Taking a closer look at what we can do to save our planet
Today at school children learned about what Earth Day is and how it affects everyone. This years theme is plastic and we discussed about which steps we can take to cut down our carbon footprint. We looked at the detrimental effect that plastic and fossil fuels can have on the planet and the animals which inhabit the earth.
After our great dialogue, we then created our own stained glass window globes. Well done everyone on your fantastic work! Some of the children chose to have their planet in a magnifying glass to change the way world leaders ‘look’ at the earth.
UNCRC Rights of the Child
Article 12 – You have the right to be heard
Sustainable Development Goals –
12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, 13 – Climate Action, 14 – Life Below Water and 15 – Life on Land
Yesterday, our children were learning about the ABCDE of rights as part of our Rights Respecting Schools gold journey. Its purpose is to show how the concepts of rights are universal, inherent, inalienable, unconditional and indivisible.
Universal – All children have rights
Inherent – You have rights since Birth
Inalienable – Your rights Cannot be taken away
Unconditional – Rights Do not have to be earned
Indivisible – All rights are Equally important
Our children very philosophically came up with some great ideas for posters for our ABCDE of rights. The top poster had girls reflecting that even though everybody is different (as shown by the hands), every child’s rights are still the same! A group of boys worked on a galaxy poster which depicts no matter where you are in the milky way, our rights are universal!
Excellent work Portpatrick!
Rights of the Child –
Article 29 – Aims of Education
Article 17 – Access to Information
Sustainable Development Goals – 17 Partnerships for the goals
Portpatrick Primary School recently had a visit from staff on behalf of he Wigtownshire Foodbank. Children learned about how the foodbank works, what kind of food is most welcomed and who might use a foodbank. Our community were able to bring in a very generous donation to the school which was highly appreciated by staff from the foodbank (see email below!).
The staff couldn’t speak highly enough of the children who asked ‘some of the best questions’ they’d ever heard. Well done Portpatrick community for giving to those in need and supporting yet another local charity 👏
As part of a very busy last couple of weeks, Portpatrick pupils enjoyed some Easter celebrations.
First of all there was judging for ‘Paint the Egg’. The competition for this was very fierce and lots of hard work were put into all entries. The winners for this were Cameron and Layo.
After judging, the children went on an Easter Egg hunt. They were able to find some sneakily hidden eggs from the teachers and the children cooperated well to find all missing eggs!
Finally as the weather was nice, we went outside to roll Easter Eggs down the hill.
The children thoroughly enjoyed their day while learning about the importance of Easter as a tradition and how it stemmed from Christianity.
UNCRC Rights of the Child –
Article 30 – Minority Culture, Language and Religion, Article 14 – Freedom of Thought and Religion
Sustainable goals – Responsible consumption and production.
Children from the upper school worked with Mrs. Dampney in preparing the Portpatrick school garden for the summer. This included ensuring the plants are progressing at a good pace and mulching. The children learned about how this increased the quality of the soil around the plants in our garden and helped keep weeds at bay.
This was spearheaded by our Eco group, who have a keen interest in keeping our environment well kept and looked after.
P5-7 put in a huge amount of effort to learn the songs and actions for their Scottish Opera show. The show was held at the Ryan Centre and was performed alongside other local schools. Portpatrick showcased their talent in front of a big audience, singing three songs and demonstrating amazing choreography.
They worked very hard with further training with the leader of each group: The Sorcerers, Villagers and the Vikings. Their hard work meant the show ran very smoothly and looked very professional.
Well done Portpatrick!
UNCRC Rights of the Child –
Article 15 – Setting up or joining groups, Article 26 – Social and Economic Help, Article 31 – Rest, Play, Culture, Arts
What a fantastic week of science we have had at Portpatrick primary school! On Monday, P5-7 were learning about inheritance and used ‘Reebops’ to explore different genetic information.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Hall from the STEM team taught the P1-4 class about construction. They were able to build different objects from cardboard, fitting pieces together with screws, joins and using screwdrivers and other tools. This provided some of the younger class with key skills for life.
Later on that day, Mrs. Hall enabled the children to learn about aerodynamics and drag! She used images and videos on the Promethean smartboard to demonstrate lift and drag, The children loved learning about which paper aeroplanes flew through the air quickest and adapted their planes to see if they could engineer a plane that flew through the air faster. They had a competition to see which parachutes could fall to the floor the slowest. This enabled the children to self evaluate their creations to see if they could design parachutes that achieved their learning goals. They considered various materials, size and strength / elasticity of parachutes to create designs with as much drag as possible.
Finally for Science Week, on Thursday we had a science afternoon where parents came in to participate in learning activities with the children. It was fantastic to see so many adults get involved. We had several stations where children could experiments with various scientific concepts. This included working with different properties of substance, friction, magnetism, building and identifying where vital organs are in the human body. Our younger pupils particularly enjoyed using the Code ‘n’ Go mouse to program instructions for the mouse to navigate a maze to get the cheese.
Our family visitors were able to scan a QR code at each station using the IPads. This accessed animated videos and information so we could all learn about the scientific principals behind that activity.
It was a great week, in which the children learned a variety of new concepts and had fun. Thank you to everyone who was involved!
UNCRC Rights of the Child –
Article 5 – Family guidance as children develop, Article 29 – Aims of Education.
On Friday, Reverend Breakey came in to Portpatrick to make some Easter crafts with the children. They learned a range of sewing and technology skills and everyone was successfully able to make a miniature fabric bunny. These bunnies will be excellent for keeping the Creme eggs safe from any hungry parents!
Thank you very much to Reverend Elizabeth Breakey as well as Jean Ross and Avril Adams who supported the children with their stitching skills.
The children loved creating their egg holders and it was great for our learners to show their responsibility through community links.
UNCRC – Rights of the Children
Article 14 – Freedom of thought and Religion and Article 29 – Aims of Education
The whole school had a great yesterday for World Book Day. We did a ‘Secret Book Swap’ (a similar idea to Secret Santa), which the children loved. The children had books chosen by other peers which they would like… It really shows how well the children know each other!
We did a book chat, where children swapped partners (similar to a speed dating type idea), and told their partners about their favourite books, characters and plots. It was very interesting listening in to some of the conversations! We had a range of favourite books from Percy Jackson to Spiderman, from Goosebumps to Matilda and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Wings of Fire. There is plenty of enthusiasm from children at our school for reading.
We finished off the afternoon with a paired read where the younger class would read to the older class. We enjoyed the paired read with some chocolate and cocoa (which was Fairtrade – linking with Fairtrade fortnight.)
UNCRC Right of the Child –
Article 12 – Respect for Children’s Views, Article 17 – Access to Information.
SHANARRI – Nurtured, Respected and Included.
Why not enjoy reading together with £1 books from W.H. Smiths!
Cameron and Harry represented Portpatrick at a celebratory Burns night for songs and recitals. This was held at the Ryan Centre on Wednesday 6th March.
Both boys gave excellent performances in a night where the standard was very high. Harry and Cameron both did the school very proud and showed great courage and confidence to perform in front of so many people.
They both showed ‘Walter Wellbeing’ as part of our partnership’s Vision, Values and Aims. Well done boys!
UNCRC Rights of the Child –
Article 3 – Best interests of the child. Article 31 – Rest, Play, Culture, Arts.
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