Blog excerpt written by Digital Leader Findlay Thorburn
On the 30th of April 2019, Portpatrick school went to Logan Botanic Gardens.
P4-7 were learning about how to take digital photos of nature and P1-3 were learning about animals as part of a Teddy Bear’s Picnic.
The older children were learning about the different ways to take a digital picture and what they should do to get a perfect picture by using what we can see around us.
The little class were learning what animals need to survive in the outdoors. They had to make a little place for their animal to survive with natural items that they found around the garden. They took their teddy bears along with them.
P4-7 pupils headed to the Ryan Centre along with other local primary schools on Friday afternoon, to be entertained by the brilliantly talented ‘Music for All’ musicians – “Trio Ecossaise.”
Between performing as a trio, the musicians took it in turns to explain to the audience a bit about their particular instrument (clarinet, piano and cello) and then performed a piece of music so we could hear how it sounds. Pupils were encouraged to consider how the music made them feel as they listened and picked an Emoji to represent this.
Pupils learned lots about the various instrument and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon at this musical extravaganza!
The boys and girls headed up to Dunskey estate on Friday morning, by kind invitation of the Orr-Ewing family. We were greeted by Chris, Verena and Aggie who took us foraging in the grounds for wild garlic (minus some adults who managed to get lost!!). Many pupils were surprised at what wild garlic looked like – lots of us had never seen it before, even the adults! Although there was no mistaking it – we could smell the garlic before we saw it! The children learned about natural plants that are edible.
After we had each filled our tubs with garlic, we headed back to the house and split into groups in the kitchen. We had to work together to wash the garlic, tear it up and grind it down to a paste using a mortar and pestle – this really got our muscles working as it was no easy job!! We then added pine nuts, oil, parmesan, salt & pepper, and some lemon juice and continued to grind it altogether until it was smooth.
Chris had cooked some pasta which he mixed with our pesto and we all got a little bowl to taste – there were lots of thumbs up and only a few thumbs down!
We then had some time to have a run about in the garden, before the buses arrived to take us back to school (along with the lingering smell of garlic, which has followed us around all day!).
Many thanks must go to the Orr-Ewing family and the staff at Dunskey for providing the pupils with this experience.
The smallest pupil with he biggest mortar and pestle!
Rhian, Findlay, Lee and Rowan represented the school at the annual Rotary Club Quiz at Rephad Primary on Thursday afternoon. They put their general knowledge skills to the test and came an impressive 2nd place out of 10 schools, missing out on 1st place by only 1 point! Well done – you did the school proud!
Our boys and girls were treated to a visit from our local Stranraer Coastal Rowing Team today. The team members proudly displayed their hand built skiff, The Lady Bay, and explained the construction process to the children. We were all surprised to learn that not a single nail had been used.
During the building phase, members of the local community volunteered their help with no previous knowledge of boat building. We all agreed it was a fine craft, painted in the colours of our local Stranraer Academy.
The children were invited to sit in the skiff and try their hand at ‘on-land’ rowing. Lewis, Ruby and Maya took up position as coxswains to guide proceedings.
Wendy Cuff explained that the week long Stranraer SkiffieWorlds rowing festival in July (7th – 13th) will see competition entrants from around the globe come to Loch Ryan. There will be up to 1500 competitors and as many as 70+ skiffs are expected to participate in the World Championships for the St Ayles Skiff class of Coastal Rowing Boats. There will be a wide range of family based events on offer during the week. It is definitely an event not to miss!
The children took the opportunity to get their design heads by designing and decorating their own skiff back at school. These are to be displayed around Stranraer during the festival.
The whole school put on their community spirits today as part of their Eco School responsibilities. We all carried out a litter pick in the village with the support of family and friends. The children got stuck in making the place spike and span. They used their eagle eyes to spot and safely collect litter using the litter pickers provided by Kelly Monteith of the local council.
The boys and girls then applied their maths skills to calculate the weight of litter collected. We problem solved by weighing a willing pupil before and whilst holding the litter collected. The children then found the ‘difference’ by taking away. We found we had gathered 5kg of litter on our clean up. We talked about what fraction the litter weight was in relation to the pupil’s weight and converted the figure to a percentage.
This clean up is part of a wider trio litter action event organised by Mrs McHarg.
Parents and pupils were treated to a musical recital by the P4-7 class yesterday. Over the term, they have been working hard on their Scot’s musical compositions with Claire Mann from Feis Rois. The children have learned songs in Scots and Gaelic and have composed their own instrumental arrangements to accompany their singing. We were all delighted to listen to a wide range of instruments that the children played independently. They showcased their talents on violins, flutes, tin whistles, a guitar, African drums and Xylophones!
Everyone agreed that it was a very entertaining morning. Our thanks go to Claire and to the pupils for all their musical efforts, and also to the parents who came along to share the experience.
Pupil enjoyed a fab day away today, courtesy of the Community Council. The school was kindly given £500 to take the pupils on an extra trip – so we headed off to Ayr for the day!
After meeting at the train station at half 8, we made the journey to Ayr, with some pupils playing I Spy to fill the time.
Once we arrived, we walked to LA Bowl where we had a game of 10-pin bowling. There was some friendly competition between staff and pupils – Mrs Warwick was victorious in her game; but Myles beat Ms Whorlow and Liam beat Mrs Henry! It was a close competition between Mrs McHarg and Ruby – there was only 1 point between them!
During this, groups were taken out for a game of laser quest. Pupils had a blast running around in the dark – although they targeted the teachers, who didn’t stand a chance!
After some lunch, we made our way to the park to run off some steam, before heading back home on the train.
Pupils had a wonderful day – many thanks to the Community Council for making this possible.
Pupil were outside yesterday and this morning planting trees with Sian Roberts in our playground, to help provide a home for the wildlife and brighten up our playground. The 30 trees are from the Woodland Trust, who were giving them to schools for free to encourage pupils to get involved in planting trees. There are 3 different types of trees, including cherry and silver birch.
Many thanks must go to Sian and helpers who gave up their time to do this.
Izzy and Lee from the Eco Committee with all 30 trees
Congratulations must go to our own Rhian Palmer who at the weekend was crowned the Dumfries and Galloway Primary girls badminton champion – for a remarkable 2nd year in a row!
Rhian travelled to Dumfries to compete against all of the regional finalists and was victorious in all of her matches. She dropped very few points in the whole event. Rhian will now go on to the Scottish Finals in Perth, in May.
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