Welcome to our blog for this week.   We’ve not had many comments so far with our blogs this session, so a wee comment would be appreciated! (Mrs Shields, you’re ahead in the comment count!)

We have had another busy week in school.  On Monday, we welcomed Mr Robin Cairns, who is working with Primary 7c and Miss Green on a very exciting song writing project.  Mr Cairns will be working with the class to write the lyrics of their original song and over the coming weeks the class will also work with a graphic designer and a music teacher to create their very own song!  Here they are working on their song…

On Tuesday, we welcomed our parents and carers to our ‘Meet the Teacher’ evening.  This informal evening gives parents and teachers the opportunity to meet and discuss resources used in class.  Thank you to all those who came along to support this evening.

Wednesday saw our new Junior Road Safety Officers (Dylan McBride and Michael McGill) attending their induction morning, along with Mrs Carr.  This week the boys were set to work immediately, carrying out a survey in classes on how all our children make their way to school!  Well done JRSOs!  We have also been busy electing our other committee members; hopefully by next week we will be able to reveal our newly elected pupils!

Thursday proved to be an exciting day for our Primary 1 -3 pupils, as a Road Safety Magic show came to school.  The children ALL learned a great deal from the show, as well as being mesmerised by the magic on show.  Even Miss Kane said she couldn’t work out how the magic tricks were done!  Fabulous!

Our week rolled to a close on Friday with our first Coffee Morning of the year.  Our Primary 6 pupils were in charge and hosted a lovely morning.  Thank you to all those who donated prizes and edible goodies for the morning.  We managed to raise a grand total of £657.34 – a marvellous amount which will support school funds.  Thanks also to our fab coffee morning ladies, who despite being short in numbers, did a great job as always.  They are, however, looking for some more volunteers to help set up the coffee mornings.  We have 3 more coffee mornings throughout the year.  If you would be able to assist for any of these mornings (all Friday mornings), please let us know at the school office, or come along to our next Fundraisers meeting. 

We have also welcomed some new faces to our staffroom this week.  To Primary 6a we welcome Miss Lynn Andrew, who is on a student placement for 2 weeks with Mrs Laird.  We also welcome Mrs Devlin and Mrs Cassidy, who will be teaching in place of Mrs Irwin.  They will be working with all classes teaching music and we hope they enjoy  being part of our teaching staff.

Next week we have our first Parent Council meeting of the session on Monday.  Our school photographer will be in school on Tuesday (please ensure all children wear ‘shirt and tie’ uniform for their photos) and we look forward to our Primary 7 Assembly on Friday morning at 9.30am. 

And now to our nursery!

This week in nursery we welcomed Mrs Leeanne Kinnear an Early Years Practitioner who will join our nursery team every Wednesday. Mr Luke Crawford an Early Years student will be in nursery every Wednesday and Thursday on his placement from college and 2 OLHS pupils will be joining us every Thursday afternoon as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award.

A very sunny week had the whole nursery out enjoying the good weather and the fresh air. Who would have thought sunhats and sun block would be required in September!

The children and staff continue to discover more information about each other as we continue our theme of “All About Me” The family tree in the centre of the playroom continues to grow with family photographs that the children have brought in.
We learned this week the names of their new friends and how well they are getting to know the staff. They also described their emotions through a discussion of how they feel coming to nursery and then had the opportunity to describe how they actually get to nursery.

Outdoors this week the children were concentrating on measurement. They took part in a bean bag throw activity that involved measuring their own achievements using the chalked number metre chart. This activity also gives the children the opportunity to share and take turns. As the week progressed they harvested the broadbeans that they had planted in the Spring. They compared the sizes of the beans and put them in order of size, biggest to smallest. Our eco tasks are now underway and the children fed the birds, picked up the rubbish, watered the plants and tidied up the garden. These tasks are carried out on a weekly basis to enable all children to have an opportunity to keep our nursery as eco friendly as possible.

In expressive arts the children were busy making paper plate faces using a variety of collage materials, these can be seen displayed on the art wall. The junk modelling table is always a popular activity where children can use their imaginations and creativity to produce their models. In addition to this a booklet of photographs has been introduced to the children to help spark their imaginations. They can follow the step by step guide to make more detailed models from recycled materials. As an eco friendly nursery we recycle as much as possible.

As the weather was so good the children bathed the babies outside continuing to care and look after the babies in the home corner. In snack this week they had an opportunity to bake their own individual cakes. They measured out the correct amount of flour and sugar and mixed and poured into their own cake cases. Baking is another popular activity and this one concentrated on measuring the ingredients, following the instructions and turn taking.

Over in numeracy the dinosaur height chart is starting to take shape. The children painted on the height chart numbers using the measuring tape. They measured each other and their pictures will be placed on next week. On the Smartboard the children played a Curious George measuring game that compared size. The Ipads are used every day and the sand timer is used to promote sharing and turn taking.

In literacy the children were reading and discussing stories about mum and dad they then went on to create a display with quotes about what they liked about their own mum or dad. They also drew a huge detailed picture of a mum and dad and these can be seen on the writing wall. The music area is beginning to take shape and the children sang and acted out some favourite songs using the nursery instruments and some homemade instruments that they made themselves at the junk table.

On Thursday our 6 week Mini Movers programme started with a beautiful sunny day. This programme concentrates on the importance of healthy eating and exercise. The children were all given a piece of food and they had to give it the healthy thumbs up or thumbs down if not. Outside they concentrated on their ball skills following the instructions from Craig the coach. You can see from the photographs how well they got on. This is a fabulous programme and a great opportunity for our early learners to discover the importance of exercise and a good well balanced diet.