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Report by Kaiden & Faye –

On Thursday 25th May all of the P6 pupils went to Operation Safety . The event took place at Stair Park football grounds in Stranraer. There were lots of workshops that we visited. This is a list of the workshops:

• Fire brigade to spot the different hazards to make them safe, like a knife in a toaster or too many plugs in a lead.
• Scottish Power workshop where we spotted electrical hazards outside.
• Stranraer Coastguard for water safety and how to save someone if they are drowning.
• Alcohol and drugs presented by PC McCutcheon where we got to try on beer goggles.

We then had our lunch in the stadium seat and afterwards we visited our last few workshops:

• Anti-social behaviour where we played a song really loudly and the council came and said he was going to fine us £20.
• Ambulance where we learned how to do CPR.

Our favourite workshop was the drugs and alcohol one because the drunk glasses were fun and felt weird.

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,

Well, the forecast for rain was happily proved wrong and the sun did actually shine for us as we enjoyed out outdoor learning fun at Leswalt Primary!

From gathering materials at the Wetlands (to create our bird and bug habitats back at school) whilst enjoying the abundance of wild garlic and the scent of the bluebells- to all hands on deck to spruce up our playground and garden area! HUGE thanks must go to the Wetlands volunteers who very kindly gave up their own time to help us out. As you can imagine, having been off-site for 18 months and moving back home during Winter, our garden area had seen better days! Lots of clearing up and cutting back means that we’re well on the way to rebuilding our outdoor area again.

Whilst at the Wetlands we carried out some wildlife detecting.  We used our Spot It sheets to find signs of animals and insects around us.

Brushing, building, planting, weeding, painting, washing and foraging – it was a busy day! All activities were planned to ensure our school stays true to its eco ethos and has a bird and bug friendly environment in our playground.

Enjoy scrolling through the fabulous photos below (we do have a photogenic bunch!) and read all about our day’s adventures in Daisy and Cara’s (Eco committee members) blog report…

Outdoor Education Day 

At the start of the morning, P6 stayed back with Jane Sloan and all of her Aloudoran wetlands crew who helped us tidy up the garden. Meanwhile P1 to P5 headed to along to the wetlands to do some foraging! They also met the Gruffalo, the fox, the snake and the little brave white mouse! After 30 minutes or so everyone carried their sticks, leaves, moss and twigs back to school to be used in building the animal habitats in the playground.   

Back at school, the P6s had been super busy;  Hamish and Carys were tidying the toy box; Faye and Kaiden were helping the Aldouran volunteers with clearing the garden and Brandon, Mark and Cara were loading the branches that had been cut off the willow dome into the trailer. Then we served our adult helpers tea, coffee and a sweet treat! 

Once those jobs were done,  Mrs Mcknight and Mrs Ferguson put us into groups of three and gave an animal habitat to every group. We were kept busy making a bird bath, creating some earwig houses , designing a toad home, putting up our teacup bird feeders, building a log pile, finding areas for bumblebee houses to go, setting up a snail brick house – as well as weeding, gardening, brushing up and planting up some planters with some lovely red geraniums to hang on the  railings at the front door! After a long day of working, the boy and girls admired their efforts – the outside looks so fresh and clean!  

By Carys and Daisy (Eco Committee reps) 

And there’s always more to do! Our next steps will be … wall and tyre planter painting, path pressure-washing and seed planting. Watch this space…

Thanks to Megan Bark, Dental Health Officer for Child Smile, for visiting P5-7 to relaunch the toothbrushing programme.

As we are learning about microbes at the moment, it seemed perfect timing for us to focus on our dental hygiene too – bye bye bad bacteria…

The class learnt about the effects of bacteria on their tooth enamel and gums and the role of fluoride as well as getting their own toothbrush to use after lunch each day.

An extra toothbrushing stint each day can only be a good thing to ensure we all keep those million dollar smiles! Say CHEESE…!

Sunday dawned dry (yay!) as plans were put into action for Leswalt’s Parent Council’s fundraising Cream Tea! This annual event has been much missed as the last one was in 2019 and Covid-19 put paid to the next few years, but to the delight of the school and the community, it was back!

Bunting welcomed visitors into a busy school with stalls manned by parents and pupils. An array of raffle prizes enticed those to buy their tickets (thanks to all those who donated).

In the playground, the bbq was fired up and the aroma of delicious hot dogs and burgers tempted many to take a seat in the sunshine (yes it did make an appearance!)

In the P1-4 classroom, there was a well-stocked bottle stall, a delicious baking table, the chance to have some glittery hair extensions and superb face-painting on offer!

Pupils manned the stalls in the P5-7 classroom selling items made by the children as well as nail painting , temporary tattoos, a book stall and Guess the Bear’s Birthday!

Classes had been busy making things to sell with an Eco theme over the last two weeks. Bird feeder ‘Chirpios’, beautiful teacup and saucer bird seed holders, ready to grow seed pots, pretty painted pebbles and seed bombs in painted pots were hand-crafted and sold.

After browsing the stalls, visitors headed into the hall to enjoy the delicious Cream Tea – and what a spread! Huge thanks to all those who donated their baking to fill the over-flowing cake stands! Your kindness is much appreciated – and the visitors really appreciated and enjoyed the tasty treats.

All in all, it was a very successful afternoon! All made possible by the dedicated hard work of all parents who contributed in any way to the running of the day. Not to mention the pupils who made their crafts to sell and supported their school by manning stalls and coming along too!

A very big thank you to everyone involved. Your hard work is very much appreciated!

In preparation for the momentous day in which our country sees the crowning of a new monarch, Leswalt Primary pupils planned a day to remember!

As hard as it was for the children to believe, even the teachers aren’t old enough to have witnessed the last coronation! So, it was felt fitting, that the day should be marked so it should be one for the memory box…

Throughout the week, we had been making Royal bunting to decorate our school for the Coronation weekend (which coincided with our fundraising Cream Tea too). We had also been finding out more about the lineage of the monarchy, the role of a King and the key historical objects which were to be part of the service and their significance.

On Friday, staff and pupils joined together dressed in Union jack colours – we even had a few princesses join us AND, would you believe, ‘King Charles’ was also spotted waving his flag and singing (aka Colin!)

Designing commemorative flags, crowning our own King Tristan (eldest in our Leswalt Primary family!), creating be-jwelled, ‘ermine’ trimmed crowns fit for a King, joining with friends to enjoy a delicious buffet lunch all filled a jam-packed, fun-filled morning!

Our lunch fitted with this year’s One Planet Picnic event which is a fun picnic  that is good for you and good for the planet.   We avoided single use plastic and used reusable cups instead. We used recyclable paper plates to minimise waste too!

It is a fun way to make your food and drink choices environmentally friendly.  Look at the step by step guide below for inspiration and ideas.

In the afternoon, everyone headed outside to participate in a Royal Sports with Monarch Corners, the King’s Horses Relay and Don’t Drop the Crown just a few of the games enjoyed – thanks to Mrs McKnight who tweaked old favourites to give them that Coronation-themed feel!

To round the day off, proudly wearing their crowns and waving their flags, all came together in the playground to entertain waiting parents with a rousing rendition of ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ from the Lion King – King Charles III would have loved it, of that i’m quite sure!

And, as an extra treat, Mrs Kyle had very kindly baked a Coronation cupcake for every pupil to take home 🙂

A day to remember…

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

The DG Schools STEM Showcase for 2023 is now live.

We are proud to say that the North Rhins Partnership has been highlighted for our excellent learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Click here or scan the QR code below to access a Thinklink to view our good work.  All you need to then do is click on the red hotspots for our school locations to access the content. You can also explore what has been happening in schools across the region in all things STEM.

# Rights of the Child 29 – Aims of Education

Despite the windy forces at work on Wednesday, 11 hardy P5-7’s took themselves off to run the annual school’s cross country competition out at Green Valley.  This was re-scheduled after rain postponed the event planned before the holidays.   Wednesday  had glorious sunshine, slightly over shadowed by some harsh headwinds (or excellent tail winds if you are facing the right way…?) 

After a warm up activity, pupils waited patiently for the schools to gather and then the races began – half a mile for p5 and one mile long for p6 and p7 pupils.   Every single pupil tried their absolute best and the most evident thing  was the team work the pupils displayed – cheering each other on as loudly as they could! 

Well done to all for their efforts #effective contributors

To make the most of the glorious sunshine and work on some of our Eco targets, the pupils all headed over to the Wetlands on Tuesday afternoon to offer up their services as community volunteers.

The children split into three groups – one group helped with general tidying by raking and weeding; another group were identifying flowers; and the final group were painting stones for the ladybird noughts & crosses game in the willow dome. Pupils also went to see the goose sitting on her eggs in the nest – see if you can spot her in the picture below!

Huge thanks to the adult Wetland volunteers who gave up their time to assist the pupils and set up these activities. We love being able to help out in our community!