Welcome to our first monthly Blog.
Throughout the month of May we have been very busy:
Encouraging our pupils to stay safe, our Primary 6 & Primary 7 pupils enjoyed a Road Safety Show aimed at promoting safety for those young people who are out and about on their own. A wonderful way to promote personal safety.
During this first week in May Primary Four hosted their first ever Coffee Morning. A super time was had by all and they raised a very impressive £503.67
On May 9th our Primary One pupils excelled themselves by leading their first ever Mass in school, and what a beautiful Mass this was, well done to all of our Primary One pupils ( and their teachers).
Primary Four enjoyed a beautiful sunny Saturday in may to celebrate their First Holy Communion, this was the first time we had opted to host both Masses on the same day. It was a very successful venture and will be repeated next year. First Holy Communion 2020 Masses will be held on Saturday 16th May at 11.00am and 2.oopm. As always parents, carers select which Mass they would prefer. All parents/carers were requested to forward this information using our ‘forms’ in our App by 31st May.
Madame Ali has, once again, enjoyed great success at the North Lanarkshire Council 1+2 Awards. Four pupils attended the award ceremony with many more receiving certificates of excellence. Well done to all:
Our choir was asked to participate in the annual Christian Aid Concert, this was a wonderful celebration of talent across Motherwell all coming together to help a very worthy cause. The choir sounded exceptional on the night and thanks to the huge number of supporters we played a key role in raising the amazing amount of £1783.00. WOW!
Clyde in The Classroom Competition Winners!
The children set off on their adventure down to the South Calder, accompanied by 5 scientists. To start off the day, they got to witness how scientists sample a river using electrofishing. More importantly, the children got to see a close up view of some of the different species of fish in our river.
The children were then challenged to identify some of the different trees growing in our park by using their leaves. This was followed by an exciting mapping experience, whereby the children had to map out an area of the park. Then the most favoured activity of the day took place: kick sampling. The children got to walk around in the river and collect some invertebrates which were later brought back to the classroom to be classified.
The children had a spectacular day and were commended by the scientists for their wonderful enthusiasm and participation. It will certainly not be forgotten anytime soon!
Once again our pupils had opportunity to take part in the major cycling event hosted in Motherwell. Our cyclists enjoyed a lovely sunny day and organisers commented our pupils were the ‘best behaved pupils’. Well done to all involved.
Here’s some snaps of the day:
The month of May welcomed our newest pupils and their families to our school. Our Primary One Inductions were a great success. Parents/carers commented most favourably on the presentations from staff and (most importantly) from our current Primary One pupils. Well done and thank you to Oliver Yardley P1a, Charlie Hughes P1b and Cillian Colbert P1c. All three pupils were excellent ambassadors for our school.
Primary 2 assembly entertained everyone as they took us on a journey ‘Under the Sea’. A fabulous learning opportunity and a great chance for all in Primary 2 to show off their many talents and skills. Great work Primary Two, you made us all very proud.
A wee sneaky peek:
Following on from this a HUGE range of pupils entertained parents and carers with their wonderful musical talents at our Magical Musical Morning. This was a great display of the on-going work in our school. Congratulations to:
Here are some picture highlights:
Our bi-annual school disco took place on Tuesday 28th May, once again a great success and enjoyed by all. Shorts ‘n Shades was the theme, although in true Scottish style we had to add a wee jumper or two!
On Thursday 30th May we celebrated the great Feast of the Ascension with a wonderful Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church. Well done to our Primary Five pupils who led the liturgy with reverence and respect.
On-going within our school are a large number of after school and lunch time clubs. One of the ‘hot favourites’ just now is our STEM lunchtime Club where older pupils have opportunity to lead the learning and develop skills for work, here’s Jack’s view:
Primary 4 S.T.E.M Club With Mrs McDerment
Who can build the strongest bridge?
Connor Brennan and I helped the primary fours to build robust and durable bridges across a gap and ones that were able to hold up a car! After seeing the final product the two bridges had a lot of similarities but also lots of differences.
The bridges could support different weights. The bridges could hold 1 or 2 cars. The bridges the children created took 15 to 20 minutes to make. The children had very different ideas. They made a few bridges and some of them didn’t work at first but they kept trying and then succeeded. The children were very co-operative and listened to advice from Connor and me.
Jack J.Dobbin
Our final event in May was our annual CaFi Football Presentation. Our football is a joint initiative with our friends and neighbours in Firpark. Our fabulous Friday footballers were commened today for being ACE:
A = Attitude
C = Commitment
E = Enthusiasm
The recipe for a perfect team.
A huge thanks to Mr Martin Miller, Football Academy Coach, who came along to motivate and inspire our footballers. Thanks also to Mr McBirnie (Willie) our wonderful football coach.
Moving On…….
During the month of June our children will have opportunity to spend an afternoon in their new classes with their new classmates and new teacher. The children will come home with a not of their class and their new teacher.
In August we say a fond farewell to three teaching staff members:
Mrs Carr will leave us after many years of excellent service to our school. Mrs Carr has worn many ‘hats’ in our school, initially as a parent and a member of the support staff and laterally as an outstanding class teacher.
Mrs Blaney will also leave us after many years of wonderful service to our school, Mrs Blaney has been class teacher since 2001. Over the last year Mrs Blaney has been teaching marvellous music across the school.
Both Mrs Carr and Mrs Blaney have been exceptional staff members who will be sorely missed by all. As a school we offer grateful thanks for their work and their dedication to inspiring the pupils in our school. I am sure you join me in our thanks.
Miss Coughlan has been with us for two years, this has been her first two years of teaching and in this short time she has shown herself to be a skilled staff member who has motivated and inspired her pupils. Miss Coughlan is returning home to Ireland, we’re really sad to see her go but her mum is delighted to have her daughter home!
In August we welcome Mrs Carroll and Mr O’Brien to our school as new staff members. We hope they enjoy working with our fabulous pupils in our wonderful school.
Such a busy month!
Meanwhile down in the nursery….. here’s what’s been happening this week:
This month has been a busy month as children learn all about Spring and the life cycle of a plant. After a very successful Groundforce day the children have been busy planting a range of flowers and vegetables both inside our greenhouse and outside in our big planters. They continue to nurture them and are busying recording their growth. From these activities the children are confidently naming the different parts of a plant and recalling what they need to make them grow.
They have used a range of collage and paint to make flowers for the big display and even made their own personal plant pots which are proudly displayed on our learning wall. In snack they used fruit and vegetables to create the various parts of a plant and then had the opportunity to eat what they had made.
In numeracy they have been exploring new life on the farm and have been matching the animals to their young while expanding their knowledge and language skills.
In literacy they listened to the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’ and used the props to retell the story. They expanded on this by creating their own pictures to make a big story book. These are available to read each day in the story corner.
The final Forest Kindergarten block finished last week and we had a record number of parents/carers who attended the graduation in the forest. The parents/carers who attended all added their own comments to the forest floorbook in the cloakroom. Please take a minute to read their fabulous comments.
We have had some new loose parts delivered and the children are using their imaginations and their creativity to design their own artwork using them.
Outdoors we have also had some new resources delivered. A brand new sandpit and a new bridge have been added to our existing outdoor resources and the children will have the opportunity to explore them in the coming weeks.
Watch out for our special ‘Challenge of the week’ stickers as we challenge all our children in the last few weeks of their learning.
A reminder that ‘Big Bonanza Day’ takes place on Wednesday and letters have been issued to inform parents/carers of the format of the day.
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading our new monthly blog, please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment or two.
Mrs Shields
Thank you for all that wonderful info in the monthly blog. It is such a busy place with loads of different ways for the children to learn. The magical musical morning was fantastic, such a huge range of talent in the school and it’s a great way for children from different years to work together.