Author: Mrs Ferguson

So COP26 is taking place just 2hours up the road from us and Glasgow is on the centre-stage for this high profile Climate Change conference. Leswalt Primary pupils have been keeping up-to-date with the latest from COP 26 in school this week. They talked about how their recent Learning for Sustainability work, and the plans of the Eco-Committee, links to the subjects being discussed by world leaders and eco campaigners this week  at COP 26. But, as one P5 rightly pointed out, it is actually an area in which we can , and should, all be involved in trying to do our bit!

Mrs McKnight signed us all up to be part of the Old Vic staging of The Lorax – a Dr Seuss story which highlights the need to look after our planet. We were super lucky to be one of the schools who were able to access this live! It was a fabulous and thought-provoking production which the pupils really enjoyed.

P5-7 pupils tuned into daily COP 26 updates and wrote open letters to COP 26 persuading leaders to act now for the benefit of future generations.

Pupils then put their technology and eco knowledge into action by working in groups to plan and produce short iMovies with the title ‘A Minute of Us’. The remit of this task was to work as a team to offer an insight into what eco work we are doing as a school, what our beautiful area means to us and what action we can all take to help in this worldwide campaign. The children loved putting their videos together! I hope you enjoy the children’s work – they certainly made us smile! Can you spot any budding TV presenters in there….?!

Scary faces all round at Leswalt Primary today! Where had our pupils gone? They had been replaced by all manners of witches, monsters and creatures that go BOO in the night!

The House Captains of Leswalt and Kirkcolm Primary (Breagh, Malcolm and Miley) had organised a super afternoon of Halloween fun for their classmates! From a Halloween parade to apple dooking, wrap the mummy game to musical statues – the children all had a fangtastic time!

Thanks Breagh, Malcolm and Miley for all of your hard work (and Ms Whorlow for ‘behind the scenes’ preparation!)

Do you recognise any faces from the photos below…?!

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

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!

What a lovely get-together Leswalt pupils enjoyed this afternoon when we all headed down Fisher’s Lane to the beach. Older and younger pupils buddied up and chatted on the walk down to the shore where they were put into teams of 4 and given the design task of creating the school name using natural materials! Well, what an imaginative bunch we have; from sandcastle letters to shells, driftwood to razor shells depicting the school badge – our team of intrepid designers came up trumps! Have a look at our beach fun below… A top afternoon of Eco art and design with friends!