We are thrilled to announce that our 3 Primary 7 pupils have started their journey to become Playmakers, a program led by Alison Murray from Active Schools to help them develop as sports leaders! Today marked the first session, and the six pupils who were in attendance got stuck right in, showing great enthusiasm and energy. They loved every moment of it!

Over the next weeks, our Primary 7s will be taking part in the Playmakers program, which is designed to build their confidence, leadership, and communication skills by planning and organising fun sports activities for their peers. Each of the pupils has been given a booklet to fill in as they progress through the sessions, reflecting on what they have learned and how they can become great role models in promoting physical activity.

The senior pupils will also learn how to support the schoolmates to resolve issues and manage conflict in appropriate and rights respecting ways.

We’re so proud to see our young leaders already engaging so actively in their first week! Keep posted on more updates of our Primary 7s in action as they continue their journey to becoming Playmakers and sports leaders! For now, check out the photos below of our Primary 7s excited to embark on this fantastic new project.

• UNCRC Children’s Rights Covered:
  • Article 12: Right to be heard and have a say in matters affecting them
  • Article 29: Education must develop a child’s personality, talents, and abilities to the fullest
  • Article 31: Right to rest, leisure, play, and participate in cultural and recreational activities
• SDG Goals Covered:
  • Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being (Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages)
  • Goal 4: Quality Education (Inclusive and equitable quality education for all)
• SHANARRI Indicators Covered:
• Active: Encouraging physical activity and engagement in sports
• Included: Ensuring every child has an opportunity to participate and feel involved
• Achieving: Developing leadership and organisational skills
• Meta-Skills Used:
  • Collaborating: Working together to lead and organise activities
  • Leading: Taking initiative and guiding peers in sports activities
  • Communicating: Sharing ideas and instructions clearly with others
  • Feeling: Building empathy, understanding emotions, and supporting peers
  • Adapting: Adjusting to new roles, challenges, and situations in the leadership journey
  • Initiative: Taking proactive steps to plan and deliver fun and engaging activities
  • Integrity: Demonstrating fairness, honesty, and respect while leading and participating

Our council is consulting on proposals to change the structure of the school week, so that there are four slightly longer days and one day per week that finishes at lunchtime.

More information can be found here:

Consultation – School week structure – Dumfries and Galloway Council (dumgal.gov.uk)

Please come along and have your say at the local community drop in about the proposal for changes to the structure of the school week. You are invited to come along to:

Stranraer Academy on Wednesday 28th of August any time between  4.30pm and 7pm.

There will be information and staff available on the night and you will have the opportunity to fill in a survey to share your views and be part of the consultation process.

Please click the link below to access an information PowerPoint.

Thank you

Last day fun for 2024. The pictures speak for themselves. 🙂

Following on from the children’s musical workshops, please find below a link to watch a video of their experiences.

Thank you

UNCRC – Article 31: Rest, Play, Culture & Arts

After a verification assessment today, we are delighted to announce we have been awarded our shiny, new Digital Schools Accreditation. Portpatrick, Kirkcolm and Leswalt are the first schools in Dumfries and Galloway to achieve this recognition for our ongoing commitment to a digital technologies approach for our school.

We can now share our certificate and new award badge.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – 28 Access to Education, 29 – Aims of Education

Our Partnership Primary 6 pupils attended Operation Safety at Stair Park on Tuesday as part of an education and awareness service operated by our emergency services.

The children participated in workshops on a range of key themes to help educate them on dangers they may face and how best to manage risk to keep themselves as safe, healthy and trouble free as possible.

The workshops attended were:

• Coastguard – keeping ourselves safe when rescuing someone drowning
• Ambulance – assessing the situation and recovery position
• Police – alcohol and its effects
• Fire Brigade – Dangers in the home
• Police – Vandalism
• Scottish Power – Electricity and its dangers
• Police – Social media safety
• Police – drugs

Our pupils developed a deeper awareness of the potential risks and discussed strategies to help them cope sensibly with risky situations.

Thank you to our emergency services for a very informative day and worthwhile day.

UNCRC Rights of the Child:

6 – Life, survival and development

16 – Protection of Privacy

17 – Access to Information

33 – Protection from harmful drugs

Sustainable Development Goals:

3 Good Health and Wellbeing

Pupils from Portpatrick and St. Joseph’s primaries joined together to enjoy a day of outdoor learning at Logan Botanical Gardens.  The children headed off in the sunshine for two workshops.

Primary 4 – 7 pupils explored different ways of experiencing our local habitat to find out some of the ways that environmental factors shape the biodiversity and the landscapes we live in. They practiced creative mapping techniques using scale.  They learned how to represent and connect to their surroundings by recognising the four cardinal directions using compass bearings between features in a landscape. This helped them develop the meta-skills of sense-making and curiosity.

After the workshops there was time for the children to enjoy a picnic lunch in the beautiful gardens.  It was a fantastic day thanks to the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh.

• UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 24 Health & Environment
• Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health & Wellbeing, 15 – Life on Land
• SHANARRI – Healthy, Active, Included

Janet from Creative Stranraer came to visit our school on Monday this week to tell the children about the exciting Cycling Festival which is happening in Stranraer soon. She was looking to gather ideas from the children as to what type of activities they would like to see at the event. As expected, the children were full of fantastic ideas including…

Janet was delighted with the children’s suggestions. She plans on seeing if any can be used for the event. She hopes to see the children and families at the Cycling Festival soon – keep a look out for dates!

• UNCRC 5 – Children have the right to be guided by their communities
• UNCRC 12 – Respect for Children’s Views
• UNCRC 13 – Sharing Thoughts Freely
• SHANARRI – Responsible, Respected, Included

Portpatrick and St. Joseph’s football teams enjoyed a practice session in the sun today. Our two coaches, John & John were on hand to offer tips, advice and guidance to our eager team players. Wishing our teams good luck at the Academy tomorrow.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 15: Joining groups, Article 24 – Health

SHANARRI – Healthly, Active, Included

Well done to our great wee team of football players for playing their first matches at the inter-school 7-a-side matches on Friday. There was great team spirit from everyone. Thank you to Mr Morrison as our team coach. There will be a replay again in a fortnight’s time.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 15: Setting up and Joining Groups, Article 24: Health

SHANARRI – Active, Included