Portpatrick Primary

Wow, what a busy day Portpatrick Primary had! The whole school was involved in a whirlwind of fun fundraising activities for Children In Need.

Class 2 were responsible citizens by organising and running the event.  This was part of their S.T.A.R target award scheme.  Every boy and girl participated fully in a fun packed day of activities.

There were lots of competitions and prizes.  The spottiest children from each class were judged by our catering manager, Barbara (see photo for winners).

Myles Hine successfully guessed the Panda Bear’s name as Bamboo and went home with a giant sized bear donated by Katie and Liam MacDonald.  It was so big he could hardly carry it! Lachlan Ross went ‘quackers’ by backing the winning duck in the Children In Need sweepstake race – Golden Duck. He was tickled pink when he won a huge George Pig donated by Jack Trafford.

The children had fun picking toys and books from our popular Bring and Buy sale.  They enjoyed munching a cake or two as a playtime treat even more!

The activities carried on into the afternoon when we all got social by dancing the Pudsey Reel to the Teddy Bear’s picnic. We were ably instructed by Mrs R. Henry and her twinkle toes.

Class 1 used their writing skills to compose thank you letters to all of our wonderful families who had supported our day, helping to make it a success.

In total we raised the very impressive amount of £189.05. Everyone will agree the boys and girls have done a ‘spotacular’ job of helping disadvantaged children in the U.K.

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Portpatrick Primary enjoyed an afternoon of Halloween fun and games organised by our very capable P7 pupils.  The entertainment committee planned an itinerary of spooky themed activities ranging from Mummy Makers to Musical Tombstones. Everyone enjoyed ‘dooking for apples’ followed a snack and a drink kindly donated by family and friends.  There were many prizes to be won too!

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Portpatrick Primary had a busy first day back at school for the new term today.  We have been selected to participate in the National Edina Trust’s Ecological Study: Spring Bulbs for Schools project.

As part of monitoring climate change and how this affects our eco-systems, the boys and girls will be testing a range of hypothesis on flowering plant growth.  They all planted crocuses and daffodils; both in tubs and in a bedded area using a fair scientific test.

Over a period of several months we will monitor the daily temperature, rainfall and growth of our plants to track how climate change is affecting early germination of plants in our country.  Our data will be compared with the other 173 schools in the U.K. participating in the project.  This will allow scientists to monitor the changing effects of temperature on plant life nationally.

We have been learning about what plants need to grow and how early flowering affects food chains for insects, birds etc. and thus our society. We have now named our plants and completed a bulb adoption promise to take very good care of them to help them thrive and grow.

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The parents, grandparents and pupils of Portpatrick Primary kindly gave their time to tidy the nature and the mound areas of our school this weekend.  They worked diligently to clear away overgrowth and nettles.  A few nettle stings were received for their efforts.  There was not one, but two horse box loads of garden waste removed and transported to the local tip for composting by Mrs MacDonald.  Thank you to everyone involved.

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The boys and girls of Portpatrick Primary donned their engineering hats today to take on construction challenges.

Primary 1 and 2 worked collaboratively to design and make objects from Lego component parts.  They had to plan out and build structures such as bridges and boats. They had to use imagination and creativity to come up with their ideas.

P3 – 7 used their soft skills to design geodesic domes using just paper straws, tape and scissors.  The teams approached the challenge in different ways, but were all successful in creating the overall hemisphere structure.

We then discussed and shared our experiences of learning from practical activities.  The children were able to explain how trial and error led to design modifications and an improved understanding of design challenges.

 

Well done to Olivia and her family for being chosen from the prize draw at Portpatrick school for the family maths puzzle competition!  Olivia and her family worked together to find solutions to a number of maths problems.  Olivia won a  box of ‘Numeracy heroes’ chocolates, a gold ‘Mighty Maths’ trophy as well as a certificate for her and the family.

Today, Portpatrick P4-7 travelled through to join their classmates at Leswalt for a Scottish Parliament Outreach workshop.  An Education Officer travelled down from Edinburgh to tell us all about how our system of democracy works in Scotland.

The children used electronic voting equipment to answer multiple choice questions on our Parliament and Democracy.  Innes was top for answering the most questions correctly, closely followed by Lachlan in second place.

The boys and girls split into groups to create their own manifestoes on a range of political issues.  We had the following issues represented:

• Save The Earth Party,
• Music Party
• School Party
• Sports Party
• Animal Welfare Party

Each group elected a leader and this person presented their manifesto to the class.  The children then voted using a traditional ballot system to elect their own ‘MSP’.  The Environmental Party was elected to represent us.

The children now have a stronger understanding of how politics function in Scotland and had a great time learning in a practical, interactive way.

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:

• Sumdog – national online maths competition
• Manga High Numeracy Ninjas competition
• Outdoor learning for numeracy/maths working with decimals
• Maths Madness – whole school number fun with songs etc.
• Maths games afternoon kindly attended by parents to help children enjoy maths through play
• Careers in our community speed interviews; where friends and family joined us to discuss how maths has a role in the world of work

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.