Month: September 2021

Day 4 of Maths Week Scotland and today we had fun completing LOADS of maths challenges at the visiting Maths Roadshow!

We worked in pairs and moved round lots of activities – completing them and marking them off on our record sheet as we worked our way around the room. There was a huge variety of tasks on offer: angles to multiplication, tangrams to magic squares, data handling to number bonds. All set to make us really think! We LOVED the challenges set.

Many thanks to the D&G STEM Team for visiting us and delivering a maths-tastic morning!

 

Today’s maths was active, fun and tasty! What more could you ask for?

In small groups, we used a recipe for flapjacks to produce a delicious filling snack whilst using our ratio, weighing, time and fraction skills.

Anne-Marie in the kitchen kindly popped our baking in the school oven and, in the afternoon, we cracked on with creating our box to package up our yummy treats.

Mrs F had prepared a 2D net of a cuboid – large enough to hold two pieces of flapjack. Squared paper was available to anyone who was up for drawing their own 2D net – Alexander was up for this challenge! We then cut these out, scored along the folds and assembled our cuboid boxes.

As an extra challenge, Mrs F told us about the costs of the ingredients used. We calculated how many individual pieces of flapjack we had baked, the basic cost of ingredients and what we could perhaps charge if we were looking to make these to sell. We needed to think about the profit margin as well as cost of supplies needed – businesses must make sure they aren’t pricing items too cheaply or too expensive! The ingredients cost £7.98 and we made 52 slices which works out 15p a flapjack to make. We think we could sell these for a bit more than that though! This is how a business makes a profit; by considering how much a customer will pay for a product whilst ensuring your costs are being met.

Loads of maths skills being exercised today – plus we had a bite to eat!

Tomorrow’s maths fun involves a Numeracy Roadshow! Look out for Thursday’s blog instalment…

P5-7 used their maths learning in context today when they popped outside of their portacabin to put their angles and measuring knowledge into action!

First up, the class watched and chatted about a STEM Ambassador’s video clip which talked about ways in which maths is used in the workplace – today’s clip concerned the Renewable Energy job market.

Mrs F had organised some photographs of examples of angles in the environment for pupils, in their Talk Partners, to locate and measure using their protractors. So we all headed out to complete the Angles Hunt. Using the protractor correctly can be a challenge but we’re doing lots of practising!

Following this, the class got together to recap some angles vocabulary (acute, obtuse, straight, reflex, degrees, perpendicular lines) and then individually each had angles to identify and measure as appropriate to their age and stage. Some were investigating angles in a triangle, some angles within a right angle, straight angle or round a point and some working out the supplement or complement of an angle.

As an aside, we also used rather retro looking trundle wheel and checked its measurements against a metre stick. It was pretty accurate!

All good fun and a different way of taking our learning forward.

Next up – Wednesday’s fun  will involve weight calculations, ratio, time, fractions and the net of a cuboid to do a spot of  baking and then to package up the finished product!

Keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow’s photos…

 

As part of our Local and National Government topic, today we welcomed Aimee Dobie, the UK Parliament Outreach Education Officer.

This built on the visits from Emma Currie, who spoke about her experiences with the Scottish Youth Parliament, Caroline Schofield who delivered a session form the Scottish Parliament and the work we have done in class this term.  We have had a very busy and informative term!

Aimee had created a fun, informative PowerPoint to tell us more about the role of the UK Parliament and she also had a video message (created just for us!) from Alister Jack who is the MP for Dumfries and Galloway and the Secretary of State for Scotland.

We chatted about the skills required to be an MP (linking these to Employability Skills) , the importance of Parliament – why it is important- and what we can do to help our class and community now and in the future. We also talked about how this linked to our very own Pupil Council and Eco Committee. The children learned how this is a process where the UNCRC Rights of the Child 12 & 13 are put into action, where children’s’ views are respected and they are able to share their thoughts freely.  Democracy at Primary School level!

Many thanks to Aimee for an informative afternoon!

Today P5-7 enjoyed a fun rugby taster session with Campbell McGregor from Wigtownshire Rugby Club. This was part of Scottish Rugby Schools Week.

The pupils participated in some cool warm-up games – Octopus Tig and Turtle Tig to get the blood pumping, then a couple of team games which involved throwing and catching. Finally, they played 4v4 passing games whereby they needed to have 10 clean passes between their team members to score a point. Great fun!

Several pupils in our class are regular attendees at Wigtownshire Rugby Club’s Junior sessions on a Sunday morning. But Mr McGregor handed out invites at the end of today’s rugby to encourage new faces to come along to the club’s taster session on Sunday 3rd October. They would be warmly welcomed!

 

 

Check out our Super Responsible Citizens who have been appointed as pupil representatives on Leswalt Primary’s Pupil Council or Eco Committee.

First meetings either have already taken place, or are scheduled to take place very soon and we are looking forward to a successful year with these newly elected teams!

Pupil Council

Eco Committee

It was a big day this week as we set about electing our House Captains for the year. This is quite a responsibility as these are the individuals in charge of our two school houses: Soleburn and Lochnaw.

The upper class were over the moon that we could put to use all the skills and knowledge we have learnt studying our new class topic on Democracy and how the Government works. What better way to start that forming the government and choosing the leaders of our own school!

House Captains have the challenge ahead of them of planning the big events throughout the year (especially as we can now have some events in schools!) and promoting good behaviour in their houses. All this adds up to Dojos which turn into Merits which turn into prizes for each house. Exciting stuff!

Our candidates had good time to prepare and were each ready to deliver a speech stating their case on why they felt they were the best person for the job to the rest of the school before our secret ballots were cast! All pupils delivered fantastic speeches and really showed how much they care about the school and everyone in it.  It proved a very tough vote for the pupils. We were very proud of all the P7’s for putting their best foot forward and, regardless what the result, we are sure all of them would make excellent House Captain and leaders.

Congratulations go to:

Soleburn – Breagh Kirkpatrick

Lochnaw – Malcolm McGregor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This active process of democracy helps support our learning as part of our curriculum and as part of a wider context; helping develop the Skills for Life, Learning and Work.  It also drives forwards our Rights Respecting Schools & applies UNICEF’s Rights of The Child (articles 4, 12, 15, & 25)

Leswalt Primary has yet again been successful in achieving Eco School Status!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to achieve our eco-flag renewal, the boys and girls had to demonstrate ecology and sustainability on the elements of Litter, Water and Food & The Environment. Even prolonged periods of remote learning couldn’t hold our pupils back, as they continued to work on these targets with home challenge projects set by Mrs McHarg.

Eco Schools Scotland were particularly impressed with the evidence presented by the children and praised their initiative.  We are very proud of our Eco Heroes.

See below to read extracts from a copy of the letter we received from Eco Schools Scotland:

Congratulations to everyone at Kirkcolm Primary School for achieving your 2nd Eco Schools Scotland Green Flag. I really enjoyed reading your application this morning and it was great to see the fantastic range of evidence that you submitted to support your application – I really liked the fact that you had planned your actions to ensure that they had a clear link to not only your chosen Sustainable Development Goal but also, many others. You have really thought about this and your evidence clearly demonstrates what you have achieved. Your evidence is something that we would be keen to share with other schools as an example of good practice.

I appreciate that it will have been a very challenging year and it was great to see how you adapted your plans to be able to keep working towards renewing your Green Flag.

We also noticed aspects of your work as being examples of good practice. We may use these on our website and social media as case studies to support other schools with their EcoSchools Scotland work. While reviewing your action plan and supporting evidence there are lots of things that have gone very well and that you should be very proud of.

I like the examples you provided of how you carried out your environmental review and then selected you action points, this was a great way to let us see that everyone was involved. I enjoyed the work that the p4-7 class did while they were studying water, the work that the pupils produced looks fantastic and I’m sure will have a very positive impact. I love your rainwater collection system and what a great idea to have pupils keep a water diary. I bet a few people were surprised by their results.

Like many schools you made the decision to add Eco Schools tasks to your home learning activities during lockdown, this is a really great way to keep everyone involved and to have an impact out with the school grounds.

The work that you have taken forward in your food and environment topic is very impressive. Your school garden development looks fantastic and It was great to see that you were also thinking about where the food we consume comes from and the food miles associated with this and then exploring how food could be produced more sustainably. Also, great to see you enjoying your One Planet Picnic.

Our team may use aspects of your work as examples of good practice on our website and social media to support other schools during their applications.

Congratulations once again, on behalf of the whole of the Education and Learning Team, we wish you every success as you move on to your next application.

Daniel Barrie
Keep Scotland Beautiful
Education and Learning Manager
Keep Scotland Beautiful
ecoschools@keepscotlandbeautiful.org

Our pupils will now continue our eco journey by selecting new elements to work on for the next two years.  As part of our commitment to articles 12, 13, 15 & 29 of the Rights of the Child and Global Goals, our newly elected Eco Committee will help steer the way forward.

# Effective Contributors & Responsible Citizens

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary used and applied a democratic process to elect our new House Captains yesterday.  Fitting with our Social Studies topic of Democracy in Scotland, our candidates wrote their own manifesto speech to present to their audience.

Each applicant demonstrated a very high standard of professionalism and confidence as they outlined their personal skills and attributes.  Everyone spoke with clarity about the ideas and initiatives they had for the role of House Captain. We were all very impressed with the standard of each candidate’s talk, be it in person or as a virtual presentation.

The whole school then carried out an electorate voting process by selecting the candidate they felt would best represent them for the year ahead.  Everyone filled out a voting slip and posted it in our ballet box to be counted privately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a VERY closely run campaign with the results as follows:

Lochnaw – Malcolm

Soleburn – Breagh

 

I am sure both House Captains will represent their houses well in the coming year.  Our thanks to all of our candidates who really did themselves proud.  We can’t commend the quality of each candidate’s presentation highly enough!  Each of them has earned a merit for their house team.

The activity helps support our learning as part of our curriculum and as part of a wider context; helping develop the Skills for Life, Learning and Work.  It also supports our drive towards our Rights Respecting Schools award and applies UNICEF’s Rights of The Child (articles 4, 12, 15, & 25)

# Effective Contributors/Responsible Citizens/Confident Individuals/Successful Learners

 

Today we welcomed Emma Currie into our class. She is a local student studying at Glasgow University who has been involved in many areas of politics and she’s still only 21!

Her interest stemmed from when she applied to be on the Pupil Council in P5 (take note folks – as those applications for Leswalt positions are due in next Monday!) and it grew from there! She has enjoyed many wide and varied experiences through her political passions including being a member of the SYP (Scottish Youth Parliament), working as an intern for Alister Jack, being a member of the A77 Action Group, organising the campaign for a politician who was subsequently elected, visiting Estonia and Taiwan as part of her political involvement and volunteering with many organisations – including at Stranraer Academy where she supported Modern Studies students – phew quite a list! And she’s only just beginning!

The pupils learnt lots from her powerpoint which gave a breakdown from councillors to Scottish Parliament to the UK Parliament. Emma also covered lots of interesting points such as why we should vote, how to get involved, what it all means for our area and, most importantly of all, the need for respect for all regardless of political leanings.

What an interesting afternoon – I’m sure she’s inspired quite a few to be the next Scottish First Minister or Prime Minister!

Thanks Emma!