All posts by Mrs Howie

citizenship, effective contributors, Local Community, Partnership Working, Whole School

Planters Project

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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!

citizenship, confident individuals, effective contributors, responsible citizens, School Information, Whole School

Award Winners 21.9.18

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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.

 

citizenship, confident individuals, effective contributors, responsible citizens, School Information, Sports, Whole School

Presentation of Badges

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Today in assembly the children were awarded their badges for Eco Schools Committee, School Pupil Council, Sports  Captains and House Captains. Library Committee will be given their badges next week. Please see the Eco and School Pupil Council pages for photos. The Sports and house Captains are below.

 

 

effective contributors, Sports

Primary 1-3 Sports

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We held our first Primary 1-3 Sports on the re-scheduled day of Wednesday 27th June, which was a very hot day indeed! We had previously cancelled due to rain and wind and now we had the opposite extreme to contend with! The event took place on the 3G pitch. We are very grateful to the High School staff and pupils who so willingly came to our rescue to try to create some shade. The children did cope very well and we are very grateful to the support of our parents and carers for sending the children with sun-cream, water bottles and sun hats. We are always reviewing the way we do things and everything this year has been a ‘first’ in our new campus.  This year, in addition to all the traditional races such as flat race and egg and spoon,  we also had some new extra races. The Coach and Horses was a bit of extra fun to end a successful afternoon with.

  

  

citizenship, creativity, effective contributors, Local Community, responsible citizens, Sports

End of Term Assembly 2018

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Our end of term Assembly was held this year on Thursday 28th June. We were delighted to welcome Jenny and Malcolm Heughan who presented the Heughan Citizenship Awards for the first time.  Also, we were pleased to have Sandy Jamieson, the husband of former Head Teacher Janice Jamieson, join us to present the new Award for Achievement and Effort in Reading.  The new award is a beautiful rose-bowl, engraved with an image of books and lilies, which were Janice’s favourite flower. The trophy was funded by the money raised by the children shortly after Mrs Jamieson, who had been an inspirational Head Teacher, had sadly passed away. The children had taken part in a sponsored fun run, as part of the town’s half Marathon, in order to have a fitting memorial. As the design of the new school was very important to Janice, it was felt the money should be used for something meaningful in our new learning campus. As the library was something very close to Janice’s heart and because this year, we have introduced ‘Accelerated Reader’ to Primary 6 and Primary 7, it was felt a new award for Reading was an obvious and fitting memorial. This year’s winner is Millie Hird and the runners up were Amberly Wallace, Jamie o Mara and Sean Ellis who were also presented with small trophies.

There were many other trophies presented and all the prize winners are listed here:

Babsie Caig Trophy – best role model: Keira Murdock. Alistair Gourlay Trophy: joint winners Isabella Docherty and Cameron Hitchell.  Runners Up: Ella Blaikie, Jessica Boynton, Lucas Tattersfield, Rory MCormick, Emmie Sanderson, Rebecca Hird.  Jenny Corrie Trophy – Poetry: Reegan Finnigan.  Alan Younger Trophy – Art & Craft:  Jessica Bowden.  Lions Club Citizenship: Winner-Alana Pickthall. Runners up: Ennio Murray-Sanchez, Grace McQuarrie, Aimee Ho.  Police Citizenship: Gregor Davidson and  Aaron Bryson. Maureen McShane Trophy – best effort: Kenzie Jolley and Luke Goodfellow. Heughan Trust Awards Overall Winners: Rory McCormick and Jessica Boynton. History Cup: Ewan McFegan and Blair Kalotka. Janice Jamieson Memorial Prize: Millie Hird. Runners up: Sean Ellis, Amberly Wallace, Jamie O’ Mara. Sports Awards 2018: Winning House : Dalmun. The boys’ champion was Joe Arnold with runner up Logan Clive. The girls’ Champion was Nicole Miller with runner up Keira Murdock.   The winner of the 300m boys race was won by Joe Arnold with runner up Jack Palmer.  The 300m girls race was won by Nicole Miller with runner up Grace McQuarrie. The potted Sports shield was won by Dalmun and the House points shield was won by Screel.

Many of the awards were presented by retiring class teacher Janet Burn, who also presented the Primary 7 leavers with their end of primary school gifts. The young people then left the hall and walked over to the High School where they posed for photo on the big box seating- on the High School side!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

Class Learning, creativity, effective contributors, performing

Primary 7 Leavers

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It’s that time of year again when we have to say goodbye, sadly to our Primary 7 leavers. This year, they haven’t far to travel to, in the next part of their journey through school.  First, however, they have treated us all with their special memories of their years in the Nursery and Primary. Based on the ‘Gogglebox’ show, the children created a script which saw several TV programmes acting as the stimulus for lots of varied memories. And what great use they made of some of the school’s new soft seating! Well done Primary 7! We are sorry to see you go but you won’t be far away…..

  

  

 

 

After School Activities, creativity, effective contributors, Local Community, Partnership Working, Whole School

Heughan Hall Naming Ceremony

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On Tuesday 26th June, the Heughan Hall was officially opened. William Heughan, born 1886, is a former pupil of our school who became a world renowned opera singer. When he died at the age of 78, he had already set up the William Heughan Associated Special Trust (WHAST) to remember his beloved home town of Dalbeattie and to benefit the people therein. The fund still exists today and it is thanks to the vision of the current trustees, that a significant amount of money is being given, annually to Dalbeattie Learning Campus, to encourage musical activities. Recently, a William Heughan Choir has been established, led by Musical Director Kate Howard. This project is funded by the William Heughan Associated Special Trust and its trustees Malcolm and Jenny Heughan were present at the ceremony where we heard the newly formed choir perform for the first time to an audience of family, friends and invited guests. The event took the form of a few songs from the William Heughan Choir, some musical contributions from some of the school’s older pupils and a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the hall and to present the installation of new information storyboards about William Heughan. Malcolm and Jenny performed the actual cutting. After the ceremony, the choir and invited guests were treated to refreshments prepared and provided by the Hospitality Department of the High School.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   

 

 

citizenship, effective contributors, Local Community, Partnership Working

School Council has Update on Plans For Our Old School

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The School Pupil Council was pleased to welcome Michelle McRobert and David MacMillan from Dalbeattie Community Initiative who gave us an update on plans for our old school. The project has a working title of Rocks and Wheels. The plans involve a climbing wall and outdoor cycle skills track which can be lit in the evenings. The concept is to build on what Dalbeattie has to offer-  granite and mountain biking together with lots of other activities and to celebrate its natural and historical heritage. There are also plans for hostel style accommodation. We were also  delighted to have it announced today, at our end of term awards ceremony, that Millie Hird’s design has been chosen as the winning entry for the log which will be featured on the new website page for the project. We are grateful to Mrs Harris for organising this competition which involved the other cluster primaries also. Several children’s entries were shortlisted, including our own Aimee Ho and Lily Henderson with Dalbeattie’s Millie Hird chosen as the overall winner.