Kirkcolm Primary School

Not wanting to waste a second of this beautiful day, the boys and girls indulged in some Fresh Air Friday activities as part of their outdoor learning.

P1-4 took their P.E outside today and P4-7 ventured outside with Miss Gibson to create some art based on Andy Goldsworthy and they did such a fab job – we just had to share it on the blog!

See below for the photos of the fab art and a thank you to Mrs Warwick for the idea!

As you are all well aware as you sent your wee ones out in either; super human costumes or their own casual wear – today was Comic Relief at Kirkcolm! This years theme was Superheros (so undies over trousers has been permitted), this was because everyone is a superhero in their own and some of the boys and girls at Kirkcolm have fully embraced this! 

The House captains went about with their wee money tub and took donations for wearing no uniform as well as selling the Biodegradable red noses and some masks courtesy of Mrs Macpherson’s time and effort! 

In the afternoon we enjoyed a Talent Show across all three of the partnership schools! Pupils from Kirkcolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick all sent in their Talent Show videos showcasing their amazing abilities and we were all super wowwed with the skills spread out across the North Rhins and it was not easy to choose a champion but we are all delighted for… Taylor Smith – Our Kirkcolm Winner with a hilarious spoof video! Keep an eye out for the fab Mrs Jamieson compiling the videos together for all your viewing! 

A whopping total of £110 has been raised by the troops at Kirkcolm – not bad for a country school and all contributes to a great cause! 

See the photos below for some of the fun…

Yay – we’re all back together!!! After what seems like a life time, P4-7 pupils returned to school today for the first time since mid-December (can you believe it’s been that long?!)

It was lovely to see all these cheery faces at the school door this morning and the sun even made an appearance to celebrate the occasion! Everyone is super happy to be back with their friends and teachers, and we’re ready and raring to go!

Another week, another celebration! This time it was the turn of British Science Week, which ran from 8^th – 13^th March and had the theme of ‘Innovating for the Future.’

P1-3 pupils celebrated the week from school with various STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) activities on offer and also learned about inventors who changed the world. Pupils were given a challenge to make a boat to carry passengers and also made their own lava lamps. They also did the coke and Mentos experiment (it exploded too quickly – much to the delight of the pupils! – so we didn’t manage to get any photos of this!!).

Meanwhile, P4-7 were busy celebrating the Science Week from home, in their final week of remote learning. They had lots of different challenges to choose from, including: putting their STEM skills into action to design a solution to a real-life problem linking to the Global Goals; various science experiments and engineering challenging such as designing a marble run, making their own paint, powering a boat using a chemical reaction and creating an underwater volcano; learning about stereotypes and exploring the world of work in relation to STEM careers; and exploring innovations that changed the world. Some pupils did their own experiments, including Callum & Danny who explored how to make slime (although Mum reported it looked and smelled a lot like mashed up entrails – lovely!!!).

We all had a brilliant week thinking about and exploring problems like real-life scientists and engineers!

Primary 1-3 pupils rolled up their sleeves and donned their painting aprons this afternoon, then headed outside to paint some old tyres! The boys and girls used lots of colours to make the tyres bright and eye-catching! Once they’re dry and varnished, they are planning on stacking some tyres, filling them with soil and planting flowers. This will certainly help to brighten up our playground! See below for some happy faces enjoying themselves…

Well, I’m sure as the tokens may have hinted to you, it was World Book Day this week! A day to celebrate all things wonderful associated with the world of reading!

Since we have our wee P1-3 pupils back in, we were still able to celebrate this with them! The morning started off with discussing what World Book Day and why reading is important. The boys and girls shared lot’s of information about their favourite books and why they liked reading. We talked about why stories are important because they don’t restrict us to where and when we are right now – we can go anywhere!

Later on in the morning the boys and girls took part in the live World Book Day assembly where we got to hear from famous authors and illustrators like Tom Fletcher, Joseph Coelho, Fiona Lumber and Lydia Monks with special guest Rob Biddulph. We learnt about the inspiration and thought that goes into writing a book.

We also read a good few stories over the course of the day in our ‘DEAR’ sessions (Drop Everything And Read) which helped inspire our art in the afternoon… I am sure many of you have seen the snakes they popped home with! 😀

Not forgetting our P4-7 pupils who celebrated World Book Day from home – they were also given a range of activities to pick from to join in on the fun. On offer were tasks such as the Masked Reader, designing their favourite character from fruit/veg/a toilet roll tube, a Big Booky Breakfast, and lots more!

Here are a couple of photos of the pupils taking part in the assembly… 🙂

A submission from Taylor!

The pupils at Kirkcolm Primary are never ones to waste a nice day outside…

As you may of guessed (or perhaps seen?) the boys are girls in P1-3 took advantage of the nice weather today to take a jaunt down to the beach to scatter the stones they collected on Monday and then painted. 

So if you are ever a stroll down to the shore today you may see some lovely bright colours keeking at you from the trees or path… 

It may have been an odd year, but nonetheless 2020 was a rather successful one for the North Rhins Primary Schools – we are delighted to announce that we have achieved our Bronze Award for Rights Respecting Schools! This is to recognise the work we have done so far and our commitment to learning more about and embedding the UNCRC Rights of the Child in the life and ethos of our schools.

Our work started waaaay back in January last year (pre-Covid times – can anyone remember what that was like?!) when pupils began learning about the Rights of the Child at assemblies. Then, when pesky Covid came on the scene, we were forced to continue our journey towards our Bronze Award online, with some home learning challenges on various different Rights of the Child.

When we were eventually allowed to return to school and class assemblies resumed, we then focused on ‘Respect’ – what this means and how to respect others’ rights. We learned how respect is at the centre of anti-bullying and we made a video to share with everyone, explaining what ‘RESPECT’ means to each of us; here is the link if you’d like to watch it and the finalised copy of our ‘Respect for All’ policy to have a read through:

Kirkcolm: Kirkcolm Respect Movie.MOV

Respect for All Policy: RfA Final Policy October2020.pdf

Behind the scenes, staff have also been busy learning all about the Rights of the Child, how this permeates lots of what we do in school (including how it is embedded into our ‘Respect for All’ policy) and how we can use language and a restorative approach to further promote respecting everyone’s rights.

A huge thank-you to everyone who helped in achieving this award – we are very pleased to gain national accreditation and recognition for all of our hard work. We can’t wait to continue our Rights Respecting School journey towards our silver award – watch this space!

It’s been 9 long weeks since we last saw their little faces at school, and we were delighted to see so many happy smiling faces at the door of Kirkcolm Primary this morning, on P1-3’s first day back since the New Year – the building has been rather quiet without them!! They were all glad to see each other and be back with their friends. Miss Douglas had a lovely day planned to ease them in gently, which involved a trip to the beach this afternoon in the winter sunshine. Whilst at the beach, they collected some stones and brought them back to school to paint using bright, eye-catching colours. They are planning on placing their decorated stones along the Corsewall route for people to find later on this week to spread a bit of happiness and cheer – perhaps you could take a walk at the weekend and see how many you can find?!

We’re super happy to have P1-3 back with us at school and hope they all had a brilliant first day back – fingers crossed it’s not too much longer before P4-7 can join us!

Lockdown 2021 meant that we could not have our usual in school Scots poetry focus as all learning was taking part at home.  But, this did not stop us!  Our in inaugural  North Rhins inter school Scots poetry competition took place on Friday 29th January and was judged  by local Burns enthusiast, Mr Alec Ross.

This event took place on Microsoft Teams, where everyone could see the beautiful handwriting and creative artwork.  Pupils recited their poems with gusto, over the internet.  

Results were as follows – 

North Rhins Scots poetry results  – January 2021

P1 – ‘Wee rid motor’ – Recitation winners : 1. Harry McKie (PPK); 2. Rebecca Manson (KKM);Lily Bennewith (LES):  Illustration winner – Jessica Johnstone (KKM) : Handwriting winner – Rebecca Manson (KKM)

P2 – ‘Nessie’ – Recitation winners : 1. Colin McGregor (LES) / Aaron Farquhar (KKM);Rececca Connor (PPK) :  Illustration winner –Ben Thomson (LES) : Handwriting winner – Rachael Drummond (LES)

P3 – ‘The Circus’ – Recitation winners : 1. Carter Henderson (PPK); 2 .Ela Chang (LES);Ellie Bennewith (LES): Illustration winner – Erin Harbottle (PPK) : Handwriting winner – Erin Harbottle (PPK)

P4 – ‘Fireworks off the castle’ – Recitation winners : 1. Cameron McNeil (PPK); 2. Hamish McGregor (LES); Cara Jamieson (LES) :  Illustration winner – Carys McHallum (LES) : Handwriting winner – Faye Adams (LES)

P5 – ‘Magic Pizza’ – Recitation winners : 1. Noah Gaw (LES); 2. Thomas Agnew (LES);Olivia Johnstone (KKM):    Illustration winner – Jack Trafford (PPK) : Handwriting winner – Thomas Agnew (LES)

P6 – ‘The Whistle’ – Recitation winners : 1. Maya McNeil (PPK); 2. Malcolm McGregor (LES);Breagh Kirkpatrick (LES):   Illustration winner –Izzy and Alba White (PPK) : Handwriting winner – Malcolm McGregor (LES)

P7 – ‘Robert Burns’ – Recitation winners : 1.Jack Cloy (LES); 2. Gregor Reid (LES); Zack Ashton (KKM) :    Illustration winner – Zack Ashton (KKM) : Handwriting winner – Arla McCulloch (KKM).

Many thanks must go to all parents and carers at home for supporting the children in this.