Our inaugural World of Work week was a magnificent success. Our children from Primary One to Primary Seven had numerous opportunities to witness first hand a vast range of occupations. A HUGE thanks to Miss Lynsey Stack who organised all of the events, the timetable and the whole co-ordination of the week, a wonderful example of distributive leadership within our school.

Photographs below depict a taste of the variety of learning experiences our children enjoyed. All work on our Good Work Wall this week pertains to the successes of the week.

More photographs to come.

Meanwhile this current week in school has continued in busy, busy mode. Our children all enjoyed a Shorts & Shades (and cardigans) Disco courtesy of our Fabulous Fundraisers, huge thanks to all pupils, parents and staff who came along to support this bi-annual venture. Thanks also to our resident DJ Mr David Cluckie.

Our Bag 2 School was collected on Friday. With the help of our eager ECO committee we loaded up the van with an impressive amount of filled bags. Thanks to all who contributed – we will let you know how much we have raised.

Also this week we welcomed parent helpers to assist with our P7 pupils going to the Cathedral to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation. Both Fr. Millar and Canon O’Mahony commented most favourably on the children’s knowledge of the sacrament, their devotion to their faith and their excellent behaviour. Well done Primary Seven, great ambassadors for our school.

Primary 6 & 7 all enjoyed a range of workshops provided by Child Line, thanks to all who came along to deliver these important messages to ensure all of our children remain safe and well both in school and at home.

Primary 4/5 and Primary 4b enjoyed a fabulous day out at Sky Studios this week where they had opportunity to make a TV programme all of their own. Having seen the finished products I am most impressed. The children all held important roles in the production of the pieces and all loved the experience. A great example of contextualised learning.

Here’s some photos of the day:

Friday we hosted our regular football tournament. This week we welcomed teams from Knowetop Primary, St. Teresa’s Primary and Our Lady & St. Francis Primary. Our teams did us proud winning all of their matches and only conceding one goal. Well done to Mr McBirnie (AKA Willie the football man) and to our footballers. We look forward to the annual award ceremony this coming Wednesday.

Some photographs of the event:

And now to the nursery……

The farm topic continues and this week the children have been listening to songs and stories all about the farm. From this they have created some larger farm animals in the art area and they painted a big green tractor using recycled boxes. This will be completed and displayed next week. A bale of straw has been delivered and the children are exploring this in the sandtray matching and naming the animals they find hidden in it.

The farm shop goes from strength to strength and has now expanded to include a cafe. The children were asked what kind of food they could serve in the cafe and they came up with toasties, scones and lentil soup. As the week progressed they made toasties and delicious scones with jam. Baking is always a popular activity and the children weighed the ingredients and poured, stirred and used the cutters to make their scone shapes.

The literacy area has had a revamp and a much cosier area has been created for reading and a bigger area for writing and drawing in. The children have been listening to stories about farm machinery and learning the names of them. They continued to write their own farmyard stories and these have been collated and made into a book.

In the numeracy area they have been looking at the different sizes of the animals on the farm and measuring the machinery using an interactive game on the SmartBoard. Big construction has been added to the construction area so that they can create their own machinery. Although this is a small area of the playroom it is always a busy popular area where the children can show off their creative sides by using a variety of construction materials to enhance their play.

Outdoors our new planters have arrived and are now full of soil ready for planting this week. The children have been exploring the new areas that have been created in the garden by our garden gang on Groundforce day. The children had great fun making their very own Cathedral scarecrow for our new neat and tidy garden. They stuffed him with old clothes and recycled materials. We hope he will keep the birds away!

The science area has been relocated so that everyone can watch the tadpoles grow. The children have been using the magnifying glasses to see the transformation. A few of our tadpoles have now got legs and are sitting on the big rock in the tank. The children created a tadpole diary and are recording the changes and watching them grow each week. We also have a snail who joined the nursery last week and the children have been caring for him too. The grass heads that the children planted a few weeks ago have already had a haircut they have grown so fast.

Graduation preparation is well under way and the invitations will go out to all on Monday.

The final block of Forest Kindergarten is going well with 4 parent helpers on board. All have been enjoying the great outdoors with their children. An area of our currculum board has now been set aside to show all parents/carers what the children, staff and helpers get up to in the forest. The Forest Kindergarten floorbook will remain in the cloakroom showing all of the learning that goes on during the sessions each week.

 

As always, thanks for reading, feel free to comment.

Mrs Shields