Last week’s blog we focused on our fabulous First Communicants, here’s a wee snippet of how smart they looked:
Two wonderful celebrations. Once again, congratulations to all concerned.
Our new entrants joined us once again on Tuesday of this week enjoying a further opportunity for children to get to know their teachers and enjoy a lovely lunch, courtesy of our kitchen. Thanks to Karen Guthrie, our cook, for facilitating this. We look forward to welcoming our newest school pupils on Thursday 17th August for their very first day.
Thursday morning dawned bright and dry – thankfully- as this was the first time our P6 pupils were going on a Forest Adventure. Grateful thanks to Mrs Jacqueline Murphy and Miss Monica Donnelly – both P6 staff- who organised, risk assessed, devised activities and facilitated this wonderful learning opportunity for our pupils. Here’s the staff review:
Forest Fun in Primary 6
Thursday 18th May, 9.10 am Yellow base and the moment had finally arrived. Primary 6 were heading off to the forest! We skipped down the Greenlink chanting as we went – hopefully there won’t be any complaints from the neighbours! First task was to make sure we knew the boundary and one last minute revision of the safety rules. Then the adventure began.
We started by exploring the forest and found 4 very cute fairy doors. Next we went into groups and moved around 4 activities including making pictures of bark rubbings, building free standing structures from only twigs and string, identifying minibeasts and making a leaf picture using nature’s palette!
It all ended much too soon! Finally we sat down together to talk about the ways in which we can preserve our forest for the future so that everyone will be able to enjoy it.
Many thanks to our happy helpers – without your support it just wouldn’t have been possible.
Miss Donnelly and Mrs Murphy – home for a long bath and to recharge before it all starts again tomorrow!
 Zzzzzzz
Friday of this week our Primary 4 pupils excelled themselves as hosts and hostesses at their first ever coffee morning. Well done to P4, they raised an incredible ￡588.00. Amazing.
Huge thanks to everyone who came along to assist with our coffee morning, we would be lost without our wonderful parent volunteers.
Speaking of fabulous volunteers, an enormous thanks to the army of volunteers who came along to assist with litter picking across our school and nursery on Friday afternoon. Thanks also to Mrs Findlay and her ECO Committee who all helped along. I am somewhat ashamed to say the amount of litter lifted exceeded our expectations enormously and there’s still lots more out there. I will be speaking to the children on Monday at assembly about this issue, one which, with a little more thought and care on everyone’s part could easily be eradicated.
A very special thanks to:
Mrs Findlay, our ECO Committee and all of our parent helpers who gave so generously of their time.
Mr Barry Gallacher (dad of Abbie, Shannon & Holly) who organised a last minute skip for us as our bins were overflowing. I am indebted to Mr Gallacher for his assistance.
Mr John Quinn (Grace’s dad) who came along to assist and provided us with fabulous photographs some of which you can see above. More photos of the event can be found by clicking the link below.
https://goo.gl/T698Fw
Many photographs of the volunteers at work but, as is often the way, some folk always jump in at the last minute and try to steal the glory! See below.
Also on Friday our footballers were once again in action:
North Lanarkshire Malawi Football Festival.
Ravenscraig Sports Facility        Friday 16thMay.
The Malawi Education Partnership Annual Football Festival took place at Ravenscraig Sports Facility.
This annual charity event helps to raise much needed funds to support the education and welfare of the young learners in Malawi.
Our P5-7 boys and girl ( can you spot her?) won every game. Pupils were commended for their excellent sportsmanship and participation.
SPECIAL MENTION to Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy who on Thursday spent the day at Our Lady and Saint Francis School demonstrating her excellent Forest skills, encouraging whole school participation in outdoor learning. What a star! Mrs Shearer, Head Teacher, commented:
Mrs Shields
I just wanted to say a huge thank you for allowing Margaret Mary to come to our school yesterday to assist with Forest Kindgarten activities as part of our Outdoor Classroom Day.
She was an absolute star and the children enjoyed playing on rope swings, hammocks and even made some outdoor art using natural resources!
I can’t begin to tell you how much the children got out of the experience – Margaret Mary’s knowledge and enthusiasm rubbed off on them entirely and they had the time of their lives!
Thank you again.
Whilst all that is on-going our youngest pupils have, as always, enjoyed a fabulous week. Lots of great outdoor learning and ‘hunners’ of photographs!
This week the children have been learning all about the Life Cycle of a Chicken after a visit to see the chicks in Firpark school.
They have been watching a video of the chicks hatching and watching them grow.
In the story corner they listened to the story of ‘Chicken Licken’ and ‘The Very Happy Hen’ They went on to draw pictures of the events from the stories and scribed some of the words. In music they have been singing a song all about little chicks.
Outdoors they have been out searching for nests in the tall trees in the school grounds and in the garden they have been exploring our new sandpit. On Friday Mrs Kinnear our garden expert co-ordinated Groundforce day, where many parents came to help spruce our garden up for the coming months. A Huge thank you to all parents who gave their help, garden knowledge and service. Mrs Kinnear went home exhausted but very happy with the amount of work that was carried out all in one day.
Charlie Dimmock eat your heart out!
In snack the children have been discussing heathly foods versus unhealthy foods and this will be expanded on next week.
In the art area the children have been exploring different coloured pasta using their hands and the tongs, a great way to improve fine motor skills.
They have also been exploring seeds and soil in the sand tray. Green fingers all round. They also painted the egg and the little chick in the correct sequence.
The final block of play on pedals has finished with the children receiving their certificates at their graduation on Friday. A big thank you to Mrs Duffy and Mrs Imray the course instructors who are now training other members of staff to enable them to take this forward.
Children continue to explore the forest and this week they had the chance to do bark rubbings and make their own art work from natural resources. A great way to spark their imaginations.
The pre-school children have started to prepare for the forthcoming graduation and have chosen the songs that they want to sing on the day.
A week where our wonderful body of parent helpers have once again proved invaluable. Thanks to all.
As always, please feel free to leave a comment or two…or three…or more…..
Mrs Shields
