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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!

Alexander and Ewan Clark brought three of their pet lambs into school this afternoon for a ‘Meet and Greet the Sheep’ session!

The pet lambs are called Diddly Squat, Diddly Dee and Diddly Dum and happily wandered around our cloakroom being fed from the bottle by pupils. Alexander told us all a little about each lamb too. They are just over a fortnight old and weren’t at all fazed by their audience!

Huge thanks to Alison (Alexander and Ewan’s mum for bringing the lambs to school). Another lovely experience for us all!

Article 24 UNCRC – Health, Food, Water and Environment

Leswalt Primary donned their gloves, fetched a litter-picker and carried their rubbish sack as they worked in groups to tidy up their village this morning.

The Spring sunshine shone brightly as the pupils made sure their local area looked beautiful.

Several bags of rubbish were collected meaning the village looks more fabulous than ever!

As a result of the children’s hard work, Leswalt has achieved 2nd place in the Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean Campaign 2023 / Litter League Competition for the Scotland South region (D&G and Scottish Borders).  Well done everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article 24 – Health, Water, Food, Environment UNCRC

There was an excellent turn out from our cluster primary schools at this year’s annual Primary 7 Rotary Quiz.

Teams of four from each school competed to be this year’s champions.  There were a number of categories such as:

• Geography
• Technology
• Entertainment
• Nature

The questions were very entertaining and wide ranging.  A good few of them challenged the grown-ups in the audience too.

The winners were as follows:

1. Rephad
2. Sandhead
3. Kirkcolm

Our partnership pupils enjoyed the social mingle. There was a great team spirit and a lively atmosphere . Well done to all the keen beans who took part.  Thank you to the Rotary Club for organising the event and funding the refreshments and prizes.  Thank you also to Rephad for hosting the event.  A good time was had by all.

# Effective Contributors

UNCRC Rights of the Child

As part of British Science Week celebrations, P5-7 enjoyed a Science afternoon.

Each activity table was set up for either a Biology, Chemistry or Physics investigation and pupils worked in pairs around each task.

From planting seeds and using magnifying glasses to take a closer look at leaves and flowers; to building electrical circuits and exploring the wires inside plugs; to creating irreversible chemical reactions between Bicarbonate of Soda and vinegar – it was a busy and fun afternoon.

Each task had weblinks to BBC Bitesize Learning Guides for the class to investigate to further back up their learning. Just look at the photos of what our budding scientists of the future were up to!

It was an early start for all on Thursday morning as Leswalt Primary boarded a bus headed for the Glasgow Science Centre!

This is British Science Week and so our trip tied in nicely. It was made possible through us receiving a successful grant from the British Science Association, a rural transport support grant from the Glasgow Science Centre and a very generous parental donation. Our grateful thanks goes to all.

The pupils explored the Science mall with its vast array of interactive exhibits to learn about:

• Our physical world of forces, illusions and materials
• The human body – physiology, human health and the senses to develop an understanding of interrelationship between the body’s actions in response to outside conditions.
• Powering the future – making connections between the drive to use more sustainable energies to meet future challenges. We were able to make the link between human activity and protecting the planet.

P1-4 are studying Forces in class and so they enjoyed a workshop on this very topic.

P5-7 are about to start their investigations into Microbes and so they were delighted to experience the Planetarium presentation which looked at our Solar System and the possibilities of life on other planets! This visual display was led by an astronomer who led the pupils on a ‘trip into space!’

It goes without saying that part of the fun of a school trip is being with buddies, spending pennies in the shop, scoffing packed lunches and, in this case, the escalators also proved to be quite a hit! Such a lovely experience for all – both for their learning and socialisation!

Just take a look at the photos below for their beaming smiles!