I begin 2017 by wishing everyone connected to our school community a healthy, happy new year.

It was lovely on Monday to see all of our pupils from nursery through to Primary 7 all enjoying re-uniting with their friends and our staff.

As always we began our week as a community of faith and learning joining together in prayer and making our first big decision of the year.

As a school we decided on Monday at assembly that our resolution for this coming year would be to endeavour to be happier in school and to make sure we show our happiness on our faces. A smiley new year resolution for all in our school community.

Just before the Christmas break our Health Committee had all our pupils invovled in an anti-bullying competition, the winners posters are now displayed all around the school at pupil height for everyone to see. Well done to all involved and a huge thanks to Mrs Loose, Miss Love and our wonderful health Committee. We all enjoyed celebrating with our winners at a special anti-bullying assembly. Here’s some of the lucky winners.

We welcomed 3 new pupils to our school and between now and February we are welcoming our final 10 nursery pupils. Let’s hope all who are new to our school community enjoy a warm welcome and a happy smile greets them wherever they are in our campus.

Throughout the week our pupils have been getting used to early mornings where it is still dark when they leave the house. With this in mind our ibike committee has been busy planning our forthcoming ‘Be Bright be Seen’ High Viz Day. I met with the committee members and Mrs Carr during the week and we discussed how best to take this forward. I was most impressed by our children’s innovative approach to ensuring everyone arrives safely at school no matter their chosen method of transport. High Viz Day is planned for Friday 27th January.

Also during this week I met with Mrs Duffy and Jenny, our active sports co-ordinator, to plan our celebration for our recent Gold Sports Award, another great day planned for our pupils to celebrate their fabulous success. This will take place on 31st January.

On Wednesday morning Mrs Campbell and myself took some of our pupils to Cathedral Church for 10am Mass to welcome Fr Chromy to our Parish. The children selected had already volunteered to participate in the forthcoming Family Mass this Sunday at 10.30am. Fr Chromy was delighted to see the children there and we look forward to working with him to provide an excellent spiritual journey for our children.

Our P6 Pope Francis faith Award children also began an important step in their programme which will continue over the next 2 years.

This coming week we look forward to welcoming our new intake for this coming August, enrolment takes place each day between 1.30pm and 3.00pm.

On Tuesday of this week our Primary Three children will be enrolled in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There is a workshop for parents/carers at 1.45pm with the Enrolment Service beginning at 2.15pm. My thanks, in advance to Miss Cawley for leading this workshop and Fr. Chromy for leading the Enrolment Service. This will be Fr Chromy’s first official duty in our school.

That same evening we will welcome all of our P6 & P7 Confirmandi pupils, their parents/carers and sponsors to O.L.G.A Cathedral Church for our Confirmandi Enrolment Mass at 7pm. Another date for Fr Chromy’s diary! Poor man, it’s a busy life being connected to our school, but a very rewarding one.

Meanwhile, our youngest pupils have ad a very busy first week back. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs MM Murphy:

Welcome back to all of our children and a HUGE welcome to the children who have joined us this week. All new children are settling in well.

After returning from our holidays we have all came back down to earth with a BIG bump but don’t worry because we won’t be there for long. Our new topic this term is Space.

The children have been discussing what they all ready know about Space and what they would like to learn about.

In literacy they read a story ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ from this they designed their own Aliens, watch out for these soon. They looked at space related words using visuals and by next week they will be recalling and writing them for the display. The children have been learning some new songs and have been following the action songs on the Smartboard.

In numeracy they made rockets from a range of 2d shapes. They used the construction to make their own space ship and helmets. They sat in the space ship and counted down 10 to Blast off. Some children opted for the big carpet shape tiles to create their own rocket, then used the helmets to roleplay Spacemen. They have also been exploring the rocket jigsaws.

In Expressive arts they designed their own underpants from the story and some of these have made it on to the number washing line in the maths area. They used a variety of art materials to make their own flying saucers and drew their own Aliens on them. These can be seen displayed in the art area. They painted 2 huge big rockets for the display. They have been busy exploring moon rocks in the water tray and making stars from playdough.

The house corner is beginning to change into our very own Space station, this is a work in progress and the children will be working on mission control next week. (Completely made from junk)

Outdoors the children have been sharing their ideas for our outdoor area, they made some planets from junk and are planning to make their own Solar System outdoors. This all came to a halt when the snow arrived. Have a look at the fun they had on Thursday.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, hope you enjoyed it. Let us know your thoughts, please leave a comment.

Mrs Shields