A very warm welcome back to everyone in our school & nursery community. I am delighted to report we have all enjoyed a most exciting, successful first week back at school. It is a wonderful sight to see all 496 of our school pupils in full school uniform – long may this continue. Our 71 new Primary One pupils have settled in really well and have all been presented with a gift of a new school polo shirt from our wonderful Fundraisers. A great start to what looks to be a fantastic year ahead.

This coming Friday we have our first Mass of the year in school at 11.15am being led by our brand new P7 pupils. Please come along and join us in prayer to celebrate our wonderful school and nursery.

Each household should have received a copy of our main school events for the year ahead, please keep this close at hand (usually on the fridge door) to ensure you do not miss out on key components of our school year. Should you misplace this you can find all information on our school web site: www.cathedral.n-lanark.sch.uk To keep you fully informed of school and nursery personnel please see below a full list of all staff – new staff are highlighted in red.

Head Teacher:                       Mrs  M Shields

Depute Head:                         Mrs L Campbell

Depute Head (acting):         Mrs  M.C Duffy

P1a:                                           Mrs B McCoy – Principal Teacher

P1b:                                           Mrs S Murphy

P1c:                                           Mrs L Tominey

P2a:                                          Mrs K Loose – Principal Teacher (acting)

P2b:                                          Mrs M McDonald

P2c:                                          Mrs L Gillies

P3a:                                          Mrs C Gillespie

P3b:                                          Mrs J McDerment

P3c:                                          Miss S Love

P4a:                                          Miss C McAvoy

P4b:                                          Miss L Stack

P4/5:                                        Mrs J McCarthy

P5a:                                          Mrs D Blaney & Mrs S Devanney

P5b:                                          Miss N Mooty

P6a:                                          Miss N Lafferty

P6b:                                          Mrs J Carr

P6c:                                           Mrs J Murphy & Miss J Green

P7a:                                          Mrs N McLaughlan

P7b:                                          Miss S Kane

P7c:                                           Mrs L Irwin

ICT/Technologies:              Miss L Phee – Principal Teacher

Support Staff:

Mrs C Mellon:                        Classroom Assistant – P1a, P1b, P1c, P2a, P2b – Blue Base

Mrs K Stevenson:                  Classroom Assistant – P2c, P3a, P3b, P3c, P4a – Green Base

Mrs K Harrison:                    Classroom Assistant – P4b, P4/5, P5a, P5b, P6a – Purple Base

Mrs P McMillan:                    Classroom Assistant – P6b, P6c, P7a, P7b, P7c – Yellow Base

Mrs C Burns (Mon-Wed):    Classroom Assistant – Purple Base

Mrs M Lamb (Thurs&Frid): Classroom Assistant – Yellow Base

Additional Support Needs Assistants:

Ms Y Falconer:                       P1a

Mrs C Munro:                          P2a

Miss J Couper:                        P3b

Mrs J Rice:                              P4a

Miss J Kelly (11am-1.30pm):  P1b
Clerical Staff:

Mrs M Cunningham:          Office Manager

Mrs A Close:                           Clerical Assistant

Mrs M Docherty:                   Clerical Assistant

Mrs J Mitchell:                      Clerical Assistant

Nursery Staff:

Mrs D Keenan & Miss J Green:    Nursery Teacher

Mrs M M Murphy:                             Lead Early Years Practitioner

Mrs M Little:                                       Early Years Practitioner

Mrs S Imray:                                       Early Years Practitioner

Miss A McMullen:                             Early Years Practitioner

Miss A Adams:                                   Early Years Practitioner

And meanwhile, in the nursery…..

Last week was a busy week at nursery. We welcomed back our returning children who all looked fab after the long summer holiday and over the course of the week we welcomed some of our new recruits. The older children quickly took on the responsibility of being nursery buddies to the new children helping them settle into the nursery routine.  By the end of the week the settling in programme was well under way with the children starting to build relationships with their key workers and others in their group.  Most of the children have had their shoes painted so that they can easily identify their own soft shoes. The children chose their favourite colours and you can see from the picture how great they look!
Typical Scottish weather gave the children the opportunity to try out the new nursery waterproofs that the fundraising committee provided. As you can see this is a great addition to the nursery wardrope and the children can now explore outdoors in all weather.
The nursery garden was looking very overgrown after the holidays and the children got busy pulling weeds out and harvesting the lettuce and peapods they had planted on Groundforce day back in May. Mrs Imray found a caterpillar hiding in one of the peapods and the children were fascinated with it.
As the nursery week came to an end our new extended hours and routine was well under way. Just a reminder, our am session times are 8.40 – 11.50 and pm session is 1.00 – 4.10 pm.

The induction day for our next recruits will be on Wednesday afternoon. The letters have been issued and we are looking forward to meeting the children and their parents/carers.