Mrs Baillie – Page 27 – Leswalt Primary School

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”.

Halloween

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.

P5-7 visit to St Josephs

As part of their RME topic of ‘Christianity in our Community’, Leswalt Primary School’s P5-7 visited St.Joseph’s Church in Stranraer and met with the Priest, Father Neil O’Donnell and Deacon Peter Marks.

The pupils came along with lots of questions about what the job of a priest entails, and about the churches role in the community.

They learnt about the clothing the priest wears for different services and at different times of the year. They found out about the artefacts in the church and what they were used for. They were able to compare St.Joseph’s to Leswalt Parish Church, which they visited earlier in the term.

It was both a very informative and enjoyable experience for the pupils. As Rhona Baillie in P6 said “ St Josephs is beautiful inside. I love all the marble. I learned a lot, as I had never been there before”

Wigtown Book Festival

The Wigtown Book Festival is always looked forward to with anticipation. This year’s event was a huge hit with the Leswalt Primary pupils who were lucky enough to attend on both the Friday and Tuesday.

There were already a number of Philip Ardagh fans in the P5-7 class, so they were delighted to go to Wigtown to meet the man himself. Before going, they looked up some information on ‘The Grunts’, the central characters in Philip Ardagh’s book ‘The Grunts in Trouble, and decided that they sounded like characters they would like to read about. The pupils dreamed up some new characters and invented some transport to rival the Grunt’s caravan made from an old ice-cream van and a motor bike sidecar pulled by Clip and Clop the donkeys. The class handed over their ideas to Philip Ardagh who was delighted to receive them and promised to let us know which ideas he liked.

Stuart Reid had an equally appealing character called ‘Gorgeous George’ who is appearing in his third novel which was launched on the very day P5-7 were there, and was quite literally hot off the press.

If the aim of the Book Festival is to inspire reading and writing in children, it certainly achieved its aim. Noses were firmly in new books all the way home to Leswalt.

Macmillan Coffee afternoon event

Leswalt Primary School held an open afternoon on Friday 27^th September and set about transforming their school. The hall became a music

performance venue, the P5-7 classroom a French café, and the P 1-4 classroom a cinema. Parents and friends were invited along to sample the delights on offer.

Mrs Parker had prepared a varied selection of harvest themed songs with the children and they were greatly enjoyed by the audience and choirs alike, as they performed to the guests in school.

P 5-7 were very enterprising and arranged a café in aid of the Macmillan ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ event. Croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche and tarte au citron were washed down with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and Orangina. The class had prepared menus in French and practiced their conversational French on the customers. Approximately £150 was donated for the charity.

The grand finale was the world premiere of Primary 1-4’s film ‘A Holiday Guide to Leswalt’. As part of their local study topic, the children had researched, scripted and starred in the production which was filmed on location at various tourist hot-spots in the village, including Leswalt park, Aldouran Wetland Gardens, Leswalt Stores, Kirkland Tearoom and farm shop and Drumlochart caravan site. Orders were taken for copies of the DVD which proved very popular, as the class plan to sell their mini movie from school.

Leswalt Primary Wind farm visit

Pupils from Leswalt Primary School today viewed construction works being undertaken for the 18-turbine wind farm on Carscreugh Fell, 3km north east of the village of Glenluce.

The 40 pupils from the school’s primary 1 to 7 classes (ages 5-11) made the trip to look at the work being undertaken on the piling of the site and establishing the foundations for the turbines, including deliveries of concrete and steel. They also saw the works being undertaken on the control building for the wind farm.

The 15.3 MW wind farm will have a maximum height to the blade tip of 70m and was approved by the Scottish Government in March 2012, with construction on the site commencing in August and anticipated to complete in spring 2014.

The wind farm operator, Carscreugh Renewable Energy Park Ltd, was sold by Spanish firm, Gamesa, to specialist investor and asset manager, John Laing plc in June. Under the agreement Gamesa will carry out operations and maintenance services at the facility for 10 years.

In addition to the wind turbines the proposed development will also include:

· A control building housing switch gear, metering equipment and control equipment;

· Access to the site via the A75;

· On-site access tracks;

· Underground cable routes, and

· A meteorological mast.

Around 40 people will be employed on site preparation and infrastructure works, rising to around 70 for the delivery of the Gamesa wind turbines.

Sergio Pascual Garrido, Project Manager for Carscreugh Renewable Energy Park Ltd said:

“We are delighted to have the children from Leswalt here to look at the process involved in the delivery of the wind farm. It is also very timely given that they have been putting a lot of effort into studying renewable energy in the classroom and they can now see the real thing. We are anticipated to complete the project in spring next year and would be delighted to have them back in the future they will be able to see the progress made.”

Sheila Baillie, Head teacher of Leswalt Primary School, said:

“It was great for the children to be able to see what is involved in putting up a wind farm and would like to thanks Gamesa and John Laing for this opportunity. The children have been building their own wind turbines in the classroom as part of a project looking at renewable energy and it is fantastic for them to have the opportunity to see the real thing being constructed. We will hopefully be able to come back in the future and they can see how things have progressed.”

Leswalt Parish Church visit

P5-7 at Leswalt Primary School recently paid a visit to Leswalt Parish Church. This trip was part of their RME in school, as they are currently learning all about “Christianity in our community”.

Merryn Walker in Primary 6 provides an insight as to what they learned-
“Leswalt Church is a Parish church because it serves everyone in Leswalt Parish. On Sundays on average, 45 people come to church. There are 300 members of the church.
Christenings happen in the church. Some people think that the holy water is special water from the holy ground, but in Leswalt Church it comes from a tap!
Audrey Buchanan runs the Sunday school. She meets the children in the vestry at one side of the church. They do different projects about Easter, Christmas and studying the bible.
The Church is quite an old building. It was built in 1825. So, the building is 188 years old. The steps outside of the church take you into the balcony upstairs in the church. The seats in the balcony are very different to the pews downstairs.
In Leswalt Church there is a mixture of modern and old artefacts. In the corner of the church is a cabinet with Communion silver ware. There are silver plates and cups which are used when the congregation get bread and wine, just like in the last supper.
I enjoyed going across to the church and learned a lot about the building and contents.

End of term awards

Mrs Sheila Baillie, Head teacher at Leswalt Primary School welcomed a packed hall full of parents, and friends of the school to the end of session celebration of achievement award ceremony.

Football awards (presented by Euan Dodds) to Ben Cowan, Cameron Walker, Kieran Dodds, Tommy Kerslake, Craig Anderson, James Murray, james Boyce, Emma Drennan, Freya Bathgate, Kerr Calderood, Finlay Cowan, Jack Rickard and Jamie Drennan.

The most improved player of the year award went to Jame Drennan

Mrs Baillie then called upon Mrs Margery Wither to help present further awards;

Attendance awards for 99.75% attendance –

Aiyanna Wilson and Rhona Baillie

Behaviour awards

P1- Jenna Calderwood, Iona Rickard, Charlotte Gaw and Millie Smith

P2- Megan Mc Intyre

P3- Arden Mc Intyre

P4- Lauren Anderson

P5 – Millie Renwick

P6- Erin Topping

P7- Ben Cowan/Kerr Renwick

Star reader in p2 – Kayleigh Williams

Star reader in p3 – Jamie Drennan

Star reader in p4 – Kathryn Topping

Star reader in p5 – Finlay Keenan

Start reader in p6 – Tommy Kerslake

Star reader in p7 – Cameron Walker

Word millionaire –special award to Tommy Kerslake (who read 42 novels in one year)

Super Spellers awards

James Boyce, Rhona Baillie, Kathryn Topping, Lauren Anderson, Mackenzie Keith,

Marvellous mathematicians awards– Celebrations

Cameron Walker, Craig Anderson, Gordon Johnstone, Kathryn Topping, Emma Drennan

Winning house – Soleburn, (shield collected by Cameron Walker)

Sports champions

girl- Emma Drennan (runners up Abbie Mc Quillan and Rhona Baillie)

boy- Cameron Walker (runners up Ben Cowan and Craig Anderson )

Robert Burns awards to

Emma Drennan and Mackenzie Keith

Academic Achievements

Literacy p1-4 Charlotte Gaw p5-7 Finlay Keenan

Numeracy p1-4 Arden Mc Intyre p5-7 Emma Drennan

Health and Wellbeing Jack Rickard p5-7 Craig Anderson

Achievement award for learning– Mackenzie Keith

Endeavour award (Presented by Mrs Mary Buchanan) – Kerr Renwick

Creativity award (Presented by Mrs Nina Agnew) – Millie Renwick

The Primary 7 pupils were then presented with their leaving gifts and wished all the very best for their journey onto Stranraer Academy, before everyone went on their way to start the summer holidays.

A day at Galloway Activity Centre

Galloway Activity Centre Trip

On Tuesday the 18^th of June 2013, all of Leswalt Primary school went to take part in four different activities at Galloway Activity Centre. These activities were; sailing, kayaking, mountain biking and either laser quest or orienteering.

Sailing was one of our favourite activities. Everyone in primary 5-7 were in threes as they headed out onto the loch. The first person steers, the second person holds the sail and finally the last person is ‘look out’.

Kayaking was probably the activity that we got most wet in!

Again we were in threes all in one boat. Paddles were used to help us move. We wore wet suits.

Mountain biking was an amazing experience for both elder and younger pupils and some of the teachers too! The skills course was used for youngest children and the elders had the main course to practise their skills on. Some even used it as a running track!

Laser quest was great fun out in the woods. With guns we all shot each other having an amazing time. With gun names like Raven and Click, everyone had fun even if they shot their own teammates!

Orienteering was for primary 1-4 and I could see them running around hunting and looking for their next clue laughing and giggling as they ran along!

I was a successful learner when I learnt how to use the sailing boats. I was a responsible citizen by making sure that everyone was safe in the water. I was an effective contributor by bringing my ideas, thoughts and opinions and finally I was a confident individual riding the bike down the steep hills.

Throughout the whole day everyone was smiling, the weather was on our side too! We all hope to go again soon!

By Emma Drennan Primary 6