Author: Ms Whorlow

Wow, what a busy day Portpatrick Primary had! The whole school was involved in a whirlwind of fun fundraising activities for Children In Need.

Class 2 were responsible citizens by organising and running the event.  This was part of their S.T.A.R target award scheme.  Every boy and girl participated fully in a fun packed day of activities.

There were lots of competitions and prizes.  The spottiest children from each class were judged by our catering manager, Barbara (see photo for winners).

Myles Hine successfully guessed the Panda Bear’s name as Bamboo and went home with a giant sized bear donated by Katie and Liam MacDonald.  It was so big he could hardly carry it! Lachlan Ross went ‘quackers’ by backing the winning duck in the Children In Need sweepstake race – Golden Duck. He was tickled pink when he won a huge George Pig donated by Jack Trafford.

The children had fun picking toys and books from our popular Bring and Buy sale.  They enjoyed munching a cake or two as a playtime treat even more!

The activities carried on into the afternoon when we all got social by dancing the Pudsey Reel to the Teddy Bear’s picnic. We were ably instructed by Mrs R. Henry and her twinkle toes.

Class 1 used their writing skills to compose thank you letters to all of our wonderful families who had supported our day, helping to make it a success.

In total we raised the very impressive amount of £189.05. Everyone will agree the boys and girls have done a ‘spotacular’ job of helping disadvantaged children in the U.K.

# Effective Contributors

Portpatrick Primary enjoyed an afternoon of Halloween fun and games organised by our very capable P7 pupils.  The entertainment committee planned an itinerary of spooky themed activities ranging from Mummy Makers to Musical Tombstones. Everyone enjoyed ‘dooking for apples’ followed a snack and a drink kindly donated by family and friends.  There were many prizes to be won too!

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Portpatrick Primary had a busy first day back at school for the new term today.  We have been selected to participate in the National Edina Trust’s Ecological Study: Spring Bulbs for Schools project.

As part of monitoring climate change and how this affects our eco-systems, the boys and girls will be testing a range of hypothesis on flowering plant growth.  They all planted crocuses and daffodils; both in tubs and in a bedded area using a fair scientific test.

Over a period of several months we will monitor the daily temperature, rainfall and growth of our plants to track how climate change is affecting early germination of plants in our country.  Our data will be compared with the other 173 schools in the U.K. participating in the project.  This will allow scientists to monitor the changing effects of temperature on plant life nationally.

We have been learning about what plants need to grow and how early flowering affects food chains for insects, birds etc. and thus our society. We have now named our plants and completed a bulb adoption promise to take very good care of them to help them thrive and grow.

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The parents, grandparents and pupils of Portpatrick Primary kindly gave their time to tidy the nature and the mound areas of our school this weekend.  They worked diligently to clear away overgrowth and nettles.  A few nettle stings were received for their efforts.  There was not one, but two horse box loads of garden waste removed and transported to the local tip for composting by Mrs MacDonald.  Thank you to everyone involved.

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The boys and girls of Portpatrick Primary donned their engineering hats today to take on construction challenges.

Primary 1 and 2 worked collaboratively to design and make objects from Lego component parts.  They had to plan out and build structures such as bridges and boats. They had to use imagination and creativity to come up with their ideas.

P3 – 7 used their soft skills to design geodesic domes using just paper straws, tape and scissors.  The teams approached the challenge in different ways, but were all successful in creating the overall hemisphere structure.

We then discussed and shared our experiences of learning from practical activities.  The children were able to explain how trial and error led to design modifications and an improved understanding of design challenges.

 

Today, Portpatrick P4-7 travelled through to join their classmates at Leswalt for a Scottish Parliament Outreach workshop.  An Education Officer travelled down from Edinburgh to tell us all about how our system of democracy works in Scotland.

The children used electronic voting equipment to answer multiple choice questions on our Parliament and Democracy.  Innes was top for answering the most questions correctly, closely followed by Lachlan in second place.

The boys and girls split into groups to create their own manifestoes on a range of political issues.  We had the following issues represented:

• Save The Earth Party,
• Music Party
• School Party
• Sports Party
• Animal Welfare Party

Each group elected a leader and this person presented their manifesto to the class.  The children then voted using a traditional ballot system to elect their own ‘MSP’.  The Environmental Party was elected to represent us.

The children now have a stronger understanding of how politics function in Scotland and had a great time learning in a practical, interactive way.

 

Our Trio schools have been having a very busy time participating in the Scottish Maths Week. The Scottish government has launched a brand new initiative to help everyone in our nation see maths positively.  The aim is for everyone to experience the benefits, joy and beauty of maths in exciting new ways.

The children have had a full timetable of maths focussed activities:

• Sumdog – national online maths competition
• Manga High Numeracy Ninjas competition
• Outdoor learning for numeracy/maths working with decimals
• Maths Madness – whole school number fun with songs etc.
• Maths games afternoon kindly attended by parents to help children enjoy maths through play
• Careers in our community speed interviews; where friends and family joined us to discuss how maths has a role in the world of work

We were joined by Susan McCourty, our local post mistress, Ali Cerexhe & Robert McQueen from our local lifeboat, Paul McQuillan – bus driver, Mr & Mrs Orr-Ewing – estate management, Miss Whorlow – electronics engineer and Miss Kerr – teacher. All shared how maths is needed in their jobs.

Friday saw the culmination of our maths week. The children engaged in a carousel of activities. They used their creativity to design maths promotion resources for the Scottish Maths week competiton; focussing on why we like and need maths in our life.  This was expressed through posters, songs, poetry, art and rap by the children.

We were then given the opportunity to apply programming and robotics. The children used Lego WeDo to construct models and then use coding blocks to make the models perform actions.  We had tilt aeroplane propellers spinning, footballer’s legs kicking and crazy birds twirling by the end of the session.

Everyone all loved their shared day with Leswalt & Kircolm on Friday, bringing an end to this important initiative. They enjoyed socialising and working together to produce fantastic maths work.

The trio schools were treated to a very special privilege yesterday.  We were invited to attend a school trip to Corsewall lighthouse as part of its 200 year anniversary celebration.  The event was kindly organised by Mike Bullock of the Northern Lighthouse Board, Mr John Ross and Mr Miller who also volunteer their time to the good work of the Northern Lighthouse Board.

The children were given a presentation teaching them all about the history of lighthouses and the work of the Northern Lighthouse Board.  We were then given a tour up to the top of the lighthouse to experience the structure and mechanics first hand.

There are 212 lighthouses in Scotland and the Isle of Mann under the control of the Northern Lighthouse Board.  Only 6 are open to the public.  Corsewall lighthouse has never allowed a public trip so, we were given a very special honour to tour the structure on its very first school trip ever!

Primary 6 and 7 were very active today as they participated in a triathlon event at Stranraer Academy.  Primary schools from all around our area came along to be active by swimming, cycling/scootering and running.

The children gave it their all and did us proud!

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This session was followed by a drama performance of Jason and the Argonauts.  This was a revamped version with both humour and historical accuracy. The children behaved impeccably and represented our school well at both public events.  We returned to school for a well earned lunch.

#responsible citizens

Class 2 travelled to Wigtown in their role as Crime Scene Investigators as part of Dumfries and Galloway’s Science Fair for Schools.

An expensive painting had been stolen and the children were required to use their crime busting skills to identify the culprit.  They applied a range of scientific and technological methods to analyse clues and evidence from the scene of the crime.  They worked painstakingly to identify the following:

• Pose for mug shots
• Take their own fingerprints and identify the fingerprint pattern for each of the suspects
• Build photo-fit composite I.D.’s from eye witness descriptions
• Run facial recognition software to narrow down suspects
• Analyse soil samples under a microscope to identify the soil type of residue left by a footprint at the scene
• Use Ultraviolet light to match footprints to the suspects footwear
• Use microscopes to identify fibre fragments of clothing
• Use DNA coding to identify the suspect
• Take notes from eye witness accounts describing the suspect

A real life CSI was on hand to demonstrate how to take fingerprints at the scene of the crime using a range of equipment.  She discussed her career and the kinds of knowledge and skills that are needed in the role.

Once all the evidence had been gathered and analysed the children then came back together to discuss the list of suspects and make a conclusion as to who the art thief was.  The crime was solved!

At the end of the session we all enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Lachlan.  We enjoyed eating birthday cake even more!