Author: Ms Whorlow

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!

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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.

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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! 🙂

Did you know that May is National Share a Story  month?

This is an annual celebration of the power and magic of storytelling. Organised by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, it is a wonderful opportunity for families to share stories and books.

Spending just 10 minutes a day reading and sharing stories with children can make a crucial difference to their future plus it’s a lovely thing to do!

World Book Day are offering free Share A Story resources to help you join in including a Share A Story Reading Stars game, top tips for sharing stories, book review templates.

This year’s theme is Myths, Magic and Mayhem.

Here are some suggested reading titles for you:

• Mythical Book Suggestions
• Magic Book Suggestions 
• Mayhem Book Suggestions

Why not encourage your child to create their own mythical beast for this year’s competition! Click here for competition details.  The closing dates is the 1st of June, 2021.

Pupil Council Members thought it would be a good idea to share a digital library of books you might like to read together at home.

WBD-whole school digital-library

The Pupil Council members  planned an afternoon of sharing a story together in school to read for pleasure.

What a brilliant day out the North Rhins P7s enjoyed at Galloway Activity Centre on Friday! This was organised as a special treat as they had missed their last two residentials – and what a fabulous time they had together before they head off to S1 at Stranraer Academy.

Thankfully the high winds and rain of Thursday had abated and Friday dawned dry and reasonably bright. We met at Port Rodie and clambered upon the minibus to head down the road to Loch Ken.

Once there, we got kitted up with our laser guns and headsets for our first activity. Diving in and out of the wooden hides (and in Mrs F’s case headfirst over a tree trunk!) the teams worked to avoid being ‘killed’ by the opposition. Strategy meetings were held, tactics discussed and rounds of ‘ammo’ were fired… and yes the teachers were shot! All good fun. The teachers went from being quite cool and mature to being VERY into this game! Why had I never played this before? Highly recommended!

Next up, the children donned their wetsuits (many comedy moments were had with Mr Cloy!) and enjoyed a session of kayaking. They were naturals! Once they were kayaked-out, the suggested dare from Instructors Rob and Hannah to jump off the the end of the pontoon was met with great cheers all round. The phrase ‘drowned rats’ comes to mind as they all padded back up towards the centre to get changed into dry clothes.

A quick bite of lunch and it was time for the climbing wall and zipwire with instructors Rob and Ben. What a bunch of adrenaline seekers we have! Superb climbing and ‘zipping’! The offer was then there for those who wanted to have a 2nd,3rd and even 4th shot of the climbing wall.

We thanked Rob, Hannah and Ben for a great activity day and climbed aboard the bus to head to Castle Douglas for a bite to eat. Chip-shop dinners in hand, we stopped the bus by Carlingwark Loch and munched our tasty suppers, before heading back along the A75 towards home.

The kids were an absolute pleasure to be with, the activities were fantastic fun and the chip-shop tea rounded off a perfect day out! Just check out our pictures below to see for yourselves….Click on the images to enlarge 🙂

Mrs Ferguson & Miss McNicoll

For ‘I Love Nurses Day’ the pupils of Portpatrick were asked to create artwork to celebrate the wonderful contribution nurses make to our society, particularly this year!

The boys and girls drew  posters to show their appreciation for our nurses and, as a special reward, they were given some healthy fruit in return. The children really enjoyed munching on their fruity snacks.

Thank you to Julie Currie and Morrisons for their kind donation.

On the 19th of May, National Numeracy Day 2021 will help the nation, at work, home and school get ‘number confident’.

National Numeracy empowers children and adults to get on with numbers so they can achieve number success and manage numbers in everyday life.

This event is the UK’s only annual day dedicated to everyday maths. This year, the event is a unique virtual festival and will be packed full of practical advice from celebrities and experts, inspirational stories from real-life learners and a host of free online events and resources.

Why not check out this Sway to find out how to take part?  Simply click on ‘play’ when it launches.

North Rhins National Numeracy Day

The National Numeracy Day 2021 features three themes crucial to the nation’s wellbeing:

Go to this Sway

You may recall that we informed you that three of our three Primary 6 girls, Ava Lily, Izzy and Maya had reached the final stages of the Poppyscotland Fundraising Heroes competition for their fundraising efforts for Remembrance Day.

We have just received an official email to inform us that the girls have won in their category: Best Fundraising Photograph!  This has earned them £500 in Amazon vouchers for our school.  The backstory to the photograph demonstrates the girls’ selfless initiative to raise funds for this very important charity.

Confirmation was received from Yvonne Caddell, Learning and Volunteer coordinator today.  She writes:

I am extremely delighted to announce that ‘The Pineapple Squad’ from Portpatrick Primary School have won the Fundraising Heroes! Competition 2020 in the category of ‘Best Fundraising-in-Action Photo’.

Our massive and warmest congratulations to Maya McNeill, Ava Lily Orr-Ewing and Isabella White.

I’m sure you will agree the girls truly deserved their win. This photo perfectly captures the girls’ enthusiasm for running their own initiative fundraising enterprise project. Looking at the results of the voting their school and local communities really got behind them and kept them in the lead throughout all of the weeks of voting!

All very best wishes and congratulations once again!

We are so proud of our girls for their dedication to others.  It is quite an achievement, particular when the winner was decided by a national voting poll.  Thank you to everyone who shared, voted and supported the girls in their efforts.

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The whole school took advantage of the beautiful afternoon to participate in some ‘Eco Time’ as part of World Earth Day.  This year’s theme is Restore Our Earth, which focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies, and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems.

Morrisons have kindly donated sunflower seed packets to local schools as part of their Seeds of Hope initiative.  The philosophy behind the Morrisons project is to ‘nourish your plant and nurture your mind’.  The school  decided that these two events aligned and would give us an excellent opportunity to both support natural biodiversity and ‘nurture’  our minds at the same time.  Sunflowers are a valuable source of food for birds, bees and insects,  so we are doing our bit to support biodiversity.

Everyone planted dwarf sunflowers which we will care for and nurture to grow seedlings.  We will then send these home so children can plant them in their gardens to enjoy and share with their family, supporting insect life in many gardens.

The children seeded our wooden planter and planted up large pots to  make a display we can all enjoy outside the dinner hall.  Everyone will be able to view the cheery sunflowers as they walk into school.

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