Portpatrick Primary

As part of Safer Internet Day (SID)2020, we would like to highlight available support and advice information for parents and carers that may be of interest to you.  A great  source for family home resources and information is the SID website link, as shown below:

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2020/i-am-parent-or-carer

The site contains a wide range of materials that can be used to talk to your child about online safety this Safer Internet Day. This includes activities, conversation starters and information to help parents and carers talk to their children about how to navigate the issue of online identity in a digital age in a safe, responsible and respectful way.

Attached is a sample Family Internet Safety Planner that allows you to formulate your own approach to internet safety in your home environment.  There is also a resource sheet detailing links to further sources of information.  Both are downloadable directly from this blog or from the website above.

Why not use the prompts shown in the image (click to enlarge), and below, to see how you can start a conversation with your child using the top 5 tips to keep our young people safe online. :

Our internet, our choice, so…

1. Choose to have a conversation

   Talk regularly with your child about how they use technology, and find out what their digital life is like, including what their favourite sites and services are and also how being online makes them feel. Listening to your child will give you the best possible idea of how you can support them. Not sure where to begin? Have a look at our suggested conversation starters for parents.

2. Choose to take a balanced approach

   As parents it’s natural to feel worried about the risks posed by your child being online, but for young people the online world is exciting and fun, as it brings so many opportunities for them. Remember that your child will use technology and the internet differently given that they are growing up in a world immersed in all things digital. Try to look at both the positive and negative aspects of being online and empower your child with safe choices they can make instead of overwhelming them with restrictions.

3. Choose to make use of the tools available to you

   There are lots of tools to help you manage the devices used by your family. For example, knowing how to activate and use parental controls can help protect your child from seeing inappropriate content online. For advice and guidance on how to make use of parental controls and other safety features on devices, check out our free Parents’ Guide to Technology and Internet Matters’ step-by-step parental controls guides for online services. 

4. Choose to get help and support

   It can sometimes feel like young people are the experts in all things digital but remember – you are the life experts. You are always there to help your child but make sure you know how to get support too by visiting our Need Help? page. You can take steps to support your child online by using features such as privacy settings on social media and understanding how to make a report on a range of apps, games and services.

5. Choose to be current and topical

   This Safer Internet Day focuses on the very relevant topic of consent in the digital world. Use this as an opportunity to support your child with how they tackle digital consent within relationships and friendships as well as how online services use the data we provide. Use our quick activities as a family this Safer Internet Day to help you unpick this topic together.

   # Responsible Citizens

Parents and Carers – Family internet safety plan

Parents and Carers – Resource sheet

Throughout January, the boys and girls have been busy with some Scots challenges – they had to learn their Scots poem and practise reciting it with great gusto; write out their poem in their best handwriting; and create a piece of artwork linked to their poem.

On Tuesday, Mr John Ross had the difficult and unenviable task of judging the competition – we had a few joint winners, he just couldn’t choose!!

Lots of parents, family members and friends of the school then joined us on Wednesday for our Scot Showcase assembly, to celebrate the pupils’ successes. They were presented with certificates and entertained the audience with recitals and some Scots songs.

A huge well done to all the pupils for their efforts. Below is a list of the winners:

Recitation winners

P.1         Ode tae a spider     

1^st Rebecca Connor  2^nd Stephen Ross

P.2         Twa Leggit Mice          

1^st Carter Henderson 2^{nd equal} Louise Webb & Erin Harbottle

P.3         The Sair Finger         

1^st Cameron McNeil 2^nd Atticus Orr-Ewing 3^rd equal Lewis Mcquillan & Conor Ritchie

P.4         The Bogle        

1^st Rose Santangeli  2^nd Jack Trafford  3^rd Sophia Schofield

P.5         The Wee Kirk Moose  

1^st equal  Maya McNeill & Ava Lily Orr-Ewing 2^nd Ruby Rankin  3^rd Isabella White

P.6/7     Address tae the Haggis  or Willie Wastle

1^st Findlay Thorburn  2^nd Robin McLean  3^rd Finlay Schofield

Illustration winners

P.1        Rebecca Connor

P.2        Erin Harbottle

P.3        Lewis McQuillan

P.4        Jack Trafford

P.5        Alba & Isabella White

P.6/7    Lillie Baker

Handwriting winners

P.1         Rebecca Connor

P.2         Erin Harbottle

P.3         Tilly Gordon

P.4         Jack Trafford

P.5         Ava Lily Orr-Ewing

P.6/7     Lillie Baker

P4-7 braved the chilly day today to pop outside to have an outdoor maths session.  The focus was measurement, perimeter and area.

P6 & 7 measured the length and breadth of our football pitch in metres.  They recorded their length as 17m by 30m. They calculated that the perimeter  was 94m and the area was 510 metres squared.

P4 & 5 measured the length and breadth of the paving slab, which was 60cm by 90cm.  We calculated the perimeter as 300cm (3m).  The area was 60 x 90 cm = 540cm squared. ( Some took an extra challenge of working in decimals: 0.6. x 0.9=  0.54 m squared)

As it was so chilly, we popped back inside and worked out the area and perimeter of our P.E. hall.  Some children worked in whole numbers, whilst others worked accurately to 1 decimal place. The children produced a scale drawing of the measured area using cm squared paper.

We then applied real life problem solving to work out costs of placing a border around the hall  and the price of carpeting the hall (differentiated by price per metre).

# Successful Learners

This week, at the North West Castle. They spent the afternoon with members from the rotary club and representatives from 12 other schools , listening to speakers and taking part in a quiz all about RHET. The quiz invited them to list reasons why children benefit from visiting farms. Well Done to Finlay Schofield who joined up with Team Leswalt and  got First Prize and some gummy bears. Afterwards they enjoyed a delicious lunch . The boys had a fantastic time and enjoyed representing our school.

All the boys and girls have been very busy applying their S.T.E.A.M. skills in the context of our Scottish Burn’s celebrations. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Maths)

The children were set a home challenge of producing an artistic creation to represent the theme of the Scottish poems they have each been learning.  We have been so impressed by the standard and variety of entries.  We have models, dioramas, fabric craft AND artwork!  Our pupils have been applying a wide range of STEAM skills such as designing, selecting materials, measuring, combining, cutting, sticking, sewing, shaping, decorating and even wiring electric lights to name but a few – Wow!

The judges will have a very hard time selecting a winner from each category.  Well done everyone!

Thank you to every family for their support in this challenge.  We hope you enjoyed being creative together.

# Successful Learners

As part of our Scottish celebrations P4-7 has been learning about the legend of the Kelpies.  Mrs Copeland, our resident art specialist, showed the children artwork and images of kelpies as depicted in traditional folklore.  She then demonstrated the technique of creating tint and shade by adding white and black to, in this case, a blue pallet was practiced.

The children have now applied those techniques for themselves and have taken great care and attention with their artistic creations. They have all produced very lovely images which are now on display for all in school to see.

# Successful Learners

Thanks to the Portpatrick Community Council, our Eco committee have purchased some new gardening equipment. This will help us set up a gardening club in the summer term, with a view to holding a plant sale prior to the summer holidays. Have a peek at the photo below of our Eco committee pupils displaying some of their new gardening goodies!

Miss Whorlow has been working very hard on developing STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) across our 3 schools. 

Here she has showcased some of the STEM activities which have taken place at Portpatrick recently

STEM at Port

Miss Whorlow had spent a great deal of time putting together a submission which shows off all the STEM work in our 3 schools.  We hope that this will be verified by Education Scotland as one of the pilot schools in the STEM nation awards.  The power point is all hyper linked.  If you click on it, it leads onto further examples and documents of all the amazing work.

STEM Nation Award

Thanks you Miss Whorlow for all of your hard work in driving this forward for us!

P4-7 got their geneticist heads on today.  We have used our links with Stranraer Academy to borrow their Inheritance primary  loan kit. The children have been learning about how lifeforms inherit their physical and biological characteristics from their parents.

Using the Academy reebop resource, the pupils selected chromosomes from a mum and dad reebop.  Dependent on the combination selected, they then constructed the baby reebop traits to match the ‘building block’ code. You can see the wide diversity of appearance that our reebop babies have inherited.

# Successful Learners