Author: Mrs Ferguson

Well, the forecast for rain was happily proved wrong and the sun did actually shine for us as we enjoyed out outdoor learning fun at Leswalt Primary!

From gathering materials at the Wetlands (to create our bird and bug habitats back at school) whilst enjoying the abundance of wild garlic and the scent of the bluebells- to all hands on deck to spruce up our playground and garden area! HUGE thanks must go to the Wetlands volunteers who very kindly gave up their own time to help us out. As you can imagine, having been off-site for 18 months and moving back home during Winter, our garden area had seen better days! Lots of clearing up and cutting back means that we’re well on the way to rebuilding our outdoor area again.

Whilst at the Wetlands we carried out some wildlife detecting.  We used our Spot It sheets to find signs of animals and insects around us.

Brushing, building, planting, weeding, painting, washing and foraging – it was a busy day! All activities were planned to ensure our school stays true to its eco ethos and has a bird and bug friendly environment in our playground.

Enjoy scrolling through the fabulous photos below (we do have a photogenic bunch!) and read all about our day’s adventures in Daisy and Cara’s (Eco committee members) blog report…

Outdoor Education Day 

At the start of the morning, P6 stayed back with Jane Sloan and all of her Aloudoran wetlands crew who helped us tidy up the garden. Meanwhile P1 to P5 headed to along to the wetlands to do some foraging! They also met the Gruffalo, the fox, the snake and the little brave white mouse! After 30 minutes or so everyone carried their sticks, leaves, moss and twigs back to school to be used in building the animal habitats in the playground.   

Back at school, the P6s had been super busy;  Hamish and Carys were tidying the toy box; Faye and Kaiden were helping the Aldouran volunteers with clearing the garden and Brandon, Mark and Cara were loading the branches that had been cut off the willow dome into the trailer. Then we served our adult helpers tea, coffee and a sweet treat! 

Once those jobs were done,  Mrs Mcknight and Mrs Ferguson put us into groups of three and gave an animal habitat to every group. We were kept busy making a bird bath, creating some earwig houses , designing a toad home, putting up our teacup bird feeders, building a log pile, finding areas for bumblebee houses to go, setting up a snail brick house – as well as weeding, gardening, brushing up and planting up some planters with some lovely red geraniums to hang on the  railings at the front door! After a long day of working, the boy and girls admired their efforts – the outside looks so fresh and clean!  

By Carys and Daisy (Eco Committee reps) 

And there’s always more to do! Our next steps will be … wall and tyre planter painting, path pressure-washing and seed planting. Watch this space…

Thanks to Megan Bark, Dental Health Officer for Child Smile, for visiting P5-7 to relaunch the toothbrushing programme.

As we are learning about microbes at the moment, it seemed perfect timing for us to focus on our dental hygiene too – bye bye bad bacteria…

The class learnt about the effects of bacteria on their tooth enamel and gums and the role of fluoride as well as getting their own toothbrush to use after lunch each day.

An extra toothbrushing stint each day can only be a good thing to ensure we all keep those million dollar smiles! Say CHEESE…!

Sunday dawned dry (yay!) as plans were put into action for Leswalt’s Parent Council’s fundraising Cream Tea! This annual event has been much missed as the last one was in 2019 and Covid-19 put paid to the next few years, but to the delight of the school and the community, it was back!

Bunting welcomed visitors into a busy school with stalls manned by parents and pupils. An array of raffle prizes enticed those to buy their tickets (thanks to all those who donated).

In the playground, the bbq was fired up and the aroma of delicious hot dogs and burgers tempted many to take a seat in the sunshine (yes it did make an appearance!)

In the P1-4 classroom, there was a well-stocked bottle stall, a delicious baking table, the chance to have some glittery hair extensions and superb face-painting on offer!

Pupils manned the stalls in the P5-7 classroom selling items made by the children as well as nail painting , temporary tattoos, a book stall and Guess the Bear’s Birthday!

Classes had been busy making things to sell with an Eco theme over the last two weeks. Bird feeder ‘Chirpios’, beautiful teacup and saucer bird seed holders, ready to grow seed pots, pretty painted pebbles and seed bombs in painted pots were hand-crafted and sold.

After browsing the stalls, visitors headed into the hall to enjoy the delicious Cream Tea – and what a spread! Huge thanks to all those who donated their baking to fill the over-flowing cake stands! Your kindness is much appreciated – and the visitors really appreciated and enjoyed the tasty treats.

All in all, it was a very successful afternoon! All made possible by the dedicated hard work of all parents who contributed in any way to the running of the day. Not to mention the pupils who made their crafts to sell and supported their school by manning stalls and coming along too!

A very big thank you to everyone involved. Your hard work is very much appreciated!

In preparation for the momentous day in which our country sees the crowning of a new monarch, Leswalt Primary pupils planned a day to remember!

As hard as it was for the children to believe, even the teachers aren’t old enough to have witnessed the last coronation! So, it was felt fitting, that the day should be marked so it should be one for the memory box…

Throughout the week, we had been making Royal bunting to decorate our school for the Coronation weekend (which coincided with our fundraising Cream Tea too). We had also been finding out more about the lineage of the monarchy, the role of a King and the key historical objects which were to be part of the service and their significance.

On Friday, staff and pupils joined together dressed in Union jack colours – we even had a few princesses join us AND, would you believe, ‘King Charles’ was also spotted waving his flag and singing (aka Colin!)

Designing commemorative flags, crowning our own King Tristan (eldest in our Leswalt Primary family!), creating be-jwelled, ‘ermine’ trimmed crowns fit for a King, joining with friends to enjoy a delicious buffet lunch all filled a jam-packed, fun-filled morning!

Our lunch fitted with this year’s One Planet Picnic event which is a fun picnic  that is good for you and good for the planet.   We avoided single use plastic and used reusable cups instead. We used recyclable paper plates to minimise waste too!

It is a fun way to make your food and drink choices environmentally friendly.  Look at the step by step guide below for inspiration and ideas.

In the afternoon, everyone headed outside to participate in a Royal Sports with Monarch Corners, the King’s Horses Relay and Don’t Drop the Crown just a few of the games enjoyed – thanks to Mrs McKnight who tweaked old favourites to give them that Coronation-themed feel!

To round the day off, proudly wearing their crowns and waving their flags, all came together in the playground to entertain waiting parents with a rousing rendition of ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ from the Lion King – King Charles III would have loved it, of that i’m quite sure!

And, as an extra treat, Mrs Kyle had very kindly baked a Coronation cupcake for every pupil to take home 🙂

A day to remember…

Alexander and Ewan Clark brought three of their pet lambs into school this afternoon for a ‘Meet and Greet the Sheep’ session!

The pet lambs are called Diddly Squat, Diddly Dee and Diddly Dum and happily wandered around our cloakroom being fed from the bottle by pupils. Alexander told us all a little about each lamb too. They are just over a fortnight old and weren’t at all fazed by their audience!

Huge thanks to Alison (Alexander and Ewan’s mum for bringing the lambs to school). Another lovely experience for us all!

Article 24 UNCRC – Health, Food, Water and Environment

Leswalt Primary donned their gloves, fetched a litter-picker and carried their rubbish sack as they worked in groups to tidy up their village this morning.

The Spring sunshine shone brightly as the pupils made sure their local area looked beautiful.

Several bags of rubbish were collected meaning the village looks more fabulous than ever!

As a result of the children’s hard work, Leswalt has achieved 2nd place in the Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean Campaign 2023 / Litter League Competition for the Scotland South region (D&G and Scottish Borders).  Well done everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article 24 – Health, Water, Food, Environment UNCRC

As part of British Science Week celebrations, P5-7 enjoyed a Science afternoon.

Each activity table was set up for either a Biology, Chemistry or Physics investigation and pupils worked in pairs around each task.

From planting seeds and using magnifying glasses to take a closer look at leaves and flowers; to building electrical circuits and exploring the wires inside plugs; to creating irreversible chemical reactions between Bicarbonate of Soda and vinegar – it was a busy and fun afternoon.

Each task had weblinks to BBC Bitesize Learning Guides for the class to investigate to further back up their learning. Just look at the photos of what our budding scientists of the future were up to!

It was an early start for all on Thursday morning as Leswalt Primary boarded a bus headed for the Glasgow Science Centre!

This is British Science Week and so our trip tied in nicely. It was made possible through us receiving a successful grant from the British Science Association, a rural transport support grant from the Glasgow Science Centre and a very generous parental donation. Our grateful thanks goes to all.

The pupils explored the Science mall with its vast array of interactive exhibits to learn about:

• Our physical world of forces, illusions and materials
• The human body – physiology, human health and the senses to develop an understanding of interrelationship between the body’s actions in response to outside conditions.
• Powering the future – making connections between the drive to use more sustainable energies to meet future challenges. We were able to make the link between human activity and protecting the planet.

P1-4 are studying Forces in class and so they enjoyed a workshop on this very topic.

P5-7 are about to start their investigations into Microbes and so they were delighted to experience the Planetarium presentation which looked at our Solar System and the possibilities of life on other planets! This visual display was led by an astronomer who led the pupils on a ‘trip into space!’

It goes without saying that part of the fun of a school trip is being with buddies, spending pennies in the shop, scoffing packed lunches and, in this case, the escalators also proved to be quite a hit! Such a lovely experience for all – both for their learning and socialisation!

Just take a look at the photos below for their beaming smiles!

 

 

 

 

Pupils and staff rocked up to school today for another fun Friday in aid of Red Nose Day 2023. House Captains Rose and Thomas had been selling official red noses all week and donations were popped into the bucket today as we all wore the things which make us happy!

Red Nose Day is all about raising money to help those in need whilst bringing a smile to everyone’s faces – and we did just that with Leswalt’s Got Talent!

Parents and friends joined us to enjoy a varied entertainment programme; from cheerleading to Scots Poetry; a Tik Tok sketch of acting and singing to little Elsa dancers; a marshmallow and jaffa cake eating competition to singing and musical theatre! Mrs Buchanan and House Captain had the unenviable job of judging – a tough call!

1ST place – Hamish (able assisted by his brother Colin) singing ‘Naughty’ from Matilda the Musical

2nd place – Alexander reciting ‘Address to a Haggis’

3rd place – Keira and Aria-Rose dancing to Let it Go from Disney Frozen

All very worthy winners AND approximately £150 was raised for Red Nose Day through ‘nose sales’, pupils’ non-uniform donations and kind audience members adding to the bucket too!

Thank you all!

     Curling Report by Thomas And Tristan   

At the NWC on Monday the 13th of March there was a big curling competition for all the schools in the Rhins region. We sent two teams – team Leswalt and team Leswalt-Portpatrick. Both teams were in the same section and really enjoyed themselves! It just didn’t go our way on the day as Team Leswalt didn’t do too well, but Team Leswalt-Portpatrick did a bit better! Overall, Team Leswalt came 9th and Team Leswalt-Portpatrick came 8th  

Well done to our buddies at Kirkcolm who came 2nd! Rephad won the competition. Many thanks to Mags Agnew for accompanying us and the coaching. We all enjoyed our day! Curling is Cool!