Kirkcolm Primary School

Pupils in P1-4 were off on another adventure last week, this time to West Galdenoch to visit dairy farmer Mr Gary Mitchell, who was assisted by Isabel Milroy from RHET. Pupils learned all about how a dairy farm works, from calf to parlour. Gary explained each stage in depth and showed the pupils the different diets of the cattle and calves. His farm tries to consider sustainable farming methods with respect to feed and production. Pupils were able to take a trip into the parlour itself and watch the huge rotary parlour in action. At the end pupils even got to watch the cows being fed some fresh grass before it was back to West Galdenoch Classroom for a quick quiz. What a lovely afternoon we all had ! Below are some photos.

It’s not every day that you see tractors, sheep, a mini Auction Mart, ducks being herded by dogs and sheep shearing and it certainly isn’t normal to see it all in a school playground either! However, we’re no ordinary trio partnership, and with the hard work of Mrs McKnight (and her band of willing volunteers!) the children enjoyed a fantastic afternoon as they watched their farming topic come alive!

We truly are spoilt here at Kirkcolm Primary with yet another wonderful opportunity to embrace and learn about farming, our local area and careers within the community. Below are some photos from our afternoon. Thanks to our parent helpers who came along to assist!

Primary 1-4 were fortune enough to have a lovely visit from Judith Armstrong of The Fresh Milk Company to do a Dairy class talk. Judith was accompanied by Anna Christie, a DEHS pupil on work experience at the creamery. Together they explained everything from breeds of cows, the milking process, to turning the milk into cheese at the creamery in Stranraer. It was then onto some butter making which required some hard work and effort. As you can tell from the photos the children really gave it their all. Before long the butter had been made and we enjoyed tasting it along with some cheese and crackers. Thank you to RHET ( Royal Highland Education Trust ) for organising this great experience and thanks to Judith and Anna for coming along to the school.

The sun was shining for the annual Nursery Grand Prix on Tuesday morning. The pupils came to Nursery with their bikes and scooters, ready to race round the track to help raise some funds for the Nursery. The whole school came out to cheer them on too. After a little pit stop half way through where they got juice and crisps, the boys and girls were ready to go again! Have a look at the photos – there were some little red faces by the end as they had worked their socks off!!

Even with poor weather the views were great !

The finishing line … ( sorry if I’ve missed anyone )

Snacks / Prizes

PC Wilson visited P4-7 last week as part of their current Health and Wellbeing topic to raise awareness of drugs. Most pupils thought of drugs as all being bad for you, so she explained the different types of drugs that exist, including medicines. She showed pupils a box of replica drugs which led into a discussion about the differences between legal and illegal drugs. Pupils were amazed that some looked just like everyday pills you might take for hayfever, for example – hence it was emphasised that you should never take drugs if they aren’t from a safe and trusted person or place such as the doctor or pharmacy and always follow the instructions. Pupils had lots of questions for PC Wilson that they had prepared in advance of her visit and were keen to find out more.

Thanks to PC Wilson for taking the time to pop into school to tell pupils how to keep themselves safe and help them in becoming responsible citizens.

As part of our Digital Learning Week celebrations, P4-7 participated in a collaborative story. The class were given the opening, which told the story of Doctor Xenon who discovered a mysterious object and hoped to use it to prove the existence of life elsewhere in the solar system.  Pupils had to work together to continue the story – but not finish it, as this was the job of Portpatrick and Leswalt!!

Our responsible Digital Leaders also organised lunch time ICT clubs, teaching younger pupils to login and make Powerpoints, and older pupils about coding. Lots of pupils were keen to attend, even though the sun was shining!

Mrs Carol Moyes from the Raise team (Raising Aspirations in STEM Education) paid the school a visit to teach pupils how to use the Green Screen. She first worked with P1-4 then P4-7, showing them how to take a video against the green screen, upload it to the computer and use the chroma key to remove the green background and add in different effects. Pupils were amazed to see how we can make the video look as if we are in the Bahamas when we are actually in our classroom at Kirkcolm!!

We have had a great week developing our digital skills and thanks must go to our Digital Leaders for helping to organise events.

On Thursday the boys and girls at Kirkcolm Primary from p5, 6 and 7 went to Green Valley to compete in the Schools annual Cross Country Competition. All pupils were given the choice to run either the mile or Half mile. Well done to Robin McAuley who finished 1^st and Finlay Nelson who finished 3^rd in the boys 1 mile race. We also had girls, boys and mixed relay teams entered into the competition. Well done to everyone who took part, Super effort! I can only imagine there were some tired boys and girls last night.

Relay Teams

Girls – Izzy Keith, Michaela Lyon and Ivy Richardson

Boys – Robin McAuley, Finlay Nelson and Daniel Hall

Mixed – Ruth Turtle, Guy Butler and Innes Dench