On Friday of this week, we held our Leaver’s Mass and Ceremony.  Our eldest pupils were the focus for this final event in our school year and they did not disappoint!  Friday began with a beautifully celebrated Leaver’s Mass, concelebrated by His Lordship, Bishop Emeritus Devine, Fr Krzysztof, Fr King, Chaplain to Our Lady’s High School and also Fr Rafal, who is currently based in Cathedral Parish.  We were also joined by a large number of parents and friends of our school, not to mentioned representation from Our Lady’s and Taylor High Schools.  Also invited were representatives of our Lenten Charities.  This final Mass of the year was perhaps our nest to date, the participation of the children and in particular their singing, was a credit to us all!

After Mass, we presented our Lenten charity monies, almost £5000 going to charities both local and worldwide, once again demonstrating the generosity of our school community.  Following our charity donations, we moved onto our Graduation and Prizegiving and it was wonderful to see our children in this final event of the school year, they are definitely ready for Secondary school now!  Each child was presented with a dictionary, a Primary 7 year group photo and a Secondary school tie, donated from our fabulous fundraising group.

Thank you to all those who helped make this event a memorable day in the lives of our Primary Sevens.

We have had another busy week in school as we move closer to our well earned summer holidays.  On Monday of this week, we held interviews for a new Principal Teacher and we are delighted that Miss Lesley Phee was appointed.  Miss Phee will officially take up post in August, however she already has great plans for our library.  Watch this space!

Most of our week has been taken up with 2 other very important occasions in the lives of our youngest and eldest pupils.  Wednesday saw graduation day for our pre-school nursery children.  Our pre school children entertained a large group of their parents, grandparents and extended families.  We had wonderful one-to-one interviews, hosted by Mrs Duffy and our brand new ‘Graduation Chair’ was unveiled – a huge hit with the children.  We also had a helping hand with the singing from our Baby Choir.  A huge thank you must go to the Nursery staff for working so hard with our children; the children are definitely ready for the ‘big school’.  You can hear more about this from our roving reporter Mrs Murphy:

Another fantastic week in nursery culminating in the graduation on Wednesday which was a huge success. The children of course were the stars of the show and they didn’t disappoint. They loved every minute of it from hiding backstage in the secret passage until it was time to Reach For The Stars. They performed  their favourite nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ chosen by them and a song called ‘I Am Special’ which said it all! They then performed ‘Stir up the Porridge’, an action song from the Sticky Kids programme which linked in with their Burns activities. They then all got a chance to sit on our new nursery graduation chair where they were interviewed by Mrs Duffy who asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. This was well received by the audience especially when the slideshow pictures didn’t correspond with what they had told the staff. Mrs Duffy’s quick wit and ad-libing skills were priceless. All the children received a scroll and a school tie and these were presented by their keyworkers.The final song performed by the children was ‘Primary One Here We Come’ and at this point there were definitely a few tears shed in the audience.  The finale was a song chosen by both staff and children. The children had danced to this song many times in the nursery and they all did their own thing “Cathedral Style”.   A great finish to a fabulous experience.  I think everyone agreed they are all ready for BIG SCHOOL!
When it was all over and done with some of the children put on their school ties and each child had an opportunity to get their photograph taken on the chair with their keyworker. The keyworkers got the chance to speak to the audience and the comments were all fantastic.

The ante preschoolers didn’t lose out because they were a credit to themselves as they made at great audience and fully participated in the songs and actions. After the graduation ceremony they returned to the nursery and had  their own special little treat.

A little information about our new giant graduation chair. This was designed and made by Shotts prison and was kindly delivered by one of our parents just in time for Wednesday. So a big thanks goes to all involved.

This week there will be a Beach Party on Tuesday to celebrate the end of term. Children should come at normal nursery times dressed for a beach party with a jacket just in case! There will be party food, ice cream, face painting, hook a duck and beach games.

What a fabulous week we have had in our school with lots of very exciting events.  Our Primary 7 started their week with a ‘Welcome Mass’ in Our Lady’s High School, also attended by our Primary 7 teachers and our Management Team.  It was a wonderful way to begin their transition days on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The children had 2 busy days on their visits to secondary and as expected, excellent reports came back about their behaviour and positive attitude.  Well done P7.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we enjoyed 3 fabulous, action packed sports days, organised by Mrs Loose in P6 and Mrs MM Murphy in the Nursery, and although the rain paid a visit, we didn’t let it spoil the fun. On Tuesday we had our Velcro olympic activities, along with a climbing wall, dance class and a visit from an Olympic Handball champion, who gave ‘taster sessions’ to some senior pupils.  Wednesday brought out the old favourites, ‘egg & spoon’, ‘3-legged race’ and sack races. We definitely have some olympic stars of the future in our school! Thanks to Mrs McLaughlan and P4b who made lemonade for all taking part. We even had enough to share with Firpark!  On Thursday, the sun finally shone and we hosted our team sports day, with all children competing in a range of ‘potted sports’.  Our Primary 7s acted as team captains and certainly cheered on their own teams.  The winning team will be announced at assembly on Monday! A huge thanks to Mrs Loose and Mrs Murphy, but also to the loyal band of parents and carers who always come along to help with our events in school.  The photos are coming soon!

Meanwhile, as the sports events took place, we prepared for a most important visit as we expected Archbishop Muller and Archbishop Tartaglia.  Archbishop Muller requested a visit to a school and we were delighted to be asked.  The Primary 6 & 7 pupils prepared a most spiritual prayer service, based on the Beatitudes, whilst Primary 4b and Mrs J Murphy prepared a lesson for the Archbishops to observe.  Archbishop Muller personally blessed each one of our senior pupils and was very impressed by his visit to P4b. The visit also included Bishop Emeritus Devine, Mr McGrath (SCES) and Mr Franchi (St Andrew’s Foundation).  Our wider community was represented by members of our Parent Council and Fundraising group.  It was a wonderful day in the life of our school.

Friday also saw the final end of year reports go out to all children in our school.  Please return the comment slip, your feedback is always appreciated.  Also encourage your child to complete their target for next session.

And now for the Nursery news….
This week has been an extremely eventful week with the 3 day event taking up the majority of the week. Tuesday was the first day where the children had the chance to take part in a dance class where they had to listen to the instructions so that they could follow the moves. There are some superb movers and shakers in our nursery and they loved showing off their breakdancing moves. The children also had a chance to have fun with the inflatables which consisted of a bouncy castle with a slide and a giant inflatable slide where they had to carefully climb up to to the top before sliding down to the bottom where they then rushed to do it all over again. Mrs Little skipped the queue a few times to slide down the big slide with some of the children.
Day 2 the obstacle course. This is always a popular activity with the children and this one was no different. The children had to jump over hurdles and use their skills to negotiate round the cones, carefully cross  a balance beam and  go through a hula hoop and a very long tunnel. This was great fun and the children didn’t even realise that they were learning to move their bodies in all different ways.
Day 3 saw traditional sports day activities. The children all got the chance to take part in group relay races such as the egg and spoon race, sack race, wheelbarrow race, welly wanging, three legged race and a bean bag relay. The weather was very kind to us and the whole day was a roaring success. The staff had fun demonstrating the wheelbarrow race, with Mrs little pushing Mrs Murphy in the wheelbarrow and winning even though MrsTominey and Mrs Imray had a false start! otherwise known as cheating. Miss Russell got a bit tied up in the 3 legged race and proved her coordination needs a bit of work! Mrs Tominey was the outright winner of the staff sack race and showed off her great skill of speed bounce. It was a funfilled day with both staff and children having a ball. Please check out the photographs in the cloakroom to see the happy faces of the children taking part. The children and staff all agreed that it was the best day ever in nursery.

Over in the Science area the children had to say a fond farewell to the tadpoles. After the discovery of legs on some of the tadpoles and the fact that they were now needing rocks to climb onto it was decided to return them to their natural habitat. Some of the children helped to put them into a very large bucket and Mrs Duffy and her boys returned them to the pond that they originally came from. The whole Life Cycle of a Frog has been a great learning experience for all of the children who have helped to look after them by feeding them and watching them grow over the last few weeks. Through this experience the children have learned the importance of the need to look after and care for living things.

The preparation for the graduation and pre school activities continued on Friday when normal service was resumed!

What’s on this week…..?

A busy week ahead sees our Principal Teacher interviews on Monday, our Nursery graduations on Wednesday and our Primary 7 Leaver’s Mass on Friday.  Please feel free to leave a comment on our blog.  We’d love to hear from you!

This has been a wonderful week in school with our weather providing great opportunities for our children’s learning to ‘go outdoors’. Our ampitheatre has been transformed into a science lab, a story telling corner….to name but a few. It is great to have such wonderful outdoor facilities which greatly enhance our children’s learning experiences. Our Eco Warriors have taken advantage of the good weather too, this week they have been working with Greenlink staff to tidy up all of our grounds and surrounding areas. Well done to our Eco committee and to Mrs Tominey who leads the warriors.

On Monday of this week we enjoyed a beautiful Mass of Thanksgiving in our gym hall. This Mass was to celebrate all of the sacraments our children have received throughout the year. P3 Reconciliation, P4 First Holy Communion and Primaries 6&7 Confirmation. Our thanks, once again to Mgr Millar and Fr Krzysztof for taking the time to concelebrate this Mass. Our children’s spiritual development is one of our highest priorities, we are so fortunate to have such dedicated clergy who are so committed to our school. On Wednesday of this week both priests also took time to provide our P3 children with the opportunity to re-visit Reconciliation.

Tuesday of this week a group of our upper school children had opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings about being part of a Catholic school and what this means to them. Mrs Colette McCabe from Catholic Education Commission visited the school to discuss this topic with the children. Mrs McCabe was most impressed by our children’s responses, she also commented on the excellent manners of our children and their positive relationship with one another. Well done to our upper school children.

Our week ended on a most positive note with the long awaited Primary One Assembly. This assembly was simply outstanding. I am so impressed by our primary one children’s ability to recite line after line in such a confident manner and not a piece of paper in sight to assist. The assembly took us on a journey of healthy eating and the benefits of fruit and vegetables. What a wonderful way to teach our youngest school pupils about the importance of looking after their bodies. A big well done and thank you to all of our P1 pupils and their teachers. Not forgetting our wonderful support staff who work tirelessly to ensure every stage assembly is filled with colourful props and costumes. Thanks also to the huge number of parents and families of our Primary one children who came along to support and encourage. In respect of Miss Love’s ‘active participation’ what can I say? I’m lost for words! It is such a pity Miss Love is only with us for this year she brings a ray of sunshine even on the cloudiest day.

REMEMBER REMEMBER….This week is our annual 3 day event. School PE kit Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Children can even wear trainers to school!!!!!!!!! But only for those three days!

Meanwhile………..along in the nursery it has been a very exciting week. On Wednesday morning and afternoon we welcomed all of our newest nursery pupils and their parents. This was a super opportunity for us to say hello to this group of very young people and welcome them to our nursery and school. Well done to Abigail McNally and Euan Whitehead who spoke so eloquently of their experiences as ‘nursery buddies’. They even stayed on after school to speak to the afternoon parents – now that’s dedication! Thanks to Mrs Reilly, HT of Firpark Primary who kindly facilitated our current nursery pupils in her soft play area to allow us to ‘make way’ for our new starts. Thanks also to our support staff who kindly supervised our nursery pupils during their stay in soft play. This allowed our nursery staff the opportunity to meet with our new pupils and their parents.

So, what else has been going on in the nursery, here’s Mrs Murphy’s – our roving reporter – latest edition……..

• This week the children have been concentrating on Health Week and the importance of healthy options and exercise. The children have had the opportunity to explore fruit printing and fruit/veg stenciling in the art area. They have had the chance to make and taste fruit smoothies, healthy wraps, fresh fruit salad and fruit kebabs. Photographs of these activities are displayed in the cloakroom on the Health posters. They have also been busy making fruit and veg from various colours of playdough and drawing and painting certain fruits. In the writing area they have been writing the names of healthy foods with the magnetic letters. The whole learning experience was brought together when the children were a great audience at the P1 assembly which was all about Healthy Eating and where they learned where their favourite fruit and veg come from.

• On Friday the children took part in many physical activities and team games about Healthy Eating. A big thank you goes to Nathan O’Donnell’s mum who works for North Lanarkshire Leisure who provided this great opportunity. They got the chance to take part in a food treasure hunt where they had to find all the hidden food and categorise it into healthy and unhealthy food. The children showed a great awareness of this when they managed to place nearly all of the food on the correct coloured circles. Fantastic! They played banana tig and fun and physical games with the parachute where they were all allocated a colour coded fruit. This was a great fun filled end to a very sunny week. On that note a wee reminder of the importance of sunscreen and hats during this warm spell. Please make sure that the children have a hat with them at all times and that sunscreen has been applied before they come to nursery. The staff will top up the sunscreen when required.

• Over in the writing area the pet stories continue. This has given the children the opportunity to describe and talk about their pets in great detail. These stories and pictures can be seen displayed in the writing area.

• Shhh Don’t say a word before leaving nursery on Friday afternoon a quick peak at the tadpoles through the magnifying glass revealed some legs have now developed. This should be an exciting week in the science area!

• The books from the lending library have now nearly all been collected in for this term. If you have not had a chance to return the books please do so this week. The lending library will return after the holidays.

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The children will get the chance to take part in some of the activities during the three day event this week. Please check the information board in the cloakroom regarding this.

As always…….I encourage you to leave a comment on the blog.

Mrs Shields

Last week, some of our Primary 2 and 3 children, escorted by Mrs Collins and a willing band of parent helpers, visited Motherwell Civic Centre to be treated to a performance of Purves’ Puppets.  We were given 40 tickets by Supercounty and had a lucky dip to choose which pupils could attend.  Big thank you goes to Supercounty for the free tickets, and to Mrs Collins and our parent helpers.

Thank you to all those parents, carers and friends who donated delicious home baking and fabulous raffle prizes for the Primary Coffee Morning.  We managed to raise £554.20 for school funds.  Well done to the P5s for organising this tasty event!

Well done to all of our talented young musicians who entertained their parents, families and friends this morning.  We are very proud of all our choir members, young and old (!), our instrumentalists (brass, woodwind and strings) and our solo singers and NL choir members. Also to our Primary 5 year group who performed their Kodaly Music and to Mrs McCarthy & Mrs Gillespie, their class teachers. Thanks also to Mrs Murphy, Mr Woods, Mrs McQueen and Mrs Wilkinson, who work with our pupils.

As always a busy school week, a fabulous week.

This week we welcomed all of our new Primary One pupils for this coming session. It was wonderful have such a great number of our future pupils and their parents join us for two separate sessions. Incredibly the children very quickly settled into their classes – they really looked like they belonged already. Our Pre-Entrant programme offers a great opportunity for all of our new starts to come together and begin to form friendships which could potentially last a lifetime. It is also a super opportunity for us to begin to get to know our new parents and to further stengthen the relationship we have with those who already have children in our school.

In August of this year we aim to have 3 primary one classes, for the purposes of pre-entrant programme Miss Phee, Miss McAvoy and Mrs McCoy acted as P1 teachers. I cannot comfirm this arrangement until I have final clarification of staffing from our Authority. (Hopefully soon)

Grateful thanks to Monsignor Tom Millar for O.L.G.A Cathedral Parish for his inspiring introduction to our second day. We are truly blessed with our clergy and the continued support they offer to our school community. Thanks also to Mrs Pauline Findlay, Mrs Ann Munro & Mrs Gillian McShane who came along representing our Parent Council and our fabulous Fundraisers. These parents are an excellent example of the incredible relationship we enjoy with our Parent Forum. I cannot speak highly enough of our Parent Council and our Fundraisers, they add a very important dimension to our school which takes us from good to great.

Perhaps the best off shoot of our Pre-Entrant Programme is the reaction of our current P1 pupils who suddenly go from being our babies to, and I quote: ‘ we’re nearly primary 2, we’re big now’ fabulous! They were so proud to give permission to Pre-Entrant pupils to utilise their classrooms. I think ‘chuffed to bits’ is probably the most accurate description.

Throughout the rest of the week our pupils enjoyed a variety of learning opportunities both in and out of class and indeed, in and out of school building. P7 pupils are now heavily involved with transition programmes from High School. From now until the ned of term we welcome a host of secondary school staff to our school to meet their new students and to have opportunity to meet with our P7 class teachers to ensure a seamless transition for our P7 pupils. Our current P7 pupils were the first set of pupils whom I enrolled way back in January of 2006. I took up post on return to school after Christmas break and enrolled our current P7s the following week. I remember it vividly  and it has been an incredibly enjoyable adventure watching them grow from P1 through to P7, I look forward to doing the same with our current Pre-Entrant children.

Meanwhile……In a relatively quiet nursery this week (as 30 of our nursery pupils are our Pre-Entrant pupils) here’s what’s been happening according to our nursery blogger, Mrs Margaret Mary Murphy:

It has been another very busy week in nursery. On Monday Mrs Shields found a huge abandoned dog called Raffles who had a message around his neck and a bandage on his paw. Apparently he had been running and had had a bad accident which resulted in his paw being injured. Mrs Shields brought him down to the nursery to see if the children could help him. The children had just being introduced to a story about Het the Vet which is a continuation of their rhyming theme.

When Raffles arrived he opened up a big discussion about how the children could help not only Raffles but other pets and animals. They discussed what sick animals need to make them better. A mindmap of all their ideas can be found in the cloakroom. The children decided to make a vets surgery in the home corner. The oven is now being used as an incubator for sick animals and the babies blankets are being used for the animals. Bananas the Heather group’s mascot whose stuffing had  started  to fall out ended up as one of the first patients along with Raffles to be ‘admitted’ for treatment.

The children fully engaged in their roles as vets and could be seen operating on some of the soft toys in the nursery. By Friday the surgery had been expanded into the garden providing a space for the animals to get some exercise in their recuperation. The shed has been transformed into an operating theatre and by the end of the session it had expanded into a pet shop selling animals and pet food. The children’s imagination has been fantastic. In the art area they have been drawing pictures of animals in great detail and telling stories about their pets in the writing area and talking about what words rhyme with their pets names. The children have been asked to bring photographs of their pets so that we can display them in the nursery.
We have received feedback already from one parent who said that their son had come home asking for rubber gloves and spent the night putting plasters on all his toys. Feedback is always gratefully appreciated.
In the garden the vegetable patch is now well under way with lettuce, cucumber and broad beans already planted. Our new greenhouse will be the home for the carrots for the next few weeks. Lets hope for a bumper crop!
As of Monday 20/5/13 there will be a  new parent’s rota on the door of the playroom. If you can help in anyway please put your name on the day of your choice. We are always looking for help in the snack area, story corner and throughout the nursery.

My sincere thanks to Mrs Murphy for this weekly update, I know I love to read all about the nursery and their fabulous, varied curriculum. Just makes me want to be there all the time.

Please consider posting a comment on our blog, that way we can ensure it works properly.

Many thanks

Mrs Shields