"Anchored in Excellence"
As part of the Dumfries and Galloway Maths Week Scotland Competition, the three P3 girls, Ava Lily, Ruby and Maya, created their own song and dance all about why they love maths! They did this all on their own and practised their performance to this excellent standard.
Well done girls! I love maths so I’m with you! 🙂
(ps. apologies for the video being on its side!)
Primary 4 and 5 pupils enjoyed a jaunt into Stranraer Academy this morning.
They went to watch a performance by “Theatre in schools”. The performance today was called “Up to speed”, and the 2 performers captivated the whole audience for an hour. The children later got to try out some of the drama techniques they used in their performance . This performance was enjoyed by all Primary schools in the Stranraer cluster.
Our Trio schools have been having a very busy time participating in the Scottish Maths Week. The Scottish government has launched a brand new initiative to help everyone in our nation see maths positively. The aim is for everyone to experience the benefits, joy and beauty of maths in exciting new ways.
The children have had a full timetable of maths focussed activities:
We were joined by Susan McCourty, our local post mistress, Ali Cerexhe & Robert McQueen from our local lifeboat, Paul McQuillan – bus driver, Mr & Mrs Orr-Ewing – estate management, Miss Whorlow – electronics engineer and Miss Kerr – teacher. All shared how maths is needed in their jobs.
Friday saw the culmination of our maths week. The children engaged in a carousel of activities. They used their creativity to design maths promotion resources for the Scottish Maths week competiton; focussing on why we like and need maths in our life. This was expressed through posters, songs, poetry, art and rap by the children.
We were then given the opportunity to apply programming and robotics. The children used Lego WeDo to construct models and then use coding blocks to make the models perform actions. We had tilt aeroplane propellers spinning, footballer’s legs kicking and crazy birds twirling by the end of the session.
Everyone all loved their shared day with Leswalt & Kircolm on Friday, bringing an end to this important initiative. They enjoyed socialising and working together to produce fantastic maths work.
The trio schools were treated to a very special privilege yesterday. We were invited to attend a school trip to Corsewall lighthouse as part of its 200 year anniversary celebration. The event was kindly organised by Mike Bullock of the Northern Lighthouse Board, Mr John Ross and Mr Miller who also volunteer their time to the good work of the Northern Lighthouse Board.
The children were given a presentation teaching them all about the history of lighthouses and the work of the Northern Lighthouse Board. We were then given a tour up to the top of the lighthouse to experience the structure and mechanics first hand.
There are 212 lighthouses in Scotland and the Isle of Mann under the control of the Northern Lighthouse Board. Only 6 are open to the public. Corsewall lighthouse has never allowed a public trip so, we were given a very special honour to tour the structure on its very first school trip ever!
Primary 6 and 7 were very active today as they participated in a triathlon event at Stranraer Academy. Primary schools from all around our area came along to be active by swimming, cycling/scootering and running.
The children gave it their all and did us proud!
#effective contributors
This session was followed by a drama performance of Jason and the Argonauts. This was a revamped version with both humour and historical accuracy. The children behaved impeccably and represented our school well at both public events. We returned to school for a well earned lunch.
#responsible citizens
Following some fantastic application forms to become a member of the Pupil Council, Mrs Henry has elected 7 new representatives for the coming academic year. The successful applicants are; P1 – Atticus Orr-Ewing, P2 – Amelia Stapleton, P3 – Ruby Rankin, P4 – Liam MacDonald, P5/6 – Myles Hine, P5/6 – Olivia Cumming and P7 – Jenna Marshall. Well done to all of you 🙂
The pupil council will meet with Mrs Henry at least one per term to discuss important issues involving them and their school. They will have the chance to voice their opinions on how to make Portpatrick school even better and can also represent the views of all the other pupils too. Health and safety and learning and teaching are always on the agenda at each meeting.
Class 2 travelled to Wigtown in their role as Crime Scene Investigators as part of Dumfries and Galloway’s Science Fair for Schools.
An expensive painting had been stolen and the children were required to use their crime busting skills to identify the culprit. They applied a range of scientific and technological methods to analyse clues and evidence from the scene of the crime. They worked painstakingly to identify the following:
A real life CSI was on hand to demonstrate how to take fingerprints at the scene of the crime using a range of equipment. She discussed her career and the kinds of knowledge and skills that are needed in the role.
Once all the evidence had been gathered and analysed the children then came back together to discuss the list of suspects and make a conclusion as to who the art thief was. The crime was solved!
At the end of the session we all enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Lachlan. We enjoyed eating birthday cake even more!
P1-3 have been learning about Our Community. They went for an observational walk in Portpatrick village to identify the different kinds of places that could be found. They then carried out a sorting activity in the classroom by categorising the facilities they saw into:
#Successful Learners
We have been waiting patiently for a sunny day to allow us to participate in an outdoor shadow investigation. The weather today provided the ideal conditions for us to explore shadows around us. Class 1 & 2 worked collaboratively to undertake some, or all, of the following tasks as appropriate:
Class 2 are going to continue our science investigation by conducting a fair test that the boys and girls have designed. Mia is our control object that we will use to block the Sun and create a shadow. We will measure and record both the direction and length of the shadow at different times of day to observe any changes. She will stand in the same location each time. Class 2 have predicted that the direction and length will vary dependent on the position of the Sun in the sky! Do you think their prediction is correct?
# Successful Learners & Effective Contributors
Update – Today Class 2 completed our investigation into shadow direction, angle and length. We discovered that at the start of the day Mia’s shadow was long and got gradually shorter as the Sun was higher in the sky. The shadow length then began to reduce in the afternoon. Also, we measured the angle of the shadowa and it was moving approximately 20 degrees every hour!
Today, the whole school engaged in collaborative learning with their buddies from the opposite class. The boys and girls are preparing for careers in the future by learning how to complete job application forms. They have worked together to identify the personal skills and qualities they each have that would make them effective in the role of a pupil council representative. P4-7 are learning to use the skills of persuasion as part of their Literacy and Language learning this term.
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