Author: Mrs McHarg

As part of our Eco Schools work, the whole school headed out on Friday morning fully armed with gloves, biodegradable bags and litter pickers for our annual village Spring Clean!

We split into 5 groups and each group went to a different area of the village – Monument View, Church Grove, the main street up to the cemetery, the park and the Wetlands. We collected a whole array of things, including a golf club and ball, and 4 mini-wine bottles from the park!!

Our responsible citizens gathered 5 bags of litter in total, helping to make our village sparkly clean!

The pupils dressed up in as much red clothing as they possibly could today, in return for a small donation towards Comic Relief. Our House Captains have been busy selling official merchandise all week and some of our families made a donation towards the worthy cause when they came in for our science afternoon.

We also held our assembly on Friday, where we explored how Comic Relief helps children to get their rights. We listened to how the charity helps homeless people, those with disabilities and those living in poverty. Everyone realised how much of a difference their pennies will make to people around the world.

We raised a fantastic grand total of £73.64! Thank-you to everyone who donated!

UNCRC article 26 – social and economic help

To celebrate British Science Week, we held an open afternoon today where several family members joined us for some science fun!

We had lots of science stations on offer to put our STEM skills to the test, including: making a hovercraft; building spaghetti bridge; designing a parachute to get the Lego man to safety; creating fireworks in a glass; growing a rainbow; and by far the 2 most popular/messiest experiments – making a volcano and cornflour slime! Mrs McKnight was having heart palpitations due to the mess on her carpet and was seen several times throughout the afternoon walking up and down the corridor with various cleaning supplies!!!

Pupils worked in small groups, accompanied by an adult or two, to work their way around the stations and enjoy the various challenges on offer. We had a brilliant afternoon, and thank you to all the adults who joined us!

UNCRC Articles 5 (family guidance as children develop) and 29 (aims of education).

Have a keek at the photos below, including one of a very young visitor for whom it was all too much for!!

Primary 5-7 headed off to the Ryan Centre this afternoon for a musical extravaganza, provided by the Stranraer Music for All team. House Captains Hamish and Carys provided a report of their time away –

This afternoon we went to the Music for All workshop at the Ryan Centre. When we got off the bus, we went into the theatre and sat down. There were two people playing instruments: Ron playing the guitar and Rachael playing the clarsach (a small harp).

They started with a few tunes then Rachael told us about her clarsach – she told us that it was made of Canadian wood and that the strings were made from cows guts. Then Ron and Rachael played some traditional Scottish songs while we played air harps along with them!

They finished off with some questions from the audience then a final song. We had a great afternoon!

UNCRC Article 31 – Right to take part in cultural and creative activities.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photos during the performance, but here is a photo of Rachael with her clarsach on the way out!

Our new school community police officer, PC Amy McGregor, visited Leswalt Primary on Friday to introduce herself and discuss internet safety with the pupils.

First, she visited P1-4 and shared the book ‘Digi Duck.’ This told the story of a duck who shared a mean picture of his friend, the pig, online and everyone laughed at the pig. The Wise Owl helps the duck to realise that what he did was wrong. Pupils learned important things about friendship and being responsible online through this.

PC McGregor then headed into P5-7 to have a discussion about how pupils use the internet; which social media platforms they use; and how to stay safe and be responsible online. Pupils enjoyed a questions and answer session with her, all about her role as a police officer, helping us to learn more about the world of work.

Thank-you to PC McGregor for taking the time to visit us!

UNCRC Article 13 – Share what you think, unless it harms others; and Article 29 – Aims of education.

We’ve been very lucky to have Stuart Fisher in school over the last 4 Fridays, delivering tri-golf lessons to each class. This was funded through the ‘Children’s Golf Trust.’ We learned about drivers and irons, and used these the hit the ball a distance. We also learned how to putt. Stuart had lots of fun activities and games set up for us to practise our new skills.

Thanks to Stuart for taking the time to come into school to deliver the session, we had great fun! Have a keek below at us in action!

UNCRC

Article 31 – we have the right to play

Article 15 – we have the right to join groups

Pupils took to the stage not once but twice on Wednesday to perform their Christmas show ‘Santa’s on Strike.’ Everyone has been working extremely hard over the last few months learning their lines and practising the songs – and boy did it pay off!!

The production is set on Christmas Eve and Santa is in a mood! He has watched too many episodes of Supernanny and feels that children don’t deserve presents anymore, so he goes on strike! Mrs Santa and the elves show him snapshots of family life in the hope that he will realise that Christmas is still a time of giving, caring and sharing. And he does! Then it’s blast off to get all of the presents delivered in time before Christmas morning.

The audience were thoroughly entertained – between the elf union rep ensuring that Santa knows his rights, to Santa nearly getting a snowball thrown at him by Mrs Santa for not paying attention, and Mum launching her yellow washing-up gloves at Dad for not helping her around the house!

Every single pupil was a star and we are very proud of them! Check out our superstars in action below!

The boys and girls at Leswalt enjoyed a festive feast on Wednesday for their annual school Christmas lunch. After pulling their Christmas crackers, telling each other the cheesy jokes and donning their colourful paper hats, pupils tucked into a yummy Turkey dinner with all the trimmings followed by a delicious chocolate pudding, kindly served by Patricia. The Christmas tunes helped to get everyone into the festive spirit too!

As part of our Book Week Scotland celebrations, P1-3 pupils all received a Bookbug (P1) or a Read, Write, Count (P2-3) bag this afternoon, as part of the Scottish Government and Scottish Book Trust initiative. Parents/carers popped into school to learn how to use the bags at home to make the most of the learning opportunities that they offer.

After pupils were gifted with their bags, everyone then spent the final 20-minutes of the day exploring and enjoying the contents of the bags. Pupils cosied up and read their new books, some played the dominoes card game, P1 pupils practised writing words on their new whiteboards, and others got their thinking caps on to have a go at the tricky tangram puzzles!

Please check school bags tonight for the wonderful resources that P1-3 pupils have brought home with them. And thank-you to everyone who took the time to come into school today. Have a keek at the photos below to see the fun that everyone had!