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.
