Brilliant Beginnings

Present; Mrs Clark, Miss Brown, Miss MacRae, Mr Ramsay, Ciara, Katie, Rachel, Alice, Scott, Finlay, Fraser, Kaya, Eva, Emily, Catriona, Murray, Kayleigh, Ellen, Natalie, Eilidh, Danni, Annie, Ronan, Jasmine, Ross

SCHOOL GROUNDS: Mr Ramsay has been busy in the garden and so have P67, weeding the raised beds and planting potatoes.  Discussed what we might like to grow, including pea,s, onions and carrots.  Tomatoe plants have been put in out recycled greenhouse, but we have a problem with wind getting through.  Need to block it off.  When flowers come out we will need to polinate the flowers at midday to ensure you get fruit from them.  Some children will need to be bees, p454 have volunteered as they are doing life cycles.  Mrs Clark suggests pumpkins for Halloween.  Catriona suggests strawberries, Izzy suggested carrots, Ross wants apples, which would need an orchard.  Alice is drawing out a plan about raised beds and what will go in them.  Eco club will also be up and running from next week, so we can do lots of things in the school grounds on a Thursday, with help from Mr Ramsay.

NOTIFICATION OF AGM
3.30pm 22nd March at Port Ellen Primary School
AGENDA
1.  Welcome
2. Apologies
3. Minutes from last AGM November 2009
4. Chair’s Report
5. Treasurer’s Report
6. Possible changes to constitution
7. Election of New Office Bearers
8. AOB
9. Date of next meeting

1.  Welcome:  Mrs Clark, Anna, Eilidh, Ellen, Eva, Murray, Catriona, Emily, Ciara, Fraser, Bailey, Finlay, Chloe, Annie, Alice, Bronagh, Scott, Kayleigh, Jodie, Liam, Calum, Harry, Aileas, Elizabeth, Miss MacRae, Mrs Harrison, Miss Brown,
2. Apologies: Struan, Jasmine, Kaya, Joe, Danni, Emily, Maisie, Ewan, Eilidh, Rachel, Lucy
3. Minutes from last AGM November 2009: Agreed by Kayleigh and Liam
4. Chair’s Report : SUMMARY:  Another successful year due to continued hard work of all the members.  over the past year thanks to Mrs C for managing the Blog.  Children are more independant and responsible for the action plan.  Children are all encouraged to get involved, but much more membershp from the lower school, which is great.  We have shared our learning at assemblies.  Pre5 have cotinued to manage the wormery, and are even looking to rehome them.  P12 have reinvented WOW to fitness fridays.  They also created a sensory garden in the grounds.  P23 are our litter police and have responsibilities for the weather station.  P45 are helping with beach cleans, and will be responsible for water usage in the school.  P67 class are playground buddies trained by Shona Ramsay.  p67 made their own bags from recycled materials.  We have been nominated for 2 education awards, sustainable learning and partnerships.  All children passed cycling proficiency, and our school won the shinty tournament for the 8th year in a row.  P67 went to Dalguise, and we have a very active gardening club, supported by Donny Ramsay.  We had a great Eco action day and Barbque.  We were visited by Colonsay children who were looking to get their first green flag, and came to fins out how we did it.  We had an eco drama group to tell us about sustainable energy.  We also had a community footy competition on the all weather pitch.  We now have a stage in the playground, and we have completed the bottle greenhouse.  Andy Macdonald from the IET is working with lots of different classes, and we had a great harvest lunch.  So well done to everyone for all their hard work.
5. Treasurer’s Report

We got £586.49 in receipts, mainly from fundraising activities like beach cleans.

However we spent a lot on improving school grounds  £1,522.38, such as plants, sand for the pitch, canes etc

Our total payments £1632.14

We have £4750.06 in our bank account.
6. Possible changes to constitution

Meetings monthly in school first Friday of every month, at lunchtime.  AGM just once a year at any time.  Office bearers decided at AGM
7. Election of New Office Bearers

Miss MacRae was nominated as Chair by Megan, seconded by Alice.

Mrs Harrison treasurer, nominated by Aileas, seconded by Anna.

Mrs Clark nominated by Catriona, seconded by Eilidh.

Shadow chair Kayleigh nominated Alice, seconded Emily, Ellen also elected, nominated Liam, Seconded Annie.

Shadow Treasurer  Aileas nominated Mrs Macdonald, Seconded Alice.

Shadow secretary Catriona, nominated by Megan, seconded by Eva.
8. AOB

Miss MacRae wants to thank those who showed the Colonsay visitors around.  They did a really good job.  Mrs Macdonald pleased at the success of the recycling uniforms.  Mrs Macdonald told us that HMS Vanguard is visiting us tomorrow to help in the school grounds, stripping off the roof of the roundhouse and sides and putting up the stobs and re-roofing it.  Possibly making a look out tower at the top of the hill.
9. Date of next meeting.  AGM March next year, next meeting 6th may 12.30pm

1. Welcome

2. PRESENT: Scott, fraser, Aileas, Chloe, Izy, Annie, Catriona, Bailey, Calum, Harry, Danni, Eva, Julie Anne, Lucy, Eilidh, Megan, Alice, Kayleigh, Joe, Roo, Jasmine, Ellen, Emily, Maisie, Bronagh, Eilidh, Anna, Emily, Jodie, Finlay, Murray, Kaya, Struan, Liam

3. MINUTES: Read minutes of last meeting, talked about new actions.  Mrs Macdonald said we need to have storage for all the playground games and equipment to organise it properly.  She suggests children should design the area so toys can be put away properly.

4. VISIT FROM KILCHATTEN COLONSEY: Visiting to find out about our journey to 3 green flags, flying over.  We need to be able to tell them what we do and how we do it, so we agree to go over these points again and discuss where we are heading in the future.

P1/2 Walk on wednesday, but will change name, Mrs MD suggested could use the Wii and Just Dance to increase amount of exercise done, keeping us healthy.

P2/3 Litter police will start up again, checking that people are keeping the school grounds tidy, and also picking up litter that has blown into the school grounds.  Also energy, renew switch off the lights signs, etc

P 4/5  Water is the responsibility of P45, they will be involved in organising signs for washing hands and turning off taps.  Also will help run the beach cleans.

P5/6 Will organize waste audits and recycling.

We will also work together as a whole school to calculate our carbon footprint, with each class taking responsibilty for different areas.  P1/2 will look at transport, P2/3 Water and energy, P4/5 food and buildings, P6/7 waste audit.  Footprint to be completed by Monday 20th June School Grounds Day.

Mrs MacIntyre requested a lookout fence so nursery could look out over the hill with binoculars safely.  Mrs c suggested HMS Vanguard could make it, when they are helping to redo the roundhouse.  Miss B suggested a willow fence.  Mrs MI also said worms are doing so well we need to find some new homes, so asked children to mention to parents if they want to start a wormery they can get worms from school.

Next Meeting 15th March Lunchtime when Kilchatten are visiting.

MEETING BB 23rd NOVEMBER

AGENDA

1. Present

2. Apologies

3. Minutes last meeting

4. Feedback from groups on progress

5. Wind turbine

6. Funding Proposals

7. Membership, structure for future

1. Present: Mrs Clark, Miss MacRae, Mrs Harrison,

2. Apologies; Mrs Macdonald

3/4. MINUTES:  Looked at minutes from last meeting and agreed little or no progress made.  Discussed why this is the case, ideas include lack of equipment, time, planning, wet grass, timetables, waiting for stuff to arrive.  Children would like time during the school week to organise their actions.  This will be looked at by the staff.  It was suggested that money could be sought from the BB account to fund some of the ideas, but that children would need to organise a proposal to put forward to the treasurer Mrs Harrison, who would then consider it.  It must include a list of benefits of the proposed action, what items need to be purchased, and a plan of how to achieve the idea.  Children to research it on the net.

5. WIND TURBINE: Mrs Clark has offered to take the two bits of the turbine home to see if her husband can weld them back together.

6. Date of next meeting: Tuesday lunchtime at 12.30, finish off proposals.

Eelach the eel in the P45 aquarium has been acting very strangely.  He has been wrapping himself around the air filter.  Could this be something to do with the lobster, who has already attacked the starfish.  These are only some of the comings and goings fascinating P4.5 in the tank that they have set up in the class to enhance their topic on Save our Seas.  Rest assured – all creatures will be returned to the sea at the end of the topic.

Primary 4/5 went rock pooling at Kilnaughton beach.  We found some shells and tried to tell what type it was.  They went over to the rocks further over. We found some crabs some periwinkles and even one little fish.  Then we had lunch and Fiona Macgillivray came and we went rock pooling again and she told us lots of interesting facts about sea creatures.  It took three car rides to get us all back to the school.  Thanks to Fiona for coming to help.

This term P1/2 have been doing a topic about food and farming. We have been learning about different farm animals and the products we get from them. We have also been learning about the work of a farmer and we had a visit from Mr Porter with his tractor.  We all had a shot of sitting in it and it was great fun!

This term there have been two eco clubs after school.  On Monday with Mrs Clark and Mrs Harrison, and Ecoart on Thursday with Miss Brown.  In Ecoclub we do different types of things, we like to make things and play games.  We have planted bulbs and weeded the raised beds, and even made bee houses.  It is really fun.  We have also cooked with all the yummy fruit and veg we grew.  In Ecoart last week we arranged flowers in a tub from our school garden.  They were beautiful and they used them for the P2/3 harvest meal as decorations.

By Ellen and Helen

On Tuesday Andrew Macdonald from the Islay Energy Trust came to visit us to tell us about the Islay Tidal Array.  There is plans to build an under water turbine array between Islay and Jura. The turbines are like an over sized windmill that gives energy to us.The weight of each turbine is 1200 tonnes, that is about 300 elephants. The tidal turbine stands at 20 meters tall with the tips being 10 meters long.The water is measured at 50 meters where it is to go so that there is 30 meters left so that no boat can get caught in it.

The turbine is made of steel and sealed up tight so it doesn’t fall apart.There is a huge boat to lift the turbine into the water safely so that is doesn’t break. The boat is twice the size of the Islay CalMac ferry.  It also has two cranes to lift it in.
The turbine makes one mega watt of power,that is a lot !!!!. The tide is part of all this because the moon take the tide in and out which turns the turbine. The tide comes in and out four times a day, so sometimes it stops.  It is a very exciting project!

by Emily

On Friday Primary 2&3 held a harvest meal for their parents as part of their harvest topic.  All the products were locally sourced and cooked in the kitchen with the help of Mrs Hollyoake.  The menu was homemade potato soup, roast lamb, vegetables and sauce.  The dessert was blackberry and apple crumble.  Everyone really enjoyed the meal and had a great time.

By Scott