Portpatrick Primary

Portpatrick Primary pupils rallied the troops for Children In Need 2018.  The boys and girls made a ‘spotacular’ effort to dress to impress  in support of Pudsey and Blush.  The spottiest, dottiest pupils were judged to be Scott and Jack who were wearing too many spots to count. Pupils made a voluntary donation for this non-uniform day.

The pupil council came up with the creative idea of guessing the bear’s birthday to raise funds.  The cuddly bear, kindly donated by Mrs McHarg’s family, was won by Olivia Cumming.  The children spent the week building up to the day by selling official bear ears and wrist bands.

The boys and girls engaged in learning challenges, such as mental and written maths problem solving tasks, on the theme of Children In Need.  We also had a chat about why supporting Children In Need makes such a difference to the lives of so many children.

A big thank you to all of our wonderful families who supported the event today.

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Portpatrick Primary were given a cinematic treat today.  We all travelled to the Ryan Centre to watch the INTO Film release of The Little Vampire.  Schools throughout the area were given the opportunity to attend.  This film, whilst entertaining, also carried a moral message against discrimination and stereotyping.  The children sat with rapt attention throughout the screening.

P1-3 enjoyed sharing and discussing their  favourite part of the film when they came back to school.  They then wrote and illustrated their preferred scene, explaining why it appealed to them.

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The whole school had a ‘spooktacular’  time at our annual Halloween party organised by our very able P7 pupils.  The children arranged decorations, planned an itinerary of ghoulish games and hosted the event for the entertainment of all.  The boys and girls turned out in haunting style with an impressive array of costumes and outfits.  Parents and family kindly donated lots of goodies for the children to enjoy.  The children all went home happy, looking forward to an evening of Trick or Treating fun after a quick chat about staying safe!  Thank you to all who supported the event.

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P4 – 7 went on an outdoor literacy lesson as part of our poetry learning. We went to the woods to seek out spooky ingredients to create our Witch’s Brew poetry. The children used their imaginations to give natural woodland materials a sinister twist e.g. pretending black seed pods were blackened wings of bats or lungs of slugs.

The children gathered their ingredients and brought them back to school to use to write their own poetry. These were added to the cauldron to create our foul spells.

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Two members of the Fire Brigade service came along today to give all the children a safety talk for Bonfire Night.  They discussed the fun that can be had with bonfires and fireworks.  The children were given advice on the law relating to fireworks i.e. only those 18 and over can purchase them.  The pupils were told what to do if clothing catches fire and how to handle & dispose of fireworks such sparklers etc.  The officers recommended attending an organised event to enjoy displays without risk.  Everyone listened carefully and contributed to a sensible discussion on keeping ourselves safe.

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P4-7 put on their scientific ‘Xplorers’ heads to design and experiment with energy.  The children discussed forms and conservation of energy.  Even though some forms of energy are not visible to the naked eye, we used a specialist thermal imaging camera to see sources of heat energy in the classroom.  Lee is all aglow, as you can see and Alba’s glasses are insulators that don’t generate heat.

The children then moved on to a construction task to follow schematic diagrams to build a dynamo to generate electricity to light a bulb.  They used a multimeter to measure the voltage generated when they turned the wheel.  The highest consistent reading was 6V by Rhian.

Next, the boys and girls worked with gears and pulleys to enhance their dynamos and increase their turning speed.  There were many designs that were modified in light of experience.  Rhian came up with a simple, 2 cog design that proved very effective.  Isabella and Ruby used this design to generate 17.9V when they turned the larger wheel cog handle.  Some used batteries and toothed gears to turn their cogs automatically.

The lesson moved on to the children undertaking a complex construction challenge of assembling either a wind or water turbine.  They had to work hard using their soft skills of sharing, cooperation, discussion and review to complete the model.  Once the working models were completed the pupils tested them to see how much electricity they would generate.  A hairdryer was used to turn the wind turbine sails and a running tap was used to spin the water buckets on the water turbine.  The water turbines generated more electricity because of the stronger force of the running water; approx 7V whilst the wind turbines generated approximately 3V.

The final challenge of the day was to build a solar powered vehicle.  Everyone worked together to follow the instructions. We held solar car races to see which vehicle travelled the fastest with a light source.

The children had a fantastic learning day exploring renewable sources of energy through engineering challenges.

Computer Xplorers sessions recognise the four capacities identified in the Curriculum for Excellence and aims to help children become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.  Our thanks to John for delivering a wonderfully educational workshop.

 

 

All the pupils of Portpatrick Primary school were invited down to the village harbour to meet the father and son team of Rory and Robert Campbell, owner of the local “Campbells” restaurant.

Rory Campbell has recently taken on a new role in representing Scottish food and drink as an ambassador for 2018.  Rory approached the school and offered a session, down at the harbour in Portpatrick ,in order to provide the pupils with an insight as to the harvest available from the local waters.

Robert and Rory showed the children a variety of different local catches – including lobster, crab, dogfish and octopus.  The children were able to see a pregnant lobster as well as a dogfish about to lay it’s young.  The children even got to see the teeth of the lobster up close!  Robert Campbell demonstrated to the school, with the help of a real life lobster, how his creels work. 

As part of the discussion , Robert was able to highlight all the plastic which he had harvested along with the seafood.   Children were shocked to see crisp packets, yogurt pots , coke cans and sweetie wrappers all were caught in the sea this morning too. The dangers of plastic in our waters was clear for the boys and girls of Portpatrick to see.

The session ended with everyone heading round to the slipway to watch Rory and Robert Campbell release the animals back into the sea.  All the adults and pupils agreed it was a very interesting an informative visit in their local community.

 

 

 

Today P4-7 had a visit from Lisa who works for the NHS ‘Quit Your Way’ service (formerly known as Smoking Matters) as part of their Health and Wellbeing topic. She shared with pupils the government’s target of having less than 5% of the population classed as smokers by 2034, so we all need to spread the message: ‘Let’s be smoke free!’

Pupils participated in a true or false game, where they found out that nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine. Our 2 forensic scientists Alba and Rowan (all suited up with lab coats and rubber gloves!) then poured some of the different chemicals contained in a cigarette into a mixing jug. The result was disgusting!! Pupils were shocked to find out that a cigarette actually contains over 4000 chemicals!

Rhian and Finlay volunteered to demonstrate the effects of smoking on your skin (with a little help from some technology) – they were unrecognisable in the pictures and Finlay thought that he looked as old as his Gran!! Everyone then had a go at the fitness test – we jogged on the spot for 20 seconds, then repeated this but with a straw in our mouth to breathe through and our noses pinched. The boys and girls couldn’t believe how tricky this was!!

Considering the effects on your health, your bank balance and your appearance, everyone agreed that smoking is definitely not for them!

 

Portpatrick Primary was selected to participate in a workshop from Professor Lockheart, Director: Institute of Biomedical & Environmental Health Research (IBEHR)of the University of West Scotland on the theme of ‘Breath’.

He is part of a team of scientists in Scotland and Ireland that have EU funding to establish training and school links for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is particularly prevalent in our area.

All of the children enjoyed participating in an interactive workshop of activities to raise their understanding of factors that can impact on our lung health.  They used models of lungs to observe the damage smoking and vaping can have on our bodies.  There was lots of ‘goo’ and tar in jars!  The children tested their lung capacity by puffing into measuring tubes.  I’m pleased to report lots of healthy readings.

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A huge well done to Rhian, Lewis, Liam, Max and Ruby who completed the Maths Week collage challenge at home. What a colourful and creative ways to show that maths really is everywhere!