Term Two here we are | Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral PS HT Blog

This week we welcomed everyone back to school and nursery following a very restful October break. Our Monday morning assembly was filled with a sea of vibrant faces all looking forward to the challenge and opportunities ahead in this forthcoming term.

Dining Hall Changes

Our first mission was to discuss with our children forthcoming changes to our dining hall. The menu choices remain the same but they are now colour coded. Our children have been asked to come to school aware of what is on the menu that day and having already made their decision about their choices for lunch. As they self-registrate in class they will also indicate if they are having a school lunch and which colour band of choice they are selecting. Following this information being relayed to the kitchen (via email to the office) – this we do already, Karen Jackson our dining hall supervisor will place the correct number of each colour of band into a box – one box per class. Before lunch Karen will deliver the bands to each classroom where the teacher will distribute as per the morning choices.

On entering the dining hall the children will be guided to their specific colour of queue. Here they will place their band in a tub and collect their tray (colours will also match) as they approach the servery the children will go directly to the till which is the same as their chosen band colour, be given their lunch and then sit with their friends.

Much of this is already in place, the only difference is children will be required to make their choices by the beginning of the school day and they will approach the till which is of their chosen band. Band colours can be the same or different each day depending on children’s choice. This new system should assist with efficiency and appropriate provision of food. Bands will be sterilised each day and Karen Jackson will collect class boxes each day in preparation for the next.

One further change is that children are no longer permitted to only choose soup as their meal, soup must be eaten either with a main course or a sandwich. All children were issued with copies of the menu choices early last week. A copy is also available on line.

We intend to begin the new band system this coming Wednesday, I’ll let you know in next week’s Blog how it all goes.

Tuesday of this week we met with our Parish Priest, Mgr Millar, and our Primary Three and Four parents to begin our consultative partnership in preparation for the sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. We held our meeting in St. Bride’s Hall and I was delighted to see such a full house. Attendance at this meeting was most encouraging – thanks to all who took the time to come along. We have now arranged a further meeting for P3 parents and children on Tuesday 10th November at 6.30pm in our school hall and for P4 parents and children on Tuesday 17th November at 6.30pm in our school hall. Please make every effort to attend these meetings with your children. Working together with our parents and our clergy ensures we give our children’s spiritual development the importance it deserves. I look forward to meeting with you all again on these dates. A separate letter will be issued to ascertain definitive numbers.

Wednesday of this week our young leaders training continued with Jenny our active sports co-ordinator (who is fab) and our primary 7 trainees (who are also fab). We look forward to our young leaders beginning their clubs in the very near future. Watch out for Michael McGill and his jiving club – I want to join!

Thursday and Friday were dominated by an excellent learning experience for every single child in our school and nursery. Primary 5 took us all on a journey of discovery through Ancient Egypt. Along the way they lost Mrs Duffy, found mummies, filled canopic jars, entertained us with sand dancers, snake charmers and sooooooo much more. I cannot praise Primary 5 pupils, parents and staff highly enough. I am awestruck by the creativity within our school, both young and not so young. This was an outstanding assembly which captivated all who had the privilege of being in the audience, fantastic work. A huge thanks to you, the parents for being so active in your involvement in your childrens learning, to the wonderful staff; Mrs McCarthy, Mrs McCulloch, Miss Mooty, Mrs McCoy and Mrs Rice, but most of all thanks to our incredibly talented, enthusiastic Primary 5 pupils who are amazing.

Here’s a couple of photos as to what happened after the assembly………..

Also on Friday we hosted a football festival on our wonderful outdoor pitch. Eight schools attended and all enjoyed many exciting games of football. Mr McBirnie (AKA Wullie the football man) had everything all organised and ready for the teams – take a look at the impressive kit ready for our young players. How professional are we??????

Meanwhile our youngest pupils in the nursery have had a fabulous week, so exciting and again with opportunities for all parents to take an active part in their childrens learning. Here’s Mrs Murphy with the whole story:

The children have been learning all about Autumn and the biggest Autumn celebration ‘Halloween’ They have been bringing leaves, twigs and acorns in for the Autumn display that is expanding every day.

Outdoors some of the children went on an Autumn walk to collect leaves to make leaf rubbings. These walks will continue next week. In the nursery garden the children explored dried leaves in the big tray and were using their senses to describe the texture and sounds they made. They made a bird feeder from junk and painted still pictures of the big tree in the school grounds.

In the literacy area they have been reading ‘Room on the Broom’ and drawing pictures and sequencing the story. They painted the witch from the story and their had work can be seen displayed in the literacy area.
In music they have been singing Halloween songs.

Over in the numeracy area they played an Autumn matching game on the SmartBoard and used leaves that they found on their way to nursery to match number to quantity.

In expressive arts the children painted pictures using the leaves as brushes and made collage pictures using the leaves they collected on their walk. They explored the leaves and twigs in the water tray.

In snack the children discussed what kind of foods they would like to eat in Autumn. Soup was very popular so the children will be making Autumn soup next week.

The children wanted to make a Haunted House so they got busy turning the hairdressers into a Spooky house. They used lots of spooky decorations to create it. Look out for some spooky food in it next week!

The first Forest Kindergarten session started on Wednesday. These sessions will continue for 6 weeks. All the children’s adventures will be recorded in the Forest Kindergarten floorbook and this will be displayed in the cloakroom each week. Please take a minute to see what they get up to on these visits.

On Thursday we were delighted with the support we received from parents/carers who turned up in their droves to see the children graduate from the Mini Movers programme. A big thank you goes to Nicky and Craig the two coaches who have delivered these sessions to the children in a child friendly and age appropriate way. The children have learned all about healthy eating, their bodies and how to keep safe in the sun. The physical side of the programme concentrated on balancing, hand to eye co-ordination and motor skills using footballs. The children were fantastic they listened and followed all the instructions given by the coaches. Each child received a bag, a water bottle and a certificate. Each child in the nursery has benefited from this programme in some way. Parents could not believe how much the children had picked up in such a small space of time. The feedback from parents/carers has been very positive. Thank you for completing the evaluation sheets which will be forwarded to the coaches next week.

Mrs Murphy took ‘hunner’s (her words) of photographs this week. We’ve tried to provide a selection of both AM and PM pupils.