Author: Ms Whorlow

Where did the sun go?

Despite it deciding to hide behind a cloud today after a cracking spell, the temperature was just right for an afternoon of sporting fun in the fresh air.

There were cheers and hoots galore from our family and friends audience as our eager participants took to each competitive challenge with a smile and good sportsmanship.

The order of the day was as follows:

• Sprint
• Skipping
• Sack
• Egg and Spoon
• Throw
• Obstacle
• Distance
• Pre-school
• Parents
• Staff

Mrs Henry and Kim are busy totting up the scores to find out the winning house team for the day.  Although, we can agree that everyone were winners with their great attitudes, positive spirit and camaraderie.

Photo Dump!

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 31:  Rest, Play, Culture & Arts

Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing

 

We were lucky to have Bobby Lammie visit us today to talk about his very special career as a professional, world class curler.

Bobby chatted to the boys and girls to share his experiences about this unique career.  He advised the chidren to follow their dreams and aim high.  He explained that his success has come as a result of hard work, practice and dedication, practicing at least five days a week to develop and maintain his skills.

The children were extremely interested to hear all about Bobby’s experiences travelling the world and competing at Olympic level.  He and his team won silver at the Bejing winter olympics in 2022.  He has also won a  gold medal at the world men’s championships in Ottoah this year.  Everyone was excited to try on his very special medals.

It was a very informative and insightful talk that has inspired our children to aim to be the best they can be.  Thank you Bobby for coming along to spend time with our boys and girls.  We would like to offer our congratulations and wish you continued success.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 17 Right to Information

As part of our learning about the world of work,Carolyne Cerexhe joined us to give us an insight into her career as a health visitor.

She gave a very informative talk telling us all about her role and responsibilities. She explained that health visitors visit new families in their homes to check on baby development.  She used very willing volunteers to demonstrate how to weigh a baby and young children as well as measuring growth.  She shared how this is tracked in a child’s personal red book that all the boys and girls will have at home.

The children were eager to learn more and asked lots of questions such as necessary qualifications and training and the best parts of being a health visitor.

Thank you to Carolyne for taking the time to share her experience with us to help us learn about the world of and possible career choices for our future.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – 29 Aims of Education

Primary 5 – 7 have been learning about human body systems this term.  We have linked with the Glasgow Science Centre as part of their Body Systems Learning Lab.

We are studying how the following systems work, their related diseases and illnesses and how to prevent these through a healthy lifestyle:

• Reproductive System
• Digestive System
• Circulatory System
• Reparatory System
• Skeletal System

The boys and girls  have been busy preparing class talks to share their knowledge and understanding of a system of their choice.  We are learning from  from each as ‘research experts’.  Each child has made a model to further illustrate the system for their audience. Their ingenuity and creativity is impressive, as you can see for yourself!

 

The class presented to their peer audience for friendly feedback to help improve our delivery skills.

Thank you to our families for supporting this project.

# Successful Learners – Family Learning Opportunity

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 24 Health, Water, Food & Environment & Article 29: Aims of Education

Primary 5 – 7 received a visit from Fire Officer Robert McCrory today.  This was a follow up session from Operation Safety that our P6 pupils attended last week.

Robert led discussions on hazards and risks that we would find in different scenarios in the home.  The children were able to use photographs to identify potential risks in each image and explain why they were of danger.  Electrical applicances left switched on were the main risk with trailing cables and the potential to overheat.

We chatted about having a safety evacution plan at home as a safety measure.

Robert discussed the folly of raising false alarms and how this impacts on emergency services being able to attend to where they are really needed.

This fits in with Curriculum for Excellence Health and Wellbeing experiences and outcomes – I am learning to assess and manage risk, to protect myself and others, and to reduce the potential for harm when possible.

We explored what3words app and learned how we can use this to provide our location to the emergency services if we don’t know where we are.

It was a very informative session.  Our thanks go to Robert for coming to help keep us safe.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29: Aims of Education

We were treated to a fabulous clan gathering celebrating our Scottish culture today.

Primary 1 – 4 pupils have been taking part in an 11 week block of music input from Feis Rois.  Today saw the culmination of this expressive arts learning experience as the pupils put on a fabulous show for friends, family and classmates.

The children took on leadership roles, acting as comperes to introduce each performance for our audience.  Rebecca and Freya carried in the Clan Flag, introducing our selected name of the Lighthouse Legends. Adam began proceedings by informing our audience that his class would be peforming songs, solos and dances to entertain.  Steven introduced Galloway Hills, which the children sung beautifully. Harry and Adam then recited Jock and Jean before the boys and girls sang such a lovely Gaelic lullaby.

Next up the children, sang Gillie Beog O before Steven told a joke.  Freya announced the next song titled Cat, Cat, Tunnag which was about animals before Steven announced the last song called Bananas are the Best.  This was clearly the children’s favourite as they performed it with great gusto!

 

It was then time for audience participation.  Primary 5 -7 joined in with a Canadian Barn dance and a self-created dance, accompanied by the violin.

Our thanks go to Feis Rois and to Miss Lammie for presenting such an entertaining show and for all their efforts teaching the children these songs and dances which build confidence and enjoyment in our culture.  Our audience thoroughly enjoyed the clan event.

Despite their small numbers, our pupils are mighting in talent!

UNRCR Rights of the Child – Article 31: Rest, Play, Culture, Arts

We are proud to announce that Portpatrick Primary has achieved it’s sixth Eco Schools flag!

This represents fantastic eco-friendly action from our highly motivated pupils.  The achievement recognises all the hard work, dedication and drive from our pupils, our staff, families and our wider community.  Our action targets for 2021 – 2023 focussed on:

• Litter and Waste
• Healthy Living
• Energy

Our good work is featured in this year’s Dumfries and Galloway Learning for Sustainability Conference Showcase.  Why not click on the link to have a look for yourself to see all the fantastic activities our boys and girls have been engaged in.  They are truly responsible citizens and effective contributors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Education and Learning Team from Keep Scotland Beautiful have written to us with this message:

I have very much enjoyed reading through your journey. You have worked really hard on your wide-ranging actions to make your school a more environmentally friendly place to be. Well done!

You have fitted a huge number of amazing actions since I reviewed your last application, and it is fantastic to see that your whole school and community are involved in your Eco-Schools work. You have clearly embraced sustainability and made it part of your school ethos, which is brilliant.

Why not read the full report to see the excellent feedback we have received from Eco Schools Scotland!

Feedback52023 (1) Certificate52023 (1)

We won’t stop there as we’re already thinking ahead to our next action plan for 2023 – 2025!

UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 24 – Health, Water, Food & The Environment.

Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing, 15 – Life on Land

As part of our Eco School target of Health and Wellbeing, Primary 5 – 7 participated in the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel Challenge.

To encourage healthy, sustainable travel, we pledged to track our transportation modes between the 20th to the 31st of March.  Pupils opted to scooter, walk and park ‘n’ stride as much as possible during this timeframe.

2772 schools participated nationally. We are pleased to share our 1st place award in the United Kingdom Small Schools Category.  We received a lovely framed certificate today – Go us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 24 Health, Water, Food & Environment

Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing

Primary 5 – 7 have written and published our own fables using Book Creator online.  Using the work of Aesop’s fables, we created our own story boards and then transferred our tales into online books for everyone to enjoy.  Every story has a moral message.

Here are the digital literacy skills we used:

• Logging onto Book Creator using QR codes and Microsoft logins
• Inserting and editing text and images on each page
• Recording our voices to narrate the story
• Publishing our books online to share with our reader

Please enjoy our stories by clicking on each link below.  Don’t forget to click on the speaker icon on each story book page to listen to our narrators tell their own stories.

Katie

Louise

Conor

Lacey

Scott

Jack

Lewis

Max

Cameron

Tilly

Carter

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29: Aims of Education

What beautiful weather we had for our outdoor learning day today!

We got stuck in to a wide range of learning opportunities using our outdoor environment.  In the morning, we were visited by Mrs Norval Dampney of the Incredible Edible team to carry out some TLC of our fruit orchard.

We have been reducing waste by recycling and soaking cardboard to make mulch.  We combined this with straw and soil and created a moisture sandwich around the base of each tree to act as a moisture reseviour to keep the roots watered on dry days.

Mrs Dampney educated the children on all things soil and plant related.  Did you know that there are more microbes in one teaspoon of soil than there are humans on the planet!  She promised to come back in October when the trees will be dormant to carry out some pruning with the boys and girls.

P1 -4 were Eco champions; carrying out a litter survey and a litter pick in our village.  We are pleased to report very little litter was found.

Next up, P5 – 7 linked their data handling topic in maths with outdoor learning.  We walked to the harbour and recorded the colours of cars we found using tally marks.  We then displayed this data as a bar graph and calculated the mean, mode, median and range of our data.  We grouped data such as silver and grey to minimise categories.

P1 – 4 went to the beach for a maths session using sand to draw clock faces to to tell the time.

 

In the afternoon, P5 – 7 had a PE session outdoors to maintain our health and wellbeing whilst P1 – 4 gathered natural materials to use for art printing as well as practicing their spelling words with chalk.

 

P.S. Here’s some gardening activities previousy with Kim when the children planted Casablanca and Shanon potatoes, parsley, sweet peas, pak choi, lettuce.  Yum!  Kim also kindly gave the willow dome a much needed ‘haircut’ today.

UNCRC:

• Article 24 – Health, Water, Food & Environment
• Article 29 –  Aims of Education