I have to begin with a HUGE thanks to everyone for their incredible generosity with our Lenten Charity Sponsor Event – Beat The Goalie. We have raised £647 from the nursery and £ 3061.34 from the school giving a grand total of £3708.34 – this is amazing. Our charities include helping those less fortunate across the world, around Scotland and right here in Lanarkshire, think of how many lives will be enriched by the generosity shown by our school community. This is indeed Faith in Action. Coupled with this the children ( and staff) had a great time trying to beat the goalies. A big thanks to all who volunteered to be goalies for us on Wednesday, we couldn’t do this without the help of our volunteers. Well done to all involved.

Throughout the week our Primary 5, 6 & 7 pupils are all very busy rehearsing for our forthcoming show The Lion King. The Lion King is to be the focus of our whole school community approach to learning with everyone from the nursery through to P7 enjoying Inter Disciplinary Learning through the media of this topic. It promises to be a ‘roarin’ success!

Tuesday evening Mgr. Millar and Fr. Martin presented worksops to Primary 4 parents and children in preparation for their First Holy Communion. This event was very well attended and met with very positive feedback. Thanks to all who came along and to our ever faithful clergy for their continued active support and encouragement in all of our childrens’ spiritual development.

Both Mgr. Millar and Canon O’Mahoney have also been in school hearing confessions in P4 – P7 throughout the week, this will continue next week ensuring all upper school children have opportunity to celebrate the sacrament of Penance during this season of Lent.

Wednesday dawned cold, crisp and dry – a great day for our Beat the Goalie, which, as i’ve detailed was a fabulous success.

Wednesday also saw the beginning of our preparation for our forthcoming Primary One pupils. Mrs Duffy and Mrs MM Murphy provided stimulating and informative pre-school workshops for the parents of our current pre-schoolers. This workshop gave parents and carers an insight into the work on-going in nursery to prepare the children for ‘the big school’ and how they can best help at home. Thanks to Mrs Duffy and Mrs MM Murphy for their great work.

Thursday saw our clergy involved in school life once again celebrating a Class Mass in P3b, this was the second class Mass of the week with P3/4 having this unique opportunity on Tuesday. All staff remark on how a Mass within class provides such an intimate and meaningful experience for the children. Our grateful thanks, once again, to our clergy.

Friday was a fabulous day. Our Primary Two Assembly was simply magnificent. Such an enthusiastic year group who threw themselves wholeheartedly into entertaining and educating their audience. It was a super assembly which guided through a whole year, taught us about the themes for each month and gave us an indepth study of the history (and the science) behind the leap year. HUGE congratulations to all of our fabulous Primary Two pupils, they were brilliant. Thanks also to our dedicated and talented staff who, as always, scripted a super educational and entertaining experience.

Meanwhile, as well as beating the goalie our nursery pupils have enjoyed a very busy week. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy in finest technicolour!

This week the children have been out and about in the community visiting Pets at Home in Hamiltion on the mini bus and visiting the new pet shop in Motherwell. The staff in both shops gave a short talk about the animals in their care and the children got up close and personal to a variety of domestic and aquatic pets. The children returned form their adventures full of stories and these have been collated and made into a book in the writing area. These books will be displayed in the cloakroom next week for everyone to see.

After these visits role-play increased in the nursery vets with children displaying some of the leaflets they were given on their visits and discussing the different animals they saw with their friends.

In expressive arts the children used the sponge paints to create various sized paw prints and used a range of collage to make turtles that they had seen in the pet shop. They made animal playdough and explored the big block of ice in the water tray that the children had found in the garden.

Outdoors the children went on a wild animal hunt around the local community but unfortunately the animals seemed to all be in hiding so they explored some of the cut down trees instead showing off their balancing skills.

In the numeracy area they have been gathering a lot of information on the names of baby animals, the sounds diffferent animals make and even discussed where some of these animals live. They have explored the wild animal jigsaws and watched some information about wild animals on the SmartBoard.

On Wednesday all the nursery children took part in our 2nd charity event ‘Beat the Goalie’ and they certainly did. Even the children in the forest had the chance to participate and we have the photographic evidence to prove their excellent ball skills. A big thank you to John’s dad for being our forest goalie.
The 2nd Forest Kindergarten block will come to an end next Wednesday when the children will celebrate their graduation in the forest with their families.

Preparation for block 3 got underway this week with the children discussing what they will see in the forest and what they think the forest will look like. They have made their wood cookies and have been practicing all of the safety games using the nursery garden as the forest.

This week we said goodbye to Mr Crawford our student who has been an asset to our nursery team. We wish him well in everything he does in the future. The children will miss him.

Next week look out for some changes in the nursery playroom as we join with the school on a whole school topic and the clue is

HAKUNA MATATA!

As always, thanks for reading. Please leave us a comment.

Mrs Shields

This week marked our first full week of the season of Lent. Well done to all who have managed to come along to our morning Masses, Monday through to Thursday at 8.15am, a very healthy turn out each day, but still space for more. This week Fr. Millar also began his programme of Class Masses for our sacramental children from Primary 3 & Primary 4. P3a were first, and all said it was a beautiful, unique experience. P3/4 and P3b will have this wonderful opportunity this coming week.

I hope you managed to have a look at our Good Work Wall this week which is filled, indeed, is overflowing with a huge range of activities all relating to Catholic Education Week on the theme of Learning to be Merciful. If you haven’t had the chance to come along and have a wee look, we’ll leave a range of work up around the outside of the library for you to see.

Wednesday of this week we had our first Lenten Charity Event – Pyjama Day! A very snowy day to come to school all dressed in PJs, dressing gown, slippers and carying the obligatory teddy bear. Great fun as you can see below.

However, remembering the reason why we are having these events, I am delighted to say, as a school community, we have raised £512.80, a superb amount. £53 was raised in the nursery with the remaining £459.80 coming from school pupils and staff. Thanks to all who contributed. I’ll keep you up to date on a weekly basis of our fundraising success. We also text our whole school community on a weekly basis to let everyone know of our Lenten Alms Giving. Huge thanks to Miss Stack and The Enterprise Committee for organising this great day. We look forward to our Sponsored Beat The Goalie this coming week.

Friday of this week we celebrated Mass as a school community in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Church, given the poor weather forecast we opted to bus all of our school P1 through to P7 to and from Mass ( although this actually takes longer than going by foot) however with the current weather it was our most sensible. practical option. Mass we celebrated by Fr. Martin and Deacon Tom. Fr. Martin was most impressed by our children’s learned responses to his questions during the Homily. Well done to all of our pupils for their excellent behaviour and respect in church and their active participation in the Mass, they are a credit to our school and to you as parents. Be Proud.

Primary Three used this opportunity to learn all about the inside of the church, the sanctuary, the altar and they even had a wee peek in at the confessional boxes. No ‘down time’ in our school, every minute is used as a learning experience. Brilliant.

Also on Friday we cheered our Cross Country Athletes off to their trials in Coatbridge. I am so grateful to the army of parent helpers who came along to assist with supervision and (more importantly) to cheer our children, supporting their efforts. Huge thanks to Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy (usually found in the nursery) to Mrs Kirstie Harrison, one of our classroom assistants and to Mrs McCarthy, class teacher, who brave the weather each week to train our runners. Grateful thanks also to Mr John Quinn (Grace & Amanda’s dad) who came along snapping a plethora of fabulous photographs, go online and have a look – they are magnificent all 200 of them:

http://johnquinn.zenfolio.com/p85778925

Here’s a wee sneaky peek at a few:

Primary Seven this week have been taking re-cycling to a whole new level. Mrs McLaughlan reported:

Primary 7 gathered old toys, books etc that were in good condition. They brought them in with a small donation for charity and displayed them on a table outside of the classrooms. The children’s names were put into a virtual fruit machine and as the names were selected they then chose an item from the display.The leftover items will be bagged and given to a charity shop.

Here’s a couple of photos of the event. What a great way to ensure maximum usage of toys and games whilst helping others. I love the sound of the virtual fruit machine!

Meanwhile, the nursery, as always, has been busy, busy, busy……

At the beginning of the week the children set out on a nature hunt with magnifying glasses and animal charts. They found a whole family of worms and a variety of other mini beasts in the garden and around the school. They used a chart to record and draw their findings. On one trip out they discovered a poor injured puppy with an old bandage and rope tied round its mouth. Miss MacMullen and the children brought the puppy into the warmth of the nursery and a huge discussion took place. The children discovered that he/she wasn’t wearing a collar so decided to name her Rosie (AM) Jake (PM) they got a blanket from the pet shop and wrapped him up to keep him warm. They thought about what we could do to help the puppy and how to contact the owner. Some children thought the vets was the best place to take the poor injured puppy.
So the children quickly turned the pet shop into a vet’s surgery to help the puppy. They made lost posters and placed them around the nursery.
In expressive arts they made doggy treats using playdough and made a bed with a pillow to make the puppy comfortable. They also made a collar with his/her name on it.
In literacy they made signs for the vets surgery and told stories of their visits to the vet with their pets.
The discussion continued about where is the puppy’s mummy and all these ideas have been recorded on a mindmap which is displayed in the nursery.
This discussion led to children wanting to know the names for other baby animals and they played a matching game in the numeracy area to help them learn all about a range of animals and their young.
In the vets role-play got well under way with the children waiting with their sick pets in the waiting room and other children taking on the role of the vet.

With all this going on the children still managed to take part in pyjama day and they brought in their own soft toys which they used as customers for the vets. Some of the children have being bringing in their stuffed animals with plasters and bandages on. A great homelink.

Block 2 of the Forest Kindergarten continued this week. Please take a look at the floorbook in the cloakroom and the photographs on the Forest Kindergarten wall. This is the first forest adventure in the snow. The children worked together in a team to make Mr and Mrs Snowman. Their cheeks were glowing and they had a BALL!

And, as always, here’s the photos…

A VERY busy, picture filled Blog this week, we’d love to hear what you think, please leave a comment.

Mrs Shields

Beginning with our pre-holiday weekend week. In school, throughout the week, we celebrated Catholic Education Week. This was launched on Sunday 31^st January at our P4 First Holy Communion Enrolment Mass, a wonderful way to welcome Catholic Education Week and to celebrate the official preparation for our P4 pupils (60 in total) who will receive Jesus in this special way during the month of May. The church was packed full with pupils, parents, staff and supporting families, it was lovely to be part of such a special occasion. Thanks to Mgr. Millar and all who attended. Please remember our P4 pupils in your prayers.

Throughout the week each class has been working hard on the theme for Catholic Education Week –Learning to Be Merciful. Our Good Work Wall this coming week will be filled with the fruits of their labour, please come into school and have a look at all the work on the wall in the foyer. Here’s a wee sneeky peak at some of Primary 2’s work. There’s also more from Primary 4 on SCES website CEW Display Wall. www.sces.org.uk

Meanwhile throughout the school and local community our children continue to learn so many different skills in so many different places. Classes are currently going twice weekly to Tesco to track the journey of many of our food items from Farm to Fork. Primary 5 are becoming expert swimmers with their weekly visits and P6 are now all enjoying session at curling, a shivery new sporting experience. As always a HUGE thanks to our parents who volunteer to accompany the children on these outings, we could not do it without your help, never underestimate our gratitude.

Following a very relaxing February weekend staff returned to school on Wednesday for an In-Service Day, an opportunity for us, as staff, to come together, share good practice and plan for our children’s future learning. We also took time to attend 10am Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church to mark the beginning of the season of Lent. It was lovely to see so many of our pupils there with their families.

Mass will be celebrated Monday through to Thursday each week during Lent at 8.15am in our school library. Please encourage your children to come along, indeed, bring all the family. We look forward to seeing you there.

Thursday and Friday were very busy days in school with children welcomed back to school refreshed and energized ready for the term ahead.

Friday heralded a fabulous event for our whole school campus, Constable Gary Cook had organised a full day of presentations and events for our upper school children (P5 – P7) and the children of Firpark Primary. Coupled with this he, and his colleagues, provided sessions for parents and carers. All was based around keeping our children and their families safe on-line. This is a very real and concerning issue for us at school. Our thanks to Gary for his work, all commented most positively on the input, a realistic and practical guide to what we can all do to ensure safety using the internet.

Whilst all this is on-going in school our youngest pupils have been very active in our excellent nursery…..here’s all the gossip from Mrs Murphy:

Over the last 2 weeks there have been a few visitors in the nursery playroom. First we had a visit from Sir Diddimus Lucy’s tortoise. The children were delighted to have a tortoise in the playroom and they looked closely at the pattern on his shell and then drew pictures of the pattern they saw. Sir Diddimus (named after a character in the film Labyrinth) enjoyed exploring the nursery floor too and even went to visit Mrs Shields in her office. Unfortunately he did not manage to get a head teachers sticker.

Next we had a visit from Angus a bearded dragon and you can see from the photograph Mrs Campbell thoroughly enjoyed her encounter with this pet who belongs to Zac and Leah. The children all looked closely at the pattern on his skin and listened attentively to Mr Nisbet telling them what he likes to eat and where he lives in their house.

A big Thank You to both dads for bringing in their precious pets for the children to meet.

Outdoors the children have been following the patterns of exercise and making their own exercises up. They have also been playing nursery rhyme ring games and exploring the huge pieces of ice that they have found in the tyres and elsewhere in the garden. They brought these indoors and put them in the water tray for all the children to see. They have looked closely at the patterns on the ice especially the ones they found in the tyres.

In literacy they have continued to use the ABC music programme listening for the rhyming words through a variety of nursery rhymes and had another opportunity to play the animal listening game. They read the Tiger who came to Tea and did rubbings of the Tiger’s pattern. They also made Valentine’s day cards for their loved ones.

In numeracy they played the Humpty Dumpty jigsaw game where they have to throw the shape dice to win each piece of the puzzle. This is always a popular game with the children. They also played the Huff Puff game which relates to the 3 Little Pigs story and did some caterpillar number ordering on the SmartBoard and followed the shape patterns on the shape sheets. These can be seen displayed in the numeracy area.

Expressive arts has been a buzz with a whole range of pattern activities. They used the animal playdough mats to create stripes, spots and scales for the animals. They explored the shaving foam using different patterned tools. They made their own pattern bubble pictures and they used a variety of patterned tools in the sand and they explored huge pieces of ice from the garden in the water tray.

Last Friday we also celebrated Chinese New Year. The children had group snack where noodles, chicken noodle soup and prawn crackers were on the menu. Yum Yum!

Kung Hey Fat Choy! The children re-enacted the Dragon Dance after watching Chinese New Year on the big SmartBoard and had the opportunity to write some Chinese words in the literacy area.

And here’s the photographic evidence:

We began this week with a very special visitor to our Monday morning assembly. Cara McDonald from Yorkhill children’s hospital visited to thank our children for their ingenuity and generosity. Prior to Christmas P7a pupils asked to speak with me to ‘pitch an idea’. They wanted to set up a short term business with all of the proceeds going to the Little Hearts Foundation at Yorkhill Hospital. I was delighted with their ideas and their desire to help others, I readily agreed and business began. The product was ‘The Really Useful Cupcake’, each one individually designed and hand made by the pupils. The cupcakes were a huge success and the children found themselves making more and more to keep up with demand! Well done to P7a (and the other P7 classes who helped too) to Mrs Carr and to all who purchased the goods. They raised a total of £300 which was presented to Cara on Monday morning. A brilliant entrepreneurial learning experience.

Here are some of our P7 pupils with Mrs Carr and Cara McDonald.

Our week continued on a very successful mode with our Primary Three pupils and their families having opportunity to formally enrol for the Sacrament of First Reconciliation. All were treated to a practical workshop, ably led by Miss Cawley our newest Principal Teacher, and a beautiful, reflective enrolment service conducted by Mgr Miller. Please remember our Primary three pupils in your prayers as they prepare for this important step in their spiritual journey, we are very proud of them all.

Wednesday evening we held our Fundraisers meeting (6pm – earlier than usual). Thanks to all of our wonderful fundraisers who do such a magnificent job to benefit all of our children. On Wednesday night they presented a cheque for £750 to assist each of our P7 pupils with the cost of Kibowie Outdoor Centre week, this is a great bonus for all of our P7 pupils and is greatly appreciated.

A wee plea – we are really short of coffee morning helpers. Our next coffee morning is Friday 4th March beginning at the earlier time of 10am. If you could assist in any way please let us know, we need you.

Later on Wednesday evening a large number of our staff attended the Annual Education Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral. This was a most spiritually uplifting Mass celebrated by Bishop Toal and many priests of the Diocese who are involved with schools. It was also lovely to see so many of our children as altar servers on this evening. Well done to Laila Davis, Katie Hendry, Emma Maughan and Abbie Maughan. Great to see some of our former pupils on the altar too – Ciaran Hendry and Raymond Ron.

Over Thursday and Friday all of our P1 and P7 pupils have been smiling widely! This is due to their annual dental check being carried out. Delighted to report a clean bill of health for many of our pupils, however, some have to think carefully about their sugar intake and how often they take time to brush their teeth.

Meanwhile down in the nursery, here’s the gossip…..

This week the children continue to discuss their pets and in literacy they have been telling stories of their pets. These have been placed on the pet wall the furthest away wall in the corner of the nursery. They are worth a visit so please have a look!
They also completed a sign for the Nursery Rhyme wall and if you look closely you will see that they used a variety of patterns for the letters. This was so much fun that they went on to make a sign for the pet wall from animal print collage. The interest in animals is growing and the children have moved onto wild animals. The children continue to look at patterns on their clothes and in the environment.

In numeracy they discussed the different patterns on a range of animals and placed some wild animals with patterns in the science area which has had a makeover. They played wild animal lotto listening for the sounds of animals in the wild and made patterns using different coloured beads. They used the construction to follow the patterns.

The pet shop continues to be popular and they made more pet food this week as it was flying off the shelves! must have been a buy one get one free promotion! They designed a pet shop sign and the children got busy role-playing the owner and customer in the shop and exploring pretend money. They discussed in their floorbooks how to look after their pets at home and in the pet shop.

In snack they made patterned pizzas and devoured them.

Outdoors this week was a bit challenging with the high winds but the children did manage out on a few occasions where they built Humpty Dumpty’s wall and roleplayed the nursery rhyme. They also looked for patterns outside and used the big chunky chalk to create their own patterns on the ground.

The art area has been a hive of activity this week with the theme being patterns. The children had the opportunity to make marbling patterns which turned out fantastic, roller patterns, tartan patterns and playdough wild animal patterns where they had to create the spots for the leopard, stripes for the zebra and giraffe patterns. The children have been so busy that the display is full of their hard work.

In science the children took part in an activity in which they made pretend snow they explored this with great gusto. A messy activity is always a popular one well done to out student for providing the children with this opportunity.

On Tuesday we had a visitor from the ABC music programme who spent all morning with the children introducing them to new parts of the programme. Mrs McFadden was very impressed with the children’s knowledge of the instruments and of previous musical activities that Mrs Imray and some of the staff had provided for the children from the programme. This is a great resource and the children enjoy participating in the fun activities. Many of the activities have helped the children to listen for rhyming words and listening to the beat and the patterns of music which helps them build their knowledge of the different patterns of language.

And here’s the photos:

I’ll begin at the end!

We ended our week with a fabulous assembly presented by our wonderful Primary 4 pupils. Primary 4 have been studying The Romans, and having watched their spectacular assembly, I can confirm they have learned lots and lots and lots! Primary Four guided us through so many developments lead by The Romans, we learned all about Roman Gods and we were thoroughly entertained all the way through. An outstanding performance from all of our P4 children, they were brilliant. The slow motion fight between Celts and Romans to the tune of Chariots of Fire was amazing, I love it all. A huge thanks to our multi talented children who so willingly shared their talents and skills, thanks also to all staff involved, most especially our classroom assistants; Mrs Mellon, Mrs Stevenson, Mrs McMillan, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Lamb and Mrs Burns. Our P4 teachers; Mrs Murphy, Mrs Cassidy, Miss McAvoy & Miss Cawley.  Not forgetting  Mrs McCoy,  Principal Teacher, our assembly guru and Mrs Campbell, DHT, our musical genius.

At the beginning of the week we held a meeting for our P7 pupils and their parents to discuss the exciting prospect of Kilbowie. Kilbowie is an outward bound centre owned and run by North Lanarkshire Council. Each year our P7 pupils have opportunity to spend a week at Kilbowie learning a plethora of new skills, meeting new friends and gaining confidence in themselves and their abilities. Kilbowie is siutated just outside Oban, on the banks of the river. A beautiful setting and a wonderful opportunity for our P7 pupils. This year P7 are of to Kilbowie on Monday 7th March until Friday 12th March. Thanks in advance to staff who have volunteered to go along for the week to support and encourage our young people. Staff attending are:

Mrs McCoy ~ Principal Teacher

Mrs Carr & Miss Green ~ P7 teachers

Mrs McDerment ~ P2 teacher (and an experienced Kilbowier)

Mrs Stevenson ~ Classroom assistant (and experienced Kilbowier)

Mrs Feenan ~ parent

Our children will share Kilbowie Centre with the P7 pupils from St Bernadette’s and St Brendan’s, a great opportunity to get to know their new S1 group for this coming year. Good luck to all, we look forward to hearing all about it.

For next session we have been allocated a September slot so it will be an exciting start for our new P7 in August of this year.

Meanwhile lots of exciting learning experiences continue in school. Our P7 pupils are forging ahead with their Young Leaders Training, Our P5 pupils are lapping up their swimming lessons, our P3 pupils have begun their intense preparation for the forthcoming Sacrament of First Reconciliation, our senior pupils are attending Farm to Fork, healthy food workshops at Tesco, many of our children continue to actively participate in our wide range of after school and lunch time clubs. A busy school indeed.

This week our teaching kitchen was installed in what was (and may well be again) our Science room. The teaching kitchen has been installed at the back of the room allowing for a flexible working environment. We look forward to our pupils, staff ans parents making great use of this new facility. Further details once our oven and fridge arrive. A HUGE thanks to Mr Stephen Moore, Continuous Improvement Officer in North Lanarkshire Council, who has provided the funding for this project.

Our nursery pupils, staff and parents will also be utilising the teaching kitchen once it is all up and running…Watch this space.

So, what else is happening in the nursery. Here’s the latest from Mrs MM Murphy, with a few photos too!

A lovely start to the week, the snow had fallen over the weekend and the children were full of stories about building snowmen, sledging and throwing snowballs.

On arrival at nursery on Monday we noticed that our friendly fox had paid a visit over the weekend and left lots of footprints for us to see. The children used a sheet showing a variety of animal tracks to see if they could identify the footprints and low and behold it was the tracks of not just one fox but a whole family of foxes. The children also made shapes in the snow and snow angels before it began to melt. As the week progressed the children went on a shape hunt in the school campus and found a range of different shapes and by the end of the week they had the opportunity to look at the patterns on their wellies and took part in a welly printing activity.

Over in the home corner it has been transformed once again. It has now been turned into a pet shop and the children chose the pets to put in the pet shop and made a price list for each individual aniimal. They made a sign saying ‘Please give us a home’. The children queued up to buy their pets and lots of language went on as they discussed who had the smallest, cutest and who had the nicest pet.

In numeracy they continued making different models using the 3d shapes. They then played the animal sound lotto where they had to listen to the animal sound and cover the picture of the correct animal and this progressed to an animal matching game where they children had to spot the matching animals.

In literacy the children made a nursery rhyme display of their favourite nursery rhymes, they painted Humpty Dumpty’s wall, made Humpty himself, created a spider and water spout for Incy Wincy and made the clock and the mouse from Hickory Dickory Dock from different materials. They then wrote a variety of rhyming words that can be seen on the display. Please take a look at their hard work.
In music they used different instruments and sang their nursery rhymes. They also roleplayed building Humpty’s wall with the giant lego bricks.

In the art area on Monday they explored the snow in the water tray and lots of discussions arose from this experienc. These are some of the words the children used to describe the snow. “Cold, melting, squishy, squashy, slushy, freezing and soft”
On Tuesday they made their pets from playdough using googly eyes, feathers and lollipop sticks and by the end of the week the children were producing paintings using different patterns.

As always the children are encouraged to tidy up the nursery at the end of each session, so this week we have included a photograph of the children tidying up.

Week 2 in the forest and the children had the opportunity to experience the hammock. great fun was had by all and that includes the staff and the parents/carers who have signed up to help each week at the forest. A few photographs to see what they got up to this week. Evidence of all their adventures can be seen in the floorbook in the cloakroom.

Yet another exciting week in our school community.

This week throughout each afternoon we have been enrolling our new Primary One pupils for August. It has been a busy time with 46 catchment children enrolled to date. We are aware we have at least 21 placing requests to add to this total. Placing request decisions will be known by late April.

Should you know of anyone who has yet to enroll, please encourage them to come along to school at their earliest convenience.

We look forward to meeting our new intake ‘officially’ on our induction days scheduled for Tuesday 9^th and Tuesday 16^th May.

Monday saw some of our P7 pupils enjoying participating in Young Leaders Training with our fantastic Active Sports Co-ordinator – Jenny Thompson ( or Jenny Duracell as we affectionately call her). This is a most successful initiative which sees our P7 pupils take full responsibility for lunch time clubs for our younger pupils. A super way to promote a healthy, active lifestyle for our youngest and oldest pupils and a fabulous opportunity for our P7 pupils to show their maturity and their responsibility in a most practical and enjoyable manner.

Tuesday morning we welcomed personnel from Reel Music to record our P7 Song Writing Musical Extravaganza. P7c and some senior pupil volunteers have been working very hard to compose their very own song and then record their efforts. The song is entitled ‘Living to Learn, Learning to Live’ – based, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, on our school motto. I am really looking forward to hearing the song. Our pupils will have opportunity to perform at Motherwell Civic Centre on Tuesday 1^st March. Exciting times ahead. Huge thanks to Miss Green, class teacher and Mrs Wilkinson, our Kodaly expert who have been working tirelessly with the children. Mrs Wilkinson said they sounded absolutely amazing, high praise indeed. Well done P7.

On Wednesday we welcomed a number of S6 Caritas pupils from Our Lady’s High to work with our Sacramental Classes. It was great to see so many former pupils returning to join us in this way. We look forward to working together to provide the best spiritual preparation for our children.

Thursday was a very busy day. Primary 3a enjoyed an exciting educational outing to Glasgow Science Centre. This was to launch the Clyde in The Classroom Project, a joint initiative working together with our friends and neighbours in Firpark Primary. We look forward to following the progress of the project and hearing lots of fishy tales! Well done to all of our P3a pupils who won the hearts of all at The Science Centre with their unreserved enthusiasm, super manners and insightful questioning. Congratulations boys and girls. Well done also to Mrs Gillies & Miss Duncan.

Thursday afternoon I was delighted to attend the award ceremony for The Trish Wilson Memorial Illustrated Writing Project. Matthew Munro, now P6b, was awarded First Runner Up in Second Level. This is a magnificent achievement, especially when you consider Matthew was only P5 when he wrote and illustrated this work. Matthew was the youngest by 2 years in his category of winners. Miss Stack, Mrs Campbell, Mrs Munro, John (Matthew’s wee brother and biggest fan) and I all cheered loudly and were very proud of Matthew as he confidently read his work to the audience engaging all in his work. For his efforts Matthew was awarded an inscribed trophy, gift vouchers and a copy of a book written by the late Trish Wilson. Well done Matthew. This is Matthew receiving his award from Mrs Gillian Hanlon, Continuous Improvement Officer with responsibility for Literacy.

Throughout this week we have begun our preparations for our forthcoming school show – The Lion King. Every child in Primaries 5, 6 & 7 has been allocated a part in our show and will have opportunity to be on stage. Auditions have also taken place for specific character parts. This promises to be a fantastic show – our best yet. Mrs McCoy has started class scene rehearsals and the enthusiasm is oozing from our pupils. It promises to be an exciting term ahead.

Meanwhile the nursery pupils and staff have been up to all sorts – as always…..Read on to find out what’s been happening in the playroom, the outdoor area and the forest.

At the beginning of the week the children were asked what they wanted to learn about and due to a few new animal additions to their families at Christmas the discussion was all about their pets. A mindmap of all their ideas can be seen displayed in the house corner. So this is the new nursery topic.

In snack the children discussed what kind of food that their pets needed to stay healthy. A mindmap with all their answers can be seen in the snack area. In the house corner the children used the animal resource box to locate a range of dog baskets, cat beds and some very lifelike pets. These have now taken up resisdency in the house corner and the children are busy looking after them.
Our shape learning continues and in snack the children had triangle toast, square toast, and spaghetti hoops. The children were all able to name the different shapes.

In expressive arts they drew pet portraits used playdough to make their pets and used a range of shapes to make fishbowls to keep their fish in. Some of their portraits can be seen displayed in the art area.

In numeracy the children played a 2d shape matching game and used a range of construction to build 3d models. They also played the animal matching game which proved to be a very popular game that the children were able to play independently.

In literacy they have been concentrating on the different patterns of language through a variety of rhyming stories and nursery rhymes. Humpty Dumpty has proved as ever popular. They have used the musical instruments to listen to different sounds and this will continue next week using our ABC music resource.

Outdoors they have been experimenting floating and sinking. They used lots of different objects and made a chart of their discoveries. This is displayed in the nursery. They have also played the shape corner game outside and used the big shape floor tiles to make their own shapes.
Due to the cold temperatures they have explored the ice in the garden. The mud kitchen had frozen over giving the children the chance to see different shapes and ice with objects frozen inside them. They used the hammers to break the ice into different shapes. They also read snowy animal stories outside.

French continues this term with Mrs Ali teaching the children the birdie dance in French which fitted in perfectly with our new topic.

The second Forest Kindergarten block started on Wednesday. A cold but beautiful day. The children wrapped up warm and had great fun exploring the forest site. Evidence of all their adventures will be in the Forest floorbook in the cloakroom each week. Please take the opportunity to look at it with your child.

A ‘COUPLE’ of photographs for you to see…..

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope all enjoyed a joyous Christmas and peaceful New Year. In this Year of Mercy we will focus our prayer on peace throughout our world and put our faith in our merciful God.

We’ve had a we short week in school, a nice relaxing start to the year. It was lovely to see all of our children return safe and well having enjoyed a lovely Christmas. From their stories it is clear Santa has been VERY busy in and around Motherwell.

Throughout  these initial three days we have been preparing for our new Primary One pupils due to begin with us in school from August 2016. We look forward to a busy week of enrolment this coming week. Parents can enrol children each afternoon from 1.30pm to 3.00pm, however, if these times do not suit we will happily accomodate throughout each day, when we can.

Please remember when enrolling to bring birth lines (not the shortened version), proof of address in the form of a council tax statement/bill and, where applicable, Baptismal certificate. All of this paperwork will be photocopied and kept safely in each child’s school file.

We continue to be short staffed and, like all schools, are finding it difficult to access supply teachers. As a consequence of this, and to ensure minimal disruption to our children’s education, Mrs Duffy and Mrs Campbell are both finding themselves class committed at different times througout each week for the foreseeable future. Our priority in school is, and always will be, to provide excellent learning for all of our children. Our robust planning format and committment to collaborative preparation ensures continuity and progression in each of our classes indiscriminate of the teacher.

Thursday morning our Primary 5 children re-embarked on their swimming and dry sports programme, a great way to promote their health and fitness. This coming week some of our P7 pupils will be debating the merit of running/walking one mile each day. I await their views with great interest.

Friday morning I attended my new ‘Family Group’ meeting. North Lanarkshire Council has allocated each school to a ‘family’ where there are similarities to our school/nursery perspective. Our family includes:

St Timothy’s Coatbridge, Ladywell Primary Motherwell, John Paul II Primary Uddingston, Clarkston Primary Airdrie and Tannochside Primary Tannochside.

It was a really interesting meeting and great to have a chat about the challenges being in large primary schools (half of whom also have nursery classes) presents. We have been asked to decide on three shared priorities to take forward. Collaboratively we have decided we will focus our energies on upper school reading. Looking at ways to evidence, track and monitor reading progress in the upper school. I will keep you informed of our progress.

As we move to our nursery blog can I highlight a problem which is on-going throughout our school community; Head Lice!

Sorry to begin the year with this but it is so important each parent continues to monitor their child’s head for any signs of ‘itchy scratchys’ as they are affectionatly known! Please be vigilant in checking your child’s hair every week. Working together we can erradicate this annoying difficulty, please be pro-active in your approach. Thanks.

Meanwhile, in our ‘EXCELLENT’ nursery they’ve had a busy three days, here’s Mrs Murphy’s weekly update:

A short week in nursery this week but as usual a very busy one. On Wednesday we welcomed back all of our children and 7 new children in the nursery and a new member of staff. Mrs Diane Duffy has joined our excellent nursery as a permanent member of staff. By Friday our new recruits were settling in well.

The staff would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents/carers who purchased a calendar last term. The total raised from the sale of the calendars was £354. The children will be consulted in what they would like to spend the money on in the near future.

On returning to nursery the children were full of stories about Christmas morning, Christmas dinner and what they got from the man in the red suit. In the literacy area they wrote detailed stories and drew pictures of their new toys. Look out for these coming home soon.

In numeracy the children have been naming a range of 2d shapes and using the 3d shapes to build houses boats and very tall towers in the construction area. This will continue over the next few weeks to expand their knowledge of a variety of shapes.

Outdoors the children took part in a shape hunt. A range of shapes had been hidden within the nursery garden for them to find and by the end of the week they were beginning to identify shapes in the garden fixtures.

In expressive arts the children used shapes to make pictures of their houses and people. Look out for the shape display coming soon. They made their own shapes using playdough and explored cooked spaghetti in the water tray.

The heart of the nursery has been transformed back into a house corner which helps settle the new children in as there are familiar things in the house corner that they may recognise from their own houses. The children have been setting the table and role-playing with the babies.

As always healthy snack is on offer each day in the snack area and the children choose what they are having for snack and write up the menu board.

The second Forest Kindergarten block starts on Wednesday 13/1/16. All children involved have been preparing for their first visit this week. They have made their wood cookies and have practised going to the forest in the nursery garden. The children are excited about their forthcoming adventures which will be recorded in the forest floorbook which will be displayed in the cloakroom for all to see.

As always, thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment – this could be your New Year resolution!

Mrs Shields

It is official….Our Nursery is EXCELLENT. As you will be aware we have just been through the process of Care Commission Inspection.

Our nursery was inspected on the following 4 themes:

Quality of care and support

1. How well you support children to reach their potential?

Quality of environment

1. How well the outdoor environment contributes to positive outcomes for children?

Quality of staffing

1. How staff training and development has improved the outcomes for children?

Quality of management and leadership

1.Improvements since the last inspection – the positive impacts these have had on the outcome for children

2.The quality assurance systems used to monitor and evaluate the quality of children experiences.

All four themes have been graded as excellent, we look forward to sharing the full report with you all in the New Year when it is published.

A HUGE thanks to our nursery children, who welcomed our inspector to their nursery and proudly displayed their learning experiences. Grateful thanks also to the great number of parents/carers & grandparents who willingly gave of their own time to meet with or contact Care Commission on our behalf. Thanks also to our numerous visiting specialists & other professionals who also took time to speak with Care Commission.

A very special thanks to our magnificent nursery staff so ably lead by Mrs Duffy and Mrs Murphy. Every single member of staff has been recognised for their dedication, care and commitment to our children.

I could not be happier, it feels like Santa has come early this year!

Meanwhile our children throughout our school and nursery our children have all enjoyed a very exciting week.

Tuesday, following the big reveal of our school show our school pupils all enjoyed their annual Christmas parties, great fun was had by all. Tuesday was a VERY sparkly day with all dressed in their finery. The children (and staff) all looked extremely festive.

We ended our week with the first of our two pantomimes – The Wizard that Woz. This was a magical pantomime which engaged and delighted everyone in the audience from 3 through to…..well quite a few years older! A great time was had by all…Oh YES it was.

Next week is a very short week in school, therefore this will be the final blog for 2015.

May I take this opportunity to say an enormous thanks to each and every person in our school community, we have a wonderful ethos in our community which is created through everyone working together with a shared goal – To provide the best learning environment for all of our children.

I wish you all a very Happy and Holy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Mrs Shields

Our school show for Primary 5, 6 and 7 will be ‘The Lion King’!  We will be ‘casting’ early in the new term, so boys and girls, get your thinking caps on!  Which part do YOU want?

Such a busy, exciting week coming up I’ve decided to keep you up to date as and when events unfold.

Monday morning we began our week, as always, with our school assembly. This week our focus in ‘The Year of Mercy’ launched at the weekend. Mgr. Millar has very kindly gifted two free standing banners depicting the beautiful logo of the Year of Mercy.

Coupled with this we were delighted to enjoy our annual visit from the gentlemen from The Knights of St. Columba. They came, as always, bearing very good news. Congratulations go to Esme Colenso and Elizabeth Ross who were both successful winner in Keep Christ in Christmas competition. Congtatulations to both girls.

Meanwhile, Primary 6 were all out on this day enjoying a very Victorian Christmas at Motherwell Heritage Centre. Huge thanks to our faithful parent helpers who came along to assist with supervision. A great time was had by all, and the children learned lots of new skills whilst having such fun.

Not to be outdone! Primary 7 set off after assembly round to Mission Place to sing some Christmas cheer to our local elderly friends. The children sang beautifully (whilst bedecked in their Christmas jumpers, hats, hairbands etc etc).

Whilst at Mission Place they met with a very interesting gentleman, Mr Don Williams. Don is an animator for Disney – working for over thirty years with the Disney Foundation. Don kindly sketched some animations for our children during their visit and mad a promise to return to our school and provide a workshop! How amazing is that! Go on-line and google Don williams, animator for a potted history, it’s a very interesting read. Here’s some photographs of Priamry Seven(and Don) in action.

Thanks, once again, to Mrs Carr for organising this visit. The children will all be given a collage of all four designs whilst the originals will be framed and displayed in school.

Oh…and there’s more….and yes it is STILL Monday!

Down in the nursery we enjoyed a very busy day with an AM visit from Inspector Kara Doonan from Care Commission. kara spent the morning in the nursery working alongside our wonderful staff and brilliant children. Kara was most impressed by the calm, happy way our children come into nursery, the range of activities available to our children and the variety of outdoor learning opportunities. We look forward to welcoming Kara back to join us on Wednesday to meet with Mrs Duffy, Mrs Murphy and myself – an evidence based meeting. Kara will also meet with all parents/carers who volunteered to come along whilst attending our nursery shows. Thanks again to all who volunteered, we’ve decided to accept every one of our volunteers both AM and PM. Kara will be a busy lady! She is also going to spend some additional time in the playroom on her return. We will keep you posted on our progress.