What a show! WOW!

Superb work from every pupil in Primaries 5, 6 & 7.

Huge thanks to every single staff member in our school community who contributed to this wonderful performance.

It was a triumph.

Photographs from John Quinn can be accessed via link below. As always, John has done an outstanding job. The photographs are amazing. Just copy and paste the link below, sit back and enjoy the show all over again!

https://goo.gl/2BjJud

When you log onto the Blog let us know your thoughts. Did you enjoy the show? Please leave a comment or two.

 

Mrs Shields

 

Our nursery pupils are having a great time learning in the great outdoors.

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Wow! What a great way to make the most of our local environment.

Mrs Shields

Our youngest pupils enjoyed a fabulous culmination of their Aladdin Topic on Friday, here’s Mrs MM Murphy with all the news:

On Monday the children went on a hunt to look for Aladdin posters throughout the school. When they got to the drama room they found Aladdin and he told the children that he was searching for Jasmine. The searched continued with the children’s help and at the top of the stairs they found an invitation to the wedding. Aladdin was very excited and the search continued. The children continued their search and when they got to the palace in the P7 bay there she was. Jasmine was very pleased to see Aladdin.

The children returned to the playroom eager to tell the other children about their findings and the wedding invitation.
This inspired a huge discussion about what preparations were needed to host a wedding in the nursery.
The children decided to make a Palace out of junk for the wedding to take place.They gathered a range of resources and paint and made a whole city of Palaces which is proudly displayed at the entrance of the playroom.

In art they made Jasmine crowns and some Aladdin Fezzes.

They had a wedding food taster in the snack where they tried falafel for the very first time.

They also made a wedding cake for the happy couple to cut.
In music they listened and danced to music from a range of different cultures.

Outdoors they all took part in an Aladdin assault course to improve their fitness, balance co-ordination and speed skills to prepare them for the wedding danceathon!

Over in the writing area they sequenced the story to help them arrange the wedding and in numeracy the challenge of the week was matching the gold coins with the numbered magic lamps.

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On Friday the big day arrived. Everyone turned up in their finery to celebrate the wedding. All of a sudden the music started to play ‘Prince Ali’ and in came Aladdin carrying his magic lamp. The music stopped and the wedding march replaced it and Jasmine entered followed by the ring bearer. The ceremony took place and the children cheered and sang along to ‘A Whole New World’. They then sat down around their very own group flying carpets to taste the wedding fayre. Jasmine and Aladdin visited each group to thank them for coming and when they had spoken to all their guests the party started. The children danced away to Disney songs and cultural songs for the rest of the session. The Wedding/danceathon was a huge success. All the children went home with a piece of wedding cake.

This week in school has been dominated by Aladdin final rehearsals, costume fittings, scenery completion, lighting and sound being installed, face paints being trialled…..It’s all so exciting.

Can’t wait for our show on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th at 1.30pm and 7.00pm

REMINDER: All P5 P6 & P7 pupils should have their costumes in school. All children require black gym shoes and black jogging bottoms or leggins. School has purchased a T shirt for every pupil, this will form the top half of most costumes and children can take them home as a souvenir following our final performance on Wednesday evening. All pupils from P5 through to P7 are required to be in school by 6.15pm on both Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

Friday was our final Lenten charity event our Disney Dance-a-thon. Many thanks to Mrs Loose and Miss Love who danced all day! A wonderful time was had by all. Details of all monies raised will be published on the App this week. Many thanks to all who contributed.

Here’s a wee look at some of our pupils ‘in action’.

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Lent is a time of reflection, one of our P7 pupils has excelled in her approach to this, have a read below. Both words and illustration were completed at home in her own time.

This is the final Blog prior to Easter, please remember school and nursery close at 2.30pm on Thursday.

On behalf of all in our school community I wish you a Happy and Holy Easter.

School and nursery resume on Monday 16th April.

Mrs Shields

Primary 7 have enjoyed a fantastic week at Kilbowie Outdoor Centre in Oban. We’ve given you a wee flavour of their week with daily App updates. Here’s some photographs taken by the magnificent instructors. As a school we extend our grateful thanks to Dhrue at Kilbowie and his crew of expert instructors:

Chris, Martine, Rosie, Donna, Adam and Dave. These talented people ensured our children were safe as they challenged them to embrace new experiences. Thanks also to our committed staff and parents who accompanied our children: Mrs Connor (Niamh’s mum), Mrs McCulloch, Mrs McDerment, Miss Kane, Miss Love & Mrs Shevlin. Not forgetting those who stayed in school to ensure minimum disruption to teaching and learning for all our pupils: Mrs Cassidy, Mrs McLaughlan, Mrs Murphy, Mrs Loose and Mrs Devanney.

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On Tuesday of this week our Cross Country Team did us proud! Here’s Mrs M M Murphy (Cross Country Guru) telling us of the day:

‘On Tuesday the cross country athletes took part in a straight final at Coatbridge outdoor centre. All athletes put in a fantastic effort after their hard work in the weeks leading up to the trial. Their hard work paid off as Jessica Donnelly returned with a silver medal for second runner home and Kacper Balinski returned with a bronze medal. Both P6 teams brought home a trophy for 2nd place. Due to the original trial being cancelled all athletes will get to race in April. Watch out for the date coming soon. This Monday’s session will be a fun night to celebrate the above achievements.’

Check out our OLGACathedral App for fabulous photographs of this event.

Last week’s Lenten Charity Appeal focussing on ;Charity Begins at Home’ was an outstanding success. David from the foodbank tell us:

‘The collection was truly record breaking in excess of 800kg.’

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Please check out Motherwell Foodbank Facebook Page for a lovely thanks. Well done to everyone concerned and thanks again to all for such generosity and care for our local community of Motherwell.

This week Crazy Hair overtook our whole campus will everyone, young and not so young, joining in the fun. A lovely way for our nursery, school and Firpark friends to all come together for a worthy cause. Photographs on the App demonstrate what fun we all enjoyed.

Friday of this week Primary 4 had a challenging learning experience:

Primary 4 were working with Malky from Motherwell Football Club and Scott and Andrew from Police Scotland to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol. They took part in some co-ordination activities wearing ‘beer googles’ in order to experience what it would be like to have consumed alcohol. The children found this very challenging!!

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ALADDIN ALADDIN ALADDIN……..Tickets go on general release this coming Monday, please ensure you have all you require. This show promises to be spectacular. Our P5, P6 & P7 pupils have completely embraced the learning and are loving every minute.

PLEASE REMEMBER: ALL P5, P6 & P7 pupils are required to be at ALL performances:

Tuesday 27th March 1.30pm & 7.00pm

Wednesday 28th March 1.30pm & 7.00pm

This is a show NOT to be missed! It’s gonna be magnificent.

Our nursery pupils have completely immersed themselves into our Aladdin excitement. Here’s Mrs MM Murphy’s weekly roundup….

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Our Aladdin topic continues with the children discussing the names of all the characters from the story. After discussions the children got busy painting some of the characters which are proudly displayed in the playroom. Aladdin, Jasmine and Abu are flying high in the playroom, keeping watch on all the children below. At the end of the week the art area was abuzz with children making Jasmine bracelets and Genie cuffs.

In snack the children have been tasting foods from other countries. On the menu this week was Arabian curry, rice and flatbreads. The aroma of spices filled the air.

Each group also made a biscuit flying carpet. The children chose their favourite coloured icing and decorations to make them all unique. Very few went home as they enjoyed tasting their creations.

Role-playing in the market stall continues using real fruit and vegetables.

In numeracy the children have been matching number to quantity using the characters from the story and they have been matching the shadows to the characters as well.

In softplay the children created their own Arabian Palace using the different shaped blocks and back in nursery they used the large dominoes to build a Palace too.

Outdoors the children have been busy making the ‘Cave of Wonders’ using a range of materials and made a fire for inside it. They have been busy role-playing in the cave and chalking a flying carpet on the ground.

In Literacy the children continued to record their very own 3 wishes and these are all now displayed on the walls. We have revisited the story often this week using the finger puppets and the stick puppets.

The highlight of the week is our newly repaired SmartBoard which has been put to good use with the children researching the desert and the animals that can survive in the hot sun. ‘Alice the Camel’ has been a favourite song this week!

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog. Please leave a comment or two and let us know what you think, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mrs Shields

 

 

What a week! So many great learning opportunities to share with you, enjoy!

Please leave a comment or two to let us know your thoughts.

This week began with a very different assembly.

Due to extreme weather our pupils who had been rehearsing for annual Burns competition did not have opportunity to perform. We decided to make this better and they all performed for our whole school at Monday morning assembly. Photographs were published on our App. Well done to our solo singers who performed:

Esme Colenso, Rhiannon Boyd, Emma Bonnar, Sara Millar & Luisa Kerr

To our recitation performers:

Lilly Moore, Elizabeth Ross, Marc Findlay, Wiktoria Rydlewska, Sarah Allan, Paige Brennan, Finn Kearney & Zoe Clifford.

Huge thanks to Mrs Shevlin and Miss Cawley who trained the pupils to such a high standard. Each and every one  of the performed magnificently.

Tuesday night our bi-annual Parent Evening was a great success, many thanks to all who took the time to come along to speak with the teacher and look at their children’s work. This is such an important evening for your children to showcase their work to those who matter most. We had an 89% attendance which is fabulous. We aim to turn this on it’s head and reach for 98% in October!

Wednesday was both a sad and a happy day. Primary 5 have been working very hard on their Clyde in the Classroom Project, learning so much, taking great responsibility and having so much fun too. Wednesday it was time for their little charges to be released into the wild.

Here’s what they thought:

‘I really enjoyed raising the fish from eggs to alevin, then fry and I was really sad to release them. Maybe I will see them again one day.’ Honor Bulloch P5a

‘I thoroughly enjoyed releasing the fish. It was great to get close to the river and Davie was really nice. I really enjoyed the day as it put all our hard work to fun.’ Finn Kearney P5a

‘ It was really fun when P5a went down to the Calder to release our fish. Davie held onto everyone so we could release our fish. I loved it.’ Lucia P5a

‘When we went to take the fish down to the Calder I was upset a bit because I didn’t want to let the fish go but I know they will be happy in the river.’ Grace P5a

‘In Clyde in the Classroom I most liked checking the temperature’ David P5b

‘I really enjoyed taking care of the fish. I was really worried on the snow days. It was the best topic ever.’ Wiktoria P5b

‘I enjoyed looking after the fish and I liked when the fish started to move.’ Filip P5b

‘I liked releasing them because going to the river was fun.’ Lennon P5b

‘I was nervous walking to the river with the fish in my hands. We have been taking care of them for so long, they were part of the class. Thankfully, everything turned out ok.’ – Isla P5c

‘I’m glad they are in the river now because it means they can find food. They must be hungry!’ – Saul P5c

‘It is weird to think the little orange eggs are now somewhere in the River Clyde. I hope we will see them again some day.’ – Nikki P5c

‘I named mine Amy. I hope it was a girl.’ – Ellie P5c

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As part of this project P5c opted to enter the video competition, please click on the link below to see their final entry, it is fabulous. Well done to all in P5.

 

 

On Thursday we welcomed police officers Adam McManus, Gregor Mackie & Fraser Hart to our school. This was part of the Secondary School Attainment Challenge focusing on working together to ensure safety in our communities and building stronger communities within the Motherwell area.

The officers enjoyed a tour of our wonderful school and nursery and then spent some quality time in some of our classes, feedback from the pupils was very encouraging and great fun was had by all, as you can see in the photographs, we hope Mrs Campbell will be released soon!

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Also on Thursday Mrs McDerment and  P7b enjoyed a wonderful day at Motherwell Heritage Centre for an exciting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) challenge. Here’s what they thought:

Sophie Marshall: I thought it was so amazing, I loved it so much. We did fun activities such as – Will it sink Will it float? We were put into groups and I got to program a Bee -Bot to go right round the car park then park in a taxi spot. We learned about Iron and Steel and about the olden days with trains and coal mining. We also made boats out of clay and then tested them with marbles to see how many it could hold and float, one of my friends, Lucy got 6, I got 5.

Laura McCann: We learned about different types of engineering, then me and my group made a car park with multiple exits our of marble run. We learned about sinking and floating. Next we made boats out of plasticine and put marbles in them to see if they could float. We went up to the top of the tower and could see across Motherwell. Here we are hard at work.

 

Thursday was a very busy day indeed. Mrs McCarthy set off with her trusty team of Super Readers to take part in North Lanarkshire Council Annual Reading Quiz. This was the regional heat and our wonderful pupils excelled earning a fabulous 1st Place! Excellent work. They now go through to the final at the end of April. Well done to Hollie McInnes, Rory McCarthy, Zarah Khalil, Marc Findlay, Maria Moss and not forgetting Mrs McCarthy. Our readers have been giving up their lunchtimes to prepare and it obviously paid off. Good Luck in the finals.

Moving onto Friday, our Lenten appeal this week was themed around ‘Charity begins at Home’. Children were asked to donate items of food requested by Motherwell Food Bank. As always, your generosity has been outstanding. This was a whole campus event with nursery, school and Firpark Primary all working together to help those very near to us all. A huge thanks to all. Special thanks to our Enterprise Committee, CaFi Council pupils, Miss Cawley and Mrs. Ellis (Firpark DHT). A wonderful example of working together for the greater good.

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Meanwhile, our youngest pupils in the nursery are busy, busy, busy as always!

During a visit last Monday around the school grounds the children discovered a crocodile and some dinosaur bones which sparked a conversation about other things they might find on their outdoor adventures. The very next day the children spotted something sparkling under the bushes. Treasure, then they found a book, a gold magic lamp and just before they were heading back to show all the children in the nursery they discovered a monkey and a letter. The letter was from Abu. Some of the children recognised Abu from the story of Aladdin. The letter stated that he had taken his friend Aladdin’s magic flying carpet and had fallen off it and low and behold ended up stuck on a branch in the school. Abu wants the children to help him get back safely to Arabia to find Aladdin.
The children listened to and watched the story of Aladdin and from this made a mindmap of how they could help Abu achieve his wish and promptly got to work on their ideas. Please have a look at all of these displayed within the nursery.

First things first try the children wanted to find the magic carpet but as we all know magic flying carpets have a mind of their own and the one that brought Abu here is probably back safely in Arabia especially when the ‘Beast from the East appeared last week’

Outdoors the children got to work on making their very own magic carpet with lots of sparkly materials. Watch out for these next week when they are completed. They also discussed how to transform outdoors into the ‘Cave of Wonders from the story.

In numeracy the children decided Abu needed a map to help him return to Aladdin. So they made a range of detailed maps,
to help him navigate from the nursery to Arabia. These will e displayed next week.

They changed the house corner into a market place to make Abu feel at home and filled it with lots of shiny fruit and vegetables. They made a mindmap of what kind of foods they would find in the stall and placed an Asda order(other supermarkets are available) of exotic foods from other countries. They have been smelling cinnamon, star anise and tasting pomegranates, this will continue next week.
Then they looked out the Aladdin costumes and have been busy role-playing Aladdin, Jasmine and the market seller. By the end of the week they had built a palace from the nursery climbing frame and are playing imaginatively in it.
In construction a few children drew plans of how they wanted their palace to look before using the block construction to build their very own palace.
Over in the story corner the children have been using the stick puppets to create their own stories. Some children decided to act out the different characters and this was recorded as a script. This quiet corner has been transformed into the ‘Cave of Wonders’ with a magic lamp, treasure and a magic carpet prompting lots of imaginative play.
The maths area has had a makeover too. A shiny shape palace has been created for display.
On Friday all the children made something special to take home. Can you guess why?

 

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What a busy week!

Monday morning assembly was a unique occasion.

Firstly our representatives for ‘2018 The year of Young People’ addressed our school community encouraging all to participate in a competition being run to encourage Safer Internet. Thomas Colenso and Shane McGhee represented our school at North Lanarkshire Council launch day and then addressed the whole school community on how best we take this forward. Thomas and Shane were excellent ambassadors for our school, well done boys. We look forward to the competition entries from each class. Thanks to Miss Love who is co-coordinating all of this work.

Next to speak (well actually sing, dance and rap) were our Health and Enterprise Committees who have joined together to plan and prepare our Lenten Charities events. The two committees gave a fabulous rendition of ‘We are Charity’ (you may recognise the tune as We are Family) describing our 5 Freaky Fridays throughout Lent when we look to help others less fortunate than ourselves and also come together in a fun way as a school community. Well done to all on the committees so ably led by Miss Cawley, Mrs Loose and Miss Love. Some very special representatives from our nursery came along to listen to the outline of our Lenten Charities and then cascaded the information back to all their friends in the nursery, what a clever group of pre-school children we have! Well done to our youngest pupils.

Finally we celebrated a wonderful win with our Junior Road Safety Officers, Hazel Nugent and Ryan Winton revealing our school had won the overall slogan competition to encourage safety whilst cycling. Three of our P7 girls; Laura McCann, Abigail Reddington and Morgan Rotchford had written the winning slogan which will be used across the authority. Each of the girls receives a £20 voucher for Argos. Well done to the girls, to our Junior Road Safety Officers and to Mrs Carr who leads this wonderful team. The winning slogan is:

Cycle smart, cycle bright, wear a helmet and a flashing light

On Wednesday morning our upper school pupils were invited to a seminar delivered by Mr George McAleenan on ‘Let the Children Live’ one of our charities. This provided great insight for our children and let them in no doubt the money they raised is truly helping children across the world. A humbling experience.

Continuing on our Lenten theme a team of representatives from the Health and Enterprise Committees were invited to visit Motherwell Food Bank to see first hand how much our supplies are required. A wonderful learning experience for our pupils which demonstrated how our assistance is required so close to home. Food Bank donations week is Week 3 of our Lenten Charities Appeal.

Meanwhile, up in Primary 5 lots of interesting developments. Our teaching kitchen has become home to 3 incubators which house hundreds of soon to be brown trout. As part of Clyde in the Classroom Topic (which has to be one of the most interesting and inspirational topics for our children) P5c are entering the Video competition. They are busy editing their work just now but here’s a few pics of what’s to come.

Friday morning Primary Three treated us all to an experience which was quite simply ‘Out of This World’. Their assembly was amazing. The children have learned so much and confidently shared their learning through song, dance, movement and such humour. Unfortunately I was unable to be there, however, Mrs Campbell’s quote. ‘ Primary Three Assembly was a triumph, the children in our school are fabulous’. A wonderful accolade. Well done to all in P3 and a special thanks to Mrs Gillespie, Miss Donnelly and Miss McAvoy for their hard work. Thanks also to the large number of parents and families who came along to support and encourage the children, as always, attendance was amazing.

A final thanks to Mr John Quinn, Grace’s dad, who came along to photograph the event. You can download the photographs by clicking on the link below, alternatively copy and paste.

https://goo.gl/CaaHXt

Here’s a wee sneaky peek:

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Throughout Friday our first of 5 Freaky Events took place ‘Run for a Penny Run for a Pound’. Many thanks to all who donated £1 towards our Lenten Appeal, your generosity is much appreciated. Mrs Loose captured some of the action:

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And now for the all the latest from our youngest pupils. Let’s hear what’s been happening in our fabulous nursery Mrs MM Murphy has the weekly round up:

The children have been celebrating Chinese New year in style. They created a restaurant, a menu and role-played customers, waiters and the cook.

Each group visited the restaurant to experience a taste of Chinese food. They had noodle soup, noodles and prawn crackers. Lola’s mum provided some sweet Chinese treats for them to try.

They listened to the story of Nian the dragon and recalled the events in the story. In art they made fabulous lanterns which they took home.

Outdoors the children went on a treasure hunt looking for red and gold envelopes that symbolises good fortune. In numeracy they scribed Chinese numbers and did some Chinese writing in the literacy area.

Lola and Lilly’s mum came into to visit the children to tell them all about the family celebrations at this special time of year. They told the children that it was the year of the dog and worked out that the 3 yr olds were born in the year of the horse and the 4 yr olds were born in the year of the snake. The children listened carefully while Lily sang a song and counted 1-10 in Chinese.They even had a go at singing the song. At the end the children were all given a red and gold envelope and they were told of the importance of the colour of the envelope.
Lola’s mum explained that Gong Hey Fat Choy means good health in the new year. After the visit the children joined together and performed the dragon dance throughout the nursery. They all took their envelopes home with a surprise in it.

The challenge of the week returned this week and the children have been eager to participate in this different activity. These challenges will continue each week.
This week we have been discussing our new topic. Watch out next week to see what it is.

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As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, leave a comment or two to let us know your thoughts and any ideas for improvement.

Mrs Shields

Celebrating Catholic Education Week. Catholic Schools Good for Scotland

Serving the Common Good

Some photographs of our work from Catholic Education Week. Once again, our pupils and staff have excelled in their commitment and dedication to ensure excellence in our school.

Catholic Schools – Good for Scotland

Serving The Common Good

This week marked our annual celebration of Catholic Education in Scotland, a very special year as the centenary year for Catholic Education.

In school this week we have been focussing on the chosen theme, as detailed above. All work for Good Work Wall will be based around this theme, please make time to pop into school and view all the wonderful work on display in our front entrance. Our grateful thanks to our pupils who represented our schools at St. Luke’s Church and O.L.G.A Cathedral Parish last Saturday and Sunday. They were joined by young people from Our Lady’s High School.

On Thursday of this week we welcomed Fr. Chromy, our chaplain, great friend and supporter of our school, to celebrate Mass as part of our commitment to Catholic Education. Our whole school community participated with reverence and devotion. Special thanks to Fr. Chromy, the staff of P3 and, most especially, the boys and girls of Primary Three who led us through the liturgy. A wonderful culmination to our work throughout the week and a fabulous way for P3 to embark on their intensive preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Primary 6c have been busily working as a team to promote and encourage working together all through the medium of Lego!

Great work from Mrs Tominey, Mrs McAllister, Mr Shanks and all the boys and girls in P6c. An innovative approach to learning.

It has been a very busy time in school with lots of visitors coming along to enhance the learning and teaching in our school, most particularly in Primary One where they are learning all about ‘People Who Help Us’. We welcomed Doctor Findlay and our local Fire Brigade:

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Our grateful thanks to these very busy professionals who took time out of their hectic schedules to provide such unique and memorable learning opportunities for our children (and staff).

Coupled with this we are delighted to welcome back specialists from Speech & Language who are working with our P3 and P1 pupils and staff to take forward new initiatives to further promote excellence in language.

During lunch times and after school there are a huge range of activities and learning opportunities taking place each week under the umbrella title of

Come Clubbing @ Cathedral. This term we are offering:

Handball, Cross Country, Lego Therapy, Euro Quiz, Young Leaders, Solo Singing, Recitation, Choir, Multi-sports, Swimming,  Aladdin Workshops, Ball Skills and Football.

How fortunate are we to have such amazing staff who so willingly give of their own free time to ‘Go The Extra Mile’ educating the whole child and ensuring excellence throughout our whole school community.

Our Euroquizzers took part in North Lanarkshire’s annual EuroQuiz. The team were commended on their range of knowledge and scored very well in the quiz. The pupils were also highly complimented on their good manners, excellent behaviour and keen sportsmanship. Well done to all involved. Special credit to Miss Cawley who has been busily preparing the team for the quiz. Great ambassadors for our school.

Meanwhile, its’ been a very busy time in the nursery, here’s Mrs MM Murphy’s weekly roundup….

This week in nursery we have been learning all about people who live in very cold countries. We have made Igloos using a range of collage and even made some using marshmallows in snack. In Literacy they have been looking at factual books from the school library and have been able to recall some facts learned in their group floorbooks.

In Science they participated in an experiment using an ice cube, a square and a rectangle of ice. They had to guess which one would melt the quickest using the heat of their hands or a hairdryer. They made a chart of their predictions which is displayed in the Science area.

In Numeracy they have used the dice and matched the dots on the dice to the dots on the cards. They then counted how many fingers using the filled gloves. The children really enjoyed this activity which was led by our student and chose to revisit it on Friday.

Our little Scientists have been busy outdoors taking part in a hot chocolate experiment. They filled the cups with hot chocolate they covered them with different materials such as foil and Kitchen roll and they left one uncovered. They recorded the temperature using a thermometer and made a chart of their findings. At the end of the experiment they got to drink it.
Also outdoors the children have used a white tarpaulin to create their very own igloo and have been role-playing in it.

In Art they have made collage Eskimos and discussed why they need to wear warm furry coats and hats.
Over in snack they constructed an igloo from marshmallows, they used icing sugar to help stick the marshmallows together They also made individual ones and chocolate banana penguins and marshmallow penguins. Another popular activity this week.

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More extreme weather in Motherwell this week, although very different from last week.

Our Primary 4 pupils gave an outstanding performance at their assembly all based around their topic of Extreme Weather.

The boys and girls in P4 can be very proud of themselves, their range of knowledge was most impressive. However, the most magnificent component has to be the performances of our pupils. They sang, danced, acted and entertained everyone. Every child in P4 had a most valued and important role to play and they did so with style and panache! A magnificent performance children, well done. A HUGE thanks to Mrs Irwin, Miss Love, Miss McAvoy and Miss Couper who wrote the script, choreographed the routines, taught the songs and made the costumes. What a talented P4 staff and pupils we have.

A big vote of thanks also to all of the (very proud) parents, carers and extended family who came along to support our children, this wonderful support and encouragement from home provides great motivation for both pupils and staff alike. Thank you.

Here are a few photographs taken at the dress rehearsal on Thursday:

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Primary Five have taken delivery of their 600 (YES 600) fish eggs, we wait with baited breath to hear of their progress; Mrs Carr reports:

Our much awaited topic has begun; Clyde in the Classroom.

Over the next four to six weeks, Primary 5 will be playing their part in the continuing ecological improvement of the River Clyde by taking responsibility for the growth and development of brown trout. On Thursday of this week, 600 fish eggs were delivered, and each of the three P5 classes will be responsible for looking after them. They will ensure that the conditions are kept just right to allow them to develop before releasing them into the wild.

Clyde in The Classroom in Action:

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Tuesday of this week we welcomed a great number of Primary Three parents, carers and extended family to our school for a Reconciliation workshop and our Reconciliation Enrolment Ceremony. Grateful thanks to Miss Cawley for developing and delivering the workshop, to Fr. Chromy for presiding over the Enrolment Ceremony, to all who came along to show their support for our children’s spiritual development and, last but by no means least, thanks to our Primary 3 pupils who sang so well and behaved so reverently at their Enrolment Service giving very informed and appropriate responses to all of Fr. Chromy’s questions. Well done to all in P3.

Primary Three will now begin their workbooks and receive their candles for home link participation. All will be issued on Monday. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will take place in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church on Tuesday 13th March at 6pm. Children should be in full school uniform for this service. we look forward to sharing in this, most important, step in our children’s  Faith journey.

Also on Tuesday we welcomed our P7 pupils with their parents and carers to our Kilbowie meeting, always an exciting event. 75 of our Primary 7 pupils will enjoy this unique opportunity to spend a week learning outdoors in Oban, the highlight of P7 ( well one of them).

Grateful thanks to all who came along, thanks also to our devoted staff and parent who have so kindly volunteered to accompany the children. Mrs Murphy P7c, Mrs McDerment P7b and Mrs McCulloch P7a will all be going to Kilbowie along with Miss Kane (Student teacher), Mrs Connor (Niamh’s mum) and myself. I can’t wait.

Meanwhile our youngest pupils have been enjoying lots of super learning experiences; here’s Mrs Murphy’s news:

Our Winter topic continues with the children deciding to create an iceberg in the middle of the playroom. They made penguins from collage and placed them on the iceberg.

In Literacy they have scribed Wintry words describing what the weather is like during the Winter season. They placed them on the iceberg too.

In snack they have been making jelly, watching the cubes dissolving then turning into wibbly wobbly jelly.

Over in the Arctic Circle the children have been role-playing with the new snowy animal costumes and catching fish in the icy pond.

They have used a range of Winter props to sing number counting songs and have been exploring some new music resources in the music area.

Outdoors they have been playing a range of Winter rhyme games.

On Thursday the Arctic Circle came to a standstill as we all celebrated Burns Day.

Haggis, Neeps and tatties tasting in the snack area.

Welly Wanging outdoors.

Dancing to Scottish music.

Listening to Scottish stories in the story corner. (Read by Roark one of our P6 buddies.)

A guid Shindig was had by all!

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

Mrs Shields

This has been a frustrating week in school and nursery. The inclement weather has disrupted most of our planned activities, however, as always we make the best of our situation.

Our children have enjoyed much fun in the snow. We sent our House Captains and Vice Captains out on Tuesday to capture our snowy yard. Here’s their photographs:

On Tuesday our Primary 5 classes were due to spend the day at Glasgow Science Centre in preparation for their Clyde in the Classroom Project. Due to weather conditions this outing was cancelled. However on Wednesday The Science Centre came to us!

Primary Five had a wonderful day learning all about their little fish eggs (due next week) and how best to ensure their fish grow in our school. We’ll keep you posted on their development,

The recently launched School App has proved to be an invaluable way to contact all in our school community. To date 505 people have downloaded the App, I appeal to you to please download the App and encourage all involved in our school to do the same.

Friday morning when we were instructed to close our schools in the interest of health and safety for our children the text messaging service was overwhelmed causing messages to be delayed in sending or indeed failing to send. Our App was completely successful and sent almost instant alerts to all who could access it. Many parents/carers and extended family spoke highly of the communication through our App on Friday during our early closure.

A huge thanks to all staff, most especially our office staff, who worked tirelessly on Friday to ensure all children were safely collected. Thanks also to all who came to collect pupils, I appreciate it was a lengthy wait for many but your good humour and understanding of our complex situation was much appreciated. Everyone understood our only aim was to ensure each child was accounted for and had a safe journey home.

We have extended our enrolment for P1 pupils for August until this coming Monday. Should anyone still have to enrol their child for school beginning in August of this year please come to school on Monday afternoon.

This coming week we aim to have our Kilbowie meeting on Tuesday (23rd) at 6pm. This meeting is for all P7 pupils and their parents/carers.

Also on Tuesday we will host our P3 Reconciliation workshop and Enrolment Service. This will take place on Tuesday afternoon, workshop at 1.30pm and Enrolment Service, conducted by Fr. Chromy, at 2.15pm. We look forward to seeing you there.

Wednesday evening we have our first Fundraisers Meeting of 2018, I encourage all to come along and take part in this group who are magnificent at raising funds to enhance the educational experience of all of our children. Meeting is at 7pm in our school staffroom. All welcome.

Let’s hope for a less disrupted week ahead.

Our youngest pupils braved the snow and all enjoyed a fun filled time at nursery, here’s some photographs of their week:

 

 

Mrs Shields