Category: Uncategorized

‘Farm to Fork’ is the title for this term’s topic in P1-4, and what better way to learn than meeting some local farmers and finding out more about what they do.

We were lucky to have a nice sunny afternoon to welcome our visitors to Kirkcolm, and by kind permission of Jack Milroy, were able to use a field next to the school. 

First up was Grant Hurcomb, aka The Sheep Shearing Expert!  We got to watch him shear some sheep, discussed why he does this and then we got feel the wool and find out ways it is used.  Grant was ably assisted by Jack who was able to give us an idea of the value of the wool.  Turns out, not a lot!

Next was the turn of Stuart McCrindle and his sheepdog Zak.  This winning partnership were last year’s Scottish Champions so we knew we had the best team to demonstate a sheepdog working with some sheep.  Zak was a true professional and guided the sheep around the field with ease.  Some of us even got the chance to give Zak some commands too.  Stuart had also brought along the newest member of his team, an 8 week old collie pup.  The children all got the chance to name the puppy, and the winning name chosen at the end of the day was ‘Jem’.  The perfect choice!

The children then had the chance to meet local contractors Angus Brown and Steven Adams.  Despite their busy schedule and the dry weather, they took time out from silage making to visit us with a chopper, tractor, mower and a rowing up machine.  It was a chance to see these machines up close, find out what they do and have a seat inside…and toot the horn!   Being a contractor also means you have to be a mechanic and engineer, fixing problems as you go.  It’s a tough job!

We also had a local sheep farmer there, Ian McKnight, who talked us through rearing and caring for animals.  We learned about the farming calendar, saw some tools and medicines he uses and got to see different feeds for the animals.  He also had the quad bike he uses on the farm too with him.

Finally, we had our very own Alexander Clark (budding auctioneer) on hand to finish proceedings with an auction.  He stood in at the last minute after a cancellation and he did an awesome job.  We got to see him in action with groups competing to buy some calves and win an extra 5 minutes of breaktime!

What a lovely way to spend a sunny Friday afternoon.  A big thank you to all of our visitors who have perhaps inspired a few young people towards a career in agriculture!

The children were excited to become App designers  today!

Francis Wallace, Principal Engineer of the Make It Happen Club joined us this morning to offer us the opportunity to take part in an exciting App Design challenge.  The children have the chance to enter their own app design creations into a competition just for the North Rhins Partnership. The winning design from across our three schools will be made into reality for everyone to enjoy and use!

The children really enjoyed listening to Frances and looking at some previous winners. They ranged from number apps to help people with their times tables, flags of the world questions, apps to help people with day-to-day routines etc. Lots and lots of brilliant ideas.

We took some time to think about all of our ideas and then we put pencil to paper and created our own app design. They all designed individual  apps – ones we would certainly love to install and use!

App designs  completed and entries submitted to Frances. We’ll await the results! Good luck all!

 

Digital Leaders from Kirkcolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick came together for a training session today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children covered a lot of areas as part of today’s agenda:

• Roles and Responsibilities
• Correctly handling, storing and charging devices
• Login – personal information, successfully accessing sites
• Bookmarking favourites and displaying our favourites bar
• Adding tiles to personal Glow launch pads e.g. Teams, Email, One Drive etc.
• Creating and sending emails with attachments to the correct recipient
• Discussing possible breaktime clubs e.g. Scratch Coding

Our inventive team decided that they would like to collaborate with each other across the partnership to plan events such as Safety Internet Day.  We have now set up an email group just for our digital leaders so they can communicate with each other.

The session was very productive and our team are ready to support their classmates in any way they can.

Here is a useful guide for parents to support your child online.

Digital-Learning-Parental-Leaflet-2022_23 (2)

# Responsible Citizens

As a celebration of our tattie planting and harvest, today we planned to enjoy a day of tattie-related activities in conjunction with the Dandelion Growing Project!

Our plans did alter slightly on hearing the sad news of the passing of our Queen yesterday. We felt it right that some time should be used this morning to talk about her life, death and lasting legacy. All pupils showed their respect by watching the CBBC Newsround clip and joining in our group chat with their thoughts and feelings.

Following this, we then got on with our day’s events.

Lots of us planted the tatties we got last term at home and some have even shared photos of their crops. The plan for today was to be an all-out Dandelion Project celebration back at our shiny new Leswalt Primary but, as we’re not there yet, this has been postponed. Still, it seemed a shame not to celebrate our gardening efforts in some way!

Starting off with some potato based cooking, we worked in teams to create traditional Scottish macaroons using a recipe with a tattie base! We confess to being a little dubious at first, but after adding the icing sugar and mixing all together to create a fondant and then rolling these into balls, we had to admit the plan seemed to be working out!

Michelle popped these in her fridge to set and we then dipped them in melted chocolate and coated them in coconut.

Whilst they set for the second time, we headed outdoors for an afternoon of Tattie-athlon activities. From a Tattie Toss to a Tattie Tip-toe; Tattie on a Teaspoon to the Tattie Tumble and the Tattie Target to the Tattie Trot – each team put forward a team member to take part in an afternoon of good fun, teamwork and sport!

Popping our sweet tattie creations into our tupperware boxes, Mrs F and Mrs McKnight totted up the scores… which team would be crowned Top Tatties?! Would it be the Choppy Chips or the Tattie Planters? Perhaps it would be the Tattie Heroes or the Tanging Tatties? Or maybe the Tattie Tossers or the Tattie Demolishers?

The points were checked and verified and the Tattie Tossers were declared the Top Tatties! The team proudly posed for a photo with their ‘no expense spared’ Tattie Trophy and prize of three tatties each to take home!

Fun Friday indeed!

 

P5-7 are enjoying a block of fun rugby sessions with Neve the Rugby Development Officer!
Every Friday for 6 weeks, the pupils don their PE kit and head outside for an activity fuelled hour! Check out the photos below 😊

Leswalt Primary school welcomed some new pupils today.

Thea, Aria Rose, Keira, Hannah and Eilidh all started p1 today.  They will soon be joined by Noah and Emma.

Evan and Daisy also joined the upper class in p7 and p5.

The photographs below show our happy p1 girls today , and what they aspire to be in  later life.  We hope to help you achieve your dreams girls!

Starting off our new school year, we are pleased to announce we have been awarded our RSPB Wild Challenge Silver Award.  This is as a result of all the hard work of our pupils in promoting biodiversity in our school grounds.

Our children had to complete six challenges both to help nature and experience nature, all of which promotes Learning for Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals and good health and wellbeing.

Leswalt Primary for Silver

Feedback from the RSPB is as follows: Congratulations on achieving your Silver Wild Challenge award! We were really impressed with your Biodiversity Action plan and all the hard work you have been doing! Thank you for your amazing efforts. Every action you take makes a real difference. We hope you thoroughly enjoyed learning through nature on your journey to your award.

Well done everyone!

# Effective Contributors & Responsible Citizens

So we did consider having a quiet last day of term but then we thought…..nah! It’s just not our style!

Mrs Baillie just happened to be going to the wedding of ex-pupil and Olympic Gold medallist Vicky Wright and Greg Drummond – and so she thought little Leswalt peeps turning up to do a star turn might be a nice touch! And it truly was a lovely moment…

In truth, had we been at Leswalt Primary, we would most definitely have taken the time to pop across the road and offer the bride and groom our congratulations. Us being at Kirkcolm meant there was a little more organising involved but it was more than worth it!

Mags Agnew came us with a top rate idea of having some pupils hold curling brushes aloft as a Guard of Honour for the bride and groom. She met us there and armed the P6/7 pupils with their brushes. They then  formed a fabulous archway for the happy couple to walk under. Three of our ‘guards’ (uber-fan Alexander and sports champions Rose and Murray) were wearing extra-special Wright Olympic tops kindly donated by Vicky to the school!

The whole school then entertained the bridal party and guests with a rousing rendition of This Little Light of Mine!

As a treat, the pupils then let off some steam at the park and were treated to an ice-cream (and staff too) from Alison McKeen’s ice-cream van, courtesy of the Parent Council.

What a fabulous way to start the holidays!

(Photos to follow -waiting on an increase in media space)

What a difference a day makes… Goodness me, that was a good call to postpone our trip to today rather than the torrential downpours that were Tuesday!

From start to finish, this was just the perfect school trip! The pupils were excited and the staff (Mrs Mcknight, Mrs Smith, Mrs Dinsmore, Miss Lammie and Mrs F) were all raring to go. Hopping aboard our McCulloch’s coach, we headed north to Ayr where the sun shone for us.

From bouncy pillows to slithery snakes; zip wires to inquisitive meerkats; gravity-defying slides to adorable donkeys – the day was action-packed and full of giggles with friends.

A quick pit-stop for a bite of lunch and it was go go go for more farm park fun. Just have a look at the cheery faces below. This was a school trip to remember for all the best reasons!

 

 

On Thursday afternoon we were delighted to welcome family and friends to our end of term celebrations and to say a fond farewell to our five P7 pupils.

Entertaining the audience with some fabulous singing of One More Step, This Little Light of Mine, The Leaver’s Song and How Far I’ll Go (from Moana but with Leswalt-fied lyrics!)- the pupils’ learning was then celebrated with lots of presentations being made.

Attendance over 95% – Ellie Bennewith, Ellie Burton, Rachael Drummond, Roman Haver, Cara Jamieson, Breagh Kirkpatrick, Isla Kirkpatrick, Colin McGregor, Hamish Mc Gregor, Malcom Mc Gregor, Brandon Millar, Tristan Millar, Bobby Shaw, Ben Thomson, Sean Paul Webb (15)

Accelerated reading star readers 

P3  Rachael Drummond 31 books and 16.5 points

P4   Amelia ( most books 27) and Hamish S (most points 29.6)

P5   Mark Drummond ( most books 40) and Cara most points 171

P6 Tristan Millar (most books 24) and Struan most points 121

P7  Breagh Kirkpatrick (most books 29) and Aidan most points

Word Millionaire – Cara Jamieson, Hamish Mc Gregor and Struan Scott

 Responsible citizen

P1/2 Bobby Shaw

P3 Murray Reid

P4 Holly Santangeli

P5 Kaiden Giblin

P6 Rose Santangeli

P7 Alfie Baker

Sports champions certificates

P1/ 2-  Bobby Shaw

P3-    Colin Mc Gregor

P4-    Holly Santangeli

P5 –    Mark Drummond

P6 –    Tristan Millar

 Sports Champions – Rose Santangeli and Murray Williams

 House points shield

Most merits in p1-4  = Ela Chang

Most merits in p5-7   = Faye Adams

Soleburn – 139 (sports) +   277 = 416

Lochnaw –  155(sports) +   377 =   532

Winning house captain – Malcolm Mc Gregor

Runner up house captain Breagh Kirkpatrick

 Who has passed Platinum rainbow tables this year?

Faye   Brandon     Fraser

Who has passed platinum rainbow spelling this year?

Murray Williams

	P1-4	P5-7
Literacy award	Hamish Scott	Aidan Adams
Numeracy award	Ewan Clark	Malcolm
HWB award	Amelia Mc Hallum	Murray Williams
REACH award  – resilience, effort or positive attitude?	Sean Mc Credie	Alexander Clark

Nina Agnew Creativity award – Hamish Mc Gregor

P5-7 Award for endeavour – Breagh Kirkpatrick

The afternoon culminated in a presentation of Photo Memory Book and Leaver’s hoodie for each of our P7s and a slideshow full of lots of memories over the years! This is forever saved on Youtube for their viewing delight – and for their 18th and 21st birthdays! Such wonderfully cute snaps of them from P1 upwards!

The P7s went on to enjoy a meal in Lando’s on Thursday night.

And, as Mrs Baillie said:

“thank you once again for sending your fabulous children to our schools.  They really do make us smile every day.  And your support in all we do truly makes the difference.”

Never a truer word! Thank you one and all 🙂

 

Photos to follow (awaiting an increase in media space!)