January 18, 2024
by Mrs Baillie
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Reach for the stars!

The pupils of Leswalt Primary school all enjoyed a trip to their partnership school of Kirkcolm Primary to experience a visit from the Galloway Forest Astronomical society (GFAS) and their inflatable planetarium.

The GFAS are a charity who offer opportunities to learn more about astronomy. Our pupils all enjoyed going into the huge dome and learning more about the sky at night. And, when not in the darkened dome, the children were busy engaged in the classrooms with activities with their friends from the partnership Primary

The younger class went into the Planetarium first whilst the older bunch worked together on their Rights Respecting Schools activities – and created some fabulous quizzes to test us all on the UNCRC. Some questions created to really make you think…

Then it was time for a break outside and a chance to enjoy the company and playground of our friends on this beautiful January morning!

Swap over time….and the older group got the chance to enjoy the wonders of the Planetarium whilst the younger pupils listened to the Story “Aliens love underpants” then created their own aliens – wonder if any of their designs might be spotted in Outer Space?

Inside the Planetarium, Doug (the computer expert) and Andy (the lead presenter) took us all on a tour of the night sky exploring the moon, Mars and Jupiter. We talked about the hugely varied temperatures on planets in Space, gravity, signs of life, moon controlling tides and the individual features of planets. Such an interesting session!

Many thanks to the Galloway Forest Astronomical Society for a morning of inter-galactic fun!

: The planetarium

: P1-4 listened to Mrs Baillie

: P5-7

: P5-7

December 22, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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‘Tis the season to party

The boys and girls well and truly got into the festive spirit this afternoon with a Christmas party, kindly organised by our House Captains – Sally, Danny, Jack and Lydia.

Wearing their party gear both the upper and lower class both joined together in the hall for lots of Christmas themed games including 🎄🎁

The Reindeer Relay
Christmas Corners
Christmas Islands
Musical statues

We stopped mid way through the party to refuel after all of our fabulous dancing, with some snacks and drinks!

We even had a very special visitor, who heard us singing ‘Jingle Bells’ in the hall, parked his sleigh next to the Baillie bus in the car park and came with a special gift for each and every one of us – we are so, so lucky he fit us into his busy schedule, especially at this time of the year🎅

Judging by the laughs and smiles on everyone faces, the party was a huge success all thanks to our house captains for organising such a great party!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

Article 31 – The right to rest, relax, play and to take part in cultural and creative activities.

December 20, 2023
by Mrs McHarg
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Spreading Festive Cheer

The boys and girls were invited up to the Kirkcolm Community Hub today to entertain the ‘Welcome Wednesday’ group who were in having their Christmas lunch. Pupils performed some Christmas songs for everyone to enjoy, to help spread some festive cheer!

Thank-you to Meriel at the Hub for the invite and for the chocolate that pupils were kindly given as a little treat!

Have a peek at our superstars in action below!

December 19, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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Kirkcolm definitely does not put the bad in badminton!

Last week Jack and Ivan went to the Ryan centre to compete against other boys and girls from our area in the Rhins Primary Schools badminton competition run by Alison Murray!

Both boys had been putting in the practise, attending Alison’s lunchtime badminton club on the lead up to the event and clearly this paid off!

Jack won 3^rd place in the P7 boys tournament🏅

Ivan won 1^st place in the P6 boys tournament🥇

A huge achievement for the boys, who will now go on to the next round, where they will represent our little school in the Wigtownshire Primary championships, next year

Well done boys – we are all very proud of you! 🏸🏆

December 15, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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Festive Fun at Kirkcolm!

Today the boys and girls really got into the festive spirit at Kirkcolm Primary – we were styled out in our fabulously cosy Christmas jumpers and even had Robert sporting an elf costume! 🎅🎄

At lunch time we listened to some Christmassy music, popped some crackers and got well and truly in the Christmas spiritwhile they enjoyed a Christmas dinner with all of the trimming followed by a chocolate pudding for dessert- a big thank you to Michelle for this, it went down a treat! 😋👩‍🍳

Schools are such lovely places to be at Christmas time and today was no exception!

T-Minus 7 days until the holidays, the countdown is on! 7️⃣🕖

Article 27- children and young people should be able to have the food and housing they need to reach their full potential.

: the three wise men

December 13, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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Christmas Kindness in Kirkcolm

As part of the ‘random acts of kindness’ initiative that the House Captains have been running throughout the month of December, P1-4 have designed and written some fabulously festive Christmas cards to send to members of our local community.🎄☃❄️🎁

To soften the blow after the panto cancellation on Friday we spent some time on Friday making our cards using paper, glitter card, pencils, pom poms and paint instead. We wrote our cards in our nicest, neatest handwriting and delivered them (like Santa’s little helpers) to the houses of Kirkcolm this morning 🙂 🎅

I think Jingles is going to have a tough time tomorrow choosing just one person to visit!! 🎅

December 13, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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A visit from Grit’n Brrr It

This morning we were visited by none other than Grit’n Brrr It. This gritter was named by our very own Henry Wilson who entered and won the competition to choose a name for Stranraer and District’s gritter! :❄️🌨

Scott and John from Dumfries and Galloway Council visited along with Brit’n Brrr It and they explained the boys and girls what their jobs are as well as Grit’n Brr its! The boys and girls were amazed by the sheer size of the gritter and the weight of grit that it carries. They answered lots of our fab questions and a lucky few of us even got to sit inside the big machine and honk the horn (Miss Douglas opened a can of worms with this one haha!) 🙂

Henry was presented with a framed certificate from Scott and was even awarded a little goody bag with a colouring/reading book and a Lego gritter to build (if you know Henry this couldn’t be more of a perfect present for him) 🤩

Thank you again to Henry for winning this fabulous prize that everyone got to enjoy and a huge thanks to Scott and John from D&G council for bringing Grit’n Brrr It along to see us and answer all of our many, many questions

December 13, 2023
by Miss Douglas
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4 days Late-y to the Gaiety but well worth the Wait-y

The boys and girl from Kirkcolm P1-5 arrived at school yesterday, ready and raring to go at 8am! We boarded the bus and very quickly burst into Christmas song singing before picking the boys and girls from Leswalt up en route.🚌

We arrived at the Gaiety and took our seats on the balcony overlooking the stage where we were joined by Portpatrick boys and girls. Very shortly after there was smoke and a flash of light as the show quite literally started with a BANG!💥 The Fairy Godmother appeared on the screen and burst into song – it was at this point we knew we were in for a treat 🙂!

We met the cast – including the two ugly stepsisters, who didn’t fail to make the kids (and adults) burst into laughter and sassy Cinderella who certainly could hold her own!

During the break the boys and girls were treated to a delicious ice cream as well as some fabulous music – big thank you to Mrs B for organising this.🍦

The show continued and so did the laughs – Bubbles got the crowd going with plenty of crowd interaction “oh no he didn’t!” “oh yes he did!”; “he’s behind you” as well as song singing and dancing opportunities.. The balcony looked and sounded like a scene from the Barbie Movie💃🕺

The panto finished as Cinderella got her prince and off we went to get our Burger King! 🍔🍟 The boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed this little treat before heading back to the bus to come home – some even managed a wee snooze on the way home.

Just like Cinderella, we are very thankful to have got our happily ever ending after the disappointment on Friday! 💗

A huge thank you to the Parent Council who paid for the Panto tickets and transport costs – we are so thankful for this fabulous experience; and a big thank you to the school for the yummy ice cream and Burger King. Finally, thanks again to George, Vicky and Sheila for coming along and all of their help 🙂

December 11, 2023
by Mrs Baillie
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Church readers

Well done to Jack and Rory who represented Kirkcolm Primary school yesterday and were confident individuals who did a reading at Kirkcolm Church Christmas service of carols and lessons.

December 11, 2023
by Mrs Baillie
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Christmas shoebox appeal

As part of our work learning about the UNCRC and Rights of the Child, we participated in a campaign to allow pupils to see that they can put their rights into action and make a difference in our local community. At our most recent Pupil Council meeting, we decided on 4 different campaigns that we’d like to run and then each school took a vote on their favourite. The campaign that had the most votes was the Police Scotland Youth Volunteer’s (PSYV) Christmas Shoebox Appeal. This campaign collects food and warm clothing for elderly residents in and around the Stranraer area.

We are asked our families if they could send in some donations to go towards the appeal. Items sent in included: tinned food , jars or jam, sweets, biscuits , tea, coffee , gloves and hats . Our families were very generous!

The photograph shows Erin Topping from the Police Young Scotland Volunteers uplifting boxes which had been collected by Kirkcolm, Leswalt and Portpatrick Primary schools.