Woo Hoo…At last; our wonderful choir have gained the recognition they so deserve.

On Saturday 25th January our choir won ‘A Festival of Music’, a choral competition which involved choirs singing a set piece ‘ The Wizard’ and a piece of their own choice. Our choir chose to sing ‘Put on a happy face’. Well done to all of the children from P4 through to P7 who sang so beautifully, looked fabulous and all smiled. Fantastic, I am so proud of them all. Our choir come after school every Wednesday and towards competition time freely give of their own lunch times for additional rehearsals, they demonstrate real commitment to the choir and to our school. (We’ll not mention the role of Percy Pigs in all of this!!!)

Our week began with us enjoying a ‘traditional’ Monday morning assembly – our first of the year. Well done to our proud Workers of the Week and our Pupils of the Week well earned recognition to our children.

P5a missed our assembly as they; together with our Firpark friends enjoyed a day out at Glasgow Science Centre. This expedition was in connection with our joint “Clyde in The Classroom’ Topic. P5a together with P7 Firpark pupils will, over the next couple of months’ be responsible for nurturing 200 fish eggs and taking care of them as they grow into little fishes. Once big and strong enough the children will then release the fish into The River Calder to allow them to fully grow and develop. This is s super opportunity for our pupils to learn so much about life cycles and rivers. Well done to P5a for their active involvement in this project.

Over the last couple of weeks we have welcomed Sean McCluskey and Catriona Bell, two young people who are looking to train as primary teachers this coming year, both Sean and Catriona thoroughly enjoyed their time in school and we look forward to welcoming them back as ‘official’ student teachers.

Tuesday evening our school played host to an evening twilight session for teachers and head teachers across North Lanarkshire to learn more about Pope Francis Faith Award. This Award is being piloted by a number of schools across Scotland; we are delighted and honoured to have been selected to participate. The Award involves P6 pupils who are required to demonstrate, in a variety of ways, their active participation in their faith. We will work closely with our 30 candidates, their parents and Fr Millar to provide an excellent learning curve for all involved. More information can be found in Parish Bulletin.

Wednesday of this week our P7 pupils enjoyed visits from Scottish Parliament Outreach Programme, where they were encouraged to question and debate aspects of the work of The Scottish Parliament. Yet another fabulous learning opportunity for our senior pupils as they prepare to move onto High School.

Wednesday evening our Fabulous Fundraisers Meeting took place, once again – and I make no apology for repeating myself – I cannot speak highly enough of this fantastic group of parents who continuously work to offer our pupils such a range of opportunities. They are magnificent. Currently we are looking to purchase outdoor, waterproof jackets for our Cross Country Runners and some all in one outdoor suits for our nursery pupils. Please support our fundraisers by participating in our next venture our annual Race Night on Friday 7th March. Tickets cost £4 and are available from Fundraisers or from school office. This is always a super night, enjoyed by all. Should you be unable to attend please consider sponsoring some horses or a race, alternatively we would greatly appreciate raffle prizes. More information being provided by letter on Monday 3rd February.

From now on it is our intention to put every letter onto our website to ensure any lost mail can be accessed by parents. We are also currently seeking a volunteer to translate our Newsletters into Polish. If you can help in any way please get in touch.

Meanwhile, Mrs Murphy is keeping us up to date with the nursery bairns:

Och Aye the Noo!

A very Scottish week in nursery this week with our main focus on all things Scottish. On Thursday Mr Sean McCluskey joined us for some nursery experience.

In the writing area the children listened to some Scottish stories such as Nessie and Hairy McClairy. The story of Nessie led to the children wanting to make Nessie which they did on Wednesday. Their fab efforts can be seen on the art wall.
They learned some Scottish songs and discussed Rabbi Burns which led to the opportunity to write some Scottish words such as moose, hoose, tatties, neeps, haggis and dug. They listened to a Scottish poem called “A dug a dug”

In the maths area the concentration this week is on patterns, the children have some pattern pictures to help them make their own patterns and designs. This focus will continue next week.

In the art area the children continued to make tartan bunting and Scottish flags to display for the Burns Shindig. They concentrated on the patterns involved in making both.

In the snack area they made shape shortbread for the party on Friday.

Outdoors the children have been busy making colourful footprint patterns with their wellies; some of these patterns are displayed on the maths wall.

On Friday the children all came dressed for the Knees Up wearing some kind of tartan. Mrs Loose gave them a quick Scottish dance lesson to the song “you canny fling pieces oot a twenty storey flat” and the children picked up the moves in the Highland Fling very quickly.
The bow at the beginning and the end of the dance was taken very seriously! They had haggis, neeps, tatties and shortbread and good old Scottish water for their snack. One child announced. “I’m having my dinner at nursery”
They then went to the gym hall for a wee mini Highland Games where they joined in welly wanging, shot putt and sang a few action songs like 3 craws sat upon a wa. They then returned to the playroom where Mr McCluskey accompanied them on his guitar to sing Ali Bali, You Cannae shove your Granny aff a bus, Bonnie wee Jeanie McCall, ma maw’s a millionaire, Donald where’s your troosers and finally 500 miles. Mr MCCluskey had a fantastic two days in nursery and was a great addition to the nursery team.

As always, thanks for reading, any comments gratefully received.

Mrs Shields