This week in school our Pope Francis Faith Award candidates from primaries six and seven had the opportunity to ‘question’ (grill) Mgr. Millar on all aspects of his own faith life. Many thanks to Fr Millar for being so open and honest with our young people, he was delighted with the quality of questions asked and the intensity of our candidates interest in his life as a priest.

Well done to Mrs McLaughlan and Mrs Carr who are leading our young people through this most prestigious award.

 

Following a trial revision of our homework policy I sent a questionnaire to all parents/carers this week asking for views on all aspects of homework. Many thanks to all who took the time to complete and return the questionnaire – your views are very important and I look forward to feeding back all the information gathered. This coming week I will ask for responses from staff and pupils. All returns will be collated and available on our web site after the Easter break. I will also letter each parent/carer with any changes we decide upon.

On Tuesday the long awaited cross country final arrived. The atmosphere was electric as the individual runners and teams set off up the ‘ Hill of Doom’ which is a killer at the start of the race. The P5 girls set off first and Carlina McCarthy secured 4th place in her first ever final. Well done Carlina.
The distance in the final is always longer than in the trials but most of the athletes were able to complete the course a great achievement for all who took part. Liam McQuaid P6 romped home in 1st place for the 2nd year in a row as did Joey Leach in the P7 race. Well done to all athletes who took part on the day their efforts at training paid off. A big thank you to all coaches who give up their time to train the children in all weather conditions.

The cross country after school club is now finished for the year but please encourage your children to KEEP ON RUNNING.

On Thursday I was invited to attend The Patronal Feast Day Mass in Our Lady’s High, this was a lovely event and it is always fabulous to see our young pupils all grown up and continuing to be such successful learners.

Special mention has to be given to Beth Cunningham (former pupil & John’s big sister) who played a solo clarinet piece during the offertory procession, Beth is an accomplished musician, and her playing was outstanding.

 

Thursday we welcomed Mrs Marina Gillespie to our school, Mrs Gillespie spent the day in P6a preparing to take over as class teacher (Monday and Tuesdays) after Easter.

This coming week Miss Jillian Green will spend the day in P2a, in preparation for after Easter when she will take over as class teacher whilst Mrs Loose welcomes her new wee addition.

 

This week in school our focus has been on finishing our Lenten Alms Giving with a flourish. A HUGE thanks to all children, parents and staff for their devotion through prayer, their endeavor to commit to ‘giving something up’ and their generosity in alms giving.

 

Primary 4b visited Mission Place home for the elderly sharing their talents and skills entertaining and ‘having a wee chat’ with all the residents. Well done to Miss Stack and her great wee class.

 

Miss Stack also visited St. Luke’s church this week fro morning Mass, she took with her the Enterprise committee who were delivering food hampers to be distributed to those in need.

 

The food hampers were made up from all the food donated during our Lenten Appeal. We were overwhelmed with the response and have collated 53 food hampers – absolutely fantastic. The hampers have been distributed throughout Motherwell helping many people young and old.

 

A HUGE well done to Miss Stack and all the classroom assistants and additional support needs assistants who made up all the hampers. This wonderful group of ladies work tirelessly behind the scenes providing support in all aspects of school life. We would be lost without them.

 

Our Lenten journey has been a great learning curve for all and we finished this week with a wonderful assembly from Primary Five who took us on an exotic journey through many different religious festivals. The assembly really demonstrated how confident and versatile our children are on stage, their commitment to ensuring all enjoyed every aspect of their assembly was commendable. Well done to all in Primary Five and particular thanks to Mrs McCarthy, Mrs Devanney, Mrs Blaney and Miss Mooty.. Poor Miss Mooty had to miss out on the finale due to jury duty.

 

As stated in the title, this will be my final blog until after the Easter break, on behalf of all in our school and nursery community I wish you a happy and holy Easter and look forward to our final term of the year and (hopefully) some sunny days ahead.

 

Here’s the final nursery blog for this session, again a big thanks to Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy who provides the nursery blog each week.

Group Activities:
This week the children have been involved in some Easter crafts in prepartion for our forthcoming Easter Fayre next week. To see what they have been making please come along and have a look. There will be a stall in the playroom selling all their hard work. There will also be a raffle any raffle prizes can be handed to any member of saff.

The Nursery Rhyme Theme continued this week with Little Bo Peep.

In expressive arts they have been busy all week painting in great detail Bo Peep and her sheep. They used pictures and followed the fine details to produce a fantastic display which can be seen in the art area.

Outside they have been playing a variety of counting games. They have used positional language to navigate round an obstacle course and they have been cleaning up the garden in preparation for planting after the Easter holidays.

In numeracy they continue to explore the SmartBoard to sing, dance and role-play a variety of nursery rhymes.

In literacy they worked together to produce their own Nursery Rhyme big books which are available to read in the library. at the end of the week they produced some fantastic Easter words and pictures look out for these coming home next week.

In snack they continue to choose and prepare a variety of healthy foods. The home corner still resembles a Dr’s surgery with the children continuing to roleplay Doc Mc Stuffin and her friends who clearly are committed to fixing Jacks head and Humpty Dumpty’s shell!

The 2nd week of the ‘Growing Together learning Forever Programme’ continued with the subject of Healthy Eating. The parents had a discussion about healthy foods and eating habits then had the opportunity to make a fruit kebab, a quick and easy activity that children love to be involved in. Children often try different foods if they have been involved in choosing and preparing them. Feedback already has been positive with one parent reporting that they made pizzas which had been discussed during the session and both her children chose what to put on it and ate it all.

The first Forest Kindergarten block is coming to an end with this Wednesday being the last day. All parents have been invited to join the children in exploring the site and a short Graduation ceremony will take place at Base Camp. All pictures, drawings and children’s experiences are recorded in the Forest Kindergarten floorbook which is in the cloakroom.

The second block will start after the Easter holidays and the letters have been issued to parents of the children on this block. Please return the parental consent form as soon as possible. Preparation for the next block will start this week with the children learning safety games, rules and boundaries. Unfortunately Susan Rutherford the Greenlink Ranger will no longer be accompanying the children as she has been made redundant. The children gave her a great send off with a lovely card and chocolates for all her help in setting up the site for our use. If you can spare some time on a Wednesday please let a member of staff know.

 

As always – thanks for reading.

Mrs Shields