Yet another very interesting and exciting week in our wonderful school and nursery.

Tuesday evening brought lots of trendy, fashion leaders to our school with our annual shorts ‘n shades discos. A fabulous attendance and a super night. A huge thanks to all parents who took the time to bring their children along and to those who stayed around (brave people) to dance, sing and join in the fun. Thanks also to the 17 members of staff who came along throughout the night to ‘have a wee boogie’. Under normal circumstances I would be reporting on adults coming along to supervise, however, our children from P1 to P7 were so well behaved throughout the night supervision was hardly required. Well done to our pupils who, once again, demonstrated their excellent manners, brilliant dance moves and great sense of fun. A fabulous time was had by all. Big thanks also to ‘David’ our regular DJ who works hard to ensure all children are involved and offers them a range of music and entertainment which allows all to participate. I have to admit the only piece of music I recognised came from 1970s…..A sign of my age and listening preferences!

Our final thanks has to go to our Fab Fundraisers who organised this night for our children completely free of charge, if you haven’t joined this great band of people please consider joining us next session. First meeting of the new term is Wednesday 28th August  7pm in staffroom – put it in your diary now and come along, you’re guaranteed a warm welcome.

The Fundraisers, whilst dancing, were also organising the Bag 2 School donations. A big thank you on behalf of our Fundraisers to all who contributed, once again a very good response. Our ECO Committee used their strong muscles to load the van on Wednesday morning. The ‘man in the van’ commented on how efficient our ECO Warriors were. Well Done ECO Committee.

During the week we welcomed ‘Hester’ to our school. Hester is a guide dog for the blind ‘in training’. A lovely pup who was incredibly well behaved. Our Primary 1 and 2 children joined our nursery children to learn all about the important role a guide dog plays in the life of the visually impaired. A wonderful learning experience. This visit was organised to enhance the joint learning initiative taking place with our infants and our nursery. The topic Pets and Vets has been jointly planned and prepared as part of our transition programme. A huge thanks to Mrs Mary McDonald, P2b, who organised all of this. To show our appreciation to the work of the guide dogs we gave a donation of £50 on behalf of school and nursery.

On Wednesday of this week I received a phonecall from Michael McGrath, Director of Scottish Catholic Education Service. Michael was discussing the forthcoming visit of Archbishop Gerhard Muller. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller is a Catholic archbishop and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, on 2 July 2012, he is coming to Scotland to celebrate the launch fo the St. Andrew’s Foundation in Glasgow University. Archbishop Muller has requested to visit a school during his time in Scotland…..and guess which school he’s visiting!

14th June at 11am will be a very important day and time for our school when Archbishop Muller will join us to watch religious teaching in action (P4b), hear our lovely choir and have a tour of our fabulous building. We are searching for a Piper to welcome him in true Scottish style, if you know someone please let me know. It goes without saying, we are very honoured and proud to have been asked to host this most important visitor.

Our newsletter has been published for the final time this session, I trust everyone received a copy, if not please let us know and we will rectify this. Polish version coming very soon.

Meanwhile, life in the nursery becomes more and more exciting, here’s the gossip for this week, according to our expert reporter Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy.

I think this blog is getting bigger each week but there is so much going on in the nursery I don’t want to miss anything out.

This week some of children had the opportunity to visit a local vet’s surgery expanding our vets and pets theme. They got the chance to see new born rare stripey chicks that were only four days old. They also met two dogs Will and Molly who were there for treatment. Laura, the vet, allowed the children hear the dog’s heartbeat through her stethoscope. Each child was given a goody bag which they brought back to nursery where they shared their experiences with the other children. All the freebies can now be found in our own vet’s surgery in the nursery.

The children also attended a talk from volunteers from Guide Dogs for the blind and were introduced to a puppy in training called Hester. They learned all about the life of a puppy in training and how through their senses can help people with sight problems. To continue expanding the animal theme a letter was sent out asking for photographs of pets for use in a wall display. Please send in more photographs to add to this.

Throughout the week the pre school children have been busy preparing for their graduation, this has given the younger children a chance to experience the nursery all on their own and they have enjoyed every minute. These children will act as buddies to the new nursery intake in August when they become the BIG YINS! and after this week they look as if they will all rise to the occasion.

Our new Dinoland is continuing to be proving very popular with the children and the new backdrop has added to this. Some children have been able to name some of the dinosaurs on this which has been extremely helpful for the forgetful members of staff. The dinosaur theme has been extended by creating an area for dinosaurs within the playroom. This has given the children the chance to create dinosaurs from playdough and draw fantastic pictures of their favourite one. Some new dinosaur books can now be found in the cosy corner along with other animal and pet stories.

Over in the science corner the tadpoles are beginning to grow and the children are continuing to look after them in the hope that they will soon turn into frogs.

Our nursery rhymes are proving to be a great success with the majority of the children starting to grasp the concept of rhyming. This has been expanded by introducing musical instruments so the children can experience the patterns of sound and rhythm through music.. Our weekly nursery rhyme continued this week with Little Miss Muffet which sparked the questions. What is a tuffet and what are curds and whey?

Answers on a postcard please.

What a brilliant nursery we have! I am so proud of everyone in our nursery and school community, the whole community is fabulous.

REMEMBER REMEMBER: Your comment on anything in this blog is simply one click away, go on…..add a comment.

Mrs Shields