Welcome to the month of June, our final school month of this session. In school and nursery we have had an incredibly busy, productive first week of the month.

Tuesday of this week I met with NLC personnel who deal with ICT. We have been asked to pilot some software this coming session. This is a wonderful opportunity as ICT and Technologies are two of our school priorities this coming year. We had planned to re-design our drama room to become an ICT suite. Through piloting this software NLC personnel have agreed to assist us with the cost of trunking, electrics and data input – fantastic! They have also agreed to put an interactive white board and projector in our library; again – fantastic. All we need now is a huge donation of computers. Unfortunately our hardware in school is somewhat limited (and a wee bit antiquated) but we will do our best to ensure all children have an excellent ICT knowledge and skills base. We’ll work with what we have. Miss Lesley Phee; principal teacher, will become our new ICT ‘guru’ abley asssited by Mrs Karen Woodlock, classroom assistant. An exciting project in which to be involved.

Tuesday also brought our Mass of Thanksgiving for all of our Sacramental Classes, as always, our children were a credit to us all. Mass was lovely although we were disappointed we did not have time to present certificates. Next year we will endeavour to begin at an earlier time. Thanks to all who came along to support our children in this beautiful celebration.

Wednesday of this week we thoroughly enjoyed our Fairtrade Garden Party  (very posh!). This was to celebrate our success in our joint venture with Firpark in attaining Fairtrade status for our campus. Watch out for the huge sign going up at the entrance to the campus. Thanks to Mrs Duffy, DHT and Mrs Ellis, Principal Teacher in Firpark for their hard work securing such a  prestigious award. Thanks also to our Fairtrade Committee who were totally committed to ensuring success. The Garden Party was great fun. All SMT from both schools were instructed to dress appropriately – Big Hats were a must!- We were entertained by our very own School Band -who remain nameless 🙁

This was the inaugural performance for The Band and what a performance they gave. I was amazed at their talent and skill, they were brilliant. Well done to all in our Nameless Band. If you would like to hear them please come along to our Magical Musical Morning this coming week, it promises to be a fabulous show.

Also on Wednesday our children were enthralled by author Stuart Reid who came along to promote the joy of reading – one of our priorities this session. This was a most successful visit, our children loved his presentation and many have been encouraged to read.

Thursday evening two of our P7 boys, Ewan Jeffrey and David Nugent presented their winning poems at the Reigart Poetry Festival. Miss Green, the boys class teacher kindly represented the staff on this occasion. I’m afraid I was unable to attend due to Board of Catholic Education Meeting. Miss Green reported both boys were fabulous. Their work is now part of the Regiart Poetry Book for 2014. Well done to both boys.

Friday brought us one of the highlights of our year. Primary One Assembly. A magnificent display of the on-going work in our Primary One classes. This was an excellent assembly which gave the children opportunity to showcase their learning through drama, song and action. It was fabulous fun. Many thanks to Miss Phee, Miss Mooty, Miss McAvoy, Mrs Munro and Mrs McCoy who were all instrumental in the rehearsal and overall production. Well done to our magnificent Primary One pupils who so confidently delivered their lines, their jokes and their songs without any written word in front of them. An amazing achievement.

Meanwhile, there has been much excitement in the nursery with the birth of some beautiful butterflies. I’ll let Mrs Murphy tell you more………..

The Commonwealth Games topic is now fully up and running. The children were all given some homework to research three facts about the country they are representing. The response has been fantastic, all of their efforts can be seen displayed throughout the nursery and in the group floorbooks. The children have all looked at photographs about their countries on the SmartBoard.  Fizzy Cole was extremely impressed with the information they found. Please take a moment to look at the children’s displays.

At the beginning of the week in the maths area the children continued to make the flags from their countries and the bunting is now complete. As the week went on the children played positional games with Mrs McFadden who provided her very own hockey sticks for the children to use. They played hockey and cricket very popular games in India the Foxgloves country.

In the writing area they set out to make some Commonwealth flags, this activity was so popular that their efforts are hanging in the cloakroom and outside for everyone to see. They made a fantastic effort writing the G in the middle of the flag. They also had the opportunity to write the names of their countries for the group displays. They then researched music from the countries they are concentrating on and danced to a variety of music found.

Outdoors the trainng sessions for our sports day activities are well under way. The children played running games and discussed the change in their bodies before and after they exercised. They jumped over hurdles and learned to throw a javelin. All these activities and their positional outcomes have been recorded on a graph to observe progress. These game s will continue next week.

In the art area the children made their very own” Clyde” the Commonwealth Games mascot from a variety of different materials. Clyde and all the mini Clydes can be seen on the art wall beside the squinty bridge. They also made some tartan to display on the Scotland wall in the Thistles group.

Over in the snack area the children continued to taste foods from their specific countries. They tried a few different Jamaican smoothies made from tropical fruit and coconut milk. They then tried some Jamaican jerk wedges which went down a treat. On Friday we moved on to Canadian food and they had the opportunity to taste pancakes with maple syrup. This will continue into next week. In the house corner the children are exploring clothing from different countries. They have been wearing saris and cowboy hats. If anyone can provide any traditional clothing items please speak to a member of staff.

The nursery welcomed a newborn on Thursday morning as overnight a butterfly had emerged from its cocoon. The children were so excited to finally see what they had been waiting for they named him Usain Bolt as he was first and fastest out of the cocoon. As the day progressed another two butterflies appeared. The afternoon children actually saw one immediately after it emerged. All children got to see primary 1 perform their assembly all about mini-beasts and part of the story was about the Very Hungry Caterpillar which the children could all relate to. The timing couldn’t have been any better as by Friday afternoon all ten cocoons were empty and we released all the butterflies into their natural habitat and each one got a huge cheer as it flew off. This has been a very fascinating process that the children and staff have thoroughly enjoyed.

The lending library is now finished for the year and if there are any books still to be returned please do so as soon as possible.

Please remember nursery graduation is on Friday 10.30am and 2.00pm.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my Blog, feel free to comment.

Mrs Shields