Tag Archives: Responsible Citizens

The History of Dalbeattie Primary School Project

The History of Dalbeattie Primary School Project Group and The Children’s After School History Club are delighted to announce that all their research, resulting from a project which has now spanned two years, has now been published. All of the groups’ findings have been brought together in an 80 page hardback book, with accompanying DVD.

The idea for the project came about because Dalbeattie Primary School will be moving to a new building in 2017, to be co-located with Dalbeattie High School on land adjacent to the existing secondary school on Haugh Road. It was felt that the current school site’s history should be researched and documented for future generations, before the Primary leaves it current site on Southwick Road. (It is interesting to note that when the current granite primary school opened in May 1876, it was actually a school for both primary and secondary pupils until the High school opened in 1958. In 2017, primary and secondary pupils will come together once more)

During the scope of the project, there have been large community events to encourage the local community to engage with the research. An ‘all day coffee morning’ in January 2015 saw a huge turnout of people coming along to Dalbeattie town hall to look through and help to name and date hundreds of old school photographs provided by Dalbeattie Museum. Then, in September 2015, the school itself held an ‘Open Doors’ event where the local community were invited to come along to  reminisce during tours of the buildings and to consult old plans to advise on how they remembered different rooms being used over the school’s life since 1876 and  until the present day.  On both these occasions, the parent Council provided refreshments.

Throughout the length of the project, the After school club has also been busy interviewing people about their memories of being former pupils, teachers and head teachers. The children were particularly interested to find out from former teacher, Mrs Pettigrew, that she had once taught current head teacher, Mrs Duncan in her Primary 6 class at Dalbeattie Primary! The children also enjoyed a visit to the Archive Centre at the Ewart Library in Dumfries to consult the old school log books.The book has also been the result of much support from many other organisations and contributors, who are detailed in the book. Much work has also gone into the accompanying DVD which contains a great number of old class photographs from the early the 1900s until the 1990s. This involved many hours of scanning by Dalbeattie Museum volunteers. We are very grateful to Angus Leigh, previous school photographer for his support in this.

The distribution of the research will begin very soon. Current staff and parents of pupils are being invited to request a copy. Thereafter, the local community will have the opportunity to obtain a copy at Dalbeattie Museum, starting from Friday 25th March (Good Friday) when it opens for its 2016 season. Although the book is being given away free, we do ask that people fill in a request form so that the project group can keep a record of where all 3,000 copies end up going. The book is free of charge, thanks to funding of £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery’s ‘Sharing Heritage Fund’ and £650 from the William Heughan Associated Special Trust. These funds have covered expenses involved in researching the school’s history, events, transport and the publication of the research. The project group is very grateful for this support.

If folks don’t get the chance to obtain a copy at the Museum, they will get another chance to pick up  a copy at an event which will celebrate the publication of the research at another major date in the school’s calendar in May 2016. On 5th May, the school will celebrate its 140 year anniversary. This will be marked in school, on the day, with the pupils. However, on Saturday 7th May, we shall be having a major community event- a Victorian Afternoon Tea. Information and more details of what will be happening on the day will follow nearer the time, but in the meantime, do keep the date! What better way to celebrate the publication of the school’s history than on its 140th Anniversary!

ph 4 outside the Ewart Library Visiting the Archive Centre

ph 10 children group open day ph 9 mrs pettigrew open day  ph 6b town hall looking at photos

Open Day Events in school and at Dalbeattie Town Hall.

history publication children's after school club history publication both groups

The Completed History Book.

Community Singing

Primary 5 and Primary 5/6 have been extremely busy this term out singing and  entertaining in the community. First of all both classes performed at the switching on of the Christmas lights in Dalbeattie Town centre on 4th December. They have since sang carols at the Post Office and at Kinnairds. Both classes also visited Dalbeattie Day Centre to sing a selection of carols and Christmas songs. P5 visited Munchies care home on Friday 18th of December and P5/6 braved the rain and visited Alma House on 21st December to bring some Christmas cheer with their singing. It is fantastic to have the children involved in the community and we hope all who have seen the performances have enjoyed them. Well done P5 and P5/6 for showing such community spirit.

Carol Singing at the Post Office

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Primary P5/6 bring Christmas cheer to Alma House with their festive songs.

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Primary 5 and Primary 5/6 Entertained at Dalbeattie Day Centre

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Christmas Fayre

On Thursday 26th November, Dalbeattie Primary School held its annual Christmas Fayre.  The fayre took place in the school hall and surrounding classrooms. Stall holders from the local community joined this event selling a wide variety of Christmas produce. All classes participated in the fayre selling Christmas crafts,refreshments or offering people the opportunity to take part in some fun Christmas games. Thank you to everyone who supported the event. Funds raised will go to individual classes and the school fund to provide resources and support school developments.

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Hamper Raffle Prizes

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A few of the stall holders preparing their stalls on the night. 

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Refreshments and Bake Sale provided by P7.

Fundraising

Friday 13th was the day for a very successful fundraiser at Dalbeattie Primary where the proceeds were divided between Children in Need and The Janice Jamieson Memorial Trust Fund. Pupils enjoyed having a non uniform day and brought in £1 each. Some children chose to dress up as superheroes or as champions. ‘Champions’ was also the theme of an extra ‘Sports Champion’ anagram quiz. Our pictures show some of the children in their superhero or sports champions outfits. Our 11 school councillors are pictured with an array of Pudsey prizes before presenting them to 4 lucky winners, Emma Newbould, Finlay Burns, Amie McKerrow and Rhuari Webster. Money going to the Janice Jamieson Memorial Trust Fund will be used to sponsor a young person through his/her education in Malawi.

superheroes

Superheroes

Karate and Gymnastic Champions

Karate and Gymnastics Champions 

motorsport, curling, boxing and cycling sports

Motorsport, Curling, Boxing and Cycling Sports Heroes

 

Reece The Champion Knight

The Champion Knight

the winners of the sports champion anagram quiz

Winners of the sports anagram quiz.