Author: Mrs Ferguson

Report by Ela and Ellie…

Today, Aileen and Ross from the Glasgow Science Centre team came to our school with their roadshow called ‘Future Fuels’. Aileen told us about Fossil Fuels and why it is so important to find renewable energy sources. She showed us an experiment using methanol and demonstrated the Fire Triangle which  needs Oxygen, heat and fuel to work. The tiny amount of methanol made a huge bang when the Fire Triangle was completed but this is not something which can be easily controlled. It can be super dangerous (that’s why she demonstrated it wearing safety goggles and using safety equipment!)

She told us about research which is going into some amazing projects like the Solar Array in California, the Hydrogen Plant outside of Rome, Italy, the Solar Car Race which is held in Australia (Kaiden and Katie competed – the KGs!- competed in a mini version of this using a tiny car with a solar panel and a torch as the light source) and the Solar Impulse II which is an solar panelled plane! It took 505 days to travel all the way around the world so not handy for your summer holidays in the sunshine just yet, but maybe in the future!

Ross then demonstrated all ten exhibits which we were allowed to play with and investigate the different renewable power sources. The exhibits were called:

Directional Drilling        Nuclear Reactor        Solar Array        Windmill Kit

Million Watt Drop        Three Phase Generator        Crank Power        50 Hz

Hydrogen Launcher        Hand Crank Generator

We had a great morning finding out about Science of the Future! Thanks to Ross and Aileen for visiting us.

 

 

Following on from yesterday’s World Children’s Day, PC Walker visited Leswalt Primary this afternoon to talk about UNCRC Rights of a Child and the role the police play in keeping us all safe.

Working in our assembly groups, we all chatted about our rights and what each article meant for us day-to-day. There was lots of chat about the right to be safe, to learn, to be fed, to be warm and to be listened to. PC Walker talked about adults who are there to help make sure children’s rights are met. We also talked about the importance of respecting the rights of others.
There was time for a chat about the ‘day in the life of a police officer’ and how there is no typical day for them. She told us about the age at which you can be charged with a criminal offences – it’s 12! Some of us thought that was a bit too old… what do you think?

Many thanks to PC Walker for taking the time to come and speak to us.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 17 Access to Information

Pupils and staff rocked up to school today wearing blue (to support World Children’s Day on Mon 20th November) and with their pockets full of pennies to add to our Children in Need collection bucket!
All week, House Captains had been manning their Children in Need merchandise shop and selling Pudsey ears, pens and pin badges. Their shop was super busy – with lots of money being raised.
As a school, we checked out the Children in Need website and chatted about where our donations go and how they are used to help children.
Grand total to follow… thanks for everyone’s support!

Today the pupils of Leswalt Primary headed to the war memorial to pay their respects ahead of Remembrance Day tomorrow.

Before we left, we watched a short video clip from PoppyScotland and talked about the reasons behind the poppies which the House Captains Hamish and Carys had been visiting each class with over the last week. We took some time to think about how their donations would be used and why they were needed. We also found out a little about the history of the poppy and then, taking our own home-crafted willow wreath, we set off for Leswalt’s war memorial.

There we read the inscriptions on the memorial, the House Captains laid our wreath and we held our own two minute silence as pupils showed their respect to all those past and present who have served their country.

This week is Computing Science Week – a chance for us all to investigate, discuss and explore different aspects of the Computing Science world.

From chatting about the HUGE variety of jobs under the Computing Science umbrella, watching and talking about women in engineering (hopefully we have a few budding male and female engineers of the future in our class!), exploring coding using Spheros at our college campus day and using ipads, laptops and PC.s to create video games through the Microsoft MakeCode website ( a session led by Morna Fisken from My World of Work) we have enjoyed a very busy few days!

Today, Morna joined us in-person (we have already enjoyed two online sessions in previous weeks). She led the pupils step-by-step through the Microsoft aracde.makecode.com website. Using a wide range of employability skills; problem-solving, working to deadlines, learning to adapt and self-evaluate and following instructions – the pupils were then able to create their own interactive video game creating backgrounds, sprites as their main character and coding instructions to design projectiles to be fired at in their game! They also set up a number of lives for their sprite and the ability for it to ‘fight back’ and destroy the projectile!

All good fun but learning too as the class were reading, listening, using their numeracy and maths positional skills to name just a few – I just don’t think they realised they were actually working! Computing Science week has been a huge hit at Leswalt Primary!

@mywowscotland

 

 

Well, just take a look at those photographs… what a fabulous day! Huge thanks to Ms Whorlow, Fiona Herron Stranraer Campus manager, Susan Boland  Early Education and Childcare Lecturer and Mrs Hall and Miss Creighton from DG STEM Team for organising this fantastic DYW/STEM day at Dumfries and Galloway College Stranraer Campus.

The pupils enjoyed an action-packed day of activities from Childcare games and art and craft activities to Technology Sphero coding (mini robots controlled using instructions coded by the pupils) to Construction work planning, designing and creating a marble run in small groups by measuring and sawing wood. Phew!

Whether the pupils believe it or not, they were actually using SO many employability, Literacy and Numeracy skills today – co-operating, negotiating, measuring, working within deadlines, problem-solving, communicating, listening and respecting to name just a few!

Furthermore, by enjoying these wonderful new experiences, we were also using our North Rhins Partnership school values – Norah Nurture, Ronnie Respect and Percy Perseverance as well as ensuring the children were experiencing UNCRC Article 4,13 and 28 (Making Rights Real, Sharing Thoughts Freely and Access to Education). Brilliant!

Many thanks must also go to Kaiden’s mum Natasha for coming along with us and, of course, thanks to DGC Stranraer Campus for having us! The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their day with exclamations of…

” That was brilliant!”    “Can we do that every Thursday?”

“It wasn’t like school work at all!”

” I really love going to the campus to learn”

…to paraphrase just a few pupils!

A jam-packed day of fun learning!

 

 

Where had all the smiling, fresh-faced children of Leswalt Primary gone? The bell rang at 9am and staff opened the door to be faced with…. a frightening array of Halloween characters!
After a busy morning’s work (ever witnessed a zombie doing their subtraction task?!) – the House Captains and Vice House Captain put their party plans into action for an afternoon of frighteningly fabulous fun!
The action kicked off with a Petrifying Parade to judge the most creative costumes for each year group, Creepy Corners followed this with much excitement! The Really Scary Relay saw groups working together and having a blast as they dodged the cone markers. Hamish supervised the traditional ‘Dooking for apples’ whilst Carys and Faye judged ‘Pin the Wart on the Witch’! The party finished with a Best Dancer competition. Such a lot of spooky shenanigans and freakishly fabulous fun for a Happy Halloween!

Looking forward to seeing our usual smiley Leswalt Primary crew back tomorrow though!

 

 

 

This afternoon, we were delighted to welcome Mrs Hall from the D&G STEM  learning team with the Fun Maths Roadshow!

We got the chance to work on some mind-boggling puzzles which encouraged us to solve problems, use trial and error, look for patterns and show determination to crack those number and shape conundrums. We could choose whether to work alone or with a buddy and enjoyed a great afternoon of puzzle-tastic maths!

Using the vegetables kindly gifted by Barsolus to P7 on their trip there yesterday, P5/6 made a pan of delicious soup.

Mrs Kyle took them in small groups to prepare the vegetables by washing, peeling, chopping and grating and adding them to the big pot of lentils, bacon, stock and water. The smell wafting down the corridor was amazing!

In the afternoon, everyone sat down to enjoy a mug of warming soup – the perfect snack on a dreich Friday afternoon! What a lovely way to investigate growing vegetables to using them to make a delicious meal. Thumbs up from everyone all round!

£340.85! Yes – a whopping £340.85 was raised this morning by our amazing P5-7 pupils backed by our fabulous community for Macmillan Coffee Morning!

Faye and Ewan wrote this report about the very successful event.

On Friday the 29th of September, Leswalt Primary held a coffee morning to help raise money for Macmillan Cancer support. This is what we got up to! 

Once our visitors arrived, they were greeted by our very jolly welcoming team, Isla, Amelia and Carys. After they got to the hall, they found a table and sat down and were greeted by our social team and servers. On the table there was a cake stand covered in delicious home baking and the servers offered them a warm cup of tea or coffee. 

Behind the scenes were our amazing cleaning crew of Brandon, Mark, Roman and Ewan who were accompanied in the kitchen by teachers Mrs Kyle, Mrs Warwick and Mrs Ferguson who were filling the mugs with lovely tea and coffee. 

We also had a presentation created and delivered by our wonderful house captains Hamish and Carys and vice house captains Faye and Cara, at 10:00am  explaining to our guests just why we were holding a coffee morning. 

The sales table was filled with more fabulous baking, some scented home-made candles made by Mrs Kyle and baby Spider plants donated by the Drummond family. A delicious cake from Holly’s family was auctioned off by Ewan Clark to Mr Gerald Baillie for an impressive £11!

After the big clear-up, we all sat down and enjoyed a cake and a cuppa too! Then we made up a few plates of tasty treats to hand out in the community to people who weren’t able to make it.

We raised £340.85 for Macmillan Cancer Relief.  We hope everyone that came really enjoyed themselves as we all certainly did! HUGE thanks to all those who donated baking and/or came along and supported this worthy cause.