Portpatrick Primary

A trio partnership science morning was the order of the day at Portpatrick Primary today. Pupils and family in our  P4 – 7 classes from Kircolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick came together to participate in a wide range of STEM based activities (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) as part of British Science Week.

The showpiece of the event was a mobile planetarium provided by the Galloway Forest Astronomical Society, organised by Mrs Ferguson.  Mr Antony Berretti, Dr Douglas Snell, Mr Hunter McCall and Mr Brian Rice, gave up their time voluntarily to bring a night sky experience to the children.  We were taken on a journey through the planets and moons of our Milky Way, learning fascinating facts on our travels. P1-3 were also treated to a session as an added bonus.  This resource has been kindly funded by the Kilgallioch Community Fund and is being made available to schools within our region.

The planetarium will be part of the attractions on offer to all ages on Saturday 9th March during the weekend programme for the Wigtown Big Bang Weekend event. (11-4pm, £5 per entry).  There are visiting astronomical dignitaries scheduled to attend the weekend.

When not in the planetarium, the pupils were given a carousel of hands-on challenges to select from; ranging from electrical circuits to tower construction and from pin the organ on the body to parachute making.  For example, they had to design an electrical circuit that would sound an alarm in the event of a flood.  Our little engineers didn’t let us down and were up to the challenges of all the problems presented to them.

There was even an opportunity for social time during break, which the children made full use of.

P1-3 will not miss out as they will have their science event this coming Friday.

#Successful Learners

 

Well done to Rowan and Rhian who  competed in the Wigtownshire badminton championships at Newton Stewart, last night.

After many games, Rowan was awarded a bronze medal for being placed 3rd in the boys competition.

And, for the second year in a row, Rhian was the Wigtownshire Girls badminton champion.  Rhian only dropped 3 points in the whole of the tournament – amazing skills Rhian!

Many thanks must go to Jean Ross who has helped coach pupils in badminton over the years.  I am sure she will be as proud of them as we are.  Little Portpatrick certainly has badminton talent!

As part of Safer Internet Day (SID), our Digital Leaders organised an optional whole school competition: P1-3 were to design a poster all about Smartie the Penguin’s message for staying safe online; P4-7 were to design an internet safety leaflet. Today, the Digital Leaders got together to look at all the entries and vote for the winner. We are delighted to announce that Izzy White’s leaflet won! Well done to everyone who took part, and to Izzy for your fabulously informative leaflet!

Izzy’s leaflet will be copied and sent home to parents along with a ‘Digital Parenting’ magazine, which contains lots of useful tips and articles about keeping children safe online. Look out for these in your child’s school bag!

Today at assembly, all pupils received a small cardboard battery box as part of the Big Battery Hunt. This is a recycling scheme which we have signed up to as part of our Eco Schools work. Pupils should fill the boxes at home with used batteries, before bringing them into school and emptying them into the large plastic containers in the hall. These will then be sent away to be recycled. As long as we arrange for a tub of batteries to be collected before June, our school will be entered into a prize draw to win various goodies including: iPads, £2000 worth of school equipment vouchers, a 2-night trip to a sustainability centre, or a 3-year subscription to ‘MyMaths’ worth £1000.

Please pass on the message that your batteries can be recycled at Portpatrick School! Thank-you in advance for your support in this initiative.

The Pupil Council and Eco Committee would like to say a huge thank-you to the Parent Council for purchasing a new bin for our playground. We hope this will help keep our playground clean and tidy! Thank-you again!

P1-3 donned their archaeological hats for the morning when they travelled back in time to Ancient Egypt with Kathryn Purchase from History Alive.

The session began with a bang as Kathryn arrived in a full ‘Howard Carter’ style costume with a giant hieroglyph display.   She took the children through the location and background of Ancient Egypt and asked them to think about how we can possibly know anything about people who lived 5000 years ago.

She introduced archaeological evidence left behind by the Ancient Egyptians and encouraged the children to think about what this tells us about the lives of those people so long ago.

The boys and girls learned about the social hierarchy of Egypt from slaves and peasant to Pharaohs. There was much discussion about the lives they led and how they compare to our own today.  Homes, jobs, games, clothes, food and worship, and much more were all explored.

The children were particularly fascinated by the ancient Gods, tombs and mummification process!

Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to dress up in Ancient Egyptian costumes and to have a hands-on exploration of artefacts.  There was even an opportunity to carry out an archaeological dig using a sand box to reveal treasures. The boys and girls carefully scraped and brushed sand away to see what they could uncover. There was an opportunity to write their names in hieroglyphs and complete puzzles.

The children had a fantastic morning and learned lots of new information to help with their topic.  The class now say that , “Many of us want to be archaeologists when we grow up!”

#Successful Learners

 

Primary 5-7 pupils from Leswalt, Kirkcolm and Portpatrick Primary Schools headed to Lockerbie Manor on Wednesday for a 3-day outdoor residential trip.

After stopping at Springholm Primary for some lunch and to stretch our legs, we reached Lockerbie Manor early in the afternoon. Everyone was given a tour of the building and grounds by the instructors and got shown to their rooms. After a quickly unpacking, we split into 4 groups and headed to our first activity. Activities included archery, rifle shooting, obstacle course, climbing wall, abseiling, orienteering, fencing, canoeing and kayaking. After activity one, some pupils required a shower as they were caked in mud after army-crawling on their bellies underneath netting! By this time we had worked up quite an appetite, and were served with the most delicious dinner – what a selection on offer! At night time, we had an evening activity before getting all cosy in our jammies and spending time getting to know pupils from the other partnership schools.

Day 2 saw an early morning wake-up call at 7.20am. We had 5 activities spread out over the day, with some pupils getting an early afternoon bath after falling into the lake whilst kayaking! That night, having been exhausted from all the physical activity, pupils were sound asleep before 11pm – much to the staff’s delight!!

On Friday morning, we were up early to get our rooms packed and emptied. Some rooms looked like a bomb had hit them, there were clothes everywhere! We then headed out for our final 2 activities before the bus arrived at 1.30pm to return us to Stranraer. It was a very quiet journey back, with lots of pupils catching some shut-eye!

Everyone had a brilliant time away, making new friends across the partnership and trying new activities.

Photos below from day 3:

 

Primary 5-7 have reached Lockerbie Manor on a 3 school, 3 day adventure of outdoor education and fun!

After a lunch stop at Springholm Primary they went onto Lockerbie and have unpacked and are now off on their first activity.  They are all very happy and excited campers!