Portpatrick Primary

On Sunday, Portpatrick church hosted their annual carol service. It was a lovely service with local speakers telling us all about the true meaning of Christmas and why it is a special time of year.

A big well done to everyone who came along to the carol service, you all sang beautifully! A special well done goes to Jenna and Mia who both confidently did a Christmas reading in front of the whole congregation.

# Confident Individuals

Primary 4-7  have been learning about sound as part of their science topic this term.  They boldly took on the challenge of designing and constructing an instrument capable of making sound.  Many skills were used such as:

• identifying how sound might be produced
• selecting and joining materials
• using maths to calculate water volume ratios
• modifying the design to overcome problems
• testing
• decorating for visual appeal

There was an impressive array of creative ideas using pitch, percussion and wind to produce sound in a variety of ways.  Barbara judged the winning designs:

• 1st Rowan Harbottle
• 2nd Livvy Cumming
• 3rd Lee Gaunt

#Successful learners

Portpatrick Primary yet again proved what sporting heroes we are when our boys competed in the primary cluster badminton tournaments on Tuesday.  Lachlan and his partner from Rephad won gold in the the doubles match.  Lachlan also won a silver in the singles games.  Rowan achieved a very impressive quarter finalist ranking for his efforts.  Well done boys!

#confident individuals

Our girls have done us proud at the local primary cluster school badminton competition yesterday.  Rhian won gold in the girl’s singles tournament.  Jenna narrowly missed out on a medal by finishing a very impressive 4th. Rhian and Jenna also won bronze in the doubles matches.    Mia and Katie represented the school with sterling sportsmanship and effort.  Well done to all!

#Confident Individuals

 

P1-3 were very lucky and received fantastic gift bags full of literacy and numeracy activities and resources to take home and explore.  This included a selection of books, pencils, activity book and maths games included tropical trumps, snakes and ladders and a time/measure/money game.

Parents were invited in for the launch of these fantastic sets and older pupils took time to explore the gifts with the younger pupils.  This was lovely to observe 🙂

Primary 1-3 have been using their language skills to learn how to write letters for different purposes.  The children have been wondering what happens to our letters when we post them. To answer this quesion the boys and girls had a guest visit from Wullie Dougan, our local postie.

The children also had many other questions to ask him such as:

1. What would you do if there is no address on the letter?
2. How many parcels do you deliver in a week?
3. What uniform do you wear?

Wullie happily answered all the children’s queries.  For example, he explained that:

1. The Post Office always try to find a return address to send an unaddresed letter back.  After this, Royal Mail hold on to it for a period of time to see if someone comes in to claim it.
2. Stranraer would normally have 200 parcels for Amazon to deliver a week, but because of BlackFriday shopping week, he and his team had to deliver 500 this week alone.
3. Wullie has 3 hats; a cap, a sun hat and a woolie hat for winter time, which he is very glad he has just now on these cold mornings. He also explained that he must wear a bright jacket to be easily seen, which is especially helpful in the dark winter days.

The children had a great day learning all about our postal service and our thanks go to Wullie for coming along to share his job experiences with the children.

 

 

Wow, what a busy day Portpatrick Primary had! The whole school was involved in a whirlwind of fun fundraising activities for Children In Need.

Class 2 were responsible citizens by organising and running the event.  This was part of their S.T.A.R target award scheme.  Every boy and girl participated fully in a fun packed day of activities.

There were lots of competitions and prizes.  The spottiest children from each class were judged by our catering manager, Barbara (see photo for winners).

Myles Hine successfully guessed the Panda Bear’s name as Bamboo and went home with a giant sized bear donated by Katie and Liam MacDonald.  It was so big he could hardly carry it! Lachlan Ross went ‘quackers’ by backing the winning duck in the Children In Need sweepstake race – Golden Duck. He was tickled pink when he won a huge George Pig donated by Jack Trafford.

The children had fun picking toys and books from our popular Bring and Buy sale.  They enjoyed munching a cake or two as a playtime treat even more!

The activities carried on into the afternoon when we all got social by dancing the Pudsey Reel to the Teddy Bear’s picnic. We were ably instructed by Mrs R. Henry and her twinkle toes.

Class 1 used their writing skills to compose thank you letters to all of our wonderful families who had supported our day, helping to make it a success.

In total we raised the very impressive amount of £189.05. Everyone will agree the boys and girls have done a ‘spotacular’ job of helping disadvantaged children in the U.K.

# Effective Contributors

Portpatrick Primary enjoyed an afternoon of Halloween fun and games organised by our very capable P7 pupils.  The entertainment committee planned an itinerary of spooky themed activities ranging from Mummy Makers to Musical Tombstones. Everyone enjoyed ‘dooking for apples’ followed a snack and a drink kindly donated by family and friends.  There were many prizes to be won too!

#Effective Contributors/Confident Individuals

Portpatrick Primary had a busy first day back at school for the new term today.  We have been selected to participate in the National Edina Trust’s Ecological Study: Spring Bulbs for Schools project.

As part of monitoring climate change and how this affects our eco-systems, the boys and girls will be testing a range of hypothesis on flowering plant growth.  They all planted crocuses and daffodils; both in tubs and in a bedded area using a fair scientific test.

Over a period of several months we will monitor the daily temperature, rainfall and growth of our plants to track how climate change is affecting early germination of plants in our country.  Our data will be compared with the other 173 schools in the U.K. participating in the project.  This will allow scientists to monitor the changing effects of temperature on plant life nationally.

We have been learning about what plants need to grow and how early flowering affects food chains for insects, birds etc. and thus our society. We have now named our plants and completed a bulb adoption promise to take very good care of them to help them thrive and grow.

#Effective Contributors

The parents, grandparents and pupils of Portpatrick Primary kindly gave their time to tidy the nature and the mound areas of our school this weekend.  They worked diligently to clear away overgrowth and nettles.  A few nettle stings were received for their efforts.  There was not one, but two horse box loads of garden waste removed and transported to the local tip for composting by Mrs MacDonald.  Thank you to everyone involved.

#Effective Contributors