May 2026 – Leswalt Primary School

PC MacGregor and PC Jack visit Leswalt!👮‍♀️🐕‍🦺

PC MacGregor and PC Jack joined P5-7 this morning to talk to us about the dangers of substance misuse. She explained that drugs are substances that alter our brain chemistry. She told us that some drugs are bad for us and others are good, we were very surprised to learn that chocolate is actually a drug?! (A delicious one of course)🍫

We spoke about the dangers of smoking and peer pressure, and all agreed that smoking is terrible! PC MacGregor showed us a very sad and serious video about a girl called Amy, who made a terrible mistake and taking a drug and the sad consequences of that.. We had a bit of fun trying on the ‘drunk goggles’ and having a wander around the classroom. After a couple of near collisions, we decided that it was a horrible feeling.👓

PC MacGregor and PC Jack, were joined by 2 very cute, fluffy and intelligent colleagues with them, Nancy and Poppy, the sniffer dogs.🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 Who, work and live with PC Baird and PC Thomson. The dogs were tasked with finding a small empty tin, which had once contained drugs. We were very impressed to see just how strong their sense of smell was!🐕

A big thank you to Stranraer Police Officers for visiting us in school and delivering such an important message to us!👮👮‍♀️

Sumdog success again for Gregor! 🏆

Our Sumdog superstar, Gregor Mc Guffie has done it again. 🤩

In the most recent Sumdog competition, Gregor has ended up in 3rd place for the whole of Dumfries and Galloway – out of 1753 pupils!

Well done to our little marvellous mathemetician – we are very proud of you! 👏👏👏

Eco Ideas with Caitlin♻️🌳

We absolutely love when parents come in to school to share their ideas and experiences with us.😍 This afternoon Environmental Safety Officer, Caitlin Wilson (AKA Beathan’s Mummy) visited P4-7 to talk to us about ‘sustainability’ and help us with our project; to design and build a sustainable school.💧🏫♻️

When it comes to ‘Sustainability’, Caitlin told us that the word can mean lots of different things to different people and for kids, it can be a tricky concept to understand.🤔 She explained that ‘sustainability’ should be best thought of in 3 ways; protect the environment, make it nice and make it resilient. We loved this definition!😍

Caitlin was just the perfect person to come in and help with our ‘sustainable school’ project because, as part of her University degree, she focussed on making Leswalt School more sustainable, and what practices and renewables could be installed. She gave us some super recommendations and sparked some new ideas!💡

Simple, yet effective, she suggested that our sustainable school should have lots of trees. Trees are of course important for producing oxygen, but also to help with wildlife and give home to animals. Caitlin also recommended that a ‘micro hydro’ would be a super renewable source for Leswalt School to make use of the burn, which runs along the back of the school. She showed us a super cool website, called Neso, which shows us the main sources of energy production in our local area.

We saw that today’s lovely sunny weather meant that it was the perfect day for solar panels!☀️She also suggested that if we were to install a windmill, up on a hill, wind power would be another option to power our school too!🌬️

The P4-7’s had some super questions for Caitlin and were very keen to find out more about her job and her interests in the environment. A HUGE big thank you to Caitlin for coming to visit us this afternoon and giving us some great ideas for our project! 🏫🙂

UNCRC Articles

Article 12 – Respect for children’s views

Article 12 – Health and Health Services

Article 28 – Right to Education

Meta Skills

Curiosity Carlos

Sense-making Samira

Focusing Fergus

Getting to the Root of It – Taking Maths Outside!☀️🌳

This afternoon, P4-7 visited the Wetlands to measure the height of some trees. As part of their angles work in maths this term, we have been learning how to use a protractor to measure angles. This afternoon, we created our own tree measuring protractors, which we were able to use to measure the height of a tree. 🙂

We used half a paper plate, a straw and string to build our own special protractors and marked on 0°, +45° and -45°, and there we had it a protractor fit to measure the height of any tree! 🌳

In the Wetlands, each pair chose one of the many super tall trees to measure, person 1 looked at the top of the tree through their straw and slowly took steps backwards until their string dangled in front of the 45° line. Person 2, then measured the length from where their friend was standing to the tree trunk. This told us the height that the tree is! Cool right?! 📏

A lovely way to end a week of sunshine and fun outside!☀️🕶️