Author: Mrs Baillie

Super Burns Supper at Leswalt Primary

On Friday 24thJanuary 2014, Leswalt Primary held its fifth annual Burns Supper.
The whole school sat down together to enjoy this tradition.  Abbie Mc Quillan , P7, was a very able and organised chairperson who ensured the proceedings ran smoothly.
Arden Mc Intyre, said the ‘Selkirk Grace’ before Mr Andy Ross piped in the haggis.  Erin Jamieson, P1, proudly carried the haggis into the company.  The haggis was presented toTommy Kerslake, P7, who confidently addressed it with great gusto.  Mr Douglas McClure educated the company about the life of Robert Burns, in saying ‘The Immortal Memory’.
Recitations were also delivered from pupils in primary 1 to primary 7.
Tommy Kerslake, proposed an amusing toast to the lassies before Erin Topping in p7 gave him an appropriate reply.
Kieran Dodds in Primary 7 provided an articulate and amusing toast , which was in the form of a poem, to Leswalt School
The Burns Supper concluded with Rhona Baillie in p6 giving an appreciative vote of thanks.
The company sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at the end of a highly successful and entertaining Burns Supper at Leswalt Primary.

Leswalt and Portpatrick come together for Chinese New Year.

Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary schools have recently been involved in Partnership schools implementation, which is currently being phased in across Dumfries and Galloway.  Practically, this means that both schools now have Mrs Sheila Baillie as Headteacher.
As part of this new partnership arrangement, learning, sporting and social events are being planned to bring pupils and staff of both schools together.  At the weekend, pupils from Portpatrick Primary joined up with Leswalt pupils to play in a football tournament.  Neither school has enough pupils available to enter independently, so it was of benefit to both schools that the pupils could combine as “Leswalt/Portpatrick United” and  allow them to participate.

Primary 1-4 pupils at both Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary School have been learning all about Chinese New Year, as part of their RME, with Miss Nicola Baillie, Principal teacher.  As part of their learning, the pupils wrote letters to the Hong Kong City Restaurant to ask if they could visit to find out more about how they celebrate the special occasion.  The letters were a great success and both schools were invited to the restaurant together.  Pupils were served a selection of tasty Chinese snacks which were enjoyed by all – it was not long before the plates were empty!  The children were then told about the Chinese calendar and the importance of the colour red in Chinese culture.  They were also shown a variety of traditional Chinese decorations and artwork as well as learning some simple Chinese phrases.  The restaurant very kindly donated some resources for the classes to use in their role play area at school, where they will be running their own Chinese Restaurant to develop literacy and numeracy skills in a fun, motivating context.  All the staff and pupils would like to say many thanks to all the Hong Kong City staff for providing the children with a fantastic afternoon.
Both Leswalt and Portpatrick schools are now looking forward to future joint projects, and developing their partnership in a variety of different contexts.

National Pigeon racing champions!

The pupils of Leswalt Primary have already achieved National recognition through their annual participation in The Big Pedal, virtual cycling race.  Now they have been added another National award – by taking part  and winning in Pigeon racing!

Mr Alec Wilson, a parent from the school, volunteered to enter 3 pigeons in the National One Loft Race, “Join our sport campaign”.  This event was designed to promote pigeon racing among children, and the birds were entered under the name of Leswalt Primary.  The pupils in school received photographs of their birds and a competition was held in school to name them.

A website was set up so that pupils could log in and check the progress of their pigeons www.scottishoneloftrace.co.uk/josc .  Aiyanna Wilson in Primary 6 was the pigeon expert in school, and she also provided regular updates as to how the birds were getting on.

Everyone was delighted when the final race was won by a racing pigeon from Leswalt Primary – winning the school the fantastic sum of  £350.  The school has since asked Mr Wilson what he would like the prize money spent on and all he asks is that the school provides a “treat for the children”.

Children in Need

At Leswalt Primary the boys and girls had a non-uniform day at school.  They donated money to Children in Need, not to have to wear school uniform. There was a cake sale at playtime and lunchtime and pupils also added copper coins to cover a giant Pudsey bear.  The exact final total is still being counted – as there was a huge amount of coppers brought into school – £158.29  has been raised for the charity.

Interactive Science workshop

The whole school at Leswalt Primary recently had a full day of interactive Science activities, from Rowanbank environmental education.  This science workshop was organised by PNE, a company who hope to build a wind farm at Larbrax, near Leswalt.
The pupils were all involved in practical and fun activities which aimed to raise their awareness of different forms of energy in their world.  Outside in the playground, pupils looked at wind and solar power, and the conditions which can affect both.   They took part in a practical experiment which involved the sun heating some water in the playground from 16 degrees to over 50 degrees, in just half an hour.

In school, all pupils contributed their artwork to two large canvas murals which now hang in the gym hall.  These murals demonstrate both eco friendly and destructive effects on the environment.

Older pupils took part in “the chocolate game” , and were horrified when the remains of  a huge bar of chocolate was thrown in the bin afterwards.  This highlighted to them that energy can be wasted, as they were particularly shocked to see the creamy chocolate being wasted!

It was a full day of interactive, eco-friendly fun for the pupils at Leswalt which enhanced the learning and teaching in classes on “Energy”.

Playmakers

Thirteen senior pupils at Leswalt Primary have successfully completed the Play Maker course led by Laura McClymont, the Active Schools Coordinator. This was a four week course created by Sports Leaders UK with the aim of teaching older children how to deliver a games programme to younger children. As part of the course they had to think about what makes a good leader, plan activities and evaluate their performance. They had the opportunity to carry out their activities as warm ups for PE lessons.

The children all passed their final assessment and achieved the following levels:

Gold – Emma Drennan and Craig Anderson, Silver- Freya Bathgate, Rhona Baillie, Abbie McQuillan, Mackenzie Keith, Tommy Kerslake, James Murray, Kieran Dodds, Gordon Johnstone and Kathryn Topping. Bronze- Finlay Cowan and Erin Topping.

Some of the pupils have already put their skills to good use by setting up lunchtime clubs for the younger members of the school.

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