School News
‘Be Safe Inside’ The school will be practising a ‘lockdown procedure’ which we are calling ‘Be Safe Inside’ next week. This will give pupils and staff the opportunity to test our procedure if we need to ensure everyone is inside and that the school is secure e.g. there may be a chemical spill or fire in a nearby property or a stray animal from the Market has got into the school grounds.
There will be a Tannoy announcement to let children, staff and visitors know that they should stay in class or come in from the playground if outside. All school doors will be closed and no one allowed to enter or leave the school until the all clear is given. If a parent happens to be in school at this time then please follow staff instructions.
Over the school year we practise our Fire Drills and the Lockdown Drill will also be part of our regular Health and Safety training for staff and pupils.
Rotary Quiz
Thank you to James, Martin, Bryan and Logan from P7 who represented the school at the local heat of the Rotary Quiz. It was an exciting contest which was won by Kells Primary who go on to the next round in Dumfries.
Letter from Head of Education Dumfries and Galloway Council – Parental Satisfaction Survey
Dear Parent / Carer
We know how important it is that parents/carers are involved in the life and work of our schools. Parents tell us that they particularly care about the relationship with the class teacher, the ethos of the school, the quality of the leadership and management, their child’s learning and experience at school, pupil behaviour and welfare including the handling of issues such as bullying and harassment. We want to continue to improve our services to families and give our children the best life chances -we want to know what you and your child/children think of school through a survey. You can access the survey on the council website between the 20th February and 31st March under the ‘Get in touch with us’ area or from this link.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KQMLMBW
The survey is also available as a paper copy from your child’s school office and once completed can be returned there also as these will be collated and forwarded on to us.
Yours sincerely
Dr Gillian Brydson
Head of Education
Date for your Diary – Open Evening – Thursday 16th March 5:15 – 6:45pm. On 16th March we are having an Open Evening when families can share in their child (ren’s) learning. The school will be open from 5:15-6:45pm for pupils to share their learning with parents and to review the current term’s learning targets. Teachers will be available for short meetings but please note that these will not individual appointments and other families may be in the room. If you wish a confidential discussion please contact the school to make an appointment for a different day and time.
Class news
Primary 1
We have started our new topic this week – its all about Dinosaurs. We made fossils with salt dough – we had to bake them in the oven. We made dinosaur skeletons with pasta. We have been learning about Symmetry. Nicole got a certificate at Gymnastics for a stand-out performance.
Primary 1/2 This week we started our new Dinosaurs topic. We have been digging for fossils in our sand area and we even made our own fossils using salt dough. We are using magnifying glasses to examine the fossils and we painted huge dinosaurs to feature in our Dino Park classroom.
Alex and Caitlin taught us what a Paleaontologist is! Well done for sharing your knowledge.
Primary 2a
We have been learning about different kinds of weather and we are going to keep a weather diary. In Maths, we have been learning about adding doubles to 20. Charlotte says we have been learning to use different strategies to find our answers.” Shea says we can use our heads and our fingers.” Holly says she likes to learn how to use the Beebot. Its lots of fun.
Primary 2b
We started the Tesco Football Programme with Ross and Howie. We all enjoyed it. Each week we use different active spelling activities to help us learn our words. You can try these at home too!
In our topic this week we learned tornadoes suck things up like a hoover and hurricanes blow over cars and destroy houses.
Primary 3a
P3a were very lucky this week to visit Crochmore Farm near Crocketford. Angus the farm owner showed us around the farm and we got to see and do lots of exciting things. We were able to see the cows being milked, the tractor delivering the food to the cows and we all got to meet and bottle feed some calves.
Milly – “When I was at the farm the calf sucked my whole hand.” Douglas – “I fed a calf.” Ruby – “I liked to feed the calves. It drunk the whole bottle.” Emma – “My favourite thing was seeing the cows being milked it was very interesting.” Keira – “I liked feeding the calves.” Hayden – “Angus gave me a new bottle and the calves emptied it.” Isla – “I liked seeing the cows milked.” Eilidh – “The calf tried to eat my coat.” Kyla – “I liked seeing the tractor give the cows their food.” Elle – “Angus took us up to the wheat field and it looked like grass because it is green.”
Well done to Milly and Emma at our Scottish Assembly.
Primary 3b
We had our Assembly today on Scotland Farming and Fairtrade. We used chalk pastels to draw Fresian dairy cows.
We visited Torrs Farm last week and learned lots about dairy farming. Thank you to Fiona from RHET for organising our talk from Sara Barbour, our visit to Wallets Mart and our trip to Torrs Farm.
Primary 4
We started our Viking topic this week and we explored different Viking artefacts in a Viking Burial activity. Tommy – “It was fun. I liked seeing the Thor’s Hammer Pendant. We have also been working on our measuring skills in maths – calculating volumes.
Primary 5
“We are learning about decimals in Maths” – Isla “We are doing class elections.” – Mia Well done to Rachel and Rory T for winning the Poetry and Art from P5.
Primary 5/6 We have started investigating our Murder mystery. PC Ellis visited and took us to the murder scene. She told us all about her job and how to secure a crime scene. We met the 4 suspects and are preparing to interview them. We will use our learning of the 5 senses to solve the murder. We also wrote news reports reporting of the murder and we have made ‘wanted’ posters for the suspects – Mrs Green, Mrs Graham, Mr Tyson and Miss Dooley.
Well done to Erin who was 4th in a Bagpipe competition in Glasgow.
Primary 6
We recapped how to round numbers up and down. We have been converting fractions, decimals and percentages. We have been doing function machines, focusing on multiplication and division. We have been reading and doing comprehension tasks on The Street Child. We have been hot seating characters in the book and we have written a diary extract.
We have been learning about different relationships in Health.
Emma won a Gold and Bronze award at UK Skating. Stitchclub girls have made things to sell on Tuesday.
Primary 6/7
In ICT we have been creating animations using Serif Software. In Maths we have been studying times tables and durations of time. In topic we have been finding out about the Blitz and the Blackout.
A homework project has been set. We have also started reading ‘Carrie’s War’
Primary 7
We are happy to welcome Mrs Luebke into our class. She will be joining us for the rest of the term.
We have started learning about our new topic India. There are lots of things we can’t wait to find out more about. Well done to Ruby, Kira, Leah, Kayden and Tessa . The Threave girls had a fantastic victory against Queens on Saturday.
Ruby came 5th in 800m at an Athletics competition at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow. A new personal best!
Matthew came 3rd in a carriage driving competition on Saturday.
Reminders for Next Week
P1 – Next Wednesday 1st March we will be handling and tasting fruits. If any objections to this please let the class teacher know before this date.
P2b – PE kits for everyone on Monday and outdoor PE kit for Friday please.
P3a – Please remember gym kits for Monday.
P3b – Fairtrade Fortnight Monday 27th – 12th March 2017.
We will be selling Fairtrade Food at the Tuck Shop.
P4 – Any more big cereal boxes would be greatly appreciated.
P5/6 – A reminder that we would still be grateful of old shirts for painting in.
P6 – Bake Sale and Sewing Stalls on Tuesday 28th March. Pupil v Teacher Football Match – wear red to support teachers and blue to support pupils. Donations welcome. Match at 1pm – parents welcome. Cross Country event on Wednesday 1st March.
P6/7 – Wednesday Cross Country event, Thursday Rugby Coaching, please remember kit and P7 swimming forms.
