Monday Morning and our assembly was quite simply fantastic.

Our CaFi Council led us through our new Campus Initiative. The First Minister’s Reading Challenge.

Here’s the background:

The First Minister launched the Reading Challenge for Pupils in P4-7. We have differentiated the reading passports and will involve our whole school community (Nursery to Primary 7). Developed by the Scottish Government and delivered by Scottish Book Trust in association with an Advisory Group, the project aims to make reading fun for children.

The First Minister’s Reading Challenge is an inclusive and flexible project which challenges schools to do three things: create and embed a reading culture in school; work in partnership with libraries and communities to deepen engagement with reading; and celebrate pupils individual reading journeys.

Pupils will receive a personal reading passport to record books which they have read and will write a short book review on completion of each book. Please support and encourage your child to successfully record their reading journey this session.

Our children led launch was superb, here’s the photographs.

Thanks to all in our CaFi Council so ably led by Mrs Marie Clare Duffy in partnership with Mr Stephen Cotter (Principal Teacher Firpark Primary). A huge thanks to Primary 6 who performed one of their songs from their assembly on Books – Books Glorious Books –

Thanks also to Mr McBirnie (Willie the football coach), Mr Ian Bulloch (Our Big Friendly Janny), Mrs Margaret Cunningham (our ever efficient Office Manager) and Mrs Lorraine Campbell (our DHT and resident Harry Potter expert) for their fabulous input.

Tuesday morning we were delighted and honoured to share the great feast day of All Saints with the parishioners of Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Parish. Our pupils excelled themselves in their presentation, behaviour, respect for and participation in the Mass. A huge well done to our Primary Four pupils who led the liturgy with reverence and prayer. Once again, I am so very proud of all in our school, they are a credit to our school, their parents and the parish community.

We were delighted to welcome 21 S4 and S6 pupils from Our Lady’s High School who requested to fulfill their work experience with us. As expected, the young people conducted themselves in a most mature manner representing their school in magnificent manner. It was a delight to have them in school and nursery and I hope we have inspired some to take forward teaching as a career choice, a worthy profession. Thanks to the young people for all their work and effort throughout the week.

Say Cheese – Thursday was school photograph day, big smiles, shiny faces and fancy ‘hairdoos’ all round. Nursery children and their school siblings will have their photographs taken this coming Thursday.

Meanwhile our nursery continues to impress with their diverse learning experiences, here’s what’s been happening:

This has been a very active week in nursery. The children have been out and about in the local community looking for signs of Autumn and en route discovered different forms of transport and people working in the local community. They have visited the fruit and veg stall, the train station and have had fun catching, kicking and looking closely at the Autumn leaves on the ground. They discovered a silver birch tree near the Aquatec. They met the Postman, a Window Cleaner, a Taxi Driver and a Train Driver who showed the children his cab and the controls. Have a look at all the photographs of their fab experiences. The children brought lots of leaves back for the Science area.

Back in the playroom the children created an Autumn sign using Autumn colours and used the collected leaves to match the size and colours. They looked closely at the veins in the leaves and even looked at their own veins on their arms and discussed what they were for.

In literacy the children recalled their Hallowe’en stories and discussed Bonfire night. They scribed some firework words for the big display.

In art they made fabulous firework pictures using bottle mops and made sparklers with straw and glitter.

In snack they made pumpkin soup and Autumn soup they prepared the vegetables using the poptato peelers a skill that they had learned in the forest. They made a tasting graph using a happy face and a sad face to determine who liked the soup and who didn’t. On Friday they made edible sparklers. Yum Yum!

The Play and Pedals programme continues as the children get to grips with their balancing skills. Please take a moment to look at the floorbook in the cloakroom.

Down in the forest this week block 2 continues with the children learning how to make a ropeswing. They also saw Autumn close up as theu were able to catch the leaves falling off the trees. They used the fallen leaves to create hedgehog pictures. Again all these fabulous experiences are caught on camera and can be viewed in the floorbook in the cloakroom.

And now in glorious technicolour:

Another fabulous week, thanks for reading.

Let us know what you think, we’d love to hear your comments.

Mrs Shields