Author: Ms Whorlow

The boys and girls have been busy this last wee while creating creature comforts for our nature area to encourage birds and insects.

After all the fabulous work community helpers have previously done donating their efforts and equipment to tidy up our nature area, it was time to tempt more of our local bug and bird life to take up residence.

Bug Mansion

First, we began by collecting natural materials from our local woodland.  Next, our families and friends organised donations of repurposed materials such as pallets and bricks from local businesses.  Finally, we constructed our fabulous Bug Mansion in our nature area.  We are sure you will agree that it is fit for any king critter!

Bird Boxes

Not content with just that, we decided to make bird boxes to support our feathered friends.  Again, our wonderful school community rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in.  They sourced repurposed wood & materials and  machined the template sections to help the children construct our bird boxes.  The children were able to apply their STEM skills to interpret the schematic instructions and then construct the boxes.  The results are fabulous.

Next weekend, now that Covid restrictions are lifting, our willing helpers plan on returning to our nature area to continue the good work.  They will be laying paths with chippings made from the bushes and plants that were taken out from the garden. Recycling and Eco is at the forefront of our activities.

Many thanks again to everyone involved including Robert McQueen for providing his time and digger, Jewsons for donating materials, William Halliday of Galloway Tree Care & Gardening for his time and machinery , Mr Henry of Henry’s restaurant for sectioning the bird box pieces, Kim for her organisational skills AND, of course to our ever fabulous volunteer helpers!

# Responsible Citizens

# Effective Contributors

 

 

To help develop the skills for life, learning and work and as part of Developing our Young Workforce, our boys and girls applied to join our Pupil Council, our Eco Council and to become Digital Leaders.  The children had to detail their skills and attributes that would match the role they were applying for.  They also offered ideas and suggestions as to ways we could take our Pupil Voice forward for the benefit of all.

The standard of entries was high and much deliberation was needed to elect this year’s representatives. Have a look at our Responsible Citizens who have been appointed as pupil representatives for 2021- 2022.

Pupil Council:

Eco Council

Digital Leaders

 

In addition to this, many of our children applied to take on school monitor roles to help contribute to the effective running of our school:

• Library Monitors – Alba and Tilly
• Dinner Hall – Izzy
• Playground Buddies – Ruby, Katie & Carter
• Outdoor Area – Rebecca & Cameron
• Cloakroom Area – Atticus

As well has having whole school responsibilities, all of our pupils have been keen to take on roles in each of their classrooms.  Everyone will be given the opportunity to  contribute and participate.

It is important that our children are given opportunities to use their ‘voice’ as part of our commitment to being a Rights Respecting School.   Having achieved bronze, we are now working on achieving our silver status.  The enthusiasm of our pupils is great to see.  We are looking forward to a successful year with our Effective Contributors!

 

The boys and girls of Portpatrick Primary bid farewell to Tracy on Friday.  Mrs Rankin is leaving us to begin her exciting new job as a Learning Assistant at Sheuchan Primary.

All of the children agree that Tracy has worked very hard to make sure the children enjoyed their meals during her time with us.

The boys and girls presented Tracy with a beautiful handmade card, flowers and a bottle of fizz for her to enjoy.  The children gave three cheers as  she served her very last meal to Louise.

We wish her well in her new venture.

Our boys and girls at Portpatrick Primary used and applied a democratic process to elect our new House Captains today.  Fitting with our Social Studies topic of Democracy in Scotland, our candidates wrote their own manifesto speech to present to their audience.

Each applicant demonstrated a very high standard of professionalism and confidence as they outlined their personal skills and attributes.  Everyone spoke with clarity about the ideas and initiatives they had for the role of House Captain. We were all very impressed with the standard of each candidate’s talk.

The whole school then carried out the electorate voting process by selecting the candidate they felt would best represent them for the year ahead.  Everyone filled out a voting slip and posted it in our ballet box to be counted privately.

It was a VERY closely run campaign with the results as follows:

Dunskey: Lilly Weatherby

Portree: Alba White

 

We are sure both House Captains will represent their houses well in the coming year. Our thanks to all of our candidates who really did themselves proud. We can’t commend the quality of each candidate’s presentation highly enough! Each of them has earned a merit for their house team.

The activity helps support our learning as part of our curriculum and as part of a wider context; helping develop the Skills for Life, Learning and Work.  It also supports our drive towards our Rights Respecting Schools award and applies UNICEF’s Rights of The Child (articles 4, 12, 15, & 25)

# Effective Contributors/Responsible Citizens/Confident Individuals/Successful Learners

Politics and democracy were the topic for discussion this afternoon in P5 – 7.  Emma Currie, former MYSP kindly visited to give the children an insight to the democratic processes in Scotland and the UK.  This is in support of our Social Studies focus this term on Local and National Government.

 

 

 

 

 

Emma explained how there are three tiers of government: our regional council, the Scottish parliament and the UK parliament.  The children then discussed the roles and responsibilities of each and how the process works locally and nationally.

Emma talked about the rights and responsibilities we all have. She encouraged everyone to recognise the contributions we can make for the benefit of ourselves and our society through taking an active role in politics.  This links well with our learning about UNICEFs rights of the child; in particular, Article 12 (Respect for Children’s Views), Article 13 (Sharing Thoughts Freely) and Article 15 (Setting Up and Joining Groups).

Emma shared her experiences of working in politics from an early age. Her interest was first piqued when she became a pupil council member at primary school.  We are currently in the process of electing our own new pupil voice committee members. Perhaps one of our members will become a future politician too!

We took the opportunity to practice our literacy  skills during the session, using the 5 R’s of note taking: Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect & Review.

 

 

 

 

 

The boys and girls asked a range of interesting questions and shared their views freely.  It was a very interesting session.  Thank you Emma!

# Responsible Citizens

 

We all had an absolute blast at Mabie Farm Park today.  There was just so much fun to be had!

Portpatrick Primary was joined by Leswalt and Kirkcolm Primaries on our annual summer school trip.  Everyone agreed that it was a very well deserved treat for the challenging year the children have had.  The weather was very kind to us, with the day brightening to match our smiles.

The photos of the day speak for themselves.  You only need to look at all the beaming faces to see how much everyone enjoyed their day.

A wee treat to take on our trip courtesy of Connor’s restaurant.

And we’re off!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pedal Power

‘Choo Choo’ Train

 

Hay Barn High Jinx

Alfresco Lunch

Petting Zoo 

 

Play Park Fun

And of course, there was a  wee trip to the gift shop to round the day off after an ice-cream.  What a way to end a fabulous day!

Portpatrick Primary held a One Planet Picnic in the sunshine today.  The theme is ‘Good For You, Good For The Planet‘. This year, we worked very hard on reducing our single use plastic waste and snacking in a more environmentally way.

The initiatives we undertook were:

• We used ‘compostable’ spoons for our yogurts instead of single use plastic
• We packaged our lunches in recyclable paper bags
• Our fruit delivery came wrapped in biodegradable bags to maintain hygiene and reduce waste
• Our milk was supplied with paper straws instead of plastic
• Our pizza trays were also made from compostable material.

The children sorted our waste into three recycling tubs: food, paper and plastic, making sure there was no litter left behind.

The first, smallest bag on the left is plastic waste to be recycled, the second smallest bag is food waste to compost and the third larger bag is paper waste which we can also recycle. You can see from the photographs how little plastic and food waste there was compared to recyclable paper material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then placed the waste into the correct bins to be processed by Dumfries and Galloway Council.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

# Responsible Citizens

Friday was a day for celebration as Poppyscotland arrived to present our Pineapple Squad (Izzy White, Ava Lily Orr-Ewing and Maya McNeill) with their prize for winning the National Fundraising in Action category of Poppyscotland’s national competition.  The girls took the initiative to create and sell hand-made crafts to raise money in support of Poppyscotland and won in a national polling vote of entries.

 

 

 

 

 

Poppyscotland was created 100 years ago to raise funds to support the needs of veterans and their families living in Scotland. Our partnership schools always honour Remembrance Day; learning about the sacrifices of men and women, both in times of war and in their peacekeeping duties today.

By kind permission from Dumfries and Galloway Council, the children had the opportunity to visit Poppyscotland’s travelling Bud Bus at Lagwinnan.  This bus is a mobile exhibition truck that provides an interactive learning experience about the heritage and work of Poppyscotland.  Members of our community took great interest in the bus.  Laura and John, who facilitated the exhibition, remarked on how friendly and welcoming everyone has been to the during their visit.

Our ‘workforce‘ clocked-on ready to begin their visit to the Bud Bus:

The children were able to tour the bus, but unfortunately due to Covid restrictions, they were limited on what they were able to handle.  That didn’t stop them enjoyed the experience one bit though.

 

The boys and girls learned that five million poppies are made every year, enough for every person living in Scotland, should they wish to buy one.  We were able to look at the different styles of fundraising poppy that are produced around the world.  Lady Haig designed Scotland’s botanically correct poppy with four petals and no leaf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children were able to make their own poppy using the same equipment the veterans use in the Lady Haig poppy factory in Edinburgh.  The factory employs ex-service men and women to hand-assemble each and every poppy.

 

Gordon Mitchie, head of fundraising for Poppyscotland and an RAF veteran, presided over the prize giving ceremony. Our Pineapple squad have already received £500 in vouchers for our school.  They were also given a framed certificate to commemorate their achievement and a goodie bag each.

Friday was also the 100 year anniversary of the creation the Royal British Legion Scotland.  The children participated in a national commemoration of the event that was happening all around Scotland that day. They laid a wreath at our village war memorial with Gordon Mitchie, who gave an honorary salute to the fallen.

Our boys and girls participated in a photoshoot for Poppyscotland, with kind support from our local Free Press and photographer Jim Ryder. The photographs will be used to promote future fundraising activities for the charity.  As soon as these are available, we will share them here.

As a wee treat for everyone, the boys and girls enjoyed a wee ice-cream outdoors in the sunshine together to bring the day to a close.

 

 

 

 

 

Click to enlarge to see everyone enjoying their treat.

 

 

Many thanks to Poppyscotland for organising the event and travelling all this way to make the occasion so special for our children.  Thank you also to Dumfries and Galloway Council, the Free Press and Jim Ryder.

Well done Pineapple Squad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

# Effective Contributors

# Responsible Citizens

As part of our Eco Schools Action Plan, P 4 to 7 got their green fingers working today.  The boys and girls cleared the raised beds and planted a range of vegetables in the beds and in recycled waste tubs.

• leeks
• carrots
• turnip
• kale
• radish
• runner beans
• potatoes

To promote an insect friendly area, we also planted flowers:

• Nigella
• Echium
• Cornflower
• Nicotiana

 

 

 

 

 

We re-homed the grubs we found in our planting areas to make sure our seedlings didn’t get munched.

 

 

 

 

 

Atticus built our first self-watering plant pot which we used to plant transferred coriander.  He threaded string through from the soil chamber through the lid to the inverted water reservoir.  As the soil dries out , the water will travel up the string through capillary action – a wee bit of science in action!  We will make more of these if we gather more drinks bottles to recycle.  Why not try this at home!

In addition, we recycled milk cartons to make into hanging herb planters – more to follow on that.

# Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors

We had a fantastic turnout for this year’s Kirkcolm 51st annual fundraising mini walk on Saturday.

Pupils and families from all three schools were invited to participate to help support their schools. There were entrants from nursery age to adults walking the 7.37km route together; some competitively and some just for fun.

First, second and third places are awarded for the boys and girls completing the course in the quickest time.  The results are as follows:

Boys:

1. George Keith – Kirkcolm P6
2. Danny Dougan – Kirkcolm P4
3. Ivan Turtle – Kirkcolm P3

Girls:

1. Ruth Turtle – Kirkcolm P7
2. Olivia Turtle – Kirkcolm P6
3. Izzy White – Portpatrick P6

The route followed along the Corsewall Estate Coastal Path. A very well done to everyone who walked or ran the course!

There has been a fantastic response to the fundraising effort; with each school hitting their target! The money will be put to very good use for each school to give children enjoyable experiences after a difficult year.

Our grateful thanks go out to so many people who helped organise and support the event:

• Our parents and families who planned and organised the mini-walk
• The Carrick-Buchanan and Milroy family for their kind  permission to walk on their land
• The volunteer  marshals
• Lidl and Tesco for the donation of refreshments
• The Free Press who covered the event
• and to ALL the children and families who fund raised and participated to raise money for our three fantastic wee schools!  We applaud each and every one of you who took part.

Have a look at the fabulous photos courtesy of Jemima Johnstone.  See you next year! 🙂