Kirkcolm Primary School

Mrs B’s amazing group of North Rhins school have been selected to take part in some Podcast making using Soundtrap this term! This is exciting experience in linked to the opening of the Peter Pan Museum in Dumfries and the magical gardens that inspired the works of J. M. Barrie’s own enchanted lands in the famous novel, Peter Pan.

Given how near and dear this story is to the region we were over the moon to be asked to contribute to an online library of children’s stories of ‘enchanted lands’ and with the help of Mr Alan Cameron, we will be using the Podcast tool of Soundtrap to make our stories come to life in our own words!

Today was our first input with Mr Cameron and the pupils have been working hard in coming up with their own versions of Enchanted Lands filled with rich description so they were delighted at the opportunity to record some of their work.

This is the first visit of three and already everything is looking very promising so watch this space to hear what we produce in the end!

The boys and girls have been working extremely hard throughout the month of January, doing all things Scots! They had 3 challenges to complete – to learn their poem and practise reciting it with great gusto; to write out their poem in their best handwriting; and to create a piece of artwork linked to their poem.

On Monday, our judge (Mrs Noelle McClure) had the very difficult and unenviable decision of selecting the winners – we had a few joint winners as it was so close!

Today, we held our Scots Showcase assembly, where lots of parents and family members came into school to celebrate the pupils’ successes. They were presented with certificates and performed some lovely Scots songs to entertain the adults – P1-4 sang “Three Craws” and P5-7 performed the beautiful “My Heart’s in the Highlands.”

Below is a list of the placed winners – but well done to all the pupils in the school for all the effort you have put in over the last 3 weeks!

Primary 1

Poem – ‘Ode tae a spider’

1^st Sophie McColm

2^nd Jessie Townend

3^rd Lyle McCulloch

Illustration: Jessie Townend

Handwriting: Sophie McColm

Primary 2

Poem – ‘Twa legged mice’

1^st Jane Townend

2^nd = Phoebe Manson & Archie Ashton

3^rd = Alistair Swan & Ivan Turtle

Illustration: Phoebe Manson

Handwriting: Phoebe Manson

Primary 3

Poem – ‘Sair finger’

1^st Danny Dougan

2^nd = Lydia Adams & Sally Drummond

3^rd Jack Howie

Illustration: Danny Dougan

Handwriting: Lydia Adams

Primary 4

Poem – ‘The bogle’

1^st Peyton Parker

2^nd Noah McGrory-Thomson

3^rd = Olivia Johnstone & James Turtle

Illustration: Olivia Johnstone

Handwriting: Olivia Johnstone

Primary 5

Poem – ‘Wee Kirk moose’

1^st George Keith

2^nd Alexander MacPherson

3^rd = Miley Adams & Luke Butler

Illustration: George Keith

Handwriting: Emma Drummond

Primary 6

Poem – ‘Wullie wastle’

1^st Zack Ashton

2^nd Daniel Hall

3^rd = Ruth Turtle & Arla McCulloch

Illustration: Zack Ashton

Handwriting: Ruth Turtle

Primary 7

Poem – ‘Address to the haggis’

1^st Ivy Richardson

2^nd Abbie Akenhead

3^rd Abbi Johnstone

Illustration: Ivy Richardson

Handwriting: Ivy Richardson

What a guid auld time we had at oor Burns Lunch today – with our very capable Primary 7 pupils leading the proceedings from the top table.

Danny started off the lunch by welcoming everyone, followed by Alexander who gave the Selkirk Grace. Mr Nicoll kindly joined us and piped in the haggis, which was carried by the oldest and youngest pupils in the school – Jessie and Abbi. After Abbi’s recital of ‘Address to the Haggis,’ we sat down to a bonnie meal of haggis (or mince) and shortbread, kindly prepared by Anne-Marie.

After our bellies were full, we were all entertained with some Scots poetry recitals, Scots songs, and some very kind (and rather funny!) toasts. Our lunch came to a close with everyone joining hands to sing Auld Lang Syne.

Have a keek at the photos below, to see the fun everyone had! More photos to follow…

On Monday we had Team P7 Abbi(e!)s unite to represent the school at the Rotary Lunch at the North West Castle.

The girls left after break with Mrs McColm, who kindly offered to accompany them on their way, and were presented with a delicious lunch of either fish and chips or a ham salad and then had the pleasure of a presentation from Isabel Milroy with Royal Highland Education Trust about what RHET does for our schools in the local community.

The pupils engaged in some quizzes to test their knowledge about food waste and the girls had a smashing time and enjoyed their venture out and all the new things they learned from it!

A big thank you to Abbi and Abbie for always doing a good job of representing our wee school!

On Wednesday our P7 pupils flocked for their first taste of the Academy at the P7 Snowball.

This gave them a chance to socialise with P7 pupils from all the schools in the Stranraer Academy cluster since these will be their future peers for the next 5 or 6 years!

The boys and girls had a lovely night and as you can see – they scrub up well!

The boys and girls got dressed in their festive finery on Thursday afternoon for their annual Christmas Party! It all kicked off at 1pm with a delicious buffet, kindly made by Anne-Marie.

We then moved onto the party games, which were all planned, organised and ran by our very capable House Captains – Danny and Abbie. We enjoyed playing games such as: Christmas Corners, a Balloon Race, Pass the Present, Pin the Nose on Rudolph and Musical Statues. Pupils had also been busy learning some dances over the last few weeks in preparation for the party – they had a go at the Gay Gordons, Canadian Barn Dance and the Military Two-Step.

At half past 2, a special visitor arrived to a chorus of Jingle Bells to surprise the boys and girls – Santa came with a present for everyone who was on the nice list, which was all of them thankfully!!

We all had a wonderful afternoon! Have a look at the photos of our festive fun below!

Today, to celebrate Christmas fast approaching, the boys and girls of Kirkcolm dawned their Christmas Jumpers and sat down to a delicious Christmas dinner served by Anne Marie! Between some delicious turkey, crispy roast potatoes and tasty gingerbread themed deserts – the boys and girls (and staff!) have been well and truly spoilt today. Many a cracker was pulled and there was smiles all around as we are all feeling the festive cheer!

Here is a photo of some of the fabulous Christmas jumpers the boys and girls had on today;

Many thanks team Kirkcolm for all of the effort by parents, pupils and staff in organising and helping out with the Coffee morning on Saturday. It was a real team effort with support from all sides. It was very ably led and co-ordinated by Becky Richardson.

Becky has spent a great deal of time counting the money, working out the costs and has now reached the grand total of……..drum roll please………… £1188.17 in profit!! This is tremendous – thank you one and all. £200 of this money will go to the Nursery, with the rest being ear-marked for the school.

Here are some photos of the pupils singing their hymns on the day;

Today  all the boys and girls from Kirkcolm were paid a visit by the councils Compass program. Compass specialise in looking after our health and well-being and our heads in particular and work with adults who have suffered brain injuries. Leanne kindly came in and spoke to the boys and girls of Kirkcolm about how important it is to look after our heads and to always war a helmet when necessary!

We were a bit shocked to see there are definitely some guilty parties when it comes to wearing our helmets regularly so we talked about why it is so important. From looking at dangerous jobs which require us to keep us heads protected (builders, Policemen… miners!?) and finding out that simply wearing a helmet reduces your chances of getting a serious brain or head injury by a staggering 80%!? 

We looked at how helmets protect our heads by taking the blow and acting like an external skull to protect our brains! We got to get to grips with what a brain feels like in a jellied form (don’t worry – it was literally jelly!), feeling the weight of an average human brain and dropping an egg within a helmet to see the impact! We realised now just how delicate our brains are and why they need so much protection especially considering the hugely important job they do of running us 24/7.

Some interesting brain facts for you all include; 

• the average brain weights the same as half a bag of sugar 
• there are over 100 billion neurons firing through our brain and it would take us approximately 3000 years to count them all!?
• a jelly fish literally has no brain
• brains stop growing and developing at 25 (everybody was quick to point out that Miss McNicoll has officially had it now!) 🙁 
• The best way to look after yer noggin’ is to; eat well (lots of veg!), sleep regularly, get lot’s of fresh air and stay hydrated!!

Finally, we watched the story of Joe which was a remake of a real life story about a boy who fell on his bike and developed a serious brain injury from hitting his head due to no helmet and how he is still feeling the effects of it to this day and having to relearn everything. 

On a more cheery note – Compass are committed to ensuring every child in Dumfries and Galloway has a helmet to wear to keep them safe. So, if you find yourself in a sticky situation without a helmet (or with one you have perhaps out grown now) please get in contact with the school and we can see about having Leanne back to supply you with your own helmet!

Pupil Comments:

Zack – “I liked watching the video to see the impact of wearing helmets.”

Emma – “I learned to always wear helmets”

Abbie – “I now know  to always wear a helmet.”

These past 12 weeks, Wendy and Kate from Feis Ros have been coming to Kirkcolm’s upper class to teach P5-7 all about Scottish music, the children have learned a variety of Scottish songs and even a touch of Gaelic (to add a fourth language into the mix!) and the pupils have worked extremely hard and have been attentive learners in practising the tin whistle. 

Pupils learned a variety of songs and showcased their best ones in an open afternoon where all were invited to come and see. There is no doubt the boys and girls exceeded expectations beyond belief and put on an incredible show and made us all so proud of them! 

We could not extend a bigger thank you to the lovely ladies of Feis Ros for their hard work in this too, teaching the pupils such engaging and fun songs and making it all the more meaningful by explaining their origins and the meaning behind certain Scottish songs we all know and love. 

As an early Christmas treat, the boys and girls were able to take their tin whistles home so they could continue the practise if they wish to show off to whoever is willing to listen! 

Well done P5-7! 🙂 

Here are some photos of the performance today;