Author: Mrs McHarg

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.

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary got dressed up in their creepy costumes for our annual Halloween party. The party was organised by our very able House Captains, Eva and Millie, who planned some fun games for everyone to participate in.

We started off with a costume parade for each year group and our school cook, Patricia, had the difficult decision of judging the winners!

We then moved onto some games, including Spooky Statues, Creepy Corners, Halloween Bowling and Dookin’ for apples. We ended the party with everyone showing off their best moves in a dancing competition, judged by the House Captains.

Parents and carers kindly donated apples and sweets for the children to enjoy. Joshua and Kaiden also kindly donated Halloween boxes for each pupil in the school which was filled with goodies for everyone to take home.

Everyone headed home to enjoy an evening of Trick or Treating!

The whole school received a safety talk from a member of the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service team, Mr Clark. Mr Clark gave pupils some tips to ensure they have a safe Bonfire Night on 5^th November.

He explained to pupils that fireworks travel at 150mph, so only adults over the age of 18 should be lighting them. Pupils were amazed to find out that the temperature of a sparkler can be 15 times hotter than boiling water – Mr Clark said it’s really important to wear gloves when handling them, and to have a metal bucket of water or sand ready to dispose of it afterwards. Pupils also learned which materials are safe to put on a bonfire – plastic and rubber give off toxic fumes so shouldn’t be burned, neither should glass or metal.

Mr Clark suggested attending an organised display if possible. All pupils are now armed with the knowledge to have a fun but safe Bonfire Night!

The Community Safety Team popped into Leswalt on Thursday afternoon as part of our ongoing Eco Schools work, to discuss with the children the importance of putting our litter in the bin and keeping Leswalt lovely looking! Andrew explained to pupils about the different types of litter that we can find outside and why it is dangerous to wildlife.

At this point, the sun was shining so we headed outside to conduct a litter survey of our playground. We then split into 2 groups, with half carrying out a litter pick of the playground and the other half looking at the Council’s street cleaner. Despite having to shelter from the rain half way through, we had an enjoyable afternoon outside!

The North Rhins Partnership schools came together at Kirkcolm on Tuesday for a day of fun in the sun – and what a glorious day it was! After the boys and girls of Leswalt and Portpatrick arrived, Leswalt showcased their singing in preparation for the end of term ceremony.

After break time, we got our sun cream and hats on and headed down to the beach, where we all did our bit for the environment by participating in the Great Plastic Pick-up for Scotland. Pupils collected lots of plastic, string and metal from the beach to help keep it clean. This will help in all 3 schools’ bid to achieve their Eco-Schools Green flag. Kerry Monteith from Dumfries & Galloway Council kindly brought along litter pickers and organised for the bags of rubbish to be uplifted. Whilst at the beach, some pupils got creative and made some beach art using seaweed and stones, such as castles, mermaids and fish.

We then made our way back to Kirkcolm Primary for a picnic lunch outside in the sun to re-fuel in preparation for the Partnership sports afternoon to come.

At 12.30pm we started our Inter-Schools sports, with lots of parents and families from the 3 schools cheering everyone along. We had a variety of races including sprint, egg and spoon, sack, skipping, distance and relay. Throughout the afternoon, pupils enjoyed water and a selection of fruit which was kindly provided by Lidl, who sponsored our afternoon. In the middle of our races, we stopped to catch our breath and say goodbye to our janitor at Kirkcolm, Mr Dougie Brawls, who was retiring from his post. Mr Brawls has worked at Kirkcolm Primary for many years and was loved by all in the school community for his cheery good nature. He was presented with gifts from staff, pupils and the Parent Council to show our appreciation for all his hard-work over the years.

To finish off our fun-filled afternoon, we had a beach ball race between the 3 schools where pupils had to pass the ball over their head to the next person using their feet! After some very close competition throughout the afternoon, Kirkcolm Primary was victorious with a total of 283 points. All the boys and girls had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to mix with the pupils from the other schools.

Please see the photo below regarding the Kirkcolm Church and Community Council Easter Egg Hunt. Pop along to Kirkcolm Village Hall on Monday 2nd April to participate – all welcome!!