Kirkcolm Primary School

Retired MSP and Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson popped into Kirkcolm this afternoon to share his experiences with P6-7 as part of their Government topic. Although some of the boys were disappointed to learn that it wasn’t ex-football player and manager Alex Ferguson who was coming in, we had a great afternoon learning more about the Scottish Parliament!

Mr Fergusson captivated pupils with his stories about representing the parliament in America where they celebrate ‘Scotland Week’ every April and people commented on his tartan ‘pants’; dancing with Princess Anne (and nearly tripping her up!); meeting the Queen and Prime Minister at that time, David Cameron; and being on TV when participating in debates – and the politician who used to fall asleep during those debates!

Pupils learned about some more serious topics, such as having to recall parliament (which had only been done once before) regarding the Lockerbie Bombing; how Mr Fergusson was part of the Rural Committee which he spoke very passionately about; and that he believes all political parties have good and bad ideas.

The final question came from Michaela – what advice would you give to someone wanting to become a politician? Mr Fergusson’s parting comment was that the best politicians have life experience, so do something else first before becoming a politician. Pupils thoroughly enjoyed their chat with Mr Fergusson, and many thanks to him for giving up his time to come in and speak to the class.

Tuesday saw P1-3’s turn to venture to Wigtown Book Festival! The pupils were entertained by 2 authors: Danny Scott and Renita Boyle. Danny Scott introduced his series of books ‘Scotland Starts FC’ and the children enjoyed joining in with the Mexican wave and cheering on others scoring goals. Next up was author Renita Boyle who got the children singing along and joining in with her silly stories and fun tales. They had a great morning full of lots of literary delights!

P4-7 had a wonderful morning at Wigtown Book Festival where 2 authors entertained the children.

The first author, Lari Don, introduced her trilogy of books ‘Spellchasers’ and treated pupils to an extract from her new book which was only released 10 days ago. She discussed the writing process that she goes through and explained that each book in the trilogy had to be bigger and better than the last. Pupils had to get their creative thinking hats on to suggest ideas for their own stories. Lari’s books are sometimes rooted in myths and legends, so she captivated the children with an African myth about a hippopotamus.

The second author, Rab Wilson, introduced the children to his Scots poetry. He read some of his own poems and shared some books written in Scots, then tested pupils on their knowledge of Scots language. He was very impressed with some of Kirkcolm pupils’ – Robin and Innes knew the Scots words for a turkey, a frog and a male sheep!

Some pupils bought a book as a memento of the day as they enjoyed listening to the authors so much! P1-3 are excited to go to the Book Festival tomorrow after hearing about our experience today!

P6-7 were treated to a Scottish Parliament Outreach workshop yesterday from an Education Officer from the parliament. Pupils got to explore and learn about replica artefacts from the Parliament, such as the parliamentary mace, voting slips and an Act of Parliament book. This led to discussions about how voting works and why constituents get 2 votes; and what matters are devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

Katie was then selected as the Presiding Officer who chaired a class debate about whether all school buses should have seat belts installed. Pupils were shown what happens when a motions is passed, sealed with wax and sent to the Queen.

Throughout the session, pupils took part in anonymous voting using electronic keypads to answer questions about the workings of the Parliament and democracy. At the end, Sophie was awarded the gold prize for answering the most questions correctly in the quickest time, Ellie received silver and Michaela got bronze.

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!