Our first week back following our October break, and what a fabulous week it has been.

Picture the scene….

Mrs Campbell, Mrs Duffy and myself are sitting in my office on Monday morning around 7.30am, coffee in hand and discussing the week ahead. From nowhere came a loud knock at the window – you can imagine our reaction!!!!!!

However, we were delighted to see it was Fr Millar who had come along to bring a beautiful gift to our school. Fr Millar has purchased a lovely wooden Altar for us to use for all of our school Masses. Fr Millar is also going to purchase altar clothes for the altar. How fabulous is that. So fantastic we forgave him for frightening the life out of us.

In discussion with Fr Millar and Deacon Tom we have decided to mark this beautiful gift through a very special Mass. The altar will be blessed at our Mass for Confirmandi and their parents on Thursday 20th November at 1.45pm. We invite all of our parents to join us in this very special celebration.

The altar will be blessed once more at our P2 Mass on Friday November 28th giving our whole school the opportunity to be actively involved in this unique occasion. Once again we invite all of our parents/grandparents and friends of our school to join with us for the Celebration of The Eucharist.

As always we began our week with our Monday morning Assembly, a great way to begin our week as a community of faith and learning. We have changed the way we collect our MISSIO contributions. Now each class has a MISSIO box where each child has the opportunity to contribute each day of the week. One child from every class now brings forward the MISSIO collection box on Monday at assembly. Whilst this is happening Mrs Campbell plays some reflective music and all of our children offer this moment to God thinking of those less fortunate than ourselves. This is a beautiful, spiritual experience for all in our school community, there truly is a moment of absolute stillness, silence and reflective prayer.

Tuesday evening we held our annual Kilbowie Meeting for our P7 parents, this is always a very exciting time for Primary Seven (and their parents). Kilbowie Outdoor Centre is a North Lanarkshire owned facility where every P7 child across the Authority has opportunity to spend a week learning outdoors through Canoeing, Kayaking, Gorge Walking, Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking, Abseiling, going on Safari….I could go on and on. It is a magnificent experience for all of our senior pupils and for our staff who so willingly give up a week of their lives to accompany the children and become pseudo parents for the week. In our school we are extremely fortunate where each year I find myself in the same situation having to turn down offers from staff – not all schools are in this fortunate position. Giving up a week of your life to accompany the children is a big ask and I am incredibly grateful to all 11 staff members who offered to go along for the week. This year Miss Phee (Principal Teacher), Mrs Irwin (P7), Miss Kane (P7), Mrs Carr (P6), Mrs Harrison (Classroom Assistant) and Mr Watson (P7 parent) will all be accompanying the children. Throughout this week Mrs McLaughlan (P7) will overtake the duties of class teacher for Mrs Carr’s P6 pupils. Primary Seven set off on their Kilbowie Adventure on Monday 24th November and return to school on Friday 28th – we wish them a wonderful week filled with exciting challenges and unique learning opportunities.

Also on Tuesday evening we welcomed personnel from Our Lady’s High School. Firstly some 6th year pupils spoke most eloquently about how they are ambassadors within their school and how they are taking forward a most interesting and informative website. Following this Mrs Donnachie DHT with responsibility for S1 and S2 students spoke at length to our P7 parents giving an overview of S1. Mrs Sinclair HT introduced all and supported Mrs Donnachie. My thanks to all involved.

This week also saw our Reading Together Programme extend to welcome new parents/grandparents on board. Our Reading Together Programme offers individual children a fabulous opportunity to read on a one to one basis with volunteer parents/grandparents/friends of the school. This unique opportunity provides deep learning tailored specifically to the needs of individual children. My thanks to all involved in this excellent learning. Should you wish to become involved please speak to Mrs Duffy DHT, we are always looking to recruit more people to become involved in all aspects of our school curriculum.

Friday we were proud to host the first of a number of football festivals on our fantastic all weather pitch. It is great to watch so many young people from across Motherwell enjoy this wonderful facility. No idea who won : (

Come Clubbing @ Cathedral is extremely active this term, their are lunchtime and after school clubs on every day of the week. We have each member of our teaching staff involved, a number of our support staff and secretarial staff, parents volunteers and input from North Lanarkshire Active Schools Personnel. An excellent example of how to extend our children’s learning in so many different ways. It is things like this which make our school an excellent school. CC@C covers topics such as; netball, football, quiz team, cookery, choir, solo singing, board games…again the list is endless. A HUGE thanks to all involved.

Wee Reminder: Hallowe’en Dress Up for Fun Parade Friday afternoon in school. – pupils and staff only I’m afraid as we have no space to dance and sing with an audience.

Meanwhile……If you go down to the nursery today, you’re sure of a big surprise…..Here’s Mrs Murphy’s Blog:

The children returned on Monday refreshed after the week long holiday.
Before the October week the numeracy area had been transformed into a post office where the children role-played postmen, customers and cashiers. They posted cards and letters in the postbox delivered letters by hand and weighed parcels.
The theme of People Who Help Us continues and this week the children were finding out about the role of the police.
In the art area they made their own policemen and woman by drawing round each other, painting then dressing their characters in the correct uniform. They designed their own police cars and even made a jail. Please take a look over in the far end of the playroom next week as you might get a surprise!

In the literacy area the week started off with children writing their own stories about attending and visiting hospitals, the doctors and the dentist. These can be seen displayed in the storycorner. As the week progressed they started to write signs and words for the police station and even made their very own walkie talkies from junk.
By Friday they were drawing scary Hallowe’en pictures and writing spooky words these are all on display in the playroom.

Outdoors the children have had the opportunity to visit the post office to buy stamps and to see how the real post office compares to the one in the playroom. They have written their own cards and letters and posted them back to the nursery to see how long it takes for letters to be delivered. They designed WANTED posters then went to the nearest post box to post them. On Friday Mrs Shields, Mrs Campbell and Mrs Duffy visited the playroom with the posters which they had received through the post. Oh dear it was all of the Senior Management Team who were on the wanted posters. The children found this very funny as did the management. These posters are now on display outside Mrs Shield’s office.

In the numeracy area the children continue to roleplay in the post office and they were also learning all about matching number to quantity using number bean bags and the People Who Help Us numberline. They have also been watching real life stories of the emergency services on the SmartBoard.

Roleplay in the hospital continues with some patients developing chicken pox this week, the children are still enjoying the play opportunities that the hospital provides. Healthy snack continues as always and children have had the chance to explore the different colours sizes and smells of Autumn vegetables.

On Thursday the children started to decorate the playroom for Hallowe’en, they chose outfits from the dressing up box and helped to display scary decorations from last year. They then chose to make some of their own decorations which will continue into next week.
A wee reminder that the hallowe’en party is on Friday 31/10/14 and will take place throughout the whole of the session.

Our practical group activities resumed this week with the children being involved in the following:
Singing traditional nursery rhymes and listening for the words that sound the same.
Learning how to do the washing and the importance of keeping clean.
Putting on their jackets and shoes all by themselves. Promoting independence.
Detailed portrait painting to show progression.
Recognising numbers 0-10.

As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to comment on any aspect of the blog, we’d love to hear from you.

Mrs Shields