A warm welcome to the month of October, it is 2 weeks since my last blog due to September weekend break and following this there will be another interlude for our October mid-term break.
School life is busy, as always. We have been enjoying a whole range of classroom activities and a wide variety of scientific and dramatic goings on in our science and drama rooms.
Our young scientists are busy connecting through some electric learning whilst in drama our children are discovering the joys of stage direction and audience appreciation. Unfortunately I have had to make the decision to suspend our drama programme for the forseeable future and have asked Mrs McCoy to overtake class teacher duties in P4b whilst Miss Stack remains off school unwell. The class has been covered by a small number of supply staff but as time goes on I feel it imperative we provide stability for the class. My thanks to Mrs McCoy for being so flexible and accommodating, I know the class will really benefift from her excellent teaching. Mrs McCoy will remain in P4b until Miss Stack returns to school. In the meantime we wish Miss Stack well and look forward to welcoming her back to our school community – we miss her. My grateful thanks to Mrs Duffy who has planned and prepared all of the work for P4b since Miss Stack’s absence ensuring all aspects of learning and teaching have been overtaken in a professional and appropriate manner.
During the last week of September all of our children learned many new and interesting facts about looking after pets and keeping animals safe. A big thanks to SPCA personnel for delivering all of these insightful presentations. A huge thanks to our pupils who, once again, showed themselves to be excellent listeners, enthusiastic learners and polite, well mannered young people. SPCA personnel were delighted to be welcomed back to our school because of the warm, friendly welcome they receive from staff and because of the excellent learners within our pupils. Our children are a credit to you, their parents, to our school and to Lanarkshire.
This short week in school has been a busy one too with all classes preparing for our forthcoming Parent Evening. I am sure you will be delighted and extremely impressed by the displays of work in and around the school, I know I am. Our senior managers have all been involved in montioring all maths workbooks and jotters, where we have discussed the work with the children and staff and looked over all of the content to date. From Primary one through to Primary seven it is evident our children are very proud of their work and try exceptionally hard to produce their best work at all times. I am most impressed by the volume and variety of work around the mathematics programme. Our jotters only tell part of the story, being in and around the school every day you can see children throughout our building and outside measuring, finding shapes, looking for angles etc using all the items around the school. A real active maths programme which is most relevant to everyday life. Indeed it is not only the maths programme which brings learning to life, Primary one were seen around the school searching everywhere for ‘curly c’!!
Please remember to take time to complete our self evaluation questionnaire which will be given to you by class teachers on parent evening. Your views and opinions are a vital part of our continuous improvement.
REMEMBER: Parent Evening 3.20pm – 8.30pm Tuesday 8th October
This week, as a staff we celebrated our Annual Teacher’s Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral, my sincere thanks to the high number of staff who braved the wind and the rain to come along and support this important event in our calendar.
Finally, a request. We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Father Millar’s mum – Cathie Millar. I ask you all to remember Fr Millar, his dad and all the family in your prayers. Fr Millar’s mum was buried yesterday from St. Joseph’s Stepps. It was a beautiful service bravely celebrated by Fr Millar, one which I was privileged to attend. Flowers and a Mass card were sent on behalf of our school community.
Meanwhile…….The nursery are buzzing with excitement…….here’s the latest from Mrs Murphy, our intrepid reporter….
A short week at nursery but an action packed one. The children have been exploring all things relating to Autumn. They have been bringing in a variety of Autumn items such as different coloured and shaped leaves, branches, acorns, pine cones and conkers in and out of their shells. They have been playing Autumn maths games, singing Autumn songs and making leaves in the art area. Please have a look at our Autumn display and particularly the fabulous Autumn sensory area.
In the writing area the children have been writing Autumn words on leaves and they made all the signs for the Farmer’s Shop which they have created in the home corner. A big thanks goes to Davy one of our Grandparents who cleverly converted an old piece of equipment into a market stall for the shop. The shop opened on Thursday selling all seasonal fruit and vegetables. The children painted special aprons for the shopkeepers to wear. They are enjoying taking turns at role-playing customers, farmers and shopkeepers.
In softplay this week the children heard the story of the Enormous Turnip which they then had a chance to re-enact. They worked hard as a team and they pulled and they pulled and they pulled to get the turnip out!
On Wednesday some of the children visited Motherwell library and brought back some Autumn stories to read.
On Thursday while out on a walk the children discovered a poor little baby owl (please note this is a pretend baby owl) who had fallen off his branch and had hurt his wing. The children brought him back to the nursery where Nurse Little our outdoor first aid specialist put a bandage on his broken wing. This sparked the children’s imagination and they discussed what we could do to help him. They decided to make him a nest in our big tree in the middle of the nursery which is turning all Autumnal. They fed him carrots from the shop and after a discussion about nocturnal birds and animals decided to put the lights off to make it darker. They then settled down to listen to the Owl Babies story. Afterwards they decided to call him Bill after one of the owls in the story. On Friday some of the children made nests from breakfast cereal with owls in them in the snack area, one child hid the owls under the branches to keep them safe. This activity will continue into next week as will Autumn and our Owl Babies topic.
Parent helpers are required for our Autumn walk please see the dates on the board in the cloakroom and if you can help please let a member of staff know.
As always, I invite comments on my blog……someday…..maybe…..someone will respond…..
Have a lovely October break. – Next Blog…Sunday 27th October
Mrs Shields
