Portpatrick Primary – Page 20 – "Anchored in Excellence"

Eco – Willow Dome Maintenance

Primary 5 – 7 helped Sian give the willow dome a much needed trim today. Sian enlisted the help of the children to cut back the stems of willow. The boys and girls managed risk safety using loppers and secateurs appropriately. Everyone helped sort the cut willow strips into piles of small, medium and large. These were re-weaved back into the dome structure.

Sian explained how we weave backwards, ending with the cut end which can then be pushed into the soil at the edge of the structure. These strips will then form roots and regrow, ready for the process to repeat.

Active Schools Badminton

Our pupils were delighted to welcome Alison and Mrs Ross back for lunchtime badminton sessions today. This will continue to be offered for several weeks, each Monday.

The children were very enthusiastic and there was lots of team spirit evident as they played Champion vs. Challenger matches.

Alison also presented certificates to our P5 – 7 pupils, who had previously completed the Active Schools Athletic Challenge. This comprised 20 different physical challenges to be completed by all.

Thank you to Alison and Mrs Ross for taking the time to provide this opportunity to the boys and girls. And, well done to our super active crew!

Fire Safety Talk

Today, with Bonfire Night just around the corner, we received a safety talk from the fire brigade to help keep us safe.

Robert came along from our local fire station to advise the children on how to enjoy fireworks and bonfires safely. He talked about the the laws and dangers surrounding fireworks and fires. He also instructed everyone on what to do if clothing caught fire. Everyone tried on filtered glasses to experience the impact of eyesight damage from a firework. Atticus showed us how to hold a sparkler safety and Stephen demonstrated the Stop-Drop ‘n’ Roll strategy beautifully for us. We were also reminded of the need to be respectful of the very important job the fire services, and indeed all the emergency services, do to keep us safe.

There was lots of discussion and many a question from the pupils as they fully engaged in the safety briefing. It was a very informative session. Thank you Robert.

# Resposible Citizens

Kitchen Coos and Ewes

P1-4 were joined by Leswalt and Kirkcolm Infants classes on Thursday morning for a trip to Kitchen Coos and Ewes owned by the lovely Neale and Janet McQuistin. All 50+ of us bundled onto the trailer and headed to the hills where we quickly caught the eye of 30 Highland ‘coos’ 🐮

The friendly bunch of coos followed us up through the hillside while Janet explained to us how the coos are fed, how their coats and horns grow and most impressively of all, how she managed to remember all of their fabulous names – including Madonna, Rihanna and Britney. 🎤

Of course we couldn’t take a trip to New Luce without a visit to their play park, so we enjoyed a little snack and a play before heading back to school on the bus after a fun-filled and well enjoyed farming trip 🙂

# Successful Learners

Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award Success

We are delighted to announce that the North Rhins Partnership primary schools in the Rhins has achieved a Silver Rights Respecting School Award by UNICEF UK. Leswalt, Kirkcolm and Portpatrick primaries have worked collaboratively to meet the standards for this UNICEF prestigious accreditation.

UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation working for children and their rights. The Rights Respecting Schools Award is granted to schools that show commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others in school. Silver is given to schools that make excellent progress towards embedding the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into its ethos and curriculum.

Mrs Baillie, said, “Having achieved our Bronze award in 2021, we are all very proud to have now to celebrate achieving our Silver award. Our school community has worked very hard to embed children’s rights in everything we do. We can see the positive impact of the Award on pupils and the school as a whole. Thank you to our responsible pupils, staff and families for working together to make this achievement possible.”

The Award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s planning, policies and practice. A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.

The UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools initiative is aimed at schools across the UK. Schools have reported a positive impact on pupil behaviour, relationships and well-being by enhancing pupils’ self-esteem, leading to less truancy and bullying, better learning and improved academic standards.

Have a read of our report: Kirkcolm-Leswalt-Portpatrick_RRS Report

We can now proudly display our Rights Respecting Schools Silver Logo!

Halloween Hoolie

It’s the first day back, and what a blast we had for our Halloween fun!

First up was a bit of spooky foodie fun. We made frozen banana ghosts and chocolate strawberry mini ghosts. In all the excitement, we forgot about them, so they will be a treat to enjoy tomorrow.

Next up was a bit of pumpkin carving. Nothing went to waste as we scattered the seeds for the birds, which is full of vitamins A & C. We then proudly displayed our pumpkins ready for our Halloween party that afternoon.

We got outdoors in the fresh air for a Halloween Halloween puzzle trail. The children had to sprint round our outdoor space to find clues to reveal Halloween themed nouns. We then checked our answers using QR codes. There were lots of 10/10 scores from our clever cookies!

In the afternoon, our motley crew donned a very scary array of costumes ready for party time. Our house captains Katie and Atticus did a great job of organising activities and running a smooth ship for all the party games. There was a treat for everyone, not just our party game winners!

What a great social start to Term 2. Happy Halloween everyone!

# Effective Contributors

It’s Off To The Farm We Go!

As part of learning where our food comes from, P1 – 4 donned their wellies and headed off to a farm visit courtesy of Jacqui, Scott and Gregor Service.

The children have been studying farming in school, so today came to see that in action. They met the calves and learned all about their breeds, what they feed on, how they are looked after and how Scott and Gregor manage them. They also got to have some fun acting as cows in the Cattle Crush and enjoyed exploring the tractor and quad bike.

They finished with a walk up to the wind turbines to talk about how the farm is being more sustainable, generating ‘green’ energy to do it’s bit to help protect our planet.

The children were full of enthusiasm and chatter. Thank you so much to the Service Family and RHET for a great learning experience.

# Successful Learners

Lego Wedo Workshop

Mrs Hall of DG STEM Team joined us today to deliver a Lego Wedo Coding Workshop to P5 – 7 pupils.

The children explored the component parts in the construction kit before using bluetooth to pair their controller to their IPad.

Using a theme of sustainable sources of energy to fit with our science and social studies topic, the children built a wind turbine from a schematic diagram. Next, they assembled the coding blocks to turn the blades. As an extension, the boys and girls varied the r.p.m. of the blade rotation and also changed to direction of rotating – pulsed and fixed.

The next challenge was to take what we had learned about turning motors and varying speeds to construct a moon rover. The children thought hard on which coding blocks to use to make the rover move forwards and backwards, change light colour and make sounds. As an even bigger challenge, they were tasked with what construction part to make the rover turn. This was achieved by reducing the size of one of the wheels on the front axle. This changed the rotation rate of one of the wheels, thus creating a turn.

Thank you to Mrs Hall for giving the children the opportunity to use and apply computational thinking.

# Successful Learnerx

Digital Literacy Week

As part of Education Scotland’s Digital Literacy Week, P5 – 7 have participated in activities designed to promote digital literacy and learning for our children.

On Monday, we joined in a live workshop with Becky from Tech She Can. We learned how technology is helping us to protect our planet and how technologists around the world are using tech to protect our air, reduce waste, help clean the oceans and preserve our wildlife.

Linking with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), we also heard about the types of jobs we could do if we wanted to pursue a career in this important area; from marine biologists to ecologists and aeronautical engineers to product designers. Techshecan champions women in industry with a mission to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in developing technology, and for women to play an equal role in how our world works, looks, thinks and feels.

We then watched a short animation looking at drones and how they’re being used for environmental sustainability.

We used this activity as a stimulus to create our own information posters to demonstrate how technology is being used to protect our planet from environmental damage from humans.

We linked this learning to help develop this year’s Eco School’s Mascot. We considered the ways technology can be used to produce clean, renewable energy for our planet and created technology that can help reduce pollution and waste. One example is a mascot with hoover feet to clean up litter. 🙂

On Wednesday, we joined Digilearn Scotland’s Keeping My Devices and Accunts More Secure (CRIS). The children had a discussion on what we use to Consume – Create – Communicate on devices. We then identified the difference between safe and secure, giving examples of each.

The boys and girls moved on to apply the featuers of persuasion in an information poster highlighting the benefits of using secure passwords, along with helpful tips.