Kirkcolm Primary School

Kirkcolm pupils came together to mark Clean Air Day yesterday as part of our Learning for Sustainability and Eco Schools activities.

We participated in a whole school assembly to learn about the factors that can lead to air pollution, how this can impact on our health and what we can do to reduce air pollution and support both healthy human and wildlife diversity.

Some suggestions from the children were:

• Reduce car use – walk or cycle instead
• Move towards electric forms of transport
• Use public transport instead of private cars
• Grow your own fruit and veg
• Try to by locally grown food
• Use non-carbon burning fuel for heating

Have a look at some of the wonderful ideas our clever cookies have come up with:

We then studied different kinds of lichen.  We learned that some are:

• Pollution Haters – Can only grow in clean air conditions
• Pollution Lovers – Can grow in polluted air conditions

(Click to enlarge)

The children went outdoors on a lichen hunt, classifying the types we observed growing in our school grounds.  We are pleased to report that we found lots of examples of the pollution hating, clean air loving lichen.  This demonstrates that we have good air quality!

# Successful Learners

Well today we decided to join forces with Leswalt and venture out on a litter pick in keeping in line with our Eco Schools plan and looking after our local area!

…Turns out our Local Area is very well looked after already as there was very little litter waiting to be found – to the point many pupils were ready to deem seaweed a piece of litter!? (‘The fish could get caught up in it’ …well I can’t actually argue with that!)

How blessed are we to have such a beautiful local area, free from anything ruining it! Let’s hope it stays that way but if there are ever any issues – you know what schools are ready and raring to go!

Big thank yous to all the mummies who came along to help out – Wilma, Ashley and Lucy were our Kirkcolm representatives – thank you for tagging a long with us and helping to litter spot!

A small flurry of pictures before the rain caught us in the end!

How lucky are we to be a hosting a visit from the lovely Kathryn Purchase for another amazing History Alive Session in our wee school – The younger class’s topic is Castles this session so Kathryn came along to deliver her expertise knowledge in the field! 

Pupils sat beautifully for a chat and information session, getting to pick Kathryn’s brain and learn lots about their new topic! After that, the hands on session begun and as you can see, they wasted no time getting stuck into the props that Kathryn brought along…

A big thank you for History Alive for always being willing to come see us and providing such an exciting opportunity for the pupils – they really get to see and learn how Castle and Knights existed in those days and it makes for such a magical experience.

What a super start to the morning for P1-4! 

My oh my, we are counting our lucky stars here at Kirkcolm Primary that after that awful rain the night before, the skies cleared, the sun peeked out and by the end we were all sweltered!

After it being a bit touch and go today, we were happy to batter on and host another very successful sports day in our lush green grounds! Today marked a special occasion in being able to invite mums and dads, grannies and grandpas, uncles, aunties, neighbours – whoever(!) to come watch the boys and girls give it their all today! 

From where we were standing, it was obvious that the boys and girls had been practising hard and the quality of good sportsmanship was amazing – we were cheering on our friends and relatives and clapping every single person through that finish line so regardless of if they came away with a sticker and a place or not – they have all been absolute winners today in our eyes! 

Here are some photos of the fun today! Well done Kirkcolm! 

The results are as follows:

Order of races – Kirkcolm – June 22

Many moons ago, in the midst of online lessons, the upper school class here participated in an online Orchestral event which has us examine the music by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra and their production of Gaspard’s Foxtrot!

Then everything came full circle when we, along with a few other Primary Schools, ventured to Stranraer Academy to see the performance in real time! Pupils engaged in little games to test their reaction to music and then got to sit back and watch the story unfold and see the ways the orchestra could come together to create different emotions based on how they play the music and what a wonderful time it was! 

All pupils were entranced (as were staff) at this amazing performance and we are so grateful to the RNSO and Stranraer Academy for hosting us!

Small blip at the end where the bus was a tad late but thankfully the sun was shining so we made the most of it! 

Today, in light of the exciting events that are about to unfold over the course of this long weekend off school, we decided to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee ‘Kirkcolm Primary style’ in school! As you are all well aware, this weekend marks the Queens reign of 70 years on the Royal Throne.

Pupils have spent the week researching and learning about Queen Elizabeth the Second life and all her accomplishments along the way so today had to culminate in a day of utter fun!

Both classes did some singing and dancing with Mrs Ramsay in the morning to show off at the end of the day, made some Queen based art and we decorated some cupcakes in true red, white and blue fashion.

All pupils came to school in either red, white or blue or dressed as royalty and wow – did the pupils put their best foots forward. There were some amazing efforts from pupils across the schools!

What a day we have had, we even had a lovely picnic lunch outside in the sunshine! We combined our lunch with an annual One Planet Picnic, minimising our use of single use plastic for our take-away lunch.  Michelle provided compostable spoons for our yogurts.  We recycled our pots in our new council plastic collection bins.  We also used paper bags instead of plastic.  Those that brought in their own lunches used re-usable snack pots and water bottles.

Check out the photos below for the fun and we hope everyone has a lovely relaxing long weekend in the sunshine! We will see you all again come Monday! 🙂

Not to mention the special visit from Liz herself taking a tour of the playground!

Friday marked a very sad day for us all at Kirkcolm. We had to bid goodbye to our dear Mrs Jamieson from the office! Mrs Jamieson has been with us for 3 years now and she has been the back bone of this school in many ways! From phoning home for those of us having off days, booking our trips away ( making sure everything rums smoothly)  and keeping our staff right and our classrooms well stocked!

Not entirely sure how we will manage without her yet but we wish her all the best on her new adventure – The Academy are so blessed to have you helping them out now Mrs J!

We simply couldn’t let her leave with nothing so Mrs Baillie saw to it that she left here with her arms bursting with flowers, wine, chocolates and a gigantic (and extremely delicious) carrot cake courtesy of our amazing cook and baker; Michelle!

Thank you for everything Mrs Jamieson. You will be a friendly face for our pupils moving up now!

Our boys and girls have been enjoying the outdoor life today, planting all the kind donations of plants we have received from Home and Gardens & Tesco.  The children have written thank you letters to Tesco and Lidl today

Ever creative, Mrs Richardson has been repurposing tubs and containers to help make our grounds look blooming good.

We even found a larve.  We are not sure if it’s a moth or a butterfly.  We put it back carefully to keep it safe.

In addition, Aiden (P7) had recently written to the RSPB asking for a donation of literature.  They have replied today by kindly sending us a pack for each school.  It contains ‘best for bee’s’ annual flower seeds along with  bird identification guides and gardening with wildlife in mind helpsheets.

# Effective Contributors

This afternoon we were delighted to receive a donation of a huge selection of plants, from Homes and Gardens.  There were peas, strawberries, rhubarb, flowers, chives and many other herbs.  Miley and Olivia helped the ladies carry in all the plants and we look forward to them all being planted and enjoying the crops and flowers over the coming weeks.

Many thanks to Homes and Gardens!

We are delighted to announce that the North Rhins Trio Partnership has been awarded our Anti-Bullying Ambassador Respect Badge!

Our Primary 6 pupils along with our house captains underwent anti-bullying ambassador training as part of the Diana Award.  As a results, and in combination with our Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award, our pupils have completed an action plan of 6 activities to gain this award.

• Educating students on children’s rights through a year long, whole school assembly programme focussed on UNCRC Rights of the Child, Rights Respecting Schools and Global Goals 
• The creation of Rights As We See It Video showcasing children’s views on their rights and their importance
• Whole school awareness events such as anti-bullying week and a week of kindness etc.
•  Diversifying our school library through digital book readings
• The creation of a new monthly Respect award, as defined by our pupils
• The creation a whole school diversity and inclusion pledge by our pupils

We have been highly praised for our work in key areas that demonstrate and support a culture of respect. Have a read at our award feedback to find out how well all of our pupils have worked in key areas:

Respect Badge Letter

The Diana Trust wrote this lovely comment:

Thanks so much for sending over your evidence form for the Respect Badge. We’ve reviewed your evidence and we were overwhelmed with how much thought and effort you’ve put into your anti-bullying initiatives. It seems like all of the activities have had a great impact on the students in your school and we really like that you use such creative ideas to support your campaign. The video is amazing and the diversity and inclusion pledge is a fantastic action which I am sure will be a long term feature in your school.

Congratulations, we are awarding you the Respect Badge! This is a fantastic achievement and the team should be very proud.’

Here is a link to a Sway explaining more about our new respect award:

North Rhins Respect Award Blog

As part of our work with the Diana Trust, we have created a new RESPECT award certificate.

Go to this Sway

Here is the inclusion pledge created by our pupils.  Special thanks go to Miley & George for all their work on producing our pledge.

Well done to our anti-bullying ambassadors AND all of our pupils who have been involved as whole school communities to promote RESPECT FOR ALL!

# Responsible Citizens

# Effective Contributors