A warm (if somewhat damp) welcome to the month of May. This month in our weekly assemblies we focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus and her great love for all of us. Please encourage your children to bring their rosary beads to school every day. We will pray the rosary at assembly and Mrs Jacqueline Murphy will also host her lunchtime rosary club. This is a great opportunity for all children to become more actively involved in the prayer life of our school. I extend my thanks to Mrs Murphy for giving so willingly of her own time to take this devotion forward.

This month our primary four children, and their families, experience one of the main highlights of the children’s faith journey through primary school. Our P4 children are currently in the midst of celebrating their First Holy Communion. To date we have been privileged to be part of First Holy Communion Masses in Saint Luke’s (3rd May) and in O.L.G.A Cathedral (10th May). Both Masses have been so spiritually uplifting and such joyous occasions for all involved. A huge thanks to the children for their excellent preapration and participation in the Mass, to you as parents as the first and most important faith influences of your children, to Miss Stack and Mrs Gillies who have dedicated so much of their time to ensuring our children have a thorough understanding of the importance of this great gift, to all of the staff who give of their own time to come along to support our children and to Fr Millar for his exceptional devotion to our school children and their families. A big thanks also to Mrs Campbell, Mrs Jacqueline Murphy and Miss Love whose musical talents greatly enhance all of our Masses.

We look forward to our final forthcoming First Communion Mass next Saturday in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church at 12 noon.

From our newsletter you will have read that in June of this year we are saying goodbye to our two longest serving members of staff: Mrs Mary Mullen and Mrs Helena Collins.
Both ladies have devoted 38 years of their lives to improving the academic, spiritual and emotional  well being of the children in our school. Mrs Mullen & Mrs Collins started working in our school in August of 1976, on the same day and, as great friends, both will retire on the same day. How wonderful is that!
Throughout Mrs Collins career she has taught all across the school guiding pupils from the age of 5 to 12 in all aspects of their lives and impacting positively in so many ways.  Mrs Collins chose to remain as a class teacher throughout her career, she is a most reliable source of knowledge and guidance to our less experienced staff and has trained numerous student teachers over the years. Mrs Collins has been inspirational in her preparation of our chidlren for the sacraments of Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Mrs Collins is committed to Catholic education and is a witness to her own faith.
Parents speak highly of Mrs Collins and her thorough knowledge of their child as a ‘person’. She keenly supports all aspects of school life truly embedding our faith in every subject area.

Mrs Mullen chose a different path for her career; she has specialised in the infant curriculum and is our resident ‘expert’ in the field. As a class teacher Mrs Mullen was renound as a ‘magnificent intant teacher’, she has such an insight into the minds of our youngest children and their very specific needs. As a class teacher Mrs Mullen prepared her children for Reconciliation, as Senior teacher her responsibilities included First Holy Communion preparation and in recent years, as DHT, she has also been involved in Confirmation. Mrs Mullen is dedicated to Catholic education and the spiritual well being of each of our children from P1 through to P7. Within the infant department Mrs Mullen is a ‘guru’, she devotes much time to the academic, emotional and  spiritual education of our children, guiding young staff in teaching and passing on excellent methodology, countless strategies and most importantly, our faith. Mrs Mullen does much preparation behind the scenes working with parents to promote and encourage their involvement in their child’s educational journey. She is an excellent example of a committed Catholic educator who dedicates her whole life – both in and out of school hours- to the promotion of our faith.

Both ladies are ambassadors for Catholic education and have devoted 38 years to ensuring our Catholic school is recognised as a beacon of spiritual development and educational excellence throughout Motherwell and beyond. Their dedication to our children’s learning is most definitely worthy of recognition.

I wish both ladies a long and happy retirement, I am indebted to them for their professionalism, their contributions to the school and their great friendship. This is a time of great change for both of them and an exciting new journey ahead. All I ask is that they remember our school with great fondness, laughter and as a source of joy.

Watch out world, come June “The Golden Girls’ are on tour…..be prepared!!!!

Come Clubbing @ Cathedral termly update. In school this term our after school clubs include:

Puppet Making with Mrs Mullen,   Bikeability with Miss Phee and Mrs Carr,   Percussion with Mrs Campbell and Alan Hopkinson (a former pupil), Dancing with Mrs McCoy and Choir with Mrs Campbell, Myself and Oleg!

During the school day there are many other exciting opportunities for our pupils, mainly our senior pupisl. These are based around musical tuition. We have saxophone tuition, brass tuition, string tuition, clarinet tuition, and flute tuition. This year, for the very first time, we have brought all of our groups together and formed our School Band – we have to find a really ‘cool’ name for them. Can you help? Add a comment with your ideas for a name for our band.

All of the instrumentalists, the Kodaly Kids (P5), solo singers and the Choir will perform at our annual Magical Musical Morning scheduled for Thursday 12th June. Please come along and listen to the fabulous talents and skills of our young musicians and singers.

Our week ended on a very proud note. Our Primary one pupils led our Mass for Mary our Mother and what a fantastic job they did, Listening to them lead prayers throughout the Mass, watch them take responsibility for the offertory procession and hearing them read so incredibly well was amazing. It is hard to believe they have only been in school for one year. A HUGE congratulations to all of our P1 pupils and their teachers. Thanks also to Fr Grant and Deacon Tom who stepped in for Mgr Millar to celebrate our Mass.

As a community of faith we offer our condolences to Fr Millar and his family at this sad time. We will remember Mr Paul Millar, Fr Millar’s dad, in our prayers.

This has been very exciting time in our nursery – and not just for the children. Last week we held interviews to appoint a Permanent Senior Early Years Worker to our nursery. I am delighted to let you know Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy is the successful candidate. Mrs Murphy has been part of our school community for the last 10 years working in school and laterly in our nursery. Mrs Murphy is a most worthy candidate and I wish her great success. I look forward to our nursery continuing its journey of excellence under her leadership.

Here’s our brand new Senior Early Years Worker’s nursery report.
A short week in nursery but as always a very productive one. The children are still learning about new beginnings and have been looking at human babies this week in response to a few children who have recently become big brothers or sisters. They have been caring for the babies by feeding, bathing and dressing them.
As well as that the children are looking at all different mini beasts and in the maths area they made their own ladybirds with the numbers of spots according to their age on each side.

In the literacy area they have been exploring the patterns of language through rhyme and they were introduced to our new character Leggy Lug a rhyming bug. They will continue with rhyming words through revisiting nursery rhymes over the next few weeks. They also had the opportunity to write words and draw pictures from The Very Hungry Caterpillar story which are displayed on the tree in the middle of the room. A new beginnings cotton poster has been given to us on loan from Mrs Baxter to support the learning.

In the art area the children have been concentrating on their cutting skills, they have used playdough, card and paper to improve their fine motor skills.

In snack they have been discussing rhyming words and are making up their own to rhyme with their food.

On Thursday we had a fantastic turnout for our very first Grounforce day. Parents and grandparents turned out in force to revamp the garden area. Mrs Little AKA Charlie Dimmock was the garden co-ordinator and organised each helper. A job well done we think she may still be lying down in a darkened room. The primary 6 buddies also mucked in to help with the transformation. A big thank you goes to all green fingered helpers who worked extremely hard. Please take a moment to look at all the new planters, flowers, garden ornaments and our new revamped area in the far corner of the outdoor area. Some parents have offered their services further to build the arbour and put some new fencing up. It was fantastic to see what can be done in the space of one day. Thanks again from the nursery team.

As always, thanks for reading. All comments welcome.

Mrs Shields