Our Weekly School News
Sharing our learning with the school community.
School News
Sparrow family – What a difference a week makes. Our three sparrow chicks have grown so fast and we have been watching them trying to fly. All three chicks left the nest on Friday.
Here’s a photograph of one of the adult birds having a well earned rest.
Opening up the Nature Area
Thank you to Scottish Power who very kindly arranged for Keith Imrie to cut down some of the hawthorns and brambles in a part of our Nature Area. The area has been really opened up which gives us space for activities such as den building. Thank you very much for this community support!
Before
After
Before
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Free School Meals and/or Clothing Grants
The process for parents to apply for Free School Meals and a Clothing Grant is changing this academic year.
Parents who are currently in receipt of Free School Meals and/or Clothing Grant do not need to complete an application. Your entitlement will be automatically assessed each year. Parents will receive a letter if they are no longer eligible.
A change of circumstances form should be completed if current applicants have any changes to their circumstances. Parents can email Educationsupport@dumgal.gov.uk to request a form or can ask at the school office.
New applicants for the forthcoming academic year 18/19 will be able to ask for a form from the school office.
Class News
Primary 1
Another busy week in Primary 1!
We have started to learn about subtraction and we are becoming really confident subtracting with numbers to 10. We have been using lots of objects and games to help us and we were writing lots of sums outside with chalk.
Oona: “We’re learning to take away.”
Zoe: “Tiny Tim sums.”
We are really enjoying the sunny weather and taking advantage of it by taking our learning outside. We are continuing to explore money in the outdoor kitchen and building and exploring with our new tyres from Stewartry Tyres. Thank you to Stewartry Tyres.
Evie: “We’ve got tyres and we play games in them”.
We also have a new blackboard menu (thanks to Laird from TAS).
Frankie: “We have got a blackboard.”
Taylan: “I liked doing the chalk on the blackboard.”
Rory: “We have been writing letters to say thank you.”
Lily: “I liked trying my best to do my writing”
We were thinking about how to start and finish our letters.
Zoe: “You need to say ‘To’ and then the person’s name”
Clay: “I’m excited about our trip to the beach”. Our trip is based upon our study of Andy Goldsworthy and other Artists who uses natural materials. We are looking forward to creating our own pieces of artwork.
*Please remember to return the reply slip for the trip.
Primary1/2
We’ve had a lovely week in the sunshine. Thank you to all who made it to our Storytime Session this week. We have been exploring recycling and re-using this week and made our own paper.
We also loved meeting the chicks in P3/4 ‘s classroom.
Primary 2
We have been learning our times tables.
Georgie thinks they are very hard. Noah – “I think they are too”.
In our topic we have been learning about non-living, living and once living. Ewan gave a great talk about his fossils. He had a T-rex claw and a Megalodon tooth.
Coby thought “They were really cool”.
Alexander – “They were scary”.
Fallon – “They were awesome!”
and Conner – ” They looked as though they came from Jurassic Park!”
Primary 3
This week we have been working on division in maths. We have been dividing by 2, 5 and 10.
“It was quite easy because I know your times tables.” – Becky
“You have to know your times tables to be able to divide.” – Fraser
“I found it tricky but it’s got easier.” – Kelvin
This week we have found out about life in the Roman army.
“The people in charge of the Roman army was called a centurion” – Alex
“If you were guarding a fort at night and you fell asleep on duty you might be killed” – Kianna
“They fired burning tar out of catapults” – Sam
“They would walk 20 miles a day – even with their armour on” – Isla McF
“They would walk 20 miles and that’s like us going around our playground 80 times”. – McKenzie
“They wouldn’t always be fighting. They would build roads, forts and patrol places they had taken over” – Amelia
This week we have also had a very special arrival – we have 23 eggs in an incubator in our classroom!! Katie came in to talk to us about the eggs.
“The little eggs in our incubator will actually have the biggest bird” – Dylan
“The smallest eggs will probably hatch first because they have less to soak up” – Gregor
We are really hoping that at least one of our chicks will hatch!
Primary3/4
Last Friday P3/4 celebrated the Royal Wedding by decorating biscuits and created our own wedding hat and had a fashion show to show everyone our designs. ‘I really liked making the hats and the celebrations’ – Tika.
This week we have been able to have lots of fun getting our chicks out for some time in the class. Riley said “The chicks are cute” and Maxi said “The chicks make funny noises”. Shannon thinks “the chicks are playful and have got so tall”!
In Maths we have been looking at area.
Freya and Elle got selected for the competition in their gymnastics class.
Charlotte started piano lessons and she can play Three Blind Mice.
At Brownies Alannah made a parcel for homeless people.
Tika is about to complete her grading in Taekwondo and Murray is about to do his in Karate.
April, Skye and Alannah got a medal for competing in the Brownie games.
Primary 4
Primary 4/5
This week we have been learning to write newspaper reports. We all think we are pretty good at creating eye catching and dramatic headlines.
In Maths we have been learning all about time with Mrs. Graham.
Elle – “When the big hand is at the 1, it is 5 minutes past the hour”.
Primary 5
This week in class we have been doing different graphs in Maths. We have looked at bar charts and line graphs.
Fraser was Player of the Year for Rugby. Eilidh learned how to do a pirouette in Jazz.
.Primary 5/6
This week in P5/6 we have been learning to read decimals to 2 places.
We have also been counting, reading, writing and ordering 4 digit numbers. On Tuesday, we visited Mr Pook’s restaurant in Castle Douglas.
Mya ” We visited because our topic is Dumfries and Galloway and our first section is food and drink.”
Melissa ” We learned about the local produce they use and where they get it”.
Wider Achievement: Aillie and Mya took part in a Dancing Competition.
Bobby has been playing in the school football team and played at Dalry on Wednesday evening.
Primary 6
This week, Primary Six went to Operation Safety in Stranraer. We had a busy day learning about how to stay safe at home, school and outside.
“We learned about different types of anti-social behaviours.” (Sami)
“I enjoyed learning about how to put people into the recovery position.” (Mia)
“I liked learning about fire safety and how to stay safe at home.” (Charley)
“In the drug and alcohol misuse group, we learned about different types of drugs and the effect they have on people.” (Bob)
“My favourite part was learning about how to stay safe on the internet.” (Cameron)
“We learned how to save someone from the water without putting yourself in danger.” (Sophie)
“We learned about electricity and what to do and what not to do. We had to identify different dangers on a picture.” (Daniel G)
“We started hockey this week with Miss Johnstone.” (Bob)
Achievements:
On Wednesday night, Sophie, Rory T and Ollie secured a place in Megan’s Gymnastic competition. The competition is on the 17th June.
On Sunday, it was the grand opening of Birkland for Threave. We won 4-2 against Greystone (Rory T, Sami, Ollie, Connor, Cameron and Sam).
Primary 6/7
This week we welcomed Nithsdale Amatuer rowing Club into school. We took part in rowing games. It’s a lot more different than it looks!
We completed our first ‘Apprentice’ task. We had to design packaging and a slogan for a new product called ‘Blazin Raisins!’
SER were voted as the winners and the weeks ‘hired’ apprentice was Erin.
Our Paul Jones teams were at Dalry this week. The boys continued their fine form winning all 3 games. The girls drew 2 and lost 2. A fine effort! Next week we are on our home turf at CD.
Primary 7
To Celebrate the Royal Wedding last Friday we made our own Wedding Dresses. It was fun making the dresses and dressing up Dean! – Alastair.
This week we had a visit from Dumfries Rowing Club. “It was really hard to use the rowing machine because it was so stiff” – Nicole.
We have also been working on Superscot activities –” doing 200m sprint was tiring but I was the fastest in my group” said Carla. “We were making graphs to display our Superscot results” – Jessica.
We got to see the chicks in P3/4 class. “It was really fun holding the chicks but they kept flapping!” – Marisa.
Community News
Reminders
Primary1/2- On Tuesday we will be going on our class trip. Please make sure your child brings a packed lunch if they need one, wears appropriate clothing and bring a rucksack for easy moving around the park.
Primary 4/5 – Class trip to Riverside Museum and Prestwick on Thursday 31st. A reminder letter to follow on Monday.
Primary 6/7– Class talks continue on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
P.E. kit every day for Super Scot activities.
Primary 7– Solo talks on Thursday 31st May.
