Today we were delighted to share in the third and final celebration of First Holy Communion, over this weekend we have enjoyed two celebrations over Saturday and Sunday. Well done to all Primary Four (and five) children who met Jesus in this new and exciting way for the first time. Both celebrations were beautiful, spiritual and respectful. It was lovely for so many of our staff to share in your special day. Thanks, as always, to Mgr Millar who supports our children (and staff) in so many ways. Thanks also to Canon O’Mahony, the busiest retired priest we’ve ever known! and to Deacon Tom.

Huge thanks to class teachers; Miss McAvoy, Miss Stack & Mrs McCarthy who have worked so hard to make this such a memorable occasion for our children. Thanks to all of the staff who have come along to support our children. This demonstrates the great commitment our staff give to the spiritual development and faith journey of our children.

This week has been a busy one in school, on Wednesday all of our P4 (and P5 from P4/5) enjoyed a full day at Carfin Grotto, celebrating Mass, the Rosary and Benediction. A lovely day was had by all. Thanks to our parent helpers who came along to assist with our children – we are so very grateful for your time and enthusiasm for all we do in school.

Throughout this week our Primary four and Primary Five children have enjoyed Money workshops, led by a team of financial specialists who aim to show our pupils the value of money and the importance of undertanding the role of money in our society. This was a most successful initiative led this year by Miss Stack. Thanks to Miss Stack for her work.

On Tuesday of this week we welcomed our future Primary One pupils and their parents to the school for the very first time. Our pre-entrant programme got off to a fabulous start with all of the children quickly settling into their classes and working happily with Mrs Tominey. An enormous thanks to Mrs McCoy who gave a wonderful overview of ‘a day in the life of Primary One’, as an excellent practitioner Mrs McCoy provided a practical look at what the children will be learning and how they will learn. We look forward to welcoming all of our forthcoming P1s and their parents back this coming Tuesday.

Primary 6 & Primary 7 have begun their work with Childline beginning with an assembly for all senior pupils. This important element of health & well being is so beneficial to our young pupils and we are grateful to the personnel of Childline for their delivery. The pupils will now continue on to class based workshops approariate to their age and stage of development.

We welcomed Mrs Donnachie, Mrs Tulley, Mr Martin and some ‘well kent’ faces of our former pupils back this week to talk with Primary Seven about their forthcoming transition to High School. The transition process is a crucial element of our pupils preparation as tehy make this important step in their lives. Working closely with Our Lady’s High we endeavour to ensure our pupils make a smooth, worry free, transition to Secondary Education.

Ascension Thursday Mass was a wonderful celebration in our lovely Cathedral. Thanks to all who make this journey to church possible; Mgr Millar, Community Police, Parent helpers, staff and pupils. It is very improtant we continue to provide our children with the opportunity to worship in our church, even the weather shone kindly on us ( albeit a wee bitty cold). And well done to Primary One pupils who got a special mention from Mgr Millar from the altar for their enthusiastic singing of hymn choruses and Mass parts. Primary One pupils and staff were well chuffed!

On Friday Primary 5 held their annual Coffee Morning. Each year all of our upper stages have opportunity to serve our local community in this enjoyable, tasty manner. Thanks to all who contributed through donations, baking, serving and supporting – we couldn’t do it without you all.

I must give my apologies for not being present on Friday I was at North Lanarkshire Headquarters all day interviewing some Head Teacher posts -although an important element of my HT role I much prefer to be in school.

This coming 2 weeks are short ones (school is not open Friday 22nd and Monday 25th therefore there will be no blog next weekend. In advance I would like to say a HUGE thanks to Miss Stack who has organised a whole week of World of Work activities for this coming week. We begin on Monday by being hosts for the recording of ‘The Peter & Roughie Show’ with our footballers ( the lucky 35 whose names came out of the hat at assembly last Monday) becoming the audience. A most exciting happening.

Throughout this week Miss Stack has organised a variety of fabulous learning opportunities for every child in our school – the organisation of this is immense – well done Miss Stack I am really grateful to you for all of this hard work and endeavour to provide our whole school community with a wealth of talent and skills which otherwise they would not experience. Our next blog will be devoted to World of Work Week – watch out for the photographs coming soon.

In the nursery this week, the excitement continues….

A very busy week this week in nursery.

On Monday Freddie the Fairy Farmer visited the children to ask for their help to build a farmyard as the one he had wasn’t doing very well and the animals were missing and the fields had no fruit or vegetables in them.

The children quickly agreed to help him and starting providing ideas of how to help and their ideas were recorded on a mindmap which is on the wall of the cloakroom.
The children got busy with their ideas and in the art area started painting a farmyard scene which included animals and a barn for them to live in. You can see their efforts dotted throughout the playroom.

In the numeracy area they created their own farmyards in the ‘build your own farm’ game on the SmartBoard. Explored farmyard puzzles and matched baby animals to their mums.

In the writing area they created their own ‘Old MacDonald’ using paint and collage material. He is proudly displayed on the writing wall along with a variety of farmyard words that the children have written and a story all about him.

The house corner has been turned into a farm shop selling the produce from the fields and the children are buying and selling real potatoes, carrots, leeks and fruit. They have also started to cultivate their own produce on the window ledge which will be planted outside soon.

Outdoors they made a mindmap of how they can transform the outdoor area into a farm. This can also be seen in the cloakroom. They tidied up the garden for Groundforce day.

On Tuesday a miracle took place as Freddie the Farmer brought along a few little gifts for the children. Nine tiny tadpoles are now resident in the science area of the playroom and the children have been intrigued with them. The children will be responsible for the care of their new friends. The search for tadpoles is now over!

On Wednesday down in the forest the children from the 2nd block of Forest Kindergarten were proudly showing their parents and grannies the ropes. They celebrated by having a picnic and all received a graduation certificate to say that they had completed their forest experience. Please feel free to look at the Forest Kindergarten floorbook in the cloakroom which shows all the learning that goes on in the Great Outdoors.

The final block starts on Wednesday 20/5/15 and all children involved in this have been informed.

On Thursday we had our annual Groundforce day and all staff would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our budding gardeners who helped transform the garden in such a small space of time. Miss MacMillan was the driving force behind the transformation this year along with help from Mrs Little. Everyone enjoyed cake and a cuppa for their hard work. On Thursday afternoon some budding P6 gardeners joined the team and they worked very hard indeed a big thank you goes to them too. The children will be introduced to all the new areas that they can explore this week. Within the next few weeks some additional garden furniture will sit proud of place in the garden. During our big dig a huge caterpillar was found, we placed him in our caterpillar house along with some leaves fruit and water and hopefully we can all watch his transformation into a butterfly!

 

As always, thanks for reading. Please let us know you are out there! Comments always welcome.

Mrs Shields

This short week has been one where we have had three main highlights.

First of all we were all overwhelmed by our brilliant Primary Three who became the ‘First Kids in Space’. Their assembly was indeed ‘Out of this world’

All in attendance were provided an fantastic 45 minute display of action packed learning. Our young P3s showed us just how much wee people can learn and remember. The learning in this assembly was outstanding, and because of the active, motivating and fun way it has been presented to the children I am confident of this being life long learning. It was truly magnificent. The majority of props and costumes had been designed and made by the childrne themeselves.

Well done to all of our Primary Three children and a huge well done and thank you to their ‘space age’ staff:

Miss Love, Mrs McDerment, Mrs Gillespie, Miss Couper and Mrs Harrison and all other staff involved.

Our second display of fabulous contextualised learning came in the format (for me) in a visit to Motherwell Heritage Centre. Last year some of our then P4 pupils became invovled in a rejuvination project of Motherwell. Our pupils worked with Heritage Centre Staff and Mrs Duffy to discuss and display all that is good about our wonderful town. ( I appreciate I am not from Motherwell but like to think of myself as an adopted member)

The culmination fo the children’s work came on Friday morning when the children were invited to “take over the Hertiage Centre’ and see the unveiling of their work. The children’s work is now permanently displayed in the Hertiage Centre – on the tower. I urge you to go along and have a look – you’ll be impressed.

Well done to Mrs Duffy and all of the children involved (now in P5)

Kian, Katie, Emma, Victoria, Connor, Klaudia, Patryk, Kayla, Joseph, Lewis, Carlina, Matthew, Adam, Charlei and Reece.

Our final highlight took place today in St. Luke’s Church where 13 of our First Communicants celebrated the Sacrament for the very first time. It was a beautiful celebration concelebrated by Mgr Millar, Canon O’Mahony, Fr. Briody and Deacon Tom. Thanks also to our school pupils (and former pupil) who came along to serve. We look forward to continuing our journey of faith with our Priamry four pupils next Saturday and Sunday.

 

Mrs MM Murphy reports from the nursery:
A short week in nursery so just a quick update of what has been going on.

The hunt for frogspawn has been unsuccessful but the children have still been able to look at the life cycle of a frog through jigsaw puzzles, sequencing the transformation from egg to tadpole, froglet to fully grown frog.

The children continued to learn about new beginnings and made their own flower numberline in the maths area. They explored games on the SmartBoard that involved the important aspects of how to make plants grow. They also explored the giant floor dominoes matching the number of dots.

In literacy the children have been writing new Spring/Summer words on petals. Look out for this display soon. They have been learning new songs about planting and growing and what they need to do to help plants grow and stay healthy.

In the art area they painted their own still life pictures of a bunch of flowers. The end result was truly amazing with many paintings showing a lot of detail. The sand tray is full of soil and the children have been using trowels and other garden equipment to explore filling and pouring the plant pots.

The house corner continues to be busy since its transformation into a garden centre selling plants and seeds and other gardening equipment. The children have planted some seeds in plastic cups and are watching them grow these will be ready for planting outside soon.

Outdoors the children have been planning and preparing the garden for Groundforce day. Some new logs have been added to Dinoland to expand the area and some pallets have been upcycled to create a sitting area outdoors. The hunt is on for giant waterproof cushions to complete this. The children have asked for a mud kitchen which is in the process of being made any old pots, pans or kitchen utensils would be appreciated to complete this.

The children took part in a scientific experiment using some flowers that they had brought to nursery. The children split the stems of the flowers and placed them in jugs of water and added food colouring. They chose red and blue (Spiderman colours as they wanted to make a Spiderman flower) Overnight the flowers were thirsty and obsorbed the coloured water and by the morning they had started to turn red and blue. The children were fascinated with the transformation. This is an experiment that can be easily done at home!

The 2nd block of Forest Kindergarten session will come to an end on Wednesday. The children will celebrate with a graduation ceremony in the forest. All parent/carers are invited to join the children for the full session to celebrate.

Letters looking for helpers for Groundforce day have been issued please let any member of staff know if you can help and they will add your name to the list. You don’t have to be green fingered to help. We need help with weeding, digging, moving some furniture, staining/oiling our new seating area and brushing up our existing furniture. We have some adult garden tools but you can bring along your own if you want. The more the merrier. Tea and biscuits will be provided.

Many thanks for taking the time to read our Blog.

Mrs Shields

 

 

 

 

A warm welcome back to all. I hope everyone enjoyed a revitalising break.

We began our week, as always, in prayer as a school community of faith and learning. This first week of term our assemblies are always a little different as we do not have our Pupil of the Week or Good Work Wall celebrations. We make good use of this time to remind all of our children of the high standards we expect from all of them and encourage them to use this new term as a new beginning – a time for further improvement. Our children are always positive and embrace the challenges set out. We discussed our uniform requirements, our timekeeping and attendance expectations and our ambition for all of our school stakeholders. We strive to promote forward thinking, confident, aspirational young people who believe in themselves and each other. – This week our children have shown themselves to be excellent examples of the afore mentioned.

One young person in particular deserves an individual accolade.

Niall Burke – one of our Primary 7 boys competed in the World Championships in Irish Dancing. Niall travelled to Killarney in Ireland to compete, accompanied by his mum.

Niall came first in his solo Jig, winning the gold medal, and was awarded 6th place in the overall championship, which is judged by 5 world adjudicators, who can award up to a maximum of 100 points each, Niall’s final total was 259.

This is an amazing achievement and as a school we are delighted for him, especially as he was suffering from an injury to his ankle, his mum wasn’t sure if he was going to be fit enough to dance, however he bore the pain and his hard work has paid off.

Niall agreed to share his talents with the whole school community and on Wednesday of this week we were all amazed at this fabulous talent. Niall danced four different dances and he was incredible. This was such a great skill for all of our children to see and celebrate – well done Niall, a fantastic achievement.

Look out for Niall in the Motherwell Times and Scottish Catholic Observer.

Our week continued with further successes being celebrated within classes, I have been inundated with children coming to my office to share their great work. These moments are always the highlight of my week, to see pupils try so hard and be so proud of their achievements – no matter how small. This is what gives our children a wondeful sense of self worth and motivates them to continue to improve.

Friday of this week we hosted the first of our Football Festivals for this session, as always our girls and boys did us proud. Great sportsmanship.

Good news came to all those pre-school children who had applied for placing requests to our school – all were granted giving us a proposed P1 in August of 70 children. We look forward to welcoming all of our new starts to school on Tuesday 12th and Tuesday 19th May. Invites in the post.

We have also invited them all to come and join us in the celebration of the Mass this coming Friday (1st May @ 10.00am in school) where our current Primary 1 will lead the liturgy. As always we welcome everyone to join us in our school Mass.

Speaking of pre-schoolers, here’s what has been happening in the nursery this last week.

Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy, lead Early Years Practitioner reports..

On Monday the children were welcomed back after what seemed a very long restful holiday. They were full of exciting stories of adventures they had been on over the Easter holidays and the nice weather added to all their adventures.

This week the children have been talking about Spring and New Beginnings. Their ideas of what they want to learn about can be seen on the mindmaps in the cloakroom. One idea was to turn the house corner into a garden centre selling seeds plants and flowers. On Friday they started the transformation and this will continue into next week. The good weather was a big plus this week and the whole nursery went outdoors.

In literacy the children read the story of ‘ A Seed in Need’ and then sequenced the events in the story from seed to flower. Their hard work will be displayed on the wall this week. They also looked at baby animals and discussed the different names e.g Sheep-Lamb, Cow-Calf. The children made a small display in the story corner using puppets and cuddly toys. They discovered a Spring box full of giant insects and this sparked their interests, the bugs can been seen hanging over their display and the children decided to go on a bug hunt next week.

In numeracy the children were learning about the Life Cycle of a Frog and hopefully the children will be able to see this up closely shortly. They also looked at an assortment of baby farm animals and matched them to their mums. They made their own farmyards using the blocks in the construction area and used the wooden farm house to roleplay.

Over in the art area the children used a variety of materials to make an assortment of Spring flowers and outdoors they used the paint brushes to clean up the garden furniture, an activity that is always very popular.

Outdoors the children were busy digging the garden using different garden tools, they watered the plants and made their own mud soup, stirring and pouring until it was nice and thick.

The pre-school activities started on Tuesday with the activities based on the popular story ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ they sequenced the story then went on their own hunt to find the clues in the correct order. On Thursday they matched number to quantity and sequenced the flower number washing line.

The second block of Forest Kindergarten sessions started on Wednesday evidence of what the children have been learning about and experiencing in the forest can be seen in the floorbook in the cloakroom.

The Easter Fayre was a huge success raising £730 this will be put to go use throughout the nursery. A big Thank You to all who gave generously to make it so successful.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to log in read all about our wonderful school and nursery.

Please comment on this or any of our blogs.

Mrs Shields

This week in school our Pope Francis Faith Award candidates from primaries six and seven had the opportunity to ‘question’ (grill) Mgr. Millar on all aspects of his own faith life. Many thanks to Fr Millar for being so open and honest with our young people, he was delighted with the quality of questions asked and the intensity of our candidates interest in his life as a priest.

Well done to Mrs McLaughlan and Mrs Carr who are leading our young people through this most prestigious award.

 

Following a trial revision of our homework policy I sent a questionnaire to all parents/carers this week asking for views on all aspects of homework. Many thanks to all who took the time to complete and return the questionnaire – your views are very important and I look forward to feeding back all the information gathered. This coming week I will ask for responses from staff and pupils. All returns will be collated and available on our web site after the Easter break. I will also letter each parent/carer with any changes we decide upon.

On Tuesday the long awaited cross country final arrived. The atmosphere was electric as the individual runners and teams set off up the ‘ Hill of Doom’ which is a killer at the start of the race. The P5 girls set off first and Carlina McCarthy secured 4th place in her first ever final. Well done Carlina.
The distance in the final is always longer than in the trials but most of the athletes were able to complete the course a great achievement for all who took part. Liam McQuaid P6 romped home in 1st place for the 2nd year in a row as did Joey Leach in the P7 race. Well done to all athletes who took part on the day their efforts at training paid off. A big thank you to all coaches who give up their time to train the children in all weather conditions.

The cross country after school club is now finished for the year but please encourage your children to KEEP ON RUNNING.

On Thursday I was invited to attend The Patronal Feast Day Mass in Our Lady’s High, this was a lovely event and it is always fabulous to see our young pupils all grown up and continuing to be such successful learners.

Special mention has to be given to Beth Cunningham (former pupil & John’s big sister) who played a solo clarinet piece during the offertory procession, Beth is an accomplished musician, and her playing was outstanding.

 

Thursday we welcomed Mrs Marina Gillespie to our school, Mrs Gillespie spent the day in P6a preparing to take over as class teacher (Monday and Tuesdays) after Easter.

This coming week Miss Jillian Green will spend the day in P2a, in preparation for after Easter when she will take over as class teacher whilst Mrs Loose welcomes her new wee addition.

 

This week in school our focus has been on finishing our Lenten Alms Giving with a flourish. A HUGE thanks to all children, parents and staff for their devotion through prayer, their endeavor to commit to ‘giving something up’ and their generosity in alms giving.

 

Primary 4b visited Mission Place home for the elderly sharing their talents and skills entertaining and ‘having a wee chat’ with all the residents. Well done to Miss Stack and her great wee class.

 

Miss Stack also visited St. Luke’s church this week fro morning Mass, she took with her the Enterprise committee who were delivering food hampers to be distributed to those in need.

 

The food hampers were made up from all the food donated during our Lenten Appeal. We were overwhelmed with the response and have collated 53 food hampers – absolutely fantastic. The hampers have been distributed throughout Motherwell helping many people young and old.

 

A HUGE well done to Miss Stack and all the classroom assistants and additional support needs assistants who made up all the hampers. This wonderful group of ladies work tirelessly behind the scenes providing support in all aspects of school life. We would be lost without them.

 

Our Lenten journey has been a great learning curve for all and we finished this week with a wonderful assembly from Primary Five who took us on an exotic journey through many different religious festivals. The assembly really demonstrated how confident and versatile our children are on stage, their commitment to ensuring all enjoyed every aspect of their assembly was commendable. Well done to all in Primary Five and particular thanks to Mrs McCarthy, Mrs Devanney, Mrs Blaney and Miss Mooty.. Poor Miss Mooty had to miss out on the finale due to jury duty.

 

As stated in the title, this will be my final blog until after the Easter break, on behalf of all in our school and nursery community I wish you a happy and holy Easter and look forward to our final term of the year and (hopefully) some sunny days ahead.

 

Here’s the final nursery blog for this session, again a big thanks to Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy who provides the nursery blog each week.

Group Activities:
This week the children have been involved in some Easter crafts in prepartion for our forthcoming Easter Fayre next week. To see what they have been making please come along and have a look. There will be a stall in the playroom selling all their hard work. There will also be a raffle any raffle prizes can be handed to any member of saff.

The Nursery Rhyme Theme continued this week with Little Bo Peep.

In expressive arts they have been busy all week painting in great detail Bo Peep and her sheep. They used pictures and followed the fine details to produce a fantastic display which can be seen in the art area.

Outside they have been playing a variety of counting games. They have used positional language to navigate round an obstacle course and they have been cleaning up the garden in preparation for planting after the Easter holidays.

In numeracy they continue to explore the SmartBoard to sing, dance and role-play a variety of nursery rhymes.

In literacy they worked together to produce their own Nursery Rhyme big books which are available to read in the library. at the end of the week they produced some fantastic Easter words and pictures look out for these coming home next week.

In snack they continue to choose and prepare a variety of healthy foods. The home corner still resembles a Dr’s surgery with the children continuing to roleplay Doc Mc Stuffin and her friends who clearly are committed to fixing Jacks head and Humpty Dumpty’s shell!

The 2nd week of the ‘Growing Together learning Forever Programme’ continued with the subject of Healthy Eating. The parents had a discussion about healthy foods and eating habits then had the opportunity to make a fruit kebab, a quick and easy activity that children love to be involved in. Children often try different foods if they have been involved in choosing and preparing them. Feedback already has been positive with one parent reporting that they made pizzas which had been discussed during the session and both her children chose what to put on it and ate it all.

The first Forest Kindergarten block is coming to an end with this Wednesday being the last day. All parents have been invited to join the children in exploring the site and a short Graduation ceremony will take place at Base Camp. All pictures, drawings and children’s experiences are recorded in the Forest Kindergarten floorbook which is in the cloakroom.

The second block will start after the Easter holidays and the letters have been issued to parents of the children on this block. Please return the parental consent form as soon as possible. Preparation for the next block will start this week with the children learning safety games, rules and boundaries. Unfortunately Susan Rutherford the Greenlink Ranger will no longer be accompanying the children as she has been made redundant. The children gave her a great send off with a lovely card and chocolates for all her help in setting up the site for our use. If you can spare some time on a Wednesday please let a member of staff know.

 

As always – thanks for reading.

Mrs Shields

 

A slightly different Blog this week with much of the content coming from a variety of sources, thanks to all who contributed. I’m afraid I have been out of school for most of the week and therefore missed the majority of the exciting events.

 

Monday of this week began with a very exciting visitor – The Lidl Health Bus visited; here’s Mrs Duffy’s report:

 

Lidl Health Factor Tour double decker bus visited our school on Monday of this week. A number of our Nursery children from the AM session and our Primary 3 classes were involved in health promotion activities.

Each class was split into 2 groups. One group started on the Lidl Health Factor Bus where they entered the Smoothie Deck. After a short animated video every child was given their own apron and worked in their very own work station. They created delicious smoothies choosing from a selection of quality fresh ingredients. Every pupil received their very own smoothie shaker cup to try out new fruit cocktails.

The other session worked in the gym hall on fitness games involving jumbo fruits and vegetables. Staff promoted the importance of regular exercise and eating healthy.

Additionally they all received recipe cook book to take away and try their own recipes at home.

Staff were most impressed with all of our children. They commented on with their excellent knowledge and behaviour.

Photographs on plasma screen in school.

Tuesday morning dawned with P4/5 and some of the children from Firpark Primary ready to say a fond farewell to their little charges. The children have nurtured a huge number of fish eggs over the last few weeks and watched them grow and thrive under their care, however the time had come for their little ones to make their own way in the big wide River Calder. Thanks to Mrs McCarthy and Mr. Divers (Firpark) for overseeing this remarkable project with the children – it has been a great success. P4/5 pupils were happy to see their little fish go forward but sad to say goodbye.

You may have heard some poor unsuspecting fisherman appeared in the river with a menacing fishing rod just as the fish were released……..wrong place wrong time. Oops.

Tuesday we held our bi-annual Parent Evening, I was delighted 94% of our parents had made appointments and the majority came along on the evening. It is so important for children to have the opportunity for their parents to see their learning environment and share their success.

Any parent who could not manage along on Tuesday evening – please contact the school and we will make alternative arrangements.

Thanks also to all those who visited the Book Fayre, thanks also to Mrs Margaret Cunningham our Office Manager who gave up her own time to oversee the Fayre.

Thanks also, once again, to our Fabulous Fundraisers who took the time to launder all left over clothing and then sold it at a much-reduced price on Tuesday evening.

From August 2014 we had amassed 17 bin bags filled with unclaimed and un-named property – please encourage your child to take care of his/her belongings and please put your child’s name on all items.

Could you also remind children that despite what they believe jackets and jumpers do NOT grow legs and walk off the pitch by themselves!

 

Wednesday saw an exciting event for our Champion Handball Team from P7a. Mrs McLaughlan reported:

Following our recent success in the Regional Handball Championships, at the Tryst Sports Centre Cumbernauld, we were excited to participate in the National Handball Championships, which were held in Ravenscraig Sports Centre.

After winning all of our games, we were delighted to come top of our pool. We then proceeded to the next stage of the competition. Out of the 16 schools who participated, we were very proud to finish in 4th place. All of our children behaved impeccably showing great team support and fabulous sportsmanship. Excellent ambassadors for our school.

 

My grateful thanks to Mrs McLaughlan for taking the time to involve her class in such a great event and a big well done to all who participated.

 

Thursday of this week also began with a very exciting visitor – The Road Safety Bus; here’s Mrs Duffy’s report:

On Thursday we hosted West of Scotland Road Safety Team. Our pre school children and infant classes from Firpark visited the Road Safety Trailer, listened to Stories about Ziggy and the importance of keeping safe on our roads. They met the character Ziggy, visited a police car and police van and even got an opportunity to sit in the drivers seat.

Throughout the afternoon P7 classes and our CaFi council representatives visited our computer suite to experience the launch of a Road Safety app called KLANG! The app was positively received by all children who engaged fully on task throughout the session. Councillors Pat O’Rourke, Cllr Peter Nolan and Cllr Shahid Farooq visited our school and complimented our children on their excellent behaviour and manners.

Road safety officers Brenna Kane (P6) and Finn Ross (P7) will launch a whole school competition to win a Speeding Bear. Watch this space!! Both of our young officers received a goodie bag for all their efforts. Well done!

 

Thanks to Mrs Duffy for her report and for overseeing this wonderful, unique learning opportunity.

 

Friday saw the majority of our school outside on top of ‘the hill’ to watch the clouds – they had hoped to catch a glimpse of the eclipse but I’m afraid the clouds won – never mind, maybe next time!

However, we have a secret  Star Gazing Expert in our midst (who for some strange reason would like to remain nameless). Throughout the week she has provided a wealth of resources and information for our whole school. Her dad sent some great photographs. Thanks to Miss Love for her knowledge and expertise….Oops!

 

Our Lenten Charity event on Friday was ‘decorate your own boiled egg’. Amazingly creative creations were seen all around the school, well done to all who participated. Once again the hill comes into it’s own – egg rolling time!

 

On top of all of this the nursery, as always, has enjoyed a fabulous week. Mrs MM Murphy reports:

 

• Our Nursery Rhyme theme continues.
• In literacy the children have been writing their own rhyming words which are displayed on the wall and they have been using the nursery rhyme prop box to identify a variety of traditional nursery rhymes. The library is stocked with lots of books relating to nursery rhymes and the children have been exploring these.

• In numeracy they continue to explore positional games on the SmartBoard using Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty.

• Outdoors the children have been using the bikes and scooters and following directions. They have also been playing positional language games in softplay.

• In the art area they have been painting detailed pictures of Jack and Jill this will continue next week so look out for these fab pictures. Junk modeling continues to be a popular activity with time machines, rockets and telescopes being constructed.

• In snack the children have been making and baking their own Jack and Jill biscuits. They listened to the recipe and followed the instructions and the biscuits were yummy!
• The children had a discussion and decided to turn the house corner into a doctors surgery so the children can fix Jack’s head. There are x rays and numerous medicines being administered but no sign of vinegar or brown paper!

• On Monday the Lidl bus visited the school and the children took part in smoothie making. They chose their own fruit cut it up and decided which liquid to add. Their own recipes were written down and they took these home along with their smoothie bottles and a recipe book. In the gym hall they played a relay shopping game where they were asked to identify specific fruits and place them in the basket.

• On Thursday Ziggy the road safety character came to visit and the children had the opportunity to meet him and he brought with him some road safety tips and some road safety freebies. The police also came to visit and the children got the chance to sit in the big police van and the police car and use the siren.
• Children from P3 visited the nursery with props to explain the forthcoming eclipse on Friday. Some parents commented the next day on the children’s knowledge of this. A big thanks to P3 and Miss Love.
• Thursday was also the start of a parenting workshop called ‘Growing Together Learning Forever’ which is a NLC initiative to support parents in literacy and numeracy in everyday activities. The course runs for 6 week and is being delivered by Mrs Higgins and Mrs Murphy. There are still places available for anyone who has some free time on Thursdays.
• On Friday the children were excited when it started to get dark and the eclipse was about to take place, unfortunately it was too cloudy to see it and record it.

• Group activities this week have been as follows.

• The children have been involved in a circle time activity discussing their feelings and emotions using the care bears.
• In art they have been filling different sized pails and discussing the weight of each pail. (Jack and Jill)
• Outdoors they have been exploring a variety of positional songs such as Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, In and Out Those Dusty Bluebells and the Hokey Cokey.
• In numeracy they have been sorting and matching number to quantity using the bears.

In literacy they have been playing a listening game using an assortment of rhyming words.

If you have manages to read about all of this week’s exciting learning experiences – well done!

Thanks for reading, hope you are enjoying the multiple photographs coming now, brings all the learning to life.

Mrs Shields

PS: Remember feel free to comment; we love to get some feedback.

REMEMER REMEMBER: Parent Evening Tuesday 17th March – All appointments issued last Thursday.

 

Another busy week in school. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week our Primary Three children recieved the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. Primary Three should feel very proud of themselves, for children so young they demonstrated their understanding of Gospel stories and the importance of saying sorry in such a  mature fashion, Fr Millar and Canon O’Mahony were most impressed.

Primary Three teaching staff should also feel very proud as their young pupils showed great respect and reverence in church during their reception of the sacrament. Well done to all involved and a huge thanks to Mrs Gillespie, Mrs McDerment, Miss Couper, Miss Love and Mrs Duffy who all worked together to ensure a deep spiritual learning experience for our children and ensured all enjoyed two beautiful celebrations of the Sacrament. Fabulous work.

Tuesday morning Primary 6 & Primary 7, our confirmandi walked to Mass to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Saint John Ogilvie. Bishop Toal celebrated the Mass and spoke most highly of our young pupils. They participated full throughout the Mass, sang beautifully and behaved impeccibly – I couldn’t ask for any more. A big thanks from me to our senior pupils and their teachers. Thanks once again to Mrs Campbell and Mrs Murphy for their musical input.

Wednesday morning was very busy in school. We were delighted to be chosen as the host venue from which to lauch the 2017 Transplant Games. In previous months our children have been involved in assisting North Lanarkshire in their bid to host the games, and, they won! Therefore our school was chosen as the venue for the launch. Our Primary 7 pupils excelled themselves in their excellent manners and sporting participation. A big thanks to Mrs Loose and her wonderful Health Committee who prepared all the activities in the gym hall and assisted on the day. All who came along to our school commented on our well mannered, happy pupils who clearly have great pride in their school. I am delighted with the feedback and look forward to seeing them in the press.

Also on Wednesday morning we welcomed representatives from SCIAF who came along to talk to our children about the importance of Alms Giving and to explain how necessary their help is. Once again (I know I’m repeating myself), both visitors were amazed at the attentiveness and the quality of questions from our pupils. They could not believe such a big school has such a high standard of behaviour. Well done, once again, to our wonderful pupils.

Thursday morning I welcomed Mr Robert Dalzell, our Quality Improvement Officer. Our meeting focussed on the ongoing developments within our school and nursery. As always Robert was delighted with the innovative practice within our school and nursery – his words were ‘ do your staff never sleep? As always – amazing work in this school’

Friday was our Sponsored Bunny Bounce – Once again huge thanks to Mrs Loose (who at 7 1/2 months pregnant was not allowed to bounce)and her Health Committee who organised all the activities – photos coming next week. Thanks to you as parents for your continued support for our Lenten Alms Giving.

In the nursery this week there’s been lots going on. Here’s the gossip from Mrs MM Murphy (last seen up a tree in the forest)

 

 

 

Our nursery rhyme theme continues this week with Jack and Jill. The children have been discussing the patterns of language through rhyming and have been listening out for words that sound the same.

In the literacy area they have made their own nursery rhyme booklets containing their favourite ones. The music area has been updated and the children have been using a variety of the new instruments to listen to the rhythm and beat of the songs/rhymes. A listening station has also been added to the music area to give the children a quiet area to listen to rhymes and to play listening games.

In numeracy the children have continued with postional games using Jack and Jill and have been playing these games on the SmartBoard.

In the art area they have created their own Jack and Jill display using a variety of collage materials. This is displayed in the far end of the playroom. They have been using the playdough to create characters and the hill that Jack and Jill went up. The children continue to role-play Humpty Dumpty on the opposite wall.

Outdoors the children have been role-playing the story of Jack and Jill on the hill in front of the nursery and they have used the big bucket in the garden as Jack’s pail and used the fort as the hill. They continued to use the indoor climbing frame to explore positional language.

In snack they have been choosing their own healthy snack and preparing it.

The group activities this week continued with the following.
A floating and sinking activity in the art area.

How to do the laundry in the home corner.

Feeding the birds and looking after the garden outside.

Listening for words that sound the same in the literacy area.

Identifying 2d shapes in the maths area.

Forest Kindergarten sessions continue each Wednesday evidence of the learning can be seen in the cloakroom in the floorbook.

Friday was full of fun as the children took part in the sponsored Bunny Bounce. They had the choice of two bouncy castles, trampettes and used the big mats to practice their tumbling skills. Great fun was had by all.

A wee reminder Parents Night is on Tuesday 17/3/15. All times have now been distributed any problems please speak to a member of staff.

 

Thanks for reading, please comment if you wish.

Mrs Shields

What a week! If you thought there was a lot happening last week…..welcome to this week.

I begin with news which is both delightful and very sad. Miss Lesley Phee one of our Primcipal Teachers has successfully secured a post as Depute Head Teacher in Saint Paul’s Primary in Shettleston, Glasgow. I am thrilled for Miss Phee, she deserves such success, but I am very sad for our school. Miss Phee has been with us for a number of years initially as class teacher and then onto Prinicipal Teacher. Throughout her years at our school Miss Phee has enjoyed a wide variety of class posts and laterally teaching ICT/Technology across the whole school, her input in our school cannot be defined in words. She has been instrumental in so many creative innovations and has worked with all of our staff giving her best at alltimes. Her talents and skills will be greatly missed. Miss Phee has been an excellent member of staff and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with her, it’s been great fun. I am sure she will continue successfully in her new post as DHT in St. Paul’s, Shettleston. On behalf of our whole school community I wish her every joy and happiness in her new challenge ahead and say a great big THANK YOU from everyone in our school and nursery. Good Luck Lesley ~ we’ll miss you.

Tuesday and Thursday of this week we were very proud of all of our Primary Six and Primary Seven Pupils who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on both O.L.G.A Cathedral Church and Saint Luke’s Parish. Congratulations to all involved, both Masses were spiritually uplifting and most prayerful. Our children participatied throughout the Mass with their spoken and sung responses and their beautiful hymn singing. Thanks to all involved in working with our children to prepare them for this final Sacrament of Initiation into the Catholic Church:

Class teachers: Mrs Irwin, Miss Kane, Mrs McLaughlan, Mrs Carr, Miss Lafferty, Miss Green, Mrs J Murphy, Mrs Duffy & Mrs Campbell

Music Ministry: Mrs J Murphy, Miss Love, Miss Phee & Mrs Campbell

Clergy: His Lordship Bishop Toal, Monsigneur Millar & Canon O’Mahony

Thanks also to all parishioners who helped prepare the churches and to the servers who assisted during the Masses.

On Wednesday afternoon if you were within the vicinity of the school you may have heard humungus cheering and much celebration coming from P7a. Mrs McLaughlan, Mr Leach all of Priamry 7a and a recruit from P7c (Keela-Chae McCreaddie) represented our school at NLC Handball championships. And….guess what….they won!!!

The teams won every game they played (11 in total) and emerged as worthy handball champions. congratulations to everyone involved and a huge thanks to Mrs McLaughlan (the most competitve of the lot) and Mr Leach for their training and encouragement. We look forward to the National Championships later this month.

Here’s the team in action:

Thursday of this week saw the final week of one of our most successful after school clubs – Bag Making. A big thanks to Mrs Munro and Miss Falconer who give up their own time to teach the children after school. Both ladies are employed as additional support needs assistants to work with specific children in our school. It is so fabulous to see how committed they are to our school community. I am indebted to them and indeed to all who give so freely of their own time to share their talents and skills with our children. Thanks ladies, and I hope I’m not spoiling any ‘mum’s’ surprise by showing off the finished articles!

On Friday morning Primary 5b set out for a day trip to Hunterston Power Station, this is part of their interdisciplinary learning on the topic of Energy. A great day was had by all. The children had opportunity to look, learn, listen and interact with a range of energy resources and skilled personnel. Thanks to the parents who came along to assist.

Here’s some photos of their day:

 

Our busy, busy week ended with a fantastic Race Night in Saint Bride’s – newly refurbished (very posh) downstairs hall. This was a brilliant evening and it was woncerful to see so many of our regular supporters and also some new parents and families who have recently joined us. Our Fundraising Team are magnificent. I cannot thank them enough for the incredible work they do for our children. The Fundraisers work so hard all year to ensure they help all in our school and nursery community enjoy all the additional extras which takes our school and nursery from a great community to an excellent community.

The Race Night raised an incredible £2366.90 WOW! Absolutely Brilliant. Details of how we will enjoy spending this to further enhance our childrens learning experiences will be given in due course…I’m enjoying simply thinking about spending it : )

Thank you is inadequate for this group of Fabulous Fundraisers. They are amazing.

Meanwhile…….it’s all going on down in the nursery….Here’s the gossip from Mrs MM Murphy (who’s horse won on Friday night!)

Group activities this week revisited activities that we carried out earlier in the year to track the progress that has been made.

Outdoors the children put on their own shoes and coats to continue to promote independence. The majority of children achieved this and received a certificate of achievement to take home.
In literacy they discussed the different nursery rhymes that they knew and listened for the words that sounded the same.
In the numeracy area they used the ten green bottles numberline to count 0-10 and to put the numbers in the correct order, they also picked out the numbers at random.
In the art area they used training scissors, patterned scissors and normal scissors to cut around an egg shape and follow the zig zag cracks in the egg. These can be seen over beside the Humpty Dumpty display.
In snack they followed instructions to help prepare snack where they produced tasty pizza and delicious lemon cupcakes.

This week the children have been exploring the patterns of language through nursery rhymes. The children chose Humpty Dumpty last week and this continued throughout the week.

Outdoors they worked as a team and built a wall from the wooden blocks and role-played Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. They also explored the indoor climbing frame following directional language.

In the Literacy area they read a variety of nursery rhymes using books with story boards and wrote their own versions of Humpty Dumpty. In music they sang the nursery rhymes listened to the rhythm and then used the beaters and bells in time to the rhythm.

In the numeracy area they played an Incy Wincy Spider board game and a Humpty Dumpty board game which gave them the opportunity to explore positional and directional language.

In the art area they completed the Humpty Dumpty display which can be seen at the far end of the playroom. They made their own Humpty Dumpty role-play masks and then sang and role-played the rhyme over at the display using blocks and chairs. They followed the pictures on the Humpty Dumpty playdough mats to create a wall and their own characters from the rhyme.

The first block of the Forest Kindergarten started on Wednesday and to see what the children have been exploring and learning about please have a look in the floorbook in the cloakroom.

As always, thanks for reading. Comments always welcome.

Mrs Shields

This week in school and nursery has been most exciting in a whole variety of ways.

We have been delighted to have to re-organise our library to fit in more chairs to accommodate the large number of children and adults coming along to our Lenten Masses which are at 8.15am every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the season of Lent. This is a beautiful way to start the school day and we are indebted to Fr Millar and Canon O’Mahony who take time out of their busy schedules to celebrate Mass with us in school.

Our Young Leaders have continued to grow in confidence as they lead a variety of sporting sessions for our younger children. The P7 Young Leaders, under the guidance of Mrs Duffy and Jenny Thomson (Active Sports Co-ordinator), are thoroughly enjoying leading the learning and sharing their talents and skills with our younger pupils. A fabulous initiative.

Primary Seven are currently studying World War II and this week they have enjoyed a range of people with a variety of expertise coming along to share their experiences with P7 to ensure a deep learning curve for all of our children. Our thanks to Sgt Major Andrew McLaughlan, Mr O’Raw and the staff of Motherwell Library. This has been a wonderful learning curve for our children giving them true insight into all aspects of World War II.

Tuesday of this week Mrs Ellis (Firpark) and Mrs Duffy met with our CaFi Council to plan lots of exciting adventures for both of our schools and our nursery to become involved in….watch this space.

Wednesday Mrs Duffy (my she’s had  a busy week) hosted pre-school workshops for the parents of children in our nursery who are preparing to make the big leap to school. This was a practical based workshop offering parents and carers ideas as to how best prepare their children for school. Mrs Duffy also detailed our differentiatied nursery curriculum which is in place to provide our pre-schoolers with learning opportunities which will ensure a seamless transition to school.

Wednesday morning we welcomed Mrs Pearl Smillie from Police Scotland. Mrs Smillie presented to our P7 pupils on the subject of Internet Safety and Social Media. My grateful thanks to Mrs Smillie for this very insightful and realistic presentation. Our P7 pupils are now equipped with the knowledge of how to keep themselves safe when using the Internet and they have been made very aware of the dangers of Social Media and Cyber Bullying.

Also on Wednesday we welcomed the author of Badger – The Mystical Mutt to our school – indeed I am led to believe Badger himself paid a visit!!!

Our P1 to P4 children had opportunity to hear all about Badger and his many adventures and were delighted to be able to purchase signed copies of the books. A big thanks to Miss Phee for organising this motivational experience for our children. We are continually looking for ways to promote and encourage our children to enjoy reading and this most certainly did!

Thursday saw our Cross Country Children take on a new challenge……Mrs MM Murphy, Mr R Leach, Mrs A Close & Mrs K Harrison – our cross country coaches were hoarse on their return having cheered and encouraged all of our young runners.

Here’s what happened…

28 children took part in the cross country trials at Coatbridge Outddor Centre on Thursday. Every child completed the course distance of 1200m. All the effort the children put into their Monday night training session paid off.
The criteria for qualifying for the final was the first 15 children through the finish line.
A big congratulations goes to the following 9 children who all qualified for the final.
P5
Kian Scullion (1st) Connor Swan (3rd) Carlina Mccarthy (3rd) Dylan Beggs (10th)
P6
A Liam McQuaid (1st) Liam Duffy (2nd) Abbie Freel (10th) Beverley Mackin (12th)
P7
Joey Leach (1st)
We await with baited breath to see how many teams will qualify for the final in March.
Monday nights session will be a funfilled session to reward all the children for their hard work and effort put in this Winter.

And here’s the photos….

A huge congratulations to all involved.

Friday of this week was a fantastic highlight. Our Primary 2 pupils entertained a very large, enthusiastic audience with their unique tour of Scotland. This was a fabulous assembly which made us laugh, encouraged us to sing and provided a real flavour of Scotland. Primary 2 performed for an amazing 35minutes, they sang, danced, recited poetry, told jokes and scared us all (Mchakka). It was outstanding. When you look at how young our children are it is incredible how confidently they perform, how many lines they remember and how entertaining they are.Well done to all of our Primary Two pupils who were as proud as punch on Friday – and quite rightly so!

A HUGE thanks to Mrs Loose, Mrs Gillies, Mrs McDonald & Mrs Munro (whom I forgot to mention on Friday – apologies) for their incredible work. Thanks also to Mrs McCoy & Mrs Campbell whose talents and skills are behind all of our assemblies. A parent asked if it was a script we had purchased. I think it is important to remember the answer to this is NO. Our staff begin each of their asemblies with a blank piece of paper. The creativity of our school and nursery staff is incredible. We are very fortunate to have such a talented staff.

Meanwhile, in the nursery……

Disaster. The igloo has melted!
The children have had great fun playing in the igloo but unfortunately it started to melt and Olaf and Pippa the polar bear have been left homeless and virtually out in the cold in more ways than one. You can see from the photographs that the children and their siblings have all had a chance to explore the igloo. Through the construction of the igloo the children have been learning the importance of recycling. This week some of the group activities reflected this.
The children have been learning about the different colours of recycling bins, they looked at the recycling logo and were then given a variety of household items to place in the correct bin on the interactive wall and finished the activity off by singing the eco song.
In the snack area they discussed what items they could put in the brown bin and each group made a list of these items for their floorbooks.
In the literacy area they explored the big storysacks.
Outdoors they fed the birds and tidied up the garden.
In the art area they followed the instructions to make playdough and made models from junk. One of the models made from junk this week was a time machine. The children’s imagination never ceases to amaze the staff.

The Winter topic has ended and the children have decided that they want to learn about nursery rhymes and stories. They chose Humpty Dumpty as their first one. So as usual they got busy.
In the art area they painted bricks for Humpty’s wall and made their own Humpty Dumpty characters. They took down the Icy displays and put up Humpty’s wall at the far end of the playroom.
Outside they made their own Humpty, sang nursery rhymes and roleplayed falling off the wall. They visited the softplay area and roleplayed falling of the wall there as well.
In the literacy area they started writing their own versions of Humpty Dumpty and read the nursery rhyme over and over again.
In the numeracy area they played a Humpty Dumpty board game, played games and rhymes on the SmartBoard.
In the house corner they continued to explore real food, spreading and chopping a variety of fruit and vegetables.

The Challenge of the Week this week was a numeracy one. The children had to build a tower using the correct number of bricks from 1 to 5 and from 1 to 10. If they completed the challenge they got a gold sticker and if they had a good go at it they got a green sticker. The children are showing a great interest in these weekly challenges.
On Wednesday Mrs Duffy delivered a Pre-school parental workshop to give parents an insight into the pre-school activities that their children will have the opportunity to take part in after the Easter holidays. A variety of resources that will be used were on display. They also had the opportunity to view a DVD on the benefits of the Forest Kindergarten approach. The first 4 week block of forest sessions will start on 4/3/15. The children involved in the first block have already visited the site and are looking forward to spending more time in the forest.

A very long Blog this week, thanks for taking the time to read all about our exciting week. As always…..feel free to comment.

Mrs Shields & Mrs M M Murphy

Next week, our school menu will be following the National School Week Menu!  Check our what our main meals will be.

Welcome back.

It is two weeks since our last blog and consequently I have lots to tell you about.

To ensure clarity of information I have posted Lenten Charities and Young Leaders under separate headings.

This week in school at our Monday morning assembly we celebrated Catholic Education Week. Each of our classes brought forward examples of their work all of which ‘Proclaimed The Joy of The Gospel’ – the theme of Catholic Education Week. The range and quality of work produced is exceptional, I am delighted to showcase such originality and depth of spirituality on our good work wall. Photographs included at end of blog. As always I congratulate our pupils and staff on their commitment and dedication to our Faith.

On Tuesday Primary 5b and Miss Mooty visited The Mission Centre. Whilst there the children entertained the residents, made (and enjoyed eating) pancakes and spent some quality time listening to the stories of our elders. A wonderful example of living history. Well done Primary 5b & Miss Mooty.

Wednesday we celebrated the beginning of the season of Lent, a time of reflection of ourselves and preparation for the great feast of Easter. All children attended Mass in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Church at 10am. Our children participated enthusiastically in all parts of the Mass, spoken and sung. Their behaviour was exemplary, and commented upon most favourably by many of the parishioners. I am immensely proud to be able to show our church community the excellent standards of our children’s spiritual development. A huge thanks to all parents and friends of the school who assisted with walking our upper school children to and from the church. Thanks also to the local police for their escort ensuring a safe passage for all.

Our daily Lenten Mass at 8.15am has been most well attended on both Thursday and Friday of this week. I have set a personal challenge to each of our children to aspire to participating in at least one of these morning Masses throughout the season of Lent. please encourage your child(ren) to attend. As always we welcome everyone in our school and church community to join us in prayer. Mass is held in the school library Monday through to Thursday each week during Lent at 8.15am. All P6 & P7 pupils are encouraged to volunteer to read at these Masses.

Also on Thursday our school was delighted to welcome His Lordship Bishop Toal. Bishop Toal spent the whole morning with us taking time to speak to each of our Confirmation classes and also some of our Reconciliation children. I am indebted to His Lordship for taking such a chunk of time out of his extremely busy schedule to speak with our children. Each of our Confirmandi appreciated the importance of this visit and were honoured to be able to listen to and question Bishop Toal.

Friday saw the first of our Lenten Charity events (listed separately). Crazy hair day! Great fun was had by all, thanks to all pupils and staff for their active participation – much appreciated.

Our wonderful pitch facility was well utilised on Friday by a number of local school football teams. Knowetop Primary, Muir Street Primary, Ladywell Primary and our own school teams all enjoyed a number of fabulous football games. A huge thanks to Mr McBirnie (Willie the football man) for his organisation of all of this work. Mr McBirnie is a volunteer in both Firpark and O.L.G.A Cathedral schools – he gives freely of his time and his skill to benefit all children in our campus. We are very lucky to have such a person working with our children. Thanks Willie!

 

Meanwhile, down in the icy depth of the nursery, here’s Mrs Murphy’s gossip…..

A quick update from the last two short weeks. The igloo has now been completed and sits proud of place in the story corner. The children are using it as a quiet place to read stories. The children decorated the wall behind the igloo with all the information they gathered about Arctic animals. Pippa the polar bear has taken up residence on top of the igloo. A big thank you goes to Hugh Devine a Grandad who gave up his time to help build it. The children took part in a group activity to create their own Golden Characters to remind them of the Golden Nursery Rules. Their creations can be seen as you enter the playroom.

Brilliant Bluebells – Made Tidy Tom a Superhero who helps the children to tidy up. Fantastic Foxgloves- Made Listening Louie to help them to learn when to talk and when to listen.

Happy Heathers – Made Sharing Shelley who helps them to share and take turns. Super Snowdrops – Made Caring Cara who helps care for the toys and all her friends at nursery.

Terrific Thistles – Made Walking Willie Wonka who helps them to walk in the playroom and throughout the school. These characters can be used at home please feel free to use them.

On Monday the children were introduced to The Challenge of the Week this is a new initiative to encourage perseverance “If at first you don’t succeed try try again” The children are given a different challenge each week set by Larry the Leprachaun, if they succed they get a gold sticker and if they have tried really hard they get a green sticker. Each week the challenge will change look out for those stickers. On Tuesday the children had some delicious pancakes with a choice of spreads. Gong Hey Fat Choy! This week the children have been learning all about China and Chinese New Year. The home corner was turned into the Hup Lee restaurant and the children got busy role playing waiters, customers and chefs. They explored real noodles chopsticks and used string to create their own noodles. How imaginative! In snack they have prepared and tasted chicken noodle soup, chicken curry, sweet and sour dips and prawn crackers. In the story corner they read the story of Nian the dragon and discovered why the colours red and gold are significant in Chinese culture. They made their own menus for the restaurant using Chinese writing.

In the numeracy area they created their own Chinese numberline which can be seen displayed on the maths wall. They played Chinese counting games on the SmartBoard and watched the story of the dragon dance. The children went to the gym hall where they re-enacted the dragon dance and used the twirling ribbons to dance to Chinese music. In art they made Chinese flags, lanterns and Chinese hats which can be seen hanging in the playroom. Outdoors they went on a Chinese treasure hunt looking for pandas and red envelopes full of Chinese yen.

On Thursday Barbara from the ABC music programme visited, this is a great resource that the nursery will be using on a regular basis in the near future. Barbara provided a variety of activities for each group and commented on how attentive the children were throughout the activities.

Forest Kindergarten On Wednesday the children on the first block got a sneaky peak at the site in the Greenlink. The children have been preparing for their trips to the forest over the last few weeks and the preparation paid off. The children set off with the new nursery waterproofs and backpacks provided by the fundraising committee. They were led by Freddie the fox, Bertie the badger and the Keeper of the forest. The children followed all of the saftey rules they had learned and explored the forest with a great sense of freedom. The photographs say it all. The first official block starts on 4/3/15. Every pre-school child will have the opportunity to take part in a four week block. A short presentation about the benefits of the Forest Kindergarten approach will take place at the pre-school workshops this coming Wednesday.