Our Eco Committee recently visited Tongland Power Station to learn more about renewable energy. Rowan Armstrong (Fisheries Biologist) gave us an informative tour. We also visited the dam and learned more about the fish ladder and how it is used by the Atlantic Salmon.
Remember you can buy your quizzes for £1 each from the school. they are available in many shops in the town for the local community. The prizes are tremendous!
Above, our school councillors and dinner ladies are holding a selection of the thirty collage 90s which will soon be on display in shop and business windows in Dalbeattie this weekend.
This year’s Summer Reading Challenge for children is The Big Friendly Read. It will start in every library and mobile library across Dumfries and Galloway at the beginning of the summer holidays on Saturday 11th June and finish on Saturday 3rd September.
To complete the challenge children need to register at their local library and then visit the library 4 times over the summer holidays and read six books of their choice. Staff at the library will ask them about the books they’ve read and then give them a Roald Dahl Collectors Card to add to a special Big Friendly Read Collector’s folder. They receive incentives along the way and when they finish they will receive a medal and certificate.
The Big Friendly Read will encourage reading on a giant scale and highlight six key themes -invention, adventure, mischief, word play, child champions and friendship – that are explored in Roald Dahl’s most famous books, and will encourage children to expand their own reading by exploring similar themes, fantastic facts, characters and stories across the best contemporary children’s writing.
To mark the occasion of the Queen’s 90th Birthday, the school is participating in a Stewartry weekend of celebrations on 11th and 12th June (co-ordinated by Lord Lieutenant Sir Malcolm Ross) by organising a quiz in the local community. 30 shops are going to be displaying giant ’90’ collages, which have been made by the children in school. On each collage, there will be an answer to a question on the quiz sheet- quiz sheets can be purchased in advance from many shops and businesses within the town and direct through school. The quiz costs £1 and proceeds will go two of the charities for which the Queen is a patron: Barnardos and Actions for Children. We are very grateful for the tremendous support the local community has shown for this event. Not only have the shops, organisations and businesses agreed to display the collages but their generosity in donating prizes has been amazing.
Prizes: Rotary Club £50 cash prize * Ian Bendall Undertakers £50 cash prize * Stewartry Vets £25 cash prize * Dalbeattie Museum £25 cash prize * Lions Club—£20 book shop voucher x 5 * D.G Lockharts-£25 book token * Luigis Restaurant £20 voucher * GGB Bottle Champagne * Flowers For You– plant * McKenzies TBC * Complete Insurance Solutions – £10 voucher * Supersave TBC * Idlehour – Yankee Candle * Bible Shop Child’s Bible * McCowans -voucher * Neilsons Butchers -Mixed grill for two voucher * Granite Kitchen -voucher* Best Pizza Kebab Shop -12” pizza * TH Carsons Butchers- £10 voucher* Dalbeattie Book Shop– 2017 Calendar and jigsaw * Well Pharmacy TBC * Bryan Gowans TBC * Hair and Beauty Gallery – £10 voucher* De-Caf Cafe– voucher* Lily’s Chocolate Shop TBC
Other participants displaying 90s and selling quizzes: Corsons Bakery, Austins Solicitors, J Paterson & Sons, Dalbeattie Community Initiative Office, VIP, Preloved, Trends
QUIZ can be undertaken on 10th, 11th or 12th June . Completed entries to be posted through Dalbeattie Community Initiative door at 71 High Street by 9am Monday 13th June when correct entries will be drawn for the prizes listed above.
On Friday 10th June, the school is also pleased to be taking part in DGFirst’s region wide theme day to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday when there will be lots of goody bags and the dessert will be Royal cupcakes!
Dalbeattie Primary School has been delighted to support the Run Doon Hame charity run today in school. The children have come to school in non uniform and donated £1 each for a wrist band. Then in the afternoon, the school children gathered in Colliston Park to welcome the runners as they continued on their journey. The team of five runners, all policemen, were greeted by the children before answering questions about their challenge. We found out that the challenge is to run 732 miles in one week, visiting five capital cities. The challenge started in London and will end in Edinburgh on Sunday 29th May when the team will then take part in the Edinburgh Marathon. They have raised over £7000 so far which will go to the charities ‘Westsound Cash For Kids’ and ‘Care of Police Survivors.’ Today, in school the children raised £343 to add to this. Well done and thank you to everyone for supporting this!
Dalbeattie Primary Parent Council organised a very successful Bingo Night on Friday 20th May. Jim Dingwall was our bingo caller for the evening. Concentration and competition for winning lines and a full house was very intense at times. Thank you to all who supported this event. A fun and enjoyable evening.
Primary 1D went to Rockcliffe as part of their Beach topic.
We jumped on the yellow school bus and took our lunch to have a picnic on the beach.
Chloe: “It was fun having a picnic”
We were going to give the beach a clean. We took litter pickers and gloves and we picked up all the rubbish we could find. We found a lot of bottle tops, bits of plastic, paper wrappers and a lobster skeleton.
Ryan: “It’s fun picking up litter”
We have to pick up our litter at the beach so that the animals don’t get hurt. Animals might get stuck in the litter or they might get sick by eating it.
We worked with James and Judy from the National Trust who taught us all about the animals at the beach and what litter can do to them.
We got to look in the rock pools for crabs and fish and we even found a PRAWN!
At the end, James and Judy taught us a new game called “Prawns and Fishes”. We liked it, it was fun.
Written by P1D (with a little help from Miss Douglas).
Mrs Blackwood very kindly supported the school recently at our 140th Anniversary afternoon tea and took photographs of visitors in Victorian style costumes. Some pictures were taken in front of our historic bell tower. Many thanks to Mrs Blackwood and Mrs McConnell for their time and enthusiasm on the day. A selection of photos from the day are featured below.
Thursday 5th May saw the 140th Anniversary of Dalbeattie Primary School. To mark the occasion, the children re-enacted a parade similar to one captured in 1901 ( in black and white footage, available on the BFI website.) The children paraded down from in front of the school’s iconic bell tower. This was kindly filmed by Sam Kelly from Kirkcudbright. It has been uploaded to YouTube and has already had nearly 2000 viewings. In the film, the children can also be seen wearing commemorative badges, which they were gifted to mark this important occasion in the school’s history. The film is available through link on the school’s blog and on its facebook page.
On this day, the children also enjoyed some very special cupcakes, thanks to our very kind kitchen staff.
Then on Saturday, 7th May, the school continued its celebrations by opening its doors for a ‘Victorian Afternoon Tea.’ This was made possible by wonderful baking from Mrs Houston and Dalbeattie High School’s Hospitality department (see previous post of the preparations involving our own P7 pupils) together with our own Parent Council who prepared the sandwiches, teas and coffee. We are also very grateful to Peter Wilson Walker of Caterbirds for the use of crockery. Also on the day, there was a range of other activities. The School’s History Book publication was also celebrated and free copies were available to pick up. This book is available at no cost thanks to generous funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the William Heughan Associated Special Trust.(Don’t worry if anyone does not yet have a copy- they are still available at Dalbeattie Museum; the Museum will also be posting them to anyone who requests one, provided P&P costs are covered. Information on P&P rates will be given on Dalbeattie Museum’s website in the near future.) Also at our Afternoon Tea, Mrs Pettigrew brought along her popular collection of photographs and these were much appreciated along with other school albums, previously unseen at our other recent two events. Another big highlight, however, was the ‘Victorian Photo Booth Experience!’ Member of school staff, Jill Blackwood and her wardrobe assistant Mrs McConnell, took group photos of families wearing Victorian costumes.
These photos are being published in sepia effect and e-mailed to the people who took part.We are extremely grateful to Birchvale Theatre, Fullarton Theatre and Dumfries Museum who kindly loaned the school costumes and props for this event. Other special mention must be made to all our staff helpers, who helped to decorate the hall and prepare and serve food on the day. We have very talented staff at Dalbeattie Primary. Look how our office staff changed into a new role to welcome people to our Victorian Afternoon tea!
The day was a huge success with over 230 people taking afternoon tea and enjoying reminiscing as they wandered round our old granite buildings. Special thanks also need to go to Dalbeattie Museum and Dalbeattie Community Initiative’s VIP for selling tickets, our own school kitchen, our parent and pupil helpers, the members of the History of School Research project, the people who donated items and all the folks who came along on the day! Mrs Duncan and Mrs Howie say a very big Thank you to all involved!
