Author: Mrs Baillie

Primary 5-7 headed off this morning at 8.30am for 2 days of outdoor education at Stronord outdoor education centre, near Newton Stewart.  

Day one and the pupils have had a clear dry day to enjoy hill walking.  Limited mobile phone network coverage means communication has been limited, but Ms Whorlow did manage to send through 2 photographs to illustrate what they were up to earlier………….

Primary 4 and 5 pupils enjoyed a jaunt into Stranraer Academy this morning. 

They went to watch a performance by “Theatre in schools”.  The performance today was called “Up to speed”, and the 2 performers captivated the whole audience for an hour.  The children later got to try out some of the drama techniques they used in their performance .  This performance was enjoyed by all Primary schools in the Stranraer cluster.

The partnership football team of Portpatrick/Leswalt United finished off the Summer season of fun days on winning form.  Today  they won every game to get through to the final at the Sandhead tournament – against their new trio partnership school of Kirkcolm.

It was a very tense final, with Mrs Baillie being very diplomatic on the sidelines and avoiding showing allegiance to any one of her schools.  At full time the score was 0:0.  The tension was further heightened as it went to a penalty shoot off to decide the winners.  Kirkcolm narrowly won on penalties, but  Portpatrick /Leswalt football team can hold their heads high that they played very well and demonstrated great sportsmanship.  

Runners up Sandhead fun day 2017.

As part of their project on “The Romans”, Mrs Cameron set her class the homework task of designing and making a shield at home.  Have a look at the fantastic results of this challenge.

Portpatrick Primary would like to say thank you very much to Jean Rankin.  Jean recently did a 10 mile sponsored walk in aid of school funds (for the “carpet fund”).  Today she popped into school to had over a big cheque for £370.  Jean has also kindly organised for all pupils to have an ice cream after sports day – and has paid for that herself.

Many thanks Jean  for thinking of us at Portpatrick Primary, it was very kind of you!

The joint partnership football team from Portpatrick and Leswalt  Primary schools took part in the first fun day tournament of this term – with great success.

The boys and girls played at Rephad fun night and progressed unbeaten to the final.  This competition was open to all schools in the Stranraer cluster.  In the final they played Belmont Primary, who eventually won. 

Well done to all who played – there was great team work and sportmanship displayed throughout.  Special thanks must go to Ewan Dodds for coaching at Leswalt and Alec Ross, from Portpatrick,  for managing the team at this tournament.

Further to the fantastic coverage in the Free Press yesterday of Rowan winning the national letter writing competition organised by Poppy Scotland, there are some great pictures and coverage on the Poppy Scotland website ;

http://learning.poppyscotland.org.uk/winners-runners-up-announced-in-letters-home-competition/

Click on the link above and have a look and see all the happy faces!

Later today, they are planning to publish Rowan’s letter online.

Portpatrick Primary had a special surprise assembly today.  A visitor had travelled from Glasgow with a special announcement for all in school.  In November pupils in Ms Whorlow’s class entered a letter writing competition, organised by Poppy Scotland.  This competition was open to all schools in Scotland and was judged by a panel including TV presenter Kirsty Wark.  

A video of Kirsty Wark announcing the winner was played to the school and parents – announcing Rowan Harbottle as the national winner!  This announcement was a fantastic surprise to all the pupils and parents.  Rowan was given a beautiful framed certificate and a mini I pad as his prize.  His letter was read out to all – demonstrating why he was a worthy winner, before many photographs were taken to mark this achievement.

One visitor to the school remarked as they left ” I thought the surprise could have been George Clooney coming into school – but this was way much better!!”

This letter writing competition happened during the term in which p5/6 were studying World War Two as their project.  So combined with this knowledge, and a fantastic vocabulary, Rowan put his literacy skills to very good effect.

Congratulations Rowan – we are all very proud of you!

 

After two years of hard work, Portpatrick Primary School has successfully renewed its Eco-Schools Green Flag Award status.  The school has to select three of ten elements each year, one of which must always be litter.  Portpatrick Primary received special commendation for linking their Eco-School’s Action Plans to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

 Eco Schools Scotland reported that an ‘eco’ culture is well integrated into the school’s learning and wider achievement curriculum.   Pupils were led through this renewal Eco Schools work by the p5/6 teacher, Ms Whorlow. The pupils sustained the Green flag status through a range of classroom and outdoor activities such as raising money for charity and working with organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage and Scottish Water .  Portpatrick Primary was also warmly commended for promoting Fairtrade learning in the school and for their community litter picks and beach clean activities.  Steven Harland, of Eco Schools Scotland, commented that the  pupils of Portpatrick are truly responsible citizens.

Photograph shows the pupils of Portpatrick Primary, proudly holding their Eco flag in the school playground