Portpatrick Primary

The whole school got their community spirit on as we set off to spring clean our village.  The children helped make everything spic and span by collecting any litter around our playground and village hall areas. Everyone pitched in with a great ‘can do’ attitude.  The children were able to discuss how litter damages our environment and harms wildlife.

#Responsible Citizens

The whole school had fun on today’s Easter egg hunt challenge.   The Easter Bunny is a bit busy just now and doesn’t have time to do his maths homework.  He left a message for the children asking them to help him complete it.

Around the school there were 10 “eggs”, each containing one of the Easter Bunny’s homework questions. The boys and girls had the job of finding his eggs, making a note of his Big Maths question, and working out the answer.

The bunny was so grateful, that he rewarded everyone for helping him!

# Effective Contributors & Successful Learners

The girls and boys displayed their creative talent today as they proudly brought in their decorated Easter eggs.  There was a wealth of concepts and designs that delighted the judges, Barbara, Dougie and Mrs Henry.

Primary 1-3

1st Prize: Jack Trafford – Underwater World

2nd Prize: Lotty Henry – Nemo & Dory

Primary 4-7

1st Prize: Innes McClurg: Carrots and Rabbits

2nd Prize: Mum and Dad Bunnies

Everyone who participated received an entry prize.  Well done to all.

#Effective Contributors

!

P4-7 travelled to Sandhead school today to perform The Dragon of the Western Seas Opera with Sandhead, Drummore and Leswalt pupils.  After just a brief rehearsal the children quickly pulled together a sterling performance of the songs they had learned in the previous weeks.

These children’s operas, created and delivered by Scottish Opera, make learning exciting, challenging and creative and allow pupils to participate in a high-quality, day-long music theatre workshop, ending with a performance for parents and guests.

Everyone agreed that it was a truly impressive performance. The children have been inspired to open their creative and musical tastes to a wider scope.

Here is a synopsis of our opera:

In the year 1405 the great Dragon Throne Emperor of China, Zhu Di, has decided it is time his nation expanded its influence beyond the edge of the known world and into the mysterious Western Sea.

He assembles an enormous fleet of mighty ships with 28,000 crew, and fills them with all the treasure and riches of China. Enough to buy the gratitude and friendship of those unknown lands beyond the setting sun.

Only one man could be trusted to lead such a dangerous and important mission, the great Admiral Zheng Ha, the Dragon of the Western Sea!

#Confident Individuals

Primary 2 and 3  girls represented our school proudly at the Day of Dance at Stranraer Academy.

Ava-lily, Maya, Ruby, Rose, Amelia and Sophie were twinkled toed as they performed their dances with flair and grace.  Our thanks to Mrs Henry, our very talented resident dance instructor and to Pat, our ever helpful escort.

# Effective Contributors

Class 1 & 2 came together this morning to have a maths sharing morning.  The older pupils were buddy helpers to the little ones. They had to develop their skills in demonstrating and explaining to  help support the younger pupils in a range of maths concepts.  We practiced our adding Learn Its, and our Clicks; counting reading and saying numbers as well as doubling and halving using objects.  We also practiced our number formation before using our ICT skills to play maths concept games on Eduction City.  Everyone worked very well together in a spirit of mutual learning.

The boys and girls were given the opportunity to have a brief visit to the Eden bus today.  A group of Americans are travelling around the country in this custom fitted vehicle and extended an invitation to us to attend.  The Americans were joined by local members of the Scripture Union.

Whilst on board the children were able to engage and explore a range of activity zones.  There was a climbing wall, 2 games console areas, 3 nail bars, and a chill out zone.  The pupils enjoyed chatting about the similarities and differences between life here and in America.

All the children were respectful and polite and engaged well with others. Everyone was given the opportunity to revisit the bus with their families after school, if they wished.

#Responsible Citizens

Portpatrick Primary got their socks on to celebrate difference for Down Sydrome Awareness Day today.  The boys and girls were inspired to support little Chloe Lennon after watching her wonderfully confident video asking people to wear odd socks to support World Down Syndrome Day on the 21st of March.

What a colourful array of bold hues, spots and stripes were on display on our tootsies!

As part of the national British Science Week’s (B.S.W.) celebration of science, Portpatrick Primary got their enquiring minds in gear by participating in an open afternoon.  Friends and family attended to help the children engage with a range of activities and experiments covering aspects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (S.T.E.M.)

Prior to the event, the school successfully submitted a bid for funding to purchase resources with which to promote the learning and teaching of S.T.E.M.  As a result of this, the boys and girls thought it was a good idea to get the whole community involved in sharing our exploration of the world around us.

The children were presented with a wide selection of activities such as using logic to program a moveable mouse to follow desired routes around a maze, making poo and constructing birds’ nests from natural materials in the younger class.  As you can imagine, the poo making activity proved the most popular. The upper class followed schematics to construct programmable robotic devices using Lego Wedo.  They also built complex models using a K’nex engineering kit.  The online Citizen Science activity allowed us to contribute to the B.S.W. target of tagging plastic in 250,000 images of U.K. beaches.  There were dissolving, acid & alkali experiments, magnetism, electricity, Scratch programming and geology activities too.

Everyone participated fully and were free to select which activity they desired using a carousel arrangement.  A great afternoon of learning was had by all.