Kirkcolm Primary School

Today we welcomed Jack and Linnea back into the classroom! …but not for long…

As part of their work with the pupils exploring the campus and the setting of the school, we all got bundled up and ventured down to the beach (first in a long time) to discuss ways pupils engage with learning about the environment and what they do know about climate change.

It was great to be able to soak up some of the cold sunshine today and show off what our school and community has to offer!

We look forward to welcoming them back next week to continue our work together…

Gillian from Lighthouse Musicians visited P1-4 today for another wonderful session. Today she was accompanied by John the Bagpiper, who showed pupils his bagpipes and played a demo for them. They had great fun learning about the different parts of the bagpipes and how they work, getting to try the chanter and getting to try on some typical bagpiper attire! Orla even treated the class to some Highland Dancing alongside the bagpipes! We had a great morning!

Following on from our Safer Internet Day celebrations led by our Digital Leaders, pupils were given time to work in pairs to participate in the ‘design a cyber superhero’ competition. They all got their creative thinking caps on and the designs were very impressive indeed!

Ms Gordon had the difficult decision to judge the competition – and it was very close, with 3 designs in particular catching her eye. In the end, Ruby and Sally were crowned the winners. Their cyber superhero’s power was being able to alert the user to a scam without them having to click on any link, helping to keep the user safe.

Well done to everyone for putting the time and effort into their designs!

Primary 6 and 7 recently had 3 fun filled days of outdoor education at Lockerbie Manor.

Please see below for a link to just some of the adventures they had –

Lockerbie Manor ~ February 2025 – YouTube

Jack and Linnea from the Children’s Parliament were back to visit P5-7 this morning. Their focus this time is to explore the 4 Cs with the class – community, curriculum, campus and culture. This is because the Scottish Government has tasked them with sharing what our schools are doing to be kind to the environment, nature and the community with all schools in Scotland.

Today we focussed on ‘campus.’ We started off with a scavenger hunt outside, where pupils had to think of an answer to show off their school rather than the first thing that came to mind! For ‘places where we grow nature,’ some pupils wrote down the tyres (where plants grow), the poly crub, and the orchard. For examples of recycling on campus, pupils wrote down the Rag Bag bin, the battery recycling, pen recycling, compost bin and black paper boxes.

We then went indoors and each pupil walked through the ‘dignity curtain’ to show that this was a safe space where they would be treated with dignity and their ideas listened to. Each group had to pick 1 of their answers from the scavenger hunt to explore further. They are going to turn this into a board game that will be sent to all schools in Scotland. Small groups went out to the poly crub with Linnea, where she recorded a podcast with them. They answered her questions all about how they connect with nature at school and what other schools could do to be more eco-friendly.

We are looking forward to our next session on Tuesday of next week! Thank-you to Jack and Linnea for their time this morning and for listening to our views.

Have a look at some of the activities we have been up to today!

The troops arrived safely at their destination at Lockerbie Manor and got stuck straight in to axe throwing, fencing and the climbing wall.  They were having that much fun, not one pupil wanted to phone home!

Tea was either roast chicken or sausages with roast potatoes, and Yorkshire puddings, followed by ice cream.  Yum!

Lots of  fun was had in the bedrooms  with pyjama parties involving lots of toiletries for the girls and lots of snacks (and sugar!) for all.

It may be a long day though – some pupils were up and dressed today at 5am! 

A huge well done to Ivan Turtle who took part in the Wigtownshire badminton competition on Monday morning. Ivan went up against the best badminton players Wigtownshire has to offer and managed to wrangle a success coming first!

We are all very proud of Ivan and his hard work and this is a fantastic achievement for him! Ivan will move onto representing Wigtownshire in the Dumfries and Galloway competition so we wish him the best of luck at that!

I am sure he will continue to give it his best shot!

Today was Safer Internet Day, and to kick the day off, our Digital Leaders (Alistair and Lyle) led an assembly all about this years theme – online scams and how to protect yourself. Alistair and Lyle explained to pupils what a scam is and what it might look like, pupils discussed what they would do if they encountered a scam and who they could talk to. In assembly groups, they then participated in a Safer Internet Day quiz, showcasing their new knowledge. To conclude the assembly, Alistair & Lyle shared a competition that they are running – for pupils to design their own Cyber Superhero and detail what their powers would be in helping others to stay safe online. They also shared details of a Friday lunchtime club that they are going to run, aimed at P1-3 pupils in helping them to practise logging onto the computer, to Glow, accessing Sumdog, sending an email, etc.

After morning break, pupils participated in a BBC Live Lesson where they watched some videos and had key questions to discuss. This taught them all about using technology responsibly, respectfully and safely; recognising acceptable and unacceptable ways of behaving online; and learning how to report any concerns they might have.

Finally, after lunchtime, P5-7 pupils participated in an Adobe Express live lesson. This was both to help them become familiar with Adobe Express (which is an online multimedia creation tool where pupils can create videos, documents and graphics) but also to learn further about scams and how to protect themselves online.

Pupils have until next week to complete their cyber superhero designs for the Digital Leaders competition – we can’t wait to see the creative ideas that they come up with!

Yesterday, Kirkcolm sent away Ruby and Cameron to represent the school in the K’Nex Starnraer Cluster challenge held at St. Joesephs. Cameron and Ruby were the clear winners of the classroom heats and smashed their tasks so they won their opportunity to represent the school, they put in a lot of work in the weeks leading up, getting stuck into the K’Nex kit in the classroom over their breaks and lunchtimes! 

The task set was to create an exercise bike with moving parts! Pupils got stuck in and while our pair gave it their best effort – they were pipped to the post by their Leswalt companions! A huge well done to Leswalt pupils and a huge well done to our own Cameron and Ruby for giving it their best effort and representing the school so well! Well done

UNCRC

Article 29 Aims of Education

Article 31 Rest, Play, Culture, Arts

Meta-skills

Initiative Ivy,  Adapting Aleksander,  Focusing Fergus