Portpatrick Primary

This afternoon Dental Health Officer Janine Maxwell popped by to observe the pupils brushing their teeth and have a chat with P1-4. They had lots of questions to ask and Janine gave them lots of great pieces of advice. Pupils got to brush the cuddly dinosaur’s teeth and look inside a model of a tooth. What an afternoon bursting with information!

Every pupil got a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush to take home too.

World Book Day launch of the R.E.A.L. Club!

 

Today is World Book Day! What better time to launch our brand new R.E.A.L. (Reading Enjoyed at Lunchtime) club!

After we’d enjoyed one of Barbara’s delicious lunches and brushed our teeth, we had the option of popping along to the Quiet Room to enjoy some ‘me’ time with a good book.

The sun shone in the window, cosy blankets were scattered on the floor for extra comfort and we got the chance to lose ourselves in a story – bliss!

This will continue every Thursday lunchtime and is open to all pupils to pop along if they like the sound of it. Look forward to seeing you there!

 

What a busy day the boys and girls of Portpatrick had today!

They have been filmed all day as part of the BBC Sport Relief , Blue Peter wave runner challenge.  The film crew arrived at 9.30 am and left at 3pm.  The children were followed be a camera crew as they went up to Portpatrick Hotel to hold their snowdrop teas.  This event which was generously supported by the Portpatrick Hotel and Dunskey estate , raised £328 – of which a donation was made to Sport Relief.

Back at the school in the afternoon,  the children got the paintbrushes out and painted some banners to take with them to the harbour at night time – to welcome the “wave runner” to Portpatrick.

Have a look at all the fun we have had – being filmed as we make our way about Portpatrick.  The programme is due to air on Blue Peter on either the 3rd or 10th of March.

And to top it all , all the boys and girls were delighted to go home having being given a Blue Peter badge – a fabulous achievement in itself ! 

What an idyllic afternoon! In preparation for P5-7’s Daffodil Tea, Mrs Ferguson and a car-load of pupils headed up to Dunskey Estate to pick some daffodils and snowdrops.

Gaby, Jemima, Mr Orr-Ewing and a band of their helpers worked alongside Mia, Innes, Olivia and Emily and Mrs Ferguson picking snowdrops and chatting. In the words of Innes, ” I wish I could stay here all day!”

Over 160 bunches of snowdrops later (it’s still a bit on the early side for daffodils), Mrs Ferguson and the children headed back to school leaving the rest still picking.

Gaby is very kindly going to deliver these up to the Portpatrick Hotel. Aren’t we lucky to have our community working together in this way?

Many thanks to the Orr-Ewing family and to Gaby, Jemima and their team for helping us out. The pupils had a lovely afternoon!

Primary 5-7 recently had a series of science lesson which was conducted by use of the video conference facilities, and linked to Glasgow Science centre where Heather Reid MBE (formally “Heather from the weather”) was there to lead and teach the pupils all about forces.

The children listened to what Heather was telling them, in Glasgow and answered her questions.  They were able to test out various applications of forces – and had great fun making their own catapults!

Primary 5-7 and Ms Whorlow tried their hand at cookery today with a difference – they were restricted to World War 2 food rations.  On the menu they had some fruity buns (which included apples, sultanas and prunes) as well as a “mock apricot tart” .  No apricots were actually used in the making of this sweet flan dish –  in fact it was a combination of carrots and jam! 

The fruity buns definitely passed the taste test – however the mock apricot flan was not quite so heartily tucked into.  Callum did enjoy eating it and was quick to tell his classmates “it is actually not all that bad!”

Have a look at the photographs below to see how the children created these World war 2 recipes.

 

Today P1 and 2 donned their 2D Shape Hunter caps and set off on a mission!

Having looked at some 2D shapes and their properties in class, we headed into the village to try and find some examples of these in the wider world.

What great hunters we were! We spotted lots of rectangles and squares, circles and ovals and Jack spotted a hexagon too!

Ruby noticed an interesting shape – so we counted the sides. There were 9 and so we even found about the nonagon shape! What a busy and fun morning!

Tomorrow we are hoping this Winter sunshine holds so that we can head into the playground and make a tally chart of the 2D shapes we can spot.

The senior pupils enjoyed some winter sunshine yesterday to take part in some outdoor maths with speed distance and time calculations, with Miss Whorlow.

The lesson objectives were to

* Recognise and apply the relationship between speed, time and distance * Applying links to algebraic formulae  * Children to estimate then measure the length of the football pitch in metric units. (Convert between m-km to apply decimals for extension) * Children to run a set distance  * Use stop watches to time the duration of the ‘race’ * Use ICT  graph and/or table formulation for a league table of result * Apply the D/S/T/ triangle: Speed = Distance ÷ Time

The p5-7 pupils coped admirably with the tricky calculations, and were glad to take advantage of a lovely dry day outside.

 

 

Barbara our school cook invited grandparents of the school to come in and enjoy a haggis lunch with their grandchildren, last week.

Rhian Palmer in p4 said the Selkirk Grace before Callum Cumming in p7 addressed the haggis.  The company then sat down to enjoy a traditional plate of haggis neeps and tatties together.  Much chat took place, between the invited guests and their grandchildren.

Later, as teas and coffees were served the children performed some Scots poetry recitations and singing of Scots songs to the grandparents. and visitors.

The afternoon was a great success, making all feel very patriotic .  The visitors left the school, happy after a hearty meal the pupils

Primary 7 recently enjoyed a full morning at Stranraer Ice Rink, where they were given lessons on the sport of Curling. Once pupils had experienced coaching of the basic game, they were able to take part in a competition against other Primary 7 pupils from other local Primary schools.  At the end of the event the p7 pupils enjoyed lunch at The North West Castle , before being presented with a certificate and returning back to school. 

Stranraer Ice rink has long been associated with many championship curlers…….I wonder if any of our pupils will go on to the success that former Portpatrick pupil, and Olympic medal winner, Vicki Adams has had?