Kirkcolm Primary School

Congratulations to Phoebe Manson on being the FIRST pupil in Kirkcolm Primary School to achieve a GOLD STAR AWARD. Fantastic achievement Phoebe, congratulations.

The Star awards are our own wee mini Duke of Edinburgh scheme, based on developing and tracking wider achievements.  We hope to  develop the 4 capacities of Curriculum for Excellence (successful learners, effective contributors confident individuals and  responsible citizens) by setting targets for pupils for them to work upon as an optional homework challenge.  They have to achieve the majority of targets in each level before moving up through the levels; bronze, silver then gold.

Phoebe will be presented with a special award at the end of term.  I wonder who will be joining her?

On Thursday the boys and girls had a fabulous time at their Christmas Party. There was glittery dresses and festive attire in abundance, everyone looked fantastic. The Party buffet was amazing and the children devoured it with very little left to spare. After a wonderful feast the dancing and games started. We had musical arms, musical bumps, best dancer, pass the parcel and build a snowman. With some heel and toe the children were dancing with great enthusiasm to the Military Two step , The Gay Gordans and even had a go at the Virginia Reel.  Last but by all means not least the children had a special visitor from the Big Man himself. Santa arrived to deliver some early presents and judging by the children’s reactions I would say he did a brilliant job. I would just like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work and effort it is very much appreciated. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New year.

Kirkcolm Nursery and Primary 1 pupils took to the stage this morning to perform ‘The Tip-Toe Nativity.’  Pupils certainly had the cute-factor as they dressed up as angels, shepherds and wise men to tell the Christmas Story with lots of beautiful singing. The hall was full of parents, family members and friends of the school who all came to watch the performance, as well as Kirkcolm School pupils. 

Afterwards, P1-7 pupils entertained the audience with some festive songs. The adults then stayed to enjoy some tea and mince pies and have a blether! Well done to the Nursery for all their hard work. 

P4-7 participated in the Hour of Code event on Friday as part of Computer Science Education Week (3rd – 9th December). The initiative is designed to introduce children to computer coding which enables them to develop their skills in problem solving, creativity and logic. 

Carol Moyes from the RAiSE team worked with the class to explore the website code.org where pupils worked in pairs to solve the computer gaming coding challenges. Pupils were extremely engaged throughout the session and enjoyed developing and de-bugging codes for games such as Minecraft and Disney’s Frozen.

Thank-you to Carol for taking time time to pop into school to work with the children.

Local children’s author Cherry Daspher, visited P1-4 on Friday to share her book ‘An Important Lesson in Dragons’ with the class. She discussed with the pupils all about autumn and why the leaves fall off the trees then re-grow in spring time, which is a key part of the book. The pupils then used sugar paper and pipe cleaners to make their own leaf pom-poms which they used later on.

After a quick costume change by Cherry, she then shared her book with the class, telling the story of a dragon who teaches a pompous princess a lesson. The class were amazed to learn that it took Cherry 10 years (on and off!!) to write and illustrate the book. Pupils enjoyed learning about the different Scottish birds and animals in the corners of each page, such as hedgehogs, toads, owls and deer.

Cherry then took the pupils into the hall to learn a song and dance about the book, and pupils used their leaf pom-poms to act it out.

Many thanks to Cherry for taking the time to come into school to share her fantastic work with the class. The boys and girls had a thoroughly enjoyable morning!

On Saturday we were thrilled to invite everyone along to the Parent Council Christmas Coffee Morning. Despite the weather the event was well supported and attended. On sale we had Christmas crafts made by the pupils and the Nursery even offered some scrumptious popcorn. There were some delicious cakes, face painting, an amazing raffle and bottle tombola. At 11:00am the boys and girls took to the stage to sing their Christmas songs that they have been practising in school. The P1-4 class sang “The Snowman” while the upper school sang “I Couldn’t Sleep” with a brilliant solo by Mackenzie Adams. Finally, they all sang “Christmas Hit” which really put everyone in the Christmas Spirit. Thank you to everyone for all the kind contributions and a special thank you to Becky Richardson,  Parent Council and all the helpers for organising such a fantastic event.

The final total was a staggering £1040 raised – amazing work!  Thank you to all concerned 🙂

PC Nicola Wilson popped into P5-7 this afternoon for a chat with the boys and girls about the dangers of alcohol as part of their Health and Wellbeing topic. She explained to the pupils that alcohol is indeed a drug which can affect your emotions and your ability to make sensible decisions. She highlighted that the effects of alcohol are dependent upon various factors such as your size, age, fitness and how much you have eaten, and the importance of drinking responsibly.

Pupils considered why the legal age for drinking alcohol is 18 and PC Wilson went on to explain that drinking a lot of alcohol can result in people doing silly or dangerous things which they might not normally do.

Pupils were interested to learn that there is alcohol is certain medicines and mouth wash, which is why the drink driving limit can’t be 0, and that it is an offence to be drunk when riding a bike!!

It was a very informative afternoon – thank-you to PC Wilson for taking the time to come in!