Author: Miss Shelley

On Thursday 30th May we were delighted to welcome visitors from UNICEF UK and family members to discuss how our school and school community have been working towards our Gold Accreditation. The P1-7s have been working very hard to ensure we are a Rights Respecting School. In our journey to becoming a Gold Accredited school we have completed activities such as rights assemblies, developing a rights mascot, sharing a rights homelink book, designing rights games, hosting a rights open afternoon and singing the ‘We’ve All Got Rights Song’ with sign language. Our pupils took full responsibility for showing our visitors around the school and carefully explaining and discussing all of the exciting things we have been up to.

As part of our learning and teaching during the visit, linked to our writing topic – Instructions, we gave ourselves the challenge of following instructions to make a paper Rights Fortune Teller. This proved quite tricky but by following the instructions carefully and with a little bit of help we managed to fold them successfully and began adding rights to test our peers!

We are very proud of the boys and girls for warmly welcoming our visitors and confidently sharing their super knowledge. As a little treat for all of their hard work we enjoyed a bowl of ice cream together as a school and recapped our Rights journey so far.

Great work everyone, we look forward to hearing back from UNICEF UK to find out if we have successfully achieved our Gold Accreditation.

• UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 4 Making Rights Real / Article 13 Sharing Thoughts Freely
• Sustainable Development Goal: 4 – Good Education
• SHANARRI – Achieving, Responsible, Respected, Included

On Tuesday 28th May our after school Life Skills Club continued. This week the P1-7s were invited to attend a skills session based on hospitality. We started by setting our table for a two course meal. The boys and girls had good knowledge of how to set a table from previous experiences but few had set a table for more than one course. We looked at an example of a table setting before getting to work setting our own place.

Once the table was set we got started on preparing our first course – melon boats. We discussed food hygiene and agreed that before we started we should always wash our hands. Everyone confidently used a knife to prepare their fruit after some discussion about knife safety. We showed skill and control when using a knife to cut and slice.

Then, we took our melon to our place setting and discussed how we would serve the plate to someone already sitting at the table. We also had a chat about table manners and how to show someone that you are finished with the food in front of you. We carefully cleared the plate from the person to our left, scraped any waste into the bin and neatly stacked the sink ready for washing up.

For our second course we made tortilla pizzas. Again, we used our chopping skills and got creative with our toppings. While these baked we returned to the table for a toast and a drink of something fizzy! We discussed the skills we had used during the session including listening, organising, cutting skills, focusing, being clean and using our manners. To finish off we enjoyed our delicious pizzas and cleared our table.

We didn’t forget our washing up, we ran out of time during our session but the dishes were still there in the morning to be rinsed, cleaned and dried before being put away.

Meta-Skills

Initiative / Communicating / Collaborating / Critical Thinking / Curiosity

• UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 6 Life, Survival and Development / 15 Setting up and Joining Groups / 24 Health, Water, Food and Environment
• Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health & Wellbeing, 4 – Good Education
• SHANARRI – Healthy, Nurtured, Responsible, Included

Over the past 10 weeks P1-4 have enjoyed sessions with Paul and Becky from the Youth Music Institute, Feis Rois. They have joined us each week to teach us about Scottish and Gaelic music. We have investigated Scottish instruments, learned some new Scots and Gaelic words and took a tour of Scotland to learn the history of some of the songs we have been singing.

The boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed singing, playing games and even getting a chance to play some instruments while preparing for our Tartan Tour Showcase.

To round off our sessions we had a visit from a videographer who wanted to capture our last session and get some insights from the children and staff about the music program and its impact. We had some brave volunteers who were mic’d up and interviewed by Ruairidh about their experience.

A huge thank you to Paul and Becky from Feis Rois who travelled from Glasgow each week and provided such fun and engaging lessons.

• UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture and Arts
• Sustainable Development Goal: 4 – Good Education
• SHANARRI – Achieving, Responsible, Included

On Tuesday 21st May our new Life Skills Club started after school. The P1-7s were invited to attend the first skills session based on camping and organising. It was a beautiful afternoon to practice our team working and problem solving skills while putting up tents and packing an over-night bag. The boys and girls worked in small teams to look at the equipment they had before beginning to assemble their tents.

We faced a number of challenges including feeding the poles through the tent, the breeze trying to blow the tents away and working out how the inner sleep sections attached to the outer tent. However, with some team work, using previous experiences and problem solving we managed to successfully assemble one tent….. The larger of the tents was very tricky indeed! We learned that you must check (and double check) the length of the poles and the instructions before starting to assemble the tent. We will tackle this one again another time!

The boys and girls worked well together and were Percy Perseverance’s, remaining patient and not giving up! To finish our session we identified some of the skills we felt we used during this task: Team work, strength, listening, talking to each other and problem solving.

Great work team! Next week, we will be practising different skills during a Hospitality session.

Meta-Skills

Initiative / Communicating / Collaborating / Critical Thinking

• UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture and Arts / Article 15 setting up or joining groups
• Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health & Wellbeing, 4 – Good Education
• SHANARRI – Active, Included

On Friday afternoon we donned our tartan, grabbed our flags and got our dancing shoes on to celebrate 50 years of the Bay City Rollers’ Shang a Lang!

The boys and girls (and adults!) of Portpatrick Primary boogied the afternoon away to commemorate 50 years of the famous single Shang a Lang. While listening to her favourite radio channel, Mrs Henry heard the challenge set by Greatest Hits Radio to submit a video of everyone enjoying the catchy tune. We jumped at the chance to let Mrs Henry relive her youth and have a bop with the children, so keep your eyes peeled to find out if we made it into the official Greatest Hits Radio video!

For now, enjoy our own photos and videos of a fabulous afternoon dancing with a view!

• UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture and Arts
• Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health & Wellbeing, 4 – Good Education
• SHANARRI – Active, Included

As a class reward for earning 100 gems in Term 3, P1-4 enjoyed an adventure day where they shared knowledge they had learned about the Vikings and used their Position and Movement skills to navigate a treasure hunt!

We enjoyed a sunny afternoon exploring Portpatrick, using clues and our compass skills. Each time we found a Viking image we had to share some Viking facts to earn the next clue and direction. The treasure hunt lead us to the park were we enjoyed playing with our friends.

We returned to school to continue our Adventure day and discussed fire safety before creating a fire in the playground to cook like the Vikings! We toasted bread on the fire and added butter we had made in class by shaking cream in a jar until the fat and butter milk separated. The P5-7 joined us for our Viking fire and enjoyed hearing about how we made the butter and what kinds of food Vikings would cook over the fire. These activities allowed the boys and girls to use and develop some of their Meta Skills; focussing, communicating, collaborating and leading.

UNCRC Rights of the Child –

Article 6 – Life, Survival and Development  Article 24 – Health, Water, Food and Environment

Sustainable goals – Quality Education.

SHANARRI – Safe, Active, Responsible, Included

On Monday 11th March, P1-4 joined a group of P7s to go to the North West Castle for the curling Bonspiel. We watched the older pupils from the cluster participate in the bonspiel. We have just completed a block of indoor curling for our PE and the class were very excited to see a curling rink and the equipment used on the ice. We had lots of discussions about what was happening and the differences between our indoor Kurling skates and the curling stones used on the ice. It was also interesting to find out how the targets and colours are made on the rink.

After watching some of the curling we took a short break to get a snack and explore the Garden of Friendship before jumping back on the bus and heading to the Ryan Centre for a play in Ryan’s Den!

The boys and girl had a fabulous time in the soft play area and enjoyed a little crisp buffet before returning to school for a classroom picnic!

All in all we had a fabulous morning at the North West Castle and the Ryan Centre. Many thanks to Mrs Henry for organising everything, Mrs Ross for accompanying us and to Wigtownshire Community Transport for getting us where we needed to be!

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture and Arts.

SHANARRI – Active, Included.

The Primary 4 boys and girl completed their three week block of swimming today at the Ryan Centre. We are so proud of this little group as they all managed to build their confidence in the water and have all made progress with their swimming abilities. They were all Percy Perseverance’s and managed to get their feet off the floor and kicking to make it to the other side of the pool. Not only have they had a fabulous time, accompanied by Mrs Ross, but they have been brilliant ambassadors for our school.

A huge thank you to Mrs Ross for accompanying P4 to and from swimming and to Wigtownshire Community transport for getting us there and back safely.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 6 Life, Survival and Development, Article 24 Health, Water, Food and Environment.

SHANARRI – Healthy, Active, Achieving, and Responsible.

Iain Ritchie visited Portpatrick Primary yesterday, Thursday 22nd of February, to present the school with a very kind donation.

On New Years Day 2024, Iain organised a Loony Dook at Portpatrick Beach. Some of the pupils attended the dook and had raised money through sponsors to donate.

The boys and girls were delighted to receive the donation of £1,900 as part of the money raised from the dook!

A huge heart felt thank you from everyone at Portpatrick Primary!

UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 6 Life, Survival and Development.

SHANARRI: Included & Responsible

After a busy HMIE inspection week it was time to let down our hair and enjoy a little treat this afternoon. The boys and girls enjoyed some whole school STEM activities led by the P5-7 class.

We enjoyed building houses, learning how to control the new Spheros, making dioramas and a bridge building challenge.

To finish off the day we enjoyed a well earned ice-cream and a chat before we got ready to go home for our half term break.

A huge well done to the boys and girls for all of their hard work this week and a heartfelt thank you to parents, partners and everyone for their continued support for our fabulous school.

UNCRC Article 31 – Rest, Play, Arts and Culture

SDG 4. Quality Education