What a week!

Tuesday morning saw the launch of our Gold Sports Award. Our school was filled with dignitaries who came along to join in our success. There was representation from:

Sports Scotland

NLC Leisure

North Lanarkshire Council

Motherwell Football Club

Sporting Coaches from rugby, football, tae kwon do, netball…etc etc

HUGE well done to everyone involved most particularly Mrs Marie Clare Duffy, Principal Teacher and Events Manager Extraordinaire! Our Wonderful Health Committee led by Mrs Loose and Miss Love,  Cameron, Euan & Mollie our fabulous musicians, Mr Robbie Stewart from Sports Scotland, Mrs Munro & Mrs Miller for catering and Donatha Kizube our nominated photographer on the day. Enjoy the spectacle, we LOVED it. What a fabulous morning.

We started with everyone in the hall watching as our dignitaries were piped and drummed in, we then were treated to a fantastic display of fitness fun from our health committee. Mr Robbie Stewart from Sports Scotland then presented our Gold Flag to our school and we finished with our whole school (and all the guests) joining together in a Sloshathon! Absolutely brilliant.

Special vote of thanks to Dawn Cunningham from Motherwell Football Club who invited every child, and their parents, along to Motherwell Football Game on Saturday 3rd February free of charge! What a super, generous offer. 490 tickets were given out on Friday. Dawn was very impressed with our commitment to ensuring we all stay fit and healthy. Thanks Dawn, your generosity is much appreciated.

The videos and photographs of our Award Ceremony speak for themselves.

Also on Tuesday morning a team of our senior pupils, accompanied by Miss Cawley, Principal Teacher, set off to battle The Annual Euro Quiz. The team did exceptionally well, missing out on a place in the final by two points! Well done to the team, looking very smart and proud.

On Tuesday evening a large number of our staff represented our school at the Annual Teachers Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church. It was wonderful to see so many of our staff there. Well done also to Abbie, Emma, Katie, Matthew, Reece and Hollie who served on the altar so reverently. We’re very proud of your committent to your parish boys and girls.

More success followed throughout the week as one of our Primary Three pupils, Julia Gawel, has won first place in the overall P1-P3 category in the Mother Tongue, Other Tongue Competition. Julia will have here verse published in an anthology. Well done Julia!

The official award ceremony will take place in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Saturday 11th March, we look forward to joining Julia on that day to share in her success. What a fabulous accolade for our school. Watch this space for photographs of the event.

We ended this fantastic week on a brilliant note. Our Primary Four Assembly was incredible. On the theme of the Rain Forest our Primary Four children took us on an amazing, 45 minute long, experiential journey of learning through the rainforest. The knowledge the children have is tremendous and the sense of their important role in protecting our wonderful planet is exemplary. We all learned so much from our P4 pupils, and in such an interactive, fun way too. Well done to everyone in P4. Special thanks to staff directly involved: Mrs McDerment, Miss McAvoy, Mrs Carr, Mrs Rice, Miss Tannahill, Mrs McAllister, Mrs Campbell & Mrs McCoy. Here’s a wee flavour of the performance in case you missed out on the day.

And we wonder why we feel tired by Friday! What a week, most exciting EVER!

Meanwhile, our youngest pupils continue their fascinating learning experiences in our wonderful nursery. Here’s what they’ve been up to:

On Monday Space time stood still again as we celebrated Chinese New Year. The children had noodles and prawn crackers for snack. They danced to Chinese music pretending to be a dragon, they scribed Chinese words and numbers and created their own Chinese lanterns. Outside they played a red envelope shape matching game. They also explored dry noodles and added water to them to see what happened. This was a very popular activity and it led to discussions of the dried food Astronauts eat in Space. Due to the children’s curiosity this will continue next week.

Back in Outer Space the playroom now resembles our Solar System. Please take a minute to look and ask the children to name some of the planets.

Our big tree has been replaced with a rocket right in the middle of the playroom.

In Science the children have been naming and sorting the planets by size. An easy way to remember the planets names.

In snack this week the children made star and crescent Moon shaped toast and made Star Wars cakes towards the end of the week. Roleplay continues to be popular in Mission Control.

In the music area the children have been learning more songs about Space and the planets. Listen out for these on your way home.

Outdoors the children have been using the torches and Space projector to explore darkness and the vastness of the sky.

In art they have been making Alien headbands and role-playing with them They have explored Martian gunk in the water tray.

Play on pedals continues. Please see evidence displayed in the cloakroom of the children’s progress.

Week 1 of this Forest Kindergarten block started on Wednesday with Miss MacMullen leading this group ably assisted by Mrs Imray. Feedback from the children has been positive. Please see photographs displayed in the foyer and evidence of their adventures in the floorbook displayed in the cloakroom.

And now in glorious technicolour:

As always, thanks for reading. We hope our Blog gives you a flavour of all the learning in our school community. It is such a vibrant place to be, such wonderful learning opportunities for all involved.

Please leave a comment, or two, or three….

Remember: No blog next week as it is the long weekend.

Mrs Shields