On Thursday 21st June the intrepid primary 2’s set off in drizzly weather to Finlaystone Country Estate for their Summer trip.

Despite the damp conditions the children had a great time follwing a treasure trail arranged by the park rangers, playing in the playpark and exploring the woods.

 On Thursday 21st June the pupils of primary 3 took part in a parade as part of the week long Port Glasgow Comet Festival.

The festival which this year celebrated the 200th anniversary of the maiden voyage of the famous steam ship , P.S. Comet, involved local schools, businesses and residents.

Primary 3 carried wonderful creatures that they had created with willow and tissue paper with the support of Alan from Composite Arts.

As part of their topic ‘Nim’s Island’ Primary 5 visited the Scottish Sealife Centre at Lomond Shores.

They saw many sea creatures including rays, otters and different varieties of fish.

Before they went home they played in the adventure playground and were lucky to see the famous steamer the Maid of the Loch.

Primary One

Primary 7 with the help of teacher Mrs. Linn and classroom assistant Mr. Gardner made this stunning wall display to show off the work they had done about WW2.

If you look carefully you will see Churchill, Stalin, General de Gaulle, Hitler, Emperor Hirohito and a crowd of tearful evacuees.

Primary 6 enjoyed a visit to Scotland Street School Glasgow’s famous museum of education.

Housed in a school building designed by famous Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh the museum gives pupils a taste of what school was like in bygone days.

No talking, no shouting out, no water bottles and very little fun.  A nightmare for the pupils but Heaven for the staff? Not really. Even teachers Mr. Blyth and Miss Munro found the Victorian teacher quite scary!

A regular feature of the summer term in Newark Primary is the P6 Cycling Proficiency training.

Organised by class teachers Miss Munro and Mr Blyth the children enjoy regular lessons on the theory and practice of riding a bike throughout the term.

At the end of their training the pupils have the opportunity to gain a proficiency certificate.

In May the Primary 6 pupils went to Ardentinny outdoor education centre on the West shore of Loch Long.

The pupils took part in a wide variety of outdoor and team building activities and had great fun in the process.

The teachers, Mr, Blyth and Miss Munro agreed that the children’s exemplary behaviour made this one of the best residential trips ever.

On Friday 15th June the whole school took part in an assembly which was a culmination of this term’s work on the Olympic games.

Each class had prepared a presentation on one of the countries which had come high in the medal tables at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The presentations were all very imaginative, with facts, figures, songs, poetry, action games and dance being used to describe each country.

The assembly finished with an exciting Chinese dragon dance from primary 6a.

In case you are wondering, the top 18 countries at Beijing in descending order were:

China, the USA, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France,  the Ukraine, the Netherlands, Kenya, Jamaica, Spain, Belarus, Romania and Ethiopia.

On the 12th June our primary 5 pupils joined with primary 5 children from every primary school in Inverclyde to put on a performance of ‘Tall Ships Tale’.

The pupils worked all year with Ann Lawrence from the Inverclyde Youth Music Initiative to prepare for the show which was written by local composer Alan Beck.

The show, which is based on the adventures of Scottish-born pirate Captain Kidd and last year’s visit of the Tall Ships race to Greenock, also involved secondary school pupils in the main roles and pupils from Lilybank, Garvel and Glenburn.   

As you can see, they put on a fantastic performance.