What a lovely way to start a new week! P7 pupils from Leswalt and Kirkcolm headed into Stranraer Baptist Church (after dropping the P6s off at Kirkcolm with a lengthy to-do list!) to enjoy Easter code – an event offered by Owain from Scripture Union and the Stranraer Baptist Church Team.

Each day this week, P7 pupils have been invited to discover more about the Easter story through quizzes, craft, drama and other fun activities. Leswalt and Kirkcolm were their first visitors of the week.

Welcomed in, we started with a ‘Who Wants to be a Millionnaire’ style quiz with some tricky egg-scellent questions to get those brain cogs whirring…We had to select our multiple choice answer  – correct answers won an egg point for our teams! Did you know that the World’s most expensive Easter egg costs over £50 000! Could you even begin to guess how many Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are produced each year? Three hundred million in case you were wondering! That’s a LOT of chocolate!

Owain then explained the 5 activity gazebos which were ready and waiting for us. Each one took us through the Easter Story and explained the importance of them – Serving, Struggling, Sacrifice, Sharing and Seeking.

The first one was about foot washing – a ritual done at the Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of his Disciples. Ben and Owen volunteered to have their feet washed!

The 2nd activity talked through the Passover Meal and the food traditionally eaten at this time. The children sat on cushions and tried the matzos (unleavened bread), bitter horseradish, saltwater and honey and apple. Each food type represented the slaves fleeing Egypt for the Promised Land.

The 3rd task invited children into a ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ where they watched a short film clip from Miracle Makers and talked about the arrest of Jesus.

Then it was on to the drama activity – the ‘trial’ of Jesus with everyone being invited to shout and heckle as Jesus faced the accusations.

Finally, the art activity involved the cross – when Jesus was crucified. Pupils decorated these to show it was a joyful time despite the sadness.

The fun morning session wrapped up with a round-up of the story and what happened in the days after the crucifixion. Pupils were invited up to dramatize this. A quick photo of everyone – a Cadbury’s Creme Egg for all (that’s 14 down from the 300 000 000 produced!) and we headed back to school a lot wiser about the Easter Story than we had been on arrival!

Thanks to Owain and the Stranraer Baptist Church Team for being so welcoming to us all. We had great fun!

UNCRC Article  13 Sharing Thoughts Freely, Article 14 Freedom of Thought and Religion, Article 29 Aims of Education

Meta Skills

Collaborating Cora       Communicating Cate      Integrity Imani

 

 

P6-7 pupils headed off to the Ryan Centre this afternoon for a musical extravaganza. We were entertained by Andrea and Georgie of Ad Libitum, who were a violin and accordion duo. After explaining a bit about the different sounds that each of their instruments could make, we were treated to some of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concerto, and pieces by composers Bach and Brahms.

Afterwards, we got the opportunity to ask the musicians some questions, learning that they had played in over 50 different countries, what the violin bow is made from and where in the world the horse hair originates from.

Thank-you to the organisers of ‘Music for All’ for a wonderful afternoon.

We have had great fun this over the last few days celebrating British Science Week with online Live Lessons, STEM activities and rounding off with a busy open afternoon today! 
Family and friends were invited in to share our learning as we worked with our buddies on a range of Science investigations.
We enjoyed…

* Exploding Monsters – exploring chemical reactions

* Lava Lamps- looking at liquid density and mixing

* Coding with Microbits and Spheros

* Digital learning with online Science games

Working together, we spent 10 minutes at each station and before we knew it, the afternoon had whizzed by! Lots of learning and lots of fun  

UNCRC Article 29 Aims of Education

Meta Skills Focusing Fergus, Collaborating Cora and Curiosity Carlos

Well done to our musical maestros – Rachael, Ela and Daisy for their fantastic performances this week at the Galloway Music Festival!

Rachael was up first, with her piano performance class being held on Monday. Competing in a very tough class, Miss Drummond only went and bagged first place! What an achievement…

Then, on Wednesday, our two fantastic singers Ela and Daisy participated in the Scots Solo class with both of them singing ‘The Skye Boat Song’. They both sang beautifully with Daisy being awarded 1st and Ela 2nd place. Well done girls and a HUGE thanks to Mrs Jane Sloan who has coached and accompanied the girls over the last few months, popping into school on a weekly basis to work with them. We are very lucky to have her expertise to support our pupils.

Well done to all three of you!

UNCRC Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture and Arts

Meta-Skills 

Initiative Ivy and Focusing Fergus

 

Today was the day of the Annual Primary Maths Challenge and who better to put forward to take up that challenge but our resident Number Ctunchers Ben, Colin and Roman!

Pupils had to create a poster themed around Codes & Ciphers, partake in problem solving challenges and play Head-to-Head – a game based around math logic and strategy. Our pupils worked hard to try and do the preparation beforehand with a tough task for the poster ahead of them!

The boys gave it their best shot and had a smashing time putting their brains to the test! They represented our wee school wonderfully and we are very proud of them!

Continue reading “Ben, Colin and Roman Enjoy a Maths-Fuelled Tuesday!”

Leswalt Primary enjoyed lots of World Book Day fun today listening to real authors online, enjoying some cosy reading time, doing some shopping at our ‘in-school’ book sale and thinking about how books are written – with some fantastic ideas for possible books of the future!

The House Captains had worked closely with committee members and the librarians to set up a book sale with lots bringing in their pennies to buy some highly recommended books!

Wigtown Book Festival had some fabulous live sessions on offer featuring Mike Nicholson author of the Catscape, Museum Mystery Squad, The Giant Who Snored, Grimm and the ‘Thistle’ Scots language books! P1-4 had great fun in the morning session and P6/7 found out about how to start writing and making something quite ordinary become something extraordinary!

All pupils left school clutching their World Book Day book tokens! Snuggle up and enjoy a new book from our book sale or bought with their book voucher – loving books is what World Book Day is all about

UNCRC Article 29 Aims of Education Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture, Arts

Meta Skills Focusing Fergus Initiative Ivy

Communicating Cate Collaborating Cora

 

 

 

Launching Stranraer’s Wheels, Water and Well-being Festival 2025!

Agnew and Stair Park 7-8^th of June.

We were delighted to welcome Janet Jones, Project Developer at Creative Stranraer, (www.creativestranraer.com) into school this week, talking about an exciting new venture – Stranraer’s Wheels, Water and Wellbeing Festival, coming to our shores on the weekend of June 7-8th 2025! This festival is building on the brief 3-hour cycling festival last June, where many children and adults requested the festival to become every year.

There are lots of activities on offer in our wee town, to name a few; the skate park at Stair Park, rowing and water sports on Loch Ryan and the Kirkpatrick Coast to Coast bike trail. This brand-new bike trail starts at the bike sculpture at the end of the pier, connecting Stranraer on the west coast, to Eyemouth on the East coast. Every Saturday, Parkrun is held in Agnew Park when folks of all ages walk, jog and run their way around the 5k course.

Janet explained that this new festival is looking to bring lots of these activities – and more- together in one fabulous weekend to be enjoyed by locals and visitors alike!

After hearing the latest health data, that by 2050, over 50% of the adult population and a third of children, will be overweight or obese, Janet is more passionate than ever to encourage the benefits of active travel, health and wellbeing.

In the run up to the festival, there are three exciting projects for the schools in Stranraer and the Rhins to get involved in. The first creative project is to design an image that represents, wheels – bikes, scooters, rollerblades or any kind of wheels people get around on. It can also be anything to do with activities on the water or an image of wellbeing. These images will be completed by the 27^th of March and delivered to the Creative Stranraer Hub by the 28^th of March at the latest to be entered into a competition. The images will be on exhibition at the Creative Stranraer Hub during May at the top of King Street. AND both the children and teachers cannot wait to try some introductory Qigong next term from the world-renowned expert, Mark Pogson, who will be offering sessions at the festival too! The festival will have something for everyone, of all generations.

In May, the children, and parents or their family members, can take part in completing an Activity Diary, logging all the active fun, places visited, and with who, this can then be entered into a prize draw at the festival.

Watch this space for more exciting details…

 

 

 

Tara and Alan from Stranraer Development Trust popped in to see P6/7 today with some exciting news… they had chosen a winner and runner-up from their recent Dream Jobs competition! But who were these talented pupils?

With her wonderful drawing of her Dream Job as an artist – Miss Ela Chang was runner-up!

And, coming up trumps with her fabulous sketch of her Dream Job as a teacher – Miss Ellie Bennewith was the WINNER!

Well done to both girls who received a fabulous Scottish Nature Activity tin each – and Ellie won a £20 Ryan Centre cinema voucher too!

Meta Skills  Initiative Ivy Focusing Fergus

UNCRC Article 29 Aims of Education, Article 12 Respect for Children’s Views and Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture, Arts

 

Such wonderfully confident young ladies took to the stage last night, representing Leswalt Primary at the Annual Rhins Burns Federation competition! The fabulous trio of Ela, Hannah and Daisy entertained the audience alongside pupils from other schools with their Scots recitations and singing.

Daisy was up first, singing ‘Skye Boat Song’ accompanied by Mrs Jane Sloan. She performed this beautifully and was placed 3rd in the P6/7 singing category! Hannah represented our wee school in the P3-5 section with her recitation of ‘The Circus’. She did this with confidence and a lovely clear voice – she made us very proud. Next up, was Ela competing in the P6/7 category with ‘Address to a Haggis’. Expressive and articulate, she was excellent – and her excellence was rewarded with her being placed 1st in the P6/7 recitations! Amazing!

We are very proud of all three girls for representing Leswalt Primary so wonderfully. They all received  double merits for the being Confident Individuals and Effective Contributors. Well done girls!

Next stop… Wednesday 12th March when Daisy and Ela are competing in the Scots Song category at the Galloway Music Festival! What a talented bunch we are lucky to have in our village!

Meta-Skills – Initiative Ivy and Focusing Fergus

UNCRC

Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture, Arts