We began this week with a very special visitor to our Monday morning assembly. Cara McDonald from Yorkhill children’s hospital visited to thank our children for their ingenuity and generosity. Prior to Christmas P7a pupils asked to speak with me to ‘pitch an idea’. They wanted to set up a short term business with all of the proceeds going to the Little Hearts Foundation at Yorkhill Hospital. I was delighted with their ideas and their desire to help others, I readily agreed and business began. The product was ‘The Really Useful Cupcake’, each one individually designed and hand made by the pupils. The cupcakes were a huge success and the children found themselves making more and more to keep up with demand! Well done to P7a (and the other P7 classes who helped too) to Mrs Carr and to all who purchased the goods. They raised a total of £300 which was presented to Cara on Monday morning. A brilliant entrepreneurial learning experience.

Here are some of our P7 pupils with Mrs Carr and Cara McDonald.

Our week continued on a very successful mode with our Primary Three pupils and their families having opportunity to formally enrol for the Sacrament of First Reconciliation. All were treated to a practical workshop, ably led by Miss Cawley our newest Principal Teacher, and a beautiful, reflective enrolment service conducted by Mgr Miller. Please remember our Primary three pupils in your prayers as they prepare for this important step in their spiritual journey, we are very proud of them all.

Wednesday evening we held our Fundraisers meeting (6pm – earlier than usual). Thanks to all of our wonderful fundraisers who do such a magnificent job to benefit all of our children. On Wednesday night they presented a cheque for £750 to assist each of our P7 pupils with the cost of Kibowie Outdoor Centre week, this is a great bonus for all of our P7 pupils and is greatly appreciated.

A wee plea – we are really short of coffee morning helpers. Our next coffee morning is Friday 4th March beginning at the earlier time of 10am. If you could assist in any way please let us know, we need you.

Later on Wednesday evening a large number of our staff attended the Annual Education Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral. This was a most spiritually uplifting Mass celebrated by Bishop Toal and many priests of the Diocese who are involved with schools. It was also lovely to see so many of our children as altar servers on this evening. Well done to Laila Davis, Katie Hendry, Emma Maughan and Abbie Maughan. Great to see some of our former pupils on the altar too – Ciaran Hendry and Raymond Ron.

Over Thursday and Friday all of our P1 and P7 pupils have been smiling widely! This is due to their annual dental check being carried out. Delighted to report a clean bill of health for many of our pupils, however, some have to think carefully about their sugar intake and how often they take time to brush their teeth.

Meanwhile down in the nursery, here’s the gossip…..

This week the children continue to discuss their pets and in literacy they have been telling stories of their pets. These have been placed on the pet wall the furthest away wall in the corner of the nursery. They are worth a visit so please have a look!
They also completed a sign for the Nursery Rhyme wall and if you look closely you will see that they used a variety of patterns for the letters. This was so much fun that they went on to make a sign for the pet wall from animal print collage. The interest in animals is growing and the children have moved onto wild animals. The children continue to look at patterns on their clothes and in the environment.

In numeracy they discussed the different patterns on a range of animals and placed some wild animals with patterns in the science area which has had a makeover. They played wild animal lotto listening for the sounds of animals in the wild and made patterns using different coloured beads. They used the construction to follow the patterns.

The pet shop continues to be popular and they made more pet food this week as it was flying off the shelves! must have been a buy one get one free promotion! They designed a pet shop sign and the children got busy role-playing the owner and customer in the shop and exploring pretend money. They discussed in their floorbooks how to look after their pets at home and in the pet shop.

In snack they made patterned pizzas and devoured them.

Outdoors this week was a bit challenging with the high winds but the children did manage out on a few occasions where they built Humpty Dumpty’s wall and roleplayed the nursery rhyme. They also looked for patterns outside and used the big chunky chalk to create their own patterns on the ground.

The art area has been a hive of activity this week with the theme being patterns. The children had the opportunity to make marbling patterns which turned out fantastic, roller patterns, tartan patterns and playdough wild animal patterns where they had to create the spots for the leopard, stripes for the zebra and giraffe patterns. The children have been so busy that the display is full of their hard work.

In science the children took part in an activity in which they made pretend snow they explored this with great gusto. A messy activity is always a popular one well done to out student for providing the children with this opportunity.

On Tuesday we had a visitor from the ABC music programme who spent all morning with the children introducing them to new parts of the programme. Mrs McFadden was very impressed with the children’s knowledge of the instruments and of previous musical activities that Mrs Imray and some of the staff had provided for the children from the programme. This is a great resource and the children enjoy participating in the fun activities. Many of the activities have helped the children to listen for rhyming words and listening to the beat and the patterns of music which helps them build their knowledge of the different patterns of language.

And here’s the photos: