"Anchored in Excellence"
Portpatrick Primary enjoyed an afternoon of Halloween fun and games organised by our very capable P7 pupils. The entertainment committee planned an itinerary of spooky themed activities ranging from Mummy Makers to Musical Tombstones. Everyone enjoyed ‘dooking for apples’ followed a snack and a drink kindly donated by family and friends. There were many prizes to be won too!
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Portpatrick Primary had a busy first day back at school for the new term today. We have been selected to participate in the National Edina Trust’s Ecological Study: Spring Bulbs for Schools project.
As part of monitoring climate change and how this affects our eco-systems, the boys and girls will be testing a range of hypothesis on flowering plant growth. They all planted crocuses and daffodils; both in tubs and in a bedded area using a fair scientific test.
Over a period of several months we will monitor the daily temperature, rainfall and growth of our plants to track how climate change is affecting early germination of plants in our country. Our data will be compared with the other 173 schools in the U.K. participating in the project. This will allow scientists to monitor the changing effects of temperature on plant life nationally.
We have been learning about what plants need to grow and how early flowering affects food chains for insects, birds etc. and thus our society. We have now named our plants and completed a bulb adoption promise to take very good care of them to help them thrive and grow.
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The parents, grandparents and pupils of Portpatrick Primary kindly gave their time to tidy the nature and the mound areas of our school this weekend. They worked diligently to clear away overgrowth and nettles. A few nettle stings were received for their efforts. There was not one, but two horse box loads of garden waste removed and transported to the local tip for composting by Mrs MacDonald. Thank you to everyone involved.
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The boys and girls of Portpatrick Primary donned their engineering hats today to take on construction challenges.
Primary 1 and 2 worked collaboratively to design and make objects from Lego component parts. They had to plan out and build structures such as bridges and boats. They had to use imagination and creativity to come up with their ideas.
P3 – 7 used their soft skills to design geodesic domes using just paper straws, tape and scissors. The teams approached the challenge in different ways, but were all successful in creating the overall hemisphere structure.
We then discussed and shared our experiences of learning from practical activities. The children were able to explain how trial and error led to design modifications and an improved understanding of design challenges.
Well done to Olivia and her family for being chosen from the prize draw at Portpatrick school for the family maths puzzle competition! Olivia and her family worked together to find solutions to a number of maths problems. Olivia won a box of ‘Numeracy heroes’ chocolates, a gold ‘Mighty Maths’ trophy as well as a certificate for her and the family.
Today, Portpatrick P4-7 travelled through to join their classmates at Leswalt for a Scottish Parliament Outreach workshop. An Education Officer travelled down from Edinburgh to tell us all about how our system of democracy works in Scotland.
The children used electronic voting equipment to answer multiple choice questions on our Parliament and Democracy. Innes was top for answering the most questions correctly, closely followed by Lachlan in second place.
The boys and girls split into groups to create their own manifestoes on a range of political issues. We had the following issues represented:
Each group elected a leader and this person presented their manifesto to the class. The children then voted using a traditional ballot system to elect their own ‘MSP’. The Environmental Party was elected to represent us.
The children now have a stronger understanding of how politics function in Scotland and had a great time learning in a practical, interactive way.
As part of the Dumfries and Galloway Maths Week Scotland Competition, the three P3 girls, Ava Lily, Ruby and Maya, created their own song and dance all about why they love maths! They did this all on their own and practised their performance to this excellent standard.
Well done girls! I love maths so I’m with you! 🙂
(ps. apologies for the video being on its side!)
Primary 4 and 5 pupils enjoyed a jaunt into Stranraer Academy this morning.
They went to watch a performance by “Theatre in schools”. The performance today was called “Up to speed”, and the 2 performers captivated the whole audience for an hour. The children later got to try out some of the drama techniques they used in their performance . This performance was enjoyed by all Primary schools in the Stranraer cluster.
Our Trio schools have been having a very busy time participating in the Scottish Maths Week. The Scottish government has launched a brand new initiative to help everyone in our nation see maths positively. The aim is for everyone to experience the benefits, joy and beauty of maths in exciting new ways.
The children have had a full timetable of maths focussed activities:
We were joined by Susan McCourty, our local post mistress, Ali Cerexhe & Robert McQueen from our local lifeboat, Paul McQuillan – bus driver, Mr & Mrs Orr-Ewing – estate management, Miss Whorlow – electronics engineer and Miss Kerr – teacher. All shared how maths is needed in their jobs.
Friday saw the culmination of our maths week. The children engaged in a carousel of activities. They used their creativity to design maths promotion resources for the Scottish Maths week competiton; focussing on why we like and need maths in our life. This was expressed through posters, songs, poetry, art and rap by the children.
We were then given the opportunity to apply programming and robotics. The children used Lego WeDo to construct models and then use coding blocks to make the models perform actions. We had tilt aeroplane propellers spinning, footballer’s legs kicking and crazy birds twirling by the end of the session.
Everyone all loved their shared day with Leswalt & Kircolm on Friday, bringing an end to this important initiative. They enjoyed socialising and working together to produce fantastic maths work.
The trio schools were treated to a very special privilege yesterday. We were invited to attend a school trip to Corsewall lighthouse as part of its 200 year anniversary celebration. The event was kindly organised by Mike Bullock of the Northern Lighthouse Board, Mr John Ross and Mr Miller who also volunteer their time to the good work of the Northern Lighthouse Board.
The children were given a presentation teaching them all about the history of lighthouses and the work of the Northern Lighthouse Board. We were then given a tour up to the top of the lighthouse to experience the structure and mechanics first hand.
There are 212 lighthouses in Scotland and the Isle of Mann under the control of the Northern Lighthouse Board. Only 6 are open to the public. Corsewall lighthouse has never allowed a public trip so, we were given a very special honour to tour the structure on its very first school trip ever!
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