As part of their RME topic learning about the Hindu festival of Holi, P6-7 pupils donned some very old clothing and headed outside on Friday afternoon to take part in paint throwing! Pupils learned all about the origins of the festival and how Hindus celebrate this by lighting bonfires and throwing colourful paint powder at each other, so we thought we’d have a go ourselves! Have a keek below at the fun in action! Apologies if any children still have bright red or blue faces and hands tomorrow!
P6-7 pupils visited Leswalt Church on Friday morning as part of their RME topic, learning about Christian artefacts, worship and rites of passage. Rev. Marlane Cash kindly met us at the church and was on hand to explain to everyone about the significance of various artefacts, including the font, pulpit, lecturn, chalice, communion wafer, organ, Bible and cross. Pupils even got the opportunity to try one of the communion wafers – but emphasised that this hadn’t been blessed! Pupils were all of a sudden keen to attend church for Communion after learning that even children get offered the red wine!
Marlane then explained how Sunday worship usually looks and spoke about hymns, Bible readings, the sermon that she leads, the Lord’s Prayer and the benediction. Pupils asked lots of questions to further their learning.
We had a great afternoon learning about Christianity in an interactive way – thanks to Marlane for giving up her time to speak to us.
UNCRC Article 14 – freedom of thought & religion
rating from all of us!
Yesterday’s trip to Kirkcolm to watch their Easter show got us mood for another good performance!
Today, armed with litter-pickers and bin bags the pupils of Leswalt Primary decided to give their community a spring clean!
In groups they headed round the village to see what they could spot and tidy up. The had some fun finds! Erin found 50p, which she said she was later going to buy a mixture from the shop with. Ben found what he thought was an orange rag – only to discover that it was actually his own jumper – which had blown off the washing line some time ago! James asked his group to do a litter pick in his garden – which they did ( and then proceeded to think they could go into every garden in Leswalt)
All and all, it was a successful morning out and about doing their bit for the community and environment – look at how much litter they found!
Today was the last day at Leswalt Primary for Roman and Ellie, as they are moving out of the area. This week staff at school have ensured they have had fun times to remember with their friends at Leswalt Primary. There has been gifts, cards and even a specially created video by Mrs Ferguson Roman and Ellie
Today, it was the turn of Roman and Ellie to hand over gifts – in the form of some beautiful cupcakes which spelled out ” Goodbye Leswalt Primary – Ellie and Roman x”
We wish you all the very best in your new school!
This afternoon, Leswalt P6/7 welcomed back Jack, Linnea and Jill from the Children’s Parliament. We all worked together creating our 4 Cs board game – campus, culture, community and curriculum and sharing our ideas and opinions.
Our comments and illustrations will be collated to create a ‘ludo’ style game which can be shared in schools across Scotland! Jack, Linnea and Jill encourage us to talk about our Children’s Rights, our climate and what we see as priorities. We really enjoy this chat time!
Excitingly, they’re working on an event to be held in May – hopefully outside and with special visitors (and us of course!) Watch this space for more information to follow… 
A huge well done to our four Primary 7 pupils who represented the school at the recent Rotary Club quiz, which was held at Belmont Primary School. Ben, Ewan, Isla and Amelia faced some tough questions and opposition from other local primary schools. Although they weren’t placed on the day, we are very proud of their efforts and team work! 
Pupils headed into school today dressed in non-uniform and wearing as much red as they could, to help raise funds for Comic Relief. We started the morning off by learning a little bit about where our money goes and how it helps people all around the world, thinking about how we are essentially helping other children to get their rights. We then sold the last few remaining Red Noses – everyone was desperate to find the rare ruby nose, but unfortunately we didn’t seem to have one in our box!
Over the last few weeks, our House Captains (Isla & Daisy) have been working incredibly hard to organise ‘Leswalt’s Got Talent’ to help raise further money for this very worthwhile cause. Parents and families were invited in to watch all of the wonderful talent on display. We had dancing, singing, jokes, rugby ball skills, gymnastics and cheerleading all being performed to entertain our audience.
Mrs Sloan and Mr Baillie kindly gave up their own time to be our judges for the afternoon – and what a tricky job they had in deciding who should be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.
3rd went to Gregor with his jokes; 2nd went to Ela and Daisy for singing ‘Skye Boat Song’; and 1st went to Hannah, Lily and Eilidh “The Stars” for their very well practised and in-sync gymnastics performance.
A huge well done to everyone for putting themselves forward and performing in front of the audience today – we are very proud of you all! Leswalt raised a fantastic £143.58 for Comic Relief.
UNCRC Articles 23 (children with disabilities), 24 (healthcare, food and water) and 27 (a safe home).
What a lovely way to start a new week! P7 pupils from Leswalt and Kirkcolm headed into Stranraer Baptist Church (after dropping the P6s off at Kirkcolm with a lengthy to-do list!) to enjoy Easter code – an event offered by Owain from Scripture Union and the Stranraer Baptist Church Team.
Each day this week, P7 pupils have been invited to discover more about the Easter story through quizzes, craft, drama and other fun activities. Leswalt and Kirkcolm were their first visitors of the week.
Welcomed in, we started with a ‘Who Wants to be a Millionnaire’ style quiz with some tricky egg-scellent questions to get those brain cogs whirring…We had to select our multiple choice answer – correct answers won an egg point for our teams! Did you know that the World’s most expensive Easter egg costs over £50 000! Could you even begin to guess how many Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are produced each year? Three hundred million in case you were wondering! That’s a LOT of chocolate!
Owain then explained the 5 activity gazebos which were ready and waiting for us. Each one took us through the Easter Story and explained the importance of them – Serving, Struggling, Sacrifice, Sharing and Seeking.
The first one was about foot washing – a ritual done at the Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of his Disciples. Ben and Owen volunteered to have their feet washed!
The 2nd activity talked through the Passover Meal and the food traditionally eaten at this time. The children sat on cushions and tried the matzos (unleavened bread), bitter horseradish, saltwater and honey and apple. Each food type represented the slaves fleeing Egypt for the Promised Land.
The 3rd task invited children into a ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ where they watched a short film clip from Miracle Makers and talked about the arrest of Jesus.
Then it was on to the drama activity – the ‘trial’ of Jesus with everyone being invited to shout and heckle as Jesus faced the accusations.
Finally, the art activity involved the cross – when Jesus was crucified. Pupils decorated these to show it was a joyful time despite the sadness.
The fun morning session wrapped up with a round-up of the story and what happened in the days after the crucifixion. Pupils were invited up to dramatize this. A quick photo of everyone – a Cadbury’s Creme Egg for all (that’s 14 down from the 300 000 000 produced!) and we headed back to school a lot wiser about the Easter Story than we had been on arrival!
Thanks to Owain and the Stranraer Baptist Church Team for being so welcoming to us all. We had great fun!
UNCRC Article 13 Sharing Thoughts Freely, Article 14 Freedom of Thought and Religion, Article 29 Aims of Education
Meta Skills
Collaborating Cora Communicating Cate Integrity Imani
P6-7 pupils headed off to the Ryan Centre this afternoon for a musical extravaganza. We were entertained by Andrea and Georgie of Ad Libitum, who were a violin and accordion duo. After explaining a bit about the different sounds that each of their instruments could make, we were treated to some of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concerto, and pieces by composers Bach and Brahms.
Afterwards, we got the opportunity to ask the musicians some questions, learning that they had played in over 50 different countries, what the violin bow is made from and where in the world the horse hair originates from.
Thank-you to the organisers of ‘Music for All’ for a wonderful afternoon.
