A warm welcome to our first Blog of 2018. A new year filled with lots of opportunities to grow, improve and enjoy.

This Monday we will officially launch our new App; OLGA Cathedral App

You can download the App free to you android or iphone or any other tablet/device. This will allow you ( and anyone else who has an interest in our school community), to keep in touch with all that’s happening in our school community. I encourage you to download the App and have a look. The App is recommended for adults and children alike. Our newsletter, being issued on Monday (on web page just now) will give you more detailed information.

This first week back at school began with some not so good news. On Friday 5th January we had some unwelcome visitors to our school who broke in through the dining hall window, caused vandalism to kitchen and some of our ground floor classrooms. The thieves left with a number of laptops and ipads. Anyone with any information about this is encouraged to contact Motherwell Police.

On Tuesday we were saddened to hear of the death of Canon Noel Carey, former administrator of O.L.G.A Cathedral Church and a great friend a supporter of our school. Our Monday morning assembly will focus on praying for the repose of the soul of this wonderful gentleman.

Throughout the week our children have become more and more excited about all the great opportunities ahead this term.

Each class will benefit from a P.E. specialist, Mr Mark McLaughlin. Mr McLaughlin will cover a range of P.E topics and will also take an after school club specialising in handball.

Primary Three will begin their intensive preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have a workshop and Enrolment Service planned for Tuesday 23rd January. Workshop at 1.30pm and Enrolment Service at 2.15pm.

Our Primary Seven pupils are gearing up for Kilbowie on 12th March, always a highlight of P7. A meeting will be held this coming Tuesday at 6pm in our school hall.

Primary Five pupils are preparing to nurture and grow some lovely little fish as Clyde in The Classroom programme begins. All P5 pupils will have opportunity to spend a day at Glasgow Science Centre learning about the life cycle of fish and being instructed on how best to nurture and grow our own.

Primary Two boys and girls began auditioning for our ‘Baby Choir’ with Mrs Wilkinson on Friday, currently our ‘Baby Choir’ has P3 pupils we look forward to expanding to accommodate our P2 boys and girls.

Primary Four pupils have been singing and dancing throughout the week as they prepare for their forthcoming Assembly.

Our P5,P6 & P7 pupils have been auditioning for parts in our forthcoming bi-annual school show – Aladdin. All pupils from P5 through to P7 will have a very important role in our show, we look forward to this with great excitement. Keep your diaries clear for 28th and 29th March.

As you can see from the above we have a very busy term ahead, we look forward to sharing all of our experiences with you.

Meanwhile, our youngest pupils also have a very exciting week ahead. As you will have seen from the front page of our website next week is enrolment week for our new P1 in August of this year. All of our pre-school nursery pupils will be enrolling for their primary schools this coming week.

Also in the nursery over this last week Mrs MM Murphy has been busy documenting all their great work, here’s the latest:

A big welcome back to all our nursery children especially all our new recruits.
News just in! The show raffle and the sale of the picture frames boosted the nursery fund by £420. As always each child in the nursery will benefit from the generosity of all our parents and carers. A huge thank you for your continued support.

This week the children have been discussing all the fun they had in the snow over the holidays and from this the children have decided to learn all about Winter and animals who live in snowy places.

The children discussed what clothing they have to wear in Winter and shared their knowledge with their group friends.

Outdoors they went on an ice hunt and discovered lots of different shaped ice in the garden. They filled a bucket full of water and left it out overnight to see what would happen. The next day they discovered that it had turned to ice.

The ice experiment continued in the watertray in the art area. The children filled different shaped vessels with water, food colouring and sparkles. They placed them in the freezer overnight. Then placed them in the water tray to see how long it took for each shape to melt. Their findings have been recorded.
They also made fake snow using cornflour and shaving foam and had messy fun exploring all the different textures.

In the story corner they have been listening to a story all about snowy animals. After the story the children had the opportunity to make Polar bear faces using textured collage and paint. These will be displayed next week.

Over in the writing area the children have been recalling the fun they had during the snowy weather and have been drawing pictures to go with their stories. These are all displayed on the wall in the corner of the nursery. Please take a moment to have a look.

In numeracy they have been dressing the snowmen while discussing what keeps you warm in Winter. They have matching number to quantity by drawing the number of buttons written on the snowman’s hat.

In snack they have been measuring the ingredients to make shortbread cookies. The aroma of baking cookies filled the air. Yum Yum!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read our Blog, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Please leave a comment, or two!

Mrs Shields

What a fabulous end to our year, it couldn’t have been better!

Our nursery pupils were truly amazing, an enormous thanks to everyone who prepared the children, assisted with costumes and came along on the day.

Special word of thanks to Mrs Duffy and our nursery team: Mrs Murphy, Mrs Little, Mrs Imray, Mrs Duffy, Mrs Kinnear, Miss MacMullen, Mrs Higgins and Miss Adam. Thanks also to Mrs Mellon for the superb stage decor, it looked magnificent.

However, our biggest cheer has to go to our exceptional nursery pupils who sang, danced and entertained us all. A truly wonderful end to a fabulous year.

Here’s  few photos of both shows:

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On behalf of all in our school community we wish you a happy and holy Christmas.

May peace reign in our world in 2018.

Mrs Shields

Picture the scene:

A cold, dismal, dreary Tuesday in Motherwell when all of a sudden at 1.30pm and 7.00pm the true spirit of Christmas arrived in style. The pupils of Primaries 4, 5, 6 & 7 brought joy and cheer to all in Motherwell with their magnificent renditions of ‘One Night in Bethlehem’. They sang, swayed, spoke and smiled their way though a wonderful portrayal of the Great Feast of Christmas.

Once again, huge thanks to John Quinn who photographed the event for us, click on the link below to access the fabulous photographs. All are available for download by clicking on the button at the top of each picture.

https://goo.gl/zWU1Yi

Thanks also to our brilliant, appreciative audiences who happily joined in the fun. Together we captured the true spirit of Christmas, thank you.

Here’s a wee taster of the photographs, lots more online.

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Continuing the Christmas cheer, on Thursday afternoon Primary 7 pupils from P7c visited Mission Place, sheltered housing complex, to bring some festive joy and song into the lives of the residents (and staff). Mrs Murphy reports:

It was a great success- very proud teacher moment because they sang so well, behaved impeccably and really enjoyed chatting with the residents. The Christmas Spirit is truly alive and well in P7c this week!

Here’s a few photographs of their visit.

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Final blog next week will focus on our youngest pupils, our wonderful nursery students, who are busy preparing for their performances of ‘Santa’s Hat’. I can’t wait, it’ll be fabulous.

As always, thanks for reading our Blog and please share your thoughts with us.

Mrs Shields

What a magnificent performance from our P1, P2 & P3 children. They were outstanding. A huge thanks to all of our infant children, all of the staff in our school and to you as parents/carers for assisting with line learning, costumes and most importantly coming along to support our wonderful pupils.

We are indebted to Mr John Quinn for giving of his time, talent and skill to record our show in such a professional manner. The photographs are fabulous.

As promised, here is the link to photographs.

https://goo.gl/7BuZ64

Just copy and paste. Each photo has a download option button at the top of each picture.

Meanwhile, here’s a wee taster:

Next week our Blog will focus on ‘One Night in Bethlehem’ our Upper School Carol Concert and the following week we will concentrate on ‘Santa’s Hat’ our nursery production.

As always, thanks for reading. If you were in the audience of our Infant Nativity please leave a comment, we’d love to hear what you thought of this fabulous show.

Mrs Shields

REMEMBER REMEMBER:

Don’t forget!!

Touch of Tartan School Disco

Tuesday 29^th November

P1 – P3  5.45pm – 6.45pm

P4 – P5  7.00pm – 8.00pm

P6 –P7   8.15pm – 9.15pm

 All children must be accompanied by an adult to and from the disco.

Our textile collection with Bag2School is booked for

Wednesday 30^th November.

The school will be open to receive bags on

Tuesday 22^nd November from 3pm onwards(throughout school disco)

Or throughout the week until Tuesday 29^th November.

Bags can be dropped off at the AV Room (behind stage).

It’s not too late to start clearing out!

We are sending home one bag per child, don’t worry if you have more textiles than that, any type of bag will be acceptable.

Acceptable items include:

• Good quality adult’s and children’s clothes
• Shoes (tied together in pairs please)
• Hats, belts and handbags!
• Soft toys
• Curtains and bedding (not duvets and pillows)

The money we raise is used for the benefit

of all our children at the school –

the more we clear out, the more we can do for the school!

Last week and this, all of our boys and girls enjoyed fabulous visits to pantomimes, P3 – P7 were mesmerised by Jack and the Beanstalk at Motherwell Concert Hall whilst P1 & P2 laughed and clapped all the way to Oz at Forgewood Community Centre. In recognition of this wonderful opportunity each class took time to write thank you letters and draw some lovely illustrations of their ‘best bits’.

Also this week P6a held a wonderful learning opportunity in their class. They invited the other children in their base and me along to their Table Top Presentation of World War II. I was incredibly impressed by the confident manner in which all children discussed their learning and shared their learning with others. The range of knowledge the children have is admirable, obviously a very popular and worthwhile topic. Well done to all in P6a working so hard with Mrs Rimmer.

Friday afternoon 32 of our P5-P7 pupils, all cross country enthusiasts, attended Sports Hall Athletics day at Ravenscraig. My grateful thanks to Mrs MM Murphy for preparing the children and her trusty parent helpers for taking the time to assist on the day.

More news of how they did coming soon.

Many thanks for taking the time to read our weekly Blog. As always, feel free to leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

REMEMBER: School and nursery are closed to pupils on Monday 20th November. Staff In-Service Day.

We’ll see you on Tuesday 21st November in full school uniform for class group photographs.

This has been an incredible week where we have been overwhelmed by personnel outwith our school community taking time to compliment our pupils, staff & parents/carers on their enthusiasm, participation and commitment to our school.

Beginning with our youngest students, our wonderful nursery pupils, staff and parent/carers. Mrs MM Murphy reports:

On Monday we had a fabulous turn out from parents carers for a magical musical workshop. They joined the children in the drama room with Caroline McCluskey from the tapestry project. Caroline a former pupil of the school led a fabulous musical session involving puppets and musical instruments. The project is aimed at bringing families together to interact with each other through music. The children and adults had a fabulous time. Have a look at the photographs and see for yourself.

Caroline ( a former pupil of our school) took the time to email saying:

A big thank you to Cathedral Nursery for hosting our Tapestry Early Years Music Family Workshops and to our brilliant S6 student assistants from Our Ladys’s High. I had a wonderful day of music and dance with the nursery children and their families. We had really amazing support,  25 children and 24 parents and grandparents participated in the morning workshop. In the afternoon, 12 children and 15 parents and grandparents came along.
I also worked with two groups of children who participated with their nursery teachers. A lovely musical celebration. 

Nigel also commented:

The girls were great – your school has a wonderful culture of dignity and grace.

What a beautiful description of our school community. A huge thanks to all involved.

Wednesday of this week our P5 pupils from P5a and P5c enjoyed their 10th week at swimming. Once again we received wonderful feedback in respect of our pupils, manners, participation and love of learning:

The coaching staff at Wishaw Sports Centre were really praising the children’s behaviour and saying how much they look forward to working with them each week, due to their great behaviour and enthusiasm. Here are photos of our happy swimmers.

Excellent feedback, well done to our very proud,  super swimmers.

Friday morning P7c set off for Civic Centre to Jack and the Beanstalk. Mrs Murphy reported staff from other schools were amazed at our oldest pupils, their manners and their obvious enjoyment in the show. They also complimented their perfect uniform.

Friday was a very busy day. Primary one also set out to Forgewood Community Centre to enjoy The Wizard of Oz. Again, a great success.

Friday afternoon 388 pupils set out on 5 double decker buses to Civic Centre to enjoy Jack and the Beanstalk. Excellent behaviour and participation from our pupils. The performers were overwhelmed with our school pupils willingness to participate. They were heard to say; ‘Best audience ever’

All of the wonderful success described above is indicative of our school ethos, we are so proud of our pupils. However, we are very aware we could not provide such wonderful opportunities for our pupils without our dedicated staff and the HUGE number of parents/carers who give so freely of their time to participate in our school in so many ways. An ENORMOUS thanks to all. Together we make an excellent team all with one goal; to provide the very best for our children.

A HUGE thanks also to North Lanarkshire Council and Forgewood Community Centre who have provided this wonderful opportunity for our children to visit the pantomimes completely free of charge. Our school provided the buses which has allowed every child in our school to enjoy a wonderful professional pantomime at NO cost to any child, fantastic. Let’s hope we get invited back next year!

Primary Two, we’ve not forgotten about you, your turn is coming this Wednesday…….exciting!

Tuesday and Wednesday we welcomed such highly groomed pupils all shiny and perfect for their photographs. Remember school class group photographs will be taken this coming Tuesday. Full school uniform for all please.

In addition to the Early Years Tapestry Workshop there is so much more happening in our fabulous nursery:

Also on Monday the first ‘Play on Pedals’ block started. All evidence of this will be displayed in the cloakroom on the wall and in the floorbook.

On Wednesday the photographer was busy taking photographs of all the nursery children. Smile please!
On the same day a special delivery arrived in the nursery from the North Pole. A letter from Santa who was feeling a bit sad as he had lost his hat. He has asked the nursery children if they can put on a show to help him find his hat. The children agreed to help him right away. Watch this space.

Friday dawned and it was the turn of Childsmile who visited the nursery to carry out the tooth varnishing programme. All children involved left with sparkly teeth.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, any comments or feedback please let us know.

Mrs Shields

Our week in school and nursery has been filled with many exciting opportunities and unique learning experiences.

Our Primary 7 pupils have been demonstrating their leadership skills through ‘Young Leaders’ programme where they plan, lead and review lunchtime sessions for our younger pupils. A fabulous platform for our P7 pupils to be ambassadors for our school and a fabulous opportunity for our younger pupils to enjoy lunchtime clubs. My thanks to Jenny (Duracell) Thomson, our Active Schools Co-ordinator who trained our P7 pupils and to Mrs Munro, ASNA in school, who acts as adult supervisor to the lunchtime clubs.

In assembly this week we focused on the importance of the month of November and remembering All Souls. We also discussed using this month to prepare for the season of Advent and the Great Feast of Christmas. One of the ways we do this in school is participation in Keep Christ In Christmas competition. This competition, run by the Knights of Saint Columba, asks our children to draw/paint a scene which represents keeping Christ at the heart of Christmas. Each class was asked to decide on their ‘top 3’ entries and these will now go forward as our school entries.

The slideshow below shows our entries. Well done to all of our children for their active participation in this most important annual competition and thanks also to staff for taking the time to prepare the children. One of these entries will become our school Christmas Card this year.

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On Friday of this week our Primary 4 pupils excelled as excellent hosts and hostesses at their very first Coffee Morning, and what a busy Coffee Morning it was! A HUGE thanks to all who came along to support our school in this most delicious, tasty way and to all who donated baking and raffle prizes. An amazing £778.00 was raised on the morning – outstanding. Well done to all in Primary 4. And, as always a MASSIVE thanks to our wonderful Coffee Morning Ladies and Gents who give so tirelessly of their own time for the good of our school, we would be lost without you.

Some snapshots of the day below.

A wee reminder: School photographer will be in school and nursery this week for individual and family photographs. Tuesday for school and Wednesday for nursery. Photographer will return next week -Tuesday 21st for class group photographs. Parents/carers will have the option to purchase individual, family and class group photographs. Thanks in advance to John Wilson photographer.

REMEMBER: Full school uniform on both Tuesdays, and Wednesday if you are having family photos with nursery pupils.

Hooray! Our nursery is back on our blog. A warm welcome back to our nursery staff who have been feeling under the weather. It’s lovely to have you all back and in full health ladies.

Here’s Mrs MM Murphy will all the news:

Our new topic in nursery is Light and Dark which has followed on from the clocks changing and the weather getting colder and of course Bonfire night. The children have been discussing what they saw heard and smelled on Bonfire night and through this discussion created a range of very colourful firework pictures using a variety of glittery art materials and paint They used stencils to create a nightime starry sky scene and paints to create a daytime scene which are displayed on the wall. They sequenced shapes to create rockets and used the star shape cutters in the playdough.

In Literacy they listened to the story of the ‘Owl Babies’ and used the puppets to re-enact the story. They have watched the ‘Owl Babies’ story on the Smartboard and are able to recall it in their own words. . The children started to discuss other animals that come out at night and this be our focus next week. Over on the writing table the children have been exploring different ways to help their pencil control improve. They have been using the sand to write some of the letters in their name and they have used some visuals to trace wavy and zig zag lines.

New resources for our outdoor sensory area have arrived and the children had the opportunity to explore the mirrored shapes before they were fixed to the fence. Some children were able to name the shapes and discussed how many sides they had. They looked at their reflection in them and discussed what they could see. The shapes are now fixed to the fence to allow the children to explore them freely. Also outdoors the children drew some fabulous rockets and sparklers with the chalk on the ground. The game of choice outdoors this week was ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf’. A counting game which the nursery children and the P6 buddies enjoyed.

In numeracy the children have been set a few different pattern challenges. They have followed some simple basic shape patterns before being challenged to some more difficult ones as the week progressed. They used the SmartBoard interactive activities to help them create their own pattern.

In snack this week the children requested pizza. Each group had the opportunity to make their own pizza, choosing their preferred toppings. Always a very popular activity and Mrs Little was kind enough to encourage the children to make a pizza for the ladies lunch. Yum Yum! Gino Di Campo better watch out!

Down in the forest this week we had a special visitor. Marian Cairns from the Forestry Commission came to visit our forest site. Marian was most impressed with our forest adventures and loved our forest song but most of all she was very impressed with the facts that the children could tell her about their natural surroundings. She was super surprised to find the Owl Babies perched on the ivy tree in the forest and the discussion that transpired when the children discovered them. After reading the story and sharing the Owl Babies the children tucked into tomato soup and crusty bread for snack. The children had requested this the week before and it was a perfect snack to end a perfect day in the forest.

A wee reminder our musical workshop will take place this Monday at 9am in the drama room and 1pm in the afternoon. Please sign your children in as usual and you will be escorted to the drama room through the nursery. Next week also starts the first block of our Play on Pedals programme. This year this will take place in the school yard where the children will have the chance to use the road markings. All bikes and helmets will be provided by the nursery.

Finishing, of course with lots and lots and lots of lovely pics:

 

As always many thanks for taking the time to read all about what’s happening in our wonderful school community. Please leave a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

 

 

Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed learning from our P6 & P5 pupils all about their work in class through the media of song, dance and performance.

Primary 6 offered us an insightful look at life in World War II. We learned all about rationing, evacuation, the Blitz, dancing of the era and so much more. A magnificent history lesson told so eloquently in song and dance. A HUGE well done to all of our super P6 pupils and the staff; Mrs Tominey, Mrs McAllister, Miss McAlinden & Mrs Rimmer.

A wee selection of photographs below.

This Friday P5 took us all on a ‘smashing’ journey of ‘eggploration’ through the eyes of detectives!

Humpty Dumpty – was he pushed or did he fall?

A ‘cracking’ trip into the world of forensic science. Primary 5 really came up Trump! Entertainment value was superb, a MASSIVE well done to all involved our P5 children and staff; Miss Coughlan, Mrs Carr, Mrs Rice and Mrs Findlay.

The slideshow below gives a flavour of all the action.

Wednesday of this week in school we all enjoyed a beautiful celebration of Mass with Bishop Toal in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church coming together as a community of faith to share the joy of the great Feast of All Saints. Our thanks to Bishop Toal for welcoming our children so warmly and speaking so highly of their participation in the Mass. A special ‘well done’ to our P7 pupils who lead the liturgy with grace, dignity and reverence.

Also on Wednesday our school welcomed a very important visitor. Mr Paul Johnston Director General Education, Communities and Justice came along to look at the excellent practice in our school and learn all about what makes us great. The answer to what makes us great is, of course, our children. Once again, our pupils excelled in their behaviour, learning and manners. My grateful thanks to all staff who provide such a fabulous platform for our children to showcase their work. Mr Johnston was most impressed by the range of exciting opportunities within our school and the commitment and dedication of our staff. He left stating he would like to ‘bottle our enthusiasm and sell it’.

Ending our week on a high note. North Lanarkshire Council has very kindly provided FREE tickets to our P3, P4, P5, P6 & P7 pupils to attend the final preview of this year’s pantomime Jack in the Beanstalk. How fabulous is that!

Our pupils will go to the theatre on Friday 17th November with one class attending AM performance and all others from P3 through to P7 going to PM performance.

We will be looking for volunteer parent helpers to assist on the day. Watch out for the letter in school bags on Monday.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog and please feel free to add a comment or two.

Mrs Shields

PS: No nursery Blog this week as our nursery has been somewhat short of staff. Mrs MM Murphy and Miss MacMullen are both off unwell, we wish them a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming them back soon.

 

CHANGES TO MENU:

Please note this coming week there are a few changes to our menu in line with North Lanarkshire Council we will be participating in Scottish Schools Meals Week from Tuesday through to Friday of this week. Here’s what’s on offer:

Tuesday 31st October:

RED – Roast Beef, Mash & Veg

GREEN – Quorn Sausage, Waffles & Beans (v)

Wednesday 1st November: MEAT FREE DAY

RED – Quorn Chicken Tikka & Rice

GREEN – Chees/Tomato Pizza with Coleslaw & Salad

Thursday 2nd November:

RED – Hot Dog with Soup or Dessert

GREEN – Tomato Pasta, garlic Bread & Veg (v)

Friday 3rd November:

RED – Fish, Chips & Peas

GREEN – Cheese Toastie & Salad (v)

And now for all the news……

A wonderful week in school and nursery culminating in a great day on Friday filled with singing, dancing and having fun. Each stage had a slot in the gym hall where they danced and sang along to creepy karaoke.

Our P7 pupils enjoyed quality time with their P1 buddies whilst our P2 & P3 pupils acted as leaders for our nursery pupils. A wonderful way for our children to meaningfully engage as responsible citizens.

The slide show below gives you a flavour of the day.

By Friday afternoon our sponsor money had reached £1953.00, a fabulous boost to school funds, many thanks to all pupils and staff for their energy, enthusiasm and great sense of community.

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A special mention to Gerry in P4 for his outstanding spooky homework task, fantastic effort and to Jude in P3 whose solo performance on stage ‘thrilled’ the whole audience.

One other item to report. Our footballers are the proud new owners of fabulous ‘go faster, performance enhancing’ football strips!

Here’s the handsome models:

 

Hopefully they’ll remember to put their football boots on before they hit the pitch!

This coming week we have Mass in OLGA Cathedral Church on Wednesday 1st November at 10.00am celebrating the Feast of All Saints. In the interest of safety I have opted to transport all children from P1 through to P7 by bus. Please come to Church and join with us in this most important feast day of the Church year.

As always, thanks for taking the time to access HT Blog and please leave a comment or two. We love to hear from you.

Mrs Shields

Last week we held the first of our 2 Parent Evenings for this year. I am delighted to report 95% of parents from P1 to P7 attended on the evening, 98% of nursery parents attended on the evening. This is a superb response. Thanks so much for taking the time to come along and support your child in this way. It is so important for you to actually see all the work on-going in class and your child’s work to date. As a staff we are absolutely delighted to see so many parents and carers demonstrate their active interest in the children’s learning, so re-assuring and motivating for us as educators, thank you, thank you, thank you.

At Parent Evening we surveyed your opinion of our communication processes and asked for your suggestions for possible further improvements:

We asked what methods of communication you regularly use:

1. Newsletter (paper version) 89% 
2. Newsletter (online version) 22%
3. Text Messages 95% 
4. School Website 50% 
5. HT Blog 45% 

We are delighted with the positive comments we received and with the suggestions put forward by yourselves.

Following the October break we will collate a full response sheet and indicate how we will take forward your suggestions. Until then here’s a wee taster of some of the comments:

146 parents/carers indicated there are NO other methods of communication they could suggest which would help keep them informed in the life and work of the school.

Communication is most effective and proves essential for building school/family involvement in my children’s education.

Already good communication.

The excellent communication in Cathedral allows me to share in the wonderful learning opportunities my children experience.

More on an individual basis, the class dojo would be fab! Reminders for no sports gear for example.

I am very happy with the info I receive.

Communication standards from the school are excellent.

Regularly use Xpression and class dojo.

Great communication already.

Twitter/Facebook?

No. Access them all.

A school App which could be used to access the newsletter, holidays, lunch menu.

Not at the moment I feel the communications from the school are more than adequate.

I can’t think of anything.

No, really pleased with the various methods of communication available. Love the slideshow of photos on website – HT Blog.

A text link to HT Blog – just to let us know there is something new on it.

Social media (Facebook)

Facebook page.

Twitter Account.

Class Dojo.

No, text message suits best.

All covered in the above list.

Emails might be a good idea.

I’m happy with the methods already available.

Love the Blog!

Regular texts of school closures etc.

Possibly more on the Blog, but now the classes have an interactive page we shall see how that goes.

Twitter.

No – The Blog and the Newsletter are usually very good.

Emails?

Methods are fine, I need to utilise what you’ve provided more.

Meanwhile our nursery parents and children provided feedback on their nursery experience to date, again we will fully collate all responses and feedback to you after October break. Mrs MM Murphy picked out some comments to share just now:

“We are pleased with our child’s progress and how much her confidence has grown. It was great to hear the positive feedback from her keyworker”

I am again delighted at my son’s progress since transferring to Cathedral nursery. We can’t praise the environment, curriculum, most of all, the staff high enough”

“We are absolutely thrilled with our son’s progress and are so proud of the kind, caring and curious little boy he is becoming. We cannot thank the staff enough in particular his keyworker for the care and attention she and the staff show him. He adores nursery and we will be so sad when he needs to move on to P1”

“The keyworker really has a good understanding of our child. All staff are always welcoming and have good knowledge of our child. We are very pleased with the progress and learning our child has made”

We are delighted with our child’s development. We love it that she likes being busy and enjoys each new topic and challenge”

“We are happy with our child’s progress. His speech has come on superbly and he is eager to go every day. He has a fantastic relationship with his keyworker”

“Well organised highly satisfied with all effort made by staff”

“Our child is so happy to go to nursery each day. We see that her vocabulary/speech is much more advanced”

“Our child has recently moved to Am sessions and has adapted well to the new routine. He is enjoying making new friends and is feeling happy at helping the age 3’s. He enjoys all aspects of nursery life and we are so happy we chose Cathedral as we have enjoyed watching him grow and develop. You all do a wonderful job!!”

“I am so pleased with my child’s report at parent’s night and so happy he is joining in more at big group time”

“It is great to see our child’s folder! We are pleased to see that he has settled into nursery so well. He has been very busy!”

“Loved her drawings and enjoyed looking through this book several times!!! Our child likes seeing pictures of herself”

“Great to see all the good work that happens in nursery”

Children’s comments below.

“I loved telling my mummy and daddy about all the things I do in nursery”

“I love nursery and love doing my exercises and being the Golden Helper”

“I am almost 4 and like to help the smaller kids in my nursery. I have lots of fun and love Cathedral and have made lots of friends. I am very excited about the new trophy for Star of the week!”

“I like playing with my friends outside”

“I like nursery and I like learning how to do different things”

“Happy to hear good things about me. Me love my teachers”

“I love my new friends and my keyworker very much. I love new stories and dancing to Jump Start Johnny”

“Love going to the forest”

“I have been having lots of fun and working hard”

“I love nursery it is fun”

“I am going to try very hard to keep busy. I am going to play nice with all the children”

A different approach this week but I felt it important you have some initial feedback on our Parent Evening.

I hope everyone enjoys a lovely, relaxing October break. We look forward to returning for our 2nd term refreshed and ready to continue to motivate and inspire to fulfill our commitment to our children as we indicate in our motto:

Living to Learn, Learning to Live

Mrs Shields