Our first week in September had many happy events but also a couple of sad occurrences. Our janitor Mr Bulloch’s mum sadly passed away last week and our football coach, Mr McBirnie lost his wife last week. We keep both gentlemen and their families in our thoughts and prayers. My grateful thanks to our P7 pupils who offered to represent our school pupils at Mrs McBirnie’s funeral Mass, they were excellent ambassadors for our school and Mr McBirnie greatly appreciated their attendance.
Thanks to all parents and carers for the ‘perfect’ pupils who all came to school on Tuesday for their class photographs, I’m sure you’ll be delighted with the photographs. John Wilson and his team commented on how well our pupils behaved and how happy they all were, a lovely reflection of our school.
On Thursday we welcomed Fr. Bruce McPhail to our school. Fr. McPhail is the new assistant priest at Cathedral Church. We were delighted he could come along to celebrate our Patronal Feast Day (8th September – Our Lady’s Birthday). We celebrated a beautiful Mass, the first Mass of our school year and all enjoyed a lovely long play afterwards. Fr. McPhail commented on how reverent and engaged our pupils were during the Mass and he loved their singing, another lovely reflection of our school.
This is the first time we have celebrated our Feast Day at this time of the year, originally it was 8th December, Feast of the Annunciation. However, this time of year we found it was often overshadowed by Christmas preparations. We are keen to build on our Feast Day celebrations and are already planning next years! Our children really enjoyed celebrating Our Lady’s birthday as a school community.
On Friday I attended OLHS Patronal Feast Day, also moved to 8th September! Both Mr Cardle and I remarked on this coincidence. It is a lovely way to join our two school communities.
Friday morning was our first coffee morning of the year and what a busy coffee morning it was! As you will have seen from our school App an incredible £680 was raised. A huge thanks to all who came along and supported Primary 5 in their coffee morning. Thanks also to those who donated raffle prizes and delicious home baking. A most successful morning.
HOWEVER we are indebted to our coffee morning parent/carers who came along to organise the whole event. We were very short of helpers for this very busy morning, could I ask you to consider offering your services for the next coffee morning (and bring a friend). We love joining with the local community and all of our parent forum to enjoy time together but we cannot do this without an abundance of helpers. Please consider helping out. Details of all coffee morning dates are on our annual events calendar issued last week. An online version is also available on our website. Here’s a wee snapshot of the morning:
Meanwhile our nursery continues to deliver excellent teaching and learning to all of our youngest pupils. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs M M Murphy:
The children continue to learn and recall our nursery rules/routines. This week the children were introduced to the ‘Golden Characters’ who help them to remember these rules.
Walking Woody Reminds the children to walk in nursery to keep safe.
Listening Lady Helps the children to improve on their listening skills.
Sharing Shimmer Promotes good sharing and turntaking.
Caring Cinderella Helps them to care for all the children and the toys in the playroom.
Tidy Thomas When the tidy song comes on Tidy Thomas encourages group tidying and looks out for good tidiers.
All these characters can be seen on the wall in the nursery. Feel free to discuss these characters at home and use them if beneficial.
Outdoors this week the children went on a ‘Golden Character’ hunt in the garden. A most positive way to remember the characters names and what they stand for.
In literacy they have been discussing the characters and drawing pictures of them.
In numeracy the children have been discussing their nighttime routines by using a visual board and pictures. They have been sequencing their very own night routines.
As the children get more familiar with the staff they have been painting their portraits throughout the week. Look out for these in the cloakroom next week. They have also used the playdough to create different facial features.
In snack the children continue to learn the snack routine.
As part of our daily routine our toothbrushing programme started this week. The children are encouraged to brush their teeth each day with the magic toothpaste. This helps the children to learn the importance of keeping their teeth healthy and strong.
Wednesday was a very eventful day in nursery. The first Forest Kindergarten block started in our new site down the Greenlink and the children had fun exploring the site on such a lovely day. Photgraphic evidence is on the Forest wall in the cloakroom and in the Forest floorbook.
Back in the nursery the children were taking part in a tennis session with Marcus and Emma the Tennis coaches. The children used their listening skills to follow the instructions and the games played aimed to improve their hand to eye coordination skills.These sessions will continue for another 3 weeks.
Our first ‘Play on Pedals’ block is now complete. Three children are now off pedaling with no stabilisers. Mrs Imray is very proud of their achievements. Here’s a wee snapshot of their week:
Another busy and successful week, please let us know your thoughts. All comments welcome and appreciated.
Mrs Shields
