As part of this new partnership arrangement, learning, sporting and social events are being planned to bring pupils and staff of both schools together. At the weekend, pupils from Portpatrick Primary joined up with Leswalt pupils to play in a football tournament. Neither school has enough pupils available to enter independently, so it was of benefit to both schools that the pupils could combine as “Leswalt/Portpatrick United” and allow them to participate.
Primary 1-4 pupils at both Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary School have been learning all about Chinese New Year, as part of their RME, with Miss Nicola Baillie, Principal teacher. As part of their learning, the pupils wrote letters to the Hong Kong City Restaurant to ask if they could visit to find out more about how they celebrate the special occasion. The letters were a great success and both schools were invited to the restaurant together. Pupils were served a selection of tasty Chinese snacks which were enjoyed by all – it was not long before the plates were empty! The children were then told about the Chinese calendar and the importance of the colour red in Chinese culture. They were also shown a variety of traditional Chinese decorations and artwork as well as learning some simple Chinese phrases. The restaurant very kindly donated some resources for the classes to use in their role play area at school, where they will be running their own Chinese Restaurant to develop literacy and numeracy skills in a fun, motivating context. All the staff and pupils would like to say many thanks to all the Hong Kong City staff for providing the children with a fantastic afternoon.
Both Leswalt and Portpatrick schools are now looking forward to future joint projects, and developing their partnership in a variety of different contexts.
