Today we were delighted to share in the third and final celebration of First Holy Communion, over this weekend we have enjoyed two celebrations over Saturday and Sunday. Well done to all Primary Four (and five) children who met Jesus in this new and exciting way for the first time. Both celebrations were beautiful, spiritual and respectful. It was lovely for so many of our staff to share in your special day. Thanks, as always, to Mgr Millar who supports our children (and staff) in so many ways. Thanks also to Canon O’Mahony, the busiest retired priest we’ve ever known! and to Deacon Tom.

Huge thanks to class teachers; Miss McAvoy, Miss Stack & Mrs McCarthy who have worked so hard to make this such a memorable occasion for our children. Thanks to all of the staff who have come along to support our children. This demonstrates the great commitment our staff give to the spiritual development and faith journey of our children.

This week has been a busy one in school, on Wednesday all of our P4 (and P5 from P4/5) enjoyed a full day at Carfin Grotto, celebrating Mass, the Rosary and Benediction. A lovely day was had by all. Thanks to our parent helpers who came along to assist with our children – we are so very grateful for your time and enthusiasm for all we do in school.

Throughout this week our Primary four and Primary Five children have enjoyed Money workshops, led by a team of financial specialists who aim to show our pupils the value of money and the importance of undertanding the role of money in our society. This was a most successful initiative led this year by Miss Stack. Thanks to Miss Stack for her work.

On Tuesday of this week we welcomed our future Primary One pupils and their parents to the school for the very first time. Our pre-entrant programme got off to a fabulous start with all of the children quickly settling into their classes and working happily with Mrs Tominey. An enormous thanks to Mrs McCoy who gave a wonderful overview of ‘a day in the life of Primary One’, as an excellent practitioner Mrs McCoy provided a practical look at what the children will be learning and how they will learn. We look forward to welcoming all of our forthcoming P1s and their parents back this coming Tuesday.

Primary 6 & Primary 7 have begun their work with Childline beginning with an assembly for all senior pupils. This important element of health & well being is so beneficial to our young pupils and we are grateful to the personnel of Childline for their delivery. The pupils will now continue on to class based workshops approariate to their age and stage of development.

We welcomed Mrs Donnachie, Mrs Tulley, Mr Martin and some ‘well kent’ faces of our former pupils back this week to talk with Primary Seven about their forthcoming transition to High School. The transition process is a crucial element of our pupils preparation as tehy make this important step in their lives. Working closely with Our Lady’s High we endeavour to ensure our pupils make a smooth, worry free, transition to Secondary Education.

Ascension Thursday Mass was a wonderful celebration in our lovely Cathedral. Thanks to all who make this journey to church possible; Mgr Millar, Community Police, Parent helpers, staff and pupils. It is very improtant we continue to provide our children with the opportunity to worship in our church, even the weather shone kindly on us ( albeit a wee bitty cold). And well done to Primary One pupils who got a special mention from Mgr Millar from the altar for their enthusiastic singing of hymn choruses and Mass parts. Primary One pupils and staff were well chuffed!

On Friday Primary 5 held their annual Coffee Morning. Each year all of our upper stages have opportunity to serve our local community in this enjoyable, tasty manner. Thanks to all who contributed through donations, baking, serving and supporting – we couldn’t do it without you all.

I must give my apologies for not being present on Friday I was at North Lanarkshire Headquarters all day interviewing some Head Teacher posts -although an important element of my HT role I much prefer to be in school.

This coming 2 weeks are short ones (school is not open Friday 22nd and Monday 25th therefore there will be no blog next weekend. In advance I would like to say a HUGE thanks to Miss Stack who has organised a whole week of World of Work activities for this coming week. We begin on Monday by being hosts for the recording of ‘The Peter & Roughie Show’ with our footballers ( the lucky 35 whose names came out of the hat at assembly last Monday) becoming the audience. A most exciting happening.

Throughout this week Miss Stack has organised a variety of fabulous learning opportunities for every child in our school – the organisation of this is immense – well done Miss Stack I am really grateful to you for all of this hard work and endeavour to provide our whole school community with a wealth of talent and skills which otherwise they would not experience. Our next blog will be devoted to World of Work Week – watch out for the photographs coming soon.

In the nursery this week, the excitement continues….

A very busy week this week in nursery.

On Monday Freddie the Fairy Farmer visited the children to ask for their help to build a farmyard as the one he had wasn’t doing very well and the animals were missing and the fields had no fruit or vegetables in them.

The children quickly agreed to help him and starting providing ideas of how to help and their ideas were recorded on a mindmap which is on the wall of the cloakroom.
The children got busy with their ideas and in the art area started painting a farmyard scene which included animals and a barn for them to live in. You can see their efforts dotted throughout the playroom.

In the numeracy area they created their own farmyards in the ‘build your own farm’ game on the SmartBoard. Explored farmyard puzzles and matched baby animals to their mums.

In the writing area they created their own ‘Old MacDonald’ using paint and collage material. He is proudly displayed on the writing wall along with a variety of farmyard words that the children have written and a story all about him.

The house corner has been turned into a farm shop selling the produce from the fields and the children are buying and selling real potatoes, carrots, leeks and fruit. They have also started to cultivate their own produce on the window ledge which will be planted outside soon.

Outdoors they made a mindmap of how they can transform the outdoor area into a farm. This can also be seen in the cloakroom. They tidied up the garden for Groundforce day.

On Tuesday a miracle took place as Freddie the Farmer brought along a few little gifts for the children. Nine tiny tadpoles are now resident in the science area of the playroom and the children have been intrigued with them. The children will be responsible for the care of their new friends. The search for tadpoles is now over!

On Wednesday down in the forest the children from the 2nd block of Forest Kindergarten were proudly showing their parents and grannies the ropes. They celebrated by having a picnic and all received a graduation certificate to say that they had completed their forest experience. Please feel free to look at the Forest Kindergarten floorbook in the cloakroom which shows all the learning that goes on in the Great Outdoors.

The final block starts on Wednesday 20/5/15 and all children involved in this have been informed.

On Thursday we had our annual Groundforce day and all staff would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our budding gardeners who helped transform the garden in such a small space of time. Miss MacMillan was the driving force behind the transformation this year along with help from Mrs Little. Everyone enjoyed cake and a cuppa for their hard work. On Thursday afternoon some budding P6 gardeners joined the team and they worked very hard indeed a big thank you goes to them too. The children will be introduced to all the new areas that they can explore this week. Within the next few weeks some additional garden furniture will sit proud of place in the garden. During our big dig a huge caterpillar was found, we placed him in our caterpillar house along with some leaves fruit and water and hopefully we can all watch his transformation into a butterfly!

 

As always, thanks for reading. Please let us know you are out there! Comments always welcome.

Mrs Shields