Portpatrick Primary

After what seems like forever, it was time to harvest our vegetables.  We have grown our food organically, with no fertilisers or pesticides. The children gathered in our crop and we got stuck in making a big pot of soup to enjoy together.

 

Whilst the Royal Horticultural Society’s Big Soup Share is on hold this year, we thought we would have an impromptu ‘soup share’ of our own.  The children enjoyed preparing the vegetables and making a big pot of soup for us to enjoy.  It’s a great way to munch our way towards 5-a-day.

Enjoying our Soup.

# Responsible Food Consumption

 

Our wonderful House Captains organised a fantastic afternoon of Halloween fun for all the children to enjoy today.  There were scary costume, activities and prizes galore.

 

 

 

 

 

Party games included:

• Creepy Corners
• Mummy Makers
• Musical Tombstones
• Monster Mash Moovers ‘n’ Groovers
• Dookin for Apples
• Best Costumes

Our best dressed awards  in Primary 2 to 4 went to Freya and Jenna. Alba and Izzy won in Primary 5 – 7.

 

Here is our rogues gallery:

The winning team for Mummy Makers were  Ruby, Izzy, Lily, Maya & Ava Lily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children enjoyed dookin’ For apples and didn’t mind getting a wee bit wet.

It was great to see everyone having so much fun.

Happy Halloween From Us All!

 

 

On Thursday the boys and girls in Primary 1-3 were simply FALLing in love with autumn. Despite the weather the children donned their best wellington boots and set off out into the rain. OHH WHAT FUN WE HAD!!! Rather than being sat inside in the cold and wet we were running around in the autumnal leaves and splashing in the puddles outdoors. The children collected leaves which will be used next week in our art work to create an autumn scene.  Children discussed prior learning of the green cross code when out on our walk and also remembered some of the French language we had learnt for classroom commands, weather, months of the year and seasons.

On arrival back to school we got changed out of our wet clothes and enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate -made with warm milk- and some roasted marshmallows which were professionally roasted using a blow torch by the fabulous Kim.

See below for some photos;

We are delighted to announce that the North Rhins Partnership of Leswalt, Kirkcolm and Portpatrick Primary schools have been awarded national recognition in Education Scotland’s annual Learning for Sustainability awards.

Having been shortlisted, we achieved a Highly Commended accolade within the Sustainability Learning Community Award category. This is an outstanding achievement, having competed against early learning, childcare, and school settings across the whole of Scotland.

The awards recognise the commitment, professionalism and leadership that underpins Scotland’s success in innovating for Learning for Sustainability within educational settings.  Within Scotland’s curriculum, Learning for Sustainability (LfS) is recognised as an entitlement for all learners and a recent international study showed that our learners are world-leading global citizens.  The award is timely with the upcoming COP26 summit taking place in Glasgow in November.

The aim is to help us all recognise the amazing achievements of Scotland’s people and the settings, schools and communities that have demonstrated passion and commitment to building a socially-just, sustainable and equitable world.

The North Rhins Partnership was required to demonstrate our whole school/partnership approach that encourages individual and collective action to promote Learning for Sustainability.  This incorporated many factors such as supporting Global Goals, the UNCRC Rights of the Child, Rights Respecting Schools, Eco Schools and our strong pupil voice,; both within our school settings and as part of contributing to our wider community.  We are doing our bit to develop independent learners, effective contributors, confident individual and responsible citizens for the future!

The official results will be announced in the Daily Record within the next week.

 

As part of our Eco Schools action points, the children were set a challenge of designing an Eco Mascot for Portpatrick Primary. The requirements were to draw a mascot that represented our eco targets incorporating recycling features into their creation.

The entries were so good we decided to award a prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Here are the winning entries:

 

 

 

 

 

1st – Izzy White

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd – Ava Lily

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd – Alba White

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sammy has now taken pride of place on our Eco Display.

Linking across topics, the children in P5 – 7 also created party manifestos incorporating elements of Learning for Sustainability and the Rights of the Child. They canvassed their electorate and presented their manifesto speeches to the class.  A democratic vote was held and a coalition party was formed with the B.E.A. and Panther parties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done everyone!

The boys and girls Portpatrick Primary have been enjoying and celebrating maths Week Scotland in both classes. Below is a description of our week and some of the fantastic activities. Once again the children had lots of fun and laugher during Maths Week Scotland.

On Friday 24^th of September children took part in a STEM building activity on where they recreated a model version of Portpatrick Village. We used our map reading skills to create a scaled version of Portpatrick and then used our positional language to organise the models correctly.

On Monday the boys and girls took part in the Mini Olympic Challenge. Children were tasked with multiple activities which enabled them to train like real athletes. This included recording the number of each activity. Recording person bests and calculating improved times and calculating and measuring during distance throw. We all got in the spirit by having our very own flags too.

On Tuesday the children focused on Maths and careers. They discussed the different types of maths that people use in everyday life and how all careers use maths. We played a game to identify some of the obvious maths skills needed for each job and then smaller skills which are less obvious were awarded with higher points. We listened to some presentations from outside speakers and finished off by playing the “Game of life”.

On Wednesday the upper class took part in the live NFU lesson and found out how cheese is made on a farm. We calculated air miles and the importance of reducing air miles by using locally sourced food to create pizzas.

On Thursday we welcomed the Maths roadshow which provided pupils with the chance to engage in levelled problem-solving activities. Problems required the children to use multiple different aspects of maths as well as develop their teamwork and communication skills.

On Friday we took part in the big maths bake off. This involved measuring out ingredients, used and reading scales, following instructions and reading ordinal numbers. Children had to work as part of a team and organise themselves and all the equipment that they needed.

The older children made Cous Cous as a way of using and applying maths in recipe instructions.

 

P5 – 7 followed a village maths trail; using an applying observation and calculation to find maths in our local environment.

Primary 1 – 7 held a mini-Olympics as part of their Maths Week Scotland challenges.  The children watched a video from  Olympic athlete Eilish
McColgan all about how she uses maths in her training.  They then looked at some of the events that took place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and discussed where maths was used.  Not content with being spectators, everyone went outdoors and got active in a range of physical challenges.  The children timed their personal best to see how many of each activity they could complete within the timeframe allowed.

 

 

 

 

Next on the agenda was a live NFU session where P5 – 7 calculated air miles for just 3 toppings for making pizzas. The children then compared these ingredients with other choices to see if substitutions could be made to lesson air miles.  The focus was using our maths to calculate the environmental impact on food choices as part of learning for sustainability.

Every child participated in a Fun Maths Roadshow provided by D & G STEM.  Problem-solving activities were presented to learners in free-flowing carousel activity stations which encompassed both challenge and enjoyment. 

For our last day of this year’s Maths Week Scotland, Primary 5 – 7 followed a Portpatrick village maths trail.  The children had a range of questions to answer through observation and calculation.  As well as observing numbers around us, we had time durations, multiplication and addition questions to answer.  The children created their own informal questions to challenge each other as we walked around.

Here is a copy of the challenge if you fancy having a wee go for yourselves when you are having a stroll in the village.

 

 

 

 

 

Alternatively, here is a Mental Maths Trail for all the family that can be done from the comfort of your own homes.

North Rhins Partnership Family Mental Maths Trail

 

 

As part of their learning about Local and National Government with Miss Hayes, Primary 5-7 have formed their own political parties and been learning about democracy.  Pupils even made their own party political broadcast;

Well done to all – it could be a very close vote at the Polling stations!

P4 -7 got stuck into active learning for the start of this year’s Maths Week Scotland.  The theme for  2021 will be ‘Our World’. We will explore the importance of maths in understanding and responding to the climate emergency, as well as continuing to find the maths in the natural world around us. The theme links with our  commitment towards the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The children applied their STEM and HWB skills to make a  healthy and delicious plant-based cous cous recipe which helps reduce the impact on our planet’s resources (SDG 12, 13 & 15).  Using hygienic food practices, they had to read scales to measure ingredients and liquids, ensuring they had the right quantities.  They also had to apply their literacy and comprehension skills to understand and follow the steps required.

Everyone really enjoyed the taste and thought it was a great way to help munch your 5-A-Day.

 

If you would like to try the recipe at home, here is the link:

 

 

 

• I can use the common units of measure, convert between related units of the metric system and carry out calculations when solving problems. MNU 2-11b
• I can estimate how long or heavy an object is, or what amount it holds, using everyday things as a guide, then measure or weigh it using appropriate instruments and units. MNU 1-11a
• I can use a range of simple food preparation techniques when working
  with food TCH 1-04a
• I am developing dexterity, creativity and confidence when preparing and
  cooking food TCH 2-04a