Portpatrick Primary

Well done to the four pupils from Portpatrick school who went to the Academy last week to represent their school at a fun Maths Transition challenge. The team consisted of Myles Hine, Rowan Harbottle, Lachlan Ross and Jenna Marshall. The challenge began with an Activity Pack full of Christmas themed maths puzzles and problem solving, as well as a complex cube building challenge and a ‘Tarsia’ hexagon challenge.

Following this, the teams were given a pack of spaghetti, tape and one sheet of paper and tasked with creating the tallest tower. This was very entertaining!
The event was a great success and we look forward to participating in the challenge again next Christmas. Kirkcolm and Leswalt School joined in the fun as well.

The pupils and staff of Portpatrick primary were treated to a delicious Christmas dinner today.  We enjoyed singing along to well known Christmas tunes as we tucked into roast turkey with all the trimmings.  Three cheers for the chef!

For the second year running, the Mount Stewart has very generously hosted a Christmas Party for all the boys and girls of Portpatrick Primary.  The children were treated to a party buffet.  This was followed by carol singing with Kenny kindly providing the piano music for everyone to enjoy and have a little dance to.  Olivia S. also treated us all to her skills on the piano!  The parents had a lovely opportunity for a pre-Christmas mingle.  Everyone received a present of a selection box before leaving tired but happy.  A very BIG thank you to Diane and Graham and all the staff who worked so hard to give the children such a special night.

On Sunday, Portpatrick church hosted their annual carol service. It was a lovely service with local speakers telling us all about the true meaning of Christmas and why it is a special time of year.

A big well done to everyone who came along to the carol service, you all sang beautifully! A special well done goes to Jenna and Mia who both confidently did a Christmas reading in front of the whole congregation.

# Confident Individuals

Primary 4-7  have been learning about sound as part of their science topic this term.  They boldly took on the challenge of designing and constructing an instrument capable of making sound.  Many skills were used such as:

• identifying how sound might be produced
• selecting and joining materials
• using maths to calculate water volume ratios
• modifying the design to overcome problems
• testing
• decorating for visual appeal

There was an impressive array of creative ideas using pitch, percussion and wind to produce sound in a variety of ways.  Barbara judged the winning designs:

• 1st Rowan Harbottle
• 2nd Livvy Cumming
• 3rd Lee Gaunt

#Successful learners

Portpatrick Primary yet again proved what sporting heroes we are when our boys competed in the primary cluster badminton tournaments on Tuesday.  Lachlan and his partner from Rephad won gold in the the doubles match.  Lachlan also won a silver in the singles games.  Rowan achieved a very impressive quarter finalist ranking for his efforts.  Well done boys!

#confident individuals

Our girls have done us proud at the local primary cluster school badminton competition yesterday.  Rhian won gold in the girl’s singles tournament.  Jenna narrowly missed out on a medal by finishing a very impressive 4th. Rhian and Jenna also won bronze in the doubles matches.    Mia and Katie represented the school with sterling sportsmanship and effort.  Well done to all!

#Confident Individuals

 

P1-3 were very lucky and received fantastic gift bags full of literacy and numeracy activities and resources to take home and explore.  This included a selection of books, pencils, activity book and maths games included tropical trumps, snakes and ladders and a time/measure/money game.

Parents were invited in for the launch of these fantastic sets and older pupils took time to explore the gifts with the younger pupils.  This was lovely to observe 🙂

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