Month: June 2022

Our Primary 7 pupils had a blast at a Stranraer Watersports Association activity day at Loch Ryan today.

First order of the day was being kitted out with wet suits (which was a fun experience trying to squeeze into tight lycra).

The first challenges were a couple of team problem solving puzzles. Gripping a rope, the children had to get everyone inside the rope without crossing their arms. Next, they had to sort themselves from tallest to smallest whilst keeping one foot on a rope line. Through giggles,  discussion and teamwork,  both challenges were solved.

Everyone then waded out into the water to get acclimatised. Super resilient, all the children were soon dunked, with just a  few screams to be heard on that initial dip!

Once suitably used to the water temperature, the pupils came back out, split into two groups and had a quick land-based instruction with the equipment before having a go at paddle boarded and kayaking. Our ‘gung-ho’ water heroes were quickly performing like water sports pro’s. The paddleboards were ditched and everyone balanced on the kayaks in a cooperation challenge.

Paddleboards

Kayaking

A Bit Soggy

Soon, the rumbles from famished tums could be heard from some distance away. So, lunch was called and everyone tucked in with gusto.  Luke even managed to squeeze in a quick power nap, soaking up the glorious sunshine.

Lunch

The wind picked up a little in the afternoon  so we left the kayaks on the beach and created a giant paddleboard raft by linking the individual ones together. Everyone piled on-board as a balancing challenge.

There was enough time for a splash about to see how which team would be the first to get all their members on one paddleboard. The laws of physics caused a topple or two before one team was declared victorious with no less than 7 pupils making it out of the water balanced on one raft!

Rafts

There was even a wee treat at the end of the day courtesy of Mr White, who bough everyone a choc ice lolly to enjoy.  There was even enough for the adults to indulge. Thank you Mr White!

Our adventurous P7s were invigorated and highly motivated throughout the whole session. We couldn’t fault the enthusiasm and professionalism of our instructors Zack and Max, and also the volunteer helpers.  Our thanks go to the  watersports team for allowing us to experience such a thrilling and enjoyable day!

# Confident Individuals

As part of Primary 1 to 4’s topic in Social Studies this term, the children have been learning about life in castles long ago.

Today, Mrs McKnight’s class combined what they have been learning about castle features with a STEM challenge (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

After gathering up a wide range of recycled junk modelling material (thank you families!), each child planned their own unique castle design.

Design Challenge:

The boys and girls then came together in small groups to work collaboratively to amalgamate the best features of their designs into one improved design.  Once this has been agreed, they brought their plans to life by constructing their models.

Design Examples

Construction Phase

Everyone worked very hard and their was lots of focus and attention to detail during the construction phase.

The finished models incorporated features such as battlements, moats, bailies, arrow loops and even working drawbridges to name but a few!

This activity has supported the development of the skills for learning, life and work as an integral part of education, e.g.:

• Communication & Negotiation
• Problem Solving
• Creating & Evaluating

There was lots of thinking and discussion on how to best combine and join materials to create the model features.  The children were able to reflect on their work and identify areas of success and targets for improvement.

We are sure you will agree that any self-respecting knight would be happy to take up residence in these fabulous castles!

# Successful Learners

P1-4 were thrilled to welcome back Kathryn Purchase from History Alive to present a workshop all about Knights and Castles. We all love Kathryn’s visits and today’s was no exception. We loved hearing tales of castle building through the ages, and what life would be like living in one. It would have been very cold, dark and smelly we decided!

Colin was also knighted and shall now be forever known as ‘Sir Colin of Leswalt’, and Ewan and Holly were gifted great areas of land for being favourite nobles of the King.

Next week in class, we shall be building our own castles as part of a technology project. Today’s session has armed us all with some great ideas and we shall be making sure to include all of these key castle features in our models.

Thank you once again Kathryn and we look forward to seeing you again next year for an Ancient Egyptians workshop, and a WW2 input with the P5-7 class.

# Successful Learners

As part of our on-going Eco Schools work, Leswalt and Kirkcolm teamed up to rid the streets of litter today!

As it turned out, we live in a beautifully kept environment and so there wasn’t too much in the way of litter – good news all round I’d say!

The pieces we did find were safely disposed of by our intrepid team of rubbish busters who were rewarded with a few minutes playing in the park.

Many thanks to our parent helpers who came to lend a hand – Mrs McHallum came with our bunch!

We all know what to do with litter – recycle what you can and safely get rid of the rest. Happily it looks like our local area are pretty good at that too!

Take Two – and the rain steered clear, the midges behaved and Leswalt’s Sports Day was game on! We were delighted to welcome back family and friends to cheer all pupils on as they donned their running shoes and gave each event their all. So good to see such sportsmanship on display – we really do have a great wee team!

All staff were assigned to their positions and the afternoon flew by. From skipping races to jumping sacks; egg and spoon to flat races; beanbag throw to the obstacle race – it wasn’t long until everyone was smiling and hoarse from cheering!

Huge thanks to Kaiden’s mum Natasha for very kindly supplying tasty refreshments! Those ice lollies were most welcome!

Full results to follow but, in the meantime, enjoy the happy snaps below of our sporting superstars. From those embracing their first primary sports day to those relishing their last; it was smiles all round!

Well done to each and every one of you!

This afternoon, Leswalt Primary ventured into Stranraer Academy; joining several other primary schools at the fabulous Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s production of Gaspard’s Foxtrot. This performance was having its Scottish school tour debut today – they will also be visiting Langholm, Aviemore, Inverness and Kirkwall over the coming weeks.

The orchestra delivered an afternoon of story-telling through music. The book had been written by Zeb Soanes and illustrated by James Mayhew, with an orchestral score by Jonathan Dove and an accompanying film directed by Dougie Irvine and produced by Laura Penny.

Lucy, a member of the RSNO, led the pupils through a fun warm-up using the body to create music and introduced them to the different sections of the orchestra and the conductor. We all then settled back for 35 minutes of escapism – following Gaspard the Fox on his adventures through the city of London.

Here are some of the highlights from the pupils:

“The fact that the music really described the thoughts and feelings was great!”

“Lucy’s warm-up was great fun!”

“Lucy’s story-telling went really well with the music and film!”

“I enjoyed doing Lucy’s music-making exercises. They were great fun!”

“I loved being able to see the instruments and what they were doing!”

“It was a cool story and the music went really well with it!”

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon out!

Today we we dedicated our learning to all things regal in honour of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for our Queen, Elizabeth II!

Would you believe she even popped in for a visit?! She met some of our pupils to say hello and joined in some lunchtime fun and class activities!

After watching an information video which covered every decade the Queen has been on the throne, we challenged one another to a Royal-themed quiz. Some of the questions really got us thinking!

Leswalt village has lots of Jubilee activities planned; from a concert on Friday night to a street party on Sunday so we decided to design some red, white and blue themed bunting which could be used to decorate the streets! We also made some paper chains to add to the party look too.

We got our thinking caps on for an activity which asked  what we might do if we were King/Queen for a day as well as some Royal research questions. Did you know the youngest ever reigning monarch became King of Oyo of Uganda  at the age of just 3 years old! And the longest ever reigning monarch was Louis XIV of France who reigned from May 14th 1643 until September 1st 1715- a whopping 72 years and 110 days!

Lunchtime had a celebration vibe with a picnic enjoyed by all in the sunshine.  We combined our lunch with an annual One Planet Picnic, minimising our use of single use plastic for our take-away lunch.  Michelle provided compostable spoons for our yogurts.  We recycled our pots in our new council plastic collection bins.  We also used paper bags instead of plastic.  Those that brought in their own lunches used re-usable snack pots and water bottles. (see photos below)

After a delicious feed, we designed some fantastic artwork combining the Union Jack; the Queen’s love of Corgis and the Royal Crown Jewels! We took home our masterpieces to display in our own homes this Jubilee weekend. We think the Queen would most definitely approve of them!

To round off our Royal-themed day, we learnt the words to the National Anthem; God Save the Queen and our very own adapted lyrics to join in a whole school Grand Old Duke of York. We sang these with gusto to bring our school day to a regal end!

The lyrics went something like this:

“Oh, Queen Elizabeth the 2nd

She rules well over us all

She’s sat on the throne for 70 years

Lets’ celebrate and have a ball!”

Happy Platinum Jubilee Queen Elizabeth II – the longest reigning monarch of Great Britain ever.

Enjoy your Jubilee Holiday everyone!