Author: Mrs Baillie

The pupils at Leswalt pride themselves by arriving at school on bicycles and scooters.  Last year they were the Scottish champions for pedal power in “The Big Pedal”, a National competition to encourage pupils to cycle more.

However, they were all shocked and saddened at recent events.  Ola, a Primary 1 pupil had been coming to school on her scooter which she was given by Santa.  One night she forgot to take it home, and left it round the back of the building.  Unfortunately there were intruders in the school grounds at night that not only wrecked the little pink scooter; they threw it into the nearby burn. 

The scooter was beyond repair.  Ola was upset.  All the pupils in the school were upset.  The school put a poster up in the Leswalt Stores to explain what had happened and ask for any witnesses.                          

 The police were informed and PC Kevin Wyllie came out to the school to speak to the children.  He has since ensured there have been regular patrols of the school grounds at night.

The children decided they would like to show Ola that the community of Leswalt is really kind.  They decided to each bring in money so that they could buy Ola a brand new scooter.  The generous response was amazing; children brought in their pocket money, all the staff contributed, people handed in money to the village shop, people with no connections to the school contributed after hearing the story – even PC Wyllie the policeman gave some money into the scooter fund!

At a special assembly in front of the whole school, staff and parents Ola was presented with a brand new Disney Princess scooter.  Ola was delighted, and let out a scream of joy!  The rest of the pupils were happy. 

This sad tale of needless vandalism had a happy ending.  The children of Leswalt have shown their caring considerate nature as “Responsible citizens”. 

Mrs Baillie had one final surprise for everyone.  Such was the generosity of the collection, there was money left after buying the scooter.  So Mrs. Baillie decided that as the pupils had all supported this they too should be treated.  Mrs Baillie handed over A Nintendo Wii game to the school, bought with the change.  However, it was pointed out that there is nothing in school to use it on.  At that point Mrs Baillie called upon members of the school fundraising group to present the children of Leswalt Primary school with a brand new Nintendo Wii, which can now be used for games based learning, wet weather playtimes and after school clubs.  A huge cheer went up and suffice to say the boys and girls were ecstatic, everyone went home with smiles on their faces!

 

  During the month of January Pupils at Leswalt Primary have had a focus on the life and work of Robert Burns.  As part of that work all pupils participated in the annual recitations of Scots poetry.  This was also accompanied by artwork and handwriting competitions.  All of these were judged on Tuesday 24^th January by Mr Alec Ross.  Mr Ross had a very difficult job in deciding who the eventual winner in each category was.

On the afternoon of Friday 27^th January parents and grandparents were invited into school to a special Burns Showcase assembly.  At this assembly all winners showed off their talents and received a certificate for their efforts.

On Wednesday 25 January 2012, Leswalt Primary held its third annual Burns Supper.

The whole school sat down alongside invited guests, including staff and parents.  Tommy Cowan, P7, was a very able and organised chairperson who ensured the proceedings ran smoothly.

 Kathryn Topping, P3, said the ‘Selkirk Grace’ before Mr Andy Ross piped in the haggis.  Kayleigh Williams, P1, proudly carried the haggis into the company.  The haggis was presented to Andrew Archibald, P7, who confidently addressed it with great gusto.  Mr Douglas McClure educated the company about the early life of Robert Burns, in saying ‘The Immortal Memory’.

 Recitations were also delivered from pupils in primary 1 to primary 7.   Classes also entertained by singing Scots songs.  The senior class sang “Skyscaper Wean” and the younger pupils sang “Three Craws”.

 Kieran Dodds, P5, proposed an amusing toast to the lassies before Emma Drennan in P5 gave him an appropriate reply.

 Catherine Archibald and Maxwell Garrett provided an articulate and amusing toast to Leswalt School

 The Burns Supper concluded with Callum Boyce and Eilidh Hill 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.

Primary 5,6 and 7 recently travelled to neighbouring Kirkcolm Primary to take part in an engineering project “Building bridges”.  This project came about as with the on-going work with the construction of new water pipelines near both schools.

The children worked together all morning to constuct a huge suspension bridge in the hall at Kirkcolm.  The children not only built a physical bridge, but also built a bridge of friendship and learning together.

The children of Leswalt Primary were recently host to some unusual visitors – in the form of animals from the tropical rainforests.  The whole school is currently learning all about “Rainforests” and had a visit from “Zoolab” to enhance their learning.

 

 Zoolab came along with animals such as a giant hissing cockroach, a corn snake, tarantula spider and snail.  The pupils learned how animals such as these were adapted for life in the hot and damp conditions of the rainforest.  The children also learned which animals lived in the different layers of the rainforest – with the cockroach living in the forest floor, the tree frog climbing in the canopy and the snake enjoying basking in the sun up high in the emergent layer.    

 

All the animals were passed around for the pupils to examine closer and handle.  The Primary one pupils particularly enjoyed having a giant cockroach climb up them “it tickles”.  The sight of a huge snake crawling across the classroom floor was something the children will always remember.                  

 

The whole of Leswalt Primary performed their Christmas concert “What does Christmas mean to me?” in Leswalt village hall.  This show had every pupil from Primary 1 to Primary 7 take their place on the stage to focus on the different elements which are important to people at Christmas.

The boys and girls of Primary 7 at Leswalt Primary headed to The North West Castle Hotel in Stranraer to enjoy a Christmas meal out together.  They enjoyed a 5 course feast of food, before receiving Christmas presents. The children later sat at the Ice rink watching some curling before heading home full of food, and happy.  Tommy Cowan summed up how much he enjoyed it by asking “can we do this every Monday night?!”      

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary were treated to a wonderful sight at their recent Christmas party.  After playing party games and feasting on a huge spread of delicious party food, all the boys and girls from Primary 1-6 headed outside to see if they could catch a glimpse of Santa.  With parents, staff and children all singing “Jingle Bells” a magical sight appeared in the dark night.  Santa came through the village driving a horse and cart covered in twinkling fairy lights!  Santa’s horse even had fairy lights and was wearing antlers on his head. 

 It was a fantastic spectacle which really made the party all the more special for the children.  One little Primary 1 pupil literally got carried away with the proceedings as he clambered aboard with Santa, and left the school waving to his school friends as he trotted off up through the village with the man in red.  His classmates were worried that he would head back to the North Pole with Father Christmas, but we are happy to report that he made it back into school the next day!        

The boys of girls of Leswalt Primary have been very busy raising money for Children in Need.  On Friday 18^th November 2011 they had a non-uniform day and pupils were encouraged to “show their spots and raise lots”.

The spottiest pupils in school were named as Tommy Kerslake, Kerr Calderwood, Eilidh Hill and Megan McIntyre.

Primary 1-4 are currently doing a project on “Toys”.  With help from their teacher Mrs Mc Knight, they organised a toys bring and buy sale, with all proceeds going to Children in Need.  The children also invited the Little Acorns toddler group, who meet in Leswalt village hall, to come into school and “have a play”.

Parents and pupils had been busy baking and there was a wonderful selection of goodies on offer for visitors to eat and children to buy for a snack.

A fantastic Children in Need cake was a raffle prize, which was won by Mrs Campbell who generously donated it back to the boys and girls of the school.

The children were also able to get their faces painted thanks to the artistic talents of Katie Jamieson.

It was a fun filled few hours for the enterprising pupils, and with the help and support of parents £200 was raised for Children in Need.

Leswalt Primary were delighted to recently receive an anonymous donation of £200.  This donation followed the school representing Dumfries and Galloway at the Royal Highland Show.  One spectator passed on their delight at the performance of Leswalt pupils and gave the Headteacher Mrs Sheila Baillie the very generous donation with the instruction to “treat the pupils”, on the condition that their identity was kept a secret. 

 

Subsequently, £100 was spent on buying a two new shields which are awarded annually to girls and boys sports champions.  The remaining £100 was spent by the pupil council.  The children decided that they would like to buy new toys for the playground.  The new toys include a huge selection of different balls, skipping ropes, frisbees, cheerleading pom-poms, bats and various other equipment.

 

The school now has a lasting legacy from the donation in the form of the awards which are presented annually,and the the children have fun daily in the playground with the new toys they picked.