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It’s been 9 long weeks since we last saw their little faces at school, and we were delighted to see so many happy smiling faces at the door of  Leswalt Primary on Monday morning.  It was P1-3’s first day back since the New Year – the building has been rather quiet without them!  They were all glad to see each other and be back with their friends.

We’re super happy to have P1-3 back with us at school and hope they all had a brilliant first day back – fingers crossed it’s not too much longer before P4-7 can join us on 15th March .

It may have been an odd year, but nonetheless 2020 was a rather successful one for the North Rhins Partnership – we are delighted to announce that we have achieved our Bronze Award for Rights Respecting Schools! This national accreditation is to recognise the work we have done so far and our commitment to learning more about and embedding the UNCRC Rights of the Child in the life and ethos of our schools.

Our work started waaaay back in January last year (pre-Covid times – can anyone remember what that was like?!) when pupils began learning about the Rights of the Child at assemblies. Then, when pesky Covid came on the scene, we were forced to continue our journey towards our Bronze Award online, with some home learning challenges on various different Rights of the Child.

When we were eventually allowed to return to school and class assemblies resumed, we then focused on ‘Respect’ – what this means and how to respect others’ rights. We learned how respect is at the centre of anti-bullying and we made a video to share with everyone, explaining what ‘RESPECT’ means to each of us; here is the link if you’d like to watch it and the finalised copy of our ‘Respect for All’ policy to have a read through:

Leswalt: Leswalt Respect Movie.MOV

Respect for All Policy:RfA Final Policy October2020.pdf

Behind the scenes, staff have also been busy learning all about the Rights of the Child, how this permeates lots of what we do in school (including how it is embedded into our ‘Respect for All’ policy) and how we can use language and a restorative approach to further promote respecting everyone’s rights.

A huge thank-you to everyone who helped in achieving this award – we are very pleased to gain national accreditation and recognition for all of our hard work. We can’t wait to continue our Rights Respecting School journey towards our silver award – watch this space!

Lockdown 2021 meant that we could not have our usual in school Scots poetry focus as all learning was taking part at home.  But, this did not stop us!  Our in inaugural  North Rhins inter school Scots poetry competition took place on Friday 29th January and was judged  by local Burns enthusiast, Mr Alec Ross.

This event took place on Microsoft Teams, where everyone could see the beautiful handwriting and creative artwork.  Pupils recited their poems with gusto, over the internet.  

Results were as follows – 

North Rhins Scots poetry results  – January 2021

P1 – ‘Wee rid motor’ – Recitation winners : 1. Harry McKie (PPK); 2. Rebecca Manson (KKM);Lily Bennewith (LES):  Illustration winner – Jessica Johnstone (KKM) : Handwriting winner – Rebecca Manson (KKM)

P2 – ‘Nessie’ – Recitation winners : 1. Colin McGregor (LES) / Aaron Farquhar (KKM);Rececca Connor (PPK) :  Illustration winner –Ben Thomson (LES) : Handwriting winner – Rachael Drummond (LES)

P3 – ‘The Circus’ – Recitation winners : 1. Carter Henderson (PPK); 2 .Ela Chang (LES);Ellie Bennewith (LES): Illustration winner – Erin Harbottle (PPK) : Handwriting winner – Erin Harbottle (PPK)

P4 – ‘Fireworks off the castle’ – Recitation winners : 1. Cameron McNeil (PPK); 2. Hamish McGregor (LES); Cara Jamieson (LES) :  Illustration winner – Carys McHallum (LES) : Handwriting winner – Faye Adams (LES)

P5 – ‘Magic Pizza’ – Recitation winners : 1. Noah Gaw (LES); 2. Thomas Agnew (LES);Olivia Johnstone (KKM):    Illustration winner – Jack Trafford (PPK) : Handwriting winner – Thomas Agnew (LES)

P6 – ‘The Whistle’ – Recitation winners : 1. Maya McNeil (PPK); 2. Malcolm McGregor (LES);Breagh Kirkpatrick (LES):   Illustration winner –Izzy and Alba White (PPK) : Handwriting winner – Malcolm McGregor (LES)

P7 – ‘Robert Burns’ – Recitation winners : 1.Jack Cloy (LES); 2. Gregor Reid (LES); Zack Ashton (KKM) :    Illustration winner – Zack Ashton (KKM) : Handwriting winner – Arla McCulloch (KKM).

 

Many thanks must go to all parents and carers at home for supporting the children in this.

 

So we may not be physically in the same building, but does that stop the pupils of Leswalt Primary from taking part in their annual Scots Week Celebration? No chance!

The children – with the help of their parents- have been writing out their poems for the handwriting competition and creating their own artistic interpretation of their poem. Massive thanks must go out to all the families who have contributed their efforts to this. It is hugely appreciated.

Below is just a sample of some of the amazing work which has been emailed to teachers. Wow! We’ve very proud of you all.

To take things even one step further, we have our very own North Rhins Inter-School Burns Competition this Friday! Our invited judge for this year, the well-known Burns enthusiast Mr Alec Ross, has the unenviable task of judging the handwriting, artwork and recitations across our partnership. Mr Ross has already shared his Burns recitations, and given the back story to the poems, to help support our Scots week. I’m sure many of you have watched and enjoyed these!

This year pupils are working on:

p1 – Wee rid motor – Sandy Thomas Ross (8 lines)

p2 – Nessie by JK Annand (12 lines)

p3 – The Circus by JK Annand (16 lines)

p4 – Fireworks aff the castle by Matthew Fitt (20 lines)

P5 – Magic Pizza by Alison Fitt (20 longer lines)

P6 – The Whistle – Charles Murray (36 lines)

P7 – Any Robert Burns poem or excerpt of their choice eg To a Moose, Address to a Haggis etc…

Are you working hard on those recitations?

Can’t wait to hear you!

Tune in this Friday at 9.30am via Teams for our very own Scots TV!

 

And just like that the school year 2020 is over!

It has certainly been a roller-coaster – and we have all came out the other side smiling.

All the boys and girls left today with Christmas goodie bags to enjoy.

Wishing all a very merry Christmas and happy and healthy new year, from everyone at Leswalt Primary!

 

As part of our Eco Schools work learning about food and being responsible citizens, this Christmas we decided to run a ‘Reverse advent calendar’ – rather than the boys and girls getting a chocolate each day (they weren’t too impressed with this idea initially, I think many wanted the chocolate!!), they were asked to bring in a donation for the local food bank.

We spoke all about why it’s good to help charities, particularly people in need our local area, and learned about the work of the food bank. By the end, we were overwhelmed with our families’ generosity – we had pupils bringing in bags of donations as they realised how important it is to support the charity (despite only 1 item being requested per family!).

We are delighted to be able to deliver such a huge donation from our little school to the Wigtownshire food bank this Christmas – and we hope that it manages to help lots of families in the area.

What a fantastic week we’ve had at Leswalt Primary!

The P1-4 class enjoyed their party on Wednesday afternoon, with P5-7’s turn on Thursday afternoon. House Captains Andrew and Gregor had organised a fun-filled afternoon of dancing and games with a quick snack refuel as a mid-afternoon break! They played the ever-popular Snowman game, Christmas Corners, Musical Bells and Reindeer Relay  to name just a few. Some fabulous dancing moves were on display too! Happy smiley children made us all feel very Christmassy!

Unfortunately, Covid-19 restrictions meant that Santa wasn’t able to appear in person but he had communicated with the Parent Council who were able to carry out his wishes and have the presents delivered ready for the children to open as they took a quick break from their party fun! They LOVED their gifts and there were some very excited squeals as the paper was ripped off! A delicious party snack and the children were all ready for some more partying!

The Christmas parties were fabulous – full of lots of giggles and cheery faces! Thank you to all those who helped to make it special – including a big thank you to the Leswalt Community Association for supporting our Christmas parties and in-school festivities, by using the funding they received from the D&G Council Christmas grant 2020. Much appreciated!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

Normally at this time of year the staff and pupils would be rehearsing getting ready to put on a Christmas show in Leswalt village hall for the community to enjoy.

Unfortunately, COVID  prevented our usual Christmas concert.  However, even a World wide pandemic could not stop the creativity and sense of fun of Leswalt staff and pupils .

Click on the link here to see how Christmas 2020 will always be remember for being special. 

I hope it makes you smile! 

Huge thanks to Laura McClymont from Active Schools for popping by Leswalt and delivering Playmakers session 1 out of 2 to Primary 5-7.

The pupils discussed ‘what it means to be a good leader’ – offering up keywords such as sportsmanship, including everyone, encouragement, clear instructions and planning organised sessions.

Some of the older pupils have worked on some aspects of Playmakers before and are acting as mentors to the younger pupils, with then end result to be a planned activity session with groups of children from P1-4.

Laura will be back with us on Friday of our first week back in 2021 for session 2. The pupils have been tasked with writing up their lesson plan for then – time to get our thinking caps on!

It’s Christmaaaaas!!! Well… it’s definitely getting closer! There’s a definite festive feel  in the air at Leswalt as the staff and pupils wore their cheery Christmas jumpers and headwear to school today AND had the added bonus of tucking in to a tasty turkey lunch – complete with crackers and some Christmas tunes of course! Great fun!