Portpatrick Primary

We received some very exciting new during the holidays – Eco Schools Scotland confirmed that we have attained ANOTHER Green Flag Award!! The boys and girls in the school, particularly those in the Eco Committee who have been the driving force behind a lot of the plans and activities, have worked incredibly hard over the last 2 years to try and achieve this. Waaaay back in September 2018 we created our  action plan focusing on the topics of Litter, Global Citizenship and School Grounds. Over the last 2 years we have completed a variety of Eco-friendly activities, including: a bring-and-buy sale where the money raised was donated to the Australian bush fire WWF Koala Protectors charity; a village litter pick; creating a willow-dome; planting tomato seeds; and purchasing gardening equipment with the money kindly donated from the Community Council.

Although we weren’t able to complete everything on our action plan due to the pesky Covid-19 virus, we gave it our best shot and Eco Schools Scotland were happy that we have demonstrated that our pupils are responsible citizens and have learned lots about environmental issues.

Our assessor sent a detailed letter to confirm our achievement and stated: “Congratulations Portpatrick Primary on successfully renewing your Green Flag Award! The work carried out during these past years has been extraordinary and it has been a real pleasure to assess your application… Your excellent Eco Committee are doing a brilliant job inspiring, engaging and informing the entire school community in a very effective way.” He also went on to say that aspects of our work were noted as being examples of good practice and that we may feature on their website or as case studies on social media to support other schools with their Eco Schools work.

A big thanks also needs to go to Sian Roberts, who has sat as the parent rep on the Eco Committee for the past 2 years. Sian has attended all of the meetings with the pupils and Mrs McHarg, and has very generously given up her own time to aid with our Eco activities in school, such as creating the willow dome and sourcing and planting trees with the pupils.

Well done to everyone involved – have a look below at the photo of some very happy faces with their Green Flag!

Today we said goodbye to our two P7 boys as they leave us to move on to secondary school.

We couldn’t let the occasion pass without taking the chance to wish them a fond farewell. Family and school staff turned out for a socially distanced gathering.  We all shared wonderful memories of our school year together and praised the boys for their many skills and talents.  They have both made the last year such a pleasure for us all. It was a bitter sweet day as we are sad to see them go, but we know they are more than ready for their next big adventure.

There were more goodbyes to say to others. We said farewell to Annabelle as she moves away with her big brother,Findlay, to start at a new school after the holidays. Our best wishes went  also to Mrs McColm and Mrs MacPherson who will be based at other schools after our return in August.  We thank them both for their hard work and dedication and we will certainly miss their cheery smiles.

Mrs Henry warranted a special mention too as she has been so dedicated, working away in school during closure for pupils.  She has been busy organising, tidying and keeping the home fires burning so that we are ready to go in August.  Thank you Mrs Henry.

Goodbye and Good Luck to all our leavers.

Ever imagined what our future world will be like?  Well, Ava Lily did!

The School of Science and Engineering at Dundee University along with the Institute of Civil Engineers organised a national competition called The Future of STEM.  Children were asked to imagine and design a poster describing how STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) could
change the world we live in.

The judges liked Ava Lily’s concept design so much that she  has been awarded joint third place from all the entries received.  This is an impressive achievement.  Congratulations for your forward thinking Ava Lily.

Ava Lily’s design has been shared on the University of Dundee’s web page.  Have a look at all the winners:

https://www.dundee.ac.uk/stories/winners-science-engineering-poster-competition

Here is her successful entry displaying creativity, ingenuity and imagination:

2020-06 ICE Poster Competition (1)

Click on the link above to see the competition entry details.

The announcement came on a noteworthy day.  Yesterday was Women in Engineering Day.  It also fits perfectly with our STEMs Clubs Week.  We are participating virtually using online resources provided by:

https://www.stem.org.uk/stem-clubs

Here is a link to all the STEM Clubs activities that are taking part this week.

STEM Clubs Week timetable – FINAL v5

Congratulations again Ava Lily!

 

In the course of 2 days a small team of 6 parents have formed a socially distant garden gang and totally transformed the overgrown nature area which was greatly  in need of some tidying up.

On Saturday 13th June the Karen and Steve, Kim and Marc and Kirstyn and John worked all day to remove the vegetation.  It resembled more like a rainforest than nature area to start with.  Armed with chainsaws and strimmers they got to work.  John Connor then had the power of persuasion to get William Halliday from Galloway treecare to head out to Portpatrick and donate his services to chip all the branches that had been cleared.  The wood chips generated will be recycled and used for paths inside the nature area .  Huge thanks must go to him for being so generous with his time and machinery.

Today, the garden gang were back in action.  Putting in another full day they managed to secure the services of a mini digger from Jewsons to clear the site of old roots .  The lifeboat crew helped supply some fuel for the digger and the big boys certainly enjoyed playing with the big toys!  Again, many thanks must go to Jewsons and the RNLI for their support of the school.

Tomorrow the team will be back, and starting to lay the paths.

What a top team, and what a top community spirit, all working together to benefit the boys and girls of Portpatrick Primary.  

Thank you, thank you,

thank you!

Our wonderful boys and girls continue to show how brilliant they all are at adapting and coping with the changes to our learning during this school closure.  They have been busy, busy learning and creating at home.  We would like to share some more fabulous examples of their work with you to enjoy.  We are sure you will agree that they can all be rightly proud of themselves!

• Ava Lily – Stop Motion videos: Evolution and Mutations and Evolution of Mankind

• Findlay – YouTube NITROnews Life in Lockdown reporting.
• Lillie – Motorised Vehicle Engineering Construction with K’nex

LB K’nex motorised car wc 250520

• Alfie – Creative Poetry writing using onomatopoeia sound words:

• Finlay – Nature mask art challenge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Ruby – Nature digital photography

• Alba – bar graph using data generated at home:

• Isabella – Pie Chart using data using percentages shares & musical human beat box

• Maya – Science: Seed germination:

• Rose  – Covid 19 Presentation:

RS covid presentation

• Robin – Reading Comprehension:

• Jack – Rainbow art:

• Liam – Rainbow art:

# Successful Learners & Effective Contributors

Our wee team have very been creative during lockdown and all came together to create our special video.  Everyone was given a special word to create a piece of word art at home.  No-one knew what it would say when it all came together.  Once put together we have a fabulous poem and message to all.

Have a watch and you will see our creative, happy children in the glorious setting of their homes .

We are so proud of each and every person for the part they play in our family of schools.

Click here to see us in action 🙂

Last week Mrs Copeland set everyone an Art Challenge to create a rainbow in as many ways as possible. Looking at line, shape, colour, texture and form you all created some brilliant and varied rainbows and used lots of different and creative materials.

It’s so lovely to see what everyone is doing at home and even better when we can spread some cheer. Below are some of your wonderful creations. Well done everyone!

Stay safe and keep smiling!

It is great to see the creativity and motivation that our pupils are displaying in their home school activities with their families. There have been some fabulous examples of learning shared with us.

Here is a selection of what our learning super stars have been up to:

Science – Life Cycles:

Findlay Thorburn – Stop Motion Life Cycle

alba_izzy life cycle

ALOE Life Cycles

Language – Ava Lily’s story writing:

The Exciting Journeys of Doctor Xenon and His Crew!

Keep sending in photos and examples of your work.  We really do love to see what you have been doing.

A big cheer to all our wonderful families who are doing a sterling job of supporting the boys and girls at home during this time.  An even bigger cheer to our fabulous pupils who are working and learning in such varied and purposeful ways!

Well done everyone!

# Successful Learners & Responsible Citizens

Porpatrick Primary performed their Easter play Sleeping Beauty; The Ugly Truth on the 19th of March.  We were a tad early presenting our production due to the recent closure announcement.   We were keen to  celebrate the hard work and effort the boys and girls have put in before we said goodbye for a time.

The children proved what dedicated professionals they were.  They improvised, took on extra roles and the show certainly did go on to everyone’s delight!

Mr White kindly took a video of the performance to share for those who weren’t able to join us on the day.  Well done boys and girls!