And What a week it has been – absolutely fantastic!

Who’s who?

Our new personnel are:

Miss Jillian Green in P7

Miss Nicole Mooty in P1

Miss Lesley Murray in our nursery

Mrs Marie Seggie in our office

We hope they all enjoyed their first week with us and we welcome them to our team.

We also welcome back a few ‘well kent’ faces:

Miss Stephanie Love in P6

Mrs Colette Laird in P3

Mrs Jacqueline Carr in P2

Mrs Leanne Tominey in our nursery

Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy in our nursery

Mrs Joyce Couper as Additional Support Needs Assistant

Mrs Joanna Majewska as Additional Support Needs Assistant

We are really pleased to welcome back the above named staff who all show great committment to our school, I am delighted to have retained their services.

We welcomed our 61 new Primary one pupils for their first full week in school. You would readily believe they have been at school for a year at least. They are a wonderful group of children who have show their readiness for school through their enjoyment of learning, their adaptation to routine and their fabulous uniforms. A big thanks to all of our parents for the attention given to our uniform. Every child in the school is in full school uniform, they are a credit to you as parents and great ambassadors for our school. 100% uniform – long may it continue.

We began our week by saying a fond farewell to 58 of our P7 pupils, Mrs Loose, Miss Mullen, Miss Green, Mrs Woodlock, Mrs Harrison and Mr Cuthbert (Emily and Jayden’s dad) as we waved them off to Kilbowie in Oban. Each year our P7 pupils are allocated a week throughout the term to enjoy an outdoor learning experience and adventure week in North Lanarkshire’s outdoor facility in Oban. This year we were allocated the first week of term. I am delighted to report the children and adults all enjoyed a fantastic week skiiing, sailing, abseiling, rock climbing, mountain biking, hillwalking and so much more.

Staff reported the children’s behaviour throughout the week was exemplery, they all had a wonderful positive attitude to new challenges. Indeed the actual quote from staff is ‘they were game for everything’. Well done to all concerned. A HUGE thanks to our staff and volunteer parent who gave up their whole week to accompany the children; I am indebted to them.

A big thanks also to those P7 pupils who opted to remain behind, they proved themselves to be a great help in the younger classes and throughout the school.

On Wednesday of this week we were joined by Siobhan McMahon MSP and a number of medical personnel who provided us with a presentation of a new programme of work aimed at encouraging our children to be aware of skin safety. My thanks to Mrs Ann Munro and Mrs Pauline Findlay who came along to represent our parent forum. The programme looks like an excellent learning opportunity for our children both in school and in the nursery and it is our intention to ‘sign up’ to participate. Further details to follow.

As previously mentioned, we welcome Miss Lesley Murray to our nursery in the position of Senior Early Years Worker. Miss Murray replaces Miss Ann Russell who held the post on a temporary basis last year. I am sure Miss Murray will be an asset to our nursery team. My thanks to Miss Russell for all her work in our nursery last session and we wish her every success in her future career.

Meanwhile Mrs Murphy reports from down in the nursery…..

Last week was a busy week at nursery. We welcomed back our returning children and the children who have joined us from Calder nursery. They all looked fab after our long hot summer and were ready to take on their roles as buddies to our new children. As the week progressed we were joined by some of our new recruits and by the end of the week the settling in programme was well under way with the children starting to settle into the nursery routine. Photographs of the children exploring the playroom and the outside area can be seen on the wall of the cloakroom.
On Friday the children harvested some of the lettuce and broadbeans that they had planted last term and proudly took some of the produce home for their parents to see. The harvesting will continue into next week.

As always we welcome any comments on our blog, indeed we welcome any comments, thoughts or ideas on any aspect of our school and nursery. Please share your thoughts and ideas with us, we value your input. Working together gives us the excellent school and nursery environement we enjoy. Please continue to work with us to provide the best possible education for all of our children.

Mrs Shields