Author: Ms Whorlow

P5 – 7 enjoyed  the first of a series of Sphero Bolt workshops today.

What is a Sphero, you ask? Well, Sphero robots have many different internal parts that make them work such as motors, LEDs, encoders, processors, a CPU and Bluetooth communication module for connecting to phones, and a gyroscope that keeps it oriented. A small, wheeled robot inside the shell climbs up the walls and pushes them forward, causing the ball to roll.

Sphero programmable robots help kids learn fundamental STEM concepts through play-based learning and educational STEAM activities. You can use Sphero robots to play games, create programs, or complete challenges.

Our first club activities focussed on using Bluetooth to pair our devices, orientating our Spheros and using direction and speed to control the travel of our devices.  The children quickly mastered the balance between speed and control and were then able to navigate obstacles with increasing accuracy.  There was some fun racing the Spheros in figures of eight round cones, and people too.  We had a play with adapting the colours of the led array so we could more easily identify our Sphero robot amongst everyone else’s.

Our next activity will bring in the skills of using a graphics Draw function to control the sphero’s travel path.  We will ‘draw’ 2D shapes.   As we are in the middle of Christmas mayhem, this will most likely be in the New Year.

 

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29 Aims of Education

 

The Primary 7 boys and girls from the North Rhins Partnership had a visit to Skills Development Scotland today.

As part of Developing the Young Workforce, Lucy, Kathryn & Connor gave the pupils an overview of the careers services available at Stranraer Academy.

Our pupils learned that they will have a subject choice chat in S2, with follow up visits for each other year to help them plan career options more fully.  Lucy explained that Skills Development Scotland is available to everyone at any time in our community to help find jobs.

There was a mixer game where children played ‘Would You Rather?’ This was a game to help the children make careers decisions based on their preferences and interests.

They then played ‘Shark Island!’ In groups, the children had to decide which 3 of 5 people they would choose to help them escape from an island.  Their choices were based on the careers of the five individuals. There was a change of mind once more information was given on the people’s backgrounds. It was a very interesting discussion.

Hamish, Atticus and Cara volunteered to role play career characters. The children had to work out what jobs they might do based on their props and outfits.

Finally, we were shown the My World of Work careers advice website with industry sector information and job videos. It was very informative.

Our thanks to Skills Development Scotland team. Today was a great workshop for Developing the Young Workforce and for strengthening our pre-transition friendships.

UNCRCR Rights of the Child – Article 29 Aims of Education

Primary 7 from Portpatrick, Leswalt and Kirkcolm were treated to a curling experience at the North West Castle today.

The children were split into teams of 5 with each member allocated aged a role as either sweepers, throwers or a skip skip.

Gail gave a motivating speech, sharing the great Olympic success we have in our community. She explained the format of the day and the terminology of curling such as weight line, handle, stabiliser, slider and stone. Everyone enthusiastically got started with a warm up.

After a practice, the boys and girls were placed in teams. The winners were judged on the best performance out of eight tries of getting a stone as close to the target as possible.

There was a break for juice and biscuits kindly provided by the North West Castle. Our thanks to all the coaches and to the Castle for their kind hosting.
Our groups did very well in their teams and were praised for their strong results.  Each participant received a certificate and an invitation to return for the curling club sessions.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 15 Setting Up & Joining Groups.

Want to save some pennies and do your bit for the planet?

Well, our Leswalt Primary Halloween Swap Shop is for you!

Our Eco Committee have organised a costume reuse initiative.  Browse our Sway and see what’s on offer. 🙂

If you have any outfits you’d like to donate, please send them in and our committee will do the rest!

Click on ‘Go to this Sway’ link below and press play in the top right corner to look at our shop.

UNCRC Rights of the Child  – Article 26 Social & Economic Help

Sustainable Development Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption & Production

Halloween Costume Swap Shop

Thanks to kind donations from our lovely families, we are able to offer a Halloween costume swap shop. We hope to reduce waste and save money for our families by reusing pre-loved costumes…

Go to this Sway

What a great trip we had to Barsolus today! Primary 7 were kindly invited to visit Gillian and the crew to learn how plants benefit humans and how farming practices work from field to fork.

Gillian explained about the seasonality of different crops and how Barsolus need to time planting of vegetables such as Brussel Sprouts perfectly so they are ready to harvest for our Christmas dinners!

Our pupils also found out how different varieties of vegetables impacts on soil health over time. As a result farmers are required to rotate crop growing on field every three years or so. We also talked about taking care not to release too much carbon from soil through the use of NPK fertilisers.

We learned about cooperative arrangements with Girvan Early Growers who rent fields from Barsolus for carrot growing.  They don’t have enough land around Girvan, so hire fields to grow and harvest their own crops.

Barsolus talked about working in more environmentally sustainable ways through the Government’s ‘greening policy’. Barsolus have chosen to interpret their green action by leaving areas to grow and develop naturally. Farmers have options on what solution they choose. Gillian also chatted about reducing the chemicals added to soil through the need to change to using less damaging types of fertiliser.

We had a game of ‘identify the veg’. The children were very knowledgeable. We then had a carrot pulling competition to see who could pick the biggest carrot. Scott chose three category winners:

Biggest carrot – Cara
Fattest carrot – Atticus
Longest carrot – Stephen

Cara was declared the supreme carrot champion.

Gillian very generously let the children fill a bag of veggie goodness to take home. There’ll be a few pots of soup on the go tonight. 🙂

Our thanks go to Wilma Benson for very ably escorting Leswalt and helping out our group.

We can’t thank Barosolus enough for a fabulous learning experience right on our doorstep!

 

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

Maths Week Scotland 2023

The children of the North Rhins Partnership Schools got their calculating brains in gear to participate in Maths Week Scotland. Each school took part in a fantastic array of maths related a…

Go to this Sway

Why not see what we’ve been up to?  Click on the link then select play. 🙂

UNCRC Rights of the Child:

Article 29 – Aims of Education

Our newly appointed Eco Committee met for the first time today.

• P7 – Faye & Brandon
• P6 – Isla
• P5 – Colin
• P3 – Ellie
• P2 – Thea
• P1 – Cameron

After a successful interview process, our new members were happy to join us for our first meeting to agree our targets for our next Eco Flag application.  After carrying out a  L environmental-review-2023_2025, the group agreed that the targets we will focus on for the next two year action plan will be:

• Litter and Waste
• Global Citizenship
• Climate Action

Our pupils were keen to get cracking.  Hamish, Faye and Cara had already organised a litter survey in our school grounds, followed by a litter pick.

 

Our older members visited both classes to explain what has been agreed and chatted about how everyone will have a role to play in helping us achieve our eco-friendly goals.

UNCRC Rights of the Child:

• Article 12 Respect for children’s views
• Article 13 – Sharing thoughts freely
• Article 15 – Setting up and joining groups
• Article 24 – Health, water, food and environment

We are proud to announce that Leswalt Primary has achieved yet another Eco Schools flag, representing another two years of fantastic eco-friendly action from our highly motivated pupils.  This achievement recognises all the hard work, dedication and drive from our pupils, our staff and our wider community.  Our action targets for 2021 – 2023 focussed on:

• Litter and Waste
• Healthy Living
• Biodiversity

Many congratulations to everyone!

The Education and Learning Team from Keep Scotland Beautiful have written to us with this message:

A big congratulations to everyone for this great achievement that reflects so much hard work and commitment. You have demonstrated a fantastic whole school approach to your Green Flag award, with everyone in your school involved. It is great to hear how many local organisations you have worked with to help you with your actions. Overall, you have done a fantastic job and are highly deserving of this Green Flag Award.

Not only did we achieve our Eco Flag, but we have also achieved our RSPB Wild Challenge Gold award after completing a series of challenges to help nature and experience nature.

 

We won’t stop there as we’re already thinking ahead to our next action plan for 2023 – 2025!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 24 – Health, Water, Food & The Environment.

Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing, 15 – Life on Land

Proud recipients of our Climate Ready Classroom Certificates!

 

All pupils from across our partnership participated in  a Climate Ready Classroom event day today.

Schools from across Dumfries and Galloway linked together online to take part in three themed workshops. By taking part in Climate Ready Classrooms (CRC) for Primary Schools, our pupils were able to:• Develop an understanding of the basics of what climate change is and why it is happening.
• Improve their understanding of the importance of biodiversity and how all species are connected and interdependent.
• Explore thoughts and worries around the climate change and biodiversity crises and why we should have hope.
• Identify opportunities to take action to tackle the climate change and biodiversity crises, working with local authority aims.

Looking ahead, as part of empowerment and leading their own learning, the children created their own Climate Action Pledge.  All pledges will be shared across the region to create an overview of learner voices and learner’s action.  The actions identified by the children will feed into our partnership’s  Eco Schools topic for Climate Action going forward.

# Responsible Citizens & Effective Contributors

UNCRC Rights of the Child:Article 13: Sharing Thoughts Freely,  Article 24: Health, Water, Food & Environment.

Sustainable Development Goals: 12 – Responsible Consumption & Production, 13 – Climate Action, 14, Life Below Water, 15 – Life on Land,

Our Primary 4 pupils were invited to participate in an Earth Day workshop at the Ryan Centre.  Along with pupils from our cluster schools, the children watched videos to learn more about alternative energies from wind turbines. They learned how blades are manufacturing, the role of blade technicians and how this all links to more sustainable energy sources.

The chidren then took part in a team exercise to build a model wind turbine from paper.  They also connected a motor powered by our breaths to light an led as a clean energy source.

# Responsible Citizens

UNCRC Rights of the Child  Article 29- Aims of Education

Sustainable Development Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption & Production

Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Climate Action