Author: Mrs Ferguson

Today, Wednesday 1st November, we all got to work planting crocus bulbs at the Wetlands. Why I hear you ask?

Well, this was in collaboration with the Rotary Club who are working hard to raise awareness about the continued fight against polio. Neville Wright, chairman of Stranraer Rotary, came to speak to us all about the latest drive to ensure polio is eradicated throughout the world. Huge strides ahead have been made over the last 23 years with polio cases falling from 300,000 in 1985 to just 37 in 2016! But without continued understanding and immunisation programmes, this devastating disease threatens to multiply once again. The ‘purple for polio’ crocuses are to remind people to give what they can to help the continued fight – just 20p is enough to immunise a child. That’s nothing!

The boys and girls were all up for the challenge so, donning their wellies and waterproofs, they headed for the Wetlands and met up with other Rotary members to plant the 4000 bulbs (yes – 4000!) Surprisingly quickly, these purple crocus bulbs were planted quickly by the children in the soil trenches prepared by the Rotary members. With grubby hands, very mucky boots but much bigger smiles, the children headed back to school. We are all looking forward to seeing the crocuses bloom next Spring – and don’t forget the importance of supporting polio immunisation around the world!

What a day of witches, ghouls and zombies we have had today!

P5-7 spent their morning making Spooky Spider doughnuts and measuring and drawing the net of a square based pyramid as a box to store it in for their Maths session.

Eerie poetry, Halloween creative writing and the P7s busily party planning meant that the morning passed by in a flash!

P1-4 chatted about the tradition of guising and telling a joke, singing a song or some other entertainment in exchange for a small treat.

The afternoon kicked off with a Frightening Fancy Dress Parade and then Patricia took on the unenviable job of judging the costumes – what a hard task that was! There followed an afternoon of team games; Musical Gravestones, Freaky Corners, Dooking for apples, Pin the stalk on the pumpkin/scar on Harry Potter and a Beastly Beetle Drive. To round off a fun afternoon, the boys and girls enjoyed a quick boogie to Michael Jackson’s classic Thriller and then enjoyed a tasty treat before they headed home…to do some guising all over again!

Thanks to the P7s for organising the party.

 

 

 

To conclude their topic looking at Local and National Government, P5-7 held their very own election today and handed the final decision over to the constituents of their school!

The pupils have worked very hard over the course of the term finding out about the impact of politics, some familiar faces on today’s political scene, welcoming some visitors into class for politic based question and answer sessions, the importance of living in a democracy and the ins and outs of an election campaign.

Working in small groups of 4 or 5, the children created their own political parties; party name, logo, rosette colours, manifesto pledges, campaign posters and videoing political party broadcasts. This was all done with great enthusiasm and the children had so many great ideas!

The Political Party manifestos included ideas to help improve the school for all and today saw the culmination of all of this hard work as the campaigns came to an end with a whole school vote at the Polling Station (hall!).

The winning party was…. the HTS Party! Party Leader Jenna Calderwood, Organisational Officer Phoebe Gaw, Media Officer Euan McCredie and Public Speaking Advisor Kayleigh Williams. Well done to all of you – we look forward to seeing you put your manifesto into action!

Check out the four political parties, some of their original campaign material, some snaps of the constituents heading to the polls and watch the political party broadcasts!  

Well done to all of the boys and girls involved! What a great way to end a very busy term!

Big-hearted Erin Jamieson had her hairdresser visit her at school this afternoon – but this was no ordinary hair-cut!

She had decided to have her lovely long locks cut, donating her hair to The Little Princess Trust which makes real hair wigs for children who have sadly lost their hair through cancer or other illnesses. Erin and her family had researched this very worthwhile charity and she offered to do her bit to help. In addition to giving up many inches of her own hair, Erin’s Just Giving page and donation sheets have brought in over £1000 of fund-raising to date for the charity too! Check out the before and after pictures above!

Well done Erin! What a selfless thing to do – we are all very proud of you.

 

This morning, the pupils of P5-7 had the pleasure of a visit from former MSP and Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson. The boys and girls have been thinking about democracy and parliament within their Social Studies topic and so this visit gave them a very real and interesting insight into politics and we really appreciate Mr Fergusson taking the time to talk to our class.

The children had many questions for Mr Fergusson; why he chose to become involved in politics, some of the experiences he had, the highs and the lows etc – it really was very interesting! As Charlotte said “That was really good!” Had the lunchtime bell not rung, I don’t doubt that he might well have been sat here still!

The anecdotes he told were light-hearted but gave the pupils (and teacher!) an idea of what it’s like being involved in the Scottish Parliament from its birth, the reality of the debating chamber, how bills become law and the issues which are devolved to Scotland and ones which are still governed by Westminster.

Next week, the pupils are planning to form their own ‘political’ parties, write manifestos and campaign within a ‘mock’ election. The visits from Andrew Giusti, Alex Fergusson and the Outreach Scottish Parliament Service have paved the way well for this. I wonder how the voting will go?

So P5-7 ventured to Scotland’s Book Town today for a morning packed full of Literary delights! We’ve been rather on-the-go recently (as you might have noticed from our blogging!) and today meant that we have now enjoyed an experience in the first four weeks of term 1 from almost every curricular area – wow!

The sun was shining as we arrived in Wigtown. We enjoyed Renita Boyle’s now legendary warm-up act for the authors – Boogaloo is a favourite with us all! She then introduced the Edinburgh-based author Lari Don. Lari has written nine novels and many picture books too. She writes for teens, 8-12 year olds and a younger audience and has just completed a trilogy entitled ‘Spellchasers!’. She read an excerpt from the latest novel and then got the 260+ children in the Festival Marquee thinking about their own creative writing ideas. As Lari said, to write the best stories you can you need to always ask questions, be imaginative and live a little! Many of the boys and girls enjoyed hearing about her stories so much, that they bought a copy of one of her novels. Some children were on chapter 2 by the time they got on the bus for home!

Rab Wilson, a Scottish poet, entertained us next. He read from a range of Scottish texts; some his own poetry work and some books written by others for children of all ages. He encouraged the boys and girls to explore their knowledge of Scots language – and taught us a few words we hadn’t heard of too.

We had a great morning – it was really interesting! We are looking forward to hearing about the P1-4’s experiences tomorrow!

We may be tucked away in our beautiful little corner of South-West Scotland, but we still manage to enjoy lots of experiences! The Scottish Parliament Outreach Officer for the West of Scotland visited us last week to give the pupils an insight into what is involved in politics and how this affects us all; in essence the importance of using our voices and, when of age, our vote to make our country be the best it can be.

The boys and girls from Portpatrick Primary joined us for a powerpoint session which included using voting consoles too. All very exciting. The children also had the chance to create a party, read through and justify their manifesto, select a party leader who spoke to the assembled group and take part in a vote – all real-life experiences. We are going to be doing much the same thing in class between now and the October holidays so this was a great introduction to it!

What a week it has been! Scotland’s First Maths Week has been, in the eyes of the pupils and staff, a ROARING success!!

Toady, Kirkcolm and Leswalt Primary headed over to Portpatrick to enjoy some fun time with new friends, online ICT games, creating responses for D&G Maths Competition and a wonderful workshop form Computer Xplorers. This involved using a coding program and Lego to create motorised models. The children spoke really enthusiastically about this!

The children had an action-packed day as the photos below show!

 

On September 15th 1817, Corsewall Lighthouse began its story. Kirkman Finlay, a Glasgow merchant, had lobbied in 1814 for a lighthouse to be built at the mouth of Loch Ryan as he was losing his ships, cargo and crew to the unforgiving rocks nearby.

And so we have our very own piece of history in our local area! The P5-7 pupils of Leswalt and Portpatrick, and P6/7 of Kirkcolm were very privileged to be invited by John Ross and the Northern Lighthouse Board for an unprecedented tour of the lighthouse to wish it a very happy 200th birthday!

And what a visit! The pupils (and lucky accompanying adults!) got to watch a slideshow about the work of the Northern Lighthouse Board from its infancy to the present day. We learnt about the slightly older methods of lighting the lighthouse; coal, paraffin, candles and gas to the latest LED bulbs.

Dr Millar, retained Lighthouse Keeper, has a number of lighthouses in South West Scotland under his charge, with Corsewall being one of them. He took the children in small groups up to the top of the lighthouse and explained about the unique flashing pattern of this lighthouse and the maintenance jobs which he has to do. Incredibly, Corsewall Lighthouse was not automated until the mid-90s!

What a wonderful morning we all had! The children also received a pencil, bookmark and ruler to commemorate their visit. Many thanks to John and Jean Ross for thinking of us, and to Dr Millar and the Northern Lighthouse Board representatives for their guided tour and information session.

Oh and keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming issue of Our Wigtownshire as there will be an article on Corsewall Lighthouse in it with possibly some photos of people you might know!!

And so the fun continues…

This afternoon we were delighted to welcome parents in to join us in using our logic, problem solving and maths skills to play some board games. From totting up points scores for quoits to counting skills for Ludo, to elimination strategies being used for Guess Who and thinking ahead tactics for dominoes and Connect 4 – it was a busy, action-packed and very enjoyable afternoon. The boys and girls had a fabulous time playing with their schoolmates and guests, whilst using lots of Maths and Numeracy into the bargain – it was a win-win!

Many thanks to Louise Jamieson, Gael Gaw, Morag Scott and Donna and Jamie MacDonald for joining us! Much appreciated.

Check out the snaps below to get a flavour of some of the fun we had!