Author: Mrs Ferguson

Mrs F left the 5 Primary 5s (Roman, Ben, Rachael, Murray and Colin) an assignment to complete last week whilst P6/7 were away on their Glasgow overnighter! Their mission – to research the Roman army and plan, design and make their own Roman replica shields, helmets and swords!

Were they successful? Did they complete their task?

They most definitely did! Just look at their blog reports below and the fabulous photos!

Well done P5 – any Roman emperor would have been proud to have you as part of their army!

Last week when the primary 6-7 were away, the p5 made some Roman shields helmets and swords. It was hard but fun! The hard bit was making the helmets. I really want to take the the stuff home and play with them and show everyone. It was quite tricky making them but we had some ladies helping. Thanks Mrs Kyle and Sheila!  We couldn’t do it ourselves .It was fun doing some research with our friends too!       

By Murray 

Last week we made Roman swords, shields and helmets. We made them out of cardboard, tape and pins. I loved making them! They are great! I love everything creative. It was a lovely treat to have when the p6/7 were away in Glasgow. Remember it was us p5s who made these amazing Roman shields, helmets and swords! We are going to teach P6/7 how to make them later this week!     

By Colin

Last week the p7 and p6 went to Glasgow, but the p5 stayed at school and made Roman shields then we made swords and helmets. We made them out of cardboard and it was AMAZING! So next time you want to make cardboard shields or helmets – just ask Leswalt p5’s.       

By Roman

Last week, when the P6 and P7s went to Glasgow, all of the P5s made some Roman shields! It was a little bit hard but not too bad that I couldn’t do it! Sheila and Mrs Kyle helped us. I liked doing the painting and designing the pattern. I think our shields are amazing!       

By Rachael

I had lots of fun last week creating my Roman shield, helmet and sword when the P6/7s were in Glasgow! Spray painting the helmet was one of my favourite bits! I am looking forward to taking them home. We will be showing the P6/7s how to make mini shields later this week.   

By Ben

UNCRC

Article 17  Access to Information

Article 29 Aims of Education

Article 31  Rest, Play, Culture, Arts

P7 pupils, Hamish and Faye, represented Leswalt Primary at the Rotary Lunch at the North West Castle today. They were excellent Responsible Citizens, able to chat politely to all and be superb ambassadors for our school.

They enjoyed a very interesting talk from Mr V. Plant about Robert Burns and enjoyed time talking with Rotary Club members.

Thank you Faye and Hamish for being fabulous school representatives – we are very proud of you!

Well done to Ben Gill and Ewan Clark who represented Leswalt Primary at the Rhins K’Nex competition held at Sandhead Primary this morning!

The boys were set the challenge of building a go-kart. They set to work by sketching a plan and using the pieces in their kit to build their design. Though they didn’t win the engineering task today, we are extremely proud of their efforts and delighted that they were our representatives for today.

Both boys were presented with a certificate for their participation.  We awarded them 2 merits each once they returned to school – for being Responsible Citizens and Percy Perseverance skills in being faced with a tricky task – and in finding success in their end product!

Well done Ewan and Ben!

This morning, we were delighted to welcome Ribh and Faith from GSA (Galloway and South Ayrshire) Biosphere who had come to deliver a presentation about Ocean Odyssey and the marine life found in and around our shores.

The time was packed with quizzes, activity, matching tasks, questions and chatting about a information powerpoint. Below are just a few of the facts that we noted down…

Lesser spotted dogfish and Thornback Ray – empty shell casings looked and felt a bit plastic but weren’t!

Plastic is originally made from fossil fuels. Takes from 20-1000 years to breakdown. More than 40% is only used once.

Polyester is plastic. This is in your clothes!

Glass jar – plastic round seal.

Bubble gum – in wrapper. Also in actual gum. Makes it stretchy.

Suncream – bottle, lid and actual lotion!

Teabag – glue down sides of bag

Cans – lined with plastic to keep products fresh.

Paper cups – plastic coating so they don’t disintegrate. 95% paper!

How plastic ends up in sea – littering, from boats, industrial waste, over-fishing, over-flowing bins, flushing things down toilet, draining micro plastics down sink/shower from hygiene products. Shampoo, shower gel etc… washing machine takes micro plastics from clothing.

We talked about ways in which we could all do our little bit to help. Ribh and Faith were impressed to see so many reusable water bottles! We are hoping to plan a Beach Clean for next term – and now we know so much more about some of the things we might find on the beach too!

Thank you GSA Biosphere!

The pupils of Leswalt Primary went ‘all things Scots’ in celebration of  the Bard’s Birthday!

We were delighted to welcome Mrs Mary Buchanan (Mrs B – formally a teacher at Leswalt Primary) to do the official judging of the pupils’ handwriting, artwork and recitations of their Scots poems. Goodness, what a hard job she had!

Following this, everyone gathered in the hall to enjoy their Burns Lunch together. Ably compered through proceedings by Brandon Millar, we began with Mark Drummond leading us with the Selkirk Grace and the haggis being proudly carried in by Jorgie Paton P1 and accompanied by Katie Gill P7. Hamish McGregor P7 gave a rousing Address to the Haggis and we all tucked into our haggis, neeps and tatties!

Then it was time for the after-lunch entertainment with recitations from Ellie Bennewith P6, Roman Haver P5, Lily Bennewith P3, Hannah Drummond P2 and Cameron McDonald P1. Both classes sang their wee hearts out with P1-3 performing ‘Broon Coo’ and P5-7 singing ‘500 Miles’ by The Proclaimers Leswalt-style as ‘I’m a Wean Fae Leswalt Schule’. Then whole school got together to sing a Scots version of ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen – renamed ‘Stuff ’em Aw’!

Interspersed with the pupils’ performances, the P7s continued with their Burns Lunch traditions with Kaiden Giblin giving the Toast tae the Lassies, Cara Jamieson offering the Reply to the Lads, Faye Adams with her Toast tea the Schule and Carys McHallum rounding off the afternoon with a vote of thanks. All done with confidence  – they were braw!

After a  rousing sing-song of Auld Lang Syne, the pupils dashed outside for a quick break, and staff got the hall ready for the afternoon’s Scots Showcase with friends and family invited in to enjoy!

Faye Adams danced a Highland Fling to welcome the audience, the Scots songs were sung once again and all were treated to the judge’s results! Great excitement as pupils sat on the edge of their seats to find out who had won each category in each year-group, with the winners being invited up to show off their handwriting or artwork and to perform their poem in front of everyone.

The results are as below:

P1

Handwriting – Beathan Wright

Artwork – Cameron Mcdonald

Recitation ‘Mince and Tatties’

1. Jorgie Paton

2. James Hunter

3. Cameron McDonald

P2

Handwriting – Keira Richardson

Artwork –  Aria-Rose Williamson

Recitation ‘Twa-Legged Mice’

1. Hannah Drummond

2. Eilidh Ramsay

3. Emma Shirley

P3

Handwriting – Lily Bennewith

Artwork – Lily Bennewith

Recitation ‘The Sair Finger’

1. Lily Bennewith

2. Ellie Burton

P5

Handwriting – Murray Reid

Artwork – Roman Haver

Recitation ‘ Wee Kirk Moose’

1. Colin McGregor

2. Roman Haver

3. Murray Reid

P6

Handwriting – Holly Santangeli

Artwork – Isla Kirkpatrick

Recitation ‘Wille Wastle’

1. Ela Chang

2. Daisy Doyle

3. Ewan Clark

P7

Handwriting – Faye Adams

Artwork – Hamish McGregor

Recitation  ‘Address to a Haggis’

1. Cara Jamieson

2. Hamish McGregor

3. Mark Drummond

Huge congratulations to everyone for their efforts! Rabbie would be proud!

This morning, Leswalt Primary hopped on a bus to make the quick journey round the coast to our friends at Kirkcolm Primary.

The purpose of our visit? Well, there was a visit from the pop-up planetarium and the Galloway Forest Astronomical Society there to talk to us! Not an opportunity we wanted to pass up…..

We joined our buddies once we arrived at school and enjoyed some time together first for a quick catch-up. The younger class went into the Planetarium first whilst the older bunch worked together on their Rights Respecting Schools activities – and created some fabulous quizzes to test us all on the UNCRC. Some questions created to really make you think…

Then it was time for a break outside and a chance to enjoy the company and playground of our friends on this beautiful January morning!

Swap over time….and the older group got the chance to enjoy the wonders of the Planetarium whilst the younger pupils created their own aliens – wonder if any of their designs might be spotted in Outer Space?

Inside the Planetarium, Doug (the computer expert) and Andy (the lead presenter) took us all on a tour of the night sky exploring the moon, Mars and Jupiter. We talked about the hugely varied temperatures on planets in Space, gravity, signs of life,  moon controlling tides and the individual features of planets. Such an interesting session!

Many thanks to the Galloway Forest Astronomical Society (and Kirkcolm) for a morning of inter-galactic fun!

Happy New Year to you all!

It’s so good to see our Leswalt team back together for the start of a fabulous year!

We decided to kick things off with a traditional Scottish toast – with sparkling flavoured water and some delicious shortbread- raising our glasses to wish one another a very happy 2024!

We then joined together in a rousing rendition of Auld Lang Syne and worked with our buddies to create our New Year’s resolutions.

Here’s to a very happy, healthy and busy 2024 😊

It’s a busy busy week – fresh from their superb show performances yesterday, Leswalt pupils enjoyed a fabulous party afternoon today!

House Captains Hamish and Carys and Vice House Captains Cara and Faye had been the organising elves and Mrs McKnight and Mrs F followed their plans so that everyone enjoyed an afternoon of festive fun.

The tunes were pumping as they played Christmas Corners, Musical Baubles and Pass the Present before taking a break for some crisps, juice and sweet treats prepared by P5-7 and Mrs Kyle. It was then back to the hall for a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells – just in case this might be the favourite song of a certain mystery guest….

Sure enough, we soon heard the sound of bells and who should join us in our school hall but Santa Claus!!

He was so cheery and chatty with all the boys and girls who, thankfully, had all made the good list! Phew!

Everyone had lovely time and headed home wearing their new personalised hats with pride and munching their chocolate Santas!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Huge well done to our Leswalt Primary 5 pupil Murray Reid for winning this year’s Millennium Centre Light Switch-on poster competition – out of all our local primary schools!

He will be enjoying a trip on Santa’s Float and be part of Stranraer’s Light Switch-on this Saturday. Look out for his winning poster on display as part of the town’s Christmas celebrations too.
What a fantastic achievement Murray!

U

Update – here are some of his fabulous photos from Saturday!

Lactalis Cheese Factory and McLelland Cheese Packing 

On Thursday 23rd of November, Leswalt P5-7 class went on a trip to Lactalis Stranraer. We started off in the meeting room, learning about the history of Lactalis (it’s owned by a French family), how it has grown over the years and the health and safety rules and guidelines which are really important to keep employees safe and produce top quality cheese. 

Then group 1 went to cheese packaging across the road from the main factory. Meanwhile group 2 went down into the cheese production factory to see how the cheese was made starting from the milk being delivered and through every stage (curds and whey and the use of ‘good’ bacteria) to the finished product of 20Kg blocks of cheese. This is all done in an area where there are HUGE machines. There is a lot of engineering and Science involved in making such tasty cheese. There was even a small museum there showing the ways in which cheese had been produced over the years. 

After that, the Groups came back to the meeting room and tasted different types of cheese. The types of cheese that we tried were mild, medium, mature and extra mature cheddar. That’s not something that we get to do every Thursday! 

Lastly, the two groups swapped over, and group 1 went to cheese production and group two went to cheese packaging. At cheese packaging is across the road at the McLelland Cheese Packaging plant and we watched the 20Kg blocks pass through on different lines to be unwrapped, then cut, sliced or grated, packaged up and sealed and then packed ready to go out for delivery. If the bits of cheese are too small, they get collected up and get sent off to be grated. 

Lactalis are working really hard on eco issues and recycle all their cardboard, are trialling some recyclable plastic packaging and are investing in producing their own power to run machinery. There are solar panels planned for next year. 

Do you know that Stranraer’s factory produces and packs cheese products to be sent all over the world?! And we learnt that there are so many different jobs at the factory – it was really interesting. 

Overall, we had a fabulous time at both factories, and we would all like to thank all the staff at Lactalis for giving up their time to show us around. 

Thank you! 

Report written by Faye Adams and Brandon Millar (P7)