This week, just for a wee change I am beginning my blog with our nursery highlights. Thanks again to Mrs Murphy for providing this weekly update:

• This week the children have been busy designing the Golden People at group time. Each group has taken ownership of a specific Golden Character that represents one of the nursery Golden Rules. The children drew around the smallest member of their group and then decorated their characters with a variety of materials. They then chose the clothes that each character should wear. The characters are as follows.

• Listening Lucy – Always has her listening ears on.

• Walking Wendy – Always walks in the nursery.

• Sharing Shay – A team player who always share with his friends.

• Caring Cara – Cares for all the toys in the nursery

• Tidy Tom – Is our very own superhero who overlooks the nursery at tidy up time.

• The children worked together as a team to create these characters and next week we will be launching them to reinforce our Golden Rules. Please feel free to reinforce these rules at home.

• Over in the writing area the children had the opportunity to write the names of the characters which will also be displayed on the wall. They have also been busy drawing themselves in great detail and providing lots of information about themselves.

• In the art area the children painted self portraits which will be displayed in the cloakroom soon. They also were given a visual stimuli to design boats and rockets from junk as part of our Eco policy. Some of the children planned how they were going to make their creations and their fabulous efforts can be seen in the cloakroom.

• In the maths area the children have been busy playing counting and matching number games which has been beneficial in the snack area as number quantities have been introduced as part of the snack routine. In the snack area they also got a chance to make cakes where they had to follow the instructions carefully. Each Wednesday is going to be baking day so that all children will get a chance to experience baking throughout the term.

• Outside the children were busy carrying out our Eco Friendly jobs such as watering the plants and tidying up the garden.

• A wee reminder. The Hi 5 for fruit courses are displayed on the information board. Please put your name next to the course of your choice.

Meanwhile in the school, here’s what’s been happening…….

We have enjoyed another busy week in school and in nursery. The beginning of our week was relatively quiet and then towards the end of the week we got busier and busier….

Tuesday morning we welcomed Mr Robert Dalziel, Quality Improvement Officer, who came out to meet with myself to talk through the progress of our Improvement Plan. Whilst in the school I offered Mr Dalziel the opportunity to tour the classes and look at the on-going excellent teaching and learning. Mr Dalziel was most impressed by the vibrant working atmosphere and the engagement of all children in their learning. he also commented most positively on the displays of children’s work in and around the classes.

Wednesday evening saw our first fundraisers meeting of this session. This was a most productive meeting – my thanks to all who came along representing both school and nursery. We began with the AGM nominating office bearers, they are as last year:

Chair :Mrs Anne Munro

Vice Chair: Mrs Kathleen Winton

Secretary: Mrs Pauline Findlay

Treasurer: Mrs Mary Frances Verrecchia

At the meeting we decided to branch out and host a Bingo Evening – this is scheduled for Tuesday 19th November 0 a date for your diary. Mr Jim Penman has kindly agreed to come out of retirement and host the evening – guaranteed a night of fun and cheesy jokes! Thanks to Jim for volunteering his services. Please support this forthcoming event.

Miss Lesley Phee – Principal Teacher updated the group of the progress made in playground resources. With funding from the Fundraisers £3000 we can now go ahead an order two permanent basketball hoops and back boards which will be cemented into our yard and a number of playground markings made from strong long lasting rubberised paint. Well done to Lesley for organising this (Lesley consulted the children as to what they would like) and thanks also to our generous fundraisers for providing the finance to allow us to do this.

Friday morning was extremely busy with all of our P6 pupils enjoying a day at Our Lady’s High School. This was their first introduction to secondary education and a great time was had by all. Friday morning also saw all of our P7 pupils and a number of parent helpers journey to Carfin Grotto for the Annual Carfin Mass. The journey back took a little longer than expected, indeed we have decided next year we will walk to Carfin and back, this should be quicker and good for our health. The Mass itself was lovely and very well attended. Many thanks to our parent helpers for giving so generously of their time to support this important event. Special thanks to Mrs Anne Munro who stepped in at the last minute to assist. Our school is so fortunate to have such committed and supportive parents. I am indebted to you all.

On Saturday morning a number of parents gave up their weekend long lie to come along to school and work on our grounds. Once again this is an amazing committment from our parents, A HUGE thanks to The Garden Gang. We have a beautiful school with large grounds which require much maintenance. Our school is a flagship school in North Lanarkshire – with the help of our wonderful parents we can keep it looking in top top condition.

This month our focus has been on ‘mind our manners’ we have been promoting excellent manners in our children and rewarding House Points for all children who are caught being well mannered. Suffice to say our P7s needed a calculator to add up the points, there are literally hundreds of them! Fantastic display of excellent manners from our children. Also great to see all of our staff participating in House Points Initiative.

Finally we ended our week on a very positive note. Due to the increase in our school and nursery roll I have been given permission to appoint an acting Depute Head Teacher to further complement our excellent management team. I am delighted to announce as from Monday 16th September Mrs Marie Clare Duffy will take up post as Acting DHT. Well done Mrs Duffy!

This also means that I am now in a position to elicit notes of interest from staff for an acting Principal Teacher (the post Mrs Duffy has vacated). Watch this space next week for more information on this.

Coming up next week:

Monday – MISSIO collection at Assembly

Monday – School Photographer

Wednesday – Hoola Hoola Hulabaloo Sponsored Event – If you’d like to come along and join the fun please give your name into the office.

Friday – Primary 5 Assembly

As always, should you have any comments, thoughts, ideas, opinions. Please share them with us. We are dedicated to continuous improvement and we truly value your input.

Leave a comment…….please!!!

Mrs Shields