Kirkcolm Primary School

Today we were very blessed to be graced with the company of Kathryn from History Alive , who brought along all of her bits and bobs to delight us and teach all all about The Scottish Wars of Independence!

Kirkcolm and Leswalt upper joined forces in the hall to explore and learn, in great detail, the events that lead up to The Scottish Wars. Pupils have already done a lot of work about this in class and we were able to add to the discussions but we were no match for Kathryn’s expertise!

We learned about ancient Scotland and what life would look like in those days, all the way back to 1066 when William the Conquerer landed in Scotland and Scotland’s landscapes were full of trees and murky marshes everywhere.

We heard about how Edward the First tried to take control of Scotland and how the brave soldiers of Scotland fought back and finally, the culmination of the Battle of Bannockburn. Kathryn was able to really bring all this to life for both the teachers and the pupils and it was amazing to learn about these events in such depth.

After this, pupils were able to ask all sorts of questions and get stuck into the fantastic props that Kathryn brought along and as you can see from the photos below, they really took advantage of this!

We feel so lucky to be able to welcome Kathryn and her expertise back into the schools and it has been a fantastic opportunity for the pupils to see their history topic really come to life.

See below to try and pick out your own Scottish Warrior in full kit!

Kirkcolm Primary got British Science Week off to a flying start today.  John McGill of Computer Xplorers travelled down from Ayr to deliver two workshops to our boys and girls.

Both classes explored Lego Wedo, using Lego components and modules alongside coding blocks to construct models from schematics. They were able to automate their models to perform increasingly complex functions; building up from changing light colours and producing a range of sounds to performing motorised functions.  The older children applied the use of gears to control motor speed when constructing and programming a cooling fan  – small gear = fast speed, large gear cog = slower speed.

The activities helped support a wide range of skill development, for example:

Computational thinking:

• decomposition – breaking a complex problem down into steps
• abstraction – focussing on the important parts only
• algorithms – developing step by step solutions to problem solve

Meta Skills for learning, life and work (Skills 4.0)

• Self Management – focussing, adapting, initiative
• Social Intelligence – communicating, collaborating, leading
• Innovation – curiosity, creativity, sense making, critical thinking

To culminate the investigative session, linking with the theme of growth for this year’s British Science Week, the older children investigated the key question of:

‘How do certain organisms contribute to the life cycle of plants?

They had to:

• Explore how different organisms take an active role in plant reproduction
• Create and program a model of a bee and flower to represent the relationship between the pollinator and the plant
• Present and document the different models created to depict plants and their pollinators.

They built a robotic model incorporating gears and infra-red motion sensors etc.  The bee is programmed to fly to the flower, emitting a buzzing sound. The bee then detects the flower and stops to collect pollen before flying off to visit another flower, promoting cross-pollination.

Everyone agreed that the workshops were highly engaging and educational – an excellent start to our upcoming week dedicated to science and all things STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths).  Our thanks to the British Science Association for granting our funding application and to John from Computer Xplorers for providing such  fabulous sessions for us.

# Successful Learners

Last night saw the return of the eagerly awaited annual Burns recitation competition at the Ryan Centre organised by the Stranraer and District Burns Club.  Children, families and friends from all over the Stranraer area came together to watch the winners from each school recite their Scots poetry.

It was a very entertaining evening with so much talent and confidence on show.  There were two categories; P3 – 5 and P6 – 7.  Our North Rhins was well represented by the following pupils:

P3 – 5

• Jack Howie: Kirkcolm Primary – The Auld Broon Troot
• Ewan Clark: Leswalt Primary – Beasties
• Cameron McNeill: Portpatrick Primary – The Auld Broon Troot

P6 – 7

• Alexander Clark: Leswalt Primary – The Moosie’s Prayer
• Luke Butler: Kirkcolm Primary – Address Tae A Haggis
• Maya McNeill: Portpatrick Primary – Address Tae a Haggis

2022 Competitors

We are delighted to announce that Cameron McNeill won second place in the younger category and Maya McNeill also won second place in the older category.  Congratulations to both!  They each received a book of the complete works of Robert Burns.

Every child that recited had already been judged as winners in their respective schools.  They all gave a sterling performance and they well deserved the certificate they achieved for their participation this challenging event.

The Free Press will be publishing an article with photographs of all the participants.  More photos will be posted on here hopefully later today.

Well done Everyone!

#Confident Individuals

Wednesday the 3rd of March was finally World Book Day, a day dedicated to celebrating the joy of reading and getting stuck in and lost in a good book! 

Here at Kirkcolm, both classes had their own wee way of celebrating this day and promoting the joy of reading with the pupils! 

P1-4 read ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ with Miss Douglas and Miss Irving and then, just to make it even more magical, they went on a bar scavenger hunt outside trying to find all the hiding bears in the playground! After this burst of energy, it seemed only fitting that they went on to have a teddy’s bears picnic in the class with lots of treats! 

P4-7 went for a more cosy celebration! Pupils were told to bring in something they could snuggle up with, be it a blanket or a pillow and then the hot chocolate, biscuits, cookies and (decaffeinated!) tea was brought to them. Their only goal was to sit down and really enjoy whatever book they were reading at home or at school. We also read a lovely story called The Dam together and this gave everyone an opportunity to meet their accelerated reading test goal if they hadn’t already! 

Finally, last thing in the day the 2 classes joined forces for some paired reading and enjoying a good story together.

Overall a very successful day as they all toddled home with their tokens for £1 off a book! We are excited to see what they choose!

Our trio partnership football  team had their first outing in over 2 years , and despite nicer having trained in school or playing together as a team they came together extremely well.

The team of pupils from Kirkcolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick schools had 3 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws. What a result!

Well done to all for their enthusiasm and team spirit. The next games are on the 25th March .

Today the Kirkcolm staff banded together (Miss McNicoll was talked into it by Miss Douglas…) to join the forces of the classrooms into a pancake making extravaganza in the hall! Both classes came together in the afternoon and split into groups of 4, mixing the big with the wee, and following the careful guidance of Miss Irving (the pancake making expert amount us… Thank goodness there was one!). Miss Irving made the recipe nice and simple for everyone to follow.

Our groups mixed up all their wet and dry’s and the staff set to work to cook and flip these as fast as they could! Another shout out to Anne Marie for being the back bone of our pancake flipping adventures and really helping to speed the process along – what a star she is and how very blessed we are to have her!

Photos are a little on the lighter side when they follow as most of the adults were running about with batter or flipping away at a hot plate but I hope this gives you a snippet of how our afternoon went. Happy Pancake smiles all round! 🙂

As part of our journey towards Rights Respecting Schools Silver status, the children have been discussing all of the rights within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). They have discussed what rights they feel are most important and have explained their views. Here is just a sample for you to see what responsible citizens we have!

RRS-Silver-Our-Views-On-Rights-video

If you would like to find out more about Rights Respecting Schools, here is a link to their website.

Whilst the older pupils were spending time outdoors at Lockerbie Manor, the younger pupils got their ‘eco’ hats on to support our local bird population.

Everyone pitched in to help make apple bird feeders using foraged sticks and string.  It was then time to get outside to hang up the tasty treats for our feathered friends.

The final day has dawned crisp and bright for another rotation of exciting activities.

There were a few sleepy heads this morning, but everyone soon shook of the zzzz’s and were raring to go.

Blaze treated everyone to a beautiful song to start the day – A Million Dreams from the Greatest Showman – so lovely!

The last day was crammed packed with more adventures.  A very weary, but happy bunch piled on the bus for the journey home.  A few zzz’s could soon be heard from the back of the bus. 😉

What a fantastic time was had by all!

Photos:

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Wow!  It’s been another super active day for our adventure heroes.  Have a look at everything they got up to outdoors. More to follow…

• Water sports
• Fencing
• Rifles
• Orienteering
• Climbing/Abseiling