Portpatrick Primary

This afternoon we were delighted to welcome Cal Major into our school. Cal is currently travelling from Lands End to John O groats on her paddle board in a bid to raise awareness around the plastic pollution in our oceans.

“Paddle Against Plastic hopes to inspire and empower positive change, and bring hope and pride in being part of the solution.”

Cal, a veterinary surgeon, describes herself as an ocean advocate who is passionate about connecting people with the ocean and protecting it and its ecosystems.

Cal was speaking to the children about how plastic ends up in the sea, how we can help and how we can reduce our consumption of single use plastic.

Here are some of her top tips;

• Help to raise awareness of the issue in a positive way
• Participate in a beach clean
• Remove fishing nets from the beaches
• Buy a reusable water bottle
• Don’t flush litter down the toilet
• Take reusable bags with you when you go shopping

Cal then very kindly shared with us some fantastic videos of her journey. It was lovely to watch the images of our dramatic coastline as well as some clips of the animals that she has encountered along the way.

Her final message is not to feel guilty or negative about the current situation but to focus on what we can do instead of what we can’t. Every little helps as they say and doing something is better than nothing. Thanks again to Cal for giving up her time to come and visit us at Portpatrick Primary.

 

Primary 4-7  took advantage of the good weather to hit the ground running in our outdoor maths by playing Hula Hoop Place Value.

We positioned hoops to represent units, tens, hundreds, thousands and ten thousands etc. Each pupil was then given a digit between zero to nine and asked to stand in a hoop , displaying their number.

The children had to read and say the number we made. We experimented by rearranging the digits into different hoops; read and said them again, taking care to pay attention to the value of each digit based on its place in order. We also introduced decimal hoops for tenths and thousandths to add extra challenge.

We further increased the difficulty by putting two people into some hoops to make 10 or more. We then had to decide what we would do next e.g. 2+8= 10 units so put one more in the next tens hoop and put a zero in the existing hoop.

It was a lovely way to start our day.

# Successful Learners

It’s the start our our new school year 2019-2020!

Everyone arrived at school looking so smart and with big smiles on their faces.  We are looking forward to the year ahead.

The school community gathered today to say goodbye to our P7 pupils and to celebrate success throughout the year.  Awards were presented for the following:

100 % Attendance:

Alba White, Ruby Rankin, Rhian Palmer (3)

Responsible Pupil Awards:

P1-3 – Girl – Annabelle Thorburn Boy – Atticus Orr-Ewing

P4-7 Girl – Olivia Cumming Boy – Findlay Thorburn

Accelerated Reading:

Star reader in p2 – Lewis Mc Quillan

Star reader in p3 – Rose Santangeli

Star reader in p4 – Ava Lily and Alba

Star reader in p5/6 – Findlay Thorburn

Star reader in p7 – Rhian Palmer

Word millionaire:

Ava Lily

Platinum Rainbow Tables:

Findlay Thorburn, Ava Lily Orr Ewing & Lillie Baker

Platinum Rainbow Spelling:

Rhian Palmer

STAR awards – gold recipients:

Ruby, Max, Alba, Isabella, Liam , Rhian, Lewis

Barbara Lunch Helper Award:

Izzy White

Sporting success:

Footballers – Lee, Rhian and Rowan

Badminton: Rhian

Sports champions:

Junior Boy – Cameron

Junior girl – Erin

Senior girl- Rhian

Senior boy- Rowan

Artistic award Eileen Mc Donald Cup:

Ava Lily Orr Ewing

Literacy p1-3 Erin p4-7 Rowan

Numeracy p1-3 Jack p4-7 Ruby

HWB p1-3 Sophia P4-7 Lee

Endeavour award – Alba White

REACH award – P1-3 Rose P4-7 Lillie

Songs were sung to entertain the audience and to express the sentiment of the day.

Goodbyes, thank you’s and good wishes were said to Mrs Warwick, Mrs Wither, and Mrs Leek for their hard work throughout the year.  Sian Roberts was thanked for her years of service on the parent council.

Mrs Baillie expressed thanks to all staff and parents for their help and support throughout the year.  Mrs McHarg also thanked Mrs Baillie for her dedicated efforts.

We rounded off the day with a quick trip to the beach for a toe paddle and a play in the glorious sunshine.  Let summer commence!

#Effective Contributors

 

Our P7’s enjoyed a social evening dining out at the Mount Stewart to mark the occasion of their moving on to Stranraer Academy.  Rowan, Rhian, Livvy, Myles and Lee had the pleasures of a meal together in the sun room.  They then moved on to enjoy the sunshine in the village with just one more day left at primary school.

We wish them all the very best of luck on their new adventure.

#Time for a new chapter

The whole school tootled off in the glorious sunshine to enjoy a day trip to the Cream of Galloway yesterday.

P1-3 participated in a farm tour to learn about the farming industry.  They saw where the cows are milked and then toured the byres.  The children learned that the cows have massaging brushes to keep themselves in tip-top condition.  All the cows were grazing happily outdoors. Cream of Galloway pride themselves in their treatment of their livestock, allowing as much outdoor time as possible for both mothers and calves.

P4-7 learned about manufacturing and experienced a Sundae making workshop.  The children selected their own flavours of ice-cream, added sauce (lots!) and toppings (lots and lots!).  They then went up to the viewing gallery to look down at the factory.  Here, cheese and ice-cream are made in the vats; enough to fill a swimming pool each year. We learned about packaging design to appeal to customers.

After that, it was Go Boing, where all things bouncy was the order of the day.  Everyone enjoyed climbing the six story 3D maze and scooting down the slides too.  There was lots to keep everyone entertained.

P1-3 enjoyed an ice-cream of their choice after their lunch.  P4-7 were all ice-creamed out from their earlier treat. It was all too soon time to return to the bus for the journey home.  There were a few ‘zzzzz’ to be heard from the tired, but happy crew.

 

Tuesday saw all 3 of our North Rhins partnership schools come together for a morning of exploration and an afternoon of inter-school sports fun. Pupils from Portpatrick and Kirkcolm travelled to Leswalt, who hosted the event for the first time. After arriving, the boys and girls made their way up to the Aldouran Wetlands for some fun in the gardens.

They then made their way back to school for a picnic lunch outside, and enjoyed getting to know and play with pupils from the other schools. Just as we were ready to head to the village park to begin our sports, the rain started – but it didn’t damped our spirits! Thankfully, the shower passed and it was a lovely warm afternoon for the boys and girls to cheer on their own schools – they were all getting very competitive and were keen for their school to be the overall winner of the afternoon!

There were various races for pupils to participate in, including sprint, skipping, sack, egg & spoon, distance and a relay. After counting up the points and working out the scores proportionately given the differing numbers of pupils in the 3 school, Portpatrick were the overall winners of the afternoon, with Leswalt in 2^nd place and Kirkcolm in 3^rd.

A huge thank-you must go to Lidl who supported the event for the 2^nd year running, by providing water and fruit for the pupils to enjoy – they were well in need of this after the distance race! Also to the Brown family, who transported the equipment from the school to the park for us. The pupils had a wonderful afternoon mixing with other boys and girls in their year group across the 3 schools and are looking forward to our next get together already!

Tractor Tom, aka Tom McKie (Sophia’s Papa) visited the school this week to allow P1-3 to learn more about how tractors are used to help with farming.

The children learned about the different parts of the tractor and what they are used for to lessen the workload for busy farmers.  Each pupil eagerly took advantage of the chance to sit in the tractor.  Tractor Tom then took the tractor for a quick spin and a toot in the playground to show off its manoeuvrability.

# Successful Learners

Today, P3-6 linked up with Thornton Primary STEAM Team as part of a live SSERC Cook-Along GlowMeet session.  Along with up to 100 schools throughout Scotland, we shared a video link that guided us through the science behind blasting off our home made rocket mice launchers.

The children carried out a practical science activity to explore the forces acting upon our rockets. We observed the upward thrust produced by quickly ‘clap-smacking’ our milk bottles rockets to launch our home made mice astronauts.  The quick expulsion of air from the bottles created an upward propulsion system.  We discussed  how air resistance and gravity worked against the mouse’s upward thrust.

We recycled our unwanted milk cartons to do our bit for the environment. 🙂

You can watch a replay of the launch on the video link below.

#Successful Learners

MVI_1600

Following on from our Careers in the Community assembly, Carolyne the veterinary nurse returned with vet Steve to share more of their experiences of working as a mixed practice in the Stranraer area; both with domestic and farm animals.

They were accompanied by the ever popular Dougal the Cockapoo.  Dougal kindly volunteered to let the children give him a medical assessment.  They listened to his heartbeat through stethoscopes and inspected his ears to check they were clean and healthy.  The boys and girls proved excellent vets, taking gentle care of Dougal. He was more than happy to be groomed and pampered during his visit.  He was the star of the show!

#Successful Learners