Author: Mrs Baillie

This afternoon the school closed for the Summer holidays.  But first, the hard work of our pupils was celebrated and the following awards were handed out –

100% attendance award –  Colin Mc Gregor 

Excellent attendance   –   Ellie Bennewith, Lily Bennewith, Hamish Mc Gregor, Beathan Wright ,Daisy Doyle  

Accelerated reading star readers   

P2    Eilidh Ramsay (23 tests passed) 

P3    Lily Bennewith 22 tests passed 

P5   Colin Mc Gregor ( 30.4) and Rachael Drummond (most books – 17) 

P6    Isla Kirkpatrick  (most points 37) and Ela Chang (most books – 16) 

P7    Hamish Mc Gregor ( most points 87.4) and Cara Jamieson ( most  books 15) 

Responsible citizen
P1	Jorgie – never gives us a moment of trouble. Kind, caring, always includes everyone. Works hard and tries her best, setting a super example to others. Full of chat and will happily converse with both adults and pupils alike.
P2/3	Thea –  Always smiling.  Knows right from wrong and demonstrates this.  Grown in confidence.
P5	Ben T – kind, helpful, caring and honest. Respectful and cheery member of our wee team.
P6	Ellie B – hard-working, eager to please.
P7	Carys – super House Captain, responsible, fair and reliable.

 

Who has passed Platinum rainbow tables this year?  

Colin, Roman, Ela, Ewan, Ellie, Daisy, Isla, Katie, Ben G, Amelia, Carys, Kaiden, Mark, Sean and Holly 

Who has passed platinum rainbow spelling this year?  

Brandon, Ela, Daisy, 

Gold star awards –  James Hunter, Keira Richardson, Beathan Wright 

Intervention effort with Mrs Kyle – Aria Rose, Ellie and Sean Paul 

Excellence in effort in homework – Thea Fisher – both in class and with reading with Mrs Kyle 

Outdoor education award – Cameron Mc Donald – outstanding general knowledge about birds and very helpful at recent Wetlands work. 

Sports 

Sports champions certificates 

P1 – Beathan Wright 

P2/3-  Hannah Drummond   

P5 –   Murray Reid  

P6 –    Sean Mc Credie 

P7 – Mark Drummond 

House points shield 

Most merits in p1-4  =   Keira Richardson 

Most merits in p5-7   =  Colin Mc Gregor 

Soleburn –      153   (sports) +  505     =  658 

Lochnaw –       100   (sports) +   599    =  699 

Winning house captain –  Lochnaw – Hamish Mc Gregor 

Runner up house captain  – Soleburn – Carys Mc Hallum 

 

	P1-4	P5-7
Literacy award	Keira – Sets herself high standards and strives in ever task to meet them. Work is beautifully presented, neat and tidy. Her progress in reading is of particular note.	Cara – great progress! Spelling, presentation, maturity of writing. AR – passed an incredible 15 tests and read over ½ million words!
Numeracy award	James – what can we say! Awesome progress, thrives on a challenge.	Brandon – lightning quick mental maths king! Raised his game considerably this year – working with peers on challenging tasks, Beat That maths 72/72  in an unbelievable 1 min 17secs and powering through Platinum CLIC challenges!
HWB award	HWB award Emma – always arrives at school smiling and happy, even though she may be feeling tired and under the weather. Joins in tasks fully and tackles them happily. Not afraid to stand up for herself when she needs to! Mother hen to the P1 boys	Ewan – need a problem solve? Mr C. Need a job done? Mr C. Need a level-headed (mostly) perspective? Mr C! Always has valid points to add to discussion, enjoys sports and being active and is always keen to lend a hand for PE organisation. One of life’s do-ers J
NRP award	Beathan – over the year he has developed a real ‘can-do’ attitude (this is huge progress from the moany boy in term 1!). His progress across all curriculum areas is impressive and he thrives on challenge and new learning	Faye – caring and thoughtful, hard-working and self-motivated, reliable and sensible – possibly more so than me! Faye embodies every thread of the NRP values.

 

Nina Agnew Creativity award – Ela Chang  – First in Scots poetry. Drama club member.   Singing, representing the school at Leswalt concert and Burns Club new tattie night. Baking cookies for all!

P5-7 Award for endeavour –    Hamish Mc Gregor – for trying his hardest in every curricular area over his 7 years at Primary school.  A great role model to all.

Leswalt primary slideshow June 24 (youtube.com)

Leswalt Primary 7 leavers – June 2024 (youtube.com)

We are very much looking forward to having our new Primary 1 pupils starting in school . 

And, thanks to the digital skills of Mrs Mc Harg and the House captains we have an amazing  electronic book that will help explain more about Leswalt Primary.  It is just so good we had to share it with all of our parents. 

Click on the link here and I am sure you will be impressed with the information, photographs and videos – all about life at Leswalt Primary.

 

 

After a night of very heavy rain , it did finally dry up to allow us to have our Sports day at Leswalt. Cheered on by classmates, friends and family everyone tried their hardest and displayed a very sporting attitude.

Many thanks must go to David Kirkpatrick and Angus Brown who helped transport all the equipment across to the park. Thank you also to Natasha for the kind gesture of a sweetie mixture which every child got at 3pm, and the Parent council for the ice lollies at the end to cool everyone down.

Results will follow soon – with the winning house announced in the last week of term. It was a successful sporting afternoon – have a look at all the athletes in action!

After taking part in a verification assessment yesterday, we are delighted to announce we have been awarded the new Digital Schools Scotland Accreditation.

Portpatrick, Kirkcolm and Leswalt are the first schools in Dumfries and Galloway to achieve this recognition for our ongoing commitment to digital technology learning and teaching.

Have a read of the report to see for yourself all the excellent work which has been recognised –

Dumfries & Galloway – Kirkcolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick Schools Validation Report 11.06.24 (1).pdf

UNCRC Rights of the Child – 28 Access to Education, 29 – Aims of Education

Our Primary 7 pupils were delighted earlier this week to be presented with their official Leswalt leavers hoodies.  Thanks to the Parent council, each pupil got a new personalised hoodie – so they can forever be resplendent in red!

It was decided to give them early this year, so the P7 pupils can wear them with pride for the final month of Primary school – and then beyond!

 

Using the new food technology resources that all primary schools in our cluster now have, our senior pupils have been making a wide variety of different dishes this week with Mrs Kyle sharing her expertise and  helping the all with those vital life skills.

On the menu this week were – sticky toffee muffins, pasta carbonara and chocolate brownies – yum!

Pupils all enjoyed cooking, and eating the different foods.  Have look at them all in action –  and the end products (before it was all eaten!).

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 24 Health, Water, Food, Environment

Today we welcomed our new Minister, Rev Marlene Cash into school to take her first ever assembly with all the boys and girls of Leswalt Primary.

Marlene is the new minister for Leswalt and Kirkcolm and hopes to link up a lot with us in school.

Today we learned why geese are not really that silly, and the importance of all working together.

We also learned that before she was a Minister, Marlene worked in Asda. 

We will look forward to having her in school again.

 

Our team of Cara, Brandon, Mark and Carys recently took back to the ice to take part in the annual inter-school curling bonspiel at the Ice rink in Stranraer.  Every year a trophy is awarded in the memory of Mrs Baillie’s grandfather.

Leswalt were skipped by Cara Jamieson and did get to the play-offs.   Glenluce Primary were the eventual winners of the competition.  Our team thoroughly enjoyed their day at the North West Castle and mixing with all their friends from other schools.

UNCRC Rights of the Child- Article 15: Setting up and Joining Groups

Feis Rois are back at Leswalt!

We were delighted to welcome back Paul and he brought Becky with him. Paul plays the guitar and Becky plays the harp.   We got the chance to listen to both instruments being played and learned the names of the different parts of the instruments.  We also tried to get our tongues round the Gaelic word for harp ‘clarsach’, it was tricky.

Over the next few weeks we are going on a ‘Tartan Tour’ of Scotland.  We will be visiting various parts of the country and  learning songs related to those places.  At the end of this block of work we might even have the opportunity to perform these songs to you.

We are very excited about our Tartan Tour, listen carefully at home and you might hear us humming or singing some new Scottish songs!

WOW!  What fun p6 and 7 had in Glasgow!

Together with Kirkcolm and Portpatrick our children had a wonderful residential trip – 39 pupils, four members of staff  and a lifetime of memories.

It was an adventure just getting there with cars, buses and trains transporting us all up to the big city.

The children walked across the city before  before setting off to the Kings Theatre to enjoy a fabulous performance of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- the musical”.  The special effects were amazing, and it really brought alive the book by Roald Dahl

It was then time to get some more steps in again by walking to   Ten Pin Bowling – which was  a lot of fun and brought out the competitive streak in the teachers too!

Evening meal was an all you can eat buffet, which proved a real highlight for many.  Pupils filled up on rice, noodles, ribs, roast, pasta , pizza and even sushi! The ice cream machine and chocolate fountain proved a great hit with many a visit for dessert!

On the way back to our accommodation the group travelled by the Subway – a first time experience for the majority of children.  The children enjoyed the wind tunnel effect created by “the Clockwork orange”

The next day, the group visited Kelvingrove Park and Musuem. The children enjoyed some fresh air fun in the park before exploring the ancient artefacts – with the natural world section being a particular favourite.

After that it was back to the youth hostel to collect our luggage and try our second Subway trip. There was a lunch treat at McDonalds – with Happy meals all round,  before we all travelled home having had wonderful experiences.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this great experience possible – all the staff who gave up their personal time, and the children who were praised by members of the public for their excellent behaviour and manners as responsible citizens.

Have a look at all the happy faces for yourself , the smiles say it all!

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 31: Rest, Play, Culture and Arts