We started our week with a visit from a children’s author and a life size badger. The children loved hearing the stories and had the opportunity to buy some books afterwards.
Our Primary 2 children visited Overtown farm, the teachers had visited the week previously to carry out a full risk assessment. The farm was beautiful and the farmer very helpful. The children had the best time and enjoyed seeing the cattle, horses and pigs. They saw eggs being graded and visited the farm shop. This has been a wonderful way for the children to learn about where their food comes from.
All of our after school clubs for this term are now up and running, the turn out has remained steady with only a few dropping out each week. PLEASE encourage your child to be a responsible citizen and attend their chosen classes.

Mr Duffy, Mrs Preston and myself have spent time in the nursery this week. I had a great time making Chinese noodle salad to celebrate Chinese New Year. My pedometer showed more steps today than any other!!!

Primary 7 and Primary 2 classes visited Tesco’s Farm-To-Fork programme this week. Tesco do a great job with the children and they learn lots of new and interesting thing about the food we eat. P7 visited on Pancake Tuesday and enjoyed pancakes with their own choice of toppings!
Primary one continue to enjoy their Microfitness training on Tuesday afternoons. They are really excited and very tired at the end. I managed to grab a wee shot which the children found very funny for some reason!

Most classes made their own pancakes in class this week. I am delighted to see so many cooking experiences in school this term.

At our staff meeting this week the staff learned all about bilateral training – children are now working on this in class and at their PE sessions.

We were fortunate to have Father King distribute ashes in the school on Wednesday morning. Mass will be in St THomas’ Church each Thursday morning at 8.30.

Two of our children won the cluster badminton festival this week on home soil. We were delighted and the trophy has pride of place in my room!

Our Divided City rehearsals continue to build with children from Castlehill PS now taking over the lead parts in the second half of the show. Mr Finnon reports that the singing is fantastic – I can’t wait to see the final performance on March 12th.

Last Sunday and Thursday evening a large number of P3 and P4 children were enrolled for the Sacraments. Both Fr King and Fr Kryzstof stressed the need for our children to now attend Mass every Saturday night or Sunday. We are having a problem with children not returning their Sacramental workbooks each Thursday. This causes a number of problems for the children and their teachers. Please ensure your child has returned his/her workbook this week.

Friday was a dress down day and the children all had crazy hair. They are collecting money for our school SCIAF farm. Each class is keeping a visual record of what they have bought. This is displayed in the school hall. Please have a little look next time you are in school.

It is great to see the improvements in the fabric of the school building and we are now able to set up little learning areas outside the classrooms. There are lovely new sandpits outside P1 and P2 classes and P1 have a very smart opticians outside their class. they are looking at people who help us this term.

I spoke to a parent this week who told me she waits for my blog each Sunday evening! I am delighted that parents are finding this blog helpful and informative. thanks you Mrs J!

A selection of photographs from this week.

This week has been very topsy turvy due to staff absence, Miss Roy gave us all a big fright when she ended up in hospital undergoing an operation on her gall bladder! She is now home and on the mend. We send her our best wishes, we miss her cheeriness around the school!

Our new i-pads arrived and Mr Duffy spent a few hours setting them up and getting them into classes. It is lovely to see the timetables for next week include the use of the i-pads as part of the planned learning experiences!

Miss Chamber’s attended a drama course after school on Monday evening. A number of staff choose to attend training after school hours as this makes it easier to avoid having to get cover for a class.

On Tuesday 27th Mrs Archibald and Mrs Lettis attended a training day for the Primary One refresh pilot programme, they have been very busy over the last term setting up play activities to reinforce the learning taking place. We have invested a large part of our budget to buy new resources for the children. They are really enjoying them and our assessment of their progress shows that they continue to learn at a fast pace!

Mrs McKinnon and I spent some time this week working on the new website page on GLOW. watch this space……

At our staff meeting this week we looked at God’s Loving Plan resources. There will be a meeting for parents early next term before children begin the programme. We also spent time revisiting our assessment processes.

We had an excellent turn out of P3 and P4 parents at our Sacramental meetings on Tuesday evening. Class teachers took the parents through the learning which will take place in class and then father King and father Kryztof explained what the church expected of parents. All children who were not represented at the meeting have been given a letter home this week asking them to contact the clergy if they wish their child to receive the Sacraments.

We had a visit this week from Graeme Paterson who goes around schools talking to children about the First World War – staff and parents were very impressed by the way he engaged the children. He works completely free of charge and should be commended for the brilliant work he does!

Our Divided City rehearsals continued this week – we seem to get the snow each time the children have to walk to Castlehill Primary! Mr Finnon reports that the children are growing in confidence and working well with the children from Castlehill. We can’t wait to see the finished show in March.

Our after school clubs have started up again and we currently have football, badminton and Pope Francis Faith Award clubs running.

Mrs Archibald attended her second day of Solihull training this week. Primary one coped well without their teacher for two days this week!

The free lunch initiative for P1-3 is going very well so far however I am concerned by the amount of waste each day. If your child is having lunch perhaps think about the amount of snack they have at ten thirty? A number of children have a drink, crisps and a sweet at ten thirty then are expected to eat lunch at twelve thirty – something for parents to think about?

And finally…. this week I visited Mrs Allen in St Timothy’s Primary on the day she retired after forty years teaching. We receive great support from our colleagues in other schools and I am always a bit sad when someone we have the greatest respect for retires and moves to pastures new. I wish her every good health and happiness in the future.

A selection of photographs from this week’s Twitter page.