Portpatrick Primary

Friends and family of the pupils of Portpatrick Primary were treated to a fabulous Christmas show on Wednesday 16^th December. The hall was packed for the afternoon and evening performances. The children (and staff!) had been working really hard on their play ‘Aspects of Christmas’ with plenty of songs, laughter and some truly wonderful acting were packed into their entertaining show.

The show told the stories of families at Christmas time with many of the scenarios being reminiscent of the typically fun, but hectic, time we have at this time of year. The children had a fabulous time, with quotes such as “it was excellent!” and “I had the best time ever doing the show!” The audience were equally impressed.

The P.T.A. held a raffle after each performance too with some fabulous prizes – thanks to Mrs Henry’s mum for the beautifully decorated cakes.

A great time was had by all! Well done to everyone involved.

Thank you to Barbara and her delicious lunches for a wonderful Christmas meal on Thursday 10^th December. Everyone got into the festive spirit and tucked into a beautifully served meal – thanks to Barbara’s serving partner Mrs Henry too.

 

Primary 1-4 have recently had a 6 week block of African drumming in school.  The children learned some traditional chants, beats and dances from Ghana.  The learning culminated in a performance to the whole school – in which they told the story of some animals in Africa and showed off their chanting and dancing skills.  P5-7 responded by chanting back and learning an African dance along side their little friends.  It was a confident, fun performance which was enjoyed by all.

Have a look at the fun they had drumming!

On Friday 20^th November, Portpatrick Primary held a family open afternoon. Despite the inclement weather, this was well attended by parents, siblings and grandparents. In preparation for Christmas, families participated in craft based activities with the boys and girls.

As part of our Eco School’s Waste targets, the pupils organised a Bring and Buy sale to recycle unwanted tots and books. We also made Christmas craft decorations to sell to fund raise for Children in Need. In total we raised £150.06   . The children were then given an opportunity to select a toy from the items to promote our  ‘re-use’ initiative before the remaining items were taken to a local charity shop to further help others. A fun afternoon was had by all.

 

 

Today we celebrated Children in Need day here at school. The theme was Sporting Champions – Be a Hero so we could come to school dressed as a gymnast to a footballer or Serena Williams or Aguero! We got together and worked as buddies for some writing thinking about what Children in Need is all about and enjoyed a fun aerobics sesison with Mrs Ferguson to get us all moving! We raised over £76 with our donations and by selling Pudsey wristbands which is great. Thanks to everyone for your efforts.

Report by Lachlan

Primary 5-7 took their Outdoor maths to a new level today when they headed up to Low Auchenree farm, by kind permission of the Ross family, to do some real life maths.  While at the farm they;

* estimated and measure distances in metric units – including the circumference of the base of the wind turbines.

* used trigonometry and angles to calculate the height of a wind turbine.

* measured the r.p.m, of the wind turbine blades, using a stopwatch timer.

* Used formulae and pi to calculate the speed of a wind turbine blade

* estimated quantity and visualised 3d models to count bales

* calculated costs and VAT using multiplication and percentages

* used formulae to calculate areas and perimeter of a poly tunnel.

 

It was a whole lot of maths in one morning at the farm!  Many thanks to Miss Whorlow and Mr Ross for organising this very worthwhile exercise.

 

Today we were lucky enough to welcome Tracy from the Scottish SPCA. She spoke initially with P5-7 and then popped through to P1-4 for a chat. Tracy told us all about the work of this invaluable charity and the animals she works with on a weekly basis. She spoke about looking after wildlife and domestic animals and things which we can do as the public to help. It was really interesting and great to get to talk to someone about their job.

The P7 pupils planned and organised the school Halloween party as part of their STAR award work.

Everyone had a fang-tastic time!

Well done to all the P7 pupils – party planners of the future?

Following on from Mr Ross kindly helping tidy up the school grounds, we have had staff and volunteers from Apex at school to help out . 

The Apex team have done a fantastic job.  They  have power washed and cleaned all the concrete, they have sanded and varnished benches, they have totally replaced rotting wood one on one picnic bench and they have even put up bird boxes and made a bug hotel for the school grounds, using leftover wood from the bench.

The school is now looking a far tidier place outside thanks to all the help from these volunteers. 

The photograph shows some of the Apex team with the bench they have restored.

All the staff and pupils would like to say a huge thank you to all at Apex for their help!

On the first day back after the October Maths, Ms Whorlow tooke her p5-7 class outside to investigate angles and compass points.  Armed with Ms Whorlow’s phone to provide compass points the children soon plotted out the points on the football pitch and took part in a variety of activities;

1. Investigate how to estimate, create and measure angles
2. Explore how right angles can be measured in degrees and how this links to fractions and compass points

1. I can use my knowledge of right angles to estimate the size of an angle
2. Know that that a right angle is the same as a turn of 90°
3. Demonstrate knowledge that an angle of 180° is the same as a straight line
4. Demonstrate knowledge that a whole turn is the same as 360°
5. Recognise angles which are 270°
6. Relate 90°, 180°, 270° and 360° angles to quarter, half, three quarter and one whole turns

There was a whole lot of learning taking place, with just one mobile phone and several children in an open space!