The following pupils were elected by their classmates to represent their year group at the monthly Pupil Council meetings –
P2 Dante
P3 Brooke
P4 Henry
P5 Ben
P6 Amy
P7 Bronnen & Rory
Pupil Council minutes and agendas can be found on the noticeboard next to the school office.
August Newsletter
I hope you all had a relaxing holiday and are set for another busy session at Kells Primary.
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome all our new pupils and their families to Kells. I am sure the pupils, parents and friends of the school will make you feel most welcome.
I am delighted to inform you that there have been no changes to the staff in the school from last session. For the benefit of the new families here is a staff list –
Head Teacher: Mr Simpson (based at Dalry School)
Depute Head: Mr Gray
P1-4 class teacher: Mrs Muir *
P5-7 class teachers: Mrs Deshayes & Mr Gray
SfL Teacher: Mrs Barratt
Classroom Assistants: Mrs McIntosh & Mrs Brydson
SfL Assistants: Miss Wilson & Mrs McClelland
Playground Supervisor: Mrs McIntosh
Clerical Assistants: Mrs Best (Mon & Thurs all day and Fri until lunchtime)
Mrs Dawson (Tues & Wed)
Catering Manager: Mrs McSkimming
Janitor / Cleaner: Mrs Daly
* Please note that Mrs Muir will be absent for the first five weeks of the new session. Miss Duka will be covering the class until Mrs Muir returns.
Dates for Diary
Mon 26th August P1 pupils start full days
Thurs 29th August Start of P7 Transition mornings at Dalry
Thurs 12th/Fri 13th Sept P5 Residential at Carlingwark in Castle Douglas
Mon 30th Sept – Fri 4th Oct Autumn Walk to School Week
Fri 11th October Harvest Thanksgiving (9.30am in Hall)
Last day of term 1
Mon 28th October Start of term 2
P7 / S1 Transition
P7 pupils will be going to Dalry School every Thursday morning, starting on 29th August. Over the course of the session the pupils will study French, Social Subjects, Science, Technical, IT and Sports / Health & Wellbeing. Pupils will be able to travel to Dalry on the regular school bus from the Old Bank in New Galloway or be dropped off at Dalry School by parents. All the pupils will return to Kells after lunch in the service bus around 12.30pm. The pupils will be met off the bus by a member of Kells staff and escorted back to school.
School Lunches and Tuck Shop
Just a reminder that a school meal costs £1.75. It would be very helpful if all dinner money could be paid on a Monday morning. Thank you.
The tuck shop continues to be a great success at break time each morning.
Prices are as follows –
Toast 21p, yoghurt 42p, milk 17p, apple juice 42p, fruit 42p, biscuit 47p and aqua juice cuplets 32p. Pupils place their order before 9.30am on the day.
P.E. Kit
All the pupils have now settled in to the new school session and are getting used to their class timetable. However, a number of pupils are regularly forgetting to bring their P.E. kit to school. Please could the pupils bring in their P.E. kit on a Monday and take it home on a Friday so that it can be washed at the weekend if necessary. This means the pupils always have their kit available to them and will not miss out on their regular P.E. with Mrs Johnstone or with their class teacher.
School Uniform
Last term several visitors to the school commented on how smartly dressed the pupils were. Please continue to encourage your child / children to wear the school uniform. The school keeps a small supply of polo shirts, sweatshirts and cardigans for purchase during the session. Thank you.
Reading Books
We are missing a few books from the Literacy World scheme which we use in the P5/6/7 class. Please could you have a look at home for any school reading books that have not been returned to the class teacher.
Autumn Walk to School Week
Walk to School Week is taking place from Monday 30th September – Friday, 4th October. We would always encourage the children to walk to school if they can, but appreciate that this is not always possible.
Update Forms
Update Forms were sent home at the end of last term asking that you check the information that is held by us for your child/ren and make any changes that were required. We have received a number of these back, but not all. Mrs. Best is sending out another copy where necessary and it would be appreciated if these could be returned to school as soon as possible, please.
Book Club
All orders to be received by next Thursday, 29th August, please.
Rag Bag Collection
Last session our Rag Bag collection raised £189 for school funds. Please remember the Rag Bag Bin is available at all times for any unwanted textiles. Our next collection will be sometime in December. Date to follow. Thank you.
Head lice
As I am sure you are aware head lice are a continual problem for all schools and by working together we can try to eliminate them from Kells Primary. It is good practice for girls with long hair to have it tied up at school. It is also important that you check your child’s hair on a regular basis. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you want additional help and support from the school nurse.
School Contact Details
Telephone 01644 420340
Email: koffice931@ea.dumgal.sch.uk
On Wednesday 5th June Kells held their annual Sports Day. We were very lucky with the weather as you can see from the photographs below. The pupils all gave 100% during all the activities and races, plus they gave each other lots of encouragement.
The scores were as follows –
1st Clatteringshaws 455 points
2nd Kenmure 423 points
3rd Bennan 422 points
Well done to the pupils of Clatteringshaws!
P1-4 Lewis – ‘Worked really hard on his story for the Dark Skies Competition. It was a very imaginative story with some great ‘wow’ words.’
P5-7 Finlay – ‘ Finlay has been writing exciting and imaginative stories in his Big Writing. His stories have good ‘wow’ words and they are very enjoyable to read. ‘
Mrs McKee set the pupils fromP1-4 a challenge last week of naming two of the family’s orphaned lambs. The one condition was that the names had to be characters from a children’s book. The class made a long list of suitable male and female names. Mr & Mrs McKee decided on the names ‘Balloo’ and ‘Daisy.’ Here are a few photographs of the lambs with some of the children from the class.
A number of pupils represented Kells at the Galloway Music Festival this year. All the pupils were a credit to the school. Here is our roll of honour –
Kelsie – 1st place with Hannah in the Beginners Duet class, 2nd in the Juniors Duet with Bronnen and 3rd place in the Vocal Solo for Grade 3.
Hannah – 1st place with Kelsie in the Beginners Duet and 3rd equal in the Vocal Solo for Grade 2.
Murray – 3rd equal in the Vocal Solo for Grade 2.
Evie – 3rd equal in the Vocal Solos for Beginners.
Thomas – 3rd equal in the Vocal Solo for Beginners and 3rd in the P6 Scots Verse class.
The Choir of 11 – 2nd place plus received a Distinction in the Hymn & Folk Song class.
P4-7 Choir – Received a Distinction in the Primary Choir 1-3 Teachers class.
Bronnen – 1st place in P6 Poem or Monologue, 1st place in the P6-7 Prose reading, 2nd in the Vocal Solo for Grade 2 and 2nd place in the Juniors Duet with Kelsie.
Well done Everyone!
P1-4 grew daffodils to sell to their parents and family members. This raised a super £90.90. Thank you to all the parents who supported P1-4 in this project. Well done P1-4!
The pupils have been busy raising money for this very worthwhile charity. The Pupil Council decided to hold a ‘Wear What You Want Day’ to raise money as well as selling red noses.
A group of pupils from the P5-7 class decided to do a sponsored silence. Jasmin raised £40, Georgiana £37.50, Florrie £44.63, Amberleigh £4.70, Hannah and Erin raised £7.80 and Laura raised £3.61. Well done girls!
The total money raised and donated by the school was £227.49!
Bronnen and Yelena decided to sell cakes to the pupils and staff at break times on Red Nose Day. They raised a super £73.60! Well done girls!
P5-7 decided to create a comic strip this week for the Dr Finlayson Environmental Challenge Competition. The character they were to use this week was ‘Littervore.’
P5-7 have been participating in this year’s Dr Finlayson Environmental Challenge. This is a yearly challenge for schools in Dumfries and Galloway with an environmental theme. This year the pupils have been given the task of writing a story, a script, a poem or even create a comic strip using specific characters. Week one was about ‘Weed the Invader’ and P5-7 decided to write a story using the Weed character. Here are a few of the pupil entries. We hope you enjoy reading them.
Week 1: Winning Kells Entry
‘Weed The Invader’ by Erin
Hi, my name is FEA (Fighting Evil Always) and I am an Eco Superhero. I can fly and I have lots of cool gadgets, including an electro- magnetic bomb, weed poison and a communication device. I have a gun that can turn me and other things, into anything I choose by a press of a button.
The Story
“ Brriiinngg”, went FEA’s alarm clock and she whooshed up into the air. “Another day, another adventure”, said FEA excitedly. FEA was as high as the birds as high as the clouds!
FEA flew along the countryside, and to her surprise, there were no trees, “ How strange”, FEA said to her self and she landed to take a closer look…
FEA pulled out her gun and she changed into a normal person with normal clothes. FEA looked at her communication device “New Galloway”, it said flashing. FEA walked along the street to see if she could find any clues.
After a while FEA finally spotted something rather odd. She noticed that there were lots of little weeds popping up through the road. FEA scanned the weed on her communication device “ Japanese Knotweed”, the device said, “ mmm”, thought FEA curiously, and she followed the Japanese knotweed …
FEA traced it back to the forest. She felt a cold shiver run down her back. Eventually FEA got to the scene, she heard some horrible hisses. She franticly pulled out her gun and she turned back into FEA Eco Superhero! FEA ran to a nearby bush to see if she could get a glimpse at this eating machine. FEA now knew that the thing was no longer a thing it was a talking, walking , eating weed , with teeth- oh my it had teeth, “ ROOAARR”, said the weed “ oh my “, FEA said with horror. Then she started to draw a map on her communication device. FEA knew she didn’t have a lot of time.
FEA was shaking with fear. She had fought villains before, but nothing like this. Despite her fear, she grabbed her gun and got a chainsaw. She ran from behind the bush and lifted the chainsaw ready to cut the weed, but one of the weed’s tentacles whipped FEA and she fell backwards. Everything was blurred, nevertheless she got back up. FEA saw what this beast had done to the land. All the animal’s homes were gone. FEA felt angry. She charged at the weed and chopped the head off!!! The weed fell to the ground with a big thud. FEA then got out her gun and she put poison on the weed. “Done “, FEA said happily. “ Another super villain gone”.
FEA’s communication device was buzzing, “Another mission”, said FEA. She was going to need her electro-magnetic bomb!
Runners Up in Week One
‘Weed the Invader’ by Thomas
One day I was walking through the woods. I stopped for a rest. I looked up into the sky and saw a strange glowing thing coming towards the earth …
I stared at it for some time, then it disappeared into the trees. I just had to find out what it was. I walked towards the place were it went down but when I got there I got a big surprise because in front of me was a very, big weed-like thing towering over me. It was grabbing all the trees and breaking them and putting them into its eyes, where there was a big fire. All the smoke was coming out of its head and making C02 which is very bad for us.
I turned and ran. When I got home I got the phone and phoned Dr Willie Weed Wrecker. He came to my house in just a few minutes. But when we got to the forest this half was no longer a forest but just small bits of wood were left . We walked into the bit of forest that was left . We heard a crashing sound. Then we saw smoke.
We walked on until we saw the Weeds! Once again, there was a lot of smoke coming from out of his head. Willie Weed Wrecker got his big chain saw and walked up to the Weed. The Weed looked at him, he looked at the Weed. Suddenly Willie put his chainsaw onto the Weed and started sawing. But it didn’t work on every piece he cut out. It just grew back again. So he got his raygun and blasted the Weed!
When he stopped, all that was left was a pile of ashes. Then Willie Weed Wrecker took some seeds from his pocket and threw them up in the air. When they hit the ground, they started to grow and into trees. The weed was gone forever.
‘Weed the Invader’ by Evie
One day Excellent Evie was looking if any kind of villain was making trouble. She was just crossing the road when she heard a crash and went to look.She saw a massive tree-like weed and went to go and get it. The weed saw her and when she looked she heard another noise-he was gone.The weed had gone into a forest and was crushing all the trees with his tentacles…
Excellent Evie was on the move and was trying to find that weed! She saw him scrambling off into the deep forest and going into the deepest part of it.
He was glad that he had got away from that super hero and went into the deepest part of the forest. He was crushing lots of tiny little trees with glee. To his surprise he heard something gliding in the air.Oh no the super hero was back!
This time she had got him, she pulled his tentacles and flung him into space. He was gone forever gone…gone…gone!
Excellent Evie had done it again! She went to space for the last time and locked him up in his spaceship.
Job done!
‘LERRYN AND THE TROUBLE OF WEED THE INVADER’ by Bronnen
WEED THE INVADER is killing all living plants in Dumfries and Galloway. Two children called Lerryn and Carmen plan to stop this ghastly event while WEED THE INVADER is plotting his next evil scheme in Golf Wood, next to New Galloway.
Lerryn and Carmen didn’t know it yet but some strange things were going to be happening to them.
One day Lerryn and Carmen were walking home from Kells School when they heard an enormous CRASH! They jerked round and saw that loads of trees had fallen down behind them in Golf Wood. About two seconds later they heard a thunderous ROAR, it was WEED THE INVADER! They started running, and to Lerryn’s surprise she was flying! She stopped, she stared, looking for Carmen, then she turned hoping that Carmen would not have been caught, but she was! Lerryn yelled. Her anger and annoyance were bringing out a strange power, shooting out of her eyes, lifting the trees back up and planting them in the ground again! Lerryn’s power suddenly went wonky and shot at WEED THE INVADER, but she wasn’t angry or annoyed any more because she was lifting him up and she thought she could defeat him. Unexpectedly WEED THE INVADER turned to stone. At once he let go of Carmen. Carmen dropped to the ground but luckily Lerryn was there to save her.
Lerryn’s powers had defeated WEED THE INVADER. At last Dumfries and Galloway was saved. If you want to see WEED THE INVADER’S stone statue you just have to go to the Golf Wood and see for yourself.
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