Author: Mrs Ferguson

What a fabulous display of tartan was on show at Leswalt Primary today. From kilts to leggings, hair bobbles to tartan tammies; the children turned out in style for this Scottish tradition. The staff and pupils celebrated the birth of Scotland’s national bard with a programme packed full of songs, poetry and feasting. Malcolm McGregor of P1 took on the role of carrying in the haggis, managing not to nibble any of it on the way, led by Finlay Scott carrying the bagpipes. Lauren Anderson of P7 would have done Rabbie himself proud with her Address to the Haggis. Jenna Calderwood of P4 said the Selkirk Grace before we all tucked into a delicious plate of haggis, neeps and tatties (or kilted sausages for those not too keen on the warm, reeking, rich haggis!) Dessert of shortbread, ice cream and toffee sauce was enjoyed by everyone as we listened to some traditional music – clean bowls all round!

Finlay Cowan of P7 oversaw the running of the poems and speeches keeping everyone on track and the pupils and staff settled back to enjoy the winning recitations and entertaining speeches. Mrs Ferguson gave a short Immortal Memory then Kerr Calderwood and Kathryn Topping of P7 led the toasts to the lads and lasses with good humour and witty observations. Lauren provided the toast to Leswalt School reliving her memories of her school years from P1-7. The recitations were provided by Aidan Adams (P1), Chloe Kennedy (P2), Phoebe Gaw (P3), Kirstie Macdonald (P4), Kayleigh Williams (P5) and Emily Cochran (P6).

Vote of thanks by Rebecca Brown ensured that everyone, including the dinner lady Patricia, was thanked for their input. O’ what a glorious sicht!

 

Well we’ve kept to our New Year Resolution!

The pupils and staff of Leswalt Primary have headed out for their morning walk the last two days. Heading out just after break, we set off through the park and completed the loop around by the Wetlands and back to school. We even managed to beat our time today! It’s a chance to exercise those legs, get the heart pumping, enjoy a sociable chat and let the local villagers see lots of wee, smiling faces! We then come back to school invigorated and ready to crack on with our Language work.

Give us a wave if you see us out and about!

Yay! P2-4 got to go outside for their Maths session today!

The pupils were split into teams; the Red Nosed Reindeers, the Blue Frosty Snowmen and the Cheeky Green Elves!

Using what they have been working on in class, the teams were set multiplication tasks.  They needed to use their Rainbow Tables,  investigate square numbers and tackle some Merry Mental Maths problem solving!

Back in class, the pupils had some time to self-evaluate their morning’s work. They even managed to each colour in their team’s mascot – by reading the colours which were written in French! What a multi-talented bunch of pupils we have!

 

What great fun Primary 1-4 have had with their 6 week block of African drumming in school led by Paul.  Traditional chants, beats and dances from Ghana formed the basis of the sessions.  To round the block of work off, they told the story of some animals in Africa and showed off their chanting and dancing skills – Luke, Cameron, Charlotte and Aidan played the acting roles of the tortoise, lion, hare and buffalo!  P5-7 responded by chanting back and learning an African dance with their little friends.  What great fun we all had!

#confident individuals #successful learners

Have a look at photographs below!

 

P1-4 are having a great time every Tuesday with some rhythmic drumming input. Ably led by Paul, who uses story-telling to inspire the drumming, the children are learning about animal fables as well as getting creative with their drumming. Everyone is really enjoying this – including the teachers!

 

Leswalt Primary held their own minutes silence at 11am on Wednesday 11^th November at the war memorial at the village. Jamie and Kathryn read aloud their pieces of writing which they had completed in class about Remembrance Day. Mrs Ferguson read through the inscription on the monument and laid the poppies made by pupils from P1-4. Some pupils chose to leave their poppies at the memorial as a sign of respect. It was a poignant and thoughtful time of remembrance – just as it should be.

 

 

 

P2-4 had a busy maths session today! They brought their teddies to school to do some measuring!

 

Here’s what they had to say about it…

We needed to work in pairs and use a measuring tape.

We measured in centimetres (cm)

We tried using a metre stick and a ruler but they just weren’t flexible enough!

We worked out which end of the measuring tape to start at and which side to use – some of the measuring tapes used inches on one side.

We filled all of our teddy measurements in on our data files.

It was good fun!

 

We had the pleasure of a visit from Gerald from the Munro Madnezz Bhoys Challenge this morning.

He told us all about the 282 Munros in Scotland (there used to be 283 but one shrunk (!) and is no longer counted as a Munro!). They are named after Sir Hugh Munro who discovered and categorised them all – though he didn’t climb them all.

Gerald has climbed many of these and told us of his love for doing this. He has raised lots of money for Macmillan Cancer charity through his climbs.

He showed us all some of the equipment that he uses and explained how to keep safe when climbing. It is something which he adores doing.

Laura and Alison from Active Schools were with Gerald. They have set primary school pupils the challenge of doing sports activities to equal the time it would take to climb a Munro. Who is keen to take up this challenge?

Recording sheets are available in school. How many Munros do you think you could ‘climb’? Come on, give it a go!

 

On Monday 7th September, P5-7 joined lots of other pupils from local schools to participate in an event run by Triathlon Scotland. The children had lots of fun swimming, cycling and running. It was a great taster session to get a feel of what a triathlon involves – but on a mini scale! Well done to everyone involved – the pupils had a great time!

Today P2-4 had great fun measuring outside. They worked in small groups and recorded their results on their clipboard.

Each group worked out how many giant steps, fairy steps and how long a people chain they needed to measure from one part of the playground to the other. But everybody was ending up with different answers!

There had to be a solution… Then we came up with the answer – a metre stick! This was a standard size and so our measurements were the same.

We also had a go at using a trundle wheel too. We really enjoyed measuring using metres.