Another busy week for everyone in school, especially Rooms 12, 13 and 14. On Tuesday we were privileged to have our pupils listen to the Deputy Editor of the Sunday Mail. The hot topic of discussion was the referendum and all pupils were engaged in lively discussion prior to holding their very own referendum. In St. Aidan’s the children voted ‘No’ we are now interested to see what the national result will be in just over a week’s time. The Sunday Mail team were so impressed with our children that they have invited them to submit a front page which will be printed as a ‘real front page’. All children were eagerly planning and designing their pages this week. I must also commend the children on the intelligent questions they asked during discussion.
As part of our Health and Wellbeing programme all children were invited to participate in a dance workshop. Audrey Clark school of Dance were in school for two days leading the children in creative dance – a great success.
Our Parent Council held their first meeting of the school year on Tuesday evening. Please remember that we have three vacancies on the Parent Council for this coming year and these are open to any parent of the school. You must return the slip indicating you are interested by Friday 12th September at 3:00 pm. If we have more than three people, in line with the constitution, names will be drawn from a hat. Please remember that our Parent Council are now on Facebook – you can keep up to date with everything that is happening in the school by checking out this page.
Also please note in your diary our Curriculum Evening on September 24th at 7:00pm. At this time you will be able to come along and meet your child’s teacher, have a look at the resources your child will be using this year and find out about the interdisciplinary topics your child will be engaged in. We have also invited Mr Tony McDonald, Principal Teacher of Mathematics in St. Aidan’s High School along, he will be able to give an insight into the planning and progression from P7 into S1 in Mathematics.
Our first Out of School Hours Learning group is now up and running – Mrs Donnelly offers all children in the school a Liturgy Club on Mondays during lunchtime. We will also be working closely with St. Aidan’s High School senior pupils this year, as part of the Sports Leader Awards a number of sixth year students will be in school throughout the year offering a variety of different activities. We are really grateful for their support.

Welcome to the first blog of our new school year. The children all looked fantastic last week in their new school clothes. We are delighted that our new Primary One pupils have settled in very quickly, already we can see them becoming increasingly independent and getting used to the school routine. If you have been out in the playground in the morning or at home time you might have noticed the variety of fruit that has been growing in our orchard areas. We are delighted that so far this year we have been able to harvest potatoes, radish, peas, cabbage, plums apples and pears. We have been busy cooking lots of food and the children have really enjoyed eating their own produce. On Thursday of this week everyone had a pancake with home made plum jam! You will see that already we are in the process of clearing out the beds for our next round of vegetables and Mrs McGeough and Mrs Bridge have involved every class in researching what foods we will be able to plant in the autumn for harvest next spring!
Thank you also to Mr McAuley, Mr McAveety and Mr Todd for clearing out the garden area. We have decided to grass all of this for ease of maintenance and over the next few months we will be tending our new grass and planning our pots to give us a bright array of colour next spring.
This year we have introduced a new play area for the children in the infant department. We have allocated a session for every child in the inner quadrangle and pupils from Primary Six will support them to enjoy a range of games over the coming months.
Primary Seven are already showing great maturity in taking on their many responsibilities, they are shaping up to be a great class – well done Primary Seven.
We opened our school year formally at Mass on Friday, if you attended this Mass thank you for coming along I’m sure you will agree that the children were fantastic.
In class the infant pupils are looking at Fairlyland this term – they will be taking a look at the moral of many fairy stories as we embed our Health and Wellbeing programme. Primary 3, 4 and 4/5 are studying Children around the World and again taking a look at the rights of the child through this approach. As you would expect we are involving our Senior pupils in looking at Rights, Rules and Responsibilities through the Referendum and the implications of the outcome of the vote. We are delighted that this week we have the Deputy Political Editor from the Sunday Mail coming along to speak with the children on this hot topic.
I hope that you will all find time this year to check out both this blog and Mrs Shearer’s nursery blog to keep up to date with events in school. We are all looking forward to a great year ahead.

Fun in the sun!

With our term drawing to a close I would like to give you a final round up of our goings on over the past two weeks.

Our school sports day was great fun – please take time to have a look at the pictures on our website. Primary Seven have now completed all of their transition activities and are ready to leave us to take their next steps in their educational journey. We had a very emotion final Leavers’ Mass on Friday 13th followed by an even more emotional final assembly – we did think we would need to bring in emergency tissue supplies last week! They have been a brilliant group and we will miss them enormously but we know that they will do us proud in the future.

Our Maths Challenge team collected the winners’ trophy at St. Aidan’s High School Award Ceremony on Thursday night too – a tremendous achievement – well done boys!

Divided City is just about ready for the actual performance, lots of dialogue and songs have been learned and the staging is looking very good – Room Thirteen will be performing this twice on Tuesday of next week.

We had our final music assembly on Tuesday of this week. We were entertained by our Primary Fives who performed their Kodaly work, the woodwind group performed and showed us how much they have developed their musical abilities over this year – well done boys and girls and our choir performed their winning song from the Glasgow Music Festival. We are very proud of all of them.

All children visited their new classes and met their new teachers on Thursday of this week. Reports have been issued and we are now very much looking forward to our long summer holiday and the start of our new school year.

Our outings today have been a great success with glorious weather and excellent behaviour as usual!

Please remember that on Monday of next week P1,2,3,4 and 7 will be walking to the end of Coltness Road from 11:30 to catch a glimpse of the Queen’s Baton Relay. We will be having a much later lunch on Monday so would ask that all children remain in school for lunch as there will be no crossing patrol after 1:00pm.

Finally please remember that on Friday school will close at 1:00pm

We have had a super week in school. Primary Six and Seven were outstanding at their Confirmation Mass. Monsignor Millar commended their attention and was very impressed with their singing. Well done boys and girls.

The sun shone brightly for our sports day and the children had a fantastic day. Thank you to Mrs Duffy for coordinating all aspects of this – a great job done! If your child was in the French team they are coming home as winners this evening.

Well done also to our Poetry readers who attended Cardinal Newman High School last night to read their poems. We also were in the final of the Eco Mascot challenge, although we didn’t win our team did us proud. ‘Neil on Wheels’ was a big success!

We are now coming into the final three weeks of term. Hopefully we will be able to enjoy lots of outdoor learning. We have planted lots of flowers and vegetables and already we have some vegetables coming through. Hopefully our market garden will have produce for sale in August/September.

If you have any plants going spare we would be grateful as we are looking for a great display of colour this summer.

Confirmation
Our primary six and seven pupils have been very busy preparing for their Confirmation on Monday evening, their singing and presentation is already sounding excellent and I know they will rise to the occasion on Monday evening.

Our new Primary One pupils for August have now had both of their induction sessions and they were a pleasure to have in school. We are looking forward to them joining us shortly!

We have had great competition success over the past two weeks, we have eighteen children whose poetry will be published in the Reigart Poetry Anthology. Our Primary Seven team won the St. Aidan’s High School Maths Challenge and our Eco team are through to the final of the North Lanarkshire Eco Challenge.

Also we must give our congratulations to our school choir who performed on Wednesday evening at the Summer Arts Festival in Motherwell Civic Centre, as ever they did us proud.

Divided City
We will soon be issuing tickets for this performance. Primary Six/Seven have been heavily involved in rehearsals with Calderbridge Primary School. Parents of children in this class will be issued with tickets.

Sports Day
We are very much looking forward to our Sports day next week – let’s hope for a dry day. You are, as usual, welcome to come along and see the children enjoy their team sports.

Congratulations to all pupils in Primary Four who received the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist for the first time on Sunday. Remember that the Parent Council are holding a party after 12:00 Mass for all First Communicants this Sunday. If your child is in Primary Four please try to attend this special thanksgiving Mass and party. A big thank you to the Parent Council for providing this treat.

Primary One (Room 3) presented their first every assembly last week and everyone commented on how fabulous it was – they took us around the world with ‘The Magic Key’ well done Room Three!

We are now busy focusing on all aspects of the Commonwealth.
Primary Three presented their assembly today which introduced us to Glasgow and its role in hosting the Commonwealth Games. We all participated in ‘the big dance’. Please have a look at our ‘big dance’ on the website. We think we were the best out of all the participants across the Commonwealth.

Our new Primary One for August visited school this week for the first time. They were great!
We were also privileged to have a number of visiting teachers from North Lanarkshire with us on Wednesday of this week. Everyone commented on our wonderful children – we were not surprised. Well done everybody!

We finished our health focus this week and all pupils have now enjoyed cooking, football, dance, aerobics in school. In addition Miss Jones had everybody in the upper school out in the woods cooking marshmallows and enjoying the outdoor environment.

Primary Six are continuing with their Divided City rehearsals and are getting every closer to their performance. Our choir are in the final stages of rehearsals for their performance in Motherwell Concert Hall on 28th May.

Please remember that this coming week is a three day week as the school is closed on Thursday for the European Elections and Friday is a holiday. We are also off on Monday 26th for the holiday weekend. We are open as normal on Tuesday 27th.

Welcome back to our last term of this academic year!
The children have all settled back into school routine quickly after their Easter break. We are all focusing on the forthcoming Commonwealth Games for our interdisciplinary learning this term. Already the children are having great fun learning about Glasgow and the history of the Commonwealth. To coincide with this we will be have our health focus when we come back after our holiday weekend. We will be involving everyone in a range of food activities and we have also invited in a range of specialists to give the children taster sessions of different sporting activities.
Mrs Donnelly has been taking the whole school in preparation for our Commonwealth Dance. It was great to see Primaries 4-7 out in the yard this week all keeping time to this exciting dance which has been choreographed by Scottish Ballet.
A big thank you goes to Miss Jones who has organised for Ross Henderson, a boxer who will be competing in the Commonwealth Games, to come along and speak with the children about his training and preparation. Today we have also had Hopscotch Theatre in presenting ‘Colin’s Commonwealth Games’ so we are indeed up and running!

Primary Seven had a visit from the Alliance Francaise last week and worked with Veronique who commented that ‘ they are some of the best children I have ever worked with’. Tres bien fait!

Primary Four have their very special day next Saturday, they have been preparing so well we are all very proud of them. We are hoping for a dry day next Saturday – Mass is at 10:00 please remember them in your prayers.

As usual this term we have organised our summer outings – Primaries 1-6 will be visiting Blair Drummond Safari Park and Primary Seven get to go to M&Ds Theme Park in Strathclyde Park. All children will go on their outing on Friday 20th June. The cost to all children is £12 – we are happy to take money from now until then to spread the cost for everyone.

Pupils in P6/7 have been very busy working with children from Calderbridge Primary School to prepare for their performance of ‘Divided City’. We are delighted that the rehearsals are going so well and we are very proud of all of the children. Well done Room 13!

Our choir has been working with ‘Soundsational’, a music group based in Coatbridge. They have been preparing for their performance which will be in Motherwell Civic Centre on Wednesday 28th May – further ticket information regarding this will be issued when I have been given final details. We are delighted that two member of our choir, Emily Allan and Charlie McCulloch performed for the Secondary Headteachers yesterday. Well done girls!

This term we have a number of after school clubs running. Primary Four had their first cooking session yesterday and Primary Five were enjoying French. At lunchtimes we have choir and athletics for the infant department and Primary Seven have been very busy preparing their year book with Miss Jones. A big thank you to all staff who give up their time to provide additional experiences for all of our children.

Please remember that Tuesday 6th May is an inset day for staff and children should not attend.
Please remember that Primary One will be attending the Teddy Bears Picnic in Strathclyde Park on Wednesday morning.
We hope you all have a great holiday weekend.

Our Primary Sevens have had the most wonderful time in Kilbowie Outdoor Education Centre. They were commended by everyone who worked with them as one of the best groups ever to visit the centre! Well done Primary Seven we are very proud of you, Miss McGregor, Miss Lewis and Mrs Shearer. What a great week. Check out our Kilbowie Blog if you would like to have a look at their adventures.
Also this week we are delighted that our Bring and Buy sale was such a success. We raised £318 and would like to thank everyone for their generous donations.
Our final Lenten Fundraiser is our ‘All the Tea in China’ morning on Tuesday of this week. We always have a very good attendance at our annual Lenten tea/coffee morning and I know that you will support us again this year. At the end of this week we will be able to give an accurate figure of how much we have raised for our Lenten Charities, however I would like to thank everyone in advance for your continued support. We couldn’t do it without you.
This is our last week of term, we have had such a great term studying all about China, the children have loved it. I hope you have enjoyed sharing this with them their displays are stunning around the school. In our new term we will be focusing our interdisciplinary learning on ‘The Commonwealth Games’ and we will link this for a focus on health. Let’s hope we get lots of sunny weather to enjoy all of our outdoor activities.
Once again we had an excellent turnout at our Parent Interviews – thank you to all who attended.
I hope that everyone enjoys their Easter holidays and we look forward to keeping you updated in the last term of this year.

What a busy time we have had in the past two weeks.

Our Primary Three pupils celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time on Tuesday of this week. They were very well prepared and their singing and responses was fantastic. Boys and girls everyone in school and in your house is really proud of you. Well done!

In Room 13 pupils have been very busy being extremely responsible in caring for our chicks! We now have ten chicks hatched safely and they are thriving. We have given them names of Disney characters so check out the website and have a look at Aladdin, Dorey, Lightning McQueen etc. All of the children in the school have been visiting room thirteen to get a wee glimpse of their progress. Remember you can keep up to date with our webcam too.

I am delighted to tell you that our choir won first place in our class at the Glasgow Music Festival. They all sang beautifully and we were very proud of their achievement. Well done boys and girls! We will have a music assembly in the final term so that everyone can come along and hear their super singing.

We highlighted the work of the Fairtrade movement in our whole school assembly last Monday with a talk from a member of the Fairtrade movement. Further to this some of our Senior pupils attended a meeting of the parish Justice and Peace group where they highlighted the work being done in school across all classes. The girls were very confident in their delivery and everyone who attended the meeting commended them on their work. Well done girls and a big thank you to Mrs McGeough for attending this meeting too.

Well done to all of the boys and girls who have been attending morning Mass. We have had a great turnout this week. Please encourage your child to attend this Mass if possible.

Pupils in Room 10 took their trout down to the River Calder last week and released them. They have been looking after them with Clyde in the Classroom project. We are delighted that they were so responsible.

Yesterday was ‘Onesie Day’ and we raised £500 for our Lenten Charities. Well done to everybody (including some staff!) who came to school in their ‘onesies’.

Next Wednesday we have our ‘Marathon Day’ coming up. We are asking for friends and family to sponsor the children to run a marathon in the yard. All money raised will go towards our Lenten Charity Appeal – please help your child if you can.
We also have four children attending the Library Quiz and Four children who have reached the final of ‘The Dragon’s Lair’. They will be presenting on their cereal bar ‘Oatally Scottish.’ We wish both teams very good luck!

Thank you to everyone who came along to our open morning to see the children at work. We were delighted with the attendance and everyone who came along enjoyed seeing the children’s work and it was great to see so many children speaking about their class displays. Well done everybody!

Room 10 are in the final stages of their trout programme. They have done a fantastic job taking care of the trout eggs and on Friday 7th they will be heading to the River Calder to release the trout back into the river. A great job Primary Five well done on nurturing so many fish!

Pupils in Room 13 have started their Divided City project with Calderbridge Primary School. This will be a thirteen week project involving drama and music and will culminate in a performance of Theresa Breslin’s book in Calderbridge Primary School at the end of June. Many thanks to the parents who came along on Thursday night for the launch of this work. The children enjoyed their first workshop – these are led by actors from The Citizens Theatre and the children had great fun with much more to come.

Well done to our choir who performed so well in the Disney Concert at South Wishaw Parish Church last week and a huge thank you to all of the parents who came along in support. Our next choir outing is the Glasgow Music Festival on March 11th in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. Parents and family are most welcome to come along and support this event.

Our Cross Country runners did a great job yesterday in very muddy conditions! We are hoping that everybody has a very good stain remover to get rid of the dirt in the tracksuits! Our children did brilliantly and we have a number of children through to the final. Well done everybody – great running.

This week coming sees the start of our Lenten Season. We were delighted to welcome Fr. Peter Walters from the charity Let the Children Live. He came into school last week to speak with the children about the work he does in the streets of Medellin, Columbia. His moving presentation really brought to life the plight of these street children and certainly gave our children something to think about during our Lenten fundraising.
We will all attend 10:00 Mass on Ash Wednesday in St. Aidan’s Church where the children will all receive their ashes.
Please remember that Canon Clements will say Mass at 8:20 during Lent especially for the children in our school. Please encourage your child to attend this Mass if possible.