Author: Ms Whorlow

It was time to take full advantage of the beautiful weather for a spot of outdoor activities this week as part of celebrating Earth Day.

We gave our outdoor space a spring clean in the sunshine.  Our responsible Eco Committee got stuck in to carrying out a litter survey in our school grounds.  Once the results were in, we were able to see that the most common item of litter were food wrappers.

With the help of willing volunteers our Eco members organised a litter pick to make our school grounds spick and span.  We then had in-class discussions on the problems litter can cause to wildlife and the environment.  Everyone has pledged to do their bit to pop litter in the bin to help our planet.

Working towards our RSPB Gold Award challenges, P1 – 4 constructed a hedgehog home as part of the Helping Nature activities.  The children converted a cardboard box into a snug home fit for a new resident.  It was covered with a waterproof liner and made cosy inside with dried grasses.  The children located this in the nature area to create a safe and quiet space for a lucky  hedgehog. They also built habitat homes for insects by creating log and rock piles with lots of nooks and crannies for critters.

If you’d like to build a hedgehog home for yourself, here are two design options:

Wooden home

Cardboard home.

P5 – 7 carried out a bug hunt, linking their learning to Data Handling in Maths where they created tally charts.  They aim to repeat the observational exercise in 4 weeks to see if our new habitats have encouraged our insect population.

# Responsible Citizens

UNCRC Rights of the Child - 15: Setting up and joining groups

Sustainable Development Goal:

12 - Responsible Consumption

14 - Life below water

15 - Life on Land

Yet again our very thoughtful friends and neighbours have been so generous to our boys and girls.

Mrs Wilma Hoad popped up to the school with a HUGE sweetie bouquet gift for the children, kindly donated by her friend Willie Hamilton.

There was much delight and excitement as the treats were shared out.

Thank you very much!

We were delighted with the wonderfully creative entries we had for this year’s Easter egg decorating competition. Mrs Ross had the very difficult job of selecting a winner. Harry won for P1-4 with his fabulous schools staff showcase whilst Jack won for P5-7 with his skateboarding eggs.

Max’s racing eggs and Adam’s sheep barn of eggs were both highly commended. Everyone received a prize for their talented entry.

Next up was an Easter egg hunt. There was many a mad dash to see who could collect the most eggs. We happily shared them evenly after our gathering fun.

P4-7 were then treated to an afternoon of Music For All at the Ryan Centre. The musicians were very engaging and entertaining in this interactive music appreciation session, the first in 4 years. Katie helped conduct the orchestra.

Our thanks to the Ryan Centre, the musicians, Mrs Ross and our fab families for helping make the last day of this term so much fun!

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Rest, play, Culture & Arts

There was an excellent turn out from our cluster primary schools at this year’s annual Primary 7 Rotary Quiz.

Teams of four from each school competed to be this year’s champions.  There were a number of categories such as:

• Geography
• Technology
• Entertainment
• Nature

The questions were very entertaining and wide ranging.  A good few of them challenged the grown-ups in the audience too.

The winners were as follows:

1. Rephad
2. Sandhead
3. Kirkcolm

Our partnership pupils enjoyed the social mingle. There was a great team spirit and a lively atmosphere . Well done to all the keen beans who took part.  Thank you to the Rotary Club for organising the event and funding the refreshments and prizes.  Thank you also to Rephad for hosting the event.  A good time was had by all.

# Effective Contributors.

UNCRC Rights of the Child

Primary 5 – 7 were invited to participate in an engineering project organised by the Institute of Civil Engineers and DG STEM.

Have a look at the activities they got up to as part of learning across disciplines.

# Successful Learners

S.T.E.M. Bridge Building

This DG STEM project, in partnership with the Institute of Civil Engineers required the children to:

Go to this Sway

Portpatrick Primary showed charity spirit today to support Red Nose Day 2023.

The boys and girls came into school dressed in casual clothes for a donation of £1.

Our senior pupils sold official red noses at £2.50 to those who wished to buy them.

We raised £76 in total!

We then flexed our spelling and vocabularly muscles by seeing how many words we could make from a bigger word such as ‘laughter’.

House Captains Katie and Atticus organised a Red Nose Day themed scavenger hunt.  The children got active outdoors by hunting down clue words to make a joke answer.

Why did the boy eat his homework? –

Because his teacher said it was a piece of cake!

All the names of successful competitors were put into a hat. One name was drawn out and that lucky winner won an Easter egg.  Our winner was Jack!

It was great to support such a worthy cause, helping others.

# Responsible Citizens

P1 -7 headed off to the Glasgow Science Centre bright and early this morning for a day of science fun and learning.

We explored the Science mall with its vast array of interactive exhibits to learn about:

• Our physical world of forces, illusions and materials
• The human body – physiology, human health and the senses to develop an understanding of interrelationship between the body’s actions in response to outside conditions.
• Powering the future – making connections between the drive to use more sustainable energies to meet future challenges. We were able to make the link between human activity and protecting the planet.

Our responsible pupils took part in a community litter pick today.  Despite the driech weather, the children were enthusiastic and keen to help protect wildlife and keep our beaches clean.

Kerry Monteith, Ward Officer Stranraer and the Rhins, helped organise the event as part of the Keep Scotland Beautiful – Spring Clean Month with the aim of carrying out as many spring cleans across Stranraer and the Rhins as possible in March.  It was a real community initiative as we were joined by Brenda and Helen, volunteers from Onus SW Scotland (Oceans Need Us) too, linking in with our Eco Schools Litter target. The spring clean activities are a collective action between

We rootled amongst the seaweed and managed to gather a surprising amount of plastic rope, twine, broken shards of plastic and wrappers.  It was amazing how much was there.

We are doing our bit to help our community and the planet too!

# Responsible Citizens

Primary 7 pupils from across the Stranraer area came together for a curling bonspiel today.

There were two section games running concurrently :

• Rephad 1 vs Belmont
• Sheuchan vs Park 2

and

• Sandhead vs Park 1
• Portpatrick vs Rephad 2
• Leswalt vs Kirkcolm

The results were as follows:

• 1st – Rephad
• 2nd – Kirkcolm
• 3rd – Sheuchan

There was teamwork, sportsmanship and determination evident from all and  a great time was had by everyone.  Well done to all the competitors.

Thank you to the North West Castle for hosting and organising the event and for providing a delicious lunch for the competitors.  Thank you also to Mrs Ross for escorting our curlers.

# Effective Contributors

By kind invitation of Steve, P5 – 7 visited the Stoneykirk Aviation Musuem.  The learning experience fits with our Social Studies topic of World War II, as chosen by the children.

Steve led a guided tour around his very well equipped museum.  He took us round his exhibits, showing how technology has evolved since the early war years to the time of Concorde.   The children were able to handle genuine artefacts such as ration books, identity cards and bullets. As part of our tour, we learned of the significant role Wigtownshire played in the war effort.

The highlight of our experience was the impressive hanger with cockpits of planes dating from WWII onwards.  Steve has lovingly restored these by hand.  We saw the De Havilland plane made from wood, nicknamed the wooden wonder, when metal was so scarce during the war.

The boys and girls had so much fun climbing into the cockpits of the planes and getting a wee taste of what it was like for the pilots of these impressive machines.

Thank you so much to Steve for allowing us this opportunity.

# Successful Learners