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Big pedal success

Well done to all the little people of Leswalt Primary who came to schools on bicycles and scooters as part of the National Big Pedal competition.    They showed great teamwork, perseverance, and most importantly, road safety.  After the final results were calculated we finished up 2nd in the whole of Scotland – a tremendous result! 

World Book day

The Boys and girls of Leswalt Primary School really got into the spirit of World Book Day by dressing up as a character from a book for the day.  The also brought in their favourite book to share with others and brought in old books for a book sale.  Throughout the day there were many book related activities such as book speed dating, writing book reviews and designing book marks

P5-7 visit to St Josephs

As part of their RME topic of ‘Christianity in our Community’, Leswalt Primary School’s P5-7 visited St.Joseph’s Church in Stranraer  and met with the Priest, Father Neil O’Donnell and Deacon Peter Marks.
 
The pupils came along with lots of questions about what the job of a priest entails, and about the churches role in the community.
 
They learnt about the clothing the priest wears for different services and at different times of the year. They found out about the artefacts in the church and what they were used for. They were able to compare St.Joseph’s to Leswalt Parish Church, which they visited earlier in the term.
 
It was both a very informative and enjoyable experience for the pupils.  As Rhona Baillie in P6 said “ St Josephs is beautiful inside.  I love all the marble.  I learned a lot, as I had never been there before”

Wigtown Book Festival

The Wigtown Book Festival is always looked forward to with anticipation. This year’s event was a huge hit with the Leswalt Primary pupils who were lucky enough to attend on both the Friday and Tuesday.
 
There were already a number of Philip Ardagh fans in the P5-7 class, so they were delighted to go to Wigtown to meet the man himself.  Before going, they  looked up some information on ‘The Grunts’, the central characters in Philip Ardagh’s book ‘The Grunts in Trouble, and decided that they sounded like characters they would  like to read about. The pupils dreamed up some new characters and invented some transport to rival the Grunt’s caravan made from an old ice-cream van and a motor bike sidecar pulled by Clip and Clop the donkeys. The class handed over their ideas to Philip Ardagh who was delighted to receive them and promised to let us know which ideas he liked.
 
Stuart Reid had an equally appealing character called ‘Gorgeous George’ who is appearing in his third novel which was launched on the very day P5-7 were there, and was quite literally hot off the press.
 
If the aim of the Book Festival is to inspire reading and writing in children, it certainly achieved its aim. Noses were firmly in new books all the way home to Leswalt.

Macmillan Coffee afternoon event

Leswalt Primary School held an open afternoon on Friday 27th September and set about transforming their school. The hall became a music

performance venue, the P5-7 classroom a French café, and the P 1-4 classroom a cinema.  Parents and friends were invited along to sample the delights on offer.

 
Mrs Parker had prepared a varied selection of harvest themed songs with the children and they were greatly enjoyed by the audience and choirs alike, as they performed to the guests in school.
 
P 5-7 were very enterprising and arranged a café in aid of the Macmillan ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ event. Croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche and tarte au citron were washed down with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and Orangina. The class had prepared menus in French and practiced their conversational French on the customers. Approximately £150 was donated for the charity.
 
The grand finale was the world premiere of Primary 1-4’s film ‘A Holiday Guide to Leswalt’. As part of their local study topic, the children had researched, scripted and starred in the production which was filmed on location at various tourist hot-spots in the village, including Leswalt park, Aldouran Wetland Gardens, Leswalt Stores, Kirkland Tearoom and farm shop and Drumlochart caravan site. Orders were taken for copies of the DVD which proved very popular, as the class plan to sell their mini movie from school.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Leswalt Primary Wind farm visit

Pupils from Leswalt Primary School today viewed construction works being undertaken for the 18-turbine wind farm on Carscreugh Fell, 3km north east of the village of Glenluce.
The 40 pupils from the school’s primary 1 to 7 classes (ages 5-11) made the trip to look at the work being undertaken on the piling of the site and establishing the foundations for the turbines, including deliveries of concrete and steel. They also saw the works being undertaken on the control building for the wind farm.
 
The 15.3 MW wind farm will have a maximum height to the blade tip of 70m and was approved by the Scottish Government in March 2012, with construction on the site commencing in August and anticipated to complete in spring 2014.
The wind farm operator, Carscreugh Renewable Energy Park Ltd, was sold by Spanish firm, Gamesa, to specialist investor and asset manager, John Laing plc in June. Under the agreement Gamesa will carry out operations and maintenance services at the facility for 10 years.
In addition to the wind turbines the proposed development will also include:
 
·         A control building housing switch gear, metering equipment and control equipment;
·         Access to the site via the A75;
·         On-site access tracks;
·         Underground cable routes, and
·         A meteorological mast.
 
Around 40 people will be employed on site preparation and infrastructure works, rising to around 70 for the delivery of the Gamesa wind turbines.
Sergio Pascual Garrido, Project Manager for Carscreugh Renewable Energy Park Ltd said:
 
“We are delighted to have the children from Leswalt here to look at the process involved in the delivery of the wind farm. It is also very timely given that they have been putting a lot of effort into studying renewable energy in the classroom and they can now see the real thing. We are anticipated to complete the project in spring next year and would be delighted to have them back in the future they will be able to see the progress made.”
Sheila Baillie, Head teacher of Leswalt Primary School, said:
 
“It was great for the children to be able to see what is involved in putting up a wind farm and would like to thanks Gamesa and John Laing for this opportunity. The children have been building their own wind turbines in the classroom as part of a project looking at renewable energy and it is fantastic for them to have the opportunity to see the real thing being constructed. We will hopefully be able to come back in the future and they can see how things have progressed.”

Leswalt Parish Church visit

P5-7 at Leswalt Primary School recently paid a visit to Leswalt Parish Church.  This trip was part of their RME in school, as they are currently learning all about “Christianity in our community”.

Merryn Walker in Primary 6 provides an insight as to what they learned-
“Leswalt Church is a Parish church because it serves everyone in Leswalt Parish.  On Sundays on average, 45 people come to church.  There are 300 members of the church.
Christenings happen in the church.  Some people think that the holy water is special water from the holy ground, but in Leswalt Church it comes from a tap!
Audrey Buchanan runs the Sunday school.  She meets the children in the vestry at one side of the church.  They do different projects about Easter, Christmas and studying the bible.
The Church is quite an old building.  It was built in 1825.  So, the building is 188 years old.  The steps outside of the church take you into the balcony upstairs in the church.  The seats in the balcony are very different to the pews downstairs.
In Leswalt Church there is a mixture of modern and old artefacts.  In the corner of the church is a cabinet with Communion silver ware.  There are silver plates and cups which are used when the congregation get bread and wine, just like in the last supper.
I enjoyed going across to the church and learned a lot about the building and contents.

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