November 21, 2023
by Ms Whorlow
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PC Walker – Rights of the Child Talk

As part of World Children’s Day yesterday, the school was lucky enough to receive a visit from PC Shannon Walker. She came in to talk to everyone about the rights they have as a child living in Scotland including their right to food and shelter and their right to have their own opinions.

PC Walker answered lots of questions about different scenarios the children came up with and how their rights would be affected. She then talked about her job as a police officer and talked about all the different things she carries with her to protect herself and her own right to safety.

We were very lucky as she even let us get in the police car with the sirens on!

Thank you very much to PC Walker for taking the time to talk to us about our rights and helping us understand how important they are.

Miss McMorran

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 17 Access To Information

November 21, 2023
by Archie Howard
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Kirkcolm Eco Commitee

Recently Kirkcolm eco committee have been very busy. Last week we made a compost bin made from recycled plastic so we could put are food waste from the kitchen in it. Uncooked vegetables can go in there and then can be used in the garden. To help with recycling the eco committee are going to label the bins so that the plastic and paper is recycled and is not mixed up. To help tackle the playground litter each week a new group will be assigned to do a litter pick to keep the playground nice and tidy. To encourage local wildlife we are planning to put up bird feeders to encourage little birds. We are going to label a bin so we can put are crisp packets in there so that they can be donated to keep people nice and warm.

Author – Archie Ashton (Digital Leader)

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 13: Sharing Thoughts Freely

November 17, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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A Sea of Blue and Pudsey Ears at Kirkcolm Primary

While it looked like the bears had assembled for their annual picnic, instead the boys and girls arrived at school today wearing blue to support the Children in Need charity 🐻🍯 Throughout the week Alfie and Alistair have been going around the classes and nursery armed with Pudsey bear ears, badges, pens and wrist bands as well as quizzes and stickers.

This morning we had a brief discussion about why we have been buying all this super cool merch (other than to look extremely cute). We watched a video clip and spoke about who receives our kind donations and how our money can help! 💙

P1-4 were busy today and yesterday making nice Pudsey Bear masks with the help of Mrs Chang which was great fun!

One of our primary 7’s Alfie very kindly gave up his time to make a Children In Need quiz, which was very popular – but the lucky winner was Jack, well done to you!

A big thank you must go to everyone at home for their support and very generous donations We are very pleased to announce that as a school we managed to raise a whopping £162 for a fantastic charity! 💙🐻

UNCRC – Article 26 Social & Economic Help

November 17, 2023
by Ms Whorlow
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Skills Development Scotland

The boys and girls from the North Rhins Partnership had a visit to Skills Development Scotland today.

As part of Developing the Young Workforce, Lucy, Kathryn & Connor gave the pupils an overview of the careers services available at Stranraer Academy.

Our pupils learned that they will have a subject choice chat in S2, with follow up visits for each other year to help them plan career options more fully. Lucy explained that Skills Development Scotland is available to everyone at any time in our community to help find jobs.

There was a mixer game where children played ‘Would You Rather?’ This was a game to help the children make careers decisions based on their preferences and interests.

They then played ‘Shark Island!’ In groups, the children had to decide which 3 of 5 people they would choose to help them escape from an island. Their choices were based on the careers of the five individuals. There was a change of mind once more information was given on the people’s backgrounds. It was a very interesting discussion.

Hamish, Atticus and Cara volunteered to role play career characters. The children had to work out what jobs they might do based on their props and outfits.

Finally, we were shown the My World of Work careers advice website with industry sector information and job videos. It was very informative.

Our thanks to Skills Development Scotland team. Today was a great workshop for Developing the Young Workforce and for strengthening our pre-transition friendships.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29 Aims of Education

November 17, 2023
by Mrs McHarg
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Book Bags for P1-3

As part of our Book Week Scotland celebrations, P1-3 pupils all received a Bookbug (P1) or a Read, Write, Count (P2-3) bag this afternoon, as part of the Scottish Government and Scottish Book Trust initiative. Parents/carers popped into school to learn how to use the bags at home to make the most of the learning opportunities that they offer.

After pupils were gifted with their bags, everyone then spent the final 20-minutes of the day exploring and enjoying the contents of the bags. Pupils cosied up and read their new books, some played the dominoes card game, P1 pupils practised writing words and numbers on their new whiteboards, and others got their thinking caps on to have a go at the tricky tangram puzzles!

Please check school bags tonight for the wonderful resources that P1-3 pupils have brought home with them. And thank-you to everyone who took the time to come into school today. Have a keek at the photos below to see the fun that everyone had!

: New Book Bags!

: Team Warwick enjoying their new books

: Harlow practising her numbers

November 13, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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Curling’s Cool!

Primary 7 from Portpatrick, Leswalt and Kirkcolm were treated to a fabulous curling experience at the North West Castle today.

The children were split into teams of 5 with each member allocated a role as either sweepers, throwers or a skip 🥌

Gail gave a motivating speech, sharing all of the success of our local curlers have had – helping to put Stranraer on the map!📍

After a warm up and a shot on the ice, children were put into teams. The winners were judged on the best performance out of eight tries of getting a stone as close to the target as possible.

There was a break for juice and biscuits kindly provided by the North West Castle. Our thanks to all the coaches and to the NWC for their kind hosting!

Then it was time for the team games – all of the boys and girls worked well together to play a curling game, but the winners of the day were our very own Jack, Alfie and Danny – who have been wearing their medals with pride 🥇 – well done boys!

Again, a big thanks to Gail and all at the NWC! Everyone had a fab afternoon – and you never know, maybe one of our little team will be the next future Stranraer curling Olympians 🥌

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 15 Setting Up & Joining Groups

November 10, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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Kirkcolm Primary Remember

This morning Danny, Robert and Mr MacGregor, armed with willow, a hot glue gun and string banded together to create a wreath for Kirkcolm’s memorial. Despite their lack of prior experience I personally think they did a very impressive job! Even Mr MacGregor was stunned with his new talent and has plans to trim his own willow dome at home for more wreaths! Primary 5 – 7 coloured in some nice, bright poppies to add to our wreath too.

We took a walk up to the monument after breaktime to pay our respects and lay our wreath. We did a minute’s silence then we spoke about why it’s important to remember this date each year and how thankful we are to all of the servicemen/ women who have fought in every war around the world, even the one’s of today.

We also spoke about the symbol on the purple poppy and the boys are girls were able to explain that this represents the thanks we pay to the animals who die in war as well as men and women.

November 10, 2023
by Mrs Baillie
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Eco committee build new compost bin

This week our Eco committee took delivery of a new compost bin for the school.

Together, with Mrs Richardson, Steven, Ivan and Ruby built this and put it in the play ground for the school to use.

This compost bin was purchased with funding from Killgallioch wind farm – in conjunction with the Parent council and community council.

Thank you to Mrs Richardson for leading on this and well done team for your construction skills!

# responsible citizens

November 7, 2023
by Ms Whorlow
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Gardening Club Receives Well Deserved Recognition

Our Wonderful Mrs Richardson and the Kirkcolm Primary Gardening Crew have received just recognition from Connect for all their sterling work in our school community. Read all about it below!

Connect – Supporting Partnerships in Education

To mark our 75th anniversary, we are celebrating parent groups! This week, let’s raise a cheer for Kirkcolm Parent Council, School and Community for their fantastic garden and grounds project:

‘We have a successful garden project that started last year. The idea came from one of our Learning Assistants, who was keen to start an after school Garden Club. This included revitalising the garden (it’s a BIG space and was rather sad and neglected), planting vegetables, fruit, trees and flowers. Also, the hope was to set up a weather station that linked with the classroom to record and monitor data (STEM). The plan was to have chickens, new composting facilities, water butts to preserve our rainfall and to create new play areas.

The Parent Council was super excited about this and got fully onboard with helping planning, supporting funding applications and practical assistance. We were determined this would be a community project and it has encouraged us to engage with the wider community in new ways. We now have volunteers who have shared various skills with us, such as bird box and hedgehog home making. An ex-pupil brought his digger and cleared space for us to redevelop. A member of the school community did some free tree surgery for us. Another volunteer is going to wire up our IT connections, hopefully getting the kids involved to learn new skills. A local housing association assisted us with clearing weeds and rubbish. The local garden centre donated seeds and plants. These things all tie with the curriculum and current projects on employment skills and job opportunities. The response we’ve had to our requests for assistance is fantastic.’

We applied for a grant from windfarm money to our Community Council to cover the costs. They were extremely generous, allowing the project to move forwards. We now run a weekly garden club, the children are fully involved and we encourage them to bring their own ideas and take responsibility. This club is well-attended and we welcome parent and community volunteers; it’s a fantastic joined-up, inter-generational project.’

Just this week, the boys and girls have been busy constructing our new compost bin that has kindly been funded by

Kirkcolm community council with Wind Farm contribution. This will be used to recycle garden and suitable food waste from our dining hall and kitchen. Our Eco Committee are already on the case organising food collection bins and educating their classmates on what waste can recycled, thanks to advice from our wonderful Mrs Richardson.

Well done Team Kirkcolm!

UNCRC Rights of the Child:

Article 15 (Setting Up & Joining Groups), Article 24 (Health, Water, Food & Environment), 29 (Aims of Education)

November 3, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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P5-7 Visit the Stranraer College

Connecting with our community partners, DG STEM and DG College, our boys and girls along with P5-7 from Portpatrick and Leswalt primaries went along to our local college to participate in a carousel of workshops to develop their skills and experiences.

The children used their computational thinking skills through coding robotic Sphero balls. With its advanced sensors, programmable LED matrix, and innovative technology, our students were able to to explore their creativity, coding skills, and inventiveness. We practiced controlling our Spheros using speed and direction. We also adjusted variable settings for led arrays. We extended our learning to explore coding blocks to control our Sphero direction using angle, speed and time too! 💻👩‍💻⌨

Next on the agenda was a session on Using Tools For Construction. There was lots of enthusiasm to wield the hammers. We learned how to safely use different saws and hammers to construct a marble run. Working cooperatively, there was lots of evidence of planning, measuring, sawing and gluing to make our board puzzles. Everyone demonstrated collaboration, negotiation and cooperation skills throughout.
🔨📐🔧

Finally, the boys and girls visited the Childcare department. Here we explored a range of activities to develop social, mental, motor and artistic skills through a range of games and crafts. 🎨🖍🎭

Our thanks to DG College childcare staff and students for planning a great session, to the catering team for accommodating us and to Mrs Heron college manager for inviting us to visit. Thank you also to Miss Creighton and Mrs Hall from DG STEM for a great day!

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29 Aims of Education