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As part of Primary 1 to 4’s topic in Social Studies this term, the children have been learning about life in castles long ago.

Today, Mrs McKnight’s class combined what they have been learning about castle features with a STEM challenge (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

After gathering up a wide range of recycled junk modelling material (thank you families!), each child planned their own unique castle design.

Design Challenge:

The boys and girls then came together in small groups to work collaboratively to amalgamate the best features of their designs into one improved design.  Once this has been agreed, they brought their plans to life by constructing their models.

Design Examples

Construction Phase

Everyone worked very hard and their was lots of focus and attention to detail during the construction phase.

The finished models incorporated features such as battlements, moats, bailies, arrow loops and even working drawbridges to name but a few!

This activity has supported the development of the skills for learning, life and work as an integral part of education, e.g.:

• Communication & Negotiation
• Problem Solving
• Creating & Evaluating

There was lots of thinking and discussion on how to best combine and join materials to create the model features.  The children were able to reflect on their work and identify areas of success and targets for improvement.

We are sure you will agree that any self-respecting knight would be happy to take up residence in these fabulous castles!

# Successful Learners

P1-4 were thrilled to welcome back Kathryn Purchase from History Alive to present a workshop all about Knights and Castles. We all love Kathryn’s visits and today’s was no exception. We loved hearing tales of castle building through the ages, and what life would be like living in one. It would have been very cold, dark and smelly we decided!

Colin was also knighted and shall now be forever known as ‘Sir Colin of Leswalt’, and Ewan and Holly were gifted great areas of land for being favourite nobles of the King.

Next week in class, we shall be building our own castles as part of a technology project. Today’s session has armed us all with some great ideas and we shall be making sure to include all of these key castle features in our models.

Thank you once again Kathryn and we look forward to seeing you again next year for an Ancient Egyptians workshop, and a WW2 input with the P5-7 class.

# Successful Learners

As part of our on-going Eco Schools work, Leswalt and Kirkcolm teamed up to rid the streets of litter today!

As it turned out, we live in a beautifully kept environment and so there wasn’t too much in the way of litter – good news all round I’d say!

The pieces we did find were safely disposed of by our intrepid team of rubbish busters who were rewarded with a few minutes playing in the park.

Many thanks to our parent helpers who came to lend a hand – Mrs McHallum came with our bunch!

We all know what to do with litter – recycle what you can and safely get rid of the rest. Happily it looks like our local area are pretty good at that too!

Take Two – and the rain steered clear, the midges behaved and Leswalt’s Sports Day was game on! We were delighted to welcome back family and friends to cheer all pupils on as they donned their running shoes and gave each event their all. So good to see such sportsmanship on display – we really do have a great wee team!

All staff were assigned to their positions and the afternoon flew by. From skipping races to jumping sacks; egg and spoon to flat races; beanbag throw to the obstacle race – it wasn’t long until everyone was smiling and hoarse from cheering!

Huge thanks to Kaiden’s mum Natasha for very kindly supplying tasty refreshments! Those ice lollies were most welcome!

Full results to follow but, in the meantime, enjoy the happy snaps below of our sporting superstars. From those embracing their first primary sports day to those relishing their last; it was smiles all round!

Well done to each and every one of you!

This afternoon, Leswalt Primary ventured into Stranraer Academy; joining several other primary schools at the fabulous Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s production of Gaspard’s Foxtrot. This performance was having its Scottish school tour debut today – they will also be visiting Langholm, Aviemore, Inverness and Kirkwall over the coming weeks.

The orchestra delivered an afternoon of story-telling through music. The book had been written by Zeb Soanes and illustrated by James Mayhew, with an orchestral score by Jonathan Dove and an accompanying film directed by Dougie Irvine and produced by Laura Penny.

Lucy, a member of the RSNO, led the pupils through a fun warm-up using the body to create music and introduced them to the different sections of the orchestra and the conductor. We all then settled back for 35 minutes of escapism – following Gaspard the Fox on his adventures through the city of London.

Here are some of the highlights from the pupils:

“The fact that the music really described the thoughts and feelings was great!”

“Lucy’s warm-up was great fun!”

“Lucy’s story-telling went really well with the music and film!”

“I enjoyed doing Lucy’s music-making exercises. They were great fun!”

“I loved being able to see the instruments and what they were doing!”

“It was a cool story and the music went really well with it!”

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon out!

Today we we dedicated our learning to all things regal in honour of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for our Queen, Elizabeth II!

Would you believe she even popped in for a visit?! She met some of our pupils to say hello and joined in some lunchtime fun and class activities!

After watching an information video which covered every decade the Queen has been on the throne, we challenged one another to a Royal-themed quiz. Some of the questions really got us thinking!

Leswalt village has lots of Jubilee activities planned; from a concert on Friday night to a street party on Sunday so we decided to design some red, white and blue themed bunting which could be used to decorate the streets! We also made some paper chains to add to the party look too.

We got our thinking caps on for an activity which asked  what we might do if we were King/Queen for a day as well as some Royal research questions. Did you know the youngest ever reigning monarch became King of Oyo of Uganda  at the age of just 3 years old! And the longest ever reigning monarch was Louis XIV of France who reigned from May 14th 1643 until September 1st 1715- a whopping 72 years and 110 days!

Lunchtime had a celebration vibe with a picnic enjoyed by all in the sunshine.  We combined our lunch with an annual One Planet Picnic, minimising our use of single use plastic for our take-away lunch.  Michelle provided compostable spoons for our yogurts.  We recycled our pots in our new council plastic collection bins.  We also used paper bags instead of plastic.  Those that brought in their own lunches used re-usable snack pots and water bottles. (see photos below)

After a delicious feed, we designed some fantastic artwork combining the Union Jack; the Queen’s love of Corgis and the Royal Crown Jewels! We took home our masterpieces to display in our own homes this Jubilee weekend. We think the Queen would most definitely approve of them!

To round off our Royal-themed day, we learnt the words to the National Anthem; God Save the Queen and our very own adapted lyrics to join in a whole school Grand Old Duke of York. We sang these with gusto to bring our school day to a regal end!

The lyrics went something like this:

“Oh, Queen Elizabeth the 2nd

She rules well over us all

She’s sat on the throne for 70 years

Lets’ celebrate and have a ball!”

Happy Platinum Jubilee Queen Elizabeth II – the longest reigning monarch of Great Britain ever.

Enjoy your Jubilee Holiday everyone!

On Friday, P1-4 enjoyed a fun filled day at Dumfries House, enjoying 2 interesting workshops, then a play in the Woodland Adventure Playground.

The first workshop was all about weather and we had the chance to show off our knowledge picked up in last term’s weather topic. The focus was Wind and we used bubbles and compasses to measure wind direction, and also give it a value on the Beaufort Scale. Our final challenge was to ‘outrun’ the wind at various stages on the Beaufort scale using a measuring tape and stopwatch. We struggled to get past a moderate breeze! J

The second workshop was called Energy Engineering and we had great fun exploring energy generation using wind turbines, a hydro system and solar panels. We also had to search in the play area for natural sources of energy and made our own wind socks.

A stop off at the adventure playground was enjoyed before setting off home on the bus. A super trip in beautiful surroundings and we would all happily make a return trip to explore the grounds more!

Our boys and girls have been enjoying the outdoor life today, planting all the kind donations of plants we have received from Home and Gardens & Tesco.  The children have written thank you letters to Tesco and Lidl today

Ever creative, Mrs Richardson has been repurposing tubs and containers to help make our grounds look blooming good.

We even found a larve.  We are not sure if it’s a moth or a butterfly.  We put it back carefully to keep it safe.

In addition, Aiden (P7) had recently written to the RSPB asking for a donation of literature.  They have replied today by kindly sending us a pack for each school.  It contains ‘best for bee’s’ annual flower seeds along with  bird identification guides and gardening with wildlife in mind helpsheets.

Also, everyone joined in with a Big Bug Hunt

# Effective Contributors

We are delighted to announce that the North Rhins Trio Partnership has been awarded our Anti-Bullying Ambassador Respect Badge!

Our Primary 6 pupils along with our house captains underwent anti-bullying ambassador training as part of the Diana Award.  As a results, and in combination with our Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award, our pupils have completed an action plan of 6 activities to gain this award.

• Educating students on children’s rights through a year long, whole school assembly programme focussed on UNCRC Rights of the Child, Rights Respecting Schools and Global Goals 
• The creation of Rights As We See It Video showcasing children’s views on their rights and their importance
• Whole school awareness events such as anti-bullying week and a week of kindness etc.
•  Diversifying our school library through digital book readings
• The creation of a new monthly Respect award, as defined by our pupils
• The creation a whole school diversity and inclusion pledge by our pupils

We have been highly praised for our work in key areas that demonstrate and support a culture of respect. Have a read at our award feedback to find out how well all of our pupils have worked in key areas:

Respect Badge Letter

The Diana Trust wrote this lovely comment:

Thanks so much for sending over your evidence form for the Respect Badge. We’ve reviewed your evidence and we were overwhelmed with how much thought and effort you’ve put into your anti-bullying initiatives. It seems like all of the activities have had a great impact on the students in your school and we really like that you use such creative ideas to support your campaign. The video is amazing and the diversity and inclusion pledge is a fantastic action which I am sure will be a long term feature in your school.

Congratulations, we are awarding you the Respect Badge! This is a fantastic achievement and the team should be very proud.’

Here is a link to a Sway explaining more about our new respect award:

North Rhins Respect Award Blog

As part of our work with the Diana Trust, we have created a new RESPECT award certificate.

Go to this Sway

Our senior pupils created a collection of inclusion pledges. These were shared with the whole school community and everyone voted for the one they would like us to adopt.  Here is our winning pledge from Rose, Struan, Faye and Tristan.:

Well done to our anti-bullying ambassadors AND all of our pupils who have been involved as whole school communities to promote RESPECT FOR ALL!

# Responsible Citizens

# Effective Contributors