Portpatrick Primary

Our environmentally conscious pupils rolled up their sleeves to look after our coastal habitats today. We were marking the occasion of World Water Day and we were participating in The Litter League Spring Clean 2024 – Keep Scotland Beautiful Campaign too. Our pupils happily marched down to the village beach, just catching the sunshine between showers.  The responsible children gave the area a good spring clean to help contribute positively to our communities. We were joined by Brenda from ONUS (Our Oceans Need Us) too.

There was lots of plastic to be found and the children had much discussion on being responsible with our litter and waste as we know it can harm marine and land wildlife, as well as being unsightly.

We worked in partnership with our local Community Safety Officers who arranged for the loan of litter picking equipment and organised the collection of the rubbish we found.

The activity fits in well with our Eco Schools Target for Litter and Waste. 

UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 24 Health, Water, Food & the Environment

Sustainable Development Goal: 13 – Life on Land, 14: Life below Water

SHANARRI – Responsible

What a day of fun and activities we had today! The whole school community came together to raise money for a very worthwhile local cause – Our Local Blood Bikes.

We started off events with a very well attended coffee morning. We were able to offer a cornucopia of delicious home baking donated by our village community. Our parents kindly gave their time to man the kettle and dish out sweet treats to everyone who came along. Whilst this was happening, Jenny who leads Envy Street Dance, gave the children a dance workshop. The children later performed their routine to entertain our audience.

Next on the agenda was Beat the Goalie with Mr Morrison. Lewis managed to get three goals in and was crowned the winner! Cameron was the winner of the sock challenge, pairing the most in a one minute dash. There was name the teddy, who is now crowned ‘Cookie’ and has gone to his new home with Barbara. There were lots of raffle prizes kindly donated by our community for our fundraising draw.

There was much excitement and hilarity as the children eagerly lined up to ‘soak the teacher’ in a sponge throwing challenge. Miss Shelley and Mrs Copeland were both great sports and had their waterproof mascara in place.

In the afternoon, the children were delighted to have Dave Hook, chairman and Garry Lansin, trustee, arrive on their brand new blood bikes named Heather and Natalie which were purchased through charitable donations in memory of loved ones.

The boys and girls asked lots of interesting questions to find out more about the voluntary service the Blood Bike team offer to help save lives in our rural community. They were thrilled to get to sit on the bikes.

Our house captains, Lewis and Atticus, and Ella proudly presented a cheque for an impressive £450.

To finish off the day, the children lined up to give lots of cheers to wave the gents off.

Our very grateful thanks to EVERYONE who made today possible.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 26: Social & Economic Help

Sustainable Development Goal – 3: Good health & Wellbeing, 10: Reduced Inequalities

SHANARRI – Responsible

Photo dump…

What a fantastic week of science we have had at Portpatrick primary school! On Monday, P5-7 were learning about inheritance and used ‘Reebops’ to explore different genetic information.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Hall from the STEM team taught the P1-4 class about construction. They were able to build different objects from cardboard, fitting pieces together with screws, joins and using screwdrivers and other tools. This provided some of the younger class with key skills for life.

Later on that day, Mrs. Hall enabled the children to learn about aerodynamics and drag! She used images and videos on the Promethean smartboard to demonstrate lift and drag, The children loved learning about which paper aeroplanes flew through the air quickest and adapted their planes to see if they could engineer a plane that flew through the air faster. They had a competition to see which parachutes could fall to the floor the slowest. This enabled the children to self evaluate their creations to see if they could design parachutes that achieved their learning goals. They considered various materials, size and strength / elasticity of parachutes to create designs with as much drag as possible.

Finally for Science Week, on Thursday we had a science afternoon where parents came in to participate in learning activities with the children. It was fantastic to see so many adults get involved. We had several stations where children could experiments with various scientific concepts. This included working with different properties of substance, friction, magnetism, building and identifying where vital organs are in the human body. Our younger pupils particularly enjoyed using the Code ‘n’ Go mouse to program instructions for the mouse to navigate a maze to get the cheese.

Our family visitors were able to scan a QR code at each station using the IPads. This accessed animated videos and information so we could all learn about the scientific principals behind that activity.

It was a great week, in which the children learned a variety of new concepts and had fun. Thank you to everyone who was involved!

UNCRC Rights of the Child –

Article 5 – Family guidance as children develop, Article 29 – Aims of Education.

SHANARRI – Nurtured, Achieving, Responsible.

On Monday 11th March, P1-4 joined a group of P7s to go to the North West Castle for the curling Bonspiel. We watched the older pupils from the cluster participate in the bonspiel. We have just completed a block of indoor curling for our PE and the class were very excited to see a curling rink and the equipment used on the ice. We had lots of discussions about what was happening and the differences between our indoor Kurling skates and the curling stones used on the ice. It was also interesting to find out how the targets and colours are made on the rink.

After watching some of the curling we took a short break to get a snack and explore the Garden of Friendship before jumping back on the bus and heading to the Ryan Centre for a play in Ryan’s Den!

The boys and girl had a fabulous time in the soft play area and enjoyed a little crisp buffet before returning to school for a classroom picnic!

All in all we had a fabulous morning at the North West Castle and the Ryan Centre. Many thanks to Mrs Henry for organising everything, Mrs Ross for accompanying us and to Wigtownshire Community Transport for getting us where we needed to be!

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture and Arts.

SHANARRI – Active, Included.

P7 pupils, Lewis, Scott, Max and Tilly, went along to the North West Castle Hotel for a inter-school end of season bonspiel today. The event was well attended by primary schools from across the cluster.

There was a great chance for meeting up for our P7 friends from across the partnership and to mingle with pupils from across the area.

The children first played Park 1. The result was

They did very well with a score of 1-6 against still competition. They won 2 – 1. They then played Drummore.

There was time for more mingling at lunch when we were seated with our opponents from round one to enjoy sandwiches, crisps, juice and a wee chocolate treat.

Portpatrick performed so well that they made it through the next stage and were paired against Leswalt. We are pleased to say that Team Port came 5th in the overall bonspeil results.

Our thanks to the staff at the North West Castle for a great day and to Mrs Ross for escorting our team to the event.

UNCRC Rights of the Child- Article 15: Setting up and Joining Groups

SHANARRI – Included

On Friday, Reverend Breakey came in to Portpatrick to make some Easter crafts with the children. They learned a range of sewing and technology skills and everyone was successfully able to make a miniature fabric bunny. These bunnies will be excellent for keeping the Creme eggs safe from any hungry parents!

Thank you very much to Reverend Elizabeth Breakey as well as Jean Ross and Avril Adams who supported the children with their stitching skills.

The children loved creating their egg holders and it was great for our learners to show their responsibility through community links.

UNCRC – Rights of the Children

Article 14 – Freedom of thought and Religion and Article 29 – Aims of Education

SHANARRI – Nurtured and Included

The whole school had a great yesterday for World Book Day. We did a ‘Secret Book Swap’ (a similar idea to Secret Santa), which the children loved. The children had books chosen by other peers which they would like… It really shows how well the children know each other!

We did a book chat, where children swapped partners (similar to a speed dating type idea), and told their partners about their favourite books, characters and plots. It was very interesting listening in to some of the conversations! We had a range of favourite books from Percy Jackson to Spiderman, from Goosebumps to Matilda and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Wings of Fire. There is plenty of enthusiasm from children at our school for reading.

We finished off the afternoon with a paired read where the younger class would read to the older class. We enjoyed the paired read with some chocolate and cocoa (which was Fairtrade – linking with Fairtrade fortnight.)

UNCRC Right of the Child –

Article 12 – Respect for Children’s Views, Article 17 – Access to Information.

SHANARRI – Nurtured, Respected and Included.

Why not enjoy reading together with £1 books from W.H. Smiths!

We are happy to share our refreshed Vision, Values and Aims now that our partnership school community surveys are completed. These are shaped by the good work of Mrs McHarg previously.

Our pupils, staff and parents have told us what is important to you for your child’s experiences and learning at school.

Please click here, or on the link below, and press play take a look at the results.

West Rhins Partnership

We have sought the views of our parents, staff and pupils to refresh our Vision, Values and Aims.

Go to this Sway

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 12 Respect for Children’s Views

SHANARRI – Included

Cameron and Harry represented Portpatrick at a celebratory Burns night for songs and recitals. This was held at the Ryan Centre on Wednesday 6th March.

Both boys gave excellent performances in a night where the standard was very high. Harry and Cameron both did the school very proud and showed great courage and confidence to perform in front of so many people.

They both showed ‘Walter Wellbeing’ as part of our partnership’s Vision, Values and Aims. Well done boys!

UNCRC Rights of the Child –

Article 3 – Best interests of the child. Article 31 – Rest, Play, Culture, Arts.

SHANARRI – Achieving, Responsible, Included.