Pupils in P.6 and 7 entered a competition with the on-line newspaper, The Daily What, to make up a catchy CAPTION to go with a picture of 2 bandaged up ‘mummies’ sitting on a bench. Natasha in P.7 was one of the 4 runners up, and we watched this live announcement on Glow TV on Friday. This was a surprise announcement as no-body in the class knew the reason we were watching the programme  until the end when the announcement was made.Natasha was suitably surprised and delighted. Her caption read …’ They called it Mummy love’  The winner and runners up will appear in The Daily What News on-line. Well done Natasha !

We have had our third and final visit for this session from 2 musicians who work for LIVE MUSIC NOW. Yvonne on the flute and Andrew playing guitar, gave a very interesting and enjoyable performance to show their skills with their chosen instruments. They had interactive activities to do with the children to increase their knowledge about musicical beat, rythmn and differents sounds which their instruments can produce. They managed to captivate their audience for an hour with their wide variety of music. This was a very worthwhile and educational experience for the children in classes P5 to 7. Hopefully members of their team will be able to do some return visits next session, to broaden our knowledge of the wide variety of musical instruments available to learn to play. Below are some pictures taken during the event.

Children in P.3 to P.7 have been learning all about budgeting and managing money. This very important skill has been delivered by Pam Fraser, Financial Education Training Officer and Bev Wilkinson, Financial Education Officer. Pam and Bev are employed by Dumfries and Galloway Council and deliver a very important aspect of money management to equip us for life. All sectors of the community are catered for and age relevant material is used to educate the recipient audience with a view to helping make money stretch for all of our needs. Budgeting at an early age educates children into hopefully becoming responsible adults when it comes to dealing with money matters, and aid a life long planning strategy and understanding for all financial needs. Emphasis was put on NEEDS and WANTS, and an activity to furnish a bedroom on a budget was completed with the help of the Argos web-site. The children were very enthusiastic about both sessions of money matters.

Holly and Lauren are our P6 winners of the K-Nex challenge at school level. They now go on to the next round to compete aginst the other cluster school winners to aim for the regional final. They are seen here with their model of a piece of playground equipment. They had to think about the structure, stability, safety and the suitability for children to use. Well done to Lauren and Holly

Blythswood Care – building wells in India

On Saturday 23rd February the pupils in P.5,6,7, held a coffee morning and art exhibition.This was what the pupils decided to do for their challenge to make £20 GROW  into something bigger. Blythswood Care challenged the children to raise money to help towards building water wells in villages in India. They decided to ask Janey’s mum and Dad if we could use the dining-room of their hotel in Castle Douglas for the venue, to host a cooffee morning and exhibition of some of their art work from throughout the school session. They also made Indian style beaded bracelets and hairbraids to sell. Charlotte made a giant cupcake to raffle, Georgia and Henry sold Scottish sweet packs from their parents business, and we made a well for donations to go in. We also had a photo competition for people to enter which cost £1 per entry. A very successful morning was had by all and we raised:

£380.59

Well done and thank you to everyone who baked, and helped us on the day.

Please click on an image to view full size and then proceed through the gallery.

P6 and P7 along with their peers from the other small schools in our cluster group, had three days of challenge at the Dukeswood Centre near Hexham in Northumberland. A wide variety of activities was on offer for the children to help them achieve goals and challenge themselves both on a personal level and as team challenges which required communication skills and team building efforts. The pupils were mixed up into groups with children from each of the other 4 schools, and rotated around the many activities during their stay. A camp fire and a disco were the 2 evening activities, all which helped the children mix with each other. This has become one of our trasnsition activities where the children make friendships with others who they will meet when moving on to High School.Below are a few photographs of some of the activities undertaken. A successful trip was had by all.