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As part of our Local and National Government topic, today we welcomed Aimee Dobie, the UK Parliament Outreach Education Officer.

This built on the visits from Emma Currie, who spoke about her experiences with the Scottish Youth Parliament, Caroline Schofield who delivered a session form the Scottish Parliament and the work we have done in class this term.  We have had a very busy and informative term!

Aimee had created a fun, informative PowerPoint to tell us more about the role of the UK Parliament and she also had a video message (created just for us!) from Alister Jack who is the MP for Dumfries and Galloway and the Secretary of State for Scotland.

We chatted about the skills required to be an MP (linking these to Employability Skills) , the importance of Parliament – why it is important- and what we can do to help our class and community now and in the future. We also talked about how this linked to our very own Pupil Council and Eco Committee. The children learned how this is a process where the UNCRC Rights of the Child 12 & 13 are put into action, where children’s’ views are respected and they are able to share their thoughts freely.  Democracy at Primary School level!

Many thanks to Aimee for an informative afternoon!

Today P5-7 enjoyed a fun rugby taster session with Campbell McGregor from Wigtownshire Rugby Club. This was part of Scottish Rugby Schools Week.

The pupils participated in some cool warm-up games – Octopus Tig and Turtle Tig to get the blood pumping, then a couple of team games which involved throwing and catching. Finally, they played 4v4 passing games whereby they needed to have 10 clean passes between their team members to score a point. Great fun!

Several pupils in our class are regular attendees at Wigtownshire Rugby Club’s Junior sessions on a Sunday morning. But Mr McGregor handed out invites at the end of today’s rugby to encourage new faces to come along to the club’s taster session on Sunday 3rd October. They would be warmly welcomed!

 

 

Check out our Super Responsible Citizens who have been appointed as pupil representatives on Leswalt Primary’s Pupil Council or Eco Committee.

First meetings either have already taken place, or are scheduled to take place very soon and we are looking forward to a successful year with these newly elected teams!

Pupil Council

Eco Committee

It was a big day this week as we set about electing our House Captains for the year. This is quite a responsibility as these are the individuals in charge of our two school houses: Soleburn and Lochnaw.

The upper class were over the moon that we could put to use all the skills and knowledge we have learnt studying our new class topic on Democracy and how the Government works. What better way to start that forming the government and choosing the leaders of our own school!

House Captains have the challenge ahead of them of planning the big events throughout the year (especially as we can now have some events in schools!) and promoting good behaviour in their houses. All this adds up to Dojos which turn into Merits which turn into prizes for each house. Exciting stuff!

Our candidates had good time to prepare and were each ready to deliver a speech stating their case on why they felt they were the best person for the job to the rest of the school before our secret ballots were cast! All pupils delivered fantastic speeches and really showed how much they care about the school and everyone in it.  It proved a very tough vote for the pupils. We were very proud of all the P7’s for putting their best foot forward and, regardless what the result, we are sure all of them would make excellent House Captain and leaders.

Congratulations go to:

Soleburn – Breagh Kirkpatrick

Lochnaw – Malcolm McGregor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This active process of democracy helps support our learning as part of our curriculum and as part of a wider context; helping develop the Skills for Life, Learning and Work.  It also drives forwards our Rights Respecting Schools & applies UNICEF’s Rights of The Child (articles 4, 12, 15, & 25)

Leswalt Primary has yet again been successful in achieving Eco School Status!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to achieve our eco-flag renewal, the boys and girls had to demonstrate ecology and sustainability on the elements of Litter, Water and Food & The Environment. Even prolonged periods of remote learning couldn’t hold our pupils back, as they continued to work on these targets with home challenge projects set by Mrs McHarg.

Eco Schools Scotland were particularly impressed with the evidence presented by the children and praised their initiative.  We are very proud of our Eco Heroes.

See below to read extracts from a copy of the letter we received from Eco Schools Scotland:

Congratulations to everyone at Kirkcolm Primary School for achieving your 2nd Eco Schools Scotland Green Flag. I really enjoyed reading your application this morning and it was great to see the fantastic range of evidence that you submitted to support your application – I really liked the fact that you had planned your actions to ensure that they had a clear link to not only your chosen Sustainable Development Goal but also, many others. You have really thought about this and your evidence clearly demonstrates what you have achieved. Your evidence is something that we would be keen to share with other schools as an example of good practice.

I appreciate that it will have been a very challenging year and it was great to see how you adapted your plans to be able to keep working towards renewing your Green Flag.

We also noticed aspects of your work as being examples of good practice. We may use these on our website and social media as case studies to support other schools with their EcoSchools Scotland work. While reviewing your action plan and supporting evidence there are lots of things that have gone very well and that you should be very proud of.

I like the examples you provided of how you carried out your environmental review and then selected you action points, this was a great way to let us see that everyone was involved. I enjoyed the work that the p4-7 class did while they were studying water, the work that the pupils produced looks fantastic and I’m sure will have a very positive impact. I love your rainwater collection system and what a great idea to have pupils keep a water diary. I bet a few people were surprised by their results.

Like many schools you made the decision to add Eco Schools tasks to your home learning activities during lockdown, this is a really great way to keep everyone involved and to have an impact out with the school grounds.

The work that you have taken forward in your food and environment topic is very impressive. Your school garden development looks fantastic and It was great to see that you were also thinking about where the food we consume comes from and the food miles associated with this and then exploring how food could be produced more sustainably. Also, great to see you enjoying your One Planet Picnic.

Our team may use aspects of your work as examples of good practice on our website and social media to support other schools during their applications.

Congratulations once again, on behalf of the whole of the Education and Learning Team, we wish you every success as you move on to your next application.

Daniel Barrie
Keep Scotland Beautiful
Education and Learning Manager
Keep Scotland Beautiful
ecoschools@keepscotlandbeautiful.org

Our pupils will now continue our eco journey by selecting new elements to work on for the next two years.  As part of our commitment to articles 12, 13, 15 & 29 of the Rights of the Child and Global Goals, our newly elected Eco Committee will help steer the way forward.

# Effective Contributors & Responsible Citizens

The boys and girls of Leswalt Primary used and applied a democratic process to elect our new House Captains yesterday.  Fitting with our Social Studies topic of Democracy in Scotland, our candidates wrote their own manifesto speech to present to their audience.

Each applicant demonstrated a very high standard of professionalism and confidence as they outlined their personal skills and attributes.  Everyone spoke with clarity about the ideas and initiatives they had for the role of House Captain. We were all very impressed with the standard of each candidate’s talk, be it in person or as a virtual presentation.

The whole school then carried out an electorate voting process by selecting the candidate they felt would best represent them for the year ahead.  Everyone filled out a voting slip and posted it in our ballet box to be counted privately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a VERY closely run campaign with the results as follows:

Lochnaw – Malcolm

Soleburn – Breagh

 

I am sure both House Captains will represent their houses well in the coming year.  Our thanks to all of our candidates who really did themselves proud.  We can’t commend the quality of each candidate’s presentation highly enough!  Each of them has earned a merit for their house team.

The activity helps support our learning as part of our curriculum and as part of a wider context; helping develop the Skills for Life, Learning and Work.  It also supports our drive towards our Rights Respecting Schools award and applies UNICEF’s Rights of The Child (articles 4, 12, 15, & 25)

# Effective Contributors/Responsible Citizens/Confident Individuals/Successful Learners

 

Today we welcomed Emma Currie into our class. She is a local student studying at Glasgow University who has been involved in many areas of politics and she’s still only 21!

Her interest stemmed from when she applied to be on the Pupil Council in P5 (take note folks – as those applications for Leswalt positions are due in next Monday!) and it grew from there! She has enjoyed many wide and varied experiences through her political passions including being a member of the SYP (Scottish Youth Parliament), working as an intern for Alister Jack, being a member of the A77 Action Group, organising the campaign for a politician who was subsequently elected, visiting Estonia and Taiwan as part of her political involvement and volunteering with many organisations – including at Stranraer Academy where she supported Modern Studies students – phew quite a list! And she’s only just beginning!

The pupils learnt lots from her powerpoint which gave a breakdown from councillors to Scottish Parliament to the UK Parliament. Emma also covered lots of interesting points such as why we should vote, how to get involved, what it all means for our area and, most importantly of all, the need for respect for all regardless of political leanings.

What an interesting afternoon – I’m sure she’s inspired quite a few to be the next Scottish First Minister or Prime Minister!

Thanks Emma!

What a lovely get-together Leswalt pupils enjoyed this afternoon when we all headed down Fisher’s Lane to the beach. Older and younger pupils buddied up and chatted on the walk down to the shore where they were put into teams of 4 and given the design task of creating the school name using natural materials! Well, what an imaginative bunch we have; from sandcastle letters to shells, driftwood to razor shells depicting the school badge – our team of intrepid designers came up trumps! Have a look at our beach fun below… A top afternoon of Eco art and design with friends!

 

Leswalt Primary are delighted to welcome our new additions to the Leswalt school team.  We are joined by two little ladies and and a young gentleman : Emma, Ellie & Bobby who had their very first day in Primary 1 today.

They  looked very smart in their school uniform, as you can see from the photographs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our P1’s enjoyed getting to know their new teacher, Mrs McKnight, and they had plenty of opportunities to make lots of new friends.

 

Emma, Ellie and Bobby have a had a busy time enjoying stories, art, P.E., yoga and more.  We think they may be tired tonight!

It was a sad farewell we said today to our 6 Primary 7s – Andrew, Chloe, Gregor, Jack, Joshua and Luke.

But we sent them away with lots of happy memories of their years at Leswalt Primary. My my – did we have a plethora of photos to choose from for their P7 slideshow! Look out for its premier on Youtube as it is well worth a watch!

We also celebrated  all pupils at our end-of-term celebration today. Unfortunately Covid-19 restrictions meant we couldn’t invite parents along to this, however we all made sure that the pupils had a great morning reminiscing over the fun learning experiences they have enjoyed this slightly unusual year; celebrating success and sharing memories.

Such fabulous celebration stories!

End of term awards Leswalt 2021

100% attendance awards

Ellie Bennewith, Rachael Drummond, Cara Jamieson, Chloe Kennedy, Struan Scott

Accelerated reading star readers

P2  Colin Mc Gregor

P3   Ela Chang

P4   Cara Jamieson

P5 Struan Scott

P6 Breagh (most books), Malcolm (most points)

P7 Andrew (most books) Jack (Most points)

Responsible citizen
P1	Lily – confident little lady who will stand up for herself and others when required.  A force to be reckoned with!
P2	Ruby – kind, caring little girl who always looks out for others.
P3	Holly – never sets a foot wrong.  Sets a great example to others.
P4	Carys – super helpful and a great support to younger pupils.
P5	Alexander – helpful and very hard-working
P6	Breagh – empathetic and caring classmate. Encourages others.
P7	Andrew – fundraising efforts/initiative , always  wanting to help attitude

 Sports

Mini walk medals        

Ben Thomson, Rachael Drummond, Mark Drummond,  Thomas Agnew

Sports champions certificates

P2-Murray Reid

P3- Hamish Scott

P4- Mark Drummond

P5 – Fraser Reid

P6 – Murray Williams

P7 – Chloe Kennedy and Gregor Reid (shields)

 House points shield

Soleburn – 116 (sports) + 144 = 260

Lochnaw – 74 (sports) + 189 = 263 – very close!!

 

 Who has passed Platinum rainbow tables this year?

Hamish Mc G, Alexander, Tristan, Struan, Murray, Joshua, Gregor, Rose

Who has passed platinum rainbow spelling this year?

Rose, Chloe, Aidan, Jack , Luke, Malcolm

	P1-4	P5-7
Literacy award	Hamish Mc Gregor – sets himself high standards. Reads novels that are pretty advanced, written work is entertaining and imaginative.  Super listener and always makes interesting contributions during class discussions.	Aidan Adams – superb vocabulary range and uses this to great effect in his writing work and reading comprehension!
Numeracy award	Ewan Clark – Clark the Calculator!  Quick accurate recall of number facts and bonds.  Loves to share strategies when learning is shared and is super enthusiastic and determined about all new learning.	Thomas Agnew – Loves his number work! Working super hard on all maths tasks. Gets the bit between his teeth and won’t give up until he’s cracked a question!
HWB award	Faye Adams – strong moral compass, shows great empathy for others.  Will help and support anyone who needs it.  A kind caring individual.	Gregor Reid – super duper athlete! Excellent distance runner too. Great House Captain for this year too. A good friend and classmate who is fun company and fair.
REACH award (you might want to consider resilience, effort or positive attitude during lockdown learning?)	Sean Mc Credie – Has worked his little socks off this year and made super progress in his P3 year.  Showing a real determination to do well.  Excited to see what he will achieve!	Rose Santangeli – smiley, friendly and hard-working. Worked well throughout lockdown and always tries her best. Joined us here at Leswalt less than a year ago but feels likes she been with us forever. A real asset to the class.

Nina Agnew

Creativity award – Gregor Reid, for Scots poetry achievements

P5-7 Award for Endeavour – Jack Cloy, for making us smile in all he did!

 Finally, do enjoy browsing through our photos below and check out the Youtube slideshow (Mrs Baillie has emailed the link)

Youtube – Leswalt P7 Leaver’s slideshow