Category Archives: Pupils

Latest News, Pupils

Christmas Holidays

  • A reminder that Christmas Parties take place on Wednesday 17th December, pupils should come as they please. 
  • Any outstanding money for Panto taking place on Thursday 18th December P1-3 and Friday 19th December p4-7 should be handed to the office. £5 each or £7 a family.
  • Please join us on Thursday 18th December for an Advent Mass at 2.15pm. Everyone welcome.
  • St Mark’s closes on Friday 19th December at 2.30pm. The school will reopen on the 5th January at 9am. The breakfast club will be open as normal from 8am.

Finally, it only remain for me, on behalf of the entire staff of the school, to wish you and your families a peaceful, Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year.

Gerard McLaughlin

Head Teacher

Latest News, Pupils

Free School Meals Initiative, P1-3

FREE SCHOOL MEALS FOR PRIMARY 1 TO 3 PUPILS: COMMENCING MONDAY 5TH JANUARY 2015

I write to inform you of the start of the free school meals provision for all Primary 1 to 3 pupils. This initiative was announced following a decision by the Scottish Government earlier this year and will start in East Renfrewshire Council on Monday 5th January 2015.

As of Monday 5th January 2015 all Primary 1 to 3 pupils will be provided with a healthy lunch that meets the requirements of the Health Promotion and Nutrition (Scotland) Act 2007 and I would ask you to encourage your child to take up their entitlement and try the various food available.

Facilities Management catering staff have been working with Head Teachers and school staff to ensure that all children have a positive and enjoyable experience at lunch time. We have developed a menu to allow the pupils to try new and varied foods and we intend to consult with parents towards the Spring break to seek views on the menu. I have attached a copy of the menu for your information and to allow you to discuss this with your child, this information can also be accessed through the following website www.eastrenfrewshire.scottishschoolmeals.co.uk

I wish you and your families’ best wishes for the festive season and look forward to seeing your child for their free lunch in the New Year.

Yours sincerely

Fiona Morrison

Head of Education Services (School Performance & Provision)

Temporary P1-3 Menu

Pupils

Coral Reef Visit to Santa

Santa came to visit the children of the Coral Reef on their trip to The Avenue Shopping Centre at Newton Mearns.  The children had a fantastic time tucking into hot chocolate and cakes, supplied by Costa Coffee, who also gave them a special room all to themselves.  This enabled them  to enjoy  their visit from Santa as a group.  It  was all organised by the Centre Manager Michelle, who went out of her way to make it a fantastic experience.

A big thank you to Michelle and Alan, the manger of Costa for making this all happen.

Latest News, Pupils

Barrhead Food Bank

The Pupil Council are holding a fundraising event on Friday 12th December. Pupils can wear a Christmas jumper to school but instead of bringing money pupils should bring an item for the local food bank. The food bank needs the following items:

  • tinned vegetables
  • long life milk
  • orange juice
  • creamed rice
  • selection boxes
  • shampoo
  • shower gel
  • toothpaste
  • soap

Many thanks for your continued support.

Achievement, Citizenship, Expressive Arts, Latest News, Pupils

Christmas Choir

In the lead up to Christmas, our school choir brought festive cheer to the staff and customers of Tesco in Barrhead!  They sang a fabulous medley of Christmas hymns and songs and raised a whopping £109.42 for Yorkhill Children’s Charity.  Well done and thank you to all of the children in the choir for their fantastic effort!

Literacy, Pupils

Dyslexia Awareness Week

On Friday 7th November, two pupils   represented St Mark’s at Dyslexia Awareness Week Event, which was held at Mearns Primary School. It was a fantastic occasion. We enjoyed excellent presentations from Barrhead High School, St. Joseph’s Primary School and a joint effort from St. John’s Primary School and St. Luke’s High School, all with a focus on what pupils had put into place since the event last year.

 In particular there was great excitement around performances from Jamie Keenan, a magician from St. Luke’s High School, and X Factor’s Emily Middlemas, a senior pupil from Woodfarm High School, who stole the show by not only delivering an outstanding performance, but also by speaking very sensitively about the event’s theme, ‘Dyslexia Matters’.

 

Pupils, Science

Clyde in the Classroom

Blog 6

Our trout are still developing well and they are growing daily. We can see their eyes properly and their yolk sac has now disappeared. This tells us that they are now ready to be released and begin hunting for their own food. We are feeling quite nervous about this and we hope they will survive in the wild.

Over the weekend some more of our trout were leaving the tank to swim about the area at the top. Sadly this resulted in five of our fish dying. However, we are very pleased that so many have survived. So far we have removed 30 dead eggs or alevin over five weeks. Caroline predicted that we would lose up to 5 each day initially, with probably 100 eggs/alevin dying. We are delighted to be releasing approximately 170 alevin later on today. This is a result of us being extremely careful and checking and monitoring our eggs very carefully. Our four times daily checks were very worthwhile.

Yesterday we invited the children from each class to visit the trout and to see their progress firsthand. All of the children enjoyed this and many of them were able to ask us questions about the progress we’ve been making.

Later on today we are visiting the ABC park in Barrhead to release our trout. We are feeling a little upset because we will really miss the trout and our daily visits to them. We are also quite excited as we will see them swim off to start a new chapter in their lives. We hope that they will all thrive in the next stages of their life cycle.

Latest News, Pupils

The Physiotherapist

People Who Help Us

Primary 1a and 1b’s new Social Studies topic is People Who Help Us. We decided to find out about different types of jobs by interviewing lots of people. We made a list of questions to ask each person. We interviewed Emily’s mum. She is a physiotherapist. She helps people when they are in pain. She likes her job because she makes people feel better. If you would like to come in and tell us about your job we would love to see you. We have great questions for you.

Primary 1a and 1b

Latest News, Literacy, Pupils, Science

Whale Week, P5a and P5b

Primary 5a and 5b’s novel study this term is Michael Morpurgo’s ‘This Morning I met a Whale’. As part of the topic both classes decided to host ‘Whale Week’ to raise funds for a visit to Deep Sea World. Through a variety of enterprise activities the classes managed to raise an astonishing £732.79.  Activities included a sponsored dance, selling sea snacks, an acrostic poem competition and lots more.

Thank you very much to pupils, parents and carers for your support. Sea World here we come!

Primary 5a

Primary 5b

Orca, Competition winner.

Dolphin, Raffle Winner

Latest News, Pupils, Science

Clyde In the Classroom 2

We have been looking after our 200 eggs very carefully. Since the 3rd February we’ve been checking on our eggs four times daily.

Each check involves – a temperature check, possibly changing ice water bottles, a check for any dead eggs, top up water in tanks and bucket and cleaning the tank. Groups of four children are visiting the Pea Pod to complete this task. They then come back to class, record the information on our checklist and report back to their classmates.So far we’ve identified only one dead egg but we know there will probably be more.

On Wednesday 5 February the eggs had started developing. We noticed that inside their yolk sac eyes were appearing. We had to ensure that the water was kept to the correct temperature during our February holiday and say a big thank you to Mr McDonnell, our janitor, for adding ice on the days we were off.

 We’ve returned this morning to a very exciting sight! Our trout eggs have hatched!!!! We were able to watch them swimming around their tank after assembly. They were very fast.Sadly, some more eggs have died over the weekend. We will now remove these eggs and monitor very carefully.

 Look out for our next update very soon.

 Primary 6

Pupils, Science

Body Works on Tour

An engaging hands-on exhibit about the human body is set to keep youngsters and families entertained at Barrhead Health and Care Centre during the February mid-term break.

Body Works On Tour on Mon 10 Feb, will feature a variety of free interactive exhibits including an age machine which takes a picture and gives visitors a glimpse into their future; and a heart beating drum to enable people to measure their heart in a unique way.

Visitors will also be able to learn how their bodies work with real human tissue samples; try and inflate a smoker’s lungs; put a neck, head and brain back together and get to grips with synthetic limbs.

The event is being held in partnership with the Science Centre and East Renfrewshire CHCP smokefree community services to engage residents about their body and health. The smokefree team will also be on hand to offer advice on stopping smoking, tobacco and second hand smoke.

Cllr Alan Lafferty, East Renfrewshire convener for social work and health said: “This event is set to be a fun and informative day where you can find out more about the human body, health and ways to improve your lifestyle.”

The free event takes place at Barrhead Health and Care Centre, Main Street, Barrhead on Monday 10 February from 10am to 4pm.

The CHCP is a partnership between East Renfrewshire Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGG&C) and brings together local community and primary care health services from NHSGG&C and social work services from East Renfrewshire Council.