Category: 2019-2020

It’s the Summer Holidays

A final post to say that our school and my P5-7 class are finished for this session.

We had a Leaving Ceremony on Tuesday and the P7s and Staff came into the playground on Thursday, our last day, and said goodbye. When putting together the videos for the Leaving Ceremony I thanked all our staff, however this was all cut as the video was running too long. I managed to pass my thanks onto some staff but for the others I’d like to just say a big thanks for all your help this year to Mr Wylie, Maureen, Tracy and also our volunteers Mr Fitzgerald, Ms Fisher and Mrs Gow.

I’d also like to thank the Parent Council and the Parents in general. Never have schools asked you to do so much.

Finally, I’d like to thank my class. Once again it has been a privilege to teach you all. Since lockdown it’s been an enormous challenge to try to continue education provision. There have been some extraordinary efforts made here, well done. I like a challenge and have never worked harder and am now pleased to be on holiday. I’m going to switch off the tech and try to recharge my batteries for next session.

I hope everyone gets a break. I’ve missed you all and am looking forward to seeing everyone safe and well in August.

All the best!

Mr A

 

PS

Thanks also for the very kind gifts given to the staff.

School Closed

Today was a big day for everyone as we’ve all been working really hard in preparation for our little school closing, in line with all of the other schools in Britain.

I’d like to thank all of the Staff, Pupils and Parents involved this week, we pulled together to try to prepare for something that we’ve never done before. We’ll continue learning next week, just not at school and not all together.

The P7s were fantastic today and even baked their best shortbread yet. They also got ready incase this was their last day at Brydekirk Primary. I really hope it’s not and that we get a chance to send Helayna and Ami off properly as they deserve, they’ve been brilliant.

This was probably Dan and Izzy’s last day too. Good luck you guys, I would have loved to have taught you.

It might also be Miss Irvine’s last day too, and I never even said anything at the end of the day. Apologies Miss Irvine but I think our last afternoon with the kids was great fun playing Duck-Duck-Goose, Crocodiles and Monkeys, racing and even outdoor Dodge Ball. Again, I really hope we get back before the summer to finish off an excellent year and to say goodbye to you.

We had a wee blether at the end of the day and I decided to end on Burns. Auld Lang Syne didn’t seem right today so we did a one take wonder on a song we learned earlier in the term. Scots Wha Hae is the address to the troops before the Battle of Bannockburn, imagined by Burns and turned into song. Although it’s about the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 14th century, and Scotland, the UK and the world has changed enormously since, the idea of rallying the troops to a worthy, approaching cause resonates:

     Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
     Scots, wham Bruce has aften led;
     Welcome to your gory bed,
              Or to victory!
     Now’s the day, and now’s the hour;
     See the front o’ battle lour;
     See approach proud Edward’s power—
              Chains and slavery!
     Wha will be a traitor knave?
     Wha can fill a coward’s grave!
     Wha sae base as be a slave?
              Let him turn and flee!
      Wha for Scotland’s king and law
      Freedom’s sword will strongly draw,
      Freeman stand, or freeman fa’,
              Let him follow me!
      By oppression’s woes and pains!
      By your sons in servile chains!
      We will drain our dearest veins,
               But they shall be free!
      Lay the proud usurpers low!
      Tyrants fall in every foe!
      Liberty’s in every blow!—
              Let us do or die!
Robert Burns, 1793
Education is what will liberate us. We’re all going to endeavour through these times, learning together despite being apart and supporting one another. We’ll be back.
Take care one and all,
Mr A

Trip to Dumfries

We headed for Dumfries and started the day at Dumfries Museum where the staff Tom and Carolyn gave us a really warm welcome.  They very kindly opened the Camera Obscura for us, the oldest one in the world. We were amazed to see the streets of Dumfries come alive on the disc in front of us, cars and buses driving down the street and dogs doing what dogs do in verges out near the big Tesco. We could even look into people’s gardens and see their washing hanging out.

We were able to take part in a treasure hunt around the galleries and had great fun finding all the clues and working out the solutions.

The little class were able to see many items they had recently been learning about in the Victorians topic. The Victorian dolls were a wee bit scary!

The museum had a dinosaur exhibition going on which was a great hit.

When our time was up we made our way on foot to the new Catherine Street play park. We had our picnic lunches there and managed to dodge the rain showers. The park is amazing and the brand new equipment was so much fun to use.

The big class were then in for another treat as they went off on a walking tour of the Dumfries Bridges: Lauren one of our parents and an engineer very kindly agreed to lead the trip, her knowledge was amazing and she made the walk very interesting.

Both classes then rendezvoused at the Whitesands where our driver Kim was waiting to whisk us safely back to Brydekirk.

A great big thank you to all involved in making this a memorable day for all the right reasons. The staff were rightly proud of how our students conducted themselves throughout the whole day.

Mrs Delaney

Communicator

 

P7 Enterprise

The P7s have been working hard over the last few Thursdays and Fridays trying to help at the Brydekirk Toddler Group on Friday mornings. So far they have surveyed the Parents and Toddlers to see what they would like and have started to bake. With an initial loan (which they have now payed back) they bought some ingredients for short bread and have had two goes at making it.  The girls hope to continue to help out.

Well done!

Mr A

Scots Poetry

We’ve all being learning to recite a Scots Poem off by heart and had a class and then school Heat for the Annan Cluster Primary Scots Poetry competition. Well done to Donovan and Ben who were put forward for the Cluster Competition. Extra well done to Donovan who won his category.

Here’s some recordings that P5-7 made plus a couple of bonus tracks. One bonus track is Scots Wha Hae and the other is a very old recording that was on the recording device that I thought I’d share.

Enjoy!

Mr A

Scots Wha Hae!

Here’s a video of the Scottish Country Dancing that Miss Irvine and Mr Archibald have been teaching to the whole school this session. P2-P7 had fun learning the dances to traditional music and also to Electronic Dance Music. Daft Punk were a particular favourite amongst the pupils.

The music in this recording is the song version of the Scots poem Scots Wha Hae! by Rabbie Burns which P5-7 learned during handwriting and Mr Archibald accompanied on the guitar. This poem is what Burns imagined Robert the Bruce might have addressed his troops with before the battle of Bannockburn. P5-7 have been learning about the Scottish Wars of Independence.

P5-7 Resolutions for 2020

At the start of term P5-7 set targets which they resolved to achieve this year. They tried to make them SMART Targets:  S specific, M measurable, A achievable, R realistic and T time bound. The pupils then scanned them and manipulated them using MS Paint, so that I could upload them below. They have been displayed in class and each pupil has a copy of these targets in their Homework Diary.

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