Author: Mrs Ferguson

Today the brand new P6/7 class enjoyed a Fun French Day! This kicked off their three -day mini-project about the Paris Olympics 2024 with their Day 1 looking at France; Day 2 will be researching the Ancient Olympics to present day and Day 3 will focus on sports and hosting their very own Leswalt Olympics!

Fun French Day meant lots of learning French vocabulary through actions, games and songs; using their Geography skills to locate places in France and its bordering countries; computer research skills to find key facts about France and making (and eating) crepes with delicious toppings such as sugar, syrup, strawberries and Nutella with the assistance of Mrs Kyle.

The verdict was tres bien all round! 

Roll on day 2…

This morning, Tony from NSPCC joined P5-7 to lead them through the Speak out.Stay safe workshop. This followed this online assembly and activity which the class worked on last week.

The workshop began by introducing the mascot Buddy – a speech mark designed to encourage all pupils to talk about what is on their mind. Tony talked to them all about different types of abuse in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner. The main focus was to ensure pupils are all aware of their rights; know what is and isn’t acceptable and what to do about it. Discussion was key as the pupils worked together to talk about a variety of scenarios. The workshop linked directly to our school’s work on UNCRC Children’s Rights and gave all the pupils an opportunity to consider different situations and their feelings about them.

Tony played the pupils an animated video about Guy – a young boy who was hungry, lonely, living in a rundown house, looked unkempt and so found it very difficult to get to school and concentrate. He wasn’t being properly cared for – he was neglected. The pupils considered what he could perhaps do to make things better and thought about how he might feel. After chat, they watched the end of the animation which showed Guy contacting Childline and getting the support he needed.
The class did talk about the ways in which scenarios can be perceived but, essentially, to talk is the main message. Speak out to someone who makes you feel safe is the main message.
Everyone was provided with a booklet – a Speak out. Stay safe kit – a resource for them to use to think about their own safe places and safe people. They also made their own ‘fortune tellers’ and bookmarks to recap the main message from this morning.

Visit the Childline website below to check out the games on offer
https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/games/
Every child has the right to feel safe UNCRC

This afternoon, Leswalt Primary pupils hopped on the bus and headed down to Logan Botanical Gardens as part of their annual schools’ week event.

The sun was shining, the air was warm – if perhaps the sky looked a little threatening as the afternoon wore on. But it takes more than a shower of rain to dampen the spirits of Leswalt pupils!

After a quick picnic lunch, the P1-3 pupils headed off to their workshop led by Kate on the Secrets of Trees whilst P5-7 joined Harry who taught them about Mapping our World using the gardens and natural materials as resources.

After exploring the bamboo maze, P1-4 pupils learned how trees work and worked together to make human representation of a tree! Pupils got to taste some tree sap in the form of maple syrup, which comes from a maple tree. On route round the gardens, we learned that a tree’s roots underground are as wide as the furthest outer branches.  We were amazed to learn that certain types of bark can be weaved to make items such as shoes and a handbag! After finding our own unique leaves and playing a game, we finished the workshop by working in small groups to design our own tree using natural materials, featuring all of the things we learned.

P5-7 talked about different kinds of maps; globe, Google maps, OS maps and those of places of interest. We then headed off to explore the gardens and used sticks to create a 4pt compass. Looking carefully at the surroundings within each quadrant of the compass, pupils used leaves, sticks and other flora and fauna lying on the ground (never taken from a plant!) to recreate a visual map of their surroundings. This led to a chat about the 8pt compass and Harry then gave each a compass to use. He taught them how to use it and each pupil got a chance to do so.

We then headed to another area of the garden to consider how the gardens might be viewed by minibeasts – HUGE! Mapping out a small area, they worked together to recreate what the minibeasts might be seeing.

Such a beautiful place which sits right on our doorstep – we all thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon at Logan Botanical Gardens.

Huge thanks to Kate and Harry for their expertise.

What a glorious day! Sunshine, friends and delicious scones and traybakes – what’s not to love?!

Thanks to the hard work of the fabulous Parent Council and friends – many visitors, family and friends were treated to a tasty afternoon tea and the chance to browse some stalls being run by the pupils and parents.

A magnificent total of over £1200 was raised! This is a superb amount which will be used to offer the pupils even more fun experiences and a super end of term trip.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped in any way today. Your kindness doesn’t go unnoticed!

Just take a look at the photos below to get a flavour of the fun that was had.

See you next year…!

This morning, Mrs Patterson from Stranraer Academy came to visit the P7 pupils. She brought with her three well-known faces;  Katie Kirkbride from Portpatrick, James Turtle from Kirkcolm and Alexander Clark from Leswalt – all of whom are S1 pupils at Stranraer Academy and past pupils of our primary school.

P7 enjoyed a question and answer session with the S1 pupils; getting a chance to find out more about life as a secondary pupil. Alexander, Katie and James were really helpful!

The next transition event will be on  Friday 17th May when P7 will be heading to Stranraer Academy for the day.

This afternoon PCs McGregor and Walker came to speak to P5-7 about the ‘bairns’ – life-size cardboard cut-outs of children designed to remind drivers to be extra vigilant around schools.

The five ‘bairns’ are spending two weeks in every primary school and remind drivers to think about where they park, watch their speed and to  be careful of where pupils are crossing. The class discussed with the Police Officers where they thought each should be placed, and are taking on the responsibility of putting the ‘bairns’ out in the morning before 9am and taking them in after 3pm.

So, watch out for the ‘bairns’!

The sun shone – yes really! – one morning this week and so we donned our jackets (well, it wasn’t THAT warm!) and headed outside to continue our Length, Perimeter and Area learning outside.

Working in our maths groups, we each took our set activity sheet and a clipboard and set to work. Mrs F took the handy toolkit trolley outside which was equipped with an iPad, rulers, measuring tapes, chalk, metre sticks and trundle wheels – a plethora of measuring devices!

From selecting most suitable equipment to using correct measuring unit; calculating area to working out the perimeter (think we have now cracked the difference between the two!) and converting measurements from metric to imperial measurements – we had an action-packed morning.

Here’s to many more outdoor learning sessions -even better with just a little more heat!

Take a look at the photos of us busy at work….

This week, P5-7 got the chance to explore coding using Spheros. These are small spherical ‘robots’ which can be coded to move in any direction, light up in an array of colours, talk and play music!

Ms Whorlow had introduced these cool gadgets to us at the end of term 2 and we were desperate to get our hands on them again this week and explore some more learning through coding. We enjoy using Microbits; we like investigating Scratch coding and so this was guaranteed to be great fun!

Working in pairs, armed with an iPad and our connected Sphero, we worked through the sessions. Learning to ‘drive’ was the first obstacle to overcome and we soon discovered that capping the speed and distance was a necessity as the coded Spheros zoomed off down the corridor! P1-3 were intrigued as to what we were doing, as several of them popped their heads out to have a look, and so P5 spent some time with them on Monday afternoon leading their learning. They might even have been safer drivers than us!

We soon got the hang of things and moved onwards and upwards; being able to code the Sphero to change colour, ‘draw’ shapes on the ground, ‘speak’ and play music. It has to be said that all pupils were much more adept at this than Mrs F who methodically checked each step (VERY slowly!) and showed very little originality! The pupils, on the other hand, were fabulous – demonstrating superb creativity, applying their initiative, following instructions, problem solving, working with others all whilst developing their newly learnt coding skills at the same time! Winner winner!

One pair even ‘drove’ their Sphero in to Mrs McHarg’s office and programmed it to say “Hello Mrs McHarg!” – love it!

What a great week of learning – the Spheros got a big thumbs up from all at Leswalt Primary.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29 Aims of Education

Hamish, Faye, Kaiden and Katie made a formidable quiz team today representing Leswalt Primary at the Annual Rotary Primary Schools’ Quiz. And, better still, they were placed 3rd receiving a certificate each and a cheque for £40 for the school!
Teamwork was key as they used their general knowledge skills to answer questions which many adults would’ve found challenging! Most importantly, the four of them were superb ambassadors for their school – mannerly, cheery and up for giving the quiz their all.

Well done to our Fab Four!

#confidentindividuals

#responsiblecitizens

UNCRC Article 29 Aims of Education and 13 Sharing Thoughts Freely