Kirkcolm Primary School

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!

Primary 1-3 pupils were very excited this afternoon to receive their Bookbug (P1) / Read, Write, Count (P2-3) gift bags. Parents were invited in as part of our launch of this Scottish Government initiative which aims to inspire a lifelong love of reading, writing and counting, and strengthen links between home and school learning by supporting parents in taking an active role in their child’s learning to give them the best start in life. They were shown the contents of the bags and given suggestions for helping to develop literacy and numeracy at home using these resources. After presenting the boys and girls with their bags, everyone headed down to the classroom where we spent time exploring our new books and games. The pupils are really looking forward to using the contents of their bags at home!

On Wednesday the boys and girls had another visit from our friends at Lets Get Sporty. They were practising their throwing and catching as well as how to use a racket. The boys and girls particularly liked using the balloons to help them slow down and think about their hitting skills. Coach Craig and Coach Jazmin were fantastic and everyone had lots of fun.

Last week our Primary 7’s spent some time cooling off. They were joined by other Primary 7’s from various different schools at the North West Castle Hotel where they learned some of the basic skills of Curling. Curling’s Cool is an initiative aimed to introduce the sport to children and give them a taste of what’s involved. Initially, some found it tricky to find their balance, but by the end they were all playing like the pros. All children had a fantastic time and judging by some of the medals, we might just have some future Olympians in our midst’s.