Before school closure, the boys and girls had planted vegetables with Sian in our raised garden beds.  It was time to harvest some of the crop today.  We picked the courgettes and decided to make a hidden veggie smoothie for us all to enjoy.

We added banana, orange juice and ice to make a delicious blended drink full of vitamins and minerals.  Everyone was a Curious Kevin and took up the taste test challenge willingly.  There were some thumbs down, but also lots of thumbs up.  In fact many came back for more!

Confident Individuals

 

Today we said goodbye to our two P7 boys as they leave us to move on to secondary school.

We couldn’t let the occasion pass without taking the chance to wish them a fond farewell. Family and school staff turned out for a socially distanced gathering.  We all shared wonderful memories of our school year together and praised the boys for their many skills and talents.  They have both made the last year such a pleasure for us all. It was a bitter sweet day as we are sad to see them go, but we know they are more than ready for their next big adventure.

There were more goodbyes to say to others. We said farewell to Annabelle as she moves away with her big brother,Findlay, to start at a new school after the holidays. Our best wishes went  also to Mrs McColm and Mrs MacPherson who will be based at other schools after our return in August.  We thank them both for their hard work and dedication and we will certainly miss their cheery smiles.

Mrs Henry warranted a special mention too as she has been so dedicated, working away in school during closure for pupils.  She has been busy organising, tidying and keeping the home fires burning so that we are ready to go in August.  Thank you Mrs Henry.

Goodbye and Good Luck to all our leavers.

Ever imagined what our future world will be like?  Well, Ava Lily did!

The School of Science and Engineering at Dundee University along with the Institute of Civil Engineers organised a national competition called The Future of STEM.  Children were asked to imagine and design a poster describing how STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) could
change the world we live in.

The judges liked Ava Lily’s concept design so much that she  has been awarded joint third place from all the entries received.  This is an impressive achievement.  Congratulations for your forward thinking Ava Lily.

Ava Lily’s design has been shared on the University of Dundee’s web page.  Have a look at all the winners:

https://www.dundee.ac.uk/stories/winners-science-engineering-poster-competition

Here is her successful entry displaying creativity, ingenuity and imagination:

2020-06 ICE Poster Competition (1)

Click on the link above to see the competition entry details.

The announcement came on a noteworthy day.  Yesterday was Women in Engineering Day.  It also fits perfectly with our STEMs Clubs Week.  We are participating virtually using online resources provided by:

https://www.stem.org.uk/stem-clubs

Here is a link to all the STEM Clubs activities that are taking part this week.

STEM Clubs Week timetable – FINAL v5

Congratulations again Ava Lily!

 

Our wonderful boys and girls continue to show how brilliant they all are at adapting and coping with the changes to our learning during this school closure.  They have been busy, busy learning and creating at home.  We would like to share some more fabulous examples of their work with you to enjoy.  We are sure you will agree that they can all be rightly proud of themselves!

• Ava Lily – Stop Motion videos: Evolution and Mutations and Evolution of Mankind

• Findlay – YouTube NITROnews Life in Lockdown reporting.
• Lillie – Motorised Vehicle Engineering Construction with K’nex

LB K’nex motorised car wc 250520

• Alfie – Creative Poetry writing using onomatopoeia sound words:

• Finlay – Nature mask art challenge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Ruby – Nature digital photography

• Alba – bar graph using data generated at home:

• Isabella – Pie Chart using data using percentages shares & musical human beat box

• Maya – Science: Seed germination:

• Rose  – Covid 19 Presentation:

RS covid presentation

• Robin – Reading Comprehension:

• Jack – Rainbow art:

• Liam – Rainbow art:

# Successful Learners & Effective Contributors

It is great to see the creativity and motivation that our pupils are displaying in their home school activities with their families. There have been some fabulous examples of learning shared with us.

Here is a selection of what our learning super stars have been up to:

Science – Life Cycles:

Findlay Thorburn – Stop Motion Life Cycle

alba_izzy life cycle

ALOE Life Cycles

Language – Ava Lily’s story writing:

The Exciting Journeys of Doctor Xenon and His Crew!

Keep sending in photos and examples of your work.  We really do love to see what you have been doing.

A big cheer to all our wonderful families who are doing a sterling job of supporting the boys and girls at home during this time.  An even bigger cheer to our fabulous pupils who are working and learning in such varied and purposeful ways!

Well done everyone!

# Successful Learners & Responsible Citizens

Porpatrick Primary performed their Easter play Sleeping Beauty; The Ugly Truth on the 19th of March.  We were a tad early presenting our production due to the recent closure announcement.   We were keen to  celebrate the hard work and effort the boys and girls have put in before we said goodbye for a time.

The children proved what dedicated professionals they were.  They improvised, took on extra roles and the show certainly did go on to everyone’s delight!

Mr White kindly took a video of the performance to share for those who weren’t able to join us on the day.  Well done boys and girls!

 

It is a sad day indeed at Portpatrick Primary.

Barbara, our fabulous catering manager, is retiring today after 20 years of faithful service. Over two decades Barbara has served delicious and nutritious meals to each and every one of us.  Each meal has been prepared with love and care.  She served her very last school dinner to Izzy today and we couldn’t let the occasion go unmarked even in the midst of  the current circumstances.

She has always gone above and beyond, making sure every individual child was catered for.  She has always embedded herself in whole school life, organising events and giving of her time and skills for charity and the community.

She is irreplaceable and will be very much missed by all!

Wishing you every happiness for a long and happy retirement.

With love from us all at Portpatrick Primary

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MVI_2862

 

The whole school had a blast today, taking part in a range of STEM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths).  We made full use of our environment.

To start our day off in the fabulous sunshine, the boys and girls enjoyed a maths themed Easter egg hunt. They had to seek out colour coded number challenge eggs to complete their calculation mission.  They were rewarded with a wee treat of a chocolate egg courtesy of the Easter Bunny, who had made an early delivery to the school.

Next up was practical STEM engineering and construction challenges in our STEM Zone. The children got stuck in to our new Kapla building kits. There were models, bridges, towers and structures galore; all created using HOTS ingenuity and imagination.  P1-3 were busy beavers too. They used the K’nex vehicle kit to make moving vehicles and machines of their own design.  Some undertook Lego challenge missions to construct models, patterns and designs successfully.

Coding was next on the agenda as the children applied computational thinking to design algorithms to complete challenges on their coding fundamentals course with Code.org.

Finally, we all made our way down to the park for well earned social time.  The children enjoyed participating in active play with their friends.

Wishing you all safe, happy and healthy over this period.

Love from Portpatrick Primary

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There is a wealth of information, ideas and resources available free to use to assist you with helping your child to learn during the school closure.

Here is a handy ‘one stop shop’ web page that is set out in sections to make finding resources easier to navigate. Simply copy and past the link below into your browser.

https://sites.google.com/view/homelearningsite?fbclid=IwAR2Anu8-Il0RzEeVKQgV0HL-k_XII4QkSUhWye_Qkk7Rr44IRUT1peHrhC0

It has sections on:

• Home teaching ideas – listed by subject area
• Useful websites – listed by subject area
• Useful apps – All free, inc. of how to download Glow to your mobile device
• ‘How to’ videos’ inc. of how to use Glow.
• Google Drive
• Youtube – inc. of Joe Wicks PE activities etc.
• Articles with links to a wealth of ideas and resources e.g. “Alexa, help me learn.”

Here is a downloaded version of how to access Glow and its resources at home:

How to access and use Glow for Distant Learning

If you don’t have a computer at home, it is possible to set up an Xbox to gain access to the site through your device :

Don’t forget you can install Office 365 at home for free using this tile, which which is available on Glow and is already installed on your child’s launch pad app.  Children can share work directly with their teacher using online Word etc.

Hoping this is helpful : )

Here is a handy ‘how to’ guide on how to access your child’s Glow account at home.  There is access to email and shared resources and files via Teams.

Your child’s Glow login will be in their homework diaries.  They have all been checked as working today.

Click on the images to enlarge or click on the attached document hyperlink to download the full Word version.

How to access glow email_teams at home Blog How to access glow email_teams at home