Dear Parents/Carers
As we make our religious journey through this Lenten period here at Our Lady of the Missions Primary School and look forward to the great celebration of Easter this is a good opportunity to reflect on the term so far and to update the school community on activities and developments taking place here in our school.
During Lent any donations for Missio and SCIAF via the ‘wee boxes’ in each classroom will be most gratefully received. The children have been asked to carry out small deeds, works of charity and raise small donations during Lent.
We are also taking donations of back packs for Mary’s Meals.
Congratulations Mr Docherty
Sincere congratulations to Mr Docherty who has now been appointed as head teacher of St Thomas’ Primary School in Neilston. The entire school community is delighted and in celebratory mood and wish Mr Docherty well in his new post. A well-deserved promotion.
We plan now to invite Mr Docherty back in order that we can formally recognise the contribution that he made as depute head teacher here at Our Lady of the Missions and make a presentation to him from the staff and also from the pupils and wider community.
Online Booking System- Parents’ Evening appointments
Appointments are booking up quickly for Parents’ Evenings on 9th and 10th March. If you haven’t done so already, please go to https://ourladyofthemissions.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/ as soon as possible to ensure that you get an appointment time that suits you.
P4 Reconciliation
Primary 4 pupils will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on the following dates
- Holy Name – Tuesday 1st March at 7pm
- St Joseph’s – Thursday 3rd March at 7pm
- St Vincent’s – Tuesday 8th March at 7pm The Pope Francis FAITH AWARD is an award of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, designed to help children to show “signs of love” in their daily lives and to be active members of their local Church. It invites young people at the Primary 6 and 7 stages to use the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and to see how they can bear fruit in their homes, schools and parishes. It is directly connected to what young people are learning about the Sacrament of Confirmation.Primary 7 pupils have completed all of the ‘Gathering Points’ and are now ready to start working on their concluding evidence for home, school and if appropriate parish. The pupils who are applying for a parish commendation have already approached their Parish Priest to ask him to sign off their Parish Commendation Sheet. The pupils who achieve the Pope Francis Faith Award will be presented with their certificate and Faith badge at the leavers’ Mass in June. Primary 6 pupils are working through the ‘Gathering Points’ in class and are trying to complete the relevant Faith Actions for each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If appropriate, Primary 6 pupils should be looking for opportunities to become involved in their local parish.
Pope Francis Faith Award
This is an extremely special time for our Primary 4 pupils and we ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Year of Mercy
The Church is celebrating the Holy Year of Mercy, a time of grace, peace, conversion and joy. Our Lady of the Missions celebrated and launched the year of Mercy with a respectful prayer service in December. Children from Primary 6 were chosen to process with a statue of Our Lady and visit each class. Each class then adorned Our Lady with a rose and these were displayed on a sacred altar in the school. The Holy Door is now open in Rome and in all the dioceses of the world. For further information on Catholic Education or the Parental Involvement Working Group please visit SCES: http://Sces.org.uk/ where you can download activities for the family. If you are interested in setting up a group for parents to host a Gospel study group or organise a family retreat linked to the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, please contact Mrs Baker who will help facilitate these events.
Catholic Education Week
We had a great start to the month of February with the celebration of Catholic Education Week. Children from Primary 4 created a ‘Mercy’ display which showcased the fantastic work of pupils and staff for Education Sunday at St Joseph’s Parish church. It was a great opportunity for the school community to work together and affirm our values. The theme, “Learning to be Merciful” allowed the children to participate in many activities and included visits from Stephen Callaghan from the Archdioceses Glasgow Arts Project, Mark Booker from SCIAF and Sister Bernadette and Pauline from the Salesian Sisters. The children participated fully in all activities and workshops. They were able to engage in important discussions about their faith and learned hymns about Mercy and Forgiveness.
Lenten Rosary Group
At this time in the Liturgical Calendar we are in Lent. We look forward to welcoming new members to our weekly Rosary group which commenced last Thursday. Thank you to those parents who attend each week and support us, making it a special occasion. Please feel free to join us in reflection and prayer each Thursday morning at 8.30am.
Rights Respecting School Committee
Our Rights Respecting School team have been working hard to promote children’s rights around the school. We have been generating our new action plan after the success of achieving our Level 1 award. Look out for our Rights Respecting Magazine which the team are currently producing. It will be available at the end of March!
God’s Loving Plan
God’s Loving Plan replaced Education for Love two years ago as the ‘relationships education’ programme for pupils from P1-P7. This programme will once again be taught after Easter and it is important that parents are aware of the content in order to discuss matters further in advance of lessons being taught, particularly at P6 and P7 where issues regarding maturation will be dealt with in more detail. The material will be available during the forthcoming parents’ evenings for anyone who wishes to look at the content.
Fair Trade
Our Fairtrade Committee was very busy organising key events to promote Fairtrade Week. During Fairtrade week the school welcomed Josh from Rainbow Turtle and with the help of the school Fairtrade members delivered assemblies to help pupils throughout the school to learn about the importance of Fairtrade and where many of our foods actually come from. As part of the week the Fairtrade stalls were very busy and raised £1851.40 to donate to Rainbow Turtle.
Scots Language
Pupils once again enjoyed a Scots language block leading up to Burns Day. Pupils took part in a variety of Scots related activities including trips to Celtic Connections, Gaelic speaking and visits from the St Ninian’s Librarian. Primary 6 led the whole school in a fascinating and informative assembly about the life of Robert Burns and we were entertained by many of our talented musicians and singers. Primary 7 also enjoyed a Burns Supper with great food, poetry recitals, music and dance.
Euro Quiz
Congratulations to the Euro Quiz team who prepared thoroughly with Mr McCann to take part in a challenging competition alongside 12 other schools from across East Renfrewshire.
Our team Godfrey Anto Marlin, Michael Nolan, John Hayes and Charlotte Dunn came a very worthy overall second.
K’nex Challenge
P6 pupils had a brilliant time last Friday taking part in the technology, design and build challenge judged by Mr Jamieson and Damien Macklin (Masters Student) who is a member of the STEM project from Glasgow University.
The children had to work in pairs to construct a revolving tower for the middle of an Olympics Village. The winning team from Our Lady of the Missions was Mark Ewins, Michael Bruce and Evan Franks and the runners up were Sean McBride and Caiden Garioch. They will move on to the next round against teams from our local primaries of St Joseph’s and St Cadoc’s on Thursday 31st March in St Ninian’s High School.
Parent Staff Association
The Parent Staff Association will meet at 7.00pm on Tuesday 1st March at 7.00pm to continue to plan fund raising events.
After a very busy Christmas period the PSA are moving on from the success of the Christmas Fete which raised in excess of £4000 and are now organising a Family Ceilidh which will take place on Friday 18th MARCH in St Ninian’s High School. Tickets are available from the school office priced £2.50 per child and £7.50 per adult. The Ceilidh will start at 7.00pm and finish at 10.00pm. Please support the PSA’s work by joining in the fun.
World Book Day – Thursday 3rd March
We intend to celebrate World Book Day here in our school on Thursday 3rd March. Children and staff are invited to dress up as their favourite book character for the day and to make a donation of £1 which will go towards Read Well and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. There will be many events organised throughout the week. Children should also bring in their favourite book and a comfy cushion to participate in a readathon during the day.
The following authors will also work with different year groups to explore the craft of writing fiction for children. Amanda Edmiston – Infants, Victoria Campbell – Juniors and Keith Charters – Seniors.
Cartsbridge Church
P7 pupils will visit Cartsbridge Church on Tuesday 8th March to get involved in an interactive Lenten and Easter exhibition.
After School Activities – Choir, Arts and Crafts, Spanish, Imagineering, Netball, Hockey, Dance, Skiing, Cricket, Tennis, Gymnastics, Badminton and Cookery
We continue to offer a range of after school activities each day thanks to the work of staff, our Active School’s Coordinators and parent volunteers. Each of the above clubs have been extremely busy and highly popular with our pupils.
We will continue to do our best to accommodate children who wish to take part in after school clubs and activities.
Well done to the cross country runners who took part in the competition held in Rouken Glen Park last Thursday. Michael Moynihan, Joe Sexton, Joseph McKay and Aaron McGillivray were the boys’ team and came overall second. Joseph gained an individual second place. Isla Scott, Monica Forsyth, Rachel Morran and Nuala O’Donnell were the girls’ team who came overall third in the tournament. Thanks to Miss Fawcett and Mr McCann for looking after the teams.
Badminton
Good Luck to our school badminton team Alex Liu, James Hazlett, Godfrey Anto Marlin, Liam Russell, Conor Moore, Maria McLaughlin, Monica Forsyth, Anne Sturgess, Ellie Shaw and Olivia Darroch who are competing in a national badminton final in Wishaw on Saturday 27th February. Thanks once again to Mr McCann for coaching the team and organising their involvement in this event.
Photographs
Tempest photographers will take class photographs on Thursday 17th March and Friday
18th March. Pupils should wear formal uniform including shirts and ties on these days.
House Easter Bonnet Competition
Following on the success of last year’s competition there will be a House Easter Bonnet competition on Wednesday 30th March. Children should design and decorate an Easter bonnet in their house colour. There will be a prize for the best bonnet in each house.
Miracle Man and School Choir
Tickets will be available soon priced at £3.50 for our P6 Easter Cantata Miracle Man, which will be staged in Eastwood Theatre on Thursday 31st March. P6 pupils have been rehearsing for this performance as we journey through Lent together. The school choir will also take to the stage at the beginning of the performance. Further details will follow.
School Choir
A large number of boys and girls attend the school choir every Tuesday after school led by Miss Kane and Miss McKenna and is rehearsing to take part in the Glasgow Music Festival on Tuesday 15th March. The choir will also be singing in various venues in the lead up to Easter.
P7 Cluster Working Visits
The final year of primary education for our present P7 pupils has been very busy so far. Secondary staff and pupils, including Mr Docherty Head Teacher of St Ninian’s High School have visited the P7 classes and given an introduction to secondary school life. P7 pupils are in the process of making three half day visits to St Ninian’s High School where they are designing and making a pull-a-long toy and visiting a number of departments.
There will be a Parents’ Information evening on Thursday 5th May at 7.15pm in St Ninian’s High School giving parents the opportunity to meet staff and obtain information about the school and the curriculum in First Year. In addition there will be a full day induction visit on Wednesday 18th May for pupils transferring to St Ninian’s High School in August – further details have already been sent home with P7 pupils.
Our P7s will once again have a very busy lead up to Easter as they are taking part in the Provost Debate in Council Chambers between the 15th and 22nd of March. They are also visiting Schoenstatt on 21st March for a Lenten Retreat with pupils from St Joseph’s Primary in preparation also for the Sacrament of Confirmation which almost all of our P7s will receive after Easter.
There is a St Ninian’s Transition Concert due to be staged in St Ninian’s High School on Thursday 31st March. More information on some of these events will follow.
Parent Council The next meeting of the Parent Council is scheduled to take place on Thursday 17th March at 7.00pm here in the school.
Easter Break
School will close at the usual time on Thursday 24th March for Easter weekend and will re-open at 9.00am on Tuesday 29th March.
The school will then close at 2.30pm on Friday 1st April for Spring Break and re-open on Monday 18th April.
May I take this opportunity to thank everyone associated with our school for your continued support and wish you a very happy Easter and Spring Break on behalf of everyone here at Our Lady of the Missions Primary School.
Yours sincerely
Charles Jamieson
Head Teacher
