Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday were days filled with sunshine, sports and spectacular fun. Our annual three day event, this year themed around Commonwealth Games, was a magnificent hit with all pupils,staff, coaches and parents. We enjoyed 3 magnificent days of team sports, individual traditional races, climbing walls, football coaching, taekwondo coaching, dancing tuition, mobile playground fun, bouncy castles………the list is endless.

A huge thanks to Mrs Loose & Mrs M.M. Murphy who organised all the events and all of us! Our opening ceremony was tremendous with our 60 dancers, led by Mrs Keenan, performing the dance they had learned for the Big Dance Pledge – it was brilliant. The dance featured aspects of traditions from each of the Commonwealth countries. Our twelve teams, ably led by House Captains and Vice Captains all paraded out to the pitch to the tune of the National Anthem of their chosen country. We began on a high note and it just got better and better and better…….

On Tuesday our school played host to The Curriculum for Excellence Management Board all of whom were incredibly impressed by our children’s manners, their engagement in learning and all commented on the fantastic displays around the school. – Well Done Us!

Thursday saw our P7 pupils accept the kind invitation from Our Lady’s High School to their wonderful show Copacabana. Mrs Campbell, Mrs Mullen, Mrs Duffy and myself also attended on Thursday evening. It was a truly magnificent show and it makes us so proud to see so many of our former pupils perform so professionally. Well done to all who participated and thanks to Mrs Sinclair for the kind invitations.

Friday dawned with the sun still shining. This day is one of the main highlights of our school year – Our Leaver’s Mass and Graduation. The purpose of this day is three fold:

Firstly to celebrate as a church community in prayer through our wonderful Leaver’s Mass

Secondly to present our cheques to our nominated charities for the monies raised through our Lenten Charities Events.

And thirdly to recognise and celebrate the successes of our Primary Seven graduates as they embark on their journey to High School.

We were delighted to welcome so many distinguished guests, His Lordship Bishop Toal, Mgr Millar, Deacon Tom, Provost Jim Robertson and representatives from our chosen charities.

All of our school are involved in the first two parts of the day – our Mass and our Alms Giving. The generosity of our pupils is amazing. Earlier in the week I had issued a letter to all of our pupils thanking them for their kindness and giving details of all monies being presented.

The third part of our ceremony recognised the talents and skills of all of our pupils, each P7 was presented with a dictionary, a commemorative photograph and a secondary school tie. Another example of the fantastic work of our Fundraising Group.  We also award our annual trophies, here are the winners:

In 2011 Mr Pat Connolly – former Provost of Motherwell donated a shield to be awarded at each graduation recognising Academic Excellence. Provost Jim Robertson was invited to present this beautiful shield.

The winners of this year’s Mr Pat Connolly Academic Excellence Shield were:

Dylan Garmory, Katie Torrance & Ciara Scullion

Over the last few years we have established an additional award recognising children who show great endeavour in all they do. Young people who simply always try their best, never give up. This award was established in memory of Mr George Smith our much loved janitor.

Mr Smith’s daughter, Jacqueline was invited to award The Mr George Smith Award for Endeavour to:

Weronika Kahl & Aidan Simpson

In 2012 we proudly added another new award to our trophy table. Moving to our lovely new build provided us with sporting facilities which are magnificent. Morgan Sindall, the company who built the school donated a beautiful shield to be awarded for sportsmanship.

Following our first three years in situ we have had opportunity to see real sportsmanship in action day and daily. Our football pitch is used continually by both our own pupils, those from Firpark, our neighbours and also by a number of local schools. Recognition for tremendous sportsmanship this year was awarded to:

Rachel Donnelly & Liam Milne

This year, once again, we are delighted to further complement our recognition of our young peoples achievements, our Yeomanry Memorial bench moved with us and now has pride of place on the decking area outside the dining hall.

The bench is in memory of John McEwan a former pupil of this school.

Recognising John’s achievements throughout the war years and beyond, in consultation with John’s daughter Agnes we decided to create an award recognising the young person in our school who best represents being a responsible citizen, one who demonstrates great compassion and kindness to others.

Agnes very kindly agreed to present this year’s award.  The winners of our Yeomanry Memorial Award were:

Matthew Bell & Katie Cadenhead

Both pupils received a certificate in recognition of this award and we will place anew plaque on the bench which will read.

Yeomanry Memorial Award

2014

Matthew Bell & Katie Cadenhead

In 2008 in our school to further promote a team spirit and sense of belonging we established a House System, within our House System our elected Captains have proudly demonstrated their commitment to their house through active participation in many House Activities. Each House activity offered the ‘promise of House points’. The House Points have been collated and Emily Cuthbertson proudly accepted the House Cup for her House, Devine.

On Friday afternoon Emily had the task of taking off the other house colours leaving only the Winning House Colour. Well done to all in Devine House.

Each year we are asked to nominate a child to receive the David Colville Medal, here in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary we have identified 4 children who have throughout their primary career excelled in their own way through their continuous strive to always do their best, their willingness to participate and their positive attitude to every aspect of school life. Any staff member who has had the privilege of working with these young people from P1-P7 was asked to nominate who they felt was deserving of particular recognition, the four children highlighted through this were then told to the P7 pupils and our pupils nominated the one person they felt most deserving of special recognition.

Our four nominees were:

Kerryn Foy

Natalie Jackson

Ewen Jeffrey

Robbie Whitfield

These young people have proven to be excellent ambassadors for our school in so many ways.

They have participated in a wide range of events within our school and church communities, they have shown themselves to be thoroughly reliable, hard working and extremely pleasant pupils who have been a joy to teach. This year ‘s David Colville Medal was awarded to:

Kerryn Foy

The three children who received merit awards from our school are:

Natalie Jackson, Ewen Jeffrey & Robbie Whitfield

We all enjoyed a fabulous day on Friday, grateful thanks to all of our parent helpers who so kindly organised teas and coffees. We could not do without them.

On behalf of our school community I wish each of our Primary Seven pupils continued success as they venture forth to High School.

Meanwhile down in the nursery they’ve had a busy week:

At last a very sunny week at nursery with all activities taking place outdoors.  All the children were outside with their sun hats and their sunscreen on. The children had a discussion about the importance of wearing hats and sunscreen and keeping safe in the sun.

In the maths area the children continued to explore a variety of transport puzzles. They have been looking at the different ways that the Commonwealth Games athletes will get to Glasgow.

In the art area they created their own modes of transport from playdough.

The sunshine sparked their imaginations and they drew holiday pictures and told detailed stories of forthcoming holidays with the emphasis on how they were travelling to their holiday destinations.

In the snack area they had ice cream and ice poles and juicy strawberries. Summer has definately arrived.

Outside they have had the opportunity to take part in some gymnastics events such as the beam, concentrating on their balancing and co-ordination skills. They also performed some ribbon dancing to their favourite song from Frozen “Let it Go”

On Wednesday the children took part in the sporting activities in the school. They explored the big slide, bouncy castle, trampettes, mobile play area and dance class. A funfilled day was had by all.

On Thursday the groups that missed out in the Spring walk got the chance to go on a Summer walk with the Greenlink Rangers. They caught different insects in their huge nets and looked at them through magnifying tubs. This was a great activity that the children showed real interest in. They also went down to the river to look at wildlife there and skimmed some stones. They overturned some large rocks and discovered red ants carrying snails eggs on their backs and finally they played Pooh sticks from the bridge. A wonderful outdoor Summer experience.
A big thanks goes to the parent helpers who accompanied the children to enable the outing to go ahead.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we welcomed  our new children who will join us in August. Mrs Duffy gave a talk on nursery life and two of the P6 buddies spoke about their experience of the responsibilities of being a nursery buddy. Most of the children expored the oudoor area and Mrs little managed to take their photographs for the cloakroom pegs. It was nice to meet all of the children and their parents/carers.

We have come to the end of another fantastic year in school and nursery, so many highlights, so many successes and so much excellent learning. Enjoy a lovely summer and I look forward to welcoming everyone back in August.

A very happy and very proud; Mrs Shields