Month: September 2012

When the doors close at Leswalt Primary for the October holidays it will be a very special day for one person. On 12^th October 2012 Nina Agnew will retire from cleaning at Leswalt Primary School, having worked there for an amazing 44 years.

 

Nina has a very strong bond with her local school.  Not only has she been a very dedicated and loyal employee but she was herself a pupil at Leswalt – in fact 4 generations of her family have all attended the village school.

 

Mrs Agnew has seen many changes in the school building, teaching, pupils and staff over the years.   Nina remembers when she had to clean the toilets which were outside many years ago. And, she has even managed to out last 8 head teachers who have all came and gone during the time in which she has been working at Leswalt.  The current head teacher, Mrs Sheila Baillie, has nothing but praise for Nina “Nina will be a hard act to follow.  She is a wonderful woman who helps provide that extra sparkle to our little school.  I know I can speak on behalf of all current and former staff and pupils in thanking Nina for her hard work and kindness to all over the many, many years”.

 

If any former pupils, parents or staff wish to join in with the community of Leswalt in passing on thanks to Nina they can do via Leswalt Primary school or Leswalt village shop, before the farewell on Friday 12^th October.

Primary 1-4 from Leswalt Primary were recently delighted to have an afternoon with Julia Donaldson, author of “The Gruffalo” and other stories.

 The pupils from Leswalt travelled to Newton Stewart Library to meet Julia, in an event organised by the Scottish book trust.   Julia asked pupils to act out one of their favourite stories for her.  Leswalt pupils told the story of Elmer the elephant, with pupils taking on the roles of elephants, jungles animals, trees and narrators.

 It was a fun packed afternoon which had all actively engaged in listening to Julia, singing songs with her, and acting out different parts of some of her stories.  The pupils even enjoyed a performance of “The Gruffalo” in Scots language.

 The session finished with pupils getting their Julia Donaldson books signed by Julia Donaldson, the Children’s Laureate.  

As Children’s laureate, Julia visited Newton Stewart Library as part of a 6 week library tour which will take in 35 libraries across the country from Land’s end to John O Groats. 

The Primary 1-4 pupils at Leswalt Primary had some recent visitors to school from the local Constabulary.  PC Kevin Wyllie the school community policeman paid a visit with his colleagues from the traffic department, Ross Williams and Liza Murdoch.  The Police had been invited along to Leswalt to help the pupils who are learning all about “People who help us” as part of their health and well being learning and teaching.

 

The class had a wide range of interesting questions to ask the panel.  Pupils learned about the uniform and equipment carried by the Police in the process of their job before going outside to learn more about the role of traffic police and the Police dogs.  The visit certainly enhance the children’s’ learning and left many of the boys and girls thinking that they might like to join the Police force in a few years time.

Leswalt Primary had a celebration of achievement ceremony on the last day of the summer term.  It was an emotional afternoon as pupils were rewarded for all their hard work session and as we said goodbye and good luck to our Primary 7 pupils.

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary concluded their project on the Olympic games with the arrival of a gold medal in school.

Margaret Agnew, a member of the community of Leswalt, won a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City for Curling.  She was part of the winning team skipped by Rhona Martin. 

Margaret came into school wearing her “Team GB” tracksuit to tell the pupils at Leswalt of her experience and answer some of their questions.  She even brought the 3 Olympic mascots from the 2002 games so that pupils could compare with Wenlock and Mandeville (the current Olympic Mascots)

Margaret stayed in school for the whole afternoon and let every pupil hold her medal.  Everyone was amazed at just how heavy it really was.