At this week’s assembly, the children had a visit from Sue Ingram who gave an update about the Wow Tracker. She has brought badges for all the young people who have had the most ‘walk to school’ active journeys. Mrs Farish and Mrs Strachan, from Kippford RNLI Lifeboat Shop, also joined us to receive a cheque for £300 which has been raised from our fundraiser to collect 5p coins in little jam jars. This week’s Head Teacher’s award winners are also pictured.
Today, our awards were given for achievement and effort in numeracy. In addition to finding out about these winners, we also learned about some bug hotel work, in partnership with Threave NTS, from Primary 3 pupils. Also celebrated, was swimming success for Jessica, Aulay and Ruari. The Wow Tracker (active routes to school) November monthly award was presented to Primary 5 for their results in walking to school.
Primary 3 took part in a litter pick today in Colliston Park. This was part of their topic work about ‘Our Community.’ The children did a great job and also recorded their findings on survey sheets. We are pleased that the litter was not that evident today. Mrs Wixon who organised the event is very grateful to Solway Firth Partnership for the use of their litter pickers and bag hoops. Mrs Howie was also pleased to accompany the children for this activity as it relates to the school’s eco work where litter is an important topic.
Today we had a fun run wearing bright and sporty clothes to raise money for both Children in Need and the Janice Jamieson Memorial Trust to sponsor the education of a student in Malawi.
At the time of writing we are delighted to have raised the sum of £341. If anyone has not yet brought in a donation and would still like to contribute, we can still add more money to the total next week. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone for supporting these charities and for our young people for wearing their bright, sporty outfits and for showing such enthusiasm in participating in today’s event.
We would also like to say a huge thank you to Mr Drennan, the Sports Department and Sports Leaders of Dalbeattie High School. Today, we were not only able to use all the High School facilities but Mr Drennan and the Sports Leaders also organised warms ups for all the children before we made our way our onto the athletics track for running several laps. Some children managed quite a number of laps. Everyone enjoyed this ‘fun’ morning which proved to be a great start to a Friday morning.
Later in the day Mrs Duncan held two assemblies for Primary 1-4 and P5-7 where there was a focus on these charities. we were also joined by Rev mark Smith.
Primary 1/2 have been learning about our school in the present and past. As part of our topic work, we have been on a walk to look at the old school which we moved out of, just over one year ago. If any the of the pupils have old photographs at home which show family members at school in recent years or even further back in time, we would be delighted to see them.
Dalbeattie Learning Campus has been the venue for two very special events to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the end of WW1.
The first event, in partnership with the Dalbeattie Branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland, took place on Thursday 8th November at 7.00pm. This was an evening community concert held in Dalbeattie Learning Campus’ Heughan Hall, which was started off with Marching The Colours (carried out by Mr Dingwall and Mr McNay) followed by contributions from The Stewartry Wind Band, Galloway Pipes and Drums, The NYCOS Choir, The Heughan Choir and three dramatic sketches performed by students from Dalbeattie High School Drama Department, the producer and director being Mrs Inga Blamire. These sketches were very moving and included: a ‘Train Station Scene’ as the wives waved their husbands goodbye as they went off to war; the soldiers in the ‘WW1 Trench’ waiting for the signal to go over the top; and ‘Hospital and Home’ as sad news came back from the front. All three scenes were enhanced with items borrowed from Dalbeattie Museum. Also significant, was the presence of two ‘Ghost WW1 Soldiers’ and two ‘Ghost WW1 Sailors’ who stood in silence throughout. This, together with the placing of ‘There But Not There’ silhouettes placed randomly amongst the audience, was a very thought provoking touch, organised by The Royal British Legion Dalbeattie Branch. Outside the school, to greet people was a reconstruction of a WW1 tank, created by Mr Stott. The evening was rounded off with some excellent refreshments prepared by Dalbeattie High School’s Mrs Houston and Hospitality Department, sponsored by Dalbeattie Museum.
On Friday 9th November, during the school day, there was a very special dedication service for the return of the school’s WW1 Memorial Plaque from Dalbeattie Museum (where it was temporarily housed while our new school was being built and which has recently been restored by Dalbeattie’s Men Shed.) At this service, 105 long stemmed poppies, each labelled with the names of the 105 former pupils who lost their lives in WW1, were placed in front of the brass plaque by pupils and staff of both schools, prior to its being mounted on wall. Pupils who are members of Sea Cadets, Army Cadets, Scouts, Guides, Brownies and Cubs wore their uniforms in school for the ceremony. We are grateful to Dalbeattie Royal British Legion for organising the long stemmed poppies, the laying of which has been a fitting way to re-dedicate our school’s WW1 memorial plaque. The personal stories of some of the 105 names on the plaque were also highlighted in a slide show while the 105 names were read out. Pupils Katie Mein and Ruari Webster also read some moving poems. Drama sketches by Dalbeattie High School Drama students and singing by the Heughan Choir were also repeated.
Both events were attended by Mark Smith of Dalbeattie and Kirkgunzeon Parish Church who also contributed to proceedings. The school has also been delighted to display a beautiful poppy fall, in the main reception area, during this important period of Remembrance. The fall of knitted poppies was created by volunteers from the Church.
Interspersed throughout the drama, the High School’s senior Reps and House Captains informed us all about the history of WW1 and its relevance to the pupils of Dalbeattie Learning Campus symbolised by the return of the school’s WW1 Memorial Plaque. Mrs Duncan and Mrs Chambers, the Primary and Secondary Head Teachers co-ordinated events at both ceremonies, which have been praised by all for being so moving and special.
At a separate Remembrance Assembly, Mrs Duncan shared a beautiful book from Poppy Scotland with pupils in Primary 1,2 and 3. The poppy fall has now been removed ready for display in Colliston Park for the Remembrance Service at 11am (all people to be assembled at 10.50am) and the 105 named poppies are now on display in Dalbeattie Museum window.
Having moved into their new campus around a year ago Dalbeattie Primary Eco Group is keen to keep it looking clean & tidy. To keep up the standards they have relaunched their litter awareness topic.
Last week the Community Safety Team were out and about on one of their engagement days and visited the primary school.
The Eco Group learned about litter and it effect on their local community. They surveyed their school grounds for litter and found some: mostly sweets and crisp packets. It was actually quiet tidy. However, the process was good for the children to understand the type of survey sheets which can be used to grade the appearance of an area in terms of litter.
These type of surveys are carried out three times a year by Keep Scotland Beautiful and determines how clean our roads and streets are compared to other local authority areas in Scotland.
The children learned that litter, especially those plastic in nature often finds its way into a watercourse and end up in the sea, often having a devastating effect on sea creatures.
At their old school, they were often plagued by dog fouling, but with having a secure playground now, they no longer have this issue.
The Eco Group believe that we all need to work together to keep our area clean & tidy.
This week saw lots of busy diggers in the grounds of Dalbeattie Primary School thanks to a bunch of hardworking volunteers who helped complete the final part of a project which was started in the spring. Dalbeattie Primary has fantastic areas for outdoor learning but the task of filling our 11 very large planters with plant stock for the first time was no little task. As the school also has a large allotment area with raised beds and a polytunnel for growing vegetables, it was decided to stock the 11 class planters with herbaceous plants which the children can weed and tend to over the years to come. However, such plants can be expensive so Dalbeattie Rotary Club of Dalbeattie came to the rescue with a fund of £750 to finance an initial order after the club was contacted by the school’s Eco Group. Also crucial to the project’s success has been the generous help and advice of Dumfries and Galloway Grounds staff Caroline McLachlan and Brian McAvennie. Brian very kindly offered to take delivery of our plants back in April and, with his dedicated team, has potted them up and cared for them all summer so that they would be better established for us to plant out in the autumn. Last Monday, the plants arrived back. It was amazing to see the size they had grown to; we are so grateful because with the summer we had, we would surely have lost the majority of the young plants without Brian’s help. Meanwhile, parent volunteers carried out the heavy work of weeding and digging over the planters before progressing to planting out. We are also very grateful to Wilkos in Castle Douglas for 10 bags of free compost and to BSW Timber who will be supplying us with bark. It’s been a busy week but the school is so grateful to our team of trusty volunteers: Andy Kalotka, Mr McMorran, Alison Houston, Simon Mein, Susan Robertson, Fiona Anderson, Ruaridh Benson, Laura Dickie, John Boynton, Fran Drummond, Lee Maxwell, Emma McGuire, Pamela Caldow, Victoria Cameron and Gayle Cooper. Thank you all!
Today we had a new set of Head Teacher Award winners. Not only did they receive their certificates but, for the first time, the pupils were also presented with prizes: Head Teacher’s award pencils! The previous winners at our first assembly were also presented with some. The decision to give prizes has resulted from consultation with all the school children about ways they would like to improve how achievements are celebrated. Here are this week’s winners:
Also at our assembly this week, 12 Primary 7 pupils were presented with their badges for volunteering to be librarians. Our new library monitors give up their lunch times, on a rota basis, to keep the school library organised and tidy.
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