Portpatrick Primary

Primary 1-3 have been using their language skills to learn how to write letters for different purposes.  The children have been wondering what happens to our letters when we post them. To answer this quesion the boys and girls had a guest visit from Wullie Dougan, our local postie.

The children also had many other questions to ask him such as:

1. What would you do if there is no address on the letter?
2. How many parcels do you deliver in a week?
3. What uniform do you wear?

Wullie happily answered all the children’s queries.  For example, he explained that:

1. The Post Office always try to find a return address to send an unaddresed letter back.  After this, Royal Mail hold on to it for a period of time to see if someone comes in to claim it.
2. Stranraer would normally have 200 parcels for Amazon to deliver a week, but because of BlackFriday shopping week, he and his team had to deliver 500 this week alone.
3. Wullie has 3 hats; a cap, a sun hat and a woolie hat for winter time, which he is very glad he has just now on these cold mornings. He also explained that he must wear a bright jacket to be easily seen, which is especially helpful in the dark winter days.

The children had a great day learning all about our postal service and our thanks go to Wullie for coming along to share his job experiences with the children.

 

 

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.

# Effective Contributors

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!

#Effective Contributors/Confident Individuals

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.

#Effective Contributors

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.

#Effective Contributors

 

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.