All posts by Mr Gray

P6 K’Nex Cluster Challenge

On the 2nd April the P6 K’Nex Cluster Challenge was held at Dalry School. The task this year was to design and make a vehicle and / or trailer which will allow the athletes to transport their equipment to  Glasgow safely and securely. The vehicle had to transport a bottle of water to represent the sports equipment. The pupils were also given a list of other rules to follow. Mr Harvie and Mrs Stewart from Dalry School were the guest judges.

The top designers were –

1st Euan & William (Dalry)
2nd Finlay & Hardie (Kells)
3rd = Caitlin & Rachel (Carsphairn)
= Daniel & Liam (Dalry)

Well done to all the P6 pupils involved!

Dates for the Diary

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4th – 21st April           Easter Holiday

22nd April                    Start of term 4

5th May                       May Day Holiday

27th May                     School Photographer – Class photos

3rd June                      Pupil reports issued to parents

4th June                      Parent Consultations 3.30 – 5.30pm & 6 – 7pm

6th June                      In-service day for staff. Pupil holiday.

2nd July                       Last day of term 4.

Mrs Dawson Retires

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Mrs. Dawson, Clerical Assistant on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, will retire from Kells Primary on Wednesday, 2nd April. Mrs. Dawson has worked at Kells for eleven years. All the staff at Kells hope she has a long and relaxing retirement.

Mrs. Dawson retiring will mean we now have to come into line with other schools of a similar size within the authority. We are now only entitled to 23 hours clerical support. This means that we will lose 7.5 hours of the 10 hours Mrs Dawson worked each week. Ms. Harper (previously known as Mrs. McClelland) has agreed to work the 2.5 hours that we are entitled to in the office from next term.

From next term the Clerical Assistant hours are as follows: –

Monday          8.30 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. (Mrs. Best)

Tuesday        8.30 a.m. – 9.00 a.m. (Ms. Harper)

Wednesday   8.30 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. (Mrs. Best) & 3 – 4.30pm (Ms. Harper)

Thursday        8.30 – 9.00 a.m.         (Ms. Harper)

Friday             8.30 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. (Mrs. Best)

Unless it is very important, e.g. family emergency or changes to the end of the day pick up arrangements for your child / children, it would be a great help to us if parents could telephone us during the school hours when we have clerical support. At other times when the office is not manned, we will do our best to answer your calls, but if that is not possible, we have an answering machine which can be used and your call will be returned at the first available opportunity. Thank you.

Edinburgh Residential

Recently P6 and 7 pupils from the Glenkens visited Edinburgh for a three day residential experience.
On the afternoon of the first day the pupils from Carsphairn, Dalry and Kells visited the Camera Obscura and Edinburgh Castle. After their dinner the pupils went on an organised ghost walk around The Royal Mile and the city vaults. They were told a number of stories about life in Edinburgh hundreds of years ago.
Day two began with a walk up Arthur’s Seat. Unfortunately it was wet and windy, but the pupils still enjoyed the view of the city. The group then walked down to the Scottish Parliament to meet local MSP, Mr Alex Fergusson, for a guided tour of the building. After lunch we walked across the road to Holyrood for a guided tour of the Palace. The afternoon was completed with a visit to Dynamic Earth where the pupils enjoyed the galleries explaining how the planet was created as well as watching a film show on space at the planetarium.

On the last day we visited the National Museum of Scotland before leaving Edinburgh. The trip home was broken with a visit to the Falkirk Wheel.

Galloway Music Festival Successes

All the pupils from Kells competed in this year’s Galloway Music Festival. The P1-4 class performed well in the non-competitive Action Song category.

P5-7 won the small schools choir competition. The Lindsay Singers cup is now proudly displayed in our trophy cabinet.

In the P7 Scots Verse competition, Bronnen came first and Jasmin came third.

Charlotte was first in the Penny Whistle class.

We had quite a few successes in the Vocal Solos. Florrie was first in the beginners class with Amy second.  Georgiana was first in grade one with Charlotte second. Jasmin was second in Grade two. And finally Bronnen was first equal in grade three.

Bronnen also won the Poem Monologue and the Scots Song Solo and came second in the Prose Reading.

Well done to all the pupils!

World Book Day 2014

The Pupil Council organised a second hand Book Sale to celebrate World Book Day and encourage everyone to read. Books were priced from 10p to 5op. In total the Pupil Council raised £44.84. The Pupil Council will now decide at their next meeting what they are going to spend the money on. Well done to everyone involved!

Pupils were also given the opportunity to dress up as their favourite character from a book.

The pupils also were able to exchange their £1 World Book day token for one of the specially published books. A big thank you to Cluster Librarian, Jane Banner, for organising the World Book Day titles in conjunction with Solway Books from Kirkcudbright.