WOW! Our Joint MacMillan Coffee Morning raised a staggering £1643.00. There are some expenses to be taken off but the amount raised is truly remarkable.

On behalf of Mrs Marie Clare Webster, HT Firpark Primary and myself we would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed in so many different ways.

Firstly our Enterprise Committees who planned and prepared so much for the day and who so warmly welcomed everyone on the day. The children in our campus are magnificent, we are so very proud of each and every one of them. Our Committees are led by Mrs Colette Ellis, DHT Firpark Primary and Miss Theresa Cawley, Principal Teacher in our school.

To our fabulous parents (and former parents) and staff who also prepared so much in advance and who served so beautifully on the day. We are indebted to you and simply could NOT do it without you. Thank you seems inadequate.

To all who baked and provided such delicious goodies, tot hose who contributed so generously with raffle prizes and to all who came along on the day to enjoy our wonderful MacMillan Coffee Morning. A fabulous Friday Morning and wonderful display of campus camaraderie, working alongside our friends and neighbours in Firpark.

Here’s some snapshots of the day.

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And the winner of the Birthday Bear is……

We may have to build an extension in Primary 5! The date of the birthday was 29th September – Coffee Morning Day.

More fundraising to end the week with our annual Ladies Night. A super atmosphere and a wonderfully enjoyable night. Once again we are indebted to our Fabulous Fundraisers who give so freely of their time, expertise and charm to ensure another successful fundraiser for our school. The Ladies Night raised £1197.05. A fabulous success. Thanks to all parents, friends of the school and numerous staff who all enjoyed a wee boogie on the dance floor.Once again, fantastic support from all associated with our school community. We are truly blessed.

Only a four day week this week but our nursery (when not busy eating cake) have packed in a whole lot of super learning. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs MM Murphy.

Last week we completed our ‘All About Me’ topic and to finish it off the children made vegetable people of themselves based on a Mr Potato Head theme. They created some superb people from a range of vegetables. They ended the week with a recap of everything they had learned over the last few weeks and chose the photographs they wanted to put in their floorbooks to support the learning.

Our new topic is Autumn.

In the story corner they have been listening to stories relating to Autumn and from this they decided to go on an Autumn walk.

They set out looking for signs of Autumn and have brought back a range of different coloured shaped leaves. The children examined their findings and discussed the different shapes, colours and sizes of them.

In art they looked out Autumn coloured paints and gathered the leaves they found and used them as paintbrushes to create their very own Autumn pictures. They used playdough to make leaf shapes.

Over in snack they were introduced to a variety of Autumn vegetables and some children were able to name some of them. As the week progressed they decided to weigh the vegetables to see which ones were the heaviest/lightest using the numbers on the scales. Linking to previous learning.

In numeracy they have also been looking at Autumn colours and the children have been asked to bring in signs of Autumn for the Science display. Conkers, pine cones, chestnuts and leaves all will be gratefully received.

On Wednesday we held our 2nd Induction of the year and welcomed some new children to experience the playroom. These children will be joining us in the near future.

Down in the forest the children have been on a ‘Bear Hunt’ please have a look at their adventures in the forest floorbook in the cloakroom. They also created Autumn pictures using natural resources that they discovered on the forest floor.

On Friday some of the children were able to visit the Big MacMillan Coffee morning in the dinner hall. They brought back some cakes for the ladies. Yum Yum!

Every picture tells a story:

Another great week in our excellent school community, lots of fun and fabulous learning.

As always, comments are very welcome.

Mrs Shields

WOW! What a fabulous week. Our staff and pupils have excelled in their ingenuity, innovation and inspirational approach to embracing Maths Week.

Beginning with our Monday morning launch. We were joined by Mrs Myra Lindsay, former Head Teacher in North Lanarkshire and now working specifically on Numeracy within our authority. Mrs Lindsay loved our upbeat, fun approach to motivating our school community to take forward Maths in every aspect of life.

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Moving onto our wonderful nursery staff and pupils who spent the week thoroughly enjoying such a wide range of Maths activities.

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Now we look to our school pupils who have used every inch of our school landscape to improve their Mathematical attainment.

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The above slideshow shows:

Mrs Carr, Mrs Findlay & Miss Coughlan:

With the focus very much on number and place value, the children enjoyed a range of activities culminating in ‘All the Fun of the Fair’, where P5 shared an afternoon of fun with numbers; hoopla, hook a duck, bullseye, chuck it in the number and many more. Lots of laughs and lots of learning!

Mrs McCulloch, Mrs McDerment, Mrs Cassidy & Mrs Murphy:

Problem solving in the yellow base. There’s been a murder!!!

Mrs Laird:

Here’s P2a having fun learning about measurement.
We used our problem solving skills to arrange ourselves in order from tallest to smallest
We could then see who was the tallest in our class and who was the smallest
When Mrs laird called out someone’s name we could say who that person was taller than and then who they were smaller than. we were able to compare each other’s heights
we drew around some of friends for our wall display

Primary 4b and Primary 6b had a delicious Maths Week. Have a look below:

Please come into school this week and have a look at the Good Work Wall where the focus is all on Maths.

Here’s is a look at each class’ summary in glorious technicolour.

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I can confidently say, our Maths Weeks was a huge success. Our pupils have enjoyed a plethora of ways to learn and all activities have related to Maths in the real world.

A HUGE well done to everyone, a most successful learning experience, a great way to raise attainment from nursery through to Primary 7.

You’ve seen some of the work, you’ve heard what the children thought. Now it’s over to you….Tell us what you think.

Please leave a comment or two….

Mrs Shields

I begin this week with a sneaky peek at what will be happening next week!

Our school community will embrace all that is mathematical this coming week. Ask your children all about what they’ve been doing in maths, be prepared to be surprised at the imaginative approaches coming to your children. Our forthcoming Good Work Wall, which will feature heavily on our Blog next week will have a focus of Maths. Exciting! A great way to enthuse our pupils, and staff, to search for inspirational ways to focus on numeracy. I’m sure you’ll be impressed.

P7c has set the standard, leading by example. They have been out and about conducting a traffic survey in preparation for forthcoming Maths Week. Tables and bar graphs next! Well done P7, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Cassidy, fabulous role models for all.

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Back to our week that was! Tuesday was our annual ‘Meet The Teacher’ evening, many thanks to all who came along. Our staff all chose individual workshops to present to their parent forum. I would greatly appreciate feedback and any ideas as to the format for next year. Please let me know your thoughts. We are always looking to improve our practice and can only do this meaningfully with your feedback and opinion.

Wednesday Mrs Rice accompanied our two Junior Road Safety Officers for this year to their inaugural meeting of the year. From this induction day our JRSOs will now present to our school community a workshop on the importance of keeping safe on the road. Peer learning in action, a great way for our senior pupils to lead the learning in our school. Well done to all involved.

This year Mrs Carr and Mrs Shevlin will oversee the work of our JRSOs. Thanks in advance to them for their commitment to our pupils safety at all times.

Once again I was out of school Thursday and Friday, apologies for not being around. Thursday and Friday was the annual Catholic Head Teachers Conference. A most insightful learning experience for me which I hope will improve my practice in school and therefore benefit all in our school community.

This Friday Mrs Sally Wilkinson began her work in our school. We have opted to use some of the school PEF money to have Mrs Wilkinson every Friday. During this time Mrs Wilkinson will work with P5 classes teaching Kodaly approach to music and will also spearhead our brand new ‘Petite Choir’ focussing on P2 & P3 and will re-establish our very popular ‘Only Boys Allowed’ choir featuring the boys from P5,6 & 7.  Once a fortnight Mrs Wilkinson will be in our school with our allotted time from NLC, during this time she will focus on P6 continuing the good work of Kodaly from last year. We are delighted to have secured Mrs Wilkinson, she is a fabulous asset to our school.

As always, our nursery is an excellent example of sector leading work, here’s a wee sneaky peek at all that’s been happening. Enjoy.

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A very busy week to end August. On Monday morning we held our weekly whole school assembly. I’ve added a number of photographs of our pupils who were nominated to be on The Good Work Wall. They show our wonderful pupils from P7 through to P1 taking pride of place ‘on the throne’ and telling the whole school all about their fabulous work. Our older pupils set an excellent example for our newest pupils which led to our brand new P1 pupils happily coming out to tell everyone about their work. Two weeks into school and already they can address an audience of over 500! Impressive! The confidence our children show as they relate how successful they have been in their learning is truly amazing. Be proud boys and girls, very proud.

Also on Monday we were delighted to welcome Mr Dan Cardle, HT of Our Lady’s High to our school. Mr Cardle enjoyed a tour of our school and took time to speak to all, a special welcome awaited in P7 with our pupils very keen to make an excellent first impression. Thanks to Mr Cardle for taking the time to come to school to meet everyone, we look forward to continuing our close working relationship with our secondary colleagues. Couple of photographs in the slideshow showing Mr Cardle having a wee chat with P7.

Tuesday morning our P1 pupils all smiled for the camera as they had their photographs taken for Motherwell Times. This was our final visit from ‘Alan’ who is a freelance photographer who works with local press. Alan has been a regular visitor to our school and has captured on camera so many important moments in our school life over a great many years. Alan is now off to pastures new and we wish him every success. Thanks for all your work in our school Alan, we’ll miss you.

Our first school Mass of the year was celebrated on Thursday morning in our school hall. Primary 6 led the liturgy with reverence, well done to everyone in our school who all participated so well in all aspects of the Mass. Thanks to Fr Martin who celebrated the Mass and to student Mark O’Donnell who came along to participate with our school.

We ended our week with our first Coffee Morning of the session. Primary Five were in charge and did so with style and panache! I am reliably informed all was great and they raised an incredible £652.60, amazing! My apologies for not being in attendance, we were called to a Head Teacher’s meeting which had to be re-scheduled from earlier in the week. Our grateful thanks to all of those who helped to make the event such a great success. To all who baked, handed in cakes, donated raffle prizes, came along to join in and to our merry band of happy helpers, we couldn’t do it without you. Special thanks to Primary 5 who were proud to lead our school in this event. Again, photographs in the slideshow.

It’s been a brilliant week in school and in nursery. Let’s hope we continue in this very positive mode.

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This week there’s a doubler with our youngest students. Two weeks worth of photographs to keep you up to date on all that’s happening in our fabulous nursery. The happy smiles say it all!

Here’s Mrs MM Murphy’s weekly update:

This week the children continue to get to grips with the nursery rules and routines. This will continue to help their transition into nursery.

The staff are getting to know their new children and the children are beginning to name their keyworker and other staff members. The staff continue to build positive relationships.

Through the story ‘The Scarecrow Who Didn’t Scare’ the children have been discussing their feelings using the puppets from the story and the puppet theatre.

In Literacy a new baby has prompted a variety of stories about new babies in the family. The new big sister was very proud to read the story to her friends.

In music they have been singing songs about feelings such as ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’

The children have been busy in the art listening and following the instructions to make playdough and then made happy and sad faces using what they made.

In snack the children continue to learn the snack routine and have used the healthy fruit and vegetables to make a range of happy and sad faces.

In numeracy the children continue to learn about comparing sizes, they have been measuring their feet this week and using the coloured squares to compare how big they are.

In construction the children are following the pictures to create their own models. A very popular activity.

The garden has been out of bounds for most of the week due to work being carried out but this has not stopped outdoor learning. The children have been out visiting the wider school community and have been sharing and taking turns on the Trim Trail and have been exploring the pitch and the softplay area. Each group has taken part in a range of races around the circle at the front of the nursery. This has involved listening and following instructions especially during their warm ups. They have been running, hopping, skipping and walking backwards. Great fun learning all round.

Next Wednesday sees the start of the 1st Forest Kindergarten block and the children have been preparing for this all week. Look out for evidence in the cloakroom next week of their Forest adventures.

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We have had a fabulous first full week at school. Here’s a wee sneaky look at what’s happening in our classes:

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Meanwhile in the nursery, they’ve had a very exciting week:

Our new nursery children are settling in well with the help of our Pre-school buddies who are helping them learn the nursery rules/routines. We are starting to get to know our new children through our ‘All About Me’ topic which will continue over the next few weeks.

In snack the children have been learning the snack routine and have been role-playing in the house corner.

Outdoors the children have been encouraged to share and take turns while using the bikes and scooters. They have been learning the importance of wearing helmets while on the bikes. The children have also been carrying out the nursery Eco tasks outdoors by feeding the birds, watering the plants and tidying the garden.

In the Literacy area the children have been introduced to the story buddies and have been listening to a range of stories about sharing, caring and friendships while using the story buddies. They have been discussing and recording while they are special.

In numeracy they have been exploring a variety of Smartboard activities relating to the ‘All About Me’ topic and they have been using the measuring tape to record their heights and compare sizes.

The art area has been busy with the children exploring the sand, water and the art materials. They have been using the new paint pens to draw their self portraits which are now displayed on the art wall.

All children have now had their nursery shoes painted and are proudly wearing them throughout the session.

Nursery photos coming soon, I promise.

Mrs Shields

A delightful return for all of our pre-school nursery pupils, our P2 to P7 pupils, our staff and our parents. A huge warm welcome to our new nursery pupils and their families, our P1 pupils and parents and our new staff members; Miss McAlinden in P6 and Miss Coughlan in P5.

A wee quiz to start the year, our blog this week for our whole school community is entitled – Find My Child.

I’ve taken photographs all around the school and nursery to capture a flavour of our first couple of days, have a look and see if you can spot your child in class.

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As always, please leave a comment or two. We would love to hear from you.

Mrs Shields

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Friday 23rd June saw the celebration of our Leavers Mass and Graduation.  Our whole school community, joined by parents, carers, grandparents and friends celebrated an uplifting Mass with Fr Chromy and Fr Bernard (representing MISSIO Scotland).  Our Charity Representatives also attended to receive donations amounting to £4, 800, raised over the year through our various fundraising events.  Then followed our Graduation ceremony and Award presentations. We are proud of the achievements of all our P7 Leavers and wish them every success as they move onto Secondary School.  Hopefully the photos do justice to a memorable, happy day! 

Here are our proud award winners:

Pope Francis Award:  Primary 6/7: Luca Cocozza, Charlie Foy, Luke Gillespie, Mollie Jeffrey, Anton Kelly, Abbie Maughan, Emma Maughan, Lewis McLuskey, Christopher Murphy, Samanta Sobczak

Primary 7a: Adam Beattie, Sophie Benham, Stas Brola, Lewis Campbell, Jayden Cuthbert, Abbie Gallacher, Emma Gaudenzi, Kayla Hunter, Ellie Hutchison, Marcin Kaminski, Donatha Kizube, Klaudia Koziol, Stephen Lochrie, Connor Marshall, Carlina McCarthy, Daniel McClenaghan, James McDonald, Megan McPhee, Samantha McVey, Robbie Nugent, Darci O’Neill, Karoline Ofori, Mark Simpson

Primary 7b: Imaan Afzal, Dylan Beggs, Kealin Breen, Anthony Devine, Martyna Fereniec, Samuel Greer, Reece Kerrigan, Christopher Lyon, Dylan McBride, Ashlyn McCreaddie, Alexander McKay, Katie McLaughlan, Nathan Miller, Joseph Moore, Matthew Munro, Niamh O’Neil, Natalia Pradzynska, Reece Quinn, Abi Rodgers, Kian Scullion, Martin Speirs, Connor Swan, Roksana Sykula, Piotr Szymanski, Dominik Tasior, Sophie White, Wiktor Wojciak, Martyna Zarnowska

Pat Connelly Award for Academic Excellence:  Matthew Munro & Katie McLaughlan
George Smith Award for Endeavour:  Joseph Moore & Abi Rodgers
Morgan Sindall Award for Sportsmanship:  Kian Scullion & Carlina McCarthy
Yeomanry Memorial:  Luca Cocozza & Samanta Sobczak
Winning House: Gilmour:  Captain ~ Kian Scullion & Vice Captain ~ Carlina McCarthy
David Colville (as voted for by Primary 7):  Winner: Ellie Hutchison
Runners Up: Luke Gillespie, Matthew Munro, Mollie Jeffrey

On Tuesday evening, we had our penultimate celebration with our Primary Seven pupils, prior to Graduation on Friday.  Having voted for a ‘Pizza Night’, P7 danced the night away and munched their way through a mountain of Pizza.  A FABULOUS night was had by all, as you can see from the photos…there was even a Magnum for everybody on the way home!

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A wonderful week celebrating 3 fabulous days of sports and fun.

All photographs, courtesy of Mr John Quinn, can be downloaded by clicking on the link below:

https://goo.gl/nEFSDu

Thanks again to John for sharing his time, skills and talents. We greatly appreciate the help of all of our parent body. our 3 day event could not have enjoyed the success it did without the assistance of our parents and carers.

A very exciting week for our pre-school nursery pupils too. On Friday we all enjoyed a wonderful (and emotional) graduation. Our pre-school nursery pupils were exemplary in their confidence, their singing and their excellent learning. Well done to all those headed off to Primary 1. We wish you every success.

And, as with everything in our nursery; it’s so good we do it twice!

Please let us know your thoughts, drop a wee comment or two. We’d love to hear from you.

Mrs Shields