What a busy week again at OLSF.  On Monday our P7s went to Newmains Pastoral Centre for a post Confirmation reflection retreat.  They had a fantastic time and staff there commented on their behaviour most positively.  Monday evening saw our Shorts & Shades Disco – this was a different format from usual but worked very well.  Many thanks to our fantastic parent helpers for organising and attending these events.  Also, a huge thanks to all teaching staff who came along to help with supervision and organisation.

On Wednesday, our P6s went along to Newmains Pastoral Centre for their post Confirmation reflection retreat and again, they did themselves and our school proud.  They too had a fantastic day.  Mr Stephen Moore, Quality Improvement Officer for technologies, visited the school on Wednesday and has agreed to fund a cooking kitchen for our children!!! We are absolutely delighted and can’t thank him enough and our children will really benefit from this.

Mr Mason very kindly gave up his own time and came along to our school on Wednesday and Thursday and gave every class karate taster sessions.  Children really enjoyed this and again, we can’t thank Mr Mason enough.

On Friday, the P4 class went to Primary Games and participated well.  They had a beautiful day for it and enjoyed the organised events.  In school, we had our annual sports’ day and it was a huge success.  Pupils had a ball competing with their Pupil Voice groups and the sun shone all morning for them.  Feedback from parents and families who managed to come along and watch the fun has been most positive.  We look forward to hosting this every year now (and fingers crossed we get beautiful weather every tme!)

On Friday, our new garden area was also completed.  This area has wooden planters which we plan on using to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs.  It has an internal slabbed area with wooden picnic benches for children to use to eat outdoors when the weather is better and looks fantastic. We must say a huge thank you to Mr White for coordinating all of this for us.  We must also thank Mr Kellman for painting all of the wooden planters and for his upcoming help with growing food.  St. Aidan’s Primary also donated 2 tonne bags of soil to us and Mr McLindon kindly picked this up for us, so a massive thank you to them too.

Looking forward to our week ahead, we have a Parent Council meeting in school on Monday evening at 6.30pm and all are welcome.

On Tuesday, we have our final P1 induction afternoon.  Parents can come along at 12 with their child and have a school meal – it’s fish and chips and steak pie on the menu!

On Thursday evening, some of our P7s are going along to Taylor High for their Celebrating Success evening as they won the public speaking competition at the recent induction days.

On Friday, we have our P7 Leavers’ Mass and assebly in our school hall.  Mass is at 10am in St. Francis Xavier and our whole school community will celebrate with them.  We will then have a short break and our P7s will take to the stage and perform for one last time in OLSF.  I’m sure we will need some Kleenex at the ready for it!

This is our last full week in OLSF as we finish at 1pm on Thursday the following week, so we will be sure to make the most of it!