Pupils were treated to a visit by 4 gentlemen on Thursday afternoon from the local Stranraer rowing club, who brought along a skiff for the boys and girls to see. Pupils were surprised to learn that the men had built the boat and that only glue had been used to assemble the wooden planks – there wasn’t a single nail in sight!
They were given the opportunity to sit in the skiff and ‘row’ the boat. Isla, Carys and Cara took it in turns to take on the role of the coxswain, trying to keep everyone rowing in time. Afterwards, they all learned about safety when rowing and the importance of life jackets.
Finally, the men explained that the SkiffieWorlds 2019 competition is being held in Stranraer from 7th-13th July and that competitors from all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand and US, are expected to attend. There will be fun for all the family, with various events on throughout the week. Have a look at the leaflet that pupils brought home or online for further information.
To kick start their new French Foods topic, P1-3 spent the afternoon sampling some typical French food. There was a wide range of treats on offer, including croissants, pain au chocolat, macaroons, eclairs and brioche. They even had the chance to taste some snails! Some were delighted about this, others – not so much!! Have a keek at the photos below to see the fun they had, and their reactions upon tasting snails for the first time!
A huge well done to Phoebe and Gregor who represented the school at the Burns Club Competition last night at the Ryan Centre. Both performed their poems with great gusto and did the school proud. Gregor was awarded 1st place in his category!! What confident individuals we have at Leswalt!
The Pupil Council and Eco Committee would like to say a huge thank-you to Leswalt Community Association for the funding they gave the school to purchase new playground toys and gardening equipment. The pupils are looking forward to getting all of the new equipment outside! Thank-you again!
Pupil Council with some of our new toys.
Eco Committee with some of our new gardening equipment.
Today at assembly, all pupils will receive a small cardboard battery box as part of the Big Battery Hunt. This is a recycling scheme which we have signed up to as part of our Eco Schools work. Pupils should fill the boxes at home with used batteries, before bringing them into school and emptying them into the large plastic containers in the hall. These will then be sent away to be recycled. As long as we arrange for a tub of batteries to be collected before June, our school will be entered into a prize draw to win various goodies including: iPads, £2000 worth of school equipment vouchers, a 2-night trip to a sustainability centre, or a 3-year subscription to ‘MyMaths’ worth £1000.
Please pass on the message that your batteries can be recycled at Leswalt School! Thank-you in advance for your support in this initiative.
Primary 5-7 pupils from Leswalt, Kirkcolm and Portpatrick Primary Schools headed to Lockerbie Manor on Wednesday for a 3-day outdoor residential trip.
After stopping at Springholm Primary for some lunch and to stretch our legs, we reached Lockerbie Manor early in the afternoon. Everyone was given a tour of the building and grounds by the instructors and got shown to their rooms. After a quickly unpacking, we split into 4 groups and headed to our first activity. Activities included archery, rifle shooting, obstacle course, climbing wall, abseiling, orienteering, fencing, canoeing and kayaking. After activity one, some pupils required a shower as they were caked in mud after army-crawling on their bellies underneath netting! By this time we had worked up quite an appetite, and were served with the most delicious dinner – what a selection on offer! At night time, we had an evening activity before getting all cosy in our jammies and spending time getting to know pupils from the other partnership schools.
Day 2 saw an early morning wake-up call at 7.20am. We had 5 activities spread out over the day, with some pupils getting an early afternoon bath after falling into the lake whilst kayaking! That night, having been exhausted from all the physical activity, pupils were sound asleep before 11pm – much to the staff’s delight!!
On Friday morning, we were up early to get our rooms packed and emptied. Some rooms looked like a bomb had hit them, there were clothes everywhere! We then headed out for our final 2 activities before the bus arrived at 1.30pm to return us to Stranraer. It was a very quiet journey back, with lots of pupils catching some shut-eye!
Everyone had a brilliant time away, making new friends across the partnership and trying new activities.
As part of our bid to achieve national accreditation for the Digital Schools Award, we have selected 4 Digital Leaders to help drive our work forward. They are responsible for supporting staff and pupils in the use of ICT by sharing their skills; helping to maintain ICT equipment; leading lunch time ICT clubs; and organising parent sessions to develop their skills and knowledge.
All the Digital Leaders from Portpatrick, Leswalt and Kirkcolm came together on Tuesday for a Digital Leaders training day. They were all so enthusiastic and keen to get going! Pupils were taught how to upload, print and laminate photographs, and how to access Glow and send an email attachment to a teacher for the blog. They worked in pairs to come up with activities for Safer Internet Day on 5th February, and shared their suggestions for lunchtime ICT clubs that they could run back at school.
Everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable morning mixing with other pupils from the different schools and are all away back to their own school ready and raring to go as our Digital Leaders!
PC Nicola Wilson popped into P4-7 this afternoon for a chat with the boys and girls about the dangers of alcohol as part of their Health and Wellbeing topic. She explained to the pupils that alcohol is indeed a drug which can affect your emotions and your ability to make sensible decisions. She highlighted that the effects of alcohol are dependent upon various factors such as your size, age, fitness and how much you have eaten, and the importance of drinking responsibly.
Pupils considered why the legal age for drinking alcohol is 18 – Phoebe suggested it is because at a younger age, your body can’t cope with it. PC Wilson went on to explain that drinking a lot of alcohol can result in people doing silly or dangerous things which they might not normally do.
Pupils were interested to learn that there is alcohol is certain medicines and mouth wash, which is why the drink driving limit can’t be 0.
It was a very informative afternoon – thank-you to PC Wilson for taking the time to come in!
Primary 1-3 pupils were very excited this afternoon to receive their Bookbug (P1) / Read, Write, Count (P2-3) gift bags. Parents were invited in as part of our launch of this Scottish Government initiative which aims to inspire a lifelong love of reading, writing and counting, and strengthen links between home and school learning by supporting parents in taking an active role in their child’s learning to give them the best start in life. They were shown the contents of the bags and given suggestions for helping to develop literacy and numeracy at home using these resources. After presenting the boys and girls with their bags, everyone headed down to the classroom where we spent time exploring our new books and games. The pupils are really looking forward to using the contents of their bags at home!
The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary held a ‘Pyjama Party for Pudsey’ today for Children in Need. Pupils donated money towards the appeal for wearing non-uniform and there was also official Children in Need merchandise for sale too. To further raise funds for this worthwhile cause, we had face painting by Kaiden and Joshua’s Mum and Primary 7 pupils, and we have been collecting donations of copper coins all week which were used to form a huge Pudsey in our school hall, then donated to the appeal. Well done to our Pupil Council reps who planned all of our Children in Need activities.
We are still counting up the exact total raised (there are lots of copper coins to be counted!!!) – but we expect it to be well over £100.
