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Thank you and well done to Ewan Clark, Thomas Agnew and Daisy Doyle for representing Leswalt Primary at last night’s Scots’ Song and Verse Competition.

All three performed so well and we are all very proud of them.

Thomas was awarded joint 2nd place for his recitation of Burns’ Address to a Haggis, Ewan was awarded joint 3rd place for Harry by Matthew Fitt and Daisy sang Caledonia and was was given joint 3rd place too!

Huge thanks also to Mrs Jane Sloan for accompanying Daisy on the piano.

Top work team 🥈🥉🥉

This morning, P5-7 had their last Soundtrap session with John 🙁 This has been SO much fun and the pupils have learnt lots.

Today’s focus was on podcasting, teamwork, sharing work digitally and voice recording.

Each group had a chief technician (Rose, Thomas and Alexander) who ‘built’ their group’s podcast using the music produced by pupils over previous sessions. Add to that mini interviews and background music and each group were able to plan, design and produce their own podcast!

Excellent digital skills being used – all whilst learning and having fun! It’s a win win situation!

Last year Emma Shirley was diagnosed with Leukaemia, and was unable to start Primary 1 at Leswalt Primary school with all her wee friends.  Emma has subsequently missed lots of school and had months of treatment at Glasgow Children’s Hospital.   

In December, all the boys and girls from Leswalt Primary decided when they moved back to their newly refurbished school they would hold an open afternoon , with donations to support Emma.  £320 was raised in just over 2 hours at Leswalt Primary with visitors all donating generously. 

Emma is now feeling a lot better and has been in school for a few mornings.  All her friends from Leswalt Primary school handed over the money  raised.  £200 was given to the hospital for helping Emma and £120 was given to her parents to help with the costs of them having to go back up and down to Glasgow.  Emma still has to attend Glasgow Children’s hospital on a weekly basis.

The photograph shows Leswalt Primary pupils handing over the money to Emma and mummy, Joanna Shirley.

World Book Day Blog Report  

by Rose and Thomas  

(Leswalt Primary House Captains) 

Thursday was World Book Day – a day all about reading and we had loads of exciting activities on! 

 Over the last week, our head librarians Ellie and Ben planned some great fun for all of us to enjoy.  

They organised a ‘Draw a Book Character’ competition – The entries for this were amazing!  

We also had an Accelerated Reading raffle for whoever managed to take a test and passed that day!  

We all looked at the books we can buy with our free book tokens there are so many good options!  

 As well as free book tokens we all got to pick a pre-loved book to take home as a gift from the school. 

Later, on in the younger one’s classroom, we went on a Live Video Event with David Walliams. It was so good! He read an extract from some of his books and from his new book coming out soon. Whilst listening, we all cuddled up with some yummy hot chocolate – we even had some cream and marshmallows. 

All in all, the day was great fun!  

The competition winners were: 

P1-4 Book Character winner –  Murray Reid

P5-7 Book Character winner –  Hamish McGregor

Accelerated Reading Raffle winner –  Rose Santangeli

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.