Kirkcolm Primary School

This week we have been lucky to welcome our New P1’s to the school and get a sense for what the classes are going to look like next year! Orla, Harlow and Parker joined us for 3 whole days (!!!) from Tuesday to Thursday! They got stuck in to their new routines straight away and enjoyed meeting their new teacher – the lovely Miss Douglas! 

We had a lovely morning spent down the beach with the whole school and they’ve had a chance to do some literacy and numeracy in class already and learn some new things with Miss Douglas! P4 have had 3 days being P5 and being in the upper class all day while P7 have been enjoying their time at the Academy! 

P5-7 also got to meet their new teacher on Thursday – Miss McMorran! They’re looking forward to kick starting the new school year with her! 🙂 

The sun was shining, the ice lollies were chilling in the freezer and the lines were (somewhat faintly) painted on the freshly cut grass. It can only mean one thing – Sports Day is here! 

We do love any opportunity to go outside in the sunshine, so this was very welcomed this bright Friday afternoon. P6/7 and Mr MacGregor worked their socks off to get all the equipment outside and set up, then we had an early lunch today to enable us to get started at 1:15 sharp! 

We had our usual races; 

• Running
• Skipping 
• Sack
• Egg & Spoon 
• Throwing 

We had an additional race of a fun obstacle course arrange and designed by House Captains! 

Then we finished off with our long distance race and the House relay race. 

To add an extra bit of fun this year, we had an additional House Challenge in the form of a Tug of War (suggested by James Turtle!) Mrs McHarg managed to source an (extremely heavy) rope for the pupils to use (a big thank you to the Young Farmers for lending it to us!)

This was a great wee watch as young pupils got somewhat swept of their feet while the older ones had the grit and determination painted on their faces in their efforts to win!

Finally the classic tiny people race and then the ladies and gents races to invite all parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles etc. who spectated to come join in the fun! We also said another wee goodbye to Vladislav, who will be leaving us today to go back to Ukraine. 

Here are some photos of the day! 

Today was both a happy and sad day for the pupils in Miss Douglas’s class. After having young Valdislav join us this year in P1 all the way from Ukraine, the time has come to bid him farewell… 

Vladislav has really seemed to enjoy him time at Kirkcolm Primary and I know the boys and girls in his class have loved having him here as a friend, his presence has taught them patience and understanding and he has enjoyed school and playtimes and making new friends! 

It is with a heavy heart we bid him goodbye as he heads back to Ukraine. While we are happy for him to get to see all his family and friends still there, it doesn’t make it any easier! P1-4 threw a special party for him arranged by the lovely Miss Douglas and Mrs MacPherson, complete with treats and little presents to help him remember us here in Scotland. Mr McGregor even gave Vlad a wee Scotland Rugby strip to see him off!

We wish him all the best and we hope he knows – he will be missed. 

On Thursday we got to see the return of Operation Safety after it’s Covid hiatus! This has been an ongoing event in this area for many years now and is a great opportunity for pupils to get information about the different risks out there! 

Pupils got moved around different inputs and learned about; 

• CPR and resuscitation 
• The harmful effects of drugs and alcohol 
• Electrical hazards in a Scottish Power workshop 
• Working with the coastguard to look at water safety 
• Fire Brigade for fire safety 
• With the police looking at cyber safety and anti-social behaviour 

Overall – pupils learned a lot and they all came back absolutely buzzing from their day! 

Today the whole school participated with Climate Ready Classrooms as part of our ongoing commitment to being an eco-friendly school and promoting eco awareness within the school! This whole day event allowed pupils to take part in numerous online live lessons with accompany activities while learning about Climate Change and the effects this is having on the planet. 

The first part of the morning taught us what Climate Change is and how it is caused by different factors in the environment. Pupils went on a hunt around the school looking for causes of emissions and how these emissions can be caused in numerous ways. 

The second half of the morning looked at the effects of Climate Change on biodiversity – we saw real time example of the Great Tit – happening in our own eco systems as a result of the negative impact of climate change. Pupils then went outside on a scavenger hunt looking for a different items in the playground that could ’cause emissions’ or ‘produce waste’. 

Finally the afternoon focused on drawing up our eco plan to solve the effects of climate change on the environment. This will be streamlined into a whole school approach and sent to the Climate Ready Classrooms team as Kirkcolm Primary’s actions! 

Overall – this was such a fun day in which pupils were able to gain an awareness and knowledge of issues surrounding sustainability! 

We are proud to announce that Kirkcolm Primary has achieved it’s third Eco Schools flag, represented another two years of fantastic eco-friendly action from our highly motivated pupils.  This achievement recognises all the hard work, dedication and drive from our pupils, our staff and our wider community.  Our action targets for 2021 – 2023 focussed on:

• Litter and Waste
• Healthy Living
• Biodiversity

Many congratulations to everyone!

The The Education and Learning Team from Keep Scotland Beautiful have written to us with this message:

Congratulations to everyone at Kirkcolm Primary School for achieving an amazing 3rd Eco-Schools Scotland Green Flag Award!

We have very much enjoyed reading through your journey. You have worked really hard on your
wide-ranging actions to make your school a more environmentally friendly place to be.

Well done!

Why not read the full report to see the excellent feedback we have received from Eco Schools Scotland!

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We won’t stop there as we’re already thinking ahead to our next action plan for 2023 – 2025!

UNCRC Rights of the Child: Article 24 – Health, Water, Food & The Environment.

Sustainable Development Goal: 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing, 15 – Life on Land

Kirkcolm Primary gardening club has been super busy and productive yet again!

At club last night the enthusiastic volunteers and children put up 6 bird boxes that Mr John Potter helped us make.  They look fantastic!

We also hung up home made bird feeders AND did plenty of weeding too! We then checked on the potatoes we planted last week. These were kindly donated by Theolette .. Kerr Pink variety.. a great flourey spud – Yum!

Have a look at all the wonderful photos of the eco-friendly gardners in action.

UNCRC: Article 24 – Food, Heath, Water and the Environment

Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life on Land

Sad the sun didn’t fully get the memo about today but at least we are no longer in the clutch of Winter (temperature wise!?

We made the most of this special occasion by getting outside for most of our learning today! Sadly the P7 could not join us as they were off on a little jaunt to the Academy for some transition. 

The classes linked together to go on a mini beast hunt down the beach and out in the playground. We collated out information all together in some graphs to show off our math skill and they turned out fab! 

Finally, we spent the afternoon outside getting in our Sports Day practise before the big day on the 2nd of June (weather dependent!) 

All happy smiley faces here at Kirkcolm – loving life being in the great outdoors! 🙂 

The day finally came around and on Friday the 12th of May we had our annual school summer fundraiser – The Kirkcolm Mini Walk! After a few changes in days here and there, it was decided we would host this historic event on the Friday to ensure all pupils could make the most of the sunshine and enjoy their fitness together (hopefully taking the pressure off everyone’s weekend commitments!) We had a smasher of a day for it too! 

The sun was shining and there was a lovely breeze to keep us cool! After an early lunch, the whole school set off at 1:15 to complete the 5 mile loop around Corsewall Estate and The Scar! Some chose to run, some chose to walk, some went solo and some brought along their big person to come and enjoy the fun with them! There was no pressure, the only thing we wanted was to see everyone participate and enjoy! 

In a true mark of Kirkcolm team work, we actually had 3 overall winners as James, Ivan and Danny chose to come over the finish line at the same time – demonstrating great sportsmanship and  teamwork which allowed them to get each other through it and keep pushing each other on!

The results are as follows; 

1st Boys: James Turtle, Danny Dougan & Ivan Turtle

2nd Boy: Jack Howie 

3rd Boy: Noah McGrory

1st Girl: Phoebe Manson 

2nd Girl: Sally Warwick 

3rd Girl: Rebecca Manson

Well done to all who participated, everyone gave it their best shot! Special well done to the hard work of the parent council who worked tirelessly to pull it all together! You all deserved your ice lollies at the end for sure! 

Thank you to Jemima Johnstone for the cracking photos!