This morning, Leswalt and Kirkcolm upper classes were lucky enough to enjoy a hands-on session with the marvellous Kathryn Purchase of History Alive!
Both classes have covered the Scottish Wars of Independence as their Social Studies topic for this term – and Kathryn was the very person to help bring this historical period to life for them with her fact-busting whizz through the years in question, answering any questions pupils had about the events of the time (clue – lots of unfortunate deaths, power struggles, scheming nobles and some ghastly treatment from both sides of their enemies!
The pupils were enthralled. Kathryn has a wonderful knack of really bringing the history to life for them. Needless to say, her huge collection of artefacts (some bought and some made by herself) helped too. The classes listened to her retelling of the life and times of King Alexander III, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and those momentous battles of Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn and , after a quick break, Kathryn let them explore the helmets, shields and swords (safe replicas!) and ask questions. Such fun – just take a look at the photos below!
This was a wonderful way to bring the children’s learning to a conclusion. It was a morning to remember – thanks Kathryn!
What a morning we have had at Leswalt Primary. We were delighted to welcome back to our school, our Olympian medallists – Vicky Wright and Bobby Lammie. Both arrived wearing their Olympic kit, with medals round their neck for all to admire.
They arrived to a heroes welcome from all the pupils at Leswalt Primary, as a great cheer went up as they walked into meet the current Leswalt Primary crew. Once in, they were shown how Leswalt Primary had been cheering them on throughout their time in Beijing – from good luck video messages, bunting round the school and watching their games in the classroom. With the ladies semi final going onto an extra end even meant the pupils were late home one day, it was that tense everyone had to wait until the final stone!
The two house captains then read out letters they had sent to the Royal Mail, MP’s. MSPs, and local councillors asking for the postbox at Leswalt school to be painted gold. Malcom Mc Gregor and Breagh Kirkpatrick outlined how sadly they are not doing this again after the London 2012 Olympics. But, the Royal Mail sent every pupil in Leswalt Primary a special presentation pack of stamps Royal Mail have produced to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Queen, to say sorry and make up for disappointing the boys and girls.
Mrs Baillie, then told all the boys and girls that we will have our own special additions at school to remind everyone how proud everyone at Leswalt Primary is of our former pupils. Thanks to a kind donation from the Baillie family of 2 curling stones we will mark out entrance way to school to remember when Vicky and Bobby won Gold and Silver at the Olympics. The school has sourced gold and silver curling stone handles which will go on the stones. Inside the building our new extension entranceway will have a commentative photograph of our former pupils and today they left us a special addition for our time capsule that we will be burying in the playground.
The floor was then opened for questions from the pupils. They ranged from “What does it take to be an Olympian?” “What is your favourite ice rink?” and “How did you celebrate after winning your medals?”. Vicky and Bobby took the time to answer to every single question from the inquisitive audience. The boys and girls also learned about the symbols on the medal and learning how heavy they were.
The school then took part in some live Olympic curling. The younger class had previously had a round robin tournament of table top curling in class. So the school had a female then male final. Young Rachael Drummond took on Vicky Wright, and sadly could not defeat the gold medal winner. But in the male final it was a “Bobby Bonspiel”, as Leswalt’s young Bobby Shaw in P1 played Bobby Lammie. The cheers went up when it was “wee” Bobby who won the Bobby bonspiel!
A prize giving ceremony took place on the specially constructed Leswalt Primary podium. Medals and certificates were awarded to our curling superstars as “Simply the Best” was played instead of the National anthem!
Finally Bobby and Vicky signed the curling games and some autographs for their young fans before leaving Leswalt Primary again.
It was a wonderful, inspiring morning for all, showing what true sports Bobby and Vicky are, both on and off the ice rink.
Primary 5 to 7 were keen to get outdoors to combine using their maths and technologies skills this morning.
Through a practical activity which included the use of
technology, children developed their understanding of the link between compass points and angles. The children logged on to Google Maps and used the shared location function to access the compass function. They were able to use the app to identify the directions of the 4 points of the compass namely, North, South, East and West and relate them to their immediate location.
They then applied their knowledge of angles to calculate and draw their own chalk compasses, extending the task to create some 8-point compasses with accuracy.
As the Sun was shining, we decided to go outdoors to enjoy some cross-country distance running in the afternoon too – an active day all round!
Huge thank you to Michael Hogg Senior Public Affairs Manager at the Royal Mail for following up on his promise of a special delivery for every Leswalt pupil.
This was in response to the letters which Malcolm and Breagh wrote requesting a gold postbox for the village to represent Vicky Wright and her team’s Gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Mr Hogg had replied by saying that this, unfortunately, was not possible as it was only done in the year of the 2012 ‘home’ Olympics. However, he promised to send a special set of commemorative stamps for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee for every Leswalt Primary pupil. And he was as good as his word, as these arrived on Mrs Baillie’s desk today!
Thanks must go to Mr Hogg for going that extra mile and thinking about us all. Thanks also to Malcolm and Breagh for using their initiatives and writing the letter of request in the first place!
Plans are afoot for Leswalt Primary’s own commemoration of Vicky Wright’s Gold and Bobby Lammie’s Silver… more information on that to come!
So lovely to see the Spring sunshine today – what a change from last week’s storms!
We took the opportunity to take our learning outside and take on a STEM challenge at the beach.
Buddied up with P1-4, we headed down Fisher’s Lane to the beach looking out for the very welcome signs of Spring. On the beach, we found a starfish and a huge oyster too. Once in small working groups, we were tasked with our STEM challenge. The task set was to build a stone cairn as tall as we possible using natural materials.
The group needed to think about where they would build it, the shape and texture of the stones used, the positioning of the stones and the ‘look’ of the finished tower.
Some groups used their initiative to build upon what was already there – breaking the rules or not?! An interesting discussion was held about this – were they recycling? Were they still using natural materials?! Art came into the finished designs of many of the towers – symmetrical patterns too! A few groups built their stone cairn and then covered them with sand to resemble a desert ‘volcano’! Oh to be inside the minds of the young!
All in all, it was a fun morning on the beach putting some outdoor Maths and Engineering skills into action. And, better still, all done with the hint of some Spring sunshine on our faces!
We may have mentioned before our pride in having the utterly fabulous Vicky Wright (Olympic Gold Medallist) and equally amazing Bobby Lammie (Olympic Silver medallist) as past pupils of our wee village school! And with this in mind, Malcolm (one of our House Captains) approached teachers with a thought…might Leswalt get a Gold postbox in honour of the Ladies’ Curling Team’s success?
Only one way to find out Malcolm, and that’s to ask those in the know! Malcolm and Breagh (both of our House Captains) took on the role of penning a letter which was sent to the Royal Mail and local councillors explaining who they were, their link to Vicky and Bobby and their special request of a lasting memento.
And the responses were super speedy! Within ten minutes, they had replies of support from councillors and one from the Royal Mail who forwarded their email onto the relevant department.
Today (less than 24hours later!) letters arrived for Malcolm and Breagh sent by Special Delivery! These came from Michael Hogg, Senior Public Affairs Manager at the Royal Mail Headquarters in London. He wrote to thank them for their beautifully written request. Unfortunately, the gold postboxes were only done following our ‘home’ Olympics in London 2012 as a ‘one-off’ and so this won’t be happening following Beijing. He did, however, promise a memento of specially commissioned Royal Mail collector’s stamps for every pupil in the school in this special Platinum year for Queen Elizabeth II as a token of the initiative of Malcolm and Breagh! In fact, Mr Hogg phoned Mrs Baillie today to say just how impressed he was with their letter. He said he doesn’t send many letters to Primary pupils but this particular one was a very special one and so deserved a very special reply!
Top work House Captains – what Responsible Citizens you are!
And, as for the lasting memento of our past pupils’ amazing Olympic successes, well we’re on the case! Due to move back to our newly refurbished school next term, we will ensure the Gold and Silver legacy of Vicky and Bobby will be there for all to see for many years to come. Watch this space…
From February 21st- March 6th is 2022’s Fairtrade Fortnight and so P5-7 Leswalt pupils spent some time finding out more.
Working in Talk Partners, the pupils researched the key questions about this topic:
What is Fairtrade?
When this started?
Why it started?
Where can Fairtrade products be bought?
Who Fairtrade works with?
How we can do our bit to help!
They used reference materials, website links, a video clip and our classroom chat to help them with their fact-finding. This was a top task for those all-important employability skills of negotiating, working within a time-scale, organisation and co-operation. And, most importantly, this task also raised awareness of Fairtrade.
The task was rounded-off by the pupils sharing their work with their classmates and enjoying some Fairtrade chocolate too! Yum! We might go as far to say that this was the highlight of the lesson!
As part of our journey towards Rights Respecting Schools Silver status, the children have been discussing all of the rights within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). They have discussed what rights they feel are most important and have explained their views. Here is just a sample for you to see what responsible citizens we have!
This morning’s outdoor maths fun, led by Miss Lammie, was somewhat hampered by the after-effects of the weekend’s stormy weather! Shooting and shining could be the descriptive phrase used. Still, it didn’t dampen the spirits and efforts of P5-7 in their Time Detectives clock faces task! Even if they did need to do most of their task indoors as they ducked from the heavy showers.
Miss Lammie shared the session Learning Intentions with the class; they needed to use their knowledge of clock faces (analogue/digital/minute intervals/Roman Numerals etc) to create a clock face using natural materials with their talk partner on which they could display times. The range of designs created by the pupils was fabulous. Pupils set their peers a challenge of setting a time whether it be in 24hr clock, am or pm,minutes past/to etc and explain how and why they displayed it as such. They assessed the accuracy of one another’s.
Buddy work, creating and applying skills, sharing learning, peer and self-assessment – all fabulous employability skills put to the test today! No excuses for ever being late…!
As the sun decided to make a late appearance, the lesson’s fun was brought to a close by a competitive game of times tables Splat – Thomas was crowned today’s champion 🙂
A fun morning of active maths with all pupils busy and learning! Thanks Miss Lammie 🙂
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