Author: Mrs Turnbull

Our P7s have just returned from a residential trip to The Carlingwark Centre in Castle Douglas were they did some Hillwalking up Screel (on a very windy day!),  also Orienteering and Mountain biking in Dalbeattie Forest.  The staff at Carlingwark were very impressed with our P7s in all the activities they tackled and I was very proud of the determination, resilience and teamwork that they developed. Everyone learned some new skills and knowledge which hopefully they can build on in the future. Well done P7s!!  Enjoy some photos of our trip.

P6/7 have been very busy organising a buddy reading project for P1. This has been to link in with Book Week Scotland which runs from 23-29 November 2015.

From a selection of books our P6/7 pupils voted on reading Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar by Emily Mackenzie to their buddies. In class the children practiced using their voices effectively to hold their audiences attention and forming questions which would check their listeners understanding. They also created activities that the P1 class could do to consolidate their understanding of the story and to have FUN together!

The project got under way today and it was a great success. The P6/7 loved modelling their reading skills to the wee ones and the super activities kept everyone busy. A carrot treasure hunt ended up in our new look library and we hope to see our P1s enjoying books in there too!

 

 

 

 

 

Today P6/7 enjoyed a visit from Ms. Mackechnie, an education officer with The Scottish Parliament. We used voting consoles to vote on questions related to the Scottish Parliament and then split in to groups to make up manifestos. The groups included :- The Save The Earth Party, The Animal Welfare Party, The Computer Party and the Sporty Party.  Each party nominated a Party leader who read out the group manifesto for the other pupils to vote on. The results were close with the Save the Earth Party winning by just one vote! We then had a mini debate on the topical issue of,  ‘Should smoking be banned in cars?’ A Presiding Officer ensured the debate was respectful and within the time limit. All opinions on the matter were heard and another vote took place. Our class  agreed that  smoking should be banned in cars with a whopping 82% of the vote. 9% disagreed and 9% abstained. Let’s see if our results agree with our MSP’s when they debate this issue in the Scottish Parliament.