Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday were days filled with sunshine, sports and spectacular fun. Our annual three day event, this year themed around Commonwealth Games, was a magnificent hit with all pupils,staff, coaches and parents. We enjoyed 3 magnificent days of team sports, individual traditional races, climbing walls, football coaching, taekwondo coaching, dancing tuition, mobile playground fun, bouncy castles………the list is endless.

A huge thanks to Mrs Loose & Mrs M.M. Murphy who organised all the events and all of us! Our opening ceremony was tremendous with our 60 dancers, led by Mrs Keenan, performing the dance they had learned for the Big Dance Pledge – it was brilliant. The dance featured aspects of traditions from each of the Commonwealth countries. Our twelve teams, ably led by House Captains and Vice Captains all paraded out to the pitch to the tune of the National Anthem of their chosen country. We began on a high note and it just got better and better and better…….

On Tuesday our school played host to The Curriculum for Excellence Management Board all of whom were incredibly impressed by our children’s manners, their engagement in learning and all commented on the fantastic displays around the school. – Well Done Us!

Thursday saw our P7 pupils accept the kind invitation from Our Lady’s High School to their wonderful show Copacabana. Mrs Campbell, Mrs Mullen, Mrs Duffy and myself also attended on Thursday evening. It was a truly magnificent show and it makes us so proud to see so many of our former pupils perform so professionally. Well done to all who participated and thanks to Mrs Sinclair for the kind invitations.

Friday dawned with the sun still shining. This day is one of the main highlights of our school year – Our Leaver’s Mass and Graduation. The purpose of this day is three fold:

Firstly to celebrate as a church community in prayer through our wonderful Leaver’s Mass

Secondly to present our cheques to our nominated charities for the monies raised through our Lenten Charities Events.

And thirdly to recognise and celebrate the successes of our Primary Seven graduates as they embark on their journey to High School.

We were delighted to welcome so many distinguished guests, His Lordship Bishop Toal, Mgr Millar, Deacon Tom, Provost Jim Robertson and representatives from our chosen charities.

All of our school are involved in the first two parts of the day – our Mass and our Alms Giving. The generosity of our pupils is amazing. Earlier in the week I had issued a letter to all of our pupils thanking them for their kindness and giving details of all monies being presented.

The third part of our ceremony recognised the talents and skills of all of our pupils, each P7 was presented with a dictionary, a commemorative photograph and a secondary school tie. Another example of the fantastic work of our Fundraising Group.  We also award our annual trophies, here are the winners:

In 2011 Mr Pat Connolly – former Provost of Motherwell donated a shield to be awarded at each graduation recognising Academic Excellence. Provost Jim Robertson was invited to present this beautiful shield.

The winners of this year’s Mr Pat Connolly Academic Excellence Shield were:

Dylan Garmory, Katie Torrance & Ciara Scullion

Over the last few years we have established an additional award recognising children who show great endeavour in all they do. Young people who simply always try their best, never give up. This award was established in memory of Mr George Smith our much loved janitor.

Mr Smith’s daughter, Jacqueline was invited to award The Mr George Smith Award for Endeavour to:

Weronika Kahl & Aidan Simpson

In 2012 we proudly added another new award to our trophy table. Moving to our lovely new build provided us with sporting facilities which are magnificent. Morgan Sindall, the company who built the school donated a beautiful shield to be awarded for sportsmanship.

Following our first three years in situ we have had opportunity to see real sportsmanship in action day and daily. Our football pitch is used continually by both our own pupils, those from Firpark, our neighbours and also by a number of local schools. Recognition for tremendous sportsmanship this year was awarded to:

Rachel Donnelly & Liam Milne

This year, once again, we are delighted to further complement our recognition of our young peoples achievements, our Yeomanry Memorial bench moved with us and now has pride of place on the decking area outside the dining hall.

The bench is in memory of John McEwan a former pupil of this school.

Recognising John’s achievements throughout the war years and beyond, in consultation with John’s daughter Agnes we decided to create an award recognising the young person in our school who best represents being a responsible citizen, one who demonstrates great compassion and kindness to others.

Agnes very kindly agreed to present this year’s award.  The winners of our Yeomanry Memorial Award were:

Matthew Bell & Katie Cadenhead

Both pupils received a certificate in recognition of this award and we will place anew plaque on the bench which will read.

Yeomanry Memorial Award

2014

Matthew Bell & Katie Cadenhead

In 2008 in our school to further promote a team spirit and sense of belonging we established a House System, within our House System our elected Captains have proudly demonstrated their commitment to their house through active participation in many House Activities. Each House activity offered the ‘promise of House points’. The House Points have been collated and Emily Cuthbertson proudly accepted the House Cup for her House, Devine.

On Friday afternoon Emily had the task of taking off the other house colours leaving only the Winning House Colour. Well done to all in Devine House.

Each year we are asked to nominate a child to receive the David Colville Medal, here in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary we have identified 4 children who have throughout their primary career excelled in their own way through their continuous strive to always do their best, their willingness to participate and their positive attitude to every aspect of school life. Any staff member who has had the privilege of working with these young people from P1-P7 was asked to nominate who they felt was deserving of particular recognition, the four children highlighted through this were then told to the P7 pupils and our pupils nominated the one person they felt most deserving of special recognition.

Our four nominees were:

Kerryn Foy

Natalie Jackson

Ewen Jeffrey

Robbie Whitfield

These young people have proven to be excellent ambassadors for our school in so many ways.

They have participated in a wide range of events within our school and church communities, they have shown themselves to be thoroughly reliable, hard working and extremely pleasant pupils who have been a joy to teach. This year ‘s David Colville Medal was awarded to:

Kerryn Foy

The three children who received merit awards from our school are:

Natalie Jackson, Ewen Jeffrey & Robbie Whitfield

We all enjoyed a fabulous day on Friday, grateful thanks to all of our parent helpers who so kindly organised teas and coffees. We could not do without them.

On behalf of our school community I wish each of our Primary Seven pupils continued success as they venture forth to High School.

Meanwhile down in the nursery they’ve had a busy week:

At last a very sunny week at nursery with all activities taking place outdoors.  All the children were outside with their sun hats and their sunscreen on. The children had a discussion about the importance of wearing hats and sunscreen and keeping safe in the sun.

In the maths area the children continued to explore a variety of transport puzzles. They have been looking at the different ways that the Commonwealth Games athletes will get to Glasgow.

In the art area they created their own modes of transport from playdough.

The sunshine sparked their imaginations and they drew holiday pictures and told detailed stories of forthcoming holidays with the emphasis on how they were travelling to their holiday destinations.

In the snack area they had ice cream and ice poles and juicy strawberries. Summer has definately arrived.

Outside they have had the opportunity to take part in some gymnastics events such as the beam, concentrating on their balancing and co-ordination skills. They also performed some ribbon dancing to their favourite song from Frozen “Let it Go”

On Wednesday the children took part in the sporting activities in the school. They explored the big slide, bouncy castle, trampettes, mobile play area and dance class. A funfilled day was had by all.

On Thursday the groups that missed out in the Spring walk got the chance to go on a Summer walk with the Greenlink Rangers. They caught different insects in their huge nets and looked at them through magnifying tubs. This was a great activity that the children showed real interest in. They also went down to the river to look at wildlife there and skimmed some stones. They overturned some large rocks and discovered red ants carrying snails eggs on their backs and finally they played Pooh sticks from the bridge. A wonderful outdoor Summer experience.
A big thanks goes to the parent helpers who accompanied the children to enable the outing to go ahead.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we welcomed  our new children who will join us in August. Mrs Duffy gave a talk on nursery life and two of the P6 buddies spoke about their experience of the responsibilities of being a nursery buddy. Most of the children expored the oudoor area and Mrs little managed to take their photographs for the cloakroom pegs. It was nice to meet all of the children and their parents/carers.

We have come to the end of another fantastic year in school and nursery, so many highlights, so many successes and so much excellent learning. Enjoy a lovely summer and I look forward to welcoming everyone back in August.

A very happy and very proud; Mrs Shields

As we move closer to the end of our term, our week has been full, yet again, of events and opportunities.  On Monday evening, our senior pupils were invited to the Welcome Mass in Our Lady’s High School, the first step in their induction week.  Our Primary 7 pupils who are transferring to Our Lady’s celebrated this Mass with Fr King and all other pupils joining S1.  During the Mass our instrumental children provided music for the Mass, a great honour indeed!  They did a marvellous job.

The P7s spent Tuesday and Wednesday at OLHS and had a very exciting 2 days.  And of course, Mrs Donnachie, DHT for S1 contacted us to say our pupils were exemplary, as always!

On Thursday, we welcomed a large audience for our annual Magical Musical Morning.  Our Primary 5 pupils performed with Mrs Wilkinson, our Percussion Club, Choir and Solo singers performed, as well as all our instrumental children including a performance from our fabulous band! What a wonderful platform for performance, with so many children playing instruments and singing, in fact a few parents commented on just how many children were involved!  Thanks must go to all those who work with our ‘musical children’…

Mrs Wilkinson: Kodaly     Mr Woods: Brass     Miss Lang & Mr Fairley:  Saxophones

Miss Allingham:  Strings Mrs J Murphy:  Clarinets & Solo Singers

Mrs Campbell:  Flutes, Percussion Club, Band & Choir

On Thursday afternoon, our school was asked to host the NLC Senior Management Briefing.  Our Primary 6 pupils were involved in welcoming visitors from all sectors of the Council and proved to be very efficient in their new roles!

Friday brought another very busy day in school.  Mr McBirnie hosted an inter-house football tournament involving children from P5, 6 and 7.  Also assisting on the day were some 6th years from OLHS.  All involved had a great experience, being involved in almost 2 hours of physical education as the tournament progressed.  The winners of the tournament will be announced soon…

However, the most momentous occasion this week took place as our nursery pre-5 children graduated in preparation for transferring to the ‘Big School’ in August.  Joined by many parents, grandparents and extended family, our pre-schoolers entertained us with their favourite songs and told us what they’d like to become when they grow up!  It proved to be wonderful event in the lives of our youngest pupils and showed just how much they’ve learned in their time in nursery.  There final song says it all, ‘Primary One, here we come!’

And here’s the news from the nursery…..

This week Fizzy Cole asked the children to come up with some ideas about how all the athletes coming to the Commonwealth Games would get to Glasgow. They decided that they could come by car, taxi, bus, train and aeroplane. This opened up a great discussion about transport. The children decided that they wanted to make an airport and a train for Fizzy to get to Glasgow. The children got busy and turned the house corner into an airport with the children making signs and tickets in the literacy area to use. They sang songs with a train theme and read stories about different sports. By the end of the week they were discussing holidays and telling detailed stories about their own holiday experiences. These can be seen displayed within the nursery.

In the art area they made a train from recycled boxes and painted it blue and white like the Scotland flag. They continued drawing detailed pictures of Clyde the mascot. Clyde is becoming a very popular character with the children.

In the numeracy area they continued positional games indoors and out, following arrows through a hockey course. The children are really enjoying using the hockey sticks to dribble round the obstacles.

Outdoors they had the opportunity to get physical with the bikes and scooters. The staff are looking out for any budding Sir Chris Hoy’s in the making!

On Wednesday Douglas from Hi Five for fruit and two students from Glasgow University visited the nursery and played name games and tasting names with fruit and vegetables. They discussed the importance of healthy eating and exercise. All children took part in this and Douglas was impressed with the children’s answers. Questionnaires have been issued to a selection of parents, please return these as soon as possible.

The children have been role-playing journeys to different countries on the aeroplane that they imagined in the airport. So far the journey has taken them to London, Canada and Australia.

On Friday the pre-school children all got a chance to shine on the stage during their graduation ceremony. They sang songs that linked with the learning over the last year. They were all absolutely fantastic and showed great confidence when they were interviewed by Mrs Shields. The response from both audiences said it all. Feedback from parents was extremely positive and they were all proud of their little stars of the show as were the staff. A great end to another fantastic week in nursery.

Friday saw the distribution of our final reports in school and nursery.  Included in the reports is a feedback sheet for both parent/carer and child to complete.  Please return these to school as quickly as possible.

As we move into our penultimate week in school, we prepare for our 3-day event.  As mentioned in our last newsletter, pupils should come to school wearing PE kit, yellow polo shirts, joggers/shorts and (yes…) trainers!

Thank you again for reading our blog – please leave a comment!

Welcome to the month of June, our final school month of this session. In school and nursery we have had an incredibly busy, productive first week of the month.

Tuesday of this week I met with NLC personnel who deal with ICT. We have been asked to pilot some software this coming session. This is a wonderful opportunity as ICT and Technologies are two of our school priorities this coming year. We had planned to re-design our drama room to become an ICT suite. Through piloting this software NLC personnel have agreed to assist us with the cost of trunking, electrics and data input – fantastic! They have also agreed to put an interactive white board and projector in our library; again – fantastic. All we need now is a huge donation of computers. Unfortunately our hardware in school is somewhat limited (and a wee bit antiquated) but we will do our best to ensure all children have an excellent ICT knowledge and skills base. We’ll work with what we have. Miss Lesley Phee; principal teacher, will become our new ICT ‘guru’ abley asssited by Mrs Karen Woodlock, classroom assistant. An exciting project in which to be involved.

Tuesday also brought our Mass of Thanksgiving for all of our Sacramental Classes, as always, our children were a credit to us all. Mass was lovely although we were disappointed we did not have time to present certificates. Next year we will endeavour to begin at an earlier time. Thanks to all who came along to support our children in this beautiful celebration.

Wednesday of this week we thoroughly enjoyed our Fairtrade Garden Party  (very posh!). This was to celebrate our success in our joint venture with Firpark in attaining Fairtrade status for our campus. Watch out for the huge sign going up at the entrance to the campus. Thanks to Mrs Duffy, DHT and Mrs Ellis, Principal Teacher in Firpark for their hard work securing such a  prestigious award. Thanks also to our Fairtrade Committee who were totally committed to ensuring success. The Garden Party was great fun. All SMT from both schools were instructed to dress appropriately – Big Hats were a must!- We were entertained by our very own School Band -who remain nameless 🙁

This was the inaugural performance for The Band and what a performance they gave. I was amazed at their talent and skill, they were brilliant. Well done to all in our Nameless Band. If you would like to hear them please come along to our Magical Musical Morning this coming week, it promises to be a fabulous show.

Also on Wednesday our children were enthralled by author Stuart Reid who came along to promote the joy of reading – one of our priorities this session. This was a most successful visit, our children loved his presentation and many have been encouraged to read.

Thursday evening two of our P7 boys, Ewan Jeffrey and David Nugent presented their winning poems at the Reigart Poetry Festival. Miss Green, the boys class teacher kindly represented the staff on this occasion. I’m afraid I was unable to attend due to Board of Catholic Education Meeting. Miss Green reported both boys were fabulous. Their work is now part of the Regiart Poetry Book for 2014. Well done to both boys.

Friday brought us one of the highlights of our year. Primary One Assembly. A magnificent display of the on-going work in our Primary One classes. This was an excellent assembly which gave the children opportunity to showcase their learning through drama, song and action. It was fabulous fun. Many thanks to Miss Phee, Miss Mooty, Miss McAvoy, Mrs Munro and Mrs McCoy who were all instrumental in the rehearsal and overall production. Well done to our magnificent Primary One pupils who so confidently delivered their lines, their jokes and their songs without any written word in front of them. An amazing achievement.

Meanwhile, there has been much excitement in the nursery with the birth of some beautiful butterflies. I’ll let Mrs Murphy tell you more………..

The Commonwealth Games topic is now fully up and running. The children were all given some homework to research three facts about the country they are representing. The response has been fantastic, all of their efforts can be seen displayed throughout the nursery and in the group floorbooks. The children have all looked at photographs about their countries on the SmartBoard.  Fizzy Cole was extremely impressed with the information they found. Please take a moment to look at the children’s displays.

At the beginning of the week in the maths area the children continued to make the flags from their countries and the bunting is now complete. As the week went on the children played positional games with Mrs McFadden who provided her very own hockey sticks for the children to use. They played hockey and cricket very popular games in India the Foxgloves country.

In the writing area they set out to make some Commonwealth flags, this activity was so popular that their efforts are hanging in the cloakroom and outside for everyone to see. They made a fantastic effort writing the G in the middle of the flag. They also had the opportunity to write the names of their countries for the group displays. They then researched music from the countries they are concentrating on and danced to a variety of music found.

Outdoors the trainng sessions for our sports day activities are well under way. The children played running games and discussed the change in their bodies before and after they exercised. They jumped over hurdles and learned to throw a javelin. All these activities and their positional outcomes have been recorded on a graph to observe progress. These game s will continue next week.

In the art area the children made their very own” Clyde” the Commonwealth Games mascot from a variety of different materials. Clyde and all the mini Clydes can be seen on the art wall beside the squinty bridge. They also made some tartan to display on the Scotland wall in the Thistles group.

Over in the snack area the children continued to taste foods from their specific countries. They tried a few different Jamaican smoothies made from tropical fruit and coconut milk. They then tried some Jamaican jerk wedges which went down a treat. On Friday we moved on to Canadian food and they had the opportunity to taste pancakes with maple syrup. This will continue into next week. In the house corner the children are exploring clothing from different countries. They have been wearing saris and cowboy hats. If anyone can provide any traditional clothing items please speak to a member of staff.

The nursery welcomed a newborn on Thursday morning as overnight a butterfly had emerged from its cocoon. The children were so excited to finally see what they had been waiting for they named him Usain Bolt as he was first and fastest out of the cocoon. As the day progressed another two butterflies appeared. The afternoon children actually saw one immediately after it emerged. All children got to see primary 1 perform their assembly all about mini-beasts and part of the story was about the Very Hungry Caterpillar which the children could all relate to. The timing couldn’t have been any better as by Friday afternoon all ten cocoons were empty and we released all the butterflies into their natural habitat and each one got a huge cheer as it flew off. This has been a very fascinating process that the children and staff have thoroughly enjoyed.

The lending library is now finished for the year and if there are any books still to be returned please do so as soon as possible.

Please remember nursery graduation is on Friday 10.30am and 2.00pm.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my Blog, feel free to comment.

Mrs Shields

A HUGE congratulations to Mrs Tominey and our wonderful ECO Committee who gained our third Green Flag on Friday. I am so proud of everyone in our school and our nursery for their hard work and dedication to ensuring our school campus is ECO friendly. Mrs Anne Black was the assessor who came to our school on Friday morning spending 3 hours looking all around, questionning the committee and thoroughly going over Mrs Tominey’s work. The morning assessment culminated in a re-run of our Primary Two assembly ‘reduce, re-use & recycle’. Once again an amazing performance from our Primary Two boys and girls and staff, how they managed to remember all of their lines, movement and song words after all this time is truly remarkable – or perhaps it is simply the result of excellent teaching. Mrs Black, the assessor, contacted me at 2.45pm to say well done to everyone involved and to award us our third Green Flag. Mrs Black loved her morning in the school she said it was very clear we were all committed to our world from the little nursery people through to p7 and our staff. Our whole school & nursery approach was highly praised. Mrs Black’s words were:

‘My only difficulty is trying to decide on recommendations as everything is perfect’

How fabulous is that????? Well done to everyone in our school and nursery community. What a wonderful way to end the week.

Meanwhile on Wednesday of this week there was great excitement in Primary One as they all set off on an educational trip to Colzium House. Another example of taking our learning outside of school and putting it into the context of the real world. All had a fabulous day out, many thanks to the great number of parent helpers who came along to support the children. Outings such as this are greatly encouraged in our school but they would not be possible without the volunteer parent/grandparent helpers who ensure we overtake the required ratio of pupil to adult required to ensure a safe passage for all. Many, many thanks to our parent helpers. Thanks also to the parents helpers who give so freely of their time every week to accompany our P5 children to swimming, again this out of school learning opportunity would not be possible without our magnificent volunteer helpers. Throughout every day in our school and nursery you can find a number of adults assisting in a variety of ways encouraging and supporting our children’s learning. Our school and nursery is truly blessed with committed parents who are so very keen to work with the school to allow us to offer our children such a diverse range of excellent educational experiences. Thank You.

Normally at this time of year we are looking forward to saying thank you in a practical way to all who assist in our school with our annual ‘Social Evening’. This year we will be delaying this celebration until September as on our proposed date we have been asked to give over our school to assist with the celebration of The Installation of Bishop Toal. A worthy event, I’m sure you will agree.

Thursday of this week, once again, our parent helpers proved invaluable accompanying our children to celebrate Ascension Thursday Mass in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Church. Our Primary 1, 2 & 3 pupils were bussed to church whilst our P4, 5, 6 & 7 pupils walked to Mass. Thanks to everyone involved in the Mass, our P6 pupils who read so well, our staff who work so hard to assist our children’s spiritual development, Fr Millar for his continuous support for all we do in school and to our community police who ensure a safe journey to and from church for all. This Mass was a magnificent celebration, we were all in church for 9.50am and for the 10 minutes before Mass began there was absolute silence in the church. I was so proud of our children’s reverence and exemplary behaviour, I cannot praise our children enough, they are magnificent. The singing and spoken Mass responses were also superb, again another example of the excellent teaching on-going in our Catholic school. It was a most beautiful, uplifting experience. Well done to all of our boys and girls.

In the meantime our nursery continues to flourish. This week our nursery staff all gained new titles. Early Years Workers, Mrs Imray, Mrs Little and Mrs McFadden are now Early Years Practitioners and Mrs Murphy our Senior Early Years Worker is now entitled Lead Early Years Practitioner – why the change? I have no idea! But change it has.

Our Lead Early Years Paractitioner gives us all the weekly gossip from the nursery……

The nursery mini-beasts topic came to and end with the Ugly Bug Ball where the children had a mini-beasts hunt on the pitch, danced to bug music and had the opportunity to taste everything that the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate in the story. This was a fantastic learning experience for all of the children and through Leggy Lug the Rhyming Bug they are beginning to grasp the concept of rhyming.The nursery caterpillars are now all safely tucked up in their cocoons and the children are observing them daily to watch for any changes. Hopefully this week we will have some beautiful butterflies.

On Wednesday a package was delivered addressed to the nursery. It had came all the way from Trinidad and Tobago. When we opened it out came Fizzy Cole (Physical) a torch and a backpack full of all clues to why she was here. She was wearing a tracksuit and some very cool trainers. She had a passport, a measuring tape, a stopwatch, a gold medal, a letter and an envelope for each group. In the envelopes there were flags from different countries. Fizzy explained that she had come to Scotland to learn about the country and all about the Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow. She has set all groups the same challenge to learn about a different country that are taking part in the games. Each envelope had a flag from a country she wants to learn more about. The first one of course was Scotland and the Terrific Thistles are going to help her learn all about their own country and each group has taken on their countries name for this topic. The Super Snowdrops are researching Australia gidday mate! The Brilliant Bluebells are hiking up the Rocky Moutains and learning all about Canada, the Happy Heathers are off to the beach to explore Jamaica and finally the fantastic Foxgloves are studying India, the culture and the food.

On Thursday we set off to help Fizzy fulfil her requests.
Outdoors the children took the measuring tape and the stopwatch and used them to record running and jumping activities.
In the maths area they looked at the shapes and the emblems on the flags and made their own flags. These will serve as bunting throughout the topic.
Over in the literacy area they researched the different countries on the SmartBoard.
In the art area the children started to make their own Commonwealth torches and batons.
At the beach In the snack area they made Jamaican smoothies full of tropical fruit.
All these activities will continue next week.

On Friday the nursery children showed off their knowledge of recycling to Mrs ann Black who was visiting the nursery as part of the whole school eco programme. They sang their very own eco song and impressed her with their eco wall, daily eco tasks and their knowledge of recycling.

What a lot of learning goes on in our school and nursery – and that was only a four day week!!!

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my blog, and many thanks to those who comment, I love to hear from all of our parent forum, I hope you are as proud of children as I am.

Mrs Shields

This week was in many ways a very exciting week in school. On Tuesday we received  a phonecall from NLC press department asking if the BBC could come and film some of our P7 pupils for an item to be shown on BBC evening news on Wednesday. Our children were asked about their hopes and dreams for the future and their expectations for their careers. Six of our P7 pupils (two from each class) were selected to participate:

David Nugent

Aidan Simpson

Hannah Townsley

Euan Whitehead

Abigail McNally

Weronika Kahl

Our children spoke very eloquently and gave an excellent, insightful viewpoint of their hopes for the future. Well done to all six participants, we are very proud of you all.

Throughout the week our children, from P4 through to P7 and all of our parent forum has been asked for their viewpoints on many different aspects of our school. I am delighted with the high number of parents who took the time to complete the self-evaluation and return it to school. Thanks so much for this. Self-evaluation is a very important tool for us in school to ensure we are providing a service which is pertinent to our pupils and is in line with the expectations of our parent forum. I am completely committed to endeavouring to do the best we possibly can in our school to provide the highest and most appropriate education for all of our pupils in both nursery and in our school.

A very small number of parents have raised some points which I will address over the coming weeks. I have tried to contact any parent who is unhappy/dissatisfied with the service we provide. Communicating with all parents is a key aspect of our success and, I truly believe, there is no point in ascertaining views if you are not willing to discuss them with the relevant stakeholders.

All self evaluation feedback will be collated and published on our website. Any concerns raised I will provide a written response following discussion with the parents. That being said, we handed out almost 600 questionnaires and, to date, only 6 parents have raised issues with which they are not totally satisfied. 594 happy parents is an excellent result. Many thanks to the large number of parents who responded so positively and provided excellent feedback, most encouraging for all in school.

Our P4 to 7 pupils have been involved in our own school self-evaluation and also in respect of the proposed merger of OLHS and Taylor High. Again, I will take on board the points raised by our pupils and discuss with them how best we can improve any aspect of school with which they are not entirely satisfied. Thanks to our pupils for their, honest and frank opinions.

We pride ourselves in listening to all stakeholders in our school and endeavouring to discuss any concerns in respect of any aspect of school life. Unfortunately, we cannot please everyone all of the time and there are times when people simply have to understand that things happen in school for the correct reason. Again, I emphasise the importance of discussing concerns with both parents and children. Communication is the key to moving forward.

Saturday saw the final First Holy Communion celebrations for our P4 children, again we enjoyed a most uplifting, spiritual Mass with our 14 children and their families. A huge thanks to Fr Millar and to the great number of our staff, both teaching and non-teaching who gave of their own time to come along and support our children in this most important step in their faith journey.

We look forward to celebrating our mass of Thanksgiving in school for all of our sacramental children on Tuesday 3rd June at 2.15pm in school hall. Please come along even if you do not have a child in P3 or P4, we welcome everyone and encourage all to participate in all aspects of school life.

Our nursery has also enjoyed a very busy week……Here’s all the gossip from Mrs Murphy.

The Growing Together Learning Forever Programme a parental workshop has come to an end. Eight parents/carers who took part in it received certificates of participation last week from their children. The main aim of the workshop was to support parents/carers to improve their interaction with their children through everyday activities. It provided resources to help them improve on health and well being, literacy and numeracy. The feedback has been very positive and we hope to be able to provide similar courses in the future.

The mini-beasts topic is now in full swing with the delivery of our live caterpillars on Wednesday. The children will all be able to see the life cycle of a butterfly right in their own playroom.  Some other creatures are living in the nursery playroom as well. The children found some snails and have brought them in. They have been named Turbo, Lighting and Belle. This has given the children the opportunity to care for these creatures and they have been mesmerised by the snail trail. A story about Norman, a slug who really wants to be a snail, has become very popular in the story corner since the snails have arrived.

In the maths area the children took part in a mini-beasts hunt and have recorded their findings on a graph which can be seen on the wall.

They have been writing the names of different creatures in the writing area with the magnetic letters and watching the Very Hungry Caterpillar on the Smartboard.

In art they painted caterpillars and made them from playdough. They have also been searching for bugs in the soil in the sandpit.

In snack they made butterfly cakes and decorated them.

Outside the transformation of the garden continues. An afterschool club run by Mrs Keenan and Mrs Imray started on Tuesday involving some P6 children. The aim is to develop an outdoor musical area in the nursery garden. The children came up with some fantastic ideas and immediately started to research how they could provide the resources with of course recycling being foremost in their mind. Watch this space or maybe listen to this space!
On Friday afternoon with the help of some parents the garden tidy up continued. We have been lucky enough to have been provided with some new child friendly planters made from the wood from the original ones and also a bird table and seed which was donated by a parent. Again the nursery staff are indebted to all the garden gang helpers. The garden area is now looking fantastic and the children are enjoying caring for the flowers and vegetables that they have planted.

A reminder that this Thursday we are having an Ugly Bug Ball. The children will get the opportunity to make their own masks for this during the week.

As always, thanks for reading, all comments most welcome.

Apologies for the lack of photographs, we are experiencing technical difficulties which we hope to rectify in the very near future

Mrs Shields

A warm (if somewhat damp) welcome to the month of May. This month in our weekly assemblies we focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus and her great love for all of us. Please encourage your children to bring their rosary beads to school every day. We will pray the rosary at assembly and Mrs Jacqueline Murphy will also host her lunchtime rosary club. This is a great opportunity for all children to become more actively involved in the prayer life of our school. I extend my thanks to Mrs Murphy for giving so willingly of her own time to take this devotion forward.

This month our primary four children, and their families, experience one of the main highlights of the children’s faith journey through primary school. Our P4 children are currently in the midst of celebrating their First Holy Communion. To date we have been privileged to be part of First Holy Communion Masses in Saint Luke’s (3rd May) and in O.L.G.A Cathedral (10th May). Both Masses have been so spiritually uplifting and such joyous occasions for all involved. A huge thanks to the children for their excellent preapration and participation in the Mass, to you as parents as the first and most important faith influences of your children, to Miss Stack and Mrs Gillies who have dedicated so much of their time to ensuring our children have a thorough understanding of the importance of this great gift, to all of the staff who give of their own time to come along to support our children and to Fr Millar for his exceptional devotion to our school children and their families. A big thanks also to Mrs Campbell, Mrs Jacqueline Murphy and Miss Love whose musical talents greatly enhance all of our Masses.

We look forward to our final forthcoming First Communion Mass next Saturday in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church at 12 noon.

From our newsletter you will have read that in June of this year we are saying goodbye to our two longest serving members of staff: Mrs Mary Mullen and Mrs Helena Collins.
Both ladies have devoted 38 years of their lives to improving the academic, spiritual and emotional  well being of the children in our school. Mrs Mullen & Mrs Collins started working in our school in August of 1976, on the same day and, as great friends, both will retire on the same day. How wonderful is that!
Throughout Mrs Collins career she has taught all across the school guiding pupils from the age of 5 to 12 in all aspects of their lives and impacting positively in so many ways.  Mrs Collins chose to remain as a class teacher throughout her career, she is a most reliable source of knowledge and guidance to our less experienced staff and has trained numerous student teachers over the years. Mrs Collins has been inspirational in her preparation of our chidlren for the sacraments of Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Mrs Collins is committed to Catholic education and is a witness to her own faith.
Parents speak highly of Mrs Collins and her thorough knowledge of their child as a ‘person’. She keenly supports all aspects of school life truly embedding our faith in every subject area.

Mrs Mullen chose a different path for her career; she has specialised in the infant curriculum and is our resident ‘expert’ in the field. As a class teacher Mrs Mullen was renound as a ‘magnificent intant teacher’, she has such an insight into the minds of our youngest children and their very specific needs. As a class teacher Mrs Mullen prepared her children for Reconciliation, as Senior teacher her responsibilities included First Holy Communion preparation and in recent years, as DHT, she has also been involved in Confirmation. Mrs Mullen is dedicated to Catholic education and the spiritual well being of each of our children from P1 through to P7. Within the infant department Mrs Mullen is a ‘guru’, she devotes much time to the academic, emotional and  spiritual education of our children, guiding young staff in teaching and passing on excellent methodology, countless strategies and most importantly, our faith. Mrs Mullen does much preparation behind the scenes working with parents to promote and encourage their involvement in their child’s educational journey. She is an excellent example of a committed Catholic educator who dedicates her whole life – both in and out of school hours- to the promotion of our faith.

Both ladies are ambassadors for Catholic education and have devoted 38 years to ensuring our Catholic school is recognised as a beacon of spiritual development and educational excellence throughout Motherwell and beyond. Their dedication to our children’s learning is most definitely worthy of recognition.

I wish both ladies a long and happy retirement, I am indebted to them for their professionalism, their contributions to the school and their great friendship. This is a time of great change for both of them and an exciting new journey ahead. All I ask is that they remember our school with great fondness, laughter and as a source of joy.

Watch out world, come June “The Golden Girls’ are on tour…..be prepared!!!!

Come Clubbing @ Cathedral termly update. In school this term our after school clubs include:

Puppet Making with Mrs Mullen,   Bikeability with Miss Phee and Mrs Carr,   Percussion with Mrs Campbell and Alan Hopkinson (a former pupil), Dancing with Mrs McCoy and Choir with Mrs Campbell, Myself and Oleg!

During the school day there are many other exciting opportunities for our pupils, mainly our senior pupisl. These are based around musical tuition. We have saxophone tuition, brass tuition, string tuition, clarinet tuition, and flute tuition. This year, for the very first time, we have brought all of our groups together and formed our School Band – we have to find a really ‘cool’ name for them. Can you help? Add a comment with your ideas for a name for our band.

All of the instrumentalists, the Kodaly Kids (P5), solo singers and the Choir will perform at our annual Magical Musical Morning scheduled for Thursday 12th June. Please come along and listen to the fabulous talents and skills of our young musicians and singers.

Our week ended on a very proud note. Our Primary one pupils led our Mass for Mary our Mother and what a fantastic job they did, Listening to them lead prayers throughout the Mass, watch them take responsibility for the offertory procession and hearing them read so incredibly well was amazing. It is hard to believe they have only been in school for one year. A HUGE congratulations to all of our P1 pupils and their teachers. Thanks also to Fr Grant and Deacon Tom who stepped in for Mgr Millar to celebrate our Mass.

As a community of faith we offer our condolences to Fr Millar and his family at this sad time. We will remember Mr Paul Millar, Fr Millar’s dad, in our prayers.

This has been very exciting time in our nursery – and not just for the children. Last week we held interviews to appoint a Permanent Senior Early Years Worker to our nursery. I am delighted to let you know Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy is the successful candidate. Mrs Murphy has been part of our school community for the last 10 years working in school and laterly in our nursery. Mrs Murphy is a most worthy candidate and I wish her great success. I look forward to our nursery continuing its journey of excellence under her leadership.

Here’s our brand new Senior Early Years Worker’s nursery report.
A short week in nursery but as always a very productive one. The children are still learning about new beginnings and have been looking at human babies this week in response to a few children who have recently become big brothers or sisters. They have been caring for the babies by feeding, bathing and dressing them.
As well as that the children are looking at all different mini beasts and in the maths area they made their own ladybirds with the numbers of spots according to their age on each side.

In the literacy area they have been exploring the patterns of language through rhyme and they were introduced to our new character Leggy Lug a rhyming bug. They will continue with rhyming words through revisiting nursery rhymes over the next few weeks. They also had the opportunity to write words and draw pictures from The Very Hungry Caterpillar story which are displayed on the tree in the middle of the room. A new beginnings cotton poster has been given to us on loan from Mrs Baxter to support the learning.

In the art area the children have been concentrating on their cutting skills, they have used playdough, card and paper to improve their fine motor skills.

In snack they have been discussing rhyming words and are making up their own to rhyme with their food.

On Thursday we had a fantastic turnout for our very first Grounforce day. Parents and grandparents turned out in force to revamp the garden area. Mrs Little AKA Charlie Dimmock was the garden co-ordinator and organised each helper. A job well done we think she may still be lying down in a darkened room. The primary 6 buddies also mucked in to help with the transformation. A big thank you goes to all green fingered helpers who worked extremely hard. Please take a moment to look at all the new planters, flowers, garden ornaments and our new revamped area in the far corner of the outdoor area. Some parents have offered their services further to build the arbour and put some new fencing up. It was fantastic to see what can be done in the space of one day. Thanks again from the nursery team.

As always, thanks for reading. All comments welcome.

Mrs Shields

My Son Pinocchio was our school show which took place on the final week of last term. What a spectacular way to end a wonderful term. The show featured every child from P5, P6 and P7 and 31 members of staff from our school and nursery (maybe we’ll not spend too much time talking about the staff scene)

The show was an overwhelming success, parents, grandparents and friends of our school who came along all commented most favourably. I never cease to be amazed at the talents and skills of the children in our school and their willingness and enthusiasm for sharing them with all.

Mr. Andrew Sutherland, Executive Director of Learning & Leisure, came along to see our show; he was overwhelmed by the professionalism, the colour, the singing, the dancing and the confidence of our pupils (and so he should be!) His words following the show were:

‘That was truly excellent, I have never before seen a primary school show like that, fantastic.’

This was Mr Sutherland’s first visit to our school – I’m sure it won’t be his last.

Thanks also to the parents and grandparents who sought Mr Sutherland out to tell him what a great school we have, I am indebted to you for your support and your recognition of all the hard work ongoing in our school.

Mrs Monica Donnachie, DHT OLHS said:

‘Please pass on my congratulations to all staff and p5/6/7 pupils. The young people are a credit to all of you.  The show was stunning and I really enjoyed the whole performance.  I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of planning and organisation that it must have taken to produce such a high standard of set, singing and acting.’

Our school show is one of our proudest moments. Watch out for the next one coming 2016!!!!

Every child from P5 to P7 gave 100% commitment to this show. They learned 27 different songs, they practiced routines, they participated throughout and most of all they supported one another with great camaraderie and team work. Almost every child gave up their usual evening activities to come along for the two evening performances, again fantastic commitment. I cannot praise them enough. Our children are a joy to work with, they are so vibrant and upbeat in their approach to new and exciting challenges. A most positive attitude to learning. Well done to each and every one of them.

A huge thanks to all of our staff who bravely took to the stage, great fun but most of all, what a great example they set to our children. Once again our staff gave willingly of their own time to rehearse (yes, that really was rehearsed) and to come along and support our children at our evening shows. We are truly blessed with our staff, their talents and their dedication to our school.

The show was directed and choreographed by Mrs Brenda McCoy. Mrs McCoy is an incredibly talented dancer and choreographer, she has the most original ideas for scenes involving huge numbers of children. A HUGE thanks to Mrs McCoy for all of her hard work.

The scenery and ‘whale’ were the work of Mrs Julie McCarthy.  Mrs McCarthy is a skilled artist who has the most amazing vision. The scenery was magnificent and the whale was simply inspirational. Where else could you find someone who takes a set of tent poles, a piece of blue material, a pair of her daughter’s red tights, a balloon and some white card and create the most magnificent whale! Fantastic! A HUGE thanks to Mrs McCarthy for all of her work.

Thanks also to our sound and lighting crew who illuminated the whole show.

Enjoy the photographs….

Our summer term began with sunshine and smiles. We were delighted to welcome back all of our children and their families following a lovely Easter break. As always we began our week with our full school assembly, offering prayers of thanksgiving for the great feast of Easter and recognising the importance of our place in our parish communities over the Easter Triduum – 3 day period of Holy Week and Easter.

We welcomed Miss Gemma Fulton, early years student to our nursery whilst welcoming back Miss Vicky Johnstone to P2a and Miss Leigh Brannigan to P5/6 – both trainee teachers. Miss Brannigan was previously in P3c.

Congratulations go to three P7 girls who represented the school at the Scottish Schools Cross Country in Kirkcaldy on 19/4/14. They gave up a day of their Easter holidays to compete with over 200 other girls from all over Scotland. Niah Welsh, Rachel Donnelly and Ciara Scullion all completed the course and received certificates for their achievements. The certificates will be presented at assembly this coming Monday.

Wednesday brought our weekly hymn practice. This term we are concentrating on hymns which will form part of our First Holy Communion celebrations, our forthcoming Primary 1 Mass and our end of year Graduation Mass for Primary 7 pupils and their families.

Wednesday also brought great news to all of those families who had applied for a placing request for their children to come to our school. I am delighted all places have been granted, this gives us a forthcoming P1 of 72 children – a big year group. 47 of those children will be coming from our nursery. We have now issued invitations to all of our pre-school children to come along for our Pre- Entrant Programme mid May.

Our Fabulous Fundraisers met on Wednesday evening in our staff room, this was a most productive meeting with decisions being made to purchase waterproof jackets for our cross country stars and waterproof suits for our nursery children. Our nursery children enjoy a period of time outdoors every day – we always say. There is no such thing as inappropriate weather just inappropriate clothing. A HUGE thanks to our fundraisers for their continuous work for our children. With the purchase of these waterproofs our cross-country children will be easily identifiable and dry and our nursery children will be able to access our outdoor area every single day. Great news all round.

Over the period of this 4 day week our P3 children have all enjoyed outings to Tesco where they had opportunity to make their own pizza, they also brought back some lovely goodies for Mrs Campbell!!!!!! – What did I do wrong ????

This was the finale of their topic work from last session – Italy. Thanks to Mrs Duffy for organizing this. Thanks also to our parent helpers who came along to assist with supervision (and tasting) and most especially to the staff of Tesco for providing such a great opportunity for our children.

Throughout the week our musical tuition continued. I am delighted our P7 instrumentalists have been asked to participate in OLHS Mass of Welcome for P7 – what a great opportunity to show off our children’s talents and skills to their new school. Mass of Welcome is scheduled for Monday 9^th June at 7pm in OLHS.

Amy Vickers, P6 represents our school in North Lanarkshire Choir, Amy and the choir has been asked to perform at the secondary school HT conference. The choir sang at our primary HT conference – they were magnificent. Well done to Amy for her contribution to this musical extravaganza.

Speaking of musical extravaganzas – coming soon – our Magical Musical Morning featuring our P5 Kodaly musicians, our instrumentalists, our choir, our Kiddie choir and for the first time ever…..Our School Band/Orchestra……Watch out for specific date and time. Please come along whether or not you have a child involved, come and see the talents and skills of our children – you will be very impressed- and….like all of our assemblies and seasonal performances, there is no charge!

Friday we welcomed many parents, families and friends of our school to our Primary 5 coffee morning. This was a great success. Thanks to all of P5 who participated so well, to everyone who contributed to the delicious baking and to our raffle. A special thanks to all who supported Erin Bonner. Erin is one of our P5 girls and on Friday she was having 12 inches of her hair cut off in aid of The Little Princess Trust. You may remember Natalie Jackson, now P7, did this last year. The hair is vacuum packed and is then made into wigs for the children who have lost their own hair through cancer. This is a great charity to support – children helping children. Erin collected £152.87 sponsorship at our coffee morning. Many thanks for your generosity.

All that in four days…..wow! We are looking forward to an exciting term ahead with different learning opportunities happening every single day all ensuring an excellent nursery and primary school experience for our children.

Speaking of the nursery…….

A big welcome back to all our nursery children after a restful holiday and a big thank you to all our parents/carers who through our Easter Fayre managed to raise £341. This money will be spent wisely. On Tuesday Mrs Gemma Hendry joined the team she is on placement from Glasgow University for five weeks.

The theme of Spring and new beginnings continued with the children looking at different seeds and plants. The children are becoming more familiar with the names of the different parts of plants through factual books, computer games and nursery rhymes.

Please have a look at the display in the writing area to see what they have been learning. The children have been listening to the story of The very Hungry Caterpillar and looking at factual books about the metamorphoses that takes place in preparation for the delivery of our very own Butterfly Kingdom. Watch this space!

Over in the maths area they have been playing the Flowerpot game again learning how to build their very own flower from the different plant parts.

In Science they potted cress seeds and are caring for them and watching their cress heads grow.

Outdoors the search for mini beasts living in the garden continued. The children used magnifying glasses in their search. Thy also picked some flowers and brought them into the playroom and used a digital microscope to see right inside the flowers and the veins on the leaves. In one of the daffodils they discovered a slug and were able to see it up close and personal. They all also made a collage with different plants and flowers they found in the garden. This is on display on the window.

In the art area they have been constructing their own caterpillars from playdough and card and have started to make a cocoon from paper mache.

In snack they made flower shaped pizza and butterfly pasta.

On Thursday Mr Brind Nathan’s grandad brought along his puppet friends and told a story with a hidden safety message. The children were fascinated by all the animal characters and their unusual names and they all got a chance to hold one of the puppets. Mr Brind has donated a book that he has written with all the animal characters in it with the emphasis on caring for and making new friends. This will be a great tool to use at the start of the new term when our new children arrive. The staff and the children would like to thank Mr Brind for giving up his time to spend it in the nursery.

Our Eco tasks and learning all about recycling continued.

As always, thanks for reading, please feel free to comment.

Mrs Shields

I hope all of our mums are enjoying a relaxing Mother’s Day.

As always our week has been filled with exciting events and unique learning opportunities both in school and in nursery. We began with our weekly assembly, which this week was billed as a Good News Assembly. Firstly we were all truly amazed and so impressed at the wide range of science experiments which our childrne had enjoyed throughout science week. We had volcanoes erupting, transport of the future, tasting sessions (whilst blindfolded) and so much more. The good work wall has spread all over the front hall. Every week I am very impressed by the wide range of work our children present, however, the work during science week was outstanding. What a wonderful way to engage our children and stimulate their creativity, excellent work everybody.

This week saw our jotter monitoring come to an end, this was more good news. I have been overwhelmed by the consistent hig standard of work throughout our school. I am also very pleased at the volume of work in jotters and workbooks. Again, excellent work everybody.

As a reward, our children all enjoyed some ‘seasonal viewing’. This coupled with the opportunity to eat their snack whils viewing caused great excitement. Everyone deserves a treat now and then.

Tuesday morning our Cross Country Team represented our school at the Finals, and what a representation they gave! This from Coaches Murphy, Leach, Harrison and Close:

The after school cross country club trained hard over the Winter months and came out on top to secure 2 gold medals and two team places at the cross country finals at Coatbridge on Tuesday. Liam McQuaid P5 romped home to take the first ever gold medal for the school. The P5 boys team then followed by being placed 3rd overall. Joey Leach then secured the 2nd gold medal of the day in the P6 girls race by overtaking the race leader on the home straight. The P7 girls team then finished the day by coming 2nd. A fantastic effort by all children. Teamworking is a vital, character building education lesson and all coaches agreed that the children worked extremely well together on the day.

Motherwell Times will feature our team this coming week.

A HUGE thanks to our coaching team:

Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy

Mr Richard Leach

Mrs Kirsty Harrison

Mrs Anne Close

They have worked incredibly hard with our children after school each week , coaching through rain, hail, wind and maybe even a wee bit of sunshine. Indescriminate of the weather they soldiered on, fantastic committment.

Tuesday evening saw our school represented in Burns Regional Finals, again magnificent representation. Diana Feenan won second place in junior solo singing whilst Ellie Hutchison secured first place in Junior Recitation and also best overall recitation. Well done to both girls, and thanks again to Mrs Brenda McCoy and Mrs Jacqueline Murphy who prepared the girls.

Wednesday we welcomed Mrs Marion Barr, a representative from Lepra. Mrs Barr spoke to the children about the good work of Lepra – it costs £25 to treat a child with awful disease. As a school we pledged to include Lepra in our end of year Alms Giving.

Thursday Mrs Duffy met with Gillian Brogan from Motherwell Heritage Centre. Gillian has asked our school to become invovled in a very exciting local event. More information nearer the time.

Friday we hosted a football tournament on our fabulous pitch. Well done to our girls and boys who, once again, were excellent ambassadors for our school. Special thanks to Mr McBirnie (Willie, the football man) who gives so much of his own time to train and work with our footballers.

Meanwhile our school show rehearsals continued. This show looks to be our best ever. Our costumes are ready, our actor and actresses are fully prepared all we need now is a receptive audience. Please support our school and come along to our show on Wednesday and Thursday of this week at 1.30pm and 7.00pm. We have spent the day in school with the ‘sound crew’ ensuring all is ready. Particular thanks to Mrs McCarthy, Mrs McCoy and Mrs Campbell who have been in school across the weekend helping finish off scenery and props. I am really excitied about Pinocchio, our chidlren are so talented and so committed to their roles. Make sure you don’t miss out!

Throughout the week Fr Millar and Canon O’Mahony have been ensuring our children are spiritually prepared for the great Feast of Easter. Both priests have been hearing P4, P5, P6 & P7 confessions, our thanks to them for taking the time to do this.

And, as always, our littlest people continue to have great adventures every day………..

The ship has well and truly sailed and pirate Pete, Blackbeard and Tinkerbell are now just a happy memory.
Our new topic is all about New Beginnings.
The children are learning all about Spring and new life.
In the literacy area they have been playing interactive games on the Smartboard learning how plants grow and what they need to grow. They have been naming the different parts of a flower and sequencing the stages of growth. They have been reading stories about new life and learning the names of baby animals.
In the maths area they have been naming and sorting baby animals and completing jigsaws that show the life cycle of different animals and insects.
The children have been creating their own flower pots and Spring flowers in the art area and some of these can be seen on display on the art wall.
Outdoors the Garden Gang have been busy at work digging over the vegetable patch to get the soil ready for planting after the Easter holidays. They have been learning the different names of the garden equipment. While doing this they discovered some creatures living in the garden and they used their magnifying glasses to get a closer look at them. The garden is in need of some TLC and if anyone can spare some time we would be delighted to get any help we can.
The home corner has been transformed into a garden centre and tearoom and the children are busy roleplaying buying and selling plants and gnomes.
In science they had the opportunity to take part in an experiment involving celery and food colouring and hopefully on Monday they will be able to see the outcome of this experiment.
All children continue to learn about the importance of recycling through the story of Michael Recycle a true recycling superhero. The Eco song is now complete and the children are starting to learn the 2nd verse, a copy of this will be sent home soon.  Our recycle display is beginning to take shape and the children participated in Earth Hour on Friday by completing their very own stars for the eco wall in the school.
At group time this week the children made mother’s day cards and Easter cards. They will continue making a variety of goods which will be sold at the Easter Enterprise this week.

This is my final blog of this term, on behalf of our school community I wish everyone a happy and holy Easter.

Mrs Shields

Easter Fayre raffle prizes:

Chocs & Wine – Lucy Tougher Mitchell

Easter Cake (baked by Mrs Carr) – Calum Cuthbertson

Easter Hamper – Jack McInnes

Well done and thanks to all who bought tickets.

Science Week Raffle will take place on Wednesday….keep watching the Blog. It could be you.