Portpatrick Primary – Page 20 – "Anchored in Excellence"

Fire Safety Talk

Today, with Bonfire Night just around the corner, we received a safety talk from the fire brigade to help keep us safe.

Robert came along from our local fire station to advise the children on how to enjoy fireworks and bonfires safely. He talked about the the laws and dangers surrounding fireworks and fires. He also instructed everyone on what to do if clothing caught fire. Everyone tried on filtered glasses to experience the impact of eyesight damage from a firework. Atticus showed us how to hold a sparkler safety and Stephen demonstrated the Stop-Drop ‘n’ Roll strategy beautifully for us. We were also reminded of the need to be respectful of the very important job the fire services, and indeed all the emergency services, do to keep us safe.

There was lots of discussion and many a question from the pupils as they fully engaged in the safety briefing. It was a very informative session. Thank you Robert.

# Resposible Citizens

Kitchen Coos and Ewes

P1-4 were joined by Leswalt and Kirkcolm Infants classes on Thursday morning for a trip to Kitchen Coos and Ewes owned by the lovely Neale and Janet McQuistin. All 50+ of us bundled onto the trailer and headed to the hills where we quickly caught the eye of 30 Highland ‘coos’ 🐮

The friendly bunch of coos followed us up through the hillside while Janet explained to us how the coos are fed, how their coats and horns grow and most impressively of all, how she managed to remember all of their fabulous names – including Madonna, Rihanna and Britney. 🎤

Of course we couldn’t take a trip to New Luce without a visit to their play park, so we enjoyed a little snack and a play before heading back to school on the bus after a fun-filled and well enjoyed farming trip 🙂

# Successful Learners

Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award Success

We are delighted to announce that the North Rhins Partnership primary schools in the Rhins has achieved a Silver Rights Respecting School Award by UNICEF UK. Leswalt, Kirkcolm and Portpatrick primaries have worked collaboratively to meet the standards for this UNICEF prestigious accreditation.

UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation working for children and their rights. The Rights Respecting Schools Award is granted to schools that show commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others in school. Silver is given to schools that make excellent progress towards embedding the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into its ethos and curriculum.

Mrs Baillie, said, “Having achieved our Bronze award in 2021, we are all very proud to have now to celebrate achieving our Silver award. Our school community has worked very hard to embed children’s rights in everything we do. We can see the positive impact of the Award on pupils and the school as a whole. Thank you to our responsible pupils, staff and families for working together to make this achievement possible.”

The Award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s planning, policies and practice. A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.

The UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools initiative is aimed at schools across the UK. Schools have reported a positive impact on pupil behaviour, relationships and well-being by enhancing pupils’ self-esteem, leading to less truancy and bullying, better learning and improved academic standards.

Have a read of our report: Kirkcolm-Leswalt-Portpatrick_RRS Report

We can now proudly display our Rights Respecting Schools Silver Logo!

Halloween Hoolie

It’s the first day back, and what a blast we had for our Halloween fun!

First up was a bit of spooky foodie fun. We made frozen banana ghosts and chocolate strawberry mini ghosts. In all the excitement, we forgot about them, so they will be a treat to enjoy tomorrow.

Next up was a bit of pumpkin carving. Nothing went to waste as we scattered the seeds for the birds, which is full of vitamins A & C. We then proudly displayed our pumpkins ready for our Halloween party that afternoon.

We got outdoors in the fresh air for a Halloween Halloween puzzle trail. The children had to sprint round our outdoor space to find clues to reveal Halloween themed nouns. We then checked our answers using QR codes. There were lots of 10/10 scores from our clever cookies!

In the afternoon, our motley crew donned a very scary array of costumes ready for party time. Our house captains Katie and Atticus did a great job of organising activities and running a smooth ship for all the party games. There was a treat for everyone, not just our party game winners!

What a great social start to Term 2. Happy Halloween everyone!

# Effective Contributors

It’s Off To The Farm We Go!

As part of learning where our food comes from, P1 – 4 donned their wellies and headed off to a farm visit courtesy of Jacqui, Scott and Gregor Service.

The children have been studying farming in school, so today came to see that in action. They met the calves and learned all about their breeds, what they feed on, how they are looked after and how Scott and Gregor manage them. They also got to have some fun acting as cows in the Cattle Crush and enjoyed exploring the tractor and quad bike.

They finished with a walk up to the wind turbines to talk about how the farm is being more sustainable, generating ‘green’ energy to do it’s bit to help protect our planet.

The children were full of enthusiasm and chatter. Thank you so much to the Service Family and RHET for a great learning experience.

# Successful Learners

Lego Wedo Workshop

Mrs Hall of DG STEM Team joined us today to deliver a Lego Wedo Coding Workshop to P5 – 7 pupils.

The children explored the component parts in the construction kit before using bluetooth to pair their controller to their IPad.

Using a theme of sustainable sources of energy to fit with our science and social studies topic, the children built a wind turbine from a schematic diagram. Next, they assembled the coding blocks to turn the blades. As an extension, the boys and girls varied the r.p.m. of the blade rotation and also changed to direction of rotating – pulsed and fixed.

The next challenge was to take what we had learned about turning motors and varying speeds to construct a moon rover. The children thought hard on which coding blocks to use to make the rover move forwards and backwards, change light colour and make sounds. As an even bigger challenge, they were tasked with what construction part to make the rover turn. This was achieved by reducing the size of one of the wheels on the front axle. This changed the rotation rate of one of the wheels, thus creating a turn.

Thank you to Mrs Hall for giving the children the opportunity to use and apply computational thinking.

# Successful Learnerx

Digital Literacy Week

As part of Education Scotland’s Digital Literacy Week, P5 – 7 have participated in activities designed to promote digital literacy and learning for our children.

On Monday, we joined in a live workshop with Becky from Tech She Can. We learned how technology is helping us to protect our planet and how technologists around the world are using tech to protect our air, reduce waste, help clean the oceans and preserve our wildlife.

Linking with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), we also heard about the types of jobs we could do if we wanted to pursue a career in this important area; from marine biologists to ecologists and aeronautical engineers to product designers. Techshecan champions women in industry with a mission to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in developing technology, and for women to play an equal role in how our world works, looks, thinks and feels.

We then watched a short animation looking at drones and how they’re being used for environmental sustainability.

We used this activity as a stimulus to create our own information posters to demonstrate how technology is being used to protect our planet from environmental damage from humans.

We linked this learning to help develop this year’s Eco School’s Mascot. We considered the ways technology can be used to produce clean, renewable energy for our planet and created technology that can help reduce pollution and waste. One example is a mascot with hoover feet to clean up litter. 🙂

On Wednesday, we joined Digilearn Scotland’s Keeping My Devices and Accunts More Secure (CRIS). The children had a discussion on what we use to Consume – Create – Communicate on devices. We then identified the difference between safe and secure, giving examples of each.

The boys and girls moved on to apply the featuers of persuasion in an information poster highlighting the benefits of using secure passwords, along with helpful tips.

# Successful Learners

# Responsible Citizens

Marvellous Maths Week

What a busy week of maths we have had at our North Rhins Partnership!

To celebrate Maths Week Scotland, our boys and girls have engaged in ‘all things maths’ from art to catering and beyond…

Have a look at our Sway to see the fantastic learning experiences our children have been involved in on the theme of The Beauty of Maths.

Simply click on the link below, click on the play icon in the top right and enjoy the journey. 🙂

Go to this Sway

International Podcast Sharing

Mr Alan Cameron, Education Advisor for Soundtrap and Spotify, visited our school this week to talk about the Anne Frank story. He is engaging in a Eurotech Education Convention in Amsterdam and invited our pupils to create a podcast on the story of Anne Frank. This will also be shared with the Anne Frank Museum located in this city.

Katie (P7), Lewis (P6), Erin (P5) and Lacey (P5) provided the voices for this recording.

Have a listen to their expressive podcast.

# Confident Individuals

Careers Talk and Remembering Our Queen

As part of learning about Careers, we were treated to a visit from Charles & Kate Vickery today. They were very happy to talk to the children about their interesting jobs and take questions.

Kate works in leadership management and studied psychology. She was interested in television and took every opportunity to work in this industry and link it to her passions. She helps leaders with their emotions, how they can be better leaders and support others. She is a consultant and uses technology to link with clients around the world, particularly during the pandemic.

Kate advised the children to aim to work with their interests, posing the question – what do you love to do now? She said the boys and girls should pursue jobs that fit those interests and put their energy into that. She recommends that children think of alternative ways of working and to think about being entrepreneurs and setting up their own businesses.

Charles is a serial tech entrepreneur in media creation and uses many skills in his daily work. He shared that when he was four years old, he didn’t speak. He just loved making sounds and wasn’t ready for words. He learned to understand how to communicate in a more meaningful way fo him. He got into drama with his first experience of just one line to say and really liked it. His enjoyment of singing led to him being in a choir. The choir leader asked him to sing like an opera singer. He found his passion within himself, by ‘pretending’ to sing in this style and it has grown from there. He demonstrated his fabulous singing voice for the children. He wanted to remind the children that there are ways for us all to ‘find our voice’.

Atticus asked how many performances Charles has done – too many to remember. Charles has learned to sing in many different languages; French, Italian etc. He told us that the male voice doesn’t mature until about 21 years old, so lots of practice helps. His biggest audience was 40,000 people with the Pope in the audience. He has sung in Greece, Rome, New York and many places around the world. An interesting fact is that an opera singer uses the same amount of oxygen in an opera performance as a marathon runner. Katie asked how long Charles can hold a note for. It’s about 9 seconds.

It was a very interesting and informative discussion, with questions from our wrapt audience. We were treated to a performance of Maria from West Side story to bring the visit to a close. Thank you to Kate and Charles for sharing their career insights with us in a wonderful session.

# Successful Learners

As part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, we have received a delivery of beautiful books that detail the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Their arrival is poignant after her recent sad passing. The children were gifted a book each as a memento of her life. We hope they enjoy reading them.