Another fabulous week for so many reasons.

Monday evening firstly our teaching staff and then our parents were treated to a fantastic numeracy workshop providing practical ideas and suggestions to inspire and motivate young people in number work. A huge thanks to Mr Tom Renwick, whose work is renowned around Scotland, for two most interesting and useful talks. By Tuesday morning the evidence of his work was all around our school. Ask your child about “Target Ten” and “The Numeracy Map”…Be Inspired.

Also on Monday evening our Parent Council welcomed a number of new members, it is great to see so many of our parents interested in taking an active part in the life of our school community. Our Parent Council offers such wonderful support to our school and nursery and more specifically to me as head teacher, I am indebted to them for all they do. Thanks to all who came along, new and ‘nearly new’ members.

Wednesday was a very exciting day, a day to celebrate. Two of our P7 pupils along with Mrs Campbell and Mrs McCulloch set off for Wormit Primary in Fife to collect our Digital Schools Award. After a somewhat ‘adventurous’ journey our representatives arrived safely in Fife. Here’s some fab photos of all the action.

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science presented the first primary schools in Scotland to achieve ‘Digital School’ status with their award 22/2/17 at Wormit Primary School.

“Digital skills are an integral part of our everyday lives, and as such it is absolutely essential that we give young people the opportunities to understand and use them properly. The Digital Schools Awards Programme is a fantastic example of industry supporting education in Scotland and helping ensure our young people develop the skills and opportunities to flourish.’ Shirley Ann Somerville quote.

The first 21 schools who received the award were invited to the ceremony.

OLGA Cathedral were awarded status on 30th November 2016 becoming the 4th in Scotland and first in North Lanarkshire. Mr Lee Dunne validation officer who visited our school was present at the ceremony along with Alan Armstrong from Education Scotland, Anna Marie Wheelan and Jane Grey from Hewlett Packard who sponsor the award.

Schools were highly commended for the integration of digital technology in learning and teaching.

As you can see this is a most prestigious award and we are honoured to receive it in recognition of how we use technology to enhance teaching and learning in our school community. Well done to our wonderful ambassadors on the day.

Wednesday morning and afternoon our pre-school nursery children’s parents all enjoyed a workshop detailing the programme we have outlined to prepare our youngest pupils for school in August. My thanks to Mrs MM Murphy and Mrs MC Duffy for preparing and presenting these workshops.

Our Confirmandi were treated to a wonderful learning experience on Wednesday morning when we welcomed a number of S6 pupils from Our Lady’s High who came along to discuss with our children the importance of this forthcoming sacrament and to provide re-assuring practical advice for moving onto high school. Our oldest pupils thoroughly enjoyed this unique experience. A huge thanks to the pupils from OLHS and to Mr Damien McHugh, OLHS for facilitating this for our pupils.

Friday arrived dry and sunny, what a lovely day for a coffee morning, here’s some of the photos of the action. Well done to P7 on this their last ever coffee morning, they did us proud! Coffee morning raised an incredible ￡504.00. Thanks to all who came along.

At this coffee morning we welcomed two very special guests. Quinn Tominey and Leah Jane Loose came to join us. Don’t think they’re quite ready for cake just yet!

Our congratulations to Mrs Tominey and Mrs Loose who have recently given birth to their lovely daughters, it was great to see them both looking so well and so happy.

Friday was a very busy day most especially in P4/5 where Mrs Carr and her pupils held a ‘table top’ event. This is where each of the pupils, working in small groups present their research to their own classmates and other pupils and staff around the school. I was delighted to attend, what a fabulous experience. I was most impressed by both the quality and quantity of work these young people have put into this most worthwhile topic ‘The Rainforest’. The depth and range of research was amazing and the children’s own presentation and critique of their work admirable. Well done P4/5 and Mrs Carr, great work.

It’s not every class who has their very own tiger protecting their entrance!!!

Also on Friday our school band gave their very first public appearance following their very first rehearsal! WOW, this was incredible. Well done to all of our young musicians and  Mr Cruikshank for all their work. I look forward to our Magical Musical Morning, it promises to be a great show.

Meanwhile, there’s still some very strange goings on in our nursery…There’s aliens afoot!

As promised last week it is now the turn of the afternoon children to showcase how well they have been looking after their Aliens and teaching them all about planet Earth. The Aliens have experienced a range of sports from tennis, football, rugby and swimming. They have been at the car wash, in the park and at the shops. They have been learning to play the drums and keyboard. They have even been introduced to our newborn Earthlings which made them a little homesick. But don’t worry Daniel let them look at their planet through his telescope and the home sickness subsided. Please have a look at the fantastic adventures our Aliens have been having.

The groups have been out and about visiting the local traffic lights and have taken their group Aliens with them to help them learn all about road safety. This will continue next week. Look out for the pics of these adventures coming soon.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, all comments most welcome.

Mrs Shields

 

 

 

 ￡3963.98 Incredible!

This is the amount raised from our Friday Fitness Fun in February. An amazing amount of money which will benefit every single child in our school community.

This money will allow our Fabulous Fundraisers to provide:

High School ties for all of our P7 pupils

Polo shirts for our new P1 intake

Books for all school pupils to encourage reading for enjoyment….watch out for out of school learning opportunities for all.

A secure cycle shed for our nursery pupils to encourage our Play on Pedals initiative

Whole school disco for P1 through to P7 – Shorts ‘n Shades once the weather is a wee bit warmer

P7 leavers extravaganza….what it is to be has yet to be decided-Exciting!

Contribution of ￡10 to every child attending Kilbowie outdoor centre

And so much more……..

A HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed and well done to all of our pupils who increased their energy levels and had great fun promoting all the fitness opportunities in our yard.

It’s worth noting many of the outdoor activities in our yard are there due to the Fundraising Committee, as are football strips, netball bibs and cross country all weather jackets which all make an appearance later in this blog.

REMEMBER REMEMBER:

Mr Tom Renwick, an infamous Scottish Mathematics Guru will provide a workshop for all parents on Monday 20th February at 6pm in school hall. This is an event not to be missed, he is a fantastic speaker who can help you, as parents and carers, to assist your children with their numeracy skills.

Monday Evening 6pm in School Hall. Come along, it will be amazing.

Meanwhile,  on-going in school. On Tuesday P6 enjoyed their first visit to OLHS High School, a very successful day. Well done P6. Mrs Sinclair and all staff at OLHS were delighted with our children’s behaviour and positive attitude to learning. Long may it continue.

Also on this day our P4 pupils with their families celebrated a beautiful Enrolment Mass. It was lovely to strengthen our relationship with Cathedral Parish and Fr. Chromy, our new priest.

Wednesday 8th February our Confirmandi were enthralled with their guest speaker, Mrs Barbara Couper, Director of Scottish Catholic Education Service. A HUGE thanks to Mrs Couper for taking time out of her very busy schedule to come along to motivate and inspire our P6 & P7 pupils and they were indeed motivated and inspired. An excellent learning experience for all.

Towards the end of the week we enjoyed some more sporting success:

On Thursday our cross country runners were once again in action. The trials for the forthcoming finals was held. A very ‘nervous’ Mrs MM Murphy explained this was a new course, unchartered territory! But WOW 19 of our young runners have qualified for the finals. What an incredible achievement.

Well done to all who participated. Grateful thanks to Mrs MM Murphy, Mrs McCarthy, Mrs Harrison and Mr Nugent who give of their time each week to work with the children after school. Bring on the finals!

Friday brought an outing for our netball and football teams, they headed off to Ravenscraig to enjoy a sporting tournament. Our netballers won 9 out of 10 games and our footballers remain unbeaten. Excellent effort from all. Huge thanks to Active Sports personnel who train our netballers, Mrs McBirnie (AKA Willie the football coach) who led our footballers to victory and to Mrs MC Duffy who facilitated all of the event and cheered the loudest!

Lunchtimes in our school are always interesting events…..walk away from the dining hall and you’ll find a number of children actively involved in a variety of activities some of which include:

Our solo singers are busy rehearsing in the music room with Mrs Shevlin, our Young Leaders, supervised by our classroom assistants are beavering away with our youngest pupils encouraging team sports and our Burns Recital pupils, working with Miss Cawley, can be found rehearsing their pieces for the forthcoming competition. Here they are in action..

And as if that’s not enough the nursery is, as always, a hive of activity.

Every child in nursery has had the opportunity to take their own special group Alien home. This week the morning children’s photographic evidence of their Alien adventures has been showcased on the blog and next week will be the turn of the afternoon children. Look out for Aliens in Summerlee, the Transport Museum, local parks, meeting some of our animals here on Earth and even in Rome sitting on the Spanish Steps. Our Aliens are far travelled and have been learning lots about life on planet earth!
Our Alien invasion continues as the children begin to teach their Aliens all about road safety next week.

Another most successful week in the life and times of Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral School Community. Fulfilling our motto:

Living to Learn, Learning to live

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a week!

Tuesday morning saw the launch of our Gold Sports Award. Our school was filled with dignitaries who came along to join in our success. There was representation from:

Sports Scotland

NLC Leisure

North Lanarkshire Council

Motherwell Football Club

Sporting Coaches from rugby, football, tae kwon do, netball…etc etc

HUGE well done to everyone involved most particularly Mrs Marie Clare Duffy, Principal Teacher and Events Manager Extraordinaire! Our Wonderful Health Committee led by Mrs Loose and Miss Love,  Cameron, Euan & Mollie our fabulous musicians, Mr Robbie Stewart from Sports Scotland, Mrs Munro & Mrs Miller for catering and Donatha Kizube our nominated photographer on the day. Enjoy the spectacle, we LOVED it. What a fabulous morning.

We started with everyone in the hall watching as our dignitaries were piped and drummed in, we then were treated to a fantastic display of fitness fun from our health committee. Mr Robbie Stewart from Sports Scotland then presented our Gold Flag to our school and we finished with our whole school (and all the guests) joining together in a Sloshathon! Absolutely brilliant.

Special vote of thanks to Dawn Cunningham from Motherwell Football Club who invited every child, and their parents, along to Motherwell Football Game on Saturday 3rd February free of charge! What a super, generous offer. 490 tickets were given out on Friday. Dawn was very impressed with our commitment to ensuring we all stay fit and healthy. Thanks Dawn, your generosity is much appreciated.

The videos and photographs of our Award Ceremony speak for themselves.

Also on Tuesday morning a team of our senior pupils, accompanied by Miss Cawley, Principal Teacher, set off to battle The Annual Euro Quiz. The team did exceptionally well, missing out on a place in the final by two points! Well done to the team, looking very smart and proud.

On Tuesday evening a large number of our staff represented our school at the Annual Teachers Mass in O.L.G.A Cathedral Church. It was wonderful to see so many of our staff there. Well done also to Abbie, Emma, Katie, Matthew, Reece and Hollie who served on the altar so reverently. We’re very proud of your committent to your parish boys and girls.

More success followed throughout the week as one of our Primary Three pupils, Julia Gawel, has won first place in the overall P1-P3 category in the Mother Tongue, Other Tongue Competition. Julia will have here verse published in an anthology. Well done Julia!

The official award ceremony will take place in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Saturday 11th March, we look forward to joining Julia on that day to share in her success. What a fabulous accolade for our school. Watch this space for photographs of the event.

We ended this fantastic week on a brilliant note. Our Primary Four Assembly was incredible. On the theme of the Rain Forest our Primary Four children took us on an amazing, 45 minute long, experiential journey of learning through the rainforest. The knowledge the children have is tremendous and the sense of their important role in protecting our wonderful planet is exemplary. We all learned so much from our P4 pupils, and in such an interactive, fun way too. Well done to everyone in P4. Special thanks to staff directly involved: Mrs McDerment, Miss McAvoy, Mrs Carr, Mrs Rice, Miss Tannahill, Mrs McAllister, Mrs Campbell & Mrs McCoy. Here’s a wee flavour of the performance in case you missed out on the day.

And we wonder why we feel tired by Friday! What a week, most exciting EVER!

Meanwhile, our youngest pupils continue their fascinating learning experiences in our wonderful nursery. Here’s what they’ve been up to:

On Monday Space time stood still again as we celebrated Chinese New Year. The children had noodles and prawn crackers for snack. They danced to Chinese music pretending to be a dragon, they scribed Chinese words and numbers and created their own Chinese lanterns. Outside they played a red envelope shape matching game. They also explored dry noodles and added water to them to see what happened. This was a very popular activity and it led to discussions of the dried food Astronauts eat in Space. Due to the children’s curiosity this will continue next week.

Back in Outer Space the playroom now resembles our Solar System. Please take a minute to look and ask the children to name some of the planets.

Our big tree has been replaced with a rocket right in the middle of the playroom.

In Science the children have been naming and sorting the planets by size. An easy way to remember the planets names.

In snack this week the children made star and crescent Moon shaped toast and made Star Wars cakes towards the end of the week. Roleplay continues to be popular in Mission Control.

In the music area the children have been learning more songs about Space and the planets. Listen out for these on your way home.

Outdoors the children have been using the torches and Space projector to explore darkness and the vastness of the sky.

In art they have been making Alien headbands and role-playing with them They have explored Martian gunk in the water tray.

Play on pedals continues. Please see evidence displayed in the cloakroom of the children’s progress.

Week 1 of this Forest Kindergarten block started on Wednesday with Miss MacMullen leading this group ably assisted by Mrs Imray. Feedback from the children has been positive. Please see photographs displayed in the foyer and evidence of their adventures in the floorbook displayed in the cloakroom.

And now in glorious technicolour:

As always, thanks for reading. We hope our Blog gives you a flavour of all the learning in our school community. It is such a vibrant place to be, such wonderful learning opportunities for all involved.

Please leave a comment, or two, or three….

Remember: No blog next week as it is the long weekend.

Mrs Shields

 

 

 

 

 

This week we began with Mrs Marie Clare Duffy, Miss Theresa Cawley and three of our senior pupils representing our school at the launch of ‘Building Stronger Communities in Motherwell’ at the Civic Centre. This new, innovative project will see our P7 pupils involved in learning more of the history of Motherwell, working with our Secondary colleagues and producing some creative works of music, drama and art celebrating all that was great about Motherwell, all that is great about Motherwell and how we can ensure all will always be great in Motherwell. Exciting stuff, watch this space for updates of progress.

Tuesday morning we welcomed Mr Billy Byrne, personnel from North Lanarkshire Council who scrutinised all of our Fire Health and Safety. I am happy to report Mr Byrne was delighted with our safety procedures all around school and nursery and with the level of training overtaken by all staff. Gold star in safety for us. We will continue to ensure we offer a safe environment for all in our school community.

Wednesday we celebrated our Scottish heritage honouring Rabbie Burns.

Here’s P5b designing their very own tartans:

Wednesday evening we held our first Fabulous Fundraiser meeting of 2017, ably chaired by Mrs Anne Munro. At this meeting we discussed forthcoming events for our pupils and parents. They include:

Fit Friday in February – Sponsored fitness event for all from nursery through to P7 on Friday 10th February. Further info coming this week.

Primary 7 Coffee Morning – Their very last one. This will take place on Friday 24th February at 10am in school dining hall. Come along and have a coffee (or tea), eat some delicious home made cakes, have a wee chat and maybe even win a prize or two.

Shorts ‘n Shades Disco – Scheduled for Tuesday 23rd May for all from P1 through to P7

Bag2School Collection – Wednesday 24th May, again, further details nearer the time

Race Night – Scheduled for  Friday 9th June in St. Bride’s Hall. Our annual fundraising event which provides a great platform for all parents, staff and friends of our school community to come together, have a wee flutter, maybe win a raffle prize or two and raise funds for our school community. This is always a fabulous evening. Save the date!

Our Fabulous Fundraisers do an incredible job for all of our children, the group are a happy friendly group who would love some new members. Why not consider coming along (bring a friend) to our next meeting on Wednesday 26th April at 7pm in the staffroom. Guaranteed great fun, I promise.

Prior to Christmas our Enterprise Committee, led by Miss Cawley embarked on a fundraising venture selling ‘Lucky Bags’ in and around the school each interval time. They raised 144.79.

Here’s the proud members relaxing after all their hard work:

Finally on Friday we finished on a very BRIGHT note!

Our High Viz day was a great success. Well done to Claire Brady, Mrs Carr and all the ibike crew. We had a colourful fashion show from our committee members and prizes were awarded to the best outfits in infants, juniors, seniors and staff!!!!

Photos coming soon, watch this space but be prepared, you may need your sunglasses!

This week we also welcomed a new temporary teacher to our school. Mrs Helen Ferry will join us from week beginning 6th February, taking over 2 days per week in P6/7 when Mrs Loose goes on her well earned maternity leave. Mrs Marie Clare Duffy (a well kent face) will overtake the other 3 days in P6/7. Mrs Ferry worked with P6/7 over Thursday and Friday to get to know the children, their learning plans and the school itself, minimising any disruption to our children’s learning. This is Mrs Loose’s last week in school, let’s make it a great one for her.

This coming Tuesday we welcome a host of invited guests to our school to celebrate our Gold Sports Award, an exciting Tuesday coming up……see next week’s Blog for all the details.

Meanwhile, our youngest pupils have been very busy this week with lots of strange, extra terrestrial visitors! Here’s Mrs Murphy’s weekly update:

This week in nursery the children have been showing their friends photographs and recalling the Alien visits to their homes. The children are so excited about the house visits and a big thank you goes to the parents for taking the time to email all the photographs of these fab adventures. Once everyone has had the opportunity to take their Alien on an adventure we will showcase the photographs on the blog.

The children have been visiting Motherwell Library this week looking for books about Space and low and behold they discovered a rocket in the Library. They chose Space stories and Mrs Little/Mrs Kinnear read them in the quiet area. The children learned all about using the Library and how to borrow books. They will return the books before their due date this will help them to be responsible citizens.

In the garden the children used the number rocket (created by Mrs Harrison one of our students) to count forwards and backwards as they blasted into Outer Space. This was a fun activity and almost every child in the nursery has taken part.

Space exploration continues in the playroom as the children use the props to role-play Astronauts, Mission Control and Alien visits. Their play has been recorded on a mindmap which is displayed in Mission Control.

The Space tent has proved popular as the children discover the glow in the dark Moon and Stars inside.

In Literacy they have been reading the ‘Little Moon’ story and using the props to learn the names of the planets.

In the art area they explored Moon sand and created telescopes from junk to help them see the Moon and Stars at night. They painted textured pictures of craters and placed them on the display.

In numeracy they have been exploring the new Space jigsaws. Playing Space number ring games and making Aliens from 2d shapes.

On Wednesday Space time stood still as we celebrated Burns Day. The children listened to Scottish stories, had fun dancing and singing to Scottish music, created tartan pictures, had the opportunity to taste Haggis, Neeps and Tatties for snack and took part in a Welly Wanging competition outside. Great fun was had by all.

On Friday the nursery could be seen from Outer Space as we joined the school in Hi Viz day. The children wore brightly coloured clothing and learned how this can keep them safe in the dark.

Play on Pedals continues twice weekly, please see the photographs displayed in the cloakroom to see the children’s progress so far.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read all about our exciting school community.

Please take a moment to leave a comment, or two.

Mrs Shields

 

This week has been dominated by enrolment. It was our first opportunity to welcome our newest pupils to our school. Enrolment took place each  afternoon. It was lovely to welcome many ‘well kent’ wee faces (from our nursery) and some new ones too, all can be assured of a warm, friendly welcome to school. August seems a long way away but I’m sure you’ll agree time passes very quickly.

If you know of anyone who is within our catchment area and has not yet enrolled their child for next session please encourage them to come along to school as soon as possible.

Also this week we have welcomed another ‘newbie’ to our school. Fr. Chromy came along on Tuesday to enrol our P3 pupils with their parents and carers in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Our P3 children were delighted to be the first to show off their wonderful behaviour and active participation to Fr. Chromy. He was very impressed. A huge thanks to Fr. Chromy for taking the time to come to school to enrol our pupils in this important step in their spiritual development. Thanks also to Miss Cawley who provided a most insightful and practical guide to helping your child prepare for the Sacrament, such a well attended workshop. Thanks to all who took the time to come along and support our pupils, we are encouraged and inspired by your involvement.

Tuesday evening our enrolment continued with our P6 & P7 pupils coming along to O.L.G.A Cathedral Church for their enrolment Mass. Once again, as a school, we are so grateful for the active participation of our parents and carers, our children’s learning is greatly enhanced by your dedication to all we do in our school community. We enjoyed a beautiful Mass with all of our Confirmandi pupils and staff actively participating in the Mass alongside our parents, carers and our Parish community. Fr. Chromy was left in no doubt of the commitment of all in our school community to ensuring we provide the best possible spiritual journey for our young people and their families. Once again, thanks to all who came along and a huge thanks to Fr. Chromy for his time and effort to very quickly become a member of our school community of faith and learning.

A wee reminder: Workshops planned for this coming Tuesday evening for P3, P6 & P7 will no longer take place. Fr. Chromy has opted to wait to get to know everyone first of all.

Wednesday of this week we welcomed Mr Peter Martin to our school. Peter is a much sought after speaker, well that’s one of his many roles. Peter is probably best known as a TV and radio sports presenter who has interviewed almost every famous footballer ever! He has an impressive line up of interviewees. I am incredibly grateful to Peter for taking time out of his busy filming schedule to come and motivate and inspire our Confirmandi. He gave a fabulous presentation to our pupils, speaking eloquently and with such passion for success, we were all inspired.

Big thanks to Mrs Cathy Munro who facilitated this visit, Peter is her wee brother!

Here’s Peter in action:

As a wee added extra Peter has invited our pupils to come along to his studio and watch the filming in action, what a fabulous opportunity. Our grateful thanks to Peter for his generosity of time. Watch this space for studio photos when we send 15-20 of our children along.

On Thursday and Friday of this week each of our pupils enjoyed a wonderful, insightful talk from SSPCA personnel. Our children learned of the importance of looking after our animals both at home and in the wild. A very exciting learning experience. Many thanks to SSPCA personnel who came along to deliver theses talks. A very busy 2 days going round all of our classes.

COMING SOON: Please note, this coming Friday we have a ‘High Viz Day’. Letters are being issued on Monday. On Friday we invite all pupils to come along wearing their brightest and boldest clothes. We have a planned ‘fashion’ parade on Friday afternoon. Maybe best you have your sunglasses handy for next week’s blog ‘BRIGHT, COLOURFUL, REFLECTIVE’ photos coming up!

Meanwhile, although many of them have been busy enrolling in ‘the big school’ they still have found time to enjoy a super week in nursery. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs M M Murphy.

On Monday the children arrived to discover that over the weekend an Alien Space ship had landed in the nursery. Ten little Aliens appeared speaking in a strange accent. The Aliens came with a bag, a toothbrush, a book about Space and a special letter for the children to ask if they could visit each child at home to learn all about planet Earth.

The children didn’t know their names so each group decided to name their Alien.

AM PM
Brilliant Bluebells Spud Zig Zag

Fantastic Foxgloves Spacegirl Cruz

Happy Heathers Pixie Sweetie

Super Snowdrops Starlight Mac

Terrific Thistles Rainbow Sweetpea

Each child will take their new friend home for 2 nights and can record their adventures in the little book. Already the children who have taken them home have recorded their visits and sent in some fabulous photographs as evidence. These Aliens have already learned lots about our Planet and how we live.

Back in the playroom the children have been super busy roleplaying Aliens and Spacemen with the new costumes.

In Literacy they painted the planets onto the big display, they scribed the names of the planets, sun, moon and stars. They made a literacy rocket with a range of Space words and painted their own underpants to go with ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ display. They made shape rockets and scribed their names on each square. These are also displayed so please have a look.

In Numeracy the children have been using the big SmartBoard to complete a range of planet and Space jigsaws. Some of these have been quite tricky but the children have taken on the challenge and persevered to complete them.
They used 3d shapes to build their own rockets and used the big waffles and worked together to build and blast off their creation. They used the props to sing some Space related number songs and played a total eclipse shape game.
In Science they did an experiment outside with a rocket. They did a big countdown to help it blast into Space.

In snack the children have made Alien biscuits, Minion cakes, and planet pizzas. They have been busy role-playing in Mission control counting 10 – Blast Off.

Outdoors they have changed the fort into a Space station and made the Solar System. They scribed the words for this and used the Space numberline to identify the numbers. They also made shape rockets and Aliens to hang on the tree. They used the tyres as planets and played the meteor game.
They made Alien ice cubes and when they melted they found a spaceship hidden in the bottom of it. The children described what the ice cubes felt like.

In art the children used various art materials to make their own shape Alien faces. They used the junk to complete the controls for the Space station and made rockets, Spaceships and jet packs for the Spacemen. They role-played with them throughout the playroom. They used playdough to make stars, planets and the moon.

The ‘Growing Together Learning Forever’ parental workshop got underway on Wednesday. There are still a few spaces available, if you are interested please speak to Mrs Little who is delivering the programme.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read all about our wonderful school community. We look forward to your comments.

Mrs Shields

I begin 2017 by wishing everyone connected to our school community a healthy, happy new year.

It was lovely on Monday to see all of our pupils from nursery through to Primary 7 all enjoying re-uniting with their friends and our staff.

As always we began our week as a community of faith and learning joining together in prayer and making our first big decision of the year.

As a school we decided on Monday at assembly that our resolution for this coming year would be to endeavour to be happier in school and to make sure we show our happiness on our faces. A smiley new year resolution for all in our school community.

Just before the Christmas break our Health Committee had all our pupils invovled in an anti-bullying competition, the winners posters are now displayed all around the school at pupil height for everyone to see. Well done to all involved and a huge thanks to Mrs Loose, Miss Love and our wonderful health Committee. We all enjoyed celebrating with our winners at a special anti-bullying assembly. Here’s some of the lucky winners.

We welcomed 3 new pupils to our school and between now and February we are welcoming our final 10 nursery pupils. Let’s hope all who are new to our school community enjoy a warm welcome and a happy smile greets them wherever they are in our campus.

Throughout the week our pupils have been getting used to early mornings where it is still dark when they leave the house. With this in mind our ibike committee has been busy planning our forthcoming ‘Be Bright be Seen’ High Viz Day. I met with the committee members and Mrs Carr during the week and we discussed how best to take this forward. I was most impressed by our children’s innovative approach to ensuring everyone arrives safely at school no matter their chosen method of transport. High Viz Day is planned for Friday 27th January.

Also during this week I met with Mrs Duffy and Jenny, our active sports co-ordinator, to plan our celebration for our recent Gold Sports Award, another great day planned for our pupils to celebrate their fabulous success. This will take place on 31st January.

On Wednesday morning Mrs Campbell and myself took some of our pupils to Cathedral Church for 10am Mass to welcome Fr Chromy to our Parish. The children selected had already volunteered to participate in the forthcoming Family Mass this Sunday at 10.30am. Fr Chromy was delighted to see the children there and we look forward to working with him to provide an excellent spiritual journey for our children.

Our P6 Pope Francis faith Award children also began an important step in their programme which will continue over the next 2 years.

This coming week we look forward to welcoming our new intake for this coming August, enrolment takes place each day between 1.30pm and 3.00pm.

On Tuesday of this week our Primary Three children will be enrolled in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There is a workshop for parents/carers at 1.45pm with the Enrolment Service beginning at 2.15pm. My thanks, in advance to Miss Cawley for leading this workshop and Fr. Chromy for leading the Enrolment Service. This will be Fr Chromy’s first official duty in our school.

That same evening we will welcome all of our P6 & P7 Confirmandi pupils, their parents/carers and sponsors to O.L.G.A Cathedral Church for our Confirmandi Enrolment Mass at 7pm. Another date for Fr Chromy’s diary! Poor man, it’s a busy life being connected to our school, but a very rewarding one.

Meanwhile, our youngest pupils have ad a very busy first week back. Here’s all the gossip from Mrs MM Murphy:

Welcome back to all of our children and a HUGE welcome to the children who have joined us this week. All new children are settling in well.

After returning from our holidays we have all came back down to earth with a BIG bump but don’t worry because we won’t be there for long. Our new topic this term is Space.

The children have been discussing what they all ready know about Space and what they would like to learn about.

In literacy they read a story ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ from this they designed their own Aliens, watch out for these soon. They looked at space related words using visuals and by next week they will be recalling and writing them for the display. The children have been learning some new songs and have been following the action songs on the Smartboard.

In numeracy they made rockets from a range of 2d shapes. They used the construction to make their own space ship and helmets. They sat in the space ship and counted down 10 to Blast off. Some children opted for the big carpet shape tiles to create their own rocket, then used the helmets to roleplay Spacemen. They have also been exploring the rocket jigsaws.

In Expressive arts they designed their own underpants from the story and some of these have made it on to the number washing line in the maths area. They used a variety of art materials to make their own flying saucers and drew their own Aliens on them. These can be seen displayed in the art area. They painted 2 huge big rockets for the display. They have been busy exploring moon rocks in the water tray and making stars from playdough.

The house corner is beginning to change into our very own Space station, this is a work in progress and the children will be working on mission control next week. (Completely made from junk)

Outdoors the children have been sharing their ideas for our outdoor area, they made some planets from junk and are planning to make their own Solar System outdoors. This all came to a halt when the snow arrived. Have a look at the fun they had on Thursday.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, hope you enjoyed it. Let us know your thoughts, please leave a comment.

Mrs Shields

Fabulous shows from our oldest and our youngest students.

Tuesday of this week our Primary 4, 5, 6 & 7 pupils enthralled their audiences as they boogied on down to Hosanna Rock, a very upbeat, musical Nativity story. A fabulous afternoon and evening. Thanks so much to everyone involved and thanks to all our audience who so willingly joined in singing and dancing to the music, a wonderful atmosphere of good spirit and joy.

Photographs are courtesy of Mr John Quinn, his photographs really brings the whole performance to life. If you were there in the audience have a wee look and see if you can find yourself!

All photographs can be accessed by clicking on the link below. Alternatively copy and paste the link and download through your browser.

https://goo.gl/T7AIiY

Here’s a wee taster:

And so to Friday, and what a Friday it was. Our nursery boys and girls excelled on stage, they were truly magnificent and they most certainly sang a song to make us smile.

Here’s all the photographs courtesy of Mrs Kirstie Harrison, one of our fabulous classroom assistants.

A HUGE thanks and well done to everyone in our nursery (and school) for their contribution to this brilliant show.

 

 

WERE YOU THERE? Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the show.

A fabulous show from our youngest school pupils. They sang, danced, acted and thoroughly enjoyed showing their many talents and skills. Well done to everyone in Primary 1,2&3 you are amazing.

A HUGE thanks to all teaching and support staff for their dedication to ensuring an excellent, joyful learning experience for all of our pupils. We are truly blessed with our wonderfully talented and committed staff.

Photographs can be accessed by following the link below.

A huge thanks to Mr John Quinn (Grace’s dad) for his wonderful photography which provides lasting memories for everyone.

Best thing to do is to either click on link directly or copy and paste it into your web browser and will work from there. All individual photos can be downloaded etc as usual.

https://goo.gl/yizqP5

Here’s a wee taster:

Next week look out for wonderful Upper School ‘Hosanna Rock’ and our fabulous nursery ‘Ralph the reindeer’.

WERE YOU THERE? Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the show.

Thank you

Mrs Shields

On Friday 25th November we were treated to a fabulous learning example from Primary 5. Their assembly theme was ‘Growth Mindset’ promoting a ‘yes you can if you try’ attitude to all.

Here’s the learning in word and picture from the primary 5 pupils:

I enjoyed our assembly, I loved learning about Growth and Fixed Mindset.
Cruz Dunbar

My assembly taught me to never give up and always try my best. My favourite part
Daniel Watters

I really enjoyed doing our assembly, I learned so much about the brain.
Isla Donnelly

In our assembly, I learned a lot of things especially about Growth and Fixed Mindset. It was phenomenal.
Steven Smyth

Our assembly was amazing, my favourite part was singing Everything’s Controlled by the Brain.
Kieran McGonagle

Our assembly was amazing, I loved it. I liked the song Follow Your Dreams.
Victoria Korcipa

I loved my part as I did a silly dance and everyone laughed. I am going to try hard to stretch my brain now that I know about Growth Mindset.
Gyozo Hodos

I learned about fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. If you want to learn and not give up you have a growth mindset- Oliwia Malek

I enjoyed dancing in our assembly- Nikla Reichel

I enjoyed learning the song Your Fantastic Elastic Brain- Molly Tominey

I enjoyed making all the mums and dads laugh. I learned that I should never give up.- Diana Delina

I learned that the cerebellum sends messages to the body so you can do everyday sports.- Hayden Gilmour

I liked making my mum and dad laugh- James Munro

I enjoyed dancing on the stage- Anna McGhee

I liked when we were singing High Hopes- Connor Kerrigan

I know that the word amygdala is Latin for almond- Lucas Lowe

I learned that you need a growth mindset to go further in what you want to do- Kyle Ilgunas

My favourite part was saying my lines and singing out. I learned that the cerebellum sends messages to the brain.- Roark McShane

I thought the Assembly encouraged me to try new things. – Arianna Bosco P4/5

Growth mindset inspires me to try new things and I was confident about doing my part in the Assembly. – Sarah Allan P4/5

I had fun. I learned about growth mindset. I liked doing my Assembly. – Katie Forrest. P4/5

From our Assembly I learned that you can do anything if you try and a mistake is just another way to learn. – Paul Latimer P4/5

I am inspired by other people’s success and I hope you are too. – Anna Devine P4/5

I like having a growth mindset because it makes me feel like I can do anything. Lauren Dornan P4/5

I had a fun time. We learned lots of new things. I liked doing my part. Connor Brennan P4/5

Well done to Mrs Carr, Mrs Irwin, Mrs Rimmer, Miss Campbell and Miss Falconer for all their hard work but the biggest thanks has to go to our wonderful Primary Five pupils, they have inspired us all.

Digital School Award:

This week our school had a visit from Mr Lee Dunn who is the UK validator for schools applying for the newly launched Digital Schools Award. Mr Dunn spent the morning in school speaking with the children, learning about all aspects of digital learning in our school and interviewing Mrs Campbell, Mrs McCulloch and myself. Mr Dunn now goes and formulates his report which is then forwarded to HP (Hewlett Packard) for verification. We hope to hear the outcome before Christmas.  Should our school be successful we will be the first school in North Lanarkshire to attain this award, fingers and toes crossed.

A huge thanks to Mrs McCulloch, Mrs Campbell, Mrs Stevenson, Mrs Cunningham and all the boys and girls who so confidently presented their work. A special thanks to our presenters on the day:

Tour – Niamh, Katie, Matthew,

Presentation
Introduction – Joseph
Digital Project – Niamh and Katie along with Digital Curriculum Book
Yammer/Glow/Studyladder – Matthew
Sway – Joseph
Coding – Reece
Christopher – Clicker 6, Units of Sounds, Lexion
EAL children – Matthew, Itranslate etc
ICT Crew – Matthew Katie Reece
Conclusion – Joseph

Children working with other classes
P2a Martyna F, Abi, Ashlyn, Martyna Z, Imaan
P2b Natalia, Kealin, Sophie, Dylan McB

A fabulous way to demonstrate the excellent ICT skills and more importantly our young people as confident individuals who are excellent ambassadors for our school. Watch this space.

A big thanks also to any parent, grandparent, friend of the school and nursery who has ever commented on our Blog, Mr Dunn was most impressed.

And, as if that’s not enough for one week…. Look what has been fitted in our yard:

Here’s some Primary Sevens looking on longingly…..

And finally they get to have a go…..

Our Trim trail will be in use very soon once our risk assessment is in place and our signs indicating how many can play at each item are secured. Be patient boys and girls.

We hope to use our trim trail for PE next week to allow every child the opportunity to learn how to use the equipment safely and fairly.

And now for our nursery news:

This week in nursery the children have been celebrating all their successes.

The 2nd Forest Kindergarten came to an end on Wednesday with the parents joining the children in the forest for their graduation. The children showed how confident they have become exploring and managing their own risks in the forest site. The children and their parents were set a challenge. Using a visual board they set off to match different things that they had learned could live or grow in the forest over the last few weeks. E.g Owls (from the Owl Babies story). The parents took on the challenge and enjoyed it as much as the children did. All children received a special certificate to celebrate their experience. The feedback from parents was excellent and we would like to thank the parents for coming along and supporting their children.

The success continued with the conclusion of the first block of the ‘Play on Pedals’ programme. This has been a fantastic new initiative lead by our enthusiastic instructors, Mrs Duffy and Mrs Imray who have broadened their own knowledge of balancing skills and bike maintenance through the programme. The children were very proud to show off their new skills to their parents and the parents couldn’t believe the bike facts and maintenance information that the children had also learned over the 6 weeks. Each child has improved at some level and have increased their vocabulary by learning all the names of the parts of the bike and how important it is to continue maintaining their own bikes to make them safe to ride in the future. Each child received a certificate to celebrate their success.

While all this was going on the nursery was gearing up to celebrate St Andrew’s day. The children made Scottish flags and tartan from a range of different materials. Have a look at the photographs to see all the different opportunities they had to follow positional mathematical language. They celebrated with Scottish music and dancing and finished off the Shindig with some lovely Scottish shortbread.

`

A very successful week at nursery!!

Show practice continues and letters have been issued to inform parents of any clothing required. If you have received a letter please provide the items as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued support.

As always, thanks for reading, please feel free to comment on any aspect of our Blog.

Mrs Shields

 

 

 

A HUGE well done to our fabulous choir who won ‘A Festival of Music’ on Saturday morning. The competition took place in our school, where we sang with 5 choirs: St. Teresa’s, St. Aidan’s, St. Rose of Lima & St. Bridget’s. All choirs sung beautifully, well done to all who participated.

The adjudicators were most impressed by our choir’s beautiful tone, their excellent dynamics, their attention to the conductor and their obvious enjoyment of singing. Thanks to all parents for taking the time to bring the children along. Special thanks to Mr Gerry Carr who played so professionally for all choirs, including our own and to  Mrs McNally (Rebecca’s mum) who has made us lovely O.L.G.A Cathedral bows in school colours, our choir not only sounded beautiful they also looked incredibly smart. Final thanks to Mrs Campbell who definitely cheered the loudest!.

The remainder of our blog this week is dedicated to our youngest pupils. Last week we had a ‘nursery free’ blog. WHY? Well…….Mrs Murphy was otherwise engaged…..see below!

So now we have two exciting weeks to catch up with our dynamic nursery. Here’s all the news in word and picture:

Two very busy weeks at nursery with our focus being on the ‘Owl babies’ story.

Outdoors the children gathered resources to make a dark den. They worked together to create it, then used it as a hide to watch the birds eat the birdcakes that they had hung on the tree. They used the binoculars to get a closer look at the nest in the big tree in the school grounds. They looked at some facts about birds and animals who only come out at night. All the facts that they gathered afre displayed in the nursery.

In the writing area they created their own tree for the owl babies to sit on and made all of the characters from the story.They recalled the story and scribed words from it for the display.

In art they made Owls from saltdough and painted them, these can be seen hanging on the branches of the new tree in the art area. They made owl headbands and decorated them.

In snack they tasted Autumn vegetables and made bird’s nest cakes to take home.

In numeracy they used the decorated owls to put them in order of size.

Play on pedals continues with the children gaining more confidence in their balancing ability. This week they have been learning how to blow up their tyres.

It’s a case of ‘I’m a pre-schooler get me out of here’ as our forest kindergarten continues. This week the children were looking for tracks in the frosty ground en route to the forest. They used a visual board to identify the tracks. Furthermore, they learned how to gather resources to make a boundary to keep them safe from the fire.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read our blog, let us know your thoughts.

Mrs Shields