Our nursery dominates our news this week, having received a two day visit from two Care Inspectorate, Lynne Alexander and Kara Doonan. We are delighted with the outcome. Our nursery was graded as EXCELLENT across all areas. What a superb outcome for everyone in our nursery. Lynne, who was the lead inspector, could not speak highly enough of our staff, their commitment to our pupils, their care and genuine love for the children. The inspectorate also commented most favourable on the relationships between staff and families, how supportive and friendly all are and what a nurturing environment we provide for our youngest pupils. Full report will be shared with all in our school community in due course. We celebrated with a good old Scottish ‘Hoolie’ on Friday.

Meanwhile stars continue to shine in our school. This week our baby choir was chosen as the choir to premiere North Lanarkshire Council launch into the festive season. If you missed the performance on Saturday night you can catch up with it on NLC Facebook or Twitter pages. The choir performed beautifully. They train each week with Mrs Sally Wilkinson, however this performance was the work of Mrs Brenda McCoy as part of our forthcoming Nativity fittingly entitled ‘Superstar’. Every single child is indeed a superstar.

In school this week as part of our Catholic Education Week we celebrated a beautiful Mass in school on Thursday in recognition of Saint Andrew our Patron Saint. Primary three pupils led the liturgy with reverence and great confidence, well done Primary Three. Thanks to all who came along to join us at Mass, braving the November Scottish weather! Thanks also to Fr. Chromy who, as always, spoke so eloquently to all of our pupils, engaging them in all aspects of the Mass.

We will have Mass each Thursday throughout the season of Advent as we prepare for the great feast of Christmas. Please join us on Thursday mornings at 8.15am. All welcome.

Throughout this week all pupils in our upper school have benefitted from Money Workshops. leaning the ins and outs of banking and accounting. A very important lesson to learn in life.

On Friday every child in nursery and school received a  copy of their interim report, please assist us in our quest for continuous improvement and return the reply slip with you and your child’s comments.

As always, thanks for reading. Please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

Last week we set a challenge to all in our school to work on Anti-Bullying posters. The winning posters will be announced on Monday at assembly and then framed and displayed around the school, here’s a wee sneaky preview:

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Thanks to Mrs Loose and our Happy Health Committee for all their work. Thanks also to Jill (Mrs Loose’s sister) for providing excellent workshops for our upper school children, a wonderful way to deliver such an important message.

Throughout this week our whole school community had opportunity to learn about the importance of staying safe near or on a building site. ‘Ian’ from Taylor Wimpey joined us for a day to present to all year groups an active, inclusive message about staying safe on building sites. Some great photographs were taken and will sent in due course, watch out for the photographs on our school App.

On our App today you have been notified of Primary 6a success in a North Lanarkshire Council ‘Sumdog’ Competition. If you’ve not had a chance to see it yet, log in and have a look. Great work from Mrs McCulloch and her 25 mathematical geniuses! Every one a star.

Each day this week Mrs Tominey and her Library Committee have been setting a different challenge for our children to celebrate Scottish Book Week. Here’s what our daily challenges looked like:

Monday (In-service) Get Caught Reading ( email a photo to my school email ) Message out on the app to encourage this.

Tuesday – Competition class/individual
Design a story telling chair for outdoor reading area.

Wednesday – Write a school report (using school format/ tick box for infants) for a story book character of their choice.

Thursday – Where’s Wally hunt. (find letters to spell out famous author)

Friday – Guess who’s Reading ( guess the staff member behind the book quiz)
Swapsies – 15 minutes where all staff can swap classes and read/introduce their favourite story to the new class.

Everyday: Drop Everything and Read time in class

Every lunchtime next week – P7 Library committee will lead a story telling session for anyone who wishes to come along.

Would you like to join in the fun? Now’s your chance! Can you identify the staff member behind the book? Good Luck in your challenge.

Meanwhile, down in our fabulous nursery. Mrs M M Murphy has all the latest news:

This week as we continue with out ‘Light and Dark’ topic the children have been out and about in the local community on a road safety walk. They met the Lollipop ladies with their bright clothing on at the top of the road. The children asked politely if the Lollipop lady would visit our nursery. On Friday the visit took place and the children listened to a talk about road safety and asked many questions about their reflective uniform. The children made a mindmap of all the things they learned and we will revisit their comments and ideas next week.

They also met the postwoman and the Asda delivery man while out and about.

In Literacy the children sequenced the story of the ‘Owl Babies’ using the interactive wall and listened to the story on the Smartboard. In art they used collage to make their own owls which will be displayed on the wall next week. They also made fingerprint hedgehogs as they discuss animals that come out at night. The children painted some glittery stars for the night backdrop in the home corner where they continue to role-play at the campfire.

In numeracy they used the interactive number owl game on the big screen and continued to use the daytime/nighttime visual to match the day/night animals.

Miss Burns our student provided a sensory activity that the children enjoyed she made different coloured neon shakers for the children to explore the bright colours.

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As always, thanks for taking the time to join in our fun learning. Any comments please let me know.

Mrs Shields

A fabulous week where our focus was on ‘anti-bullying’. Following a great presentation from our Health Committee at assembly last week our children have all been busy creating anti-bullying posters and inventing catchy, punchy, meaningful slogans. Watch this space next week for our poster design winners. Thursday and Friday our upper school pupils all enjoyed anti-bullying workshops, which proved a great success. A fun, inclusive way to deliver a very important message. Grateful thanks to Mrs Loose and the Health Committee for all their work ensuring the message was clear across our school community.

Other fabulous learning experiences taking place in our school have been researched and highlighted by our Digital Leaders. We’re working hard to create a working link which you will be able to view through the Blog each week….watch this space. Huge thanks to Mrs McCulloch and her P6 Digital Leaders who are pioneering new ways of capturing our work in school, our children are truly leading the learning. In the meantime check out the App for a direct link to this fabulous, innovative work.

Primary 7 pupils this week have been representing our school in some very ‘professional’ ways. Sarah Allan & Daniel Watters represented our school, and North Lanarkshire Council at a meeting with Inspectors from Education Scotland.  The theme of the inspection is ‘Readiness for Empowerment’. This was a wonderful opportunity for our senior pupils to demonstrate all that is excellent about our school. There were four primary schools represented from our authority and in the words of our representatives, ‘We talked the most, cause we had loads to say about our school’. Absolutely brilliant! HUGE thanks to Sarah and Daniel.

Staying with Primary 7 successes, as reported in June of this year, Anna Queen won the competition to re-design Duchess park play area. On Friday Anna, her friend Jessica, Mrs Tominey and Anna’s gran and grandad all cheered as Anna cut the ribbon to officially open the play area designed by her good self. What a brilliant achievement, well done Anna we’re all very proud of you.  Photos to follow on the App.

Thursday of this week we were honoured to remember Mrs Lynn Gillies at a beautiful Mass in school dedicated to the work of Mrs Gillies. We were delighted to welcome a number of Mrs Gillies family and friends who were overwhelmed by our children’s reverence and respect throughout. A fitting memory for a wonderful teacher.

Meanwhile………Down in the nursery….

As the season changes and the nights get darker we asked the children what they want to learn about. They made a mindmap and they wanted to learn about foxes, owls bats and torches.

They gathered the resources to make the home corner into a dark den. They used material and different sources of light to create the illusion of a campfire. They sat around the campfire and read stories and role-played toasting marshmallows.

In Literacy they read the story of the ‘Owl Babies’ watched the story on the Smartboard retold the story in their own words. They made Owl puppets using brown paper bags, feathers and collage. They used them to fly around the room.

In science they made an underground den for the badgers and foxes, painted a tree for the owls and role played with the nocturnal animals.

In Numeracy they used the big visual to match and sort the animals into daytime and nightime.

The art area was busy as the children made tea light holders from saltdough, they painted them and placed their little candle in them to take them home.

Outdoors they went on a walk to look for light sources and signs of nocturnal animals. On their return they drew pictures of the things they saw.

Over the next few weeks the children will be learning all about Light and Dark.

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As always, thanks for taking the time to read our blog, please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

On Thursday of this week we were informed by Forgewood Charities we have been successful in our bid to finance our Outdoor Classroom and Al Fresco Orchestra. This is FANTASTIC news, we are absolutely delighted. 

Our fundraisers have provided £3000, our ‘Clubbercise’ sponsored event raised a further £3711 and Forgewood Charities has provided the additional £11000. AMAZING. We look forward to the grand opening. So exciting.

This week has been an exceptionally busy week for a number of our senior choir members. They have been working with North Lanarkshire Council Music specialists and six High School choirs to prepare for two concerts which both took place this week. This joint choir is called Treble AAA.

On the evening of Sunday 4th November performed beautifully at a Lanarkshire Festival of Remembrance in Hamilton Town House. This was a truly poignant performance which was greatly appreciated by both old and young. On the evening of Thursday 8th November Treble AAA Choir performed, once again, this time in Motherwell Concert Hall celebrating the centenary of Catholic Education in Scotland. Again, this was an extremely moving performance. We are so incredibly proud of our pupils for their commitment to giving so freely of their own time to take part in these events and their wonderful dedication to learning song after song after song! We were the only primary school to be invited to participate in Treble AAA choir, this in itself is a wonderful honour. Well done to all who performed, brilliant work.

Our assembly on Monday was dominated by our Happy Health Committee who gave us a wonderful presentation all about Anti-Bullying Week. Anti-Bullying Week takes place this coming week 12th-16th November. Our Health Committee has launched a wonderful competition for all in our school. – Ask your children and they’ll tell you all about it.

Friday of this week our whole school is asked to ‘wear blue’ to show their support for anti-bullying. On this day our upper school will have opportunity to take part in anti-bullying workshops. Our school slogan is:

Cathedral Primary is our school

Anti-bullying is our rule!

Also at this assembly we awarded our first House Tokens of the session, keep an eye on the board in the dining hall to see which house is our current leader.

Thanks to all who contributed towards our bag2school collection, the bags were taken away this week to be weighed. This is a great way to earn money for our school with no cost at all.

REMINDER: Monday 19th November is an in-service day for staff, no children should attend on this day.

Meanwhile, down in the nursery……

This week started with a BANG as the children celebrated Bonfire Night. Outside they used the firebowl to toast marshmallows and had hot chocolate to go along with it. They also made some very sparkly firework pictures which are displayed in the art area. They recalled their own firework stories and scribed some words for the display. They used the Ipads to create their own firework pictures and made sparklers using breadsticks and sprinkles.

On Wednesday we began our Diwali celebrations. the Festival of Light is a Hindu custom celebrated throughout the world. The children listened to and danced to a range of Indian music and watched and copied the dance moves on the Smartboard.

Down in the forest the children made lanterns and explored the magic light.

In snack the children made and decorated their own Diwali cookie a tradition throughout the celebrations.

In art they created marbled pattern pictures using very bright colours and explored some bright colours in the shaving foam and the watertray.

Over in the numeracy they used the big shape box to create their own Rangoli patterns. Some children were able to follow one of the more simpler patterns.

In the literacy area they created Mehndi hands using a range of collage. Some children opted to trace around their own hand to improve their pencil control. In the home corner the children have been using the scarfs to make Saris.
Outdoors the children gathered resources to make a dark den and placed a range of different coloured flashing lights in it. They also used the psychedelic pens to make Mandala leaves another custom that takes place during the festival.

On Friday the aroma of spices filled the air as the children had the opportunity to taste a range of Indian foods. On offer was pakora, rice, curry sauce, poppadoms and samosas. The children have had a great learning experience celebrating Diwalli in so many different ways.

This week we also had a visit from Childsmile and the Optician. All professionals were very impressed with how well the children participated.

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As always, thanks for reading. Please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

This week in school we tried something different!

Instead of our traditional ‘during the school day’ Hallowe’en Parade we opted to invite all pupils to a Hallowe’en Disco on Tuesday evening. This new approach proved very successful, the discos were all very well attended and great fun and enjoyment was had by all. Thanks to our Fabulous Fundraisers for providing the discos, free of charge to every child, and to those who came along to assist on the evening itself. A huge thanks also to the great number of staff who came along to dance the night away with their classes. Their continued support of our children outwith school hours is greatly appreciated. Looks like Hallowe’en Discos will be an annual event on our school.

On the subject of out of school hours activities, this session our Come Clubbing @ Cathedral has become even bigger and better. We are now incorporating lots of ‘Family Learning’ opportunities where our pupils and their parents/carers/grandparents come along and take part too.

Our Physical Education PAHLs are offering sporting expertise, whilst Mrs Sally Wilkinson is busy ‘making family music’, our ‘Dolphins’ continue to develop water safety encouraged by their family members and……coming soon….. Lisa Roebuck, our Community Learning Development Worker (CLD) will be offering a ‘Little Chef’ Big Chef’ class making lots of healthy recipes for all the family to enjoy.

On Thursday we all made our way to O.L.G.A Cathedral Church to celebrate the Feast of All Saints. This was a truly, beautiful Mass concelebrated by His Lordship, Bishop Toal and Fr. Chromy. As always, our children actively participated in all aspects of the Mass and their singing was outstanding.  Many of the parishioners, and indeed, Bishop Toal commented most favourably on our children’s behaviour, their reverence and their beautiful voices.

Meanwhile…..in the nursery, there’s been some spooky events. Here’s Mrs MM Murphy will all the details:

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This week we continued with our Hallowe’en celebrations with the children exploring the gloopy watertray, spiders and bats in the sand.

The children made a witches house using a range of junk which is proudly displayed in the art area.

In Literacy they used the microphone to sing some spooky action songs which they recorded with the big camera in the performance area.

Each group wrote their own spooky story with a range of scary characters and these are displayed in the group areas.

Outdoors they continued to measure themselves against the giant pumpkins and explored the witches den and cauldron.

In ICT this week the children have been using the Ipads to create some fabulous colourful light pictures which will continue next week as we celebrate Bonfire night and Diwali the Festival of LIght.

On Tuesday we had a fantastic party with everyone getting into the spooky spirit. The children played statues, pass the pumpkin, best dancer, spooky corners and musical bumps. They had spooky snack and great fun games in the hall.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, feel free to comment.

Mrs Shields

We’ll begin this week’s Blog with our wonderful nursery. As detailed earlier this week on our App, our nursery won some super furniture in a competition from Inspirational Furniture. Working with Mrs MM Murphy the boys and girls compiled a 30 word poem stating why they should win. In case you missed it on the App here’s the winning entry:

Inspirational furniture is really cool

We’d love it in our nursery school

Stimulating, encouraging and inspiring

That’s why we’d like to be acquiring

This super prize that we’re admiring

Our nursery won;  New outdoor storage trolley, Wooden trike, Fabulous outdoor story seats, Additional unit for Lending Library, New sensory mirrored unit, Indoor seats with storage underneath, Witch house, a garage and a wooden trike. A fabulous prize for a fabulous nursery, well done to everyone concerned.

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Here’s Mrs MM Murphy with all the details of what else has been happening in our nursery this week:

It has been a SPOOKY week in nursery this week with the house corner being transformed into a Witches house. The children have been exploring all things creepy in the water tray and in the spooky playdough. Outdoors they have created a witch’s den and have moved the cauldrons and spoons in to make their own potions.

In Literacy they have been listening to and discussing a range of Hallowe’en stories and spooky songs. Over at the writing table the children had the opportunity to write Hallowe’en words on pumpkins. These are proudly displayed in the playroom.
In snack the children discussed what food they wanted to order for the forthcoming Hallowe’en party and chatted about what they are going to dress up as on the day.

On the Smartboard they have been playing the Hallowe’en matching game. Listening to ‘Room on the Broom’ and scary songs.

Meanwhile in our school we’ve enjoyed a very busy first week back.

We welcomed some more work experience pupils from Our Lady’s High School and also 2 student teachers from University of West of Scotland.

On Thursday Primary 7 pupils all had opportunity to spend a day at Our Lady’s High, a taste of things to come. A great day was had by all.

Also on Thursday Primary 6 pupils enjoyed a wonderful learning opportunity with Caritas pupils from Our Lady’s High. Our pupils were treated to a tour of our beautiful, historical Cathedral Church. This was a wonderful opportunity to work with senior pupils in OLHS to learn all about the history of this fabulous sacred building. A huge thanks to the Caritas pupils (many of whom are former OLGA Cathedral pupils), they did a great job and made this tour such an interesting, stimulating learning experience for our P6 pupils.

Follow the link below to read some of our children’s views:

https://padlet.com/jacquelinemcculloch/olga

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On Friday our school community had fabulous fun with ‘Clubbercise’. Our school community ‘glowed’ with bright accessories, glow sticks, neon face paint and light up balloons. A HUGE thanks to our Clubbercise experts; Mrs Rimmer, Miss Donnelly and Miss Love who lead us through wonderful, energetic routines, I’m sure they all slept well on Friday night!

Thanks also to all who sponsored our pupils. We are trying to raise funds to build an outdoor classroom working closely with fabulous Fundraisers and the generosity of Forgewood Charity we hope to soon have enough to build our brilliant new classroom in our yard. I will let you know the amount raised next week through our App. Photographs of all the fun will also be posted on the App next week. A final thanks to all parents/carers who came along to join in the fun.

Primary 4/5, 5a and 5b all enjoyed Clubbercise on Thursday afternoon as they headed off to New Lanark on Friday. They have been studying ‘The Worst Children’s Jobs in History’.

Mrs Findlay reports:

The children enjoyed their visit to New Lanark in the autumn sunshine. Travelling back in time, they met with the philanthropist Robert Owen, visited a working mill, and enjoyed seeing how people lived back in the 1800s. The highlight for most was meeting the ghost of young Annie McLeod; an experience they’ll never forget!

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A very busy week with so many different learning opportunities, long may it continue.

As always, thanks for reading. Please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

This has been a very sad week in our school community. One of our class teachers, Mrs Lynn Gillies, lost her battle with cancer on Sunday 30^th September. Mrs Gillies has worked in our school for many years, working across all sectors of the school.

Those who had the pleasure of being in Mrs. Gillies’ class remember her with great fondness. She was renowned for being so proud of each and every one of her pupils, taking every opportunity to ‘let them shine’. The support and encouragement she afforded to every child is truly commendable, not only focussing on the academic curriculum but also taking much time to ensure the development of our children’s emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Our staff, both teaching and non-teaching, is deeply saddened by Mrs. Gillies’ death. Within our school community she has been a great friend, mentor and colleague to all. Mrs. Gillies will be sadly missed by everyone in our school community. We’ve lost a great friend.

We send our heartfelt sympathy and condolences to her family.

Arrangements for Mrs. Gillies’ funeral have been published on our App.

As a school community we will honour the memory of Mrs. Gillies at a special Mass in school at 10.00am on Thursday 15^th November, to which all are invited. Further details nearer the time.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Gillies. May God bless you always.

Mrs Shields

Two short weeks in school punctuated with a long weekend. Last week we were delighted to attend OLHS Senior Phase Awards Ceremony, it was great to see so many of our former pupils continue to excel in a wide range of subjects as they continue their educational journey through High School. Well done to all who achieved awards and attained excellent exam results. It was an added bonus to find two second year pupils, both former OLGA Cathedral girls, leading the whole ceremony. A special congratulations to Ellie Hutchison and Sophie Benham. Both girls spoke eloquently and with super confidence.

On this day we celebrated our Primary One Blessing with Fr. Chromy. Our P1 pupils excelled themselves with their beautiful attentiveness during the Blessing, their wonderful behaviour and superb singing. Already we can see this year group forming together and becoming firm friends. Thanks to Fr. Chromy for a lovely Blessing ceremony. Thanks also to all parents, carers and friends of P1 who came along on the day.

Thursday of last week we ended on a wonderful journey across the world. Primary 7 pupils presented the first assembly of the year, and what an outstanding assembly to begin our year. Every P7 pupil was actively engaged throughout as they sang, danced and ‘partied’ their way around the world (all at the expense of MY budget!!!!). It was an amazing display of confident young people secure in their learning and proudly sharing their knowledge to a wide and varied audience. Well done and HUGE congratulations to our P7 pupils, I’m so very proud of each and every one of you. Photographs will be on display in classes at Parent Evening on Tuesday. We must recognise the dedication and hard work of our P7 staff, teaching and support staff who worked tirelessly to ensure this was an assembly to remember. It was brilliant. I never cease to be amazed at the talents of our staff and pupils, they are exceptional.

At this assembly we also said a fond farewell to Mrs Cunningham, our senior clerical assistant. Mrs Cunningham has been part of our school community since 2005. We thank her for all her work in school and wish her a long and happy retirement.

Wednesday of this week our P7 pupils enjoyed a beautiful experience of Quiet Prayer with Fr. Brogan. All pupils benefited from time to reflect in a peaceful, prayerful atmosphere. Thanks to our P7 staff for taking time to prepare for this and to Fr. Brogan for working with our pupils and staff.

Primary 6 are busy preparing for their assembly, again, based around the wonderful learning taking place in class. P6 are studying ‘extreme weather’. Last week they were asked to prepare 3d models/constructions to present to the class. What a wonderful display of experiential learning from Primary 6. We are so proud of your work. Excellent effort from all pupils (maybe with a wee bit of help from mums and dads too). Here’s some photographs of their work. You’ll get a closer look at Parent Evening on Tuesday.

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Meanwhile, our youngest pupils are busy, busy, busy……

This week as we come to the end of our mini topic ‘Nursery rules/routines’ the children have been reflecting on what they have been learning about.

In Literacy they have been scribing a range of words to go along with the photographs that depict the nursery outdoor routine where promoting independence is our focus. Have a look at the photographs or the display to see their hard work.

As we listen and talk together the children have been discussing their favourite foods while role-playing in the home corner.

In ICT they have been taking turns to draw pictures of themselves on the big screen. These have been printed out and will be in their special books for parents night.

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Autumn has arrived and the children have been exploring the whole campus looking for signs of Autumn and have gathered a variety of coloured leaves which have been placed in the sand tray. They have been using the tongs to pick up the leaves, pine cones and corks. This helps to improve their fine motor skills.

The children have been discussing Autumn colours and have used them to paint Autumn pictures with brushes and leaves.

In snack the children have been discussing and drawing their favourite foods from ice cream to tattie scones!

The last tots tennis session took place on Wednesday where the focus this week was on quick reaction. The children worked with a partner while playing these fun learning games. This has been an excellent programme delivered by the Tennis development officer form NLC.

The children have improved their hand to eye coordination using the tennis balls, bouncing and catching. Some children were successful in hitting the ball with the racquet. No mean feat! A big thank you to Emma the coach who over the 4 weeks built up a good relationship with the children through a range of fun games.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

Primary 6a started their week in fine voice. They enjoyed their first song writing session with Mr Robin Cairns. The pupils, in conjunction with Mrs McCulloch have chosen their theme for their song:

In relation to the suggested theme of ‘All our tomorrows’. Primary 6 has chosen to investigate The Ozone Layer.

The class has discussed that the importance and awareness raised decades ago was very focused and the children have requested to reeducate and reintroduce further awareness to the importance of the ozone layer to our planet.

Mr. Cairns was most impressed with the children’s knowledge and engagement in the theme. Well done to all in P6a, we look forward to the completed song.

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Primary 5 have also enjoyed a very exciting week. They all had opportunity to attend The Davis Cup Experience at The Emirates Arena in Glasgow. Our thanks to Jenny Thomson, our active sports co-ordinator who nominated our Primary 5 year group to participate. A great day was had by all. Huge thanks to staff and all parent helpers who came along on the day to accompany the pupils.

Two of our pupils who have been elected as our Junior Road Safety Officers(JRSO), Rory McCarthy & John Munro enjoyed a morning out at the annual JRSO conference this week. We look forward to John and Rory telling our school all about their experience at assembly on Monday. Grateful thanks to Mrs Mellon for accompanying the boys on the day.

Meanwhile down in the nursery (and in the woods) there’s lots of exciting events happening:

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Here’s Mrs MM Murphy with all the up to date information:

This week the children have continued to learn the meaning of the ‘Golden Characters’ to help them follow the nursery rules and routines.

In art they have been painting the ‘Golden Characters’ while discussing what rule they stand for. Have a look at their hard work on the art wall.

In snack the children have been matching number to quantity using the snack numbers which helps them match the correct quantity of snack. This helps to promote numeracy in the snack area.

Outdoors the children have been discussing the benefits of healthy teeth through song and activities. Promoting independance to go outdoors continues.

In numeracy the children have been using the dinosaurs to match number to quantity 1-10 and using the coloured blocks to make towers using numbers 1-5.

In literacy the children have been matching the ‘Golden Characters’ using the grid, and have scribed the characters names for the wall.

The second tennis session continued to concentrate on eye to hand co-ordination and introduced direction. The children are listening well and following the instructions from Emma the coach.

The second ‘Play on Pedals’ block has started with the Fantastic Foxgloves learning all about the names of the parts of a bike. This will continue for the next few weeks.

Down in the forest the children are exploring the new site. Take a look at the photographs in the floorbook in the cloakroom.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

Our first week in September had many happy events but also a couple of sad occurrences. Our janitor Mr Bulloch’s mum sadly passed away last week and our football coach, Mr McBirnie lost his wife last week. We keep both gentlemen and their families in our thoughts and prayers. My grateful thanks to our P7 pupils who offered to represent our school pupils at Mrs McBirnie’s funeral Mass, they were excellent ambassadors for our school and Mr McBirnie greatly appreciated their attendance.

Thanks to all parents and carers for the ‘perfect’ pupils who all came to school on Tuesday for their class photographs, I’m sure you’ll be delighted with the photographs. John Wilson and his team commented on how well our pupils behaved and how happy they all were, a lovely reflection of our school.

On Thursday we welcomed Fr. Bruce McPhail to our school. Fr. McPhail is the new assistant priest at Cathedral Church. We were delighted he could come along to celebrate our Patronal Feast Day (8th September – Our Lady’s Birthday). We celebrated a beautiful Mass, the first Mass of our school year and all enjoyed a lovely long play afterwards. Fr. McPhail commented on how reverent and engaged our pupils were during the Mass and he loved their singing, another lovely reflection of our school.

This is the first time we have celebrated our Feast Day at this time of the year, originally it was 8th December, Feast of the Annunciation. However, this time of year we found it was often overshadowed by Christmas preparations. We are keen to build on our Feast Day celebrations and are already planning next years! Our children really enjoyed celebrating Our Lady’s birthday as a school community.

On Friday I attended OLHS Patronal Feast Day, also moved to 8th September! Both Mr Cardle and I remarked on this coincidence. It is a lovely way to join our two school communities.

Friday morning was our first coffee morning of the year and what a busy coffee morning it was! As you will have seen from our school App an incredible £680 was raised. A huge thanks to all who came along and supported Primary 5 in their coffee morning. Thanks also to those who donated raffle prizes and delicious home baking. A most successful morning.

HOWEVER we are indebted to our coffee morning parent/carers who came along to organise the whole event. We were very short of helpers for this very busy morning, could I ask you to consider offering your services for the next coffee morning (and bring a friend). We love joining with the local community and all of our parent forum to enjoy time together but we cannot do this without an abundance of helpers. Please consider helping out. Details of all coffee morning dates are on our annual events calendar issued last week. An online version is also available on our website. Here’s a wee snapshot of the morning:

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Meanwhile our nursery continues to deliver excellent teaching and learning to all of our youngest pupils. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs M M Murphy:

The children continue to learn and recall our nursery rules/routines. This week the children were introduced to the ‘Golden Characters’ who help them to remember these rules.

Walking Woody Reminds the children to walk in nursery to keep safe.

Listening Lady Helps the children to improve on their listening skills.

Sharing Shimmer Promotes good sharing and turntaking.

Caring Cinderella Helps them to care for all the children and the toys in the playroom.

Tidy Thomas When the tidy song comes on Tidy Thomas encourages group tidying and looks out for good tidiers.

All these characters can be seen on the wall in the nursery. Feel free to discuss these characters at home and use them if beneficial.

Outdoors this week the children went on a ‘Golden Character’ hunt in the garden. A most positive way to remember the characters names and what they stand for.

In literacy they have been discussing the characters and drawing pictures of them.

In numeracy the children have been discussing their nighttime routines by using a visual board and pictures. They have been sequencing their very own night routines.

As the children get more familiar with the staff they have been painting their portraits throughout the week. Look out for these in the cloakroom next week. They have also used the playdough to create different facial features.

In snack the children continue to learn the snack routine.
As part of our daily routine our toothbrushing programme started this week. The children are encouraged to brush their teeth each day with the magic toothpaste. This helps the children to learn the importance of keeping their teeth healthy and strong.

Wednesday was a very eventful day in nursery. The first Forest Kindergarten block started in our new site down the Greenlink and the children had fun exploring the site on such a lovely day. Photgraphic evidence is on the Forest wall in the cloakroom and in the Forest floorbook.
Back in the nursery the children were taking part in a tennis session with Marcus and Emma the Tennis coaches. The children used their listening skills to follow the instructions and the games played aimed to improve their hand to eye coordination skills.These sessions will continue for another 3 weeks.

Our first ‘Play on Pedals’ block is now complete. Three children are now off pedaling with no stabilisers. Mrs Imray is very proud of their achievements. Here’s a wee snapshot of their week:

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Another busy and successful week, please let us know your thoughts. All comments welcome and appreciated.

Mrs Shields