On Tuesday 20th August renowned children’s author Tom Palmer came to visit Newark Primary. He held a workshop for the P5, 6 and 7 pupils and tested our reading skills in a fun and interactive way. Some people who answered questions correctly took part in an exciting penalty shoot out, with the eventual winner Ross McVitie taking home the trophy.

Primary 7 pupils led a wonderful leavers’ assembly which combined a song written and sung by the pupils, the  woodwind group, the brass group, a  dramatic production, poetry, the school choir, a tug of war, a conga line and a slide show!

The pupils had written much of the assembly by themselves and were ably supported by Mr. Iain Stewart and Mr Andrew Digger.

Mrs Leicester complimented the P7 pupils on their excellent behaviour throughout the year.

Mrs. Debbie McEwan and Mr. Gordon Steele representing the Parent Council gave each pupil a leaving gift of a graphic calculator to use in secondary school.

Awards were presented by our guest Mrs Liz Varrie from Inverclyde Education Department to:

Claire Steele – Girls Sports Champion

Scott Marshall and Lewis Gillan – Boys Sports Champions

Sophie Brown for attainment in Language

Nathan Moore for Maths

Kristi McCann for Expressive Arts

Linzi Derrick and Nicole Mason for Citizenship

Abbie McEwan, Dylan Peebles and Beth Roxburgh for Social Studies

Kane Alexander for Art

Zoe Campbell and Ailie Campbell for Creative Writing

Lucy Stone for Numeracy

A.J. McKillop for Science

Sophie Gillespie for French

Lee Richardson for Drama

Scott Sneddon for ICT

Scott Kelly and Holly Stewart for being Confident Individuals

Nicole Findlay, Taylor Mitchell and Morgan Bailey for being Responsible Citizens

Eilidh Kennedy and Dylan Potter for being Effective Contributors

Ross Shanks, Sarah Watt and Jenna Blair for being Successful Learners

Jack Wilson for Endeavour

The grand finale was a slide show of photographs of the leavers throughout their years in school which had many parents and staff members reaching for a hanky!

Congratulations to Miss Munro, Mr. Blyth and Mrs. Pollock for all their hard work in producing this amazing assembly.

Click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Recently, our Primary 3 Nature Detectives have been learning about biodiversity and how having lots of small insects helps bigger animals in the food chain. They worked together to build a bug hotel in order to increase biodiversity in the school grounds.

They firstly went out to investigate bugs that lived around the school and found things like snails, slugs, worms, woodlice, spiders, beetles and ants.

By completing a survey of the different species and their habitats, they were able to identify which materials their Bug Hotel would need in order to attract a variety of bugs.  They then went indoors to design the bug hotel; there were some very creative suggestions, including water slides and elevators, however, following analysis of their bug survey, they eventually decided on something a bit more straightforward!   Finally they had their design ready and went outside again to find suitable materials for the hotel.  In order to accommodate the bugs that they wanted to attract, they needed wood, stones, leaves, plastic bottles stuffed with sticks, textiles, pebbles, leaves, canes, paper and cardboard.  By working together, they were able to make a start on Newark’s Bug Hotel in the P3/4/5 playground… a work in progress!

Primary 4a really enjoyed Sports Day.  We had a lovely afternoon taking part in different races and lots of activities including: relays, basketball and tug of war. 

Primary 4 thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Rothesay.  We have been studying the topic of Clyde Coastal Towns.  We have been learning about the towns and villages that are on the River Clyde and the different ways to cross over the Clyde.  We got the bus to Wemyss Bay and then got the ferry over to Rothesay.  It was the first time for some us to be on a ferry.  While in Rothesay we visited Rothesay Castle.  We had a lovely day out and the ice cream was fantastic!

In Newark Primary we have linked our work with global citizenship to our work towards our level 2 Rights Respecting school award. We have chosen to work with a very worthwhile charity, Stand By Me.

Stand By Me is a charity that works with children all over the World particularly Ethiopia and Burma. The aim of the charity is to help kids in crisis. The charity support children that have been abandoned and left on the streets and give them a home and access to an education.

We were very fortunate as two members of the Stand By Me charity visited the school, Al Bennett and Tim Johnstone. They flew over from Northern Ireland for a two day visit. During their visit they delivered a whole school assembly which the children thoroughly enjoyed. They also delivered a lesson to each of the 18 classes from Primary 1 to Primary 7.

The aim is that we build close links with the school in Burma and are able to raise money to donate to the charity.

Laura Barr

Twenty one P7 pupils recently went on a residential trip to Dalguise House, an outdoor activity centre in Perthshire.  Pupils were able to take part in many activities including a 70 foot tree climb, abseiling, raft building, canoeing, quad-biking and archery.  The pupils engaged in problem solving activities and supported each other through some of the challenging activities.  The evening activities included Robot Wars. Ambush game, campire and a disco.  A great time was had by all and everyone slept very well on the Friday night after they returned.

Quotes from pupils:

“My favourite activity was the catwalk because I got the certificate for Catwalk Queen at the end of the trip” Morgan

“My favourite thing during the week was raft building because it was fun to build the rafts and float on them. My least favourite part was getting up in the morning”        Claire S

“I really enjoyed the trip and I would recommend it to next years P7”  Dylan F

“It turns out that I conquered my fear of heights which I am so happy about!”    Sophie B

“I am not a fan of heights but I got up to the tower, put on a harness and I jumped off that tower and screamed.  I absolutely loved it! I loved it so much I did it twice and it was my favourite activity of the week!”   Linzi

Miss McMillan and Primary 5a worked really hard to write and edit a school newspaper.

Click the headline to read it. Depending on your computer settings, the newspaper will either download to your computer or open in Internet Explorer.

If you want to download a copy, right-click on the headline and choose ‘Save target as … .

On the 15th of March Comic Relief, P5b organized a fundraising event, by putting on a show. We also had stalls and games like hoopla, skittles, face painting and more. We raised £251.43. Some teachers also made cakes.

The dancers’ comment was that they thought it was fun and worth the practice, they liked the outfits and enjoyed the dancing and also they thought it was better than it could have ever been. The stunt men thought it was awesome and fun and what better way to show their talents. Cerys, the clown’s comment was that she enjoyed the costume and thought it was fun to do.

Report by Jenna and Alan