Author: Mrs Ferguson

This week is ‘Maths Week Scotland’! It’s a chance to explore, enjoy and discover all things relating to Maths – and realise just how much Maths we use everyday – sometimes without even realising it!

Each day, both classes have had lots of Maths fun doing different activities.

On Monday, P6/7 watched and talked about the maths relating to Alice in Wonderland with an online Maths Live event – who knew just how much logic was used in that famous story! They also brushed up their Maths whizzkid number skills with their weekly Beat That and CLIC number challenges.

On Tuesday, P1-4 had lots of outside fun with Liz Tindall – the weather was in their favour for that ! They enjoyed a Beetle Drive, stick measuring, symmetry and made a giant pizza! Lots of maths concepts being used in a variety of ways.

P6/7 enjoyed a Pairs Puzzle (planned for outside but the weather had other ideas!) Working together, pupils solved number puzzles hidden all around the school, unscrambled an anagram of the letters on each puzzle piece (yo spell ‘we are the greatest!) and were rewarded with a Puzzle Prize at the end (Haribos!)

Wednesday was a very busy day with P6/7  using their number skills in French with a fund outdoors game with Mrs McKnight – ooh la la!

On Thursday, P1-4 participated in two online events exploring storytelling and maths whilst P6/7’s online session explored the idea of infinity through a story called ‘Infinity and Me’ by Kate Hosford and listened to the experiences of a STEM Ambassador who explained her route towards the job she does now as an engineer and the part which maths plays in this. Plus we had fun doing our maths games such as Kahoot (a VERY competitive game enjoyed by P6/7!) and coding Spheros to follow an obstacle course.

And to round the week off, on Friday P6/7 headed outside for a challenging outdoor Maths Trail. Pupils worked together in pairs to answer the questions about various things outdoors, from calculating the number of rectangles in the fence surrounding the car park, to identifying different types of angles outside.

The finish off our busy week, we participated in the #ShowYourWorking event and welcomed in 2 parents, Andrew (Betty & Ela’s Dad) and Lauren (Gregor’s Mum), who shared how they use maths in their every day lives and work. Pupils were prepared with some questions to ask them to gain an insight into how vital a skill maths is for everyone, and even put them on the spot to see how many times tables they could remember!!

Phew! It’s been a busy week!

P6/7 are lucky to be enjoying Living Life to the Full sessions with Matthew Robinson from the D&G Youth Work team. This ties in perfectly with their HWB focus on Feelings and Self-Esteem. Pupils have been participating in team-building games and reflecting on different emotions and thinking about their reactions in different situations. Lots of chat and fun helping pupils to work on their self-belief and ability to recognise and deal with their feelings.
Thanks to Matthew for his input. Looking forward to the next few sessions 😊

P6/7 were delighted to welcome Jack and Linnea to their class today to lead them through a Dignity in School Children’s Parliament session. The class met Dodger the Red Squirrel and considered the rights Dodger has as well as the rights we all have – and the ones we share/differ. We linked these to our Children’s Rights and thought about the Digni-tree as it has safe, happy and healthy as its branches and our rights as its roots – where everything grows from!
We were set the challenge to think about things we learn about when we’re outdoors, things we learn about other children and their countries and challenges they might face and things we learn about the environment, nature and climate change.

We are looking forward to seeing Jack, Linnea and Dodger again next term when we are exploring our Government and Democracy topic!

We had the very BEST day at Ernespie Farm Park for our annual Leswalt Primary Summer trip! 🌞 🚜🛝🐄🐐

The windscreen wipers on the bus didn’t dampen our spirits one bit as we pulled up at the farm park. A quick snack and loo stop and we were ready to explore.

Luckily, would you believe it, the  sun came out to greet us too!
So explore we most certainly did…. with fun in the indoor soft play; a farm tour in the tractor and trailer; enjoying the woodland play park; playing on the  combine and ride-on tractors in the shed;  cooing over animals in the petting shed (aww the cuteness of those Guinea Pigs?! There was much begging to take one home as a class pet!) and then the awesome outdoor play area! So much to do – from bouncy pillows to the go-karts, whizzing down the zip wire to the thrills of the Cresta slide! Needless to say, there were rosy cheeks all round as all the friends played together and had so much fun!

A delicious ice lolly  to round off the day was a welcome treat – and paid for by Beathan’s dad! So kind of him 😍

Take a few minutes to enjoy the fantastic photos below. Making memories together ❤️

UNCRC Article 31 We have the right to play 

What a brilliant few days we have enjoyed with our new Leswalt crew 😀 The fabulous P7s Brandon, Kaiden, Hamish, Mark, Faye, Carys, Cara and Katie headed off to sample the adventures of S1 at Stranraer Academy, whilst we welcomed Rebecca into P6 and the fabulous quintet to Erin, Ada, Betty, Jessica and Gregor as the new P1s!
They all made very welcome additions to their classes and their schoolmates really enjoyed their company! Just look at these smiley faces…

We can wait to welcome you back in August!

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…!