Tag Archives: environment

Class Learning

Bug Hotel Building

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On the 28th November, James Hutchinson Visitor Services Supervisor (Natural Heritage) from Threave, came to our Primary 3 class along with his fantastic helpers to talk to us about mini-beasts. They also brought a range of materials to build a bug hotel. This fitted in with our topic from last term, and the children were very enthusiastic, keen to learn and could offer lots of what they knew already.
Some of our class also brought in materials from home to use. As you will see from the pictures, it was a great morning! We were very pleased with the finished product. Freya and Murrin from the class, talked to the whole school at assembly on Friday to let them know what we made/how we made it and also to let them know that it would be placed in our playground to attract mini-beasts.
Thank you to all representatives from Threave for a great experience. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Mrs Wixon

citizenship, Class Learning, effective contributors, Local Community, Partnership Working, responsible citizens

Sparling Goes To School Part 2

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Today we had a visit from Jack Wootton from Galloway Fisheries Trust with some real live Sparling! Our Primary 5 Class and Eco Group were very pleased to see the fish first hand. Jack was able to bring the pupils out in small groups to look at the fish close up in a bucket and he also lifted them out of the water briefly to see them from a side view. It was interesting to se how they were camouflaged from the top and that the female fish was bigger than the male due to the huge number of eggs which she carries. We heard more about the project being undertaken by Jack and he told us about the numbers of Sparling he had just recently found in the Cree River. We also got more of an understanding about how important this project is for Scotland. Today, a camera man came to film Jack talking to us. The footage will be used in a documentary highlighting the importance of the project and will be shared amongst wildlife experts at conferences and for use in further research work as a reference tool. Jack was very impressed with the amount of information Mrs Dyson’s Primary 5 class had retained from his last visit and with the sheer number of relevant questions the pupils were coming up with. Lots of hands kept going up, eager to know more!

  

  

   

citizenship, Local Community

Eco Schools

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On Thursday 31st August, the Eco Group went on a trip to Tongland Power Station and The Dee Hatchery. At Tongland, the group was learning about renewable energy using hydro power. We found out about the dam system on ‘The Dee’ and visited the turbine hall to find out more about how electricity is generated. We got to walk along the actual dam at Tongland and saw the gate being opened to see the force of the water rushing through. We also saw the fish ladder where the salmon move up river when they return from the Atlantic, back to their spawning ground.  Later in the day, the group moved onto the Dee Hatchery at Shirmers Burn where we watched the Galloway Fisheries Rangers undertake some electro fishing. The fish were put into buckets for us to look at more closely and handle. Some of the group members were even brave enough to handle the baby North American Signal Cray Fish. The salmon and trout were returned to the burn afterwards but not the cray fish as they are not native to the Dee River system! The group is very grateful to Tim and especially to Rowan who has worked so closely with the group over recent years.