Portpatrick Primary

We were thoroughly entertained on Wednesday morning by 4Front Theatre, who brought their wonderful performance of ‘A Fisherman’s Tail’ to Portpatrick Primary. The pupils sat engrossed for almost an hour as they listened to the story of 4 fishermen (James, John, Andrew and Simon) who were competing to catch the biggest fish on the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus appeared. The fishermen became Jesus’ disciples, and the story went on to tell of the miracles of Jesus, right up to his crucifixion.

The performance was full of songs that got the pupils clapping along, and some very funny scenes that had them all roaring with laughter.

A huge thanks must go to the Baptist Church and Scripture Union who made this wonderful experience possible. It was a very enjoyable RME lesson, teaching pupils about some of the key messages of Christianity in a fun and engaging way.

As part of our ongoing Eco Schools work, the Eco committee are planning on running a gardening club after the Easter break. However we were given some tomato seeds which needed to be planted now – so the boys and girls rolled up their sleeves on Wednesday morning and got planting, kindly aided by Sian who volunteered to come in and help. Every pupil in the school now has a pot of tomato seeds to care for over the coming weeks. We will be keeping a close eye on them to ensure they grow and develop!

P4-7 took part in a science workshop event organised and delivered by S6 Stranraer Academy STEM Ambassadors Lilly and Emma.

The young ladies delivered a carousel of four activities.  First up, the children used their sense of smell to determine whether the could smell as well as a shark.  The pupils had to sniff vials of varying strengths of water/perfume from zero, 20ppm, 200ppm and 100ppm.  They then ranked them in order of weakest to strongest.  Robin and Alfie were in full-on shark mode, getting the vials in the correct order.

Next up, the pupil had the very enjoyable activity of making slime like a slug.  A simple mixture of cornflour and water was produced.  The children explored the properties of this substance. The mixture flowed, but became stiff when squeezed or pushed by a spoon.  We learned that this is an oobleck mixture that becomes more viscous when pressure is applied.  This is beneficial to a slug as the creature can apply different pressure points with its foot to both slide and anchor in place.

Following that activity, the pupils engaged in a brain challenge.  They were presented with colour words written in a non-matching colour e.g. the word pink written in green pen.  The children had to try and say the colour word and not the colour it was written in.  It was a bit of a brain tease.  Most people find it easier to say the word rather than the colour as the word has a strong influence on the brain.  Words are read faster by the brain than colours are named. If you would like to find out more about this challenge, it is called a Stroop test.

The final activity was testing our peripheral vision.  The boys and girls attached string to a protractor to create an arc with which to rotate an object into our field of view.  We were using our rod cells to sense objects.  There are fewer rod cells at the periphery of our retina.  Hence, why we could not determine what the object was until it was more directly in front of us.

To bring the session to a close the STEM Ambassadors elicited the pupils’ thinking on the science behind each activity.  The children explained what they had learned by carrying out the practical activities.

Thank you to Lilly and Emma for a great learning experience!

# Successful Learners

The whole school enjoyed celebrating Shrove  Tuesday today.  The children have been learning about this practice as part of our RME topics on Easter and Lent.

In P4-7, we applied HOTS creating skills by designing a range of topping choices for our pancakes: 1 healthy, 1 indulgent and the one they actually produced.

As P4-7 are also learning about fractions in maths this term, we applied this in context to engage with the recipe at differentiated levels.  We did the following:

• Halved the recipe ingredients to make a lesser quantity of pancake batter
• Worked out the fraction of a litre we used for 200ml of milk (1/5th)
• Worked out what fraction of a kilogram we used for 100g of flour (1/10th)
• Converted between improper and mixed fractions i.e. when we added five, 1/4 teaspoons of sugar to our mixture.  We calculated that this equates to 5/4 as an improper fraction and 1  whole + 1/4 as a mixed fraction.

P1-3 focussed on using and applying instructions as part of following recipes.  The children used their maths skills to measure and weigh the correct amount of each ingredient to make the batter mix.  The activity was followed up by creating and/or organising the correct sequenced steps for a pancake recipe.  The boys and girls then had a mock pancake race for PE using beanbags and racquetes.

As part of estimating and measure, the class measured out 15 metres in the hall to visualise the circumference of the biggest pancake ever made. Everyone agreed it would have taken some eating!

Throughout the food technologies activity, all the boys and girls worked safely and hygienically to cook their individual pancakes before selecting their toppings to enjoy as a tasty snack.

# Successful Learners

Our P4-7 pupils carried out an interactive survey of their practices and attitudes to online activities.  The children were asked a range of questions on their online habits.  This was anonymous and conducted through a computer voting system not requiring any login details.

As per national trends, the results demonstrate to how our young people are engaging with social media and online devices.

Have a look at the video to view the results.  The footage can be paused on each slide to allow you to digest the information displayed.

We are using these results to have a conversation on how to use online media safely and responsibly.

The class also undertook a class discussion quiz that focussed on how consent works in an online context. We explored how young people ask for, give and receive consent online. This covered aspects such as friendships or relationships, how they take and share images and videos or how they manage their privacy and data.

# Responsible Citizens

As part of Safer Internet Day (SID)2020, we would like to highlight available support and advice information for parents and carers that may be of interest to you.  A great  source for family home resources and information is the SID website link, as shown below:

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2020/i-am-parent-or-carer

The site contains a wide range of materials that can be used to talk to your child about online safety this Safer Internet Day. This includes activities, conversation starters and information to help parents and carers talk to their children about how to navigate the issue of online identity in a digital age in a safe, responsible and respectful way.

Attached is a sample Family Internet Safety Planner that allows you to formulate your own approach to internet safety in your home environment.  There is also a resource sheet detailing links to further sources of information.  Both are downloadable directly from this blog or from the website above.

Why not use the prompts shown in the image (click to enlarge), and below, to see how you can start a conversation with your child using the top 5 tips to keep our young people safe online. :

Our internet, our choice, so…

1. Choose to have a conversation

   Talk regularly with your child about how they use technology, and find out what their digital life is like, including what their favourite sites and services are and also how being online makes them feel. Listening to your child will give you the best possible idea of how you can support them. Not sure where to begin? Have a look at our suggested conversation starters for parents.

2. Choose to take a balanced approach

   As parents it’s natural to feel worried about the risks posed by your child being online, but for young people the online world is exciting and fun, as it brings so many opportunities for them. Remember that your child will use technology and the internet differently given that they are growing up in a world immersed in all things digital. Try to look at both the positive and negative aspects of being online and empower your child with safe choices they can make instead of overwhelming them with restrictions.

3. Choose to make use of the tools available to you

   There are lots of tools to help you manage the devices used by your family. For example, knowing how to activate and use parental controls can help protect your child from seeing inappropriate content online. For advice and guidance on how to make use of parental controls and other safety features on devices, check out our free Parents’ Guide to Technology and Internet Matters’ step-by-step parental controls guides for online services. 

4. Choose to get help and support

   It can sometimes feel like young people are the experts in all things digital but remember – you are the life experts. You are always there to help your child but make sure you know how to get support too by visiting our Need Help? page. You can take steps to support your child online by using features such as privacy settings on social media and understanding how to make a report on a range of apps, games and services.

5. Choose to be current and topical

   This Safer Internet Day focuses on the very relevant topic of consent in the digital world. Use this as an opportunity to support your child with how they tackle digital consent within relationships and friendships as well as how online services use the data we provide. Use our quick activities as a family this Safer Internet Day to help you unpick this topic together.

   # Responsible Citizens

Parents and Carers – Family internet safety plan

Parents and Carers – Resource sheet

Throughout January, the boys and girls have been busy with some Scots challenges – they had to learn their Scots poem and practise reciting it with great gusto; write out their poem in their best handwriting; and create a piece of artwork linked to their poem.

On Tuesday, Mr John Ross had the difficult and unenviable task of judging the competition – we had a few joint winners, he just couldn’t choose!!

Lots of parents, family members and friends of the school then joined us on Wednesday for our Scot Showcase assembly, to celebrate the pupils’ successes. They were presented with certificates and entertained the audience with recitals and some Scots songs.

A huge well done to all the pupils for their efforts. Below is a list of the winners:

Recitation winners

P.1         Ode tae a spider     

1^st Rebecca Connor  2^nd Stephen Ross

P.2         Twa Leggit Mice          

1^st Carter Henderson 2^{nd equal} Louise Webb & Erin Harbottle

P.3         The Sair Finger         

1^st Cameron McNeil 2^nd Atticus Orr-Ewing 3^rd equal Lewis Mcquillan & Conor Ritchie

P.4         The Bogle        

1^st Rose Santangeli  2^nd Jack Trafford  3^rd Sophia Schofield

P.5         The Wee Kirk Moose  

1^st equal  Maya McNeill & Ava Lily Orr-Ewing 2^nd Ruby Rankin  3^rd Isabella White

P.6/7     Address tae the Haggis  or Willie Wastle

1^st Findlay Thorburn  2^nd Robin McLean  3^rd Finlay Schofield

Illustration winners

P.1        Rebecca Connor

P.2        Erin Harbottle

P.3        Lewis McQuillan

P.4        Jack Trafford

P.5        Alba & Isabella White

P.6/7    Lillie Baker

Handwriting winners

P.1         Rebecca Connor

P.2         Erin Harbottle

P.3         Tilly Gordon

P.4         Jack Trafford

P.5         Ava Lily Orr-Ewing

P.6/7     Lillie Baker

P4-7 braved the chilly day today to pop outside to have an outdoor maths session.  The focus was measurement, perimeter and area.

P6 & 7 measured the length and breadth of our football pitch in metres.  They recorded their length as 17m by 30m. They calculated that the perimeter  was 94m and the area was 510 metres squared.

P4 & 5 measured the length and breadth of the paving slab, which was 60cm by 90cm.  We calculated the perimeter as 300cm (3m).  The area was 60 x 90 cm = 540cm squared. ( Some took an extra challenge of working in decimals: 0.6. x 0.9=  0.54 m squared)

As it was so chilly, we popped back inside and worked out the area and perimeter of our P.E. hall.  Some children worked in whole numbers, whilst others worked accurately to 1 decimal place. The children produced a scale drawing of the measured area using cm squared paper.

We then applied real life problem solving to work out costs of placing a border around the hall  and the price of carpeting the hall (differentiated by price per metre).

# Successful Learners

This week, at the North West Castle. They spent the afternoon with members from the rotary club and representatives from 12 other schools , listening to speakers and taking part in a quiz all about RHET. The quiz invited them to list reasons why children benefit from visiting farms. Well Done to Finlay Schofield who joined up with Team Leswalt and  got First Prize and some gummy bears. Afterwards they enjoyed a delicious lunch . The boys had a fantastic time and enjoyed representing our school.