This has been a wonderful week in school with our weather providing great opportunities for our children’s learning to ‘go outdoors’. Our ampitheatre has been transformed into a science lab, a story telling corner….to name but a few. It is great to have such wonderful outdoor facilities which greatly enhance our children’s learning experiences. Our Eco Warriors have taken advantage of the good weather too, this week they have been working with Greenlink staff to tidy up all of our grounds and surrounding areas. Well done to our Eco committee and to Mrs Tominey who leads the warriors.

On Monday of this week we enjoyed a beautiful Mass of Thanksgiving in our gym hall. This Mass was to celebrate all of the sacraments our children have received throughout the year. P3 Reconciliation, P4 First Holy Communion and Primaries 6&7 Confirmation. Our thanks, once again to Mgr Millar and Fr Krzysztof for taking the time to concelebrate this Mass. Our children’s spiritual development is one of our highest priorities, we are so fortunate to have such dedicated clergy who are so committed to our school. On Wednesday of this week both priests also took time to provide our P3 children with the opportunity to re-visit Reconciliation.

Tuesday of this week a group of our upper school children had opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings about being part of a Catholic school and what this means to them. Mrs Colette McCabe from Catholic Education Commission visited the school to discuss this topic with the children. Mrs McCabe was most impressed by our children’s responses, she also commented on the excellent manners of our children and their positive relationship with one another. Well done to our upper school children.

Our week ended on a most positive note with the long awaited Primary One Assembly. This assembly was simply outstanding. I am so impressed by our primary one children’s ability to recite line after line in such a confident manner and not a piece of paper in sight to assist. The assembly took us on a journey of healthy eating and the benefits of fruit and vegetables. What a wonderful way to teach our youngest school pupils about the importance of looking after their bodies. A big well done and thank you to all of our P1 pupils and their teachers. Not forgetting our wonderful support staff who work tirelessly to ensure every stage assembly is filled with colourful props and costumes. Thanks also to the huge number of parents and families of our Primary one children who came along to support and encourage. In respect of Miss Love’s ‘active participation’ what can I say? I’m lost for words! It is such a pity Miss Love is only with us for this year she brings a ray of sunshine even on the cloudiest day.

REMEMBER REMEMBER….This week is our annual 3 day event. School PE kit Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Children can even wear trainers to school!!!!!!!!! But only for those three days!

Meanwhile………..along in the nursery it has been a very exciting week. On Wednesday morning and afternoon we welcomed all of our newest nursery pupils and their parents. This was a super opportunity for us to say hello to this group of very young people and welcome them to our nursery and school. Well done to Abigail McNally and Euan Whitehead who spoke so eloquently of their experiences as ‘nursery buddies’. They even stayed on after school to speak to the afternoon parents – now that’s dedication! Thanks to Mrs Reilly, HT of Firpark Primary who kindly facilitated our current nursery pupils in her soft play area to allow us to ‘make way’ for our new starts. Thanks also to our support staff who kindly supervised our nursery pupils during their stay in soft play. This allowed our nursery staff the opportunity to meet with our new pupils and their parents.

So, what else has been going on in the nursery, here’s Mrs Murphy’s – our roving reporter – latest edition……..

• This week the children have been concentrating on Health Week and the importance of healthy options and exercise. The children have had the opportunity to explore fruit printing and fruit/veg stenciling in the art area. They have had the chance to make and taste fruit smoothies, healthy wraps, fresh fruit salad and fruit kebabs. Photographs of these activities are displayed in the cloakroom on the Health posters. They have also been busy making fruit and veg from various colours of playdough and drawing and painting certain fruits. In the writing area they have been writing the names of healthy foods with the magnetic letters. The whole learning experience was brought together when the children were a great audience at the P1 assembly which was all about Healthy Eating and where they learned where their favourite fruit and veg come from.

• On Friday the children took part in many physical activities and team games about Healthy Eating. A big thank you goes to Nathan O’Donnell’s mum who works for North Lanarkshire Leisure who provided this great opportunity. They got the chance to take part in a food treasure hunt where they had to find all the hidden food and categorise it into healthy and unhealthy food. The children showed a great awareness of this when they managed to place nearly all of the food on the correct coloured circles. Fantastic! They played banana tig and fun and physical games with the parachute where they were all allocated a colour coded fruit. This was a great fun filled end to a very sunny week. On that note a wee reminder of the importance of sunscreen and hats during this warm spell. Please make sure that the children have a hat with them at all times and that sunscreen has been applied before they come to nursery. The staff will top up the sunscreen when required.

• Over in the writing area the pet stories continue. This has given the children the opportunity to describe and talk about their pets in great detail. These stories and pictures can be seen displayed in the writing area.

• Shhh Don’t say a word before leaving nursery on Friday afternoon a quick peak at the tadpoles through the magnifying glass revealed some legs have now developed. This should be an exciting week in the science area!

• The books from the lending library have now nearly all been collected in for this term. If you have not had a chance to return the books please do so this week. The lending library will return after the holidays.

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The children will get the chance to take part in some of the activities during the three day event this week. Please check the information board in the cloakroom regarding this.

As always…….I encourage you to leave a comment on the blog.

Mrs Shields