Author: Mrs Baillie

What a fabulous festive feast we all enjoyed at Leswalt Primary this afternoon! Turkey was munched, crackers pulled, music played and lots of smiling faces! Just take a look at the cute photos! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….

Next stop, it’s show-time!

Primary 5-7 have reached Lockerbie Manor on a 3 school, 3 day adventure of outdoor education and fun!

After a lunch stop at Springholm Primary they went onto Lockerbie and have unpacked and are now off on their first activity.  They are all very happy and excited campers!

Primary 1-4 had a very special visitor in December, in the form of Jingles the elf.  Throughout the month the naughty little elf got up to lots of mischief and left letters for the boys and girls.  The children loved coming in every morning to see what he had been up to.  Throughout this nonsense Mrs Mc Knight helped the boys and girls write letters to Santa to keep him informed of Jingles antics.

On the last day of school he left Leswalt.  And, by way of apology he left the children a gingerbread house and some chocolate crispies to enjoy. 

Have your elf a Merry little Christmas now!

 

 

The partnership football team of Leswalt/Portpatrick lifted their second trophy in 2 weeks today, after winning the Sandhead fun day football tournament.  The weather may not have been as glorious as the previous week at Castle Kennedy, but this did not deter the spirit of the team (Rowan, Cameron, Ethan, Millie, Finlay, Rhian and Lachlan.)

The boys and girls never lost a game and made it to the final against Glenluce Primary. After a nil;nil draw at full time it went to penalties to decide the winner.  And after a tense shoot out and some great goalkeeping from Lachlan our partnership team were victorious!

Many thanks must go to Ewan Dodds, the coach and all the parents who have supported and transported the team to all the games this term.

 

Leswalt has the reputation for champion curlers – with 3 former pupils of Leswalt Primary all participating in World Curling Championships this year; Vicky Wright (just returning from playing in the World Women’s championship in Canada), Ewan Kyle (World Juniors) and Bobby Lammie (currently in Las Vegas for the World Men’s championship).

On the last day of term Leswalt Primary played in the Wigtownshire Primary schools curling Bonspiel.  This competition was open to all Primary schools in the area.  Leswalt Primary did exceptionally well, winning all of their games and were named overall winners of the competition. 

The team of Ethan Smith, Alistair Brown , Megan Mc Intyre and Kayleigh Williams returned back to school jubilant with their success, and their Easter Eggs!  This success was extra special to Mrs Baillie, as the shield they won was donated in memory of her later grandfather, George Littlejohn.

 

Well done team!

Primary 1 had lots of fun with Mrs Smith today baking some Easter treats. 

The boys and girls enjoyed making their Easter chocolate nests .

They also enjoyed licking the bowl!

The p5-7 pupils at Stronord have all been fed and are all now snuggled up in their pyjamas.  They are having a ball!  Wonder when they will get to sleep….?

Primary 5,6 and 7 have arrived safely at Stronord.  They unpacked their luggage and were soon heading off a hill walk.  Mrs Ferguson reported the weather was a wee bit drizzly on arrival (thankfully it was not pouring with rain). 

They have since climbed up Larg Hill and are currently en route back down to the centre, where they will soon get cosy inside and await a hot meal.   Tonight they can cuddle up in their pyjamas, enjoy hot chocolate, some treats and a DVD night together.

 Have a look at all the smiling faces!

 

Primary 1-4 were delighted to receive an injection of brand new toys and beanbags to their class this week.  A few weeks ago the younger pupils wrote letters to the Parent council asking if they could help fund some new role play equipment and games for the class.  Mrs Mc Knight went shopping for the class and they are now the proud owners of comfy bean bags, a bright rug and a mountain of new toys for the infants to enjoy.

Many , many thanks must go to the Parent council for providing the money for our younger pupils to enjoy. 🙂

Primary 1-4 and Mrs Mc Knight were getting creative making ice art this week.  Armed with pipettes full of food colouring the younger pupils were able to observe how the dye travelled through different frozen blocks that Mrs Mc Knight brought from home.  This work is all part of their focus this term on “Weather”.

And, the weather was so cold at Leswalt this week ,  once their wonderful ice art shapes were put outside – they all re-froze!

 

All of Leswalt Primary headed off to Leswalt wetlands today to look for the signs of winter all around us in the local community.  Holly bushes, robins, icicles, frost and even a frozen pond were all around us on this crisp wintery walk.  It was a good way to blow away the cobwebs on a December afternoon and walk a wee daily mile.

Primary 4 and 5 pupils enjoyed a jaunt into Stranraer Academy this morning. 

They went to watch a performance by “Theatre in schools”.  The performance today was called “Up to speed”, and the 2 performers captivated the whole audience for an hour.  The children later got to try out some of the drama techniques they used in their performance .  This performance was enjoyed by all Primary schools in the Stranraer cluster.

Primary 1-4 at Leswalt Primary have been enjoying their electricity topic.

Recently they have been ;

Moving about like electrons, to show how a current works,

playing matching games with electrical circuit symbols

Drawing their own circuit diagrams

Testing for insulators and conductors

Thinking about electrical safety

Making up their own circuits to get bulbs glowing.

 

Have a look at all the active learning our little scientists have been up to!

 

 

 

The partnership football team of Leswalt /Portpatrick United finished off the Summer season of fun days on winning form.  Today  they won every game to get through to the final at the Sandhead tournament – against their new trio partnership school of Kirkcolm.

It was a very tense final, with Mrs Baillie being very diplomatic on the sidelines and avoiding showing allegiance to any one of her schools.  At full time the score was 0:0.  The tension was further heightened as it went to a penalty shoot off to decide the winners.  Kirkcolm narrowly won on penalties, but Leswalt and Portpatrick football team can hold their heads high that they played very well and demonstrated great sportsmanship.  

Runners up Sandhead fun day 2017

The joint partnership football team from Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary schools took part in the first fun day tournament of this term – with great success.

The boys and girls played at Rephad fun night and progressed unbeaten to the final.  This competition was open to all schools in the Stranraer cluster.  In the final they played Belmont Primary, who eventually won. 

Well done to all who played – there was great team work and sportmanship displayed throughout.  Special thanks must go to Ewan Dodds for coaching at Leswalt and Alec Ross for managing the team at this tournament.

 

Alexander took great pride in showing the school some of his lambs, last week. Mum had taken the lambs to Nursery, for his little brother and popped in at Leswalt Primary on the way past so that everyone in school could also see the new borns.

Alexander lived handling them and letting all his friends see the lambs. 

This afternoon Primary 1-4 enjoyed a visit to school from Zoolab.  This visit was to tie in with the current topic of “the Rainforest”.  Zoolab brought with them a variety of animals that could live in the rainforest climate.  The children got the chance to handle many of these animals – including a snake which ate 5 mice for tea the previous evening ( and the children were encouraged to feel lumpy bits in the body!)

The majority of children enjoyed the experience – have a look at the photographs to gauge reactions!

Today all of Leswalt Primary travelled to their partnership school at Portpatrick.  While there the pupils were undertaking a variety of activities relating to STEM – Science, technology, engineering and maths.  Pupils undertook their Big Maths challenge first before being divided up into groups to undertake challenges such as making a marble run, fruit kebab fractions, fruit smoothie maths and building a bridge out of spaghetti!  Leswalt and Portpatrick pupils also enjoyed a play together in the playground.

It was a very busy, but fun day across the partnership.

Primary 1-4 have been learning all about life in the Rainforest this term.  AS part of their work they have been tasting different foods, originating from the Rainforest, sorting foods, and making some creative artwork.  Have a look at some of the things they have been doing with Mrs Mc Knight so far.

 

 

 

All the pupils from Leswalt Primary wore Christmas jumpers to school today, to raise money for Save the Children.  The collection at the Christmas Church service will also be donated to this charity.  Have a look at all the festive tops on display!

Primary 1-6 at Leswalt Primary recently had lots of fun and games at their Christmas party.  They also had a fabulous feast of party food – provided by parents before the arrival of a very special visitor in the form of Santa!  Thankfully all the boys and girls were on his good list, and all pupils received very generous gifts from Father Christmas. 

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary raised money fro Children in Need in a variety of different ways this year.  Official Pudsey headbands and wristbands were sold in school all week, pupils had a non uniform spotty dress up day and primary 7 offered all the opportunity to finger paint a Pudsey bandana.  The grand total is still to be calculated – however currently it is standing at well over £120.

The photographs show Leswalt pupils showing their spots ,as well as the spottiest children in school, with their prizes.

Primary 1-4 have been learning all about school in the past.  As part of this project they looked at lots of old school photographs, from Leswalt Primary.

This afternoon they tried to re-create a school photograph from the past.  What do you think?!

 

Leswalt Primary continues to be the Primary school with the highest average on “Beat the Street”. 

With one day to go, can we hold onto our lead?  Keep on walking folks!  You are all doing a fantastic job!

The children of P1-4 have been learning more about school long ago with the help of some visitors and a loan box from the museum.

Mrs Buchanan, Mrs Nina Agnew and Mrs Claire Kennedy came in to all tell the boys and girls how life at Leswalt Primary school has changed.  The whole school learned a lot from the question and answer session; like how the toilets used to be outside and children had to bring vegetables to school for their soup at lunchtime!  Old log books and registers from the school long ago were also looked at – along with a big box of fascinating photographs from the past.

The class also tried writing like they did in the past – using chalk boards and ink wells (with varying degrees of success!)

Have a look at the photographs to see how they all got on!

Leswalt Primary has been once again beating the street of Stranraer!

The whole school accompanied by some parents spent a sunny Friday afternoon getting fit together.

Primary 4 recently enjoyed a morning competing in a whole variety of different sports, at London Road playing fields.  While they were there, they also got the chance to get some double points at a mobile Beat the Street box

Well done to our team of 4!

As part of their project on life long ago, P1-4 have had some fun playing with toys on loan from the Musuem.  Do you know what they all are?

 

All of Leswalt Primary headed into Stranraer this afternoon in an effort to “Beat the Street”.  The school split up into 4 groups and headed off in different directions.

Mrs Ferguson and her squad managed to beep an impressive 10 boxes in 1 hour – covering 4.5 miles.  Way to go!

Thanks to the effort of the whole school today they are now in 5th place out of 50 teams taking part.  Well done little Leswalt!

Have a look at the fun we had while out walking……

We welcomed 6 new Primary one pupils to Leswalt Primary today.  They were all boys – and all seemed to have a great time!  Hopefully they will come back to school for some more fun tomorrow……..

 

The children of p1-4 invited Jane Sloan into Leswalt Primary so they could say a special thank you for all the help all the volunteers at Leswalt Wetlands have given the school this term.  While the children were developing the school grounds, they mad some planters out of tyres.  So, for a thank you to Mrs Sloan and her team,  they made them a special ladybird and bumble bee planter for the Aldouran Wetlands to enjoy.

The children passed on their grateful thanks;

P1-4 at Leswalt have been very lucky this term and have had the chance to take part in lots of fun activities at the Wetlands.  Some of the activities include pond dipping, mini beast hunt, nature weaving and life cycles.  We love the Wetlands at Leswalt because every time we go there is always something different to do.  We were also excited to discover that there will soon be a new addition at the Wetlands, a 3 metre tall Gruffalo!  We think Jane and the team at the Wetlands are great and they do a brilliant job giving up their own time to make the Wetlands a fun place to go!Charlotte (P4), Aidan (P1), Nicole (P2)

P1-4 have been spending a lot of time at the Wetlands this term.  Jane Sloan and her team of volunteers planned lots of fun activities for us to take part in such as pond dipping, a scavenger hunt and planting Mexican Hat plants!  It is a lot of fun to go to the Wetlands and there are lots of things to see and do such as fairy doors, bug hotels, wood carvings and ducks.  Very soon they will have a new Gruffalo carving.  He is going to be huge.  3 metres tall!  We now we are very lucky at Leswalt Primary to have the Wetlands right on our doorstep.      Millie (P4), Andrew (P2), Murray (P1)

Our topic this term was called Living and Non-living Things and we were very lucky that we had the Wetlands so close by to visit.  We got to take part in lots of games and activities and they all linked in well with our topic and what we were learning in the classroom.  Soon there will be a new carving at the Wetlands, a 3 metre tall Gruffalo!  We can’t wait to go and visit it.  Thank you to all the volunteers at the Wetlands for planning so many fun activities for us.   Kirstie (P4), Cameron (P4), Robin (P2) 

  End of session celebration of achievement 1 July 2016

Mrs Baillie welcomed a packed gym hall full of parents and friends of the school to the annual closing ceremony before calling upon Mrs Anne Ferguson to hand out the prizes.

Attendance certificates   100 % – Kathryn Topping

Behaviour certificates  

P1- Malcolm Mc Gregor

P2- Gregor Reid

P3- Phoebe Gaw

P4- Logan Wilson

P5 – Finlay Mc Millan

P6- Emily Cochrane

P7- Lauren Anderson Finlay Cowan – responsible citizens

 

Accelerated Reading

Star reader in p2 – Gregor Reid

Star reader in p3 Finlay Scott

Star reader in p4 – Charlotte Gaw

Star reader in p5 –Alastair Brown

Star reader in p6 – Emily Cochran and Arden Mc Intyre

Start reader in p7 – Kathryn

Star reader in p1-4 = Finlay Scott

Star reader in p5-7 = Kathryn Topping

 

Super Spellers

Ethan Smith, Charlotte Gaw and Megan Mc intyre

 

Marvellous mathematicians

Jenna Calderwood, Rebecca Brown, Alistair Brown

 

STAR awards – Gold level

Malcolm Mc Gregor, Breagh Kirkpatrick, Murray Williams, Auryn Kirkpatrick, Phoebe Gaw, Erin Jamieson, Millie Smith, Charlotte Gaw, Kayleigh Williams, Megan Mc Intyre,  Arden Mc Intyre, Lauren Anderson Kathryn Topping

 

Sports champions                        

P1- Murray Williams

P2 – Robin Mc Lean

P3 – Auryn Kirkpatrick

P4- Millie Smith

P5 – Kayleigh Williams

P6 – Jamie Drennan

P7 – Lauren Anderson

Winning house –

Soleburn     to collect by house captains Kathryn Topping and Kerr Calderwood

Sports champion p4-7

girl-   Kayleigh Williams

boy-   Jamie Drennan

P1 Booklets presented by Mrs Smith to Aidan Adams, Malcolm Mc Gregor, Maisie Sloan, Breagh Kirkpatrick and Murray Williams

Robert Burns Society prizes – To people who recited poetry at Ryan Centre – Jenna Calderwood and Lauren Anderson

– Literacy              p1-4 Gregor Reid        p5-7 Kathryn Topping

– Numeracy            p1-4   Malcolm Mc Gregor p5-7  Lauren Anderson

– Health and Wellbeing     p1-4 Erin Jamieson  p5-7  Arden Mc Intyre

Achievement award for learning p1-4 – Gregor Reid

Creativity award (Nina Agnew) – Jack Rickard

Endeavour award (Mrs Buchanan) – Finlay Cowan

Ewan Dodds football medals to the team, with most improved player going to Ethan Smith

Leaving gifts to Miss Cambridge And Rev Mike Sheppard – From the parent council and staff and pupils

Presentation of leaving gifts to P7 pupils; Rebecca Brown, Finlay Cowan, Kathryn Topping, Lauren Anderson and Kerr Calderwood

Afternoon concluded with Mrs Baillie Headteacher expressing her grateful thanks to all pupils, parents and staff for support and hard work throughout the session

 

 

Our partnership football team, incorporating pupils from Portpatrick Primary school has finished off a very busy summer season of games with 4 tournaments in the last 4 days!

On Friday, they entered Park Primary football tournament and won every game, taking them to the final where they were narrowly beaten 3:1 by Rephad in the final.

On Saturday they were in action again at Castle Kennedy Primary, and on Sunday they ended up runners up at Sandhead fun day football tournament, after numerous wins again.

Yesterday they played their final games in the summer league, which has been playing on a Monday night at the 3G pitch in Stranraer.  The team finished a very credible 4th, out of all 12 primary schools in our area.

Well done to all who have played in the team.  Many thanks must  go to Ewan Dodds who has given up a lot of his own personal time to coach the children.  Thanks also to all the parents who have helped transport footballers and supervise them at matches this year.

What a team!

Primary 1 have been busy out and about in the village on a mission – as 2d shape hunters!

Armed with clipboards and their special “shape hunter” hats, the young team headed out and about to find a trail of 2d shapes which Mrs Smith had set out for them in the village and Wetlands.  Once all the trail was recovered the young Shape hunters set about their second mission of locating 2d shapes in the environment.  Look at our photographs to see what they found.

The younger class had another afternoon of outdoor learning at Aldouran Wetland gardens.

They were busy learning about life cycles and had fun as they learned in the natural environment.

Primary 1-4 are still busy developing the school grounds by painting, tidying and planting.  Have a look at our photos to see what they got up to this week.

Primary 1-4 went another wander to the Wetlands this week as part of their science learning and teaching.  The visit today focussed on a treasure hunt to help them learn more about life cycles, as well as a sound safari, up through the glen.

Yet again they had another wonderful afternoon of outdoor learning, led by the great team of volunteers at our local gardens

Have a look at all the fun they had while learning!

Ten of our pupils were lucky enough to have a fantastic all expenses day out at Hampden football stadium in Glasgow.  The Primary 1-4 class have been getting weekly football training with Garry Mc Knight an SFA coach.  This input is funded by Tesco.  Garry was asked to select one school which he had been visiting and take  5 boys and 5 girls with him to the National stadium in Glasgow.  Leswalt Primary were delighted to be selected as the only school in Dumfries and Galloway.  

On Monday 23rd May, Jenna Calderwood, Millie Smith, Iona Rickard, Kirstie Mac Donald, Charlotte Gaw, Logan Wilson, Boyd Sloan, Euan Mc Credie, Cameron Mc Cutcheon and Gregor Reid met at school at 7.30am.  They headed off to Hampden accompanied by Garry Mc Knight (SFA Coach), Ewan Dodds (Leswalt Primary school football coach) and Mrs Smith from the school.

At Hampden the children had a tour of the stadium, watched the freestylers performing football tricks, trained in the indoor facility, met some premier league footballers, got their photograph taken with the Scottish cup and even got to play football on the pitch at Hampden.  The children had lunch provided to them at Hampden before leaving for home with a goodie bag packed with items such as t-shirt, water bottle and football for each of them. 

Logan Wilson in Primary 4 said his favourite part was “when we got to run out the tunnel and onto the pitch at Hampden with everyone cheering for us”.  Euan Mc Credie and Boyd Sloan were delighted to tell the class the next day that they had scored 10 goals between them – and as Mrs Baillie the Headteacher pointed out, that will be a good story to tell their grand children when they are older …..all about the day they played football at Hampden and scored so many goals!

 

This afternoon P1-4 were due to head up to the wetlands again in Leswalt.  Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse as it became wet and windy.  So instead of the children going to the wetlands, the wetlands came to the school!  Jean Sheppard popped into school and spent the afternoon with the younger pupils.  She brought with her some visitors in the form of minibeasts found in Aldouran wetlands.  The children had a fascinating afternoon as she showed them a variety of bugs and beasties which were all found in the local environment.

As part of their continuing work on developing the school grounds, Primary 1-4 have been busy outside painting.  With their old clothes on once more,  they had a wonderful afternoon of fun in the sun.  The tyres were given a base coat of paint before they are transformed and the mural round the back of the school was brightened up.

Have a look at the happy little gang hard at work!

As part of their work on the solar system, Primary 5-7 have been busy creating scale size paper mache planets for the classroom – it looks like it was a lot of fun…..and a lot of mess!

On Sunday 8th May the Parent council Fundraising group organised a fun afternoon and Cream Teas event at Leswalt Primary.  In preparation for this the group had been baking lots of tasty treats as well as organising a bouncy castle, generous prize raffle, bottle stall, face painting, candy floss, nail bar and lots more of attractions.

This Cream teas was well supported by the local community in Leswalt as well as numerous businesses- Stena Line, Henry’s Bayhouse, Auto links, Academy vets, Central Café, Pap Rab’s pizzas, Tesco, Frasers the butchers, Simpsons the bakers, Glenhead happy eggs, Glenapp Castle to name but a few.

The combination of glorious weather and influx of visitors to the school enabled the final total of £1073 to be raised – much to the delight of all involved at Leswalt Primary.

This afternoon all of P1-4 went along to Leswalt Wetlands to learn a bit more about caring for the local environment.  They were met by the team of excellent volunteers there who guided the pupils though various activities such as pond dipping and a scavenger hunt.   The boys and girls even got to see a family of little ducklings which happened to be born the day before!

All the boys and girls had an excellent afternoon, and learned a lot more about the lovely local environment of Aldouran Wetlands – which is right on their doorstep.

Primary 1-4 Garden Gang have started their work round the back of the school.  Thanks to kind donations from parents and friends of the school the class were able to design and build their own bug hotel – which they have creatively named “Buggingham Palace”.  ATS also donated a van load of tyres – watch this space to see what they will be used for!

Primary 1-4 had a visit from Generation Science this week.  This touring company are based in the Glasgor Science centre and came to Leswalt Primary to lead a workshop based on programming.  By the end of the afternoon all pupils were aware of how programming works and had experience of programming a lego goal keeper to move and try to save balls from scoring goals.  Some of the children even went onto add motion sensors to their programme which meant that the goal keeper moved in anticipation of the penalty being scored.  Pupils used touch screen laptops to programme their goalies.

It was definitely very high tech stuff for such little people – but the thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and really got a lot out of the experience.

 

The whole school enjoyed a day trip to the South Rhins.  First the bus took pupils to Logan Botanic Gardens.  At the gardens the school was split into 2 groups with pupils taking part in different workshops .  They all earned a lot more about pollination, plant structures and the eco systems in the Botanic gardens through participating in active outdoor learning.

Following a picnic lunch at Logan, the pupils hopped aboard the bus to travel to The Mull of Galloway.  At the most Southerly point in Scotland the school learned more about the operation and history of the lighthouse and visited the RSPB bird reserve centre to learn more about the birds who nest nearby.  They also climbed all the way to the top of the lighthouse to take in the stunning views!

It was a very busy – but very worthwhile day,  filled with lots of different new learning experiences. 

Have a look at the photographs to see all the fun  things they got up to!

All of p5-7 recently went to Lochinch to take part in the annual Rhins cross country event.  Leswalt pupils demonstrated they have real stamina and fitness – with several pupils coming home with medals;

P7 girls – 1st Lauren Anderson, 2nd Rebecca Brown

P7 boys – 2nd Finlay Cowan, 3rd Kerr Calderwood

P6 boys – 1st Jamie Drennan, 3rd Jack Rickard

P6 girls – 1st Emily Cochran ( 5th Arden Mc Intyre)

P5 boys – 1st Alistair Brown, 3rd Finaly Mc Millan (5th Ethan Smith)

P5 girls- 1st Kayleigh William (6th Megan Mc Intyre)

Brilliant work from little Leswalt!

As part of the celebrations for HRH Queen Elizabeth reaching 90 years of age, the children of Leswalt Primary all worked together to make some birthday bunting to decorate the school.  This bunting was later hung outside on the actual birthday – 21st April.  The children were provided with a buffet style party food lunch which they were able to take outside and enjoy as a picnic in the glorious sunshine.

All of this week, the pupils of Leswalt Primary have been coming to school on bikes and scooters as part of the Sustrans National competition – “The Big Pedal”.  Fortunately the sun has been shining and the children have had fine weather to pedal in.  Notable achievements include Jamie in p6 cycling over 4 miles to school and Erin in P3 cycling almost 3 miles to school!  Children have been supported by Mums, dads and younger brothers who also come to school with little wheels.

 Well done to all the pupils and parents for their support in this health and well being initiative.

Primary 1-4 and Mrs Mc Knight went a hunt around the playground to kick start their science project by looking for living and non-living things.  Have a look at the photographs and see if you think each item  is living or non living.

Back in the classroom the children did some research and found out a lot more about wasps nests – after Phoebe and Charlotte brought in a giant wasps nest (thankfully with no wasps in it!)

To celebrate the addition of  French café in their classroom, Primary 1-4 had some fun tasting some French food yesterday.  Camembert cheese, croissants, pain au chocolat, French salami, brioche and even snails were consumed in the classroom.  You can judge from the photographs how tasty the pupils found each of these!

 

Leswalt Primary recently performed their end of term show “The Last Monster in Scotland” to relatives, friends and the local community with two performances in Leswalt Village hall.  The story focussed on the search for the Loch Ness monster and was full of catchy songs and wonderful acting from all pupils.

Primary 5-7 and Miss Cambridge decided the best way to show off all the learning they had been doing this term on World War 2 would be to open a museum! So, on Friday the museum opened it’s doors to the rest of the school.  The senior pupils welcomed the younger class in and were soon acting as very informed museum guides as they educated their peers on subjects such as rationing, the blitz and weapons.  Both classes gained a huge amount from this exercise and such was the success of this venture, that the museum will once again be open for business – this time to welcome parents through the doors.

Leswalt Primary staff and pupils decided to take advantage of the glorious, long awaited Spring weather to take their “daily mile” walk to Aldouran Wetlands.  They all headed off in the sunshine to see what signs of spring they could spot in the community wetlands.  The children spotted some dew, daffodils – and even saw a caterpillar, frog and a mouse!  They all enjoyed examining nature on their own doorstep,  before skipping back to school happy after some time out and about in the fresh air.

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary took some time to pause for thought, and remember the tragic incidents in Dunblane Primary 20 years ago.  Mrs Mary Buchanan was a teacher at Leswalt Primary that day, and she came to Leswalt Primary with a floral arrangement for the children to lay in remembrance.  Mrs Buchanan recalled how the pupils of Leswalt, 20 years ago, went on to create a build a cairn as a memorial to the events in Dunblane .  This memorial still stands in the grounds of Leswalt Primary.

The Rev Sheppard came into  school and all the children went out to pay their respects at the school memorial.  Maisie and Aidan (the youngest pupils at Leswalt) laid the flowers on top of the cairn in a very moving ceremony, before the minister read a poem and the children joined hands in a prayer.  The short service concluded with Kayleigh Williams singing “Flower of Scotland” , as the school united hand in hand and paid their respects

Primary 1 recently had lots of fun and some very messy play, with Miss Leek.  Miss Leek brought in some custard, spaghetti, jelly and gunge for Primary 1 to have fun with!  Hidden inside the tubs were numbers and ,letters for the children to have fun with.  Have a look at how messy they got!

Primary 5-7 recently had a fun filled 3 days away to Lockerbie, where they took part in a range of different physical activities.  The children were full of enthusiasm – and smiles!  Have a look at the photographs to see all the fun we got up to  – (this is only a small selection of the 1000 photographs we actually took!)

 

P5-7 have been learning more about life in World War Two, by being creative and having to design and make their own Anderson Shelter, to protect them in the Blitz.  After making their designs, the children had to source the relevant materials and construct the model.  Mrs Baillie was called in to judge  and asked everyone to talk about the design features and the process of creating their shelter.  After much thought it was agreed that Kerr Calderwood had the most authentic looking shelter, with Finlay Cowan in second place.  Special commendations went to Lauren/ Arden and Emily/ Ethan who worked in pairs and had been very creative with their designs.  They had incorporated features such has look out posts, air vents to breathe, lighting, and even a “happy” wall to cheer people up who were inside. 

Mr Val Plant visited Leswalt Primary to take on the role as judge for all the work which had taken place in the month of January as part of the focus on Scots Poetry.  Every class was provided with a poem for stimulus for artwork, poetry recitations and handwriting.  Mr Plant had a very difficult task as judge,  as the standard was very high.  He picked the following pupils as award winning;

Poetry recitations;

P1        1.  Aidan Adams        2. Malcolm Mc Gregor          3.  Murray Williams

P2        1.  Chloe Kennedy      2.  Luke Mc Hallum               3.  Gregor Reid

P3        1.  Phoebe Gaw          2. Erin Jamieson and Auryn   Kirkpatrick         3.Finlay Scott

P4        1.  Jenna Calderwood2. Charlotte Gaw                  3.  Euan Mc Creadie  and Iona Rickard

P5        1.  Kayleigh Williams            2. Megan Mc Intyre             3. Ethan Smith

P6        1.  Emily Cochran      2.  Jack Rickard and Arden Mc Intyre

P7        1.  Lauren Anderson 2. Kathryn Topping               3.  Finlay Cowan.

 

Artwork Winners;

P1 Murray Williams

P2 Chloe Kennedy

P3 Auryn Kirkpatrick

P4 Charlotte Gaw and Kirstie Mac Donald

P5 Kayleigh Williams

P6 Jack Rickard

P7 Kathryn Topping

 

Handwriting winners;

P1 Aidan Adams

P2 Robin Mc Lean

P3 Phoebe Gaw

P4 Jenna Calderwood

P5 Kayleigh Williams

P6 Jack Rickard

P7 Kathryn Topping

All this hard work was celebrated at a prize giving assembly in school.  Parents were invited along and were also entertained by some singing.  Primary 5-7 sang “Flower of Scotland” to open the proceedings, then followed this up later with “Caledonia”.  The afternoon concluded with P1-4 giving it their all by singing “Let it go” from the film “Frozen” – all in Scots.  This proved to be very entertaining, with the young pupils displaying real attitude and enthusiasm to ensure all the guests left school that day with a smile on their face.

 

As they are learning all about their body, P1-4 decided to test out their lung capacity by seeing how much air they could get into a balloon (in one big puff!).  Have a look at the photos – who was full of hot air?!

As part of their Social studies learning, Primary 5-7 had a go at following instructions to try and make their own gas masks in class.  Pupils were soon making suggestions as to how they would like to customise their masks!

Primary 7 went to The North West Castle hotel today to have a go at the sport of curling.  They children all enjoyed am orning on the ice, before having some lunch then returning back to the school.  The children were accompanied by Mrs Caron Cowan, who reported they all were very well behaved and mannerly!  Well done to all.

Primary 1-4 and Mrs Mc Knight are all working on the project of “My body” this term.  This week the class have been learning all about the different organs inside of them, what they do and where they are.

As part of the project this week Mrs Mc Knight  gave the parents a homework challenge!  Mums and dads had to try and correctly cut and stick on organs, in the correct place. 

In class this afternoon the Primary 1 children drew round Breagh.  They then coloured her in and tried to make her look as much like the real Breagh as they could!

Once Breagh, the paper body was complete,  she was pinned up in the classroom.  The children reviewed where all the organs are in the body.  Mrs Mc Knight then challenged them to pin the organs on the body – blindfolded! As you will see from the photographs, some were more successful than others!

Mrs Wither and Primary 5-7 enjoyed an afternoon of World War 2 cookery.  The pupils were learning about rations, and how food was limited.  As part of this learning they went on to bake a chocolate sponge – with no eggs, as well as making a carrot curry!

 

The children worked together in the classroom and enjoyed tasting the finished dishes.  Pupils even took home a copy of the recipe to ask their parents to make more at home.  And, having tasted both the cake and curry I was very impressed with the improvisation and use of limited resources – both were very tasty!

Primary 1-4 had a visit from dental Health officer, Janine Maxwell this week.  The children were able to tell her how our tooth brushing is going in school, as well as Janine reminding them about the correct way to brush their teeth.  She was also able to answer any questions. Breagh had even

brought in her letter which the tooth fairy left her the previous night,  to show everyone

Primary 5-7 are embarking on a series of science lessons, linked by video conferencing resources to Heather Reid MBE, at the Glasgow Science centre.  Heather Reid (the former weather girl) teachers the children about Forces and Energy in science, and leads them through a series of experiments.  Have a look at the photographs to see how the technology link up with Glasgow is enhancing learning and teaching in Leswalt.

Every year the Rotary Club of Stranraer extend an invitation to Primary 7 pupils from all Primary schools to their annual lunch.  This year the guest speaker was Richard Arkless MP.  Leswalt Primary was represented very well by Kathryn Topping and Kerr Calderwood, who were very mannerly and chatted away to the Rotarians.

Leswalt Primary footballers  are delighted that they now have a new football strip, sponsored by Mr Anthony Reid of Reid’s accident repair centre.  For some competitions the team play with friends from their partnership school of Portpatrick.  Leswalt have red sweatshirts, and Portpatrick have blue.  This new strip combines both school colours, so they can play together as one united team – but still have their own school identity with the school badge and own sponsor evident.

Mr Reid came into school to get his photograph taken with some of the footballers from Leswalt.  Also in the photo is young Gregor Reid, in Primary 2.  And, as Mr Reid has 3 sons who will all attend Leswalt Primary school the Reid boys will be wearing the school strip with extra pride – hopefully for years to come.

Primary 1-6 at Leswalt Primary all enjoyed their school Christmas party.  They were treated to a fantastic party buffet, which was all provided by their parents.  There was a tremendous spread of food which game them all lots of energy for the party games and dancing.  The evening concluded with the arrival of Santa Claus, as the children sang “Jingle Bells”.  The children at Leswalt were delighted to have all made it onto the “nice” list of Santa, as they were all fortunate enough to receive very generous gifts.

Leswalt Primary got into the Christmas spirit with a Christmas jumper day on Friday 18th December.

Look at the wonderful array of festive knits that came into school!

Primary 7 at Leswalt continued the long standing tradition of going for a Christmas meal out together.  This year the children went to enjoy the hospitality of the Craignelder Hotel, in Stranraer.  The group enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal in the company of some school staff and Mrs Buchanan, who was the Primary 1 teacher of this year group.  The evening was partly funded by a donation from Leswalt Parent council.  After the last cracker was pulled and all turkey was finished,  the children received a Chrsitmas present – which Mrs Buchanan handed out.  Kathryn Topping wrote a thank you letter to Mr Mc Millan of The Craignelder Hotel, thanking him for the wonderful evening and said “if I was to rate this night on Trip Advisor, I would give it 5 out of 5 stars!”.

 

Leswalt Primary opened it’s door to Parents and friends of the school this week and had a Christmas Open afternoon.  Everyone was able to make a wide variety of Christmas crafts and artwork with the pupils in classrooms.  The Christmas music was playing, and the glitter was out in force.  The afternoon concluded with a performance by Arden, Kayleigh and Kathryn of  Christmas Carols played on the cornet. The whole school then came together to entertain by singing a variety of Christmas songs to the assembled audience.  Everyone left Leswalt school at 3pm that day, with a real sense of Christmas – and their arms full  of decorations they had made!

All the children enjoyed a turkey dinner in school last week.  With the Christmas music playing in the background they sat down together, with staff to enjoy the traditional Christmas meal with all the trimmings. 

And the verdict – “it was yummy!”

 

On Friday 11th of December the whole school went a trip to see the pantomime “Jack and the Beanstalk” at Ayr Gaeity theatre.  Having left Leswalt in the morning, they enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Stage Door Café in Ayr, before a wee wander round the shops and the performance.  At half time, ice creams were provided and Phoebe was lucky enough to find a golden ticket – which allowed her the chance to go up on the stage and take part in some juggling!

The children all enjoyed the pantomime, accompanied by staff and some of their parents.  The tickets and transport for the school children was very kindly paid for by the Parent council fundraising group, as a Christmas treat to all the pupils.  And, Gillian from Leswalt Stores kindly donated a huge bag of sweets to enable every child to have a treat while they watched the pantomime.

Did they all have a good time? – “oh yes they did!!!”

 

Mrs Smith recently took Primary 1 a walk round Aldouran Wetlands.  AS part of their STAR awards in wider achievement the children are expected to be able to say where the Wetlands are.  So, one crisp December morning Mrs Smith and her happy little gang of p1 pupils went a walk to see for themselves.  Have a look at the happy wee faces!

Stewart Fisher from Dunskey golf club has just finished a 4 week slot of Tri golf as an after school club.  Every Thursday, younger pupils stayed after school to pick up some top golfing tips from the professional.  They worked hard on their swing and got some target practise in, in our gym hall.

Rory McIlroy – watch out!  Our little golfers are shouting “Fore!”

P1-4 have been cooking up a storm at Leswalt Primary raising money for Children in Need. This terms topic is Citizenship and the class were given responsibility for planning, organising and running this year’s fundraising activities.

Iona from P4 explained that their first task was to brainstorm different ideas of how they could raise as much money as possible. “We then had to vote for our favourite ones and the ones we chose were selling wristbands, quizzes, Pudsey buns and a teacher’s Big Maths Challenge!  We also chose a ‘Champion’ themed come as you are day.”

The children then spilt into groups and were given responsibility for one activity.“We had to create posters, make quizzes, calculate costs and a daily timetable to keep ourselves organised.” Jenna P4The class then had to share their plans with the whole school, so chose to launch Children in Need 2015 at assembly.

 The children worked extremely hard over the next few weeks, selling out of wristbands and received an amazing amount of orders for their Pudsey buns. One pupil in particular (Logan P4), gave up his Saturday morning to help boost the sales of quizzes in Leswalt shop!

On the day, over 250 buns were made and delivered home to customers. Nearly 100 wristbands were sold and over 100 quizzes were marked and a winner chosen. 

The teachers also had to test their brains with a Big Maths challenge and the losers – Mrs Baillie and Miss Cambridge- received a cream pie in the face courtesy of Gregor Reid, and Logan Wilson.  Mrs Mc Knight the organiser of all events sat smugly in the corner, as the winner of the Big Maths test.

 The grand total raised on the day was £246.01 which is a fantastic amount for such a small school. Mrs McKnight would like to give thanks for the support from parents, Soleburn and Gillian and all the girls at Leswalt Store for their efforts but a special mention must go to the girls and boys in P1-4 who have worked their little socks off and proven themselves to be very responsible citizens!

Both classes has a visit from the SSPCA on Friday.  Tracey came along and spoke to the younger class about her role in helping care for animals in Scotland, before moving to P5-7 and have a workshop session on Scotland’s wildlife.

All the children enjoyed this visit and had plenty of questions for our visitor.

The children of Leswalt Primary had a fun Hallowe’en party in school.  This was organised by Primary 7 pupils as part of their STAR awards programme.

 

Everyone looked really fantastic and spooky – have a look at our photographs!

 

 

 

Primary 1-4 have been learning all about their local community this term.  As part of their learning, Richard Arkless MP was invited in to explain more about his role in helping the local community develop.  He was asked lots of very thoughtful questions by the pupils including;

“What is the best/worst part about your job?”

“What would you really like to see changes in Stranraer?”

“Do you ever argue with anyone?” and

“Do you get to sit in David Cameron’s seat?”

The children were really interested in how Parliament worked and learned a lot from their visitor. 

Mr Arkless was impressed with how engaged the children were and said that if they needed any assistance in anything they were just to get in touch.  Logan did raise the point that he thought there should be a Formula One track built in Stranraer.  Mr Arkless also liked that suggestion………..we will need to wait and see if he raises that at Prime Minister’s questions time, in Westminster!

A few weeks ago a visitor to the school asked the children what was the monument on their school jumpers and at the top of the hill.  Answers included “the Queen used to live up there” and “the Nazis landed there”.  Mrs Baillie thought it was important all the boys and girls knew the significance of the monument which has been adopted as the school logo, and felt they should all know more. 

So, this afternoon the whole school walked one mile up to the Leswalt monument.  It tied in well with the p1-4 project on their community and responded to the needs and requests from children for more information.  The children learned it was built in 1850 in memorial to Andrew Agnew, who represented the community in Parliament. 

The school admired the stunning views from the top of the hill, looking at how calm Loch Ryan was, picking out Stranraer, spotting the school and even a few houses they recognised.  They were disappointed to learn you could not go inside the monument as it does not have any windows or doors.

The children all enjoyed the Friday afternoon walk – with Phoebe asking “I love this, can we go a walk every Friday afternoon?”.  It was one mile up to the monument and one mile back down.  Mrs Baillie said she felt like the “Grand Old Duke of York”  marching them all to the top of the hill, and then they marched back down again!

 

Primary 1-4 at Leswalt Primary have been learning all about community development this term.  As part of that work they have been looking at the process of building development.  In class the pupils were asked to design and plan out their dream house.  The tricky part came next – as Mrs Mc Knight, the class teacher, then asked the pupils to take their plans home and actually build the house, with help from parents.  The houses that were built were amazing – as support from parents was phenomenal.  

Design features that were incorporated into pupils’ plans included garages, conservatories, solar panels, flues for log burners, drain pipes and even Santa going down a chimney.A wide range of materials was used by children at home to build their model houses – including clay, wood, card, gravel, gingerbread and even a rough cast of sand, paint and glue. 

The learning of the process of building was reinforced when Ian Mac Fadzean (architect), Tommy Currie and Iona Brooke (planning department) and Ian Marshall (Luce Bay construction) were invited into school to come and tell the children more about their role.  They came in with tools and plans to illustrate to the class how they went about their job.  The pupils asked lots of questions and learned more about the process of building a house and possible careers in the future.

At the end of the question and answer session, Mr Currie, Mr Marshall and Mr Mac Fadzean were set their own challenge – they had to pick their favourite house.  All agreed it was a very difficult job before opting for Aidan (p1) and his gingerbread house which he baked with Mum, Chloe (p2) and her cottage which she rough casted with mum and Auryn (p3) and Breagh (p1) who worked with Mum to make a mansion complete with drain pipes, hanging baskets and window boxes.

The children learned a tremendous amount through this active learning and community involvement and the professionals left Leswalt Primary that day fearing for their jobs, after seeing the skills and knowledge demonstrated by the children!

 

Both classes recently enjoyed a trip to Wigtown Book Festival to hear from authors.

First of all, Renita Boyle led us in a sing-along session to warm us up!  Primary 5-7 heard from Phil Earle and Cathy Mc Phail.  Primary 1-4 saw Shoo Raynor and Emily Dodd.  A great time was had by all!

Phil Earle told hilarious stories and kept the audience laughing with his inventive stories.  We heard all about how he came to write “Demolition Dad”.  Cathy Mc Phail’s books were very different.  They were very dark and almost scary!  We all saw a trailer to advertise “Another me” one of her books which has now been made into a film.

Emily Dodd told us about her book ‘Can’t Dance Cameron’ . This is all about a sad capercaillie called Cameron who believes he is a rubbish dancer. We talked about lots of types of Scottish wildlife when reading the story – a pine-marten, a red squirrel and a wildcat. By the end of a story, Cameron shows he is a great dancer. Some of us bought this story and Emily signed it.

Shoo Rayner is an author and illustrator. His latest book is called Dragon Gold and is about Harri who is set the challenge of ‘making’ a dragon for school! Shoo also has two YouTube channels about drawing. Why not Google these and try out one of his tutorials?

Our very own Euan  was chosen from the audience to try drawing with Shoo. What an excellent job he did! Check out the photos to see for yourself!

Quite a few of us bought Shoo’s book which he signed too.

We had such  lovely days in Wigtown and the children were so well behaved. Smiles all round!

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary managed to keep a special secret – a goodbye assembly for Mrs Bathgate.   Mrs Bathgate had taught at the school for 8 years, and is now moving away from the area and leaving her post at Leswalt.  All the pupils sang 2 songs which they had been practising in secret – the singing was fantastic and there were more than a few tears shed as emotions ran high.  The staff, pupils, parents and parent council handed over a range of generous gifts to wish Mrs Bathgate well .

Pupils at Leswalt Primary were recently delighted when local resident Stewart Mc Culloch popped into school to hand in a donation of money for the children at school.  Mr Mc Culloch can normally be found down at the Kirkland pond, helping local fishermen of the area.  He held a fishing competition at the Kirland pond recently and a raffle generated £80.  The school has been using Kirkland pond, for the last 2 years as part of it’s “Wider achievement” programme.  This initiative allows different children to go down to the Kirkland pond on a Friday afternoon and learn the skills of fishing. Mr Mc Culloch felt as the school supported the fishing, he would like to give something back to the school.

Mrs Baillie (headteacher) told the pupil council of the donation and they were keen to use the money to buy in some new playground toys.  The following day, Kerr in Primary 7 came in with his Argos book from home, so that they could decide what to spend the money on.  The money was soon spent on new footballs, a swingball set, a parachute and lots more.  The pupil council were happy and shared the good news and new additions to the toy box with their classmates.

Many thanks must go to Mr Mc Culloch for his support of the local village school.  We hope that he will enjoy driving past the school and see all the new toys being enjoyed by the boys and girls

As part of their health and wellbeing learning and teaching, Primary 5-7 have been focussing on “Tobacco” this term.  They have been discussing the legalities surrounding the advertising of tobacco and laws in the sale of tobacco products.

  To help them with their work, they popped across the road to Leswalt Stores.  Gillian was more than happy to explain to the class the laws which are in place.  The children also saw for themselves how products are not allowed to be on display and the signage which is in place.

Many thanks must go to Gillian Murdoch, not only for her useful information and knowledge on the subject, but also for the sweeties which she gave the class as they left!

Primary 5 recently had a lovely time along at Creachmore as part of a golf festival aimed at all Primary 5 pupils.

The sun was shining, as they all learned more about the game and how to improve their golf swing.

The senior class recently went outside to do their maths.  They were learning all about speed, distance and time.  And, to help them with their learning they all went outside and had to run over a specified distance to help them calculate their speed.

The photos show some of p5-7 racing across the playground.

Primary 5-7 had a recent visitor to class who helped develop their Science topic of resources of the Earth, through bringing in a great selection of different rocks for them to examine.

The children learnt a lot about the properties of different rocks, and where they are found.  The afternoon concluded when they got to witness a volcano erupting in their classroom!

All pupils enjoyed a taster session of Pilates, organised by Active schools and delivered by Lorna Mc Kay.

Pupils (and staff) enjoyed bending and stretching in the gym hall and trying to improve their flexibility.

This will be followed up with a further block of fitness/pilates activities for p5-7, next term.

 

Both Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary were offered the opportunity to have a free non-lander cruise aboard the Stena Line Ferry.  It was a calm day for the crossing,  with no sea sickness to report!

The senior pupils at Leswalt have been invited along to Kirkcolm bowling green to enjoy learning more about this sport.  The gentlemen of the club have been very good with the children and they look forward to having another visit next week.

After being rained off on the first attempt, Leswalt Sports day took place on Thursday 18th June.  Although the sun did not make an appearance, it was a fun filled afternoon.  Every child tried their hardest and was very sporting throughout.  The afternoon concluded with Leswalt Stores kindly donating ice cream for all the children

Have a look at the photographs to see how happy we all were!

Primary p5-7 from Leswalt, joined up with pupils from their partnership school of Portpatrick, and pupils from Sheuchan to rehearse and perform “Warriors!” .  This was made possible with support from Scottish Opera. 

Children had been learning the songs in school all of this term,  and they all came together to perform at Sheuchan Primary.  The story was based in ancient China, with Leswalt and Portpatrick pupils taking on the role of peasants.  It was a brilliant performance to parents and relatives, with expressive acting and wonderful singing from all.  Have a look at the photographs to see the energy and enthusiasm for yourselves.