at the end. Writing the book review, I found it most interesting because it makes you read in between the line to find out more about the story.
Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
In class, p7 have been learning to convert fractions, decimals and percentages, we have been focusing mainly on fractions and decimals. Fun Fact: If in a decimal, a number is repeated lots of times, like 1/3 is 0.33333333 etc. you would write 0.3 with a º above the 3.
We have learned lots more, like :
1/4 is 0.25 so 2/4 would be 0.5 you would keep doubling until you got to 4/4 which is 1.00
1/2 is 0.5 which is equivalent to 2/4
1/5 is 0.2 so 2/5 would be 0.4 .
1/6 would be 0.166
1/10 would be 0.1 because there is 10 10ths in 1
We have also been learning to convert percentages to decimals for example:
20% as a decimal is 0.2 as a fraction is 1/4
25% as a decimal is 0.25 as a fraction is 1/5
50% as a decimal is 0.5 as a fraction is 1/2
75% as a decimal is 0.75 as a fraction is 3/4
80% as a decimal is 0.8 as a fraction is 4/5
100% as a decimal is 1.0 as a fraction is 1/1
These are just some of the vast array of fractions, decimals and percentages in the known world. Hope you found this intreaging and interesting. hopefully you have learned something new.
By Anwen and Izzy 🙂
P7 Science
P7 have been doing a lot of science lately for there topic about water. They have been learning some very good scientific words. They have been doing experiments using evaporation. Evaporation means a change from liquid to steam or vapour. They recently did an experiment to make clean water when they put vinegar, flour, sugar, baking soda and water in a cup and mixed it. Then we cut a big bottle in half and placing the cup in the bottom half and placed the top half on and the water in it would turn to steam and go to the side of the bottle and run down to the bottle and sit at the bottom as pure water. They also did another experiment when you put sand, water, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar in a tub and put a cup that is lower than the rim. Then you cover it in cling film tightly and tape it, then put a small rock above the cup and it will evaporate. They are all enjoying this topic so far and love the experiments they did.
By Annie & Beth
World Book Day
On Thursday 5th March it was world book day, everyone had to bring in their favourite book and dress up as their favourite character. We dressed up as Sarah Midnight from the book Dreams and Tilly from Magic Spirit. The first thing did was reading one of our favourite sentences from our book. In the morning some of the p7’s had to go and read to the nursery, we read them their favourite book. While the rest of us played games answering questions about books. We then read a short story in our reading groups called Examination Day as part of World Book Day. It was a really great story. Overall we had a great day and everyone looked great in their costumes.
By Emily and Jodie 🙂
Is your child at risk of sexual exploitation? Know the signs
Advice from Parents Against Child Sexual Exploitation on the signs of sexual exploitation and the steps parents can take to keep their children safe from unhealthy relationships and grooming
Three top tips for building your child’s online resilience
You can’t shield your child from every risk in the online world, any more than you can offline. So how do you help them to be digitally literate (what does that even mean?) And what kind of parenting approach is most likely to help them stay safe?
Self-injury and children with intellectual disabilities: what parents should know
Seeing your child scratching, biting, hitting or banging their head can be incredibly distressing – but it’s a not uncommon experience for parents of children with intellectual disabilities. Cerebra explain self-injury and what parents can do.
Learning disabilities, autism and internet safety
There are considerable benefits to internet use for young people with autism and learning disabilities, with lots of apps and specialist tools – but there are also risks. We look at how best to prepare your child.
Disability Discrimination
This is our power point on Disability Discrimination. We have been learning in class all about discrimination so we chose to do this one! By Emily and Jodie P7 🙂
What are those dinosaurs doing…….?
Check out P1/2’s new blog…..Adventures with Dinosaurs to find out what these dinosaurs are up to! Follow the link from the Learning Blog.
How to talk to your child about mental health – even at primary school
Did you know that, on average, three children in every classroom have a diagnosable mental health issue?
Eco Update
Wednesday 21st January
- Welcomed by Oliver
- Not Present-Jasmine, Ciara and Anwen weren’t there.
- Discussed Paula’s visit. We read her assessment form and put it in the notice board.
- Progress on action points. Litter police needs to get started back up again. Fairtrade tuck is getting started up soon. Water wasting is going to be getting measured and recorded.
- Fundraiser at Christmas- Sold some bags.
- Action Points- Eva- Litter sign for the pitch. Mirren- Suggestion box. Annie & Rebecca- Water fountain poster. Torin & Eva- Pen mark on water bottles. Anwen & Eva- Fairtrade tuck.
- Date of next meeting- next term with new eco moniters.
We are going to be getting all of our action points done and start them up.
By Annie Farrell
What is a digital tattoo?
A tattoo is permanent, much like the information we post online. CEOP gives its top tips on making sure your child’s online reputation is just as good as their offline one
Supporting your child’s education – five top tips for dads
Dads matter! And they particularly matter when it comes to reading. Jeremy Davies of The Fatherhood Institute offers his top tips for what dads can do particularly well.
How old does your child have to be to…
A lot of sites and apps specify that users must be aged over 13. Why 13? Vicki Shotbolt explains and offers a guide to the age limits for various popular online activities.
P1/2 prepare to blast off
P1/2 have just finished building their Space Station and are looking forward to their trip into space. They have been been busy with their astronaut training – fitness and fine motor skills using different gloves, tweezers and litter pickers so that they can conduct space repairs in the Space Work Module (with tumble drier pipe and gloves!). The astronaut food is ready and we are just waiting for our spacesuits to arrive…….
Where do I report if I’m worried about my child’s safety online?
What can you do if your child is talking online to someone they don’t know in the real world and you’re suspicious? What if you think they’re being asked to do things, share images, encouraged to meet? CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection command of the National Crime Agency and one of the partners behind Parent Info – is the answer. This is how and where to report your concerns.