Kirkcolm Primary School

As part of our Maths Week Scotland celebrations, families were challenged to complete a set of maths and number puzzles together as a team.  The creativity in the working out and the solutions has been fantastic!  And the photos to show the families all working together are great.  Take a look and see all our fantastic mathematicians… Thank you to everyone who took part in the puzzle competition.  It is so important the whole family view maths as an interesting, fun and really important skill for life.   The prize draw for the winning family will be announced on Friday!

To continue our Maths week celebration, Wednesday saw us have a Maths board games afternoon! Pupils brought in different games that involve Maths and Numeracy and moved around the classroom in their assembly groups to play them. Some parents/grandparents came in to join in the fun too – many thanks for coming along! We applied lots of our skills – counting in Frustration, using coordinates in Battleships, and calculations in Shut the Box, just to name a few.

On Friday, Kirkcolm and Leswalt travelled to Portpatrick Primary to for a trio schools Maths day. Pupils participated in a computer coding workshop called Computer Xplorers; online Maths competitions such as Sum Dog; and a D&G Maths competition where pupils had to get creative and present their ideas on why they love Maths and why it is important in our lives. The pupils had a great day and were super excited to share their experiences when they returned to school!

We’re already looking forward to celebrating Scotland’s Maths Week next year!!

Primary 4 and 5 pupils enjoyed a jaunt into Stranraer Academy this morning. 

They went to watch a performance by “Theatre in schools”.  The performance today was called “Up to speed”, and the 2 performers captivated the whole audience for an hour.  The children later got to try out some of the drama techniques they used in their performance .  This performance was enjoyed by all Primary schools in the Stranraer cluster.

P6-7 had a fabulous morning at Corsewall Lighthouse on Thursday with Leswalt and Portpatrick Schools. We had been invited for a tour by Mr John Ross as part of the lighthouse’s 200^th year anniversary celebration! Pupils were treated to a presentation from Mike Bullock (who works for the Northern Lighthouse Board and had travelled all the way down from Edinburgh especially to talk to the pupils) about how lighthouses operate; the work of the Northern Lighthouse Board; and the history of Corsewall Lighthouse.

Dr Miller (our very own Ellie’s Grandpa!) then took us up in small groups to the top of the lighthouse and demonstrated how the light works and explained about his job in maintaining the lighthouse.

Pupils were very kindly given a pencil, bookmark and ruler as a memento of the morning. Thanks to Mr & Mrs Ross, Dr Miller and the Northern Lighthouse Board for organising this, and to Mrs Miller for giving up her time to accompany P6-7.

P6-7 had a visit from Local Councillor Andrew Giusti on Friday. Mr Giusti came in to chat to pupils about his role as part of our Local Government and Elections topic. The pupils were well-prepared with lots of questions to ask! Pupils found out about the meetings he attends, issues that he deals with, how he carried out his election campaign, and what skills and qualities you need to be a councillor, such as being honest and respectful. There was one question however, that stumped Mr Giusti – what is the strangest thing you’ve ever been asked as a councillor? Although he could think of lots of answers, he said that none were suitable for the ears of P6-7 pupils!!! Huge thanks to Mr Giusti for taking the time to come in and share his experience with the pupils. We also have another visitor to look forward to – Mr Alex Ferguson will be coming in at the end of September to chat about his previous role as MSP.

This week we are celebrating Scotland’s first ever Maths week! We have lots of exciting activities planned for the week ahead. So far, we have been learning different Maths songs and raps. This afternoon we participated in a careers ‘speed-dating’ event, where we got to meet lots of different staff and parents who shared how they use Maths and Numeracy in their job. Huge thanks must go to everyone who kindly gave up their own time to come in this afternoon.

There’s still lots of Maths fun to be had in the coming days – tomorrow we will be playing some Maths board game, all parents are invited to pop in and join us! We’ll be having lots of exciting Maths activities in class on Thursday. Then on Friday we are heading to Portpatrick Primary for a Maths day with the trio schools, where we will have a workshop on computer coding and maths competitions and games to participate in. Look out for more pictures of what we’ve been up to celebrating Maths week!

P6-7 headed to Stranraer Academy on Monday to participate in a Triathlon. First they had to swim round the pool and then quickly put their clothes on over their wet swimming gear! They soggily ran to the athletics track where they had to cycle before running to the finish line. They were greeted with a medal, drink of water and Mrs McHarg and Mrs MacPherson armed with cameras, taking lots of pictures of their red faces!

After a quick change, they were then treated to a drama production of the Greek myth ‘Jason and the Argonauts.’ The whole story was told by only two actors who were hilarious! It was a jam-packed morning full of fun!

P6/7 travelled to Wigtown on Friday to participate in a CSI workshop as part of Dumfries & Galloway’s Science Fair for Schools.

Agent Lyndsay explained to us the crime that had been committed – a very valuable painting had been stolen – and it was our task as CSI agents to solve it! We had to complete various forensic science activities to identify the culprit, such as:

• Analysis of soil samples to identify the type of soil left at the crime scene
• Use of UV light to match the footprint at the crime scene to the culprit’s footwear
• Use of facial recognition software to narrow down suspects
• Use of microscopes to identify fibre fragments from clothing
• Posing for mug shots
• Using DNA coding to identify the suspect
• Examining finger print patterns

A real-life CSI investigator then discussed her job with us and showed us how she would take finger prints from a crime scene.

Finally, we had to piece all the evidence together and identify the culprit from the suspects’ board. The crime was solved and our job as CSI agents had come to an end!

Primary 6 and 7 have enjoyed their first week of music input from the traditional Scots music group, Feis Ros.

During the first session they had some drumming fun to help them learn all about rhythm, as well as playing some fun singing games. 

We will let you use your imagination and make up your own captions for the photographs!

Mrs Mc Harg recently took her class outside for some outdoor maths.  The pupils took part in a scavenger hunt, which set them the challenge of identifying various angles, 3d shapes and symmetry all in the local environment of their own school grounds.

Have a look at the photographs and you will see them all focussed and hard at work!