The highlight of our week has to be the fantastic Race Night on Friday in St Bride’s Hall, organised by our fabulous Fundraisers.
This small, but incredibly effective, group of parents has once again raised an amazing amount of money for our school and nursery. £2,475.66 – outstanding. A HUGE thanks to the Fundraising Group for all its hard work and thanks also to everyone who came along on Friday night. It was a fantastic night, enjoyed by all. However, I’m still waiting for one of my horses to actually finish a race!
The work of the Fundraising Group cannot be praised enough, I am indebted to them for their wonderful work and support for all we do in school and nursery. I genuinely feel privileged to have such a great team of people working with us in our school community; every penny raised goes to help enhance our children’s learning. We could not ask for more.
This whole week has been a very busy and exciting one in school and nursery.
On Wednesday of this week we all joined the parishioners of O.L.G.A Cathedral Parish to celebrate Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent. Mass was simply beautiful and the children’s singing and behavior – outstanding. Indeed our Parent council Chairperson, Mr Gerry Bonnar, said Ms Susan Boyle, who was at the Mass commented on how well our children sang. Praise from a celebrity singer!
Thursday and Friday Masses in our school library at 8.15am have been very well attended, well done to all those boys and girls from nursery through to P7 who are making the effort to come to early morning Mass during Lent. Thanks also to the parents/carers who bring the children along to daily Mass, a wonderful example of faith in action.
Thursday was World Book Day, and what a celebration we had in school. Almost every child (and staff member) was dressed as their favourite character from a book. It was a wonderful day and everyone participated in the ‘STOP DROP & READ’ throughout the day. Great fun was had by all. A HUGE thanks to our CaFi Council and our Junior Librarians who under the watchful eyes of Mrs Duffy, Miss Phee and Mrs Ellis (Firpark) organised all of the events throughout the day. Watch out for some familiar faces in the Motherwell Times this coming week.
The Motherwell Times photographer, Alan has been coming to our school for many years, he is a firm supporter of all we do in school and has a wonderful manner with the children. Alan will be leaving Motherwell Times in a few weeks time. I simply wanted to extend my thanks and gratitude to him for all the times he has come along and showcased our children in the media through photographs and video. We wish Alan every success in the future; he will be greatly missed.
Thursday evening some of our solo singers performed at Glasgow Music Festival.
Well done to :
Morgan Brown, Abigail McNally, Collette O’Neil, Ciara Scullion and Katie Torrance
All 5 girls sang beautifully, suffice to say in the adjudication there were only 3 marks between all of the girls. Congratulations to Abigail (1st), Ciara (2nd) and Morgan (3rd). All the girls should be very proud of their achievements, they are a credit to our school.
Friday morning brought more competitions, singing, recitation and football.
The local Burns competition took place in Coatbridge High. Well done to our singers:
Diana Feenan, Imogen McFadden, Lucy Haggarty and Abigail McNally
And to our poetry reciters:
Kian Scullion, Ellie Hutchison, Salwa Ahmad and Collette O’Neil
Gold medals were awarded to Ellie and Diana with Abigail and Salwa earning silver and a bronze was awarded to Kian. Well done to all competitors.
A huge thanks to Mrs Murphy, Miss Green, Mrs McCoy & Mrs Campbell who prepare the children for solo singing and recitation. Super work and wonderful recognition, once again, to our school.
Friday morning we hosted a football tournament on our pitch with a variety of schools participating. Our boys and girls won 3 out of 4 matches. Excellent sportsmanship was shown by all. Well done to all participants.
Friday was also our first Alms Giving event for Lent, what a magnificent response!
We had requested non-perishable foodstuff to collate hampers to give to those in need in our local community. We have an enormous amount of hampers with a wide range of foodstuffs. The generosity shown by our children and their families is outstanding. Thanks to all who took the time to provide goods for the hampers. A wonderful start to the season of Lent, we look forward to your continued support.
Meanwhile down in the nursery…..
Blackbeard has become a recluse the children have still not discovered his whereabouts. The nursery pirate ship is now taking shape and is nearly ready to set sail. The children have been learning all about pirate jobs and the names of parts of a ship. The Captain has taken up residence in the story corner which has been converted into the Captain’s quarters. The Captain is a very knowledgeable old sea salt and requested lots of reading material for his journey to search for Blackbeard.
• In the writing area the children got busy making books with their own stories to put on the Captain’ bookcase in the corner of the playroom. They have also been writing a variety of pirate words and writing the names for the parts of their very own pirate ship on the art area wall.
• In the art area they completed their own model pirate ship which they named the Blackbeard. They made an anchor using metallic paint for the big nursery ship and made a Jolly Rodger flag. These can all be seen on the helm of the ship.
• In the snack area they made and designed their own pirate biscuits and on Tuesday had the opportunity to toss some pancakes. They had pirate porridge to make them big and strong for the forthcoming journey to faraway lands.
• In the maths area they made a map of Motherwell using all the directional information that they had learned from making their own treasure maps. These can be seen in the Captain’s quarters. They completed various mazes and join the dots pirate activities.
• Outside the transformation of the HMS Cathedral continued with the children making a flag, constructing a plank and creating a plan to make a map of the outdoor area. They drew arrows and followed directional instructions during a pirate game.
• In the gym hall and softplay they have been playing a pirate game that involves actions for all the various pirate jobs e.g. scrub the decks, climb the rigging, fire the canons, hoist the sail and walk the plank.
• On Thursday the children came to nursery dressed as their favourite character from a book to celebrate world book day. They listened to stories and shared the names of their favourite books with all their friends.
• Mrs Imray introduced a new music programme called ABC music. The children got the chance to listen to different types of musical tempo and had to move their bodies accordingly. The loud music was Blackbeard and the nice soft music was Tinkerbell. They were also shown all our new musical instruments and the children could name some of them. This programme will continue over the next few weeks.
• The pre-school activities continued this week with the emphasis on pencil control and matching number to quantity.
• Keep an eye out for Blackbeard he could be hiding in a house near you!!
The children have been visiting the living eggs in P1 and on Thursday afternoon the children saw the very first chick hatch. It was a fantastic experience to see this happening right before our eyes. They visited them again to discover that they nearly all had hatched, which came as a complete surprise to some of the children. They will continue to visit them to see and learn how quickly they grow.
As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to comment on any aspect of my Blog or of our school.
Mrs Shields
