Congratulations to our Primary 6 girls below who represented the school in the Annan Young Citizen of the Year competition. It was extremely tough to pick just 4 children from an excellent class (and every child filled in their nomination form brilliantly) but this group did us proud. We were 1st school overall and Poppy took the trophy home as the winner! Fully deserved! Look out for Poppy at upcoming events as Annan’s Young Citizen of the Year!

We’re having a very busy but enjoyable time this week! Day 3 saw visits from both Annan Athletic and Gretna football clubs to deliver some fun taster sessions for all children, as well as a very informative (and funny!) visit from Jan and Diane from Speech and Language Therapy who discussed communication with the upper school. The lower school were treated to some karate with Alistair Mitchell from the local Annan karate group. The Nursery also held their annual Sports Activity day yesterday too. Again, a big thank you to these groups and individuals for coming in and giving up their time to show the children (and families) what clubs and activities are out there for our youngsters to join.

Today (Day 4) sees the Primary 7 class off to Annan Academy for a Health and Wellbeing day as part of their transition to secondary school, whilst the rest of the school takes part in a fun potted sports day, organised by our Primary 6 class. And finally the sun is shining on us! Tesco are here to let the children try some healthy fruits and Katie from Annan Youth Cycling Club is coming with a very exciting “Cycle Smoothie” bike!

Here is a small selection of photos from Day 3. A montage of all photos will appear on the TV in the entrance of the school next week.

Our Health week has got off to a great start (apart from the weather!) with Monday seeing sessions in Zumba, Mini Rugby and Golf. The children were having a great time during these activities. A big thanks to Nicole at Active Anklebiters and Gareth Dick at Powfoot Golf Club for giving up their time. Don’t forget that these groups are available in the community to use.

Also a huge thanks must go to Mrs. Menzies who ran Zumba classes all day!!!

Please check your class’ individual blog pages later in the week for pictures of their activities.

Day 2 has involved ADAC (Annan District Athletics Club), Solway Spartans boxing gym and Mike McMillan from Annan Seaforth Tennis Club. Thanks again to our visitors from these organisations who have given up their time in order to provide taster sessions for children in our school.

Classes have also had a visit from our Childsmile Dental Health Officer, learning all about dental health.

Primary 5 have spent the last 2 days being very fit and healthy, taking on all manner of outdoor learning adventures on their residential trip!

Well done to the 16 children who represented the school well at the Sprint Relay at the Everholm tonight. We had glorious sunshine and the children gave it their all. Special mention to our Boys “A” team who qualified for the final.

On the last day before the Easter holidays Hecklegirth Primary School won the Large School Sports Initiative Award for 2016 at the Annandale and Eskdale Sports Awards.  This was for our focus in giving opportunity for as many children as possible to access different activities by offering a range of clubs from different sports and also trying to cater for all ages from P1-7.  We have also ensured that we entered all available competitions/ events in the Annandale and Eskdale Primary PEPAS calendar.  In entering these events we had a very successful year with our swimming and gymnastics teams.  We had the  girls Annandale and Eskdale cross country championship winner 2016 – Isla Cooper.  We were the A & E Basketball competition runners up in Feb 2016.  Ellie Smith was the  Primary 5 A & E badminton competition winner in Feb 2016.  We won the rugby comp in Oct/ Nov 2016.  The girls won the A & E Netball competition in May.  Two teams of P5/6 girls took part in a girls’ football festival in Dumfries in Sept 2016 and the boys football team also took part in many competitions being runners up at the Riding of the Marches comp in June 2016.   The football team played regular league matches against other local schools as well as entering all available competitions.

We were nominated alongside Newington, Moffat Primary, Langholm Academy and Lockerbie Academy.

This award is a great achievement and wouldn’t be possible without the support from our parents, teachers, Active Schools and of course all of the children who have taken part in clubs and competitions during 2016.  Well done everyone, a great team effort.

Our successful swimming team were also nominated for an individual achievement award.  Well done Mrs Kirkpatrick and all the Hecklegirth Primary swimmers.

Thanks to volunteers from Annan Cycling club, Katie and Sandra for coming and giving all the classes some instruction and the chance to take part in bike skills throughout the day.  Despite the wind and a bit of rain we all had a great time.

Nursery

P1-7

Lots of children turned up for a free Bike Breakfast this morning to kick start our Big Pedal Fun Day.

As promised in an earlier post, here are some recordings of the choir in action at the music festival. Once I have the others available I will post them.

Miss Dennis

We have started Big Pedal fortnight and are now on Day 2.  It was great to see so many bikes and scooters brought to school this morning and accompanied by family supporters too.  Keep up the scooting and cycling!

Congratulations to all pupils who participated in last weekend’s competition. The conduct, sportsmanship and enthusiasm from all involved was something to be proud of. Our choirs had a long day on the Friday, leaving school at half past nine and not finishing in Dumfries until around half past eight. It was commented on several times by the adjudicators, how composed and well mannered our choir was. They sang their hearts out and their hard work was rewarded with a first place in the pupil conductor category with the choir led by Grayce.

On Saturday six of our choir members headed back to Dumfries to participate in the solo competitions. Each pupil was a credit to the school and performed well. Well done to Conlay who came first in boys solo.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all parents who came to support us and who have listened to the children rehearse for months on end!

Check back soon when I will have some sound clips uploaded!

Miss Dennis