All posts by Mr Gray

Glenkens Olympics

June 7, 2012 Mr Gray Leave a comment

P1 to 7 pupils from Carsphairn, Dalry and Kells competed in the Glenkens Olympics on the 30th May. The children were organised into teams and given a country – Australia, France, China and Jamaica. These were mixed teams, with children from the three primary schools in each, to give pupils across the cluster the chance to work together and develop their teamwork skills. In the morning, P1-3 took part in potted sports and athletic activities, while P4-7 took part in hockey and handball. This was followed in the afternoon by team games played by the P1-3 pupils and volleyball by the P4-7 pupils. Once the scores had been tallied, Australia were revealed to be the winners.

Worker of the Month for May 2012

June 7, 2012 Mr Gray Leave a comment

P1-3 Dakota – ‘She has been working very hard on her counting and saying the numbers to 10. She can count to 10 and is beginning to say the number words clearly. ‘

P4/5 Laura – ‘Super effort made in spelling and times table homework.’

P6/7 Amberleigh -‘She has worked very hard in her maths and language work, showing super concentration.’

P1-3 Rockcliffe Trip

June 7, 2012 Mr Gray Leave a comment

P1-3 classes from Kells and Dalry visited Rockcliffe recently as part of their Ocean Life topic. Dave and Paul from the Ranger Service met the pupils and helped them investigate the various rock pools. The pupils from both schools had a great time. And as you will see from the photos below, no visit to the beach would be complete without an ice cream!

Storyland Party

June 7, 2012 Mr Gray Leave a comment

Recently P1-3 invitedtheir buddies from P6/7 to celebrate the safe return of Storyland. Here are some photographs of what the pupils got up to.

active learning 002 — Helping each other

active learning 005 — Making special biscuits

active learning 007 — How are you going to decorate your biscuit?Story Time

active learning 009 — Decorating Gingerbread Men

active learning 015 — Carefully icing a cake

active learning 019 — Fancy gingerbread men

Paul Jones B League Football

May 28, 2012 Mr Gray Leave a comment

Paul Jones May 12 002 — Kells Footballers

Kells participated in the Paul Jones B League at Dalry School on Monday 28th May. Kells finished in 4th place overall with 11 points. Unfortunately it was not good enough for a place in the B League Final, but they played well and more importantly enjoyed the experience. Well done to all the pupils involved!

Results –

Kells 2 – Dalbeattie 2

Kells 2 – Borgue 0

Kells 0 – Dalry 0

Kells 1 – Kirkcudbright Tigers 2

Kells 1 – Hardgate 3

Kells 6 – Twynholm 0

Kells 2 – Crossmichael 1

Giant Heads in the Forest Project

May 3, 2012 Mr Gray 1 Comment

P4/5 were invited by Rebecca Goldsmith, Youth Arts Development Officer for the CatStrand, to participate in the ‘Giants in the Forest’ project. On 30^th April the CatStrand worked with Vision Mechanics to suspend giant heads in the trees at The Otter’s Pool on the outskirts of New Galloway. The giant heads were planted with local seeds and seedlings, which will grow and change over the course of the year. More information is available at –

www.visionmechanics.org/work/current-projects/giants-in-the-forest/index.html

Here are some photographs of P4/5 helping with the project.

Giant in forest project April 12 002 — Giant Head made from willow

Giant in forest project April 12 005 — Pupils looking for moss and twigs to put on the head

Giant in forest project April 12 009 — Learning about planting flowers

Giant in forest project April 12 013 — Starting to take shape

Giant in forest project April 12 016 — Finished Giant's Head

Basic First Aid Training for P6/7

May 3, 2012 Mr Gray 1 Comment

P6/7 participated recently in basic first aid training. John Bell from the Red Cross delivered two sessions to the pupils which covered the recovery position, CPR for a baby and adult, bandaging and he also demonstrated how a defibrillator works. All pupils received a certificate from John on completion of the two hour course.

Red Cross April 12 002 — Putting on a sling

Red Cross April 12 005 — Sling Demonstration

Red Cross April 12 008 — P6/7 with their certificates

Stewartry Rugby Festival

May 3, 2012 Mr Gray 1 Comment

Primary 6/7 participated in the Stewartry Rugby Festival recently. The results of the games and points for fair play during the Festival were added up and sent by email from John Muir, Stewartry Coach for Schools, to Kells. All the pupils were delighted with the following results –

1st – Kells 2 & Dalry 2 57 points

2nd – Kells 1 & Dalry 1 56 points

3rd – Carsphairn, Gelston, Crossmichael 2, Hardgate 1 & Hardgate 2 53 points

4th – Crossmichael 1 52 points

5th – Castle Douglas 1 48 points

6th – Castle Douglas 2 47 points

Well done to all the P6/7 pupils and also to Dalry and Carsphairn!

RHET Tractor Torch Tour

May 3, 2012 Mr Gray 1 Comment

All our pupils produced a piece of work on the theme of ‘Farming and the Countryside’ for the Tractor Torch Tour. RHET organised for a tractor to visit every primary school in Dumfries & Galloway to pick up one piece of work on the chosen theme and then pass it on to the next school. An excellent acrostic poem written by Jasmin from P5 was chosen as the Kells entry. This was handed over to the tractor driver who passed it on to Dalry Primary. We received a super poster encouraging people to close the gate when out in the countryside from Connor at Springholm Primary.

Glenkens P6 & 7 Edinburgh Residential

May 3, 2012 Mr Gray

Recently primary 6 and 7 pupils from the Glenkens visited Edinburgh for a three day residential experience.

On the first day the pupils from Carsphairn, Dalry and Kells stopped off en route to Edinburgh to visit the Falkirk Wheel. After the boat trip and picnic lunch the next stop was the National Museum of Scotland. The pupils enjoyed visiting all the exhibitions in the recently refurbished museum. The first day was rounded off with a ‘Ghost Tour’ around the old part of the city. The pupils found it hilarious when Mr McKenna and Mr Gray were chosen to be whipped at the ‘mercat cross’ when our guide was telling stories of everyday life in Edinburgh hundreds of years ago. The tour ended with a visit to some of the underground vaults.

Day two began with a walk up Arthur’s Seat in glorious sunny weather. After some super views of the city of Edinburgh we walked to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. The group was fortunate to be given a guided tour around the Parliament from Mr Fergusson our local MSP. It was fascinating to see the conference rooms, the many offices plus the debating chamber. Mr Fergusson also managed to obtain enough passes for our whole group to witness First Minister’s Question Time from the public viewing gallery. Quite a number of the pupils were surprised by the noise created by the MSP’s during the debate. After lunch at the Parliament we walked across the road to visit the galleries in Dynamic Earth which explained how our planet was created, how it has changed over millions of years as well as giving the pupils the chance to find out about the Polar Regions and rainforests. The pupils then enjoyed burger and chips and a couple of games of ten pin bowling at the Fountainbridge Complex.

On the last day of the residential we visited Edinburgh Castle. It was rather cloudy that day so we could not see much further than Princes Street. The pupils especially enjoyed seeing the Scottish crown, Stone of Destiny and the one o’clock gun. We then walked from the castle to the Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile. The pupils were shown how the camera obscura worked plus they had the opportunity to walk through the rooms and galleries to experience the many optical illusions. After lunch in Princes Street Gardens we all headed back home. The bus journey home gave quite a few people the opportunity to have a much needed forty winks!

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