Miss Stack will taking leadership of our Enterprise committee this year and she has big plans!  She’ll be working with Carlina McCarthy, Matthew Munro, Emma Maughan, Sophie Benham, Grace McLaughlin, Liam McQuaid, Lauren Pentney, Martin Brooks, Wiktoria Gorska, Paul Welsh, Olivia Latimer, Daniel Inyang, Josh Barr, Keir McGarry, Max Ofori, Abigail McNally, Natalie Jackson, Nathan Welsh, Wiktor Witkowski and Robbie Whitfield.

Mrs Loose will be working with the following pupils in our Health Committee:  Kian Scullion, Alexander McKay, Connor Swan, Samanta Sobczak, Diana Feenan, Eryk Koziol, Mark Gillen, Gabrielle Hindman, Sean Smith, Isla Waldie, Lucy Haggerty, Eilis McNally, Finn Ross, Keela-Chae McCreaddie, Niah Welsh, Joshua Brennan, Ebony Bollard, Erin Dobson, Tony Dryden and Alicia Brown.

Our CaFi Council, a joint committee with Firpark is led by Mrs Duffy.  Here are our CaFi council members:  Beverley Mackin, Imogen McFadden, Leah Farquharson, Hannah Gallagher, Paul Murphy, Kasia Kerber, David Nugent and Caitlin O’Neil.

Our new committees have now been voted for by our pupils.  The children from P4 – 7 are asked to nominate representatives for the committees:

Here are our new Pupil Council members:   Katie McLaughlan, Nathan Miller, Abbie Maughan, Reece Quinn, Amy Elkin, Stewart McBride, Erin Bonner, Jodie Ferguson, Erin McCann, Ryan McLellan, Lucy Tougher-Mitchell, Mark Fitzpatrick, Brendan Tierney, Kamila Prucnal, Aidan Beggs, Charles Masumbuko, Katie Cadenhead, Erin Doyle, Michael Verrecchia and Neve Connelly.

This week began with Primary One joining us for the first time at Monday morning assembly. They were magnificent and behaved impeccably. Well done Primary One.

Tuesday was a busy day but an even busier evening! Our ‘Meet The Teacher’ evening was very well attended (over 300 parents/carers) and all who came along to the Cyber Bullying Presentation said how beneficial it was. Paper copies of the presentation will be issued tomorrow. I am delighted parents/carers found the presentation useful and informative, as Gareth said; technology is a magnificent teaching tool but it must be used under close supervision.

My thanks to all parents/carers who came along and took time to listen to the presentation and participate in meeting their child(rens) teacher(s). Thanks also to staff for being so accommodating and setting up the open areas to allow parents to peruse the resources and the classes. Although we are only a couple of weeks into term already the school is vibrant and inviting with a wide range of children’s work on display. A sure sign of our staff’s committment to ensuring another excellent academic year for all of our children. HMIe are currently very focussed on ‘increased expectations’ for our children. I believe this is a key strength of our school – we give of our best and we ask our children for their best. We are continually striving to improve our teaching methodology and provide a life long learning experience for our children.

On Wednesday afternoon we were deliighted to welcome parents/carers and friends of Priamry One for their very special blessing from Fr Millar. This was established two years ago and has very quickly become one of the highlights of the P1 year. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony which made a great impact on children and adults alike. My grateful thanks to Fr Millar for taking the time to conduct this service. His weekly presence in our school and his continued support for all we do is much appreciated.

I’m afraid after Wednesday my Blog comes to a close as I was not present in school Thursday and Friday. I was attending the annual Catholic Headteachers conference. However, I am reliably informed all went very well in my absence. My thanks to Mrs Campbell and Mrs Mullen for taking over for these two days – not easy when they are so heavily class committed.

On Friday evening Mrs Campbell, Mrs Carr and myself attended Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral to celebrate Mr Tom Gorman become a Permanent Deacon. The Mass was magnificent, the music was outstanding. It was one of the most Spititually uplifting Masses I have ever had the pleasure of attending. Many congratulations to Tom and a huge thanks to both Him and Bridie, his wife for the kind invitiation. I was honoured to be there.

Nursery Blog

This week, before Mrs Murphy brings us up to date on the weekly gossip I must let you know we have some ‘visitors’ in the nursery who have not been invited! could I plead with all parents/carers to please check children’s heads as we have an outbreak of nits in our nursery. (and now you are all scratching your head – as am I)

Here’s the latest goss……

Another busy week down in the nursery. The children completed their Golden Rules books which can be seen by all in the cloakroom before they move to the library in the cosy corner.
The measuring activity continued outside this week with the children chalking round each other and Mrs Little to see who is the tallest and who is the smallest.
In the writing area the children have been drawing around their hands and listing their achievements and personal likes for the “This Is Me” topic. These can all be seen on display in the nursery. They have also been drawing self portraits in the art area using a mirror to look at their very own features before drawing them.  In the creative area the children were set a junk modelling challenge to create a boat made of recycled materials. Please have a look at their fantastic creations in the cloakroom. This leads nicely to our new Eco Board which has been created in the cloakroom. We are already an Eco friendly nursery as we recycle junk, paper, food, we plant vegetables, we have a water butt in the garden and we are planning to have lights out time as part of our nursery week but we are looking for suggestions to be even more eco friendly. Please leave any suggestions on the board provided.
Hi Five For Fruit who provide the fruit for the nursery are looking for parents/carers to take part in courses such as Healthy Eating, Healthy Lunchboxes and Low Cost Meals to name but a few. If you are interested in taking part in any of these courses please put your name on the list provided.

Most of the children got a chance to explore the softplay area this week which was a great success. They acted out nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty where they worked together to build a wall and had great fun falling off the wall over and over again. Great fun was had by all. They also visited the gym hall for the very first time. This was also a great success with the children playing getting to know each other games and lots of physical activities.
Mrs Imray introduced a new song box which is full of props that link to songs and nursery rhymes. The children get to choose a prop, guess the song or rhyme and then everyone gets to join in. Watch this space we think this box is going to grow and grow!

We all enjoyed last week which was the first time we had the opportunity to all be together from nursery through to P7. It was a super week which began with our Monday morning Assembly – although P1 didn’t join us for this – but they will this coming week.

Please try to remember to bring something to contribute to our Missio Appeal which we collect every Monday during assembly. Thanks to those children who have already been contributing. Every penny helps to make life just a little bit better for those who have nothing.

On Tuesday of this week Primary One all smiled for the camera. Alan from Motherwell Times came to photograph our P1 pupils. You can see these photographs in forthcoming editions of Motherwell Times and this will also give you the option to purchase the photograph as a memento.

Wednesday we enjoyed our first Joint Management Team meeting with our Firpark colleagues. Each month we meet before school to discuss how best we can work together and give both sets of children an excellent learning experience.

Already we have decided to continue with our Joint Pupil Council (CaFi council) following its great success last year. We have also made a decision to continue with our joint weekly gardening group. My thanks in advance to Mrs Collins for volunteering to oversee this group. This year P4b are going to be joining our Firpark friends in their P6 to participate in Clyde in The Classroom Project.

We are also looking to explore some other joint after school working, presently we have after school joint football but we would like to broaden our horizons and are considering  cookery. Any ideas you may have would be most welcome.

One new initiative is for our children to be invovled in Firpark Speedway Cafe. This is a weekly event where Firpark children take responsibilty for ordering, setting up, serving and clearing away, indeed all aspects of cafe life. We are going to give 6 of our children the opportunity to take part each week. We will begin with our CaFi council members and then give this over as a reward for those children whom staff feel have earned an additional treat.

On Friday morning we enjoyed our first school Mass of the year. This was a beautiful, uplifting experience. I am so proud of our children’s behaviour and their active participation in our Mass. It was great to welcome back Fr Krzysztof (although not for long ), Canon Millar and Martin – our deacon. Thanks to all parents, grandparents who joined with us in this celebration. It is clear our weekly hymn singing is paying dividends, the children’s singing was lovely.

We have purchased a small gift for Fr Krzysztof in recognition of all of his hard work in our school. Not quite sure when we will present this, but we hope to do this prior to Fr Krzysztof leaving us. He has been a tremendous support for all of our children, staff and parents and we will greatly miss him in our school. We wish Fr Krzysztof every success in his new Parish, let’s hope he doesn’t become a stranger and continues to feel part of our community.

Meanwhile……down in the nursery we have had a fabulous week. It is great to get to know all of our new charges, they are wonderful children and really friendly parents. Mrs Murphy gives us the weekly gossip….

The majority of children have now settled in well and are starting to enjoy their nursery experience. This week they all got a chance to design and personalise their own seats for use during group time. This has proven to be a good settling in tool as the children are now eager to find their own special seat at the start of welcome time. They have also all had a chance to discuss in their groups and in a larger group the nursery Golden Rules. The ideas that the children came up with were fantastic and the results of this discussion can be seen on the cloakroom wall. Please take time to look at all the children’s suggestions. In the writing area they have been busy making their own special  book of Golden Rules which will continue this week and when finished it will take pride of place in the library in the cosy corner so that they can look at it at anytime. In the numeracy area the children have been measuring each other to see who is the smallest and who is the tallest. This will also continue into next week when all of the results will be displayed on the maths wall. The majority of children have now had their indoor shoes painted with their names on them. The children got to choose the colours they wanted and were encouraged to add a little design of their own. Don’t they look FAB! This will help children, parents and staff to identify their shoes quickly and easily. On that note could we please remind parents of the importance of putting names on their children’s clothing especially the nursery polo shirts and sweatshirts.
For information of what is happening in nursery each day please take a moment to look at the whiteboard in the cloakroom which is updated daily and gives a breakdown of what is happening in each area of the nursery.

Here’s how we learn all the names so quickly! It’s Shoe Time!

I don’t want you to think i’m jealous but Kilbowie photographs have 9 comments. My poor wee lonely blog has none: (

Mrs Shields

Our Primary Sevens had a wonderful time at Kilbowie….here’s the evidence to prove it!

And What a week it has been – absolutely fantastic!

Who’s who?

Our new personnel are:

Miss Jillian Green in P7

Miss Nicole Mooty in P1

Miss Lesley Murray in our nursery

Mrs Marie Seggie in our office

We hope they all enjoyed their first week with us and we welcome them to our team.

We also welcome back a few ‘well kent’ faces:

Miss Stephanie Love in P6

Mrs Colette Laird in P3

Mrs Jacqueline Carr in P2

Mrs Leanne Tominey in our nursery

Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy in our nursery

Mrs Joyce Couper as Additional Support Needs Assistant

Mrs Joanna Majewska as Additional Support Needs Assistant

We are really pleased to welcome back the above named staff who all show great committment to our school, I am delighted to have retained their services.

We welcomed our 61 new Primary one pupils for their first full week in school. You would readily believe they have been at school for a year at least. They are a wonderful group of children who have show their readiness for school through their enjoyment of learning, their adaptation to routine and their fabulous uniforms. A big thanks to all of our parents for the attention given to our uniform. Every child in the school is in full school uniform, they are a credit to you as parents and great ambassadors for our school. 100% uniform – long may it continue.

We began our week by saying a fond farewell to 58 of our P7 pupils, Mrs Loose, Miss Mullen, Miss Green, Mrs Woodlock, Mrs Harrison and Mr Cuthbert (Emily and Jayden’s dad) as we waved them off to Kilbowie in Oban. Each year our P7 pupils are allocated a week throughout the term to enjoy an outdoor learning experience and adventure week in North Lanarkshire’s outdoor facility in Oban. This year we were allocated the first week of term. I am delighted to report the children and adults all enjoyed a fantastic week skiiing, sailing, abseiling, rock climbing, mountain biking, hillwalking and so much more.

Staff reported the children’s behaviour throughout the week was exemplery, they all had a wonderful positive attitude to new challenges. Indeed the actual quote from staff is ‘they were game for everything’. Well done to all concerned. A HUGE thanks to our staff and volunteer parent who gave up their whole week to accompany the children; I am indebted to them.

A big thanks also to those P7 pupils who opted to remain behind, they proved themselves to be a great help in the younger classes and throughout the school.

On Wednesday of this week we were joined by Siobhan McMahon MSP and a number of medical personnel who provided us with a presentation of a new programme of work aimed at encouraging our children to be aware of skin safety. My thanks to Mrs Ann Munro and Mrs Pauline Findlay who came along to represent our parent forum. The programme looks like an excellent learning opportunity for our children both in school and in the nursery and it is our intention to ‘sign up’ to participate. Further details to follow.

As previously mentioned, we welcome Miss Lesley Murray to our nursery in the position of Senior Early Years Worker. Miss Murray replaces Miss Ann Russell who held the post on a temporary basis last year. I am sure Miss Murray will be an asset to our nursery team. My thanks to Miss Russell for all her work in our nursery last session and we wish her every success in her future career.

Meanwhile Mrs Murphy reports from down in the nursery…..

Last week was a busy week at nursery. We welcomed back our returning children and the children who have joined us from Calder nursery. They all looked fab after our long hot summer and were ready to take on their roles as buddies to our new children. As the week progressed we were joined by some of our new recruits and by the end of the week the settling in programme was well under way with the children starting to settle into the nursery routine. Photographs of the children exploring the playroom and the outside area can be seen on the wall of the cloakroom.
On Friday the children harvested some of the lettuce and broadbeans that they had planted last term and proudly took some of the produce home for their parents to see. The harvesting will continue into next week.

As always we welcome any comments on our blog, indeed we welcome any comments, thoughts or ideas on any aspect of our school and nursery. Please share your thoughts and ideas with us, we value your input. Working together gives us the excellent school and nursery environement we enjoy. Please continue to work with us to provide the best possible education for all of our children.

Mrs Shields

Welcome back everyone.  We look forward to seeing our Primary 2 – 7 pupils in the yard on Friday 16th August at 9.00am. We will welcome our new Primary 1 pupils a little later on, at 10.00am, in the dining hall.  We hope you all had a great holiday!

Coming up – our final week of term:

Monday brings the final ‘Parent Council’ meeting at 7.00pm in the staffroom, and on Tuesday evening we hold the Primary 7 Leaver’s Disco.  Could we remind all parents of P7 pupils that the disco is from 7.00 – 8.30pm. All children must be collected by an adult an no child should bring a mobile phone or other ‘device’. Thanks in advance to our fab fundraisers for organising this event for our Primary 7 pupils.  On Thursday we have a live performance from Hopscotch Theatre group and we close at 1.00pm.  Please note this early closure and ensure your children are aware of any special arrangements.