Well, what a week!  On Monday evening we had our final Parent Council meeting of this session.  A letter will be issued this week with details of all their hard work this year, detailing all of the fundraising events, how much money has been raised and what it has been spent on.  Many thanks to all who have been involved in supporting these events.

On Tuesday, we had our second P1 Induction Day.  Our new entrants were treated to a tasty school dinner with their parents, then spent time with their new class mates for the rest of the afternoon.

On Thursday and Friday, our school was unexpectedly closed due to water contamination in the area.  We were one of 9 local schools affected by this, but the matter has now been resolved and the school and nursery will open for business as usual on Monday morning.  Sadly, our P7 Leavers’ Mass and Assembly had to be postponed because of this at very short notice.  Apologies to all concerned; it was a unique situation that was outwith our control and the safety of our children is paramount.

Looking forward to our week ahead, our Primary 7s will go for their trip to M&Ds on Tuesday.  Our Parent Council have paid for buses for this event and a significant subsidy has been made from school funds towards the cost of wrist bands, keeping the cost down to £5 per head.  I’m sure they will have a great day and fingers crossed for a dry day for them.

We are having a transition afternoon on Tuesday afternoon and all of our pupils will meet their new teachers and classmates at this point.  Please look out for a letter detailing class structures for next session which your child will bring home on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we are having our P7 Leavers’ Mass and Assembly.  This will take place in St. Francis Xavier’s Church at 10am and then the school hall.   All are welcome.  Our P7s will then be treated to a lunch in St. Francis Xavier’s Hall and a huge thank you must go to Father McGachey for this.  Please note, there will be no Mass on Thursday now – our Mass on Wednesday will now be our end of year Mass and our P7 Leavers’ Mass.

On Thursday, our school and nursery close at 1pm to all pupils.  Only pupils entitled to a free meal will receive a packed lunch on Thursday ( this excludes P1-P3 pupils who would only qualify for a free school meal under new Government Guidelines).  Please also note that pupils who want a meal on Tuesday and Wednesday, and who normally pay for their lunches, must pay for this on Monday of this week.

All that remains to be said is we hope you have a happy, healthy and sunny summer holiday and we will see you all back on Tuesday 18th August, bright eyed and bushy tailed!

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!

   S

It was another busy week at OLSF last week.  Our Primary 7 pupils had their induction days for Taylor High School on Monday and Tuesday.  There was a public speaking competition on the Monday afternoon and 3 of our Primary 7 girls won!  Very well done girls, we are very proud of you!

On Wednesday, our Primary 7 pupils were busy again.  This time it was the Wear Yellow sponsored walk at Strathclyde Park, and all proceeds raised go directly to St. Andrew’s Hospice, a very worthy cause.

On Friday, we had a beautiful whole school Mass followed by our coffee morning.  Thanks to all who came along or donated home baking for this event.

Looking forward to our week ahead, our Primary 7 children will be visiting Newmains Pastoral Centre for a post Confirmation retreat.  Primary 6 children will have their retreat on Wednesday of this week.

We also have our school discos on Monday evening; P1-P3 disco times are 6.15pm until 7.45pm and the P4-P7 disco will be from 8pm until 9.30pm.  There will be no entrance fee for this and children should need no more than £1 each for tuck shop.  Parents are respectfully requested not to stay with their child for health and safety reasons as there are a large number of children at each disco and there is sufficient supervision already organised.

Mr Mason will be coming to our school on Wednesday and Thursday to offer karate taster sessions to all of our children – many thanks to Mr Mason for this.

On Friday we will be holding our annual Sports’ Day, so fingers crossed for a dry day!  Parents are most welcome to come along and watch their child participating but we ask that you do not take photographs of your child during this event.  We do not have permission from all parents from this and we will take lots of pictures ourselves and post them on Twitter for all to see.

Our Primary 4 pupils will miss Sports’ Day this year as they will be participating in Primary Games with other North Lanarkshire Schools.  We will be looking for parent helpers for this, so if you can help out, please contact the school office.

Health week was a huge success!  All of our children have enjoyed cooking with Mrs McNaughton, dancing with Miss O’Donnell and Mrs Ayton and athletics from the NL Athletics team.  All good things must come to an end however, and it’s back to full school uniforms this week!

Last week also saw the last of our Rosay Club Tuesday lunch times.  It was standing room again on Tuesday; we have been overwhelmed by the uptake and enthusiasm of our children for this.  Many thanks to our local Legion of Mary ladies for organising this for us – it is much appreciated by all.

On Thursday evening we had a beautiful Confirmation Mass involving our P6 and P7 pupils.  As always, our pupils did us proud and participated beautifully throughout.  A massive amount of preparation went into this beforehand, so many thanks to all staff involved in this.  Thanks must also go to His Lordship, Bishop Toal and Father McGachey for such a beautiful Mass.

For our week ahead, our Primary 7 pupils are going to be very busy!  On Monday and Tuesday, they have Taylor High induction days and on Wednesday, they are involved in the Wear Yellow Walk at Strathclyde Park.

On Sunday 7th June, our Sacramental children from P4,  P6 and P7 are invited to participate in a procession in Carfin Grotto at 3pm.  We hope as many children as possible will participate in this (and that the sun shines for the occasion!)

On Friday this week, it is our first Friday Mass followed by our coffee morning.  P3/4 will lead the liturgy this time and will assist at the coffee morning.  As always, we will be looking for donations of home baking (nut free, please) and raffle prizes for this.

Another very busy and holy week in Our Lady and St. Francis Primary School.

Our Primary 6 and 7 pupils had a child line visit and workshop on Monday.

The Legion of Mary came back to do a lunch time Rosary Club on Tuesday and it was standing room only in Room 2!

On Wednesday, our P4, P5, P6 and P7 pupils attended the annual Fatima Mass in St. Francis Xavier.  Our children participated very well and were a credit to us as always.  On Thursday, the whole school were back over at St. Francis Xavier Church for a beautiful Ascension Thursday Mass and P7 led the liturgy.

On Friday, we welcomed His Lordship, Bishop Toal to our school.  Again, our children were an absolute credit to us and Bishop Toal commented afterwards how fabulous our children are.  Saturday saw the last of our P4 Communions and again, our children looked beautiful and participated fully in the Mass.

It is a short week coming up as it is the May bank holiday weekend next weekend.

Our P7s will have their photographs taken for the Motherwell Times on Tuesday – please make sure that shirts/blouses and ties are worn for this.

Mr McFarlane from Taylor High School will be visiting school on Wednesday to meet with the P7 pupils who will be participating in Summer School.

On Thursday, our nursery children will be visiting Almond Valley – we hope that they have a lovely, dry day for this.

There will be no school on Friday 22nd or Monday 25th May as it is the May bank holiday weekend.

Although this was a short week for our pupils, it was still a busy one!  On Tuesday, the Legion of Mary came to do a lunch time Rosary Club for pupils and the turnout was fantastic.  They will be doing this throughout the month of May and I’m sure it will be very busy every week.

On Wednesday, our P1s, P1/2s and Nursery children were involved in a Teddy Bear’s Fun Day.  They had great fun icing biscuits, getting their faces painted, completing jigsaws amongst other things.  It was all done in aid of a very worthwhile cause – St. Andrew’s Hospice.  Thank you for all your support with this.

On Thursday, teachers from all Taylor High cluster Primary Schools met at St. Mary’s Primary in Cleland for their last maths moderation session.  These are very worthwhile meetings and allow teachers to share expertise and good practice with one another.

On Friday, we were visited at Assembly by a local Scouts representative, and our children were informed about local clubs they could attend.

On Saturday, our Primary 4 children made us very proud as they received the Sacrament of First Holy Communion at St. Francis Xavier Church.  Our prayers were answered as the sun was shining for them all day.  They all looked beautiful and their conduct throughout the whole Mass was commendable.  Well done, boys and girls!

For our week ahead, we have a very busy and Holy week ahead.  We have Child Line visiting our P6s and P7s on Monday to discuss personal and online safety.

On Wednesday, our Primary 5, 6 and 7 pupils will be going to the annual Fatima Mass at the Grotto and will be joined by lots of other Primary school pupils.  His Lordship, Bishop Toal will be celebrating Mass which will be followed by a procession and rosary.

Thursday is Ascension Thursday and our whole school will be attending 10am Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church as this is a Holy Day of obligation.

On Friday, we will be welcoming His Lordship, Bishop Toal to our school.  He will hopefully have time to visit all children, but will be spending time particularly with our Confirmandi children.  We very much look forward to this visit and I am sure he will be as proud of our children as we are.

Next Saturday sees the remainder of our P4s making the Sacrament of First Holy Communion, so we will be praying for another dry day for them.

Remember it is our Parent Council Race Night on Friday 29th May.  Tickets can be purchased at the school office for £3 each.  We are also looking for local businesses to sponsor a race for £25.  Please contact either the school office or email the parent council directly at: olsfparentcouncil@btinternet.com