Author: Mrs McHarg

P1-4 joined Elizabeth Tindall on the beach yesterday as part of the Rhins Coastal Path Project. Thankfully the sun was shining (although Mrs McHarg & Mrs Rice both wished they took their gloves with them!!).

The pupils had a fun filled morning learning lots about various things on the beach. First, we had a nurdle hunt – these are small pellets of plastic that get washed up on the shore line. We hunted for limpets and sea aenmones and learned why/how limpets stick to the rocks on the beach.

Next, we searched for some perfectly sized stones and cleaned them in the rock pools (some children were also “cleaned” after slipping into the water…!!). Whilst waiting for our stones to dry, we listened to Elizabeth tell a story using her story stones and then used acrylic pens to create our own.

After a break, Elizabeth explained about the different types of seaweed on the beach and we went to see how many different types we could find – the most common ones were bladder rack, sea lettuce and sugar rack. Pupils seemed rather horrified to learn that toothpaste has seaweed in it, as does some types of ice-cream!!!

At the start of our session, we found some larger stones to place at the edge of the sea, so to finish off our session we went to find our stones – but they were no where to be seen! Elizabeth then explained that the tide moves in and out over the course of the day, and we played a little game at the edge of the water (although some overly-enthusiastic pupils ran a bit too fast and didn’t stop at the edge of the water, ending up with soggy feet!!!).

Everyone had a fab morning and learned lots about the beach. Huge thanks to Elizabeth for the past 2 days’ input – we are really looking forward to our next session with Suzi next week!

Lots of pupils have been busy filling in application forms and/or interviewing for positions of responsibility in school over the last week, giving them a taster of the world of work! All of the position have now been announced – much to the delight of pupils who were desperate to find out!

In our Pupil Council for this session we have: Harry (P1-2), Erin (P3), Max (P4), Jack (P5), Ava Lily (P6) and Lillie (P7).

Taking on the task of kick starting our new Eco action plan in the hope of achieving another Green Flag, in the Eco committee we have: Adam, Rebecca, Louise, Cameron, Lewis, Alba and Ruby.

We have a few helping hands around the school this term, our monitors are:

• Dinner hall – Sean Paul and Conor
• Library – Maya
• Cloakroom – Arran (infants) and Alfie (upper)

Our new tech-savvy Digital Leaders will be on hand to lend their expertise to both classes! They had their digital skills tested before they were even appointed, as they had an online application form to complete! Digital Leaders this session are:

And finally – House Captains! All of our prospective candidates had to prepare a short election speech which they said to the whole school, who then voted for the best person for the job. Hopefully leading Dunskey to success is Robin, and heading up Portree is Izzy! Everyone did an amazing job at their speeches, we were all super impressed with the time and effort that went into these.

Well done to everyone who applied for a position – there were lots of very difficult decisions!

Usually at the end of the year, we’d have an assembly to celebrate all of the successes in the school – but obviously we were unable to back in June (pesky Covid!!).  But we didn’t want all of the hard work and effort of pupils last session to go unnoticed! So on Wednesday, we celebrated our Star Readers for 2019-2020 who were awarded with certificates. Have a keek below to see all the delighted faces getting the recognition they deserved!

Our P6/7 pupils have been working hard over the past week to prepare a persuasive election speech in the hope they will be voted in as House Captain for the forthcoming year. Since we aren’t allowed assemblies at the moment, we ventured outside into the fresh air (luckily there were blue skies at this point!) to listen to the speeches. For Portree, we had Izzy and Lillie competing against each other; and for Dunskey, we had Robin, Maya and Ava Lily – so the competition was on!!

After the speeches, every pupil in the school got the opportunity to vote for 1 person to be House Captain for their house. After a tense 10 minutes (which apparently “felt like a lifetime” to our eagerly awaiting P6/7 pupils) the votes were counted and House Captains announced.

Our new Dunskey House Captain is Robin, and our new Portree House Captain is Izzy. Well done to everyone who worked their wee socks off to prepare and deliver some amazing speeches – it really was a very close vote (1 vote between the Dunskey candidates, and 2 votes between the Portree candidates!). Good luck to our new House Captain!

We received some very exciting new during the holidays – Eco Schools Scotland confirmed that we have attained ANOTHER Green Flag Award!! The boys and girls in the school, particularly those in the Eco Committee who have been the driving force behind a lot of the plans and activities, have worked incredibly hard over the last 2 years to try and achieve this. Waaaay back in September 2018 we created our  action plan focusing on the topics of Litter, Global Citizenship and School Grounds. Over the last 2 years we have completed a variety of Eco-friendly activities, including: a bring-and-buy sale where the money raised was donated to the Australian bush fire WWF Koala Protectors charity; a village litter pick; creating a willow-dome; planting tomato seeds; and purchasing gardening equipment with the money kindly donated from the Community Council.

Although we weren’t able to complete everything on our action plan due to the pesky Covid-19 virus, we gave it our best shot and Eco Schools Scotland were happy that we have demonstrated that our pupils are responsible citizens and have learned lots about environmental issues.

Our assessor sent a detailed letter to confirm our achievement and stated: “Congratulations Portpatrick Primary on successfully renewing your Green Flag Award! The work carried out during these past years has been extraordinary and it has been a real pleasure to assess your application… Your excellent Eco Committee are doing a brilliant job inspiring, engaging and informing the entire school community in a very effective way.” He also went on to say that aspects of our work were noted as being examples of good practice and that we may feature on their website or as case studies on social media to support other schools with their Eco Schools work.

A big thanks also needs to go to Sian Roberts, who has sat as the parent rep on the Eco Committee for the past 2 years. Sian has attended all of the meetings with the pupils and Mrs McHarg, and has very generously given up her own time to aid with our Eco activities in school, such as creating the willow dome and sourcing and planting trees with the pupils.

Well done to everyone involved – have a look below at the photo of some very happy faces with their Green Flag!

As part of our ongoing Eco Schools work to try and achieve our next Green Flag, we participated in the Keep Scotland Beautiful Pocket Garden competition. As part of this, families and pupils were invited to design a garden based on one of the 4 themes: Year of the Coasts and Waters; Keep Scotland Beautiful’s 20th Birthday; One Planet Picnic; and Wildlife Gardening.

All P4-7 pupils designed a garden in class and we submitted the entries last week. I am delighted to say that we received an email from Keep Scotland Beautiful, stating:

“We were thrilled to receive over 100 entries from across 21 of Scotland’s local authority areas and I am delighted to let you know that your entry has been successful!  There was a very high standard of entries inspired by all the themes and the judges were all impressed by the creativity, imagination and humour in the designs.  Please pass on our congratulations to your talented pupils.”

Our winning entry was from Ava Lily Orr-Ewing – a huge well done!!!

The prize is to now turn Ava Lily’s design into a real life garden and take it up to the Gardening Scotland event that is held in Edinburgh at the end of May. Our gardening club will start after the Easter holidays (circumstances permitting) and will focus on creating this.

Our Library monitors, Alba and Izzy, ran a competition for World Book Day, where pupils had to design a new front cover for their favourite book. Today, they had the difficult task of judging the entries and selecting 2 winners – one from P1-3 and one from P4-7.

It really was a tricky task – so much so that we had joint winners in P1-3 as the entries were so good! Tilly and Lewis were announced as the joint winners in P1-3, and Rose was selected as the winner from P4-7. The winners had a selection of books to choose from and took home 1 each as their prize.

Well done to all the boys and girls who entered the competition – it was great to see so many colourful and eye-catching designs.

 

Primary 1-3 pupils had a taster session of rugby this afternoon with Mr Harbottle, who kindly volunteered to deliver this. They were learning how to handle a rugby ball given it’s different shape and how it moves, and participated in various games to help them learn how to do this.

Have a keek at Mrs Wither’s photos below to see all the fun they had!

We were thoroughly entertained on Wednesday morning by 4Front Theatre, who brought their wonderful performance of ‘A Fisherman’s Tail’ to Portpatrick Primary. The pupils sat engrossed for almost an hour as they listened to the story of 4 fishermen (James, John, Andrew and Simon) who were competing to catch the biggest fish on the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus appeared. The fishermen became Jesus’ disciples, and the story went on to tell of the miracles of Jesus, right up to his crucifixion.

The performance was full of songs that got the pupils clapping along, and some very funny scenes that had them all roaring with laughter.

A huge thanks must go to the Baptist Church and Scripture Union who made this wonderful experience possible. It was a very enjoyable RME lesson, teaching pupils about some of the key messages of Christianity in a fun and engaging way.

As part of our ongoing Eco Schools work, the Eco committee are planning on running a gardening club after the Easter break. However we were given some tomato seeds which needed to be planted now – so the boys and girls rolled up their sleeves on Wednesday morning and got planting, kindly aided by Sian who volunteered to come in and help. Every pupil in the school now has a pot of tomato seeds to care for over the coming weeks. We will be keeping a close eye on them to ensure they grow and develop!