Leswalt Primary School

Our children were treated to an open air musical concert performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra today.

Everyone sat outdoors in the fresh air whilst six musicians played new and familiar tunes for the children on a range of instruments.  The boys and girls were asked to identify and name the instruments and tunes whilst learning more about the instruments themselves. There was an oboe, a bassoon, a clarinet, a bass, a violin and a range of percussion instruments used in the recital.

There were tunes ranging from The Teddy Bear’s Picnic to The Hall of the Mountain King.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the performance and  agreed it was a such lovely experience.  Our thanks go to RSNO for travelling all this way to share their music with us.  It certainly made us all smile on a Thursday afternoon.

 

 

We had a fantastic turnout for this year’s Kirkcolm 51st annual fundraising mini walk on Saturday.

Pupils and families from all three schools were invited to participate to help support their schools. There were entrants from nursery age to adults walking the 7.37km route together; some competitively and some just for fun.

First, second and third places are awarded for the boys and girls completing the course in the quickest time.  The results are as follows:

Boys:

1. George Keith – Kirkcolm P6
2. Danny Dougan – Kirkcolm P4
3. Ivan Turtle – Kirkcolm P3

Girls:

1. Ruth Turtle – Kirkcolm P7
2. Olivia Turtle – Kirkcolm P6
3. Izzy White – Portpatrick P6

The route followed along the Corsewall Estate Coastal Path. A very well done to everyone who walked or ran the course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There has been a fantastic response to the fundraising effort; with each school hitting their target! The money will be put to very good use for each school to give children enjoyable experiences after a difficult year.

Our grateful thanks go out to so many people who helped organise and support the event:

• Our parents and families who planned and organised the mini-walk
• The Carrick-Buchanan  and Milroy family for their kind  permission to walk on their land
• The volunteer  marshals
• Lidl  and Tesco for the donation of refreshments
• The Free Press who covered the event
• and to ALL the children and families who fundraised and participated to raise money for our three fantastic wee schools!  We applaud each and every one of you who took part.

Have a look at the fabulous photos courtesy of Jemima Johnstone.  See you next year! 🙂

Here are some action shots with our very enthusiastic participants

 

 

Mrs Ferguson planned an interesting STEM challenge for her class today as part of their Social Studies topic on the Titanic.  The children were given just one resource with which to make a vessel capable of holding an increasing load of coins afloat.

The boys and girls were required to measure and cut a tin foil rectangle 13cm by 15cm with which to make their lifeboat – that’s it, nothing else!

We popped out into the sunshine to test our vessels in buckets of water.  Some sank without a trace, and some floated victoriously.  The maximum load was an impressive 23 pennies!

Everyone concluded that the designs that allowed the weight to be distributed as widely as possible, with the largest surface area, were more capable of holding coin weight.  We all agreed that this was the lifeboat we would like to be on.

The boys and girls then experimented with a larger quantity of tin foil to give more design flexibility.  Murray’s team constructed a very high sided vessel that was able to hold all the coins.  Even though it got weighed down by the all of the coins, the water didn’t breach the sides of the craft.

Leswalt Primary had safety input from our local police yesterday.  Primary 4-7 pupils learned about how to keep themselves safe online whilst Primary 1 to 4 had a road safety talk in the sunshine.

The boys and girls had the opportunity to practice how to cross the road in the safety of our outdoor area.  There was lots of discussion on what we should to when want to cross a road.

Have a look at the children practicing.

If you would like to continue to practice at home, here is a checklist to help remind children of what to do.

road-safety-checklist

Did you know that May is National Share a Story  month?

This is an annual celebration of the power and magic of storytelling. Organised by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, it is a wonderful opportunity for families to share stories and books.

Spending just 10 minutes a day reading and sharing stories with children can make a crucial difference to their future plus it’s a lovely thing to do!

World Book Day are offering free Share A Story resources to help you join in including a Share A Story Reading Stars game, top tips for sharing stories, book review templates.

 

This year’s theme is Myths, Magic and Mayhem.

Here are some suggested reading titles for you:

• Mythical Book Suggestions
• Magic Book Suggestions 
• Mayhem Book Suggestions

Why not encourage your child to create their own mythical beast for this year’s competition! Click here for competition details.  The closing dates is the 1st of June, 2021.

The Pupil Council Members thought it would be a good idea to  upload a digital library of books you might like to read and share at home.

WBD-whole school digital-library

After a suggestion from Pupil Council members, Luke B and Calder, we enjoyed a session of story sharing together to read for pleasure. Have a look at the lovely time the children had reading together in the beautiful weather.

What a brilliant day out the North Rhins P7s enjoyed at Galloway Activity Centre on Friday! This was organised as a special treat as they had missed their last two residentials – and what a fabulous time they had together before they head off to S1 at Stranraer Academy.

Thankfully the high winds and rain of Thursday had abated and Friday dawned dry and reasonably bright. We met at Port Rodie and clambered upon the minibus to head down the road to Loch Ken.

Once there, we got kitted up with our laser guns and headsets for our first activity. Diving in and out of the wooden hides (and in Mrs F’s case headfirst over a tree trunk!) the teams worked to avoid being ‘killed’ by the opposition. Strategy meetings were held, tactics discussed and rounds of ‘ammo’ were fired… and yes the teachers were shot! All good fun. The teachers went from being quite cool and mature to being VERY into this game! Why had I never played this before? Highly recommended!

Next up, the children donned their wetsuits (many comedy moments were had with Mr Cloy!) and enjoyed a session of kayaking. They were naturals! Once they were kayaked-out, the suggested dare from Instructors Rob and Hannah to jump off the the end of the pontoon was met with great cheers all round. The phrase ‘drowned rats’ comes to mind as they all padded back up towards the centre to get changed into dry clothes.

A quick bite of lunch and it was time for the climbing wall and zipwire with instructors Rob and Ben. What a bunch of adrenaline seekers we have! Superb climbing and ‘zipping’! The offer was then there for those who wanted to have a 2nd,3rd and even 4th shot of the climbing wall.

We thanked Rob, Hannah and Ben for a great activity day and climbed aboard the bus to head to Castle Douglas for a bite to eat. Chip-shop dinners in hand, we stopped the bus by Carlingwark Loch and munched our tasty suppers, before heading back along the A75 towards home.

The kids were an absolute pleasure to be with, the activities were fantastic fun and the chip-shop tea rounded off a perfect day out! Just check out our pictures below to see for yourselves….

 

We had a fantastic time exploring our new Kirkcolm surroundings for Outdoor Classroom Day today!

The sun shone as we headed down Fisher’s Lane to the beach. P1-4 investigated symmetry in the natural environment, explored a measuring challenge and enjoyed creating messages using the Viking Rune alphabet.

P5-7 worked on some sand multiplication challenges, measure and writing about settings – and what a fabulous setting we have.

The older pupils had rugby training in the afternoon and then carried on the fun with a school rounders game. Great fun!

Take a look at the fantastic photos to see just how much fun we all  had! What a brilliant day!

All of Leswalt Primary have made it to Kirkcolm Primary for the first day of fun in the sun together.  They are enjoying the new surroundings and getting to know new friends.  Happy days ahead for all!

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Leswalt as shelves have been cleared, boxes packed and containers filled in preparation for our temporary move to Kirkcolm whilst our wee school has a refresh! Huge thanks to our buddies at Kirkcolm for letting us come and share their building. Leswalt had its last full makeover in 1989 and we’re super excited about the sparkly shiny school which we will return to some months from now!

We’ve made so many happy memories here; but there are so many more to be made. Our location may be changing for a wee while but we’re still Leswalt pupils! It’s not goodbye but see you soon…

Check out the BEFORE pictures! We can not wait to show you the AFTER!

See you next week at Kirkcolm!