Holly has come home with the silverware from the Dumfries and Galloway Music Festival ! Holly took part on Saturday 2nd March in the P6 girls solo competition, singing, ‘Tomorrow’ from the musical Annie. She came first in a class of 8 competitors and scored 86 points, only a point away from a distinction. Well done Holly, we are really proud of you.
On Thursday28th February, at 5.30pm we held a belated Burns Supper in the school for families and friends. Our school minister, norman Hutcheson kindly came and worked with the senior pupils to prepare all the customery speeches performed at such an event. The children worked hard and came up with some excellent original material to present from the top table. Parent Council members made and dished up a traditional Burns feast of ‘haggis, neeps and tatties’ along with Scotland’s other national drink – Irn Bru, to accompany the various toasts. The guests were also entertained by the children with a variety of Scots verse and music. Below you can see some of our puctures showing various aspects of the evening.
Pupils in P.1,2,3 have been coming into school this term to find fairy dust all the way from below the attic hatch in the corridor to their classroom. They have discovered that there is a dragon living in the school attic, and he comes out at night to explore the school when we are all at home in our beds sleeping. They have been learning all about ‘Fairyland’ this term and the dragon is just one of the characters they have been learning about. Below are some pictures of their work.
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:
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.
On Thursday 21st February we had a visit from Steven Wright, geologist, based in Carlisle. Steven brought along some of his extensive collection of rocks to show us, and tell us about the planet and what goes on underneath us in the earths core. He also demonstrated the way in which volcanic eruptions take place and we all had a turn at making an ash cloud. Steven told us lots of very interesting facts about the strange things that happen beneath our earth’s surface and the consequences of them. We all had a very interesting afternoon as can be seen from the photographs below.
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.
P. 1,2,3 made the most of the snow on Burns Day (25th January). They got all dressed up in their warm clothes and went outside to see who could make the best snowman. They had great fun before going home for the weekend.
Click on each picture to view full size.
Last week Lauren and Robyn came all the way from a heatwave in South Africa to snowy Scotland to join us here at Hardgate School. We are hoping that we may be able to set up a link with their previous school in South Africa to share our learning experiences and find out about another culture.
Top marks go to Charlotte in P7 for winning a scholarship to Austin Friars St. Monicas Senior School in Carlisle. Charlotte sat her entrance exam and was the first pupil ever, to get full marks in the maths section. She follows her sister, Cameron, who is at present in her second year at the school. Charlotte will be the third pupil in the last 2 years from Hardgate to go to Austin Friars. We are all very proud of Charlotte and wish her every success for the future. She will start there in September 2013
Our enterprise club, run by Mrs Martin, held a Farmers’ Market on Friday 7th December. They invited several local producers to come along and have a stall to sell their produce. The children in school had also made several different items at craft club to sell and help raise funds for school. There were welcome refreshments, including soup and bread, shortbread and mulled wine which helped to heat everyone up on a very cold night. A raffle was held and prizes came from a wide variety of local business people. Grateful thanks is extended to everyone for donations recieved and all help given, making the evening a resounding success. Santa also made a guest appearance during the evening, having taken time out from his very busy schedule to visit the children of Hardgate School.
Fiona Jamieson, from RHET, Dumfries and Galloway Countryside Initiative, provided invaluable support with the organisation , contributing to the success of the event.
Our total figure came to over £800
