Week beginning Monday 22nd of February

our Joseph rehearsals are going well. We have learned all of the songs and moved more than half of the show. We still have a lot to do. Please try and send your child to school every day. Children with big parts must attend after school club. We have borrowed a Joseph coat from St Bartholomew’s Primary. Linda Booth and Sharon Jones have started planning costumes. Can you help? Contact the school office  on 274960

This week we enjoyed working with the team who led the parish mission in St Patrick’s Church. They were very impressed with the children and our school. We hope to keep in touch with them through our Twitter page.

Our after school clubs are going well. The teachers have even got in on the act with a boxercise class on a Thursday!

Mrs Preston had a busy week attending an adult protection training day on Tuesday and her Into Headship course day on Thursday.

Here are this week’s Twitter photographs!

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Our porridge day for Malawi went really well on Friday. I must stress that families should not feel obliged to pay each week for charity. Please only pay if you can afford to do so.

Miss Dignam spent Friday and Saturday completing our SERC training. Staff enjoyed looking at our new science resources and trying them out during our staff meeting on Tuesday.

More and more children are managing to attend morning Mass on Tuesday and Thursday. I have very special memories of attending Mass as a child. Please help your child build memories by bring or sending them

 

 

 

Week Beginning Wednesday 10th of February

Our staff in-set day on Wednesday 10th was busy, with staff working in and out of school. A number of staff attended Science training in St Aidan’s Primary School in the morning. Mrs Archibald and Mrs Lettis worked with staff from across the authority sharing our excellent practice in early play. Mrs Preston worked with nursery staff in the morning and the whole staff in the afternoon leading our work on self evaluation and school improvement. I spent the day In Stane Primary School working with schools in the Shotts locality carrying out Solihull training.

On Thursday 11th  I attended a cluster meeting in St Aidan’s High School. We discussed a number of items including a dance and football festival for our Primary 7. Maths staff will be in the primary schools working with Primary 5 pupils. After the Spring break Primary 7 children will begin to use their transition English Jotter, this will go to the high school with the children and be used in term one of first year.

On Friday 12th Zoolab worked in P6 and P7 introducing a number of creatures to our children! I have it on very good authority that the screaming was coming from the boys!

Monday 15th We continued our work on Joseph. The children in the lead roles are very talented and I know that parents will love the show. We have purchased some additional staging and new sound and lighting. This equipment will enhance the show and will also be used to improve the sound quality at class assemblies.

On Tuesday 16th the children enjoyed a production of “The Lion the Witch And The Wardrobe.” They really enjoyed the story and a number of them have commented on our blog page.

I did my final Solihull training day of this session when I worked with a speech and language therapist in Cumbernauld to train a group of people from across North Lanarkshire.

Our Spring Disco on Thursday 18th was well attended. The children really enjoyed the event and we owe a debt of gratitude to our Parent Council who give their time so freely. They are so organised and make sure every child is kept safe. This means there is a slight delay when entering and leaving. Please be patient as the parents must keep a fire register and ensure everyone exits safely.

Friday 19th was our dress down / crazy hair day. Staff and children have chosen Classrooms for Malawi as our Lenten charity this year. We are asking for £1 donation each week but please do not feel pressured to send money in. If there is more than one child in a family please send in only £1 in total.

Mrs Preston, Miss Roy and myself attended a Nurture Conference in Motherwell. We were very proud that a video of Mrs Preston and Mrs Connell was played to the audience of three hundred.

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Our Primary One children followed up their visit to The Gruffalo at The Kings’ Theatre by independently writing their own stories. We are delighted by the progress the children are making!

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Our Primary 7 Minnie Vinnie pupils are organising an enterprise where we take baskets of goodies to our elderly friends in our local communities. Mrs Campbell is working with the children to collect the items needed. We are relying on the goodwill of our parents to give a lovely Easter treat to our friends who are housebound or unwell.

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Happy birthday to Mrs Connelly and Mrs Hamilton who have both celebrated big birthdays this year!

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Our children enjoyed the Spring Disco – I was so pleased by the lovely hugs and greetings as friends met up to enjoy the fun. What a lovely atmosphere!

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Our children continue to take part in THE DAILY MILE. They are beginning to jog and run! Please ensure your child is dressed for the four seasons! We will be walking whatever the weather and it’s important our children are wrapped up against the elements. The picture above shows P2/3 enjoying some fun in the adventure playground. We have bought some new buckets and tarpaulins to supplement our outdoor equipment. We will also top up the sand pit. The sand used is for use in outdoor areas and is more expensive than any other type. We feel it is worth it as our children love to play and learn in the sand area.

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P2 wrote postcards to a former classmate who now lives in Thailand. They then walked to The Post Office and sorting office to see what happened after they popped their cards in the postbox.

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Primary 6 led a brilliant assembly about online safety. The little ones were totally engrossed throughout! Well done P6 and Mr Finnon! Here we see some of the children and Mr Finnon looking cool. Parents who attended were then invited to P6’s classroom to find out a bit more about what learning is happening in their  child’s class.

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Our Primary One pupils and their teachers have started their nursery transition visits. This picture shows some of our girls enjoying playing at Kirktonholme Nursery.

Week Beginning Monday 25th 2016

Our Joseph rehearsals are going well so far. We held our first after school club this week and we are delighted with the progress so far! The cast are gaining in confidence and they are singing out well and showing off their acting skills. I think the children with lead roles have suddenly realised the work ahead! One of our parents came along to offer help with costumes. Any other parents or career who can help is very welcome!

We are lucky to have a number of coaches working with the children this term. The nursery children and P4 work with a group of students from Motherwell College. We have rugby, football, swimming and cross country coaches in too. A big thank you to Mr Finnon who organises and co-ordinates these  activities.

Miss Roy is involved in mentoring this year’s probationer teachers. She is undertaking an additional qualification at Glasgow University.

P3, 3/4 and 4 visited New Lanark this week. They spent time in the Victorian Classroom and visited the mills, the house and shops and took a ride back in time with Annie McLeod. This was a great way of bringing the children’s learning to life.

We had a visit from Patricia Leeson, NLC attainment advisor from Education Scotland. She spent time in P5/6 observing a mental maths lesson and then she visited P1 to see their maths lesson and active play. She finished her visit by spending some time in the rainbow room. She was very impressed by our children and how engaged they are in their learning.

On Friday morning I spent time at a transition event. We looked at how we could improve the transition from nursery to P1. The hope is that the move will be seamless with a learning topic starting in the nursery and continuing into P1 – we asked this year’s primary one parents how we could improve the transition and following their feedback we will carry out individual meetings with every new parent. Watch this space….

 

Week beginning Monday 18th

Our  very busy week started with Sacramental meetings on Monday evening. Class teachers took the lead role in presenting to parents about the school’s role in preparing children for the Sacraments. Thank you to the large number of parents who came along.

This week we looked at out budget and staff have drawn up a list of the things we need to enhance teaching  and learning. These include infant literacy materials, outdoor sand and clock stamps! We hope to continue to purchase I-pads to help facilitate our use of Giglets.

P5 children continue their swimming block at Wishaw Sports’ Centre.  They tell me they are growing in confidence. They are certainly getting quicker at getting changed!

We have continued our Joseph rehearsals this week with the cast taking shape! All of the brothers and their wives have been cast. Miss Chambers and Miss Roy are working with the children when I am out of school. Class teachers report outbreaks of singing in the classes!!!

Miss Chambers attended bikeability trading this week and hopes to train the children next term.

This week I attended our second school “family group” meeting. This is a new group which was set up to allow heads to work with similar schools from across the authority. Our group is  working together to draw up a policy for tracking and monitoring our children’s attainment. This is a very exciting time as both the Scottish Government and North Lanarkshire introduce new assessments for our pupils. I will update parents as this develops.

As part of an enhanced transition, some of our pupils are attending St Aidan’s High School each week for the next month.

Mrs Preston is involved in a  new leadership qualification. She is having to study hard and do her homework just like the children!  She attended a training day in Glasgow this week.

On Friday I attended a training day for our new two year old provision. The latest update I have is that the playroom will be finished by March.

Our  daily mile is going very well with the staff and children enjoying the walk. A large number of our children are jogging along, others walking and chatting. Staff report that the children are very settled after the walk. Concentration spans are definitely showing improvement!

And  finally…..  Enrolment Masses were very well attended this weekend. A big thank you to staff who came along to support our children.

Week beginning Monday 11th

This  week we were very busy enrolling out new children for August. We have  enrolled 33 new children and know of 8 placing request applications. We will confirm numbers as soon as the placing request process has been completed. It was lovely to meet the children and their families. Our staff will visit the children in their nurseries next month and then we will meet each parent on an individual basis in March.

Our cashless system is going well so far with dinner numbers being up throughout the week. Friday’s lunch service took almost all of the lunch break!  Please remember the machine does not take 1p, 2p or 5p coins.

Lanarkshire Health carried out dental inspections on primary seven and primary one children. A large number of children were wearing “fab teeth” stickers. Keep brushing!

Staff completed their Solihull training with staff from Saint Brigid’s and Saint Ignatius primary schools on Wednesday after school. Congratulations to the staff who were awarded their certificates.

Primary 3 led the liturgy at Mass on Friday morning. They were excellent and a great credit to their families and Mrs Campbell and Mrs Galloway.

We have started  our Joseph rehearsals and hope to have the show cast fully this week.

Happy New Year!

Everyone returned to school On Wednesday and we started our daily mile. Children and staff are enjoying it with our primary one getting around the school building four times ( one mile) in under twenty minutes! We hope everyone will get even faster! Mrs Preston and Mrs Cruickshank only managed it once! “Must try harder ladies!”

We have exciting times ahead as we go cashless in the lunchroom on Tuesday. A letter explaining  the procedures went home in the school bags on Friday. Children will have their photographs taken on Monday and Tuesday. Some volunteer primary 7 children will help out with the distribution and collection of cards. They will work in teams, great preparation for the world of work.

Next week is Registration Week. If you have a child who is due to start school in August please come along to the school on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from 1.30. Parents must bring their child’s birth certificate and a council tax bill or statement. Children must be enrolled in their local school. Please spread the word to any neighbours or friends.

Primary 3, Mrs Campbell’s / Mrs Galloway’s class will lead the liturgy at holy Mass on Friday in St Thomas’ Church at 10.00 am. The theme of the Mass will be family and the Epiphany. Parents and families  are very welcome to join us.

This week we will start the preparation for our school show “Joseph” which we will perform in the school in March. Auditions for the main parts will begin this week. Please encourage your child to put themselves forward as it is a great way to build confidence.

 

Sunday 22nd of November

last week started with our inset day. All staff who had not completed Solihull training took part in a full day session with Cheryl, a nursery head and Fiona a health visitor. We now have all of our staff trained in this approach. Mrs Preston and Pauline our CLD worker have led a ten week session for parents this term. We hope to work with parents again next year.

I have completed the trainer programme and am now a Solihull trainer. I will begin training workers from across NLC agencies in the near future.

Some staff worked on our nursery to primary one  transition with staff from Thornlie Primary.

Mrs Murphy from Cathedral Primary spoke to some staff about our Big Writing programme. Staff then cascaded this information at a meeting on Friday. Mrs Preston and myself took the children at this time and taught them some of the Scottush songs we will sing at our St Andrew’s Sing-a-long next week.

On Tuesday I met with a representative from a shelving company. We ordered some new shelving for the area behind the hall. We hope to be able to store all of our resources in this area. The funding for the shelving is coming from the budget for the new two year old provision.

I attended a meeting after school on Tuesday where we looked at our digital learning programme in school. Mr Finnon and Miss Roy will carry out an audit of this and then we will develop it as part of next session’s improvement plan.

Miss Roy and Miss Ness attended a maths champion’s meeting after school. They looked at how we teach maths across the cluster. This is a focus for our liaison this year.

A large number of staff went to Castlehill Primary for  flu jabs this week. We hope to be healthy throughout the Winter!

On Friday we had a surprise visit from Paul Jukes, the new executive director of NLC. He spent some time meeting the children and staff. His son attended our school many years ago!

He sent an email on Friday evening to staff, thanking them for their commitment and hard work.

Next week I am looking forward to listening to Robin Grille speaking about nurturing schools.

 

Monday 27th of April 2015

Today P7 worked with staff from St Aidan’s High School. Along with all of the other P7 pupils in our cluster they are studying the novel “The Thief Lord” and the new  jotter they are using is the one they will use in first year at High School. They are all trying hard and doing their best to impress!

Mrs Lettis and Mrs Archibald visited Castlehill Nursery today to introduce themselves to the new children joining us in August. They took along some very grown up present primary one children and staff in the nursery were delighted to meet them and see how much they have grown.

Today at P5-7 assembly the children studied the healthy eating plate and learned a bit about food groups and nutrients. They also started watching a short film about St Cuthbert. they will watch a new clip each week.

Reminder – P5 are going to Farm To Fork project at Tesco in Wishaw tomorrow.

I would like to welcome Mr Toner who is teaching P6/7. He will be in the class until June.

 

Friday 24th of April

Today our nursery children headed to Purves Puppets in Biggar with their parents. They had a great trip. There are a number of pictures on their Twitter page @stthomasnursery.

Tony Begley from Classrooms For Malawi visited the school on Friday and spoke to the children at a special assembly. We are very fortunate as we are going to be twinned with a school in Malawi and we hope to be in contact with them through letters and e-mails. We will formally launch our partnership on our patronal day which we will hold this year on June 2nd. There will be a special Mass in the church at ten and then a coffee morning and open day. We hope then to hold a coffee morning each month throughout the year. The children will be responsible for organising these events.

Today I spent time looking at a selection of  the children’s literacy jotters. I am very pleased with the progress the children are making.

Mr Finnon was out of class today organising events to mark the the P7 Leavers. There will be a Mass and Graduation. The children also took a letter home about their Leavers’ Trip which will be a visit to the new Sky Academy TV Studios followed by a visit to Edinburgh Dungeons and The Hard Rock Cafe. I have spoken to the children about their final weeks in school, I told them they should enjoy them as they will pass in a flash!

 

Thursday 23rd on April 2015

Primary One headed off to Purves Puppets in Biggar today. They had a fantastic time and were supervised by a great bunch of parents.The weather was glorious and the children enjoyed time out of doors in the beautiful gardens of the theatre. Mrs Archibald was approached by two ladies who were visiting the theatre as they wanted to commend our children on their lovely behaviour. Well done Primary 1, we are very proud of you!

 

Making Memories

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