Southend Primary School celebrates the bard
The weather outside was frightful, but the entertainment was delightful. Southend was the place to go, for the primary school’s Scottish show.
Parents, family members, friends and members of the Southend Parish Church Tuesday club braved the wintry elements on Tuesday afternoon for Southend Primary School’s tribute to Rabbie Burns.
All the Scottish-themed tables were occupied as head teacher Margaret Bannatyne welcomed everyone and invited the audience to stand to welcome the haggis, carried in by Jacob.
When Amber had addressed the haggis and Josh had said the Selkirk Grace, children and adults alike enjoyed cake and shortbread, with the adults also partaking of tea and coffee.
Master of ceremonies George announced the programme items, beginning with pre-fives, P1, P2 and P3 pupils’ dramatic rendition of The Snawman.
This was followed by further humorous Scottish poems. Ashley recited The Magic Pizza, George performed Nessie, Taylor recounted Twa-leggit Mice and Amber entertained with My Sair Tooth.
Burns himself entertained the audience, as Ashley, dressed as the bard, acted the part, admirably giving the Immortal Memory. George then toasted the lassies, outlining the attributes of his female schoolmates and Amber replied paying tribute to the lads.
A wonderful rendition of Coulter’s Candy had the audience tapping their feet and singing along, and many accepted the invitation to take to the floor for the Dashing White Sergeant.
The highly entertaining event concluded with everyone joining in Auld Lang Syne after which Mrs Bannatyne thanked all who attended for their support, especially Andrew Millar, chairperson of the Burns Society, and his wife Louise, Jen Campbell for baking the shortbread, the staff for training the pupils, and the children themselves for working hard to learn their parts, poems, dance and song.
‘We are very proud of them,’ she said, adding, ‘and you should be proud of yourselves too,’ as she turned to address the children around her.
The smiles were still evident as the crowd donned their coats and hats to head outside into the inclement weather, commenting to each other: ‘What a lovely afternoon we’ve had.’
See next week’s Courier for more school tributes to Rabbie Burns.