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Huge thanks to the Construction Department at DGC Stranraer Campus – particularly Scott McEwan for helping us out and building our new playground shed!

We HUGELY appreciate their help!

Our Eco Committee typed up a letter of thanks.

 *******************************************                                                                                                                      Dear DGC Stranraer Campus Construction Department,  

We would like to thank you SO much building our lovely metal shed for us!! 

We really appreciate you giving up your time to help. 

Thanks to lecturers, students, and particularly Scott McEwan for all their efforts. 

 Thank you  

 From Evan, Cara and Daisy Leswalt Eco Committee  

and all the pupils and staff of Leswalt Primary   

Leswalt Primary was delighted to welcome 2 very special guests to see the news and improved Leswalt Primary school.

Dawn Roberts the new Chief Executive for Dumfries and Galloway council was accompanied by Dr Gillian Brydson, Director of skills Education and Learning to see how all the money has been spent on the refurbishment of Leswalt Primary school.  They arrived at Leswalt Primary school with the Scrapbook the Pupil council made many years ago to request some work on Leswalt Primary.  Hamish Mc Gregor recalls he was in Primary 1 when this was compiled.  Hamish is now in Primary 6 and delighted to see the huge change from the photographs in the scrapbook!

While at the school, our visitors had a tour from Alexander and Faye, our most senior pupil council members now.  The school also sang to them and Mrs Ferguson was also surprised when they handed over a certificate to her for working with Dumfries and Galloway council for over 25 years!

Click here to read the letter we received after the visit – Sheila Baillie 20230221

We were delighted to welcome the fabulous Kathryn Purchase from History Alive into school today to work with P5-7.

The class have just started a study of World War Two and, in class, had found out about the unrest in Germany after WW1, the rise of Hitler, invasion of Poland and the start of WW2 with Neville Chamberlain’s momentous speech.

Kathryn brought along her amazing collection of WW2 artefacts and, after taking the children through a whistle-stop tour of the war and covering topics such as key figures, events, the Home Front, the Blitz (and Clydebank in particular), the role of women, VE day, the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and finally VJ Day (Victory over Japan) which brought the events of 1939-1945 to an end – finally!

We also dug out some of the school’s old logbooks which give a fascinating insight into the effect the war had locally. The Headteacher at the time wrote in detail with weekly war updates included and information on evacuated children coming to join the school.

A visit from History Alive is always a huge highlight for the pupils – and an excellent way to bring events of the past to life and to make it meaningful for them. Kathryn’s knowledge is quite something to listen to and we thoroughly enjoy having her with us. What a fabulous morning!

Pupils in P5-7 at Kirkcolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary Schools headed off to Abernethy Barcaple Outdoor Centre on Monday for an overnight residential stay.

The boys and girls participated in a range of activities whilst there including archery, abseiling, a challenge course, climbing wall, and team problem solving challenges. Pupils overcame fears and developed their team-working skills throughout the course of our trip. 

After a fun-filled day of activities, everyone enjoyed an evening game of hide and seek in the dark – at which point the staff watched as 50 children ran off into the darkness at a location they had never been before; cue panicking teachers! But thankfully all returned safe and sound, and no one was left to spend the night in the great outdoors! 

We then headed to our rooms to settle down for the night – and despite a lot of sugar being consumed, everyone was asleep by midnight much to the staff’s relief! 

The next day started bright and early with some pupils rising at 6.30am. After breakfast, we finished our final group activities and hopped onto the bus just after lunch time. It was a very quiet journey home with lots of tired little people catching 40 winks to make up for the lack of sleep the night before! 

Everyone had a brilliant time away and enjoyed mixing with pupils from all of our trio schools. 

Safer Internet Day was actually Tuesday 7th February (yesterday!) but we were actually in deepest, darkest Barcaple yesterday abseiling and climbing through muddy challenge courses and so not using the internet at all!

So, we kicked off this morning back in school with a chat about how to keep ourselves safe online. P.C. Conroy came in to chat to us and talk us through a presentation about internet safety. The pupils were very open and honest with P.C. Conroy – most have mobile phones and use YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, BeReal etc. There are age limitations for all of these for a reason. We know that parents will be keeping a close eye on search history and what is being accessed/who is in contact – but it just helps to raise awareness with the pupils too. They are much more knowledgeable about these things than I am as an oldie!

The clear message is:

1. do not share personal details online
2. only accept friend request from people you know
3. be kind! Don’t be mean and if you see others being mean – report it!
4. enjoy using your phone – but have some downtime too!

The internet is an amazing and wonderful place but, it has its negatives too of course! Just be mindful and think.

If you are ever unsure – seek the advice of an adult!

Why not check our our Sway and select play to see our activity across our partnership.

Friends and family gathered at Leswalt Primary this afternoon to celebrate our month of Scots Learning with a packed entertainment programme!

Following on from Wednesday’s judging by Mr McCracken, the pupils learnt who had won the recitation, handwriting and artwork category for each year group. Very exciting! We even had a new category this year with Faye, Hamish and Daisy all singing.

The winners were:

P1 – ‘Ode tae a spider’

Recitation winners : 1. Eilidh Ramsay; 2. Hannah Drummond; 3. Thea Fisher

Illustration winners ; 1. Keira Richardson; 2. Eilidh Ramsay; 3. Thea Fisher

Handwriting winners; 1. Aria Rose Williamson; 2. Thea Fisher; 3. Hannah Drummond

P2 – ‘Furry hat’

Recitation winners : 1. Lily Bennewith; 2. Ellie Burton

Illustration winners : 1. Lily Bennewith; 2. Ellie Burton

Handwriting winners : 1. Lily Bennewith; 2. Ellie Burton

P4 – ‘Miss McCurdie’

Recitation winners : 1. Ben Thomson; 2. Murray Reid; 3. Rachael Drummond

Illustration winners : 1. Colin McGregor; 2. Rachael Drummond; 3. Murray Reid

Handwriting winners : 1. Rachael Reid; 2. Murray Reid; 3. Colin McGregor

P5 – ‘Harry’

Recitation winners : 1. Ewan Clark; 2. Ela Chang; 3. Daisy Doyle

Illustration winners: 1. Amelia McHallum; 2. Daisy Doyle; 3. Sean McCredie & Ewan Clark

Handwriting winners : 1. Holly Santangeli; 2. Amelia McHallum; 3. Ela Chang

P6 – ‘King o the midden’

Recitation winners : 1. Hamish McGregor; 2. Cara Jamieson; 3. Brandon Millar

Illustration winners : 1. Hamish McGregor;2. Faye Adams; 3. Carys McHallum

Handwriting winners : 1. Faye Adams; 2. Hamish McGregor; 3. Carys McHallum

P7 – Anything by Burns

Recitation winners : 1. Thomas Agnew; 2. Alexander Clark; 3. Rose Santangeli

Illustration winners : 1. Rose Santangeli; 2. Thomas Agnew; 3. Alexander Clark

Handwriting winners : 1. Thomas Agnew; 2. Rose Santageli; 3. Evan Stevely

Singing

1. Daisy Doyle (P5); 2. Hamish McGregor (P6); 3. Faye Adams (P6)

 

Take a look at the pictures below of the talented pupils we have here at our wee school.

Well done to you all – whether winners or not. We are very proud of your efforts and you should be too.

 

Earlier this year, our P5-7 pupils were set the challenge of designing their own app for a mobile phone, by the company “Make it Happen”.  There were lots of wonderful suggestions.  Runners up at Leswalt were all give certificates – 

Murray Reid – car game

Daisy Doyle – book reader for dyslexics

Hamish Mc Gregor – Cooking app

Rose Santangeli – Dog training app.

Five overall winners were chosen for the whole of Dumfries and Galloway.  The lucky winners all received a Coding book, water bottle and brand new Kindle Fire tablet!  The winners also get their app made for real!

At Leswalt we are delighted and excited to have one winner. Drum roll please……

Alexander Clark has created “Name your stock” – an app that is designed to allow you to identify different breeds of sheep and cows you may spot in the fields.  Alexander will work in conjunction with the company to add further breeds and information to this app.  One key breed he will be adding soon is his beloved Texel sheep!

You can download the app on to your own phone – Mrs Baillie already has it on her phone and was able to show the school this morning 🙂

Click on this link –   https://name-your-stock.glideapp.io/dl/6471c6        and you too can download the app made by Alexander

Well done Alexander!

The Literacy and Expressive Arts focus since the turn of the year has been all things Scots at Leswalt Primary – from song lyrics to poetry; presentation to artwork; traditional dance to music artists past and present; significant Scottish individuals to research to designing own tartans; the learning has been centred around our homeland.

What better day to celebrate the culmination of this learning than today – 25th January the birthday of Rabbie Burns himself!

Mr McCracken had the tricky task of judging the artwork, handwriting and recitations of all pupils – as well as some very talented singers too.

Following this, the school gathered together in the hall for our annual mini Burns Supper complete with a P7 top table, Hannah in P1 carrying in the haggis, the Selkirk Grace, Address to the Haggis, Toasts tae the Lads, Lassies and School, a busy compere, recitations from pupils from P1 through to P7, singing from both classes and the fabulous trio of Faye, Hamish and Daisy, dancing from Faye and of course a plate of delicious haggis, neeps and tatties!

Our Scots Showcase Assembly will be held this Friday 27th January at 2pm when the pupils will find out who the winners are! Come along and enjoy an afternoon of Scottish entertainment Leswalt Style at 2pm. It’ll be a treat indeed!

 

January sees the return of the RSPB’s Big Birdwatch campaign. So we decided to make the most of the beautifully crisp Winter’s day with a walk in the beautiful surroundings of the Aldouran Wetlands to carry out our survey.

Buddying up younger pupils with older ones, we headed through the village armed with our bird-spotting sheets on clipboards. We missed the Wetlands very much while we were ‘living’ at Kirkcolm during school refurbishment so it was so good to get back – and to enjoy it in the snow was an added bonus. We also spotted the commemorative stone for our local Olympic curlers!

Reminding the pupils of the need to be quiet for fearing of scaring the birds away, each pair found a spot to base themselves in and watched and listened. It is a joy to take the time to stop and just take in your surroundings and the pupils were encouraged to do exactly that.

Our results were noted down using tally marks – the bird feeder stations at the Wetlands were doing a roaring trade! An average was taken of our findings and passed to Ms Whorlow who co-ordinates our Eco work. Safe to say we have a very healthy bird population in our local area. After all, who wouldn’t want to live here?!

As part of our Scots focus month, we invited Mrs Henry, who founded and teaches the Fearon Scottish Country Dancers , to come and teach us a thing or two about set dances!

We are extremely lucky in that, when Mrs Henry isn’t dancing she is working at Portpatrick Primary supporting learners and keeping the administration side ticking over, and so we were able simply to lift the phone and ask her to spend a session with us!

Before Christmas, the pupils had learnt a few popular Scottish dances such as the Gay Gordons, Military Two Step and Canadian Barn Dance but Mrs Henry taught them all something quite a different: three dances called Rabbie’s Reel, A Reel for Jeanie and the Virginia Reel.

Now, I won’t lie and say everything went smoothly first time – there were a number of wrong turns, miscounting of steps and dance steps not quite happening in the correct order as you might expect! But under the expert tuition of Mrs Henry (such patience!), the pupils of Leswalt Primary were soon dancing fairly successfully and having lots of fun! There were quite a few looking rather puffed-out as dancing is a great way to exercise.

I am quite sure the pupils will be amongst the first to take to the dancefloor at future ceilidhs now! Wedding receptions, 18th and 21st birthday parties…you name it, this lot have the required dancing skills.

Thank you to Mrs Henry for giving up her time to lead us in such a fun morning!

And if anyone fancies doing some more dancing, Mrs Henry’s weekly classes are open to all ages and are held every Monday at the Millennium Centre between 5-6pm. She’d love to welcome new members along!