1. After School Dance and Fitness Club

Active Schools and Community Sport are running a three week ‘Dance and Fitness’ club starting on Tuesday 5th November at 3pm.  It is open to pupils in P1-7 and costs £1 a session.

P5, P6 and P7 Biosphere Explorers!

The Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere has a vision to make life in our Biosphere better while caring for the natural environment. A key strand of this is the education of the next generation biosphere residents in sustainable development, increasing awareness and connections with the ‘working countryside’.

The Biosphere Explorers project, run by the Crichton Carbon Centre and funded by the Hollywood Trust and the Galloway Glens Scheme, is working towards this aim with an education programme delivered in schools consisting of a series of workshops aimed at increasing knowledge of the local natural environment and human interactions with it. This project will run for two years and will be focussed on school age children, with elements for all residents of the area.

Our P5, P6 and P7 pupils will be participating in these workshops each each Tuesday afternoon (from 29th October) led by the Biosphere Explorers Officer, Shalla Gray. The sessions will include:

Please ensure that pupils have brought their outdoor clothing with them on these days.

Pokemon Cards

Many of our pupils are enjoying bringing Pokemon cards to school so that they can swap them with their friends.  Unfortunately, we are experiencing several incidents on a daily basis where pupils are disagreeing about swapping cards.  Although we have tried to support pupils in using the cards appropriately, these discussions are now eating into our learning in other areas.  Therefore, I ask that you will support us in discouraging your child(ren) from bringing these cards to school.  We appreciate your support on this matter.

“Look, Mrs Scott! A new pupil.” Hee! Hee!

 

We had lots of fun at our Halloween Party this afternoon.  Everyone had a go at doukin’ for apples, separating Skittles, building Starburst towers, carving pumpkins and taking part in a balloon obstacle race!

Special thanks to our parent helpers – ‘Goulish’ Gilli, ‘Spooky’ Shani, Susan ‘Spectre’, Pamela ‘Poltergeist’ and ‘Devilish’ Debs.

Here are some photos of us having a great time!!

PLEASE CLICK ON INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS AND LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU WISH.

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 2 at Crossmichael Primary School.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to this term.  Last term, we raised an amazing £1070 on our Sponsored Autumn Walk so thank you very much to everyone who contributed.

Halloween Party

We are having our Halloween party on Wednesday 30th October in the afternoon.  Pupils can change into their costumes after lunch.  They may wear non-uniform instead.  It should be SPOOKTACULAR!!

P5, P6 and P7 Biosphere Explorers!

The Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere has a vision to make life in our Biosphere better while caring for the natural environment. A key strand of this is the education of the next generation biosphere residents in sustainable development, increasing awareness and connections with the ‘working countryside’.

The Biosphere Explorers project, run by the Crichton Carbon Centre and funded by the Hollywood Trust and the Galloway Glens Scheme, is working towards this aim with an education programme delivered in schools consisting of a series of workshops aimed at increasing knowledge of the local natural environment and human interactions with it. This project will run for two years and will be focussed on school age children, with elements for all residents of the area.

Our P5, P6 and P7 pupils will be participating in these workshops each each Tuesday afternoon (from 29th October) led by the Biosphere Explorers Officer, Shalla Gray. The sessions will include:

Please ensure that pupils have brought their outdoor clothing with them on these days.

Parent Council Bingo Night

Pupils are arriving home with flyers for the Bingo Night being organised by our Parent Council on Friday 15th November at 7pm in  Crossmichael Village Hall.  All proceeds go towards the school.  Tickets cost £3 for adults and £2 for children which includes books and refreshments.  There will also be a raffle so please leave your donations in the school office before the night.

Please note that our Halloween Party has been moved to Wednesday afternoon.  Pupils should bring costumes to school and change into them after lunch.  (They may wear non-uniform instead if they wish.)

If any parents are available to help decorate the PE hall from 2pm on Tuesday 29th Oct then could they please contact the school office to let us know?  Also, if any parents are able to help out at activity stations (pumpkin carving, doukin’ for apples, donuts on a string, balloon game, etc) then please let us know.

We are sure the children will have a SPOOKTACULAR afternoon!!

Well done to everyone who braved the weather for our autumn walk. We had a great time!

Thank you for joining us for lunch and thanks to Wilma for the delicious soups and sweets too.

Paper Free Communication after the Holidays

Please remember that after the October holidays, we will be sending out weekly newsletters via email and they will be available on our website under the heading ‘Recent Posts’:

Crossmichael Primary School: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/dg/crossmichael/

Please let us know what you think and feel free to leave comments under posts. (All comments will be checked before being made public.) We are keen to provide you with more information about your child’s learning and hope that the websites will evolve with your help.  We are aware of children whose names and photos will not appear online but please contact the school if you have any questions.

Sponsored Walk

Thank you to everyone who joined us on our sponsored autumn walk around Crossmichael Community Woodland on Thursday.  We have a lovely time and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  We have received many sponsor forms and would like to thank you for raising so much money.  We will share the total amount raised after the October holidays.

October Holidays

We hope all pupils have a wonderful October holiday and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 28^th October for the new term.

Indoor Shoes

After the holidays we ask that all pupils change into indoor shoes at the start of the school day (not slippers) to help keep carpets clean.  Indoor gym shoes will suffice as pupils wear these for PE lessons anyway and it will save extra expense.

Halloween Party

Teachers are organising a Halloween party in school on Thursday 31^st October from 1.15pm-3pm.  Pupils are invited to bring in their costumes and will change into them at lunch time.  Our Parent Council have kindly agreed to contribute to the cost of apples and other items.  Teachers will be in touch after the holidays to arrange parent helpers.  Thank you for your support.

Staffing

We welcome Ms Mary Smith who is a PDGE student and will be with P3-5 until 13th December.  We also welcome Stuart who is a Castle Douglas High School student on work experience for a few hours each week.

Teacher, Miss Katie Rae will be teaching P3-5 on Monday-Thursday for the first two weeks after the October holidays.  Mrs Burton returns on Monday 11th November.

Mrs Wilson continues to be absent and we wish her a speedy recovery.  In the meantime, Miss Rae has been teaching P1-3 each Thursday for continuity.

ALDI Fundraising Campaign

ALDI have launched a fundraising campaign where parents receive a sticker for every £30 they spend in store.  We are collecting the stickers at Gelston and Crossmichael schools.  When we have a poster full of stickers we can enter a prize draw to win £20K for each school.  Please start saving your stickers for us!

‘Scottish Football Association’ After School Club

The SFA continue to run two after school clubs on a Friday at Crossmichael Primary School from 3-4pm and from 4-5pm.  These are open to pupils from both Crossmichael and Gelston schools.  For further details and to book sessions, please contact Castle Douglas Swimming Pool on 01556 502745.

Parental Volunteers

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us to help out in school.  I plan to set up a timetable soon and we will get in touch with you after the holidays.

Gelston Clerical Interviews

I am interviewing for the Clerical post on 11^th October and we hope to have someone in post soon.  This means that someone will be available each day to answer telephone calls across the partnership.  Thank you very much for your patience this term.  I know that it has been difficult to contact the school at times.  In case of emergency my Headteacher’s mobile number is: 07741 686730.

Best wishes,

Mary E Lidstone-Scott

Partnership Headteacher

Please vote for us on the website below by carefully clicking on our photo. There are two similar ones but ours has our school name beside it. 🤩

https://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/community/land-art/

Pupils in P1-7 shared their learning with parents and families at our Achievement Assembly this afternoon.  Thank you to all who came to watch us.

This week, Finlay, Charlie, Joe and Sam have demonstrated the school aims of showing kindness, being respectful and working hard.  As a reward they joined Rev Sally Russell for tea, toast and a chat in the staff room before play time.  Well done boys!  We are proud of you.

Mr Peter Norman, Project Officer from South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre (SWSEIC), came to talk to pupils in P3-5 about moths as part of their Art project.

Pupils helped him to set moth traps on Monday and on Tuesday they looked at their catch.  Mrs S Beilinksi (Art Specialist) worked with pupils to create Art work inspired by the colourful moths.  Pictures of pupils’ art work will be posted next week.  Here are some photographs and comments from pupils in P3-5 about the moths:

Here are lots of different kinds of moths – Logan

There are 2500 types of moth in the UK – Harris

I had no idea there were so many different types of moth – Ruby Wild

Moths eat flies – Lucas

When the tiger moth hears a bat coming it folds it wings and drops to the ground to get out the way – Maria

I didn’t know that there were about 1000 species of big moths in the UK and about half of them can be found in Scotland -Bruce

When a bird is coming a tiger moth shows the bright marking on its wings to scare the bird away – Imogen

Moths and butterflies are basically the same – Eva

We could find up to 350 different moths in Crossmichael – Euan

Nobody knows why moths are attracted to light – Alison

I didn’t know that there were lots of different colours of moth I thought they were all brown – Keira

Moths only live as moths for about 2 weeks –Zoe

I didn’t know that a swift moth doesn’t eat – Keiran

Most moths fly in the day time – Duncan

There are no moths that are dangerous to humans – Ruby Williams