Monday morning dawned as our school hall filled with 67 very excited Primary Seven pupils and 67 sets of parents/carers ready to wave a fond farewell to their children for a whole week. And what a week it has been. I won’t say too much as Mrs Campbell has provided a separate Kilbowie Blog with all the photographs etc – see below. Please be aware there are a few children in our P7 year group whose parents have requested their photographs do not appear on the website therefore we may have to miss out some which also include other children. Suffice to say Kilbowie was a great success, on Friday 67 very tired Primary Sevens returned. I am sure by today, after a good night sleep in their own beds they will be fully refreshed and telling of all their new experiences.

A huge thank you has to go to all staff who gave so willingly of their time to accompany the children to Kilbowie. Thanks to Miss Phee (or nurse Phee as she was for the week), who in her role as Principal Teacher took charge for the week. Thanks to Mrs Irwin, Miss Kane, Mrs Harrison & Mrs Carr who left behind the comfort of their home and their own families to spend time ensuring our children had a week to remember forever. A special thanks to Jim Watson who generously took a week of his holidays to accompany the children, I am indebted to all of the adults involved. I hope they all enjoy a very well earned restful weekend. Mums and dads of P7s I hope the washing isnt too onerous a task! I look forward to hearing all about it from primary Seven this coming week.

I think it only right that I also thank Primary Six pupils who became top of the school for a week and so eloquently overtook the responsibilities usually associated with P7, they did a great job. Well done P6, this bodes well for next year.

Tuesday evening our P1 through to P6 pupils all enjoyed a night boogie-ing away at our Tartan Disco. Thanks to all parents and staff who came along to help supervise. Thanks also to our Fabulous Fundraisers who provided the disco and the water for the evening. A great Scottish knees up was enjoyed by all. Och Aye it was!

Tuesday through to Wednesday we collected our bi-annual bag2School, thanks to all who contributed, we will let you know how much was raised as soon as the company tell us. Thanks also to our ECO Committee who assisted with the placing (flinging) of the bags onto the van.

On Thursday 30 primary 6 children represented the school at Ravenscraig Sports facility. They took part in Sportshall Athletics where they had the opportunity to experience a variety of track and field events. They all worked together as part of Team Cathedral and cheered on each member of the team. A huge ‘well done’ to Primary Six who willingly forfeited their Golden Time to prepare for the event.

The atmosphere was electric as the children won races, jumped high and far and threw a great distance. As always the behaviour was excellent and they were all great ambassadors for the school. A huge thanks to Mrs MM Murphy and Mr R Leach (Team Coaches) – we are indebted to them.

This was the first outing for our lovely new Team Jackets kindly provided by our Fabulous Fundraisers, Team Cathedral was the smartest team there!

Friday morning we celebrated a unique Mass in our school where our new altar was blessed and dressed . Huge thanks to Fr Millar, Deacon Tom and the Parishioners of Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Church who provided this beautiful gift to our school. A photograph of our altar is on the front of our newsletter coming out on Monday. It was wonderful to see so many parishioners come along to join our celebration of Mass, I’m sure they were very impressed by our Primary Two pupils who led the Mass. Primary Two were magnificent, they read, they led the offertory, they sang and they prayed with confidence, self belief and a wonderful reverence. Congratulations Primary Two you must be so proud of this great achievement. I am very proud of you all.

Meanwhile on-going all week have been rehearsals for our forthcoming Christmas Extravaganzas. Mrs McCoy, all the staff in P1 to P3, all of our support staff and every child in our infant department has been busy working, dancing, singing, sewing, performing, glueing, stapling………I could go on.

Gabriel’s Big Break promises to be a superb show, the children love it ( so do we). I would like to say a particular thanks to our classroom assistants and our ASN staff who work tirelessly in the background ensuring every child has what they need, they decorate the stage they make props and costumes and all the time fulfilling their usual daily duties in school. They are a group of staff without whom our school would be so much worse off. I am indebted to them for the time they give to each and every one of our pupils welfare. The pastoral care they provide is outstanding and the contribution they make to the wider life of the school is unique. Thanks girls I really appreciate all you do.

Nursery this week had to do without the care of Mrs Murphy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as she was off training to be a Forest Kindergarden Trainer. I am so looking forward to our nursery setting up their Forest Kindergarden, a wonderful outdoor learning experience for our youngest pupils, and one, which I am sure our older pupils will also take on board. However there were lots of happy children on Thursday when Mrs Murphy returned, here’s her blog:

The topic Light and Dark continues and the children are discovering more about the differences between them.
In the numeracy area they used the interactive wall to place pictures in the right order of their daily routines and at what time of the day the routines take place. They continued to explore the lightbox tracing owls and other nocturnal animals.

Outdoors they turned the dark den into a nest for the owl babies to live in and re-enacted the story of the “Owl Babies” using it. they also used the chunky chalk to tell the story on the ground.

In the literacy area they continued with fine detailed drawings of the story and made stories up about what their own mummies do for them. They also used the puppets to retell the story in the cosy corner.

Over in the expressive arts area the children painted a huge mummy owl for the display on the wall. She is in full flight sweeping down silently through the forest just like she does in the story. They painted their own owls and did chalk drawings of owls.

In the snack area the children are still preparing and discussing a variety of hot foods that keep you warm over the winter. This week they have made soup, spaghetti and toast and hot chocolate.

On Friday the children took part in a wee early St Andrew’s day Shindig where they sang Scottish songs, danced a few reels and the Highland Fling wearing their tartan sashes. They made Scottish flags and had lovely shortbread for snack. The children filled their floorbooks with lots of information about Scottish traditions.

As always, thanks for reading, please let us know your thoughts, we’d love to hear from you.

Mrs Shields