It was a short week back following our February break.  This week saw the start of Lent and Friday was our first themed day.  Children had a non-uniform day and staff wore a uniform instead! Please remember to send in your £1 each Friday if you can as this money goes towards our nominated Lenten charities.

We had a good turn out for our P3 enrolment Mass and a beautiful Mass it was.  Many thanks to Father McGachey and all staff involved in the organisation of this.

Tomorrow evening we have a Parent Council Meeting in Room 10 at 630pm and all are welcome.  We also have visitors from North Lanarkshire Council and Head Teachers from local schools coming to observe good practice on Thursday.

On Friday we have our second Lenten themed day – crazy hair day.  During our Friday assembly, we will be having Caritas pupils from Taylor High School to speak with our children about SCIAF, one of our Lenten charities.

On Sunday of next week, we will be having our P4 enrolment Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church at 11am.   Pupils to wear school uniform and a seating plan will be issued this week.

Please remember on Tuesday of this week, online payments and cashless system for catering go live.  From Tuesday, no payments will be accepted at the till for school meals or breakfast club.  Children’s cards will need to be topped up either online at home, or using the Reveal Machine in school at playtime or lunchtime.

As this was a short week back we don’t have much news, but the talk of the upper school is our upcoming show ‘Alice in Wonderland’.  Auditions have taken place and all of our P6 and P7 pupils (that want to) have a part to play.  Our P5 pupils will assist with the music in the show.  We intend having a school show every second year from now onwards, so our P4s and P5s will be our next ‘stars’.

We have welcomed Mr Chris Maxwell to our team this week – he is now a permanent member of our team and we are delighted to have him.

Our First Friday Mass and coffee morning were both postponed to next month as Father McGachey is on holiday.

Infant registration is taking place next week every afternoon between 1.30pm and 3pm.  If your child reaches the age of 5 between 1st March 2016 and the 28th February 2017 then they should be registered next week.  Please spread the word – if you know anyone who has a child of school age, please let them know that they should register next week at their local catchment school.

On Tuesday evening we will be having an information evening for parents of Primary 3 children who will be making the Sacrament of Reconciliation in March.  This will take place at 7pm in St. Francis Xavier Hall.  You will get the opportunity to see the workbook that the children will work with and be able to ask any questions that you may have.

Our final total for our backpack appeal was 107!  These are being collected next week and will be put to good use for children who need them.  A massive thank you to everyone involved for their generosity!

As I’m writing this, the ground is still very white….. if we still have snow next week we will take this as a golden learning opportunity and have the children outdoors for some outdoor learning; please ensure your child is wearing appropriate outdoor shoes/boots and jackets so that they can participate.

We hope you have all had a very restful break and are raring to go for another busy term ahead!  Nursery reopens tomorrow morning at 8.40am and school starts at 9am.  Our breakfast club, as always, is open from 8.30am.

On week beginning Monday 11th January, it is our infant registration week.  Children whose 5th birthday falls between 1st March 2016 and the 28th February 2017 are eligible to register for school.  Enrolment takes place every afternoon of next week – please pass on to anyone you know who should be registering.  The documents required are a birth certificate, a council tax bill and a baptismal certificate, if applicable.

Next week we will also be hosting our Reconciliation Evening on Tuesday 12th at 7pm in St. Francis Xavier Hall.  Parents and carers of Primary 3 are invited to attend this evening, where important information about the event will be given.

After school clubs for term 3 are changing – more details to follow on this.

We hope you continue to find this blog useful and welcome any comments or suggestions.

What a busy week we have had!  Our P4 to P7 all had their confessions heard by Father McGachey over at the church.  We had our christmas lunch on Tuesday and 220 of our children opted to have christmas lunch this year!  Our nursery children visited  Motherwell Civic Centre for the pantomime on Wednesday afternoon.  Our parties kicked off on Wednesday afternoon with Primary 7.  On Thursday afternoon it was the turn of P5 and 6 and on Friday afternoon Primary 1 and 2 had their party.

On Friday our choir revisited the Regent Centre in Hamilton and sang to a large crowd.  We were then presented with a cheque for £500 for winning this year’s Regent Shopping Centre Christmas Choir Competition.

We have a very short week ahead.  On Monday we have our Primary 3 and 4 party in the afternoon – children can be collected from 12.20pm onwards and returned to school for 1.20pm.  Please note that there is no crossing patrol until our usual lunch time of 12.35pm therefore children must be collected if leaving early.

On Tuesday, it is our christmas movie morning/christmas jumper day.  We have raised a massive £550 for Mary’s Meals, and the government will match this pound for pound, therefore £1100 will be sent to Mary’s Meals, a very worthwhile cause.  Children are welcome to wear their own clothes and a christmas jumper or T-shirt if they have one.

All children have already chosen their movie and will get some popcorn to enjoy whilst watching their movie.  Many thanks to all parents and carers for their generosity.  We finish at 2.30pm on Tuesday for our Christmas break.

On behalf of all staff at Our Lady and St. Francis Primary, we wish you a happy, healthy and holy Christmas.

School and nursery reopen on Wednesday 6th January 2015.

We had a fabulous week last week! We had three performances of our Infant Nativity – Gabriel’s Big Break – and three performances of our upper school Carol Concert.  Our children, as always, did us proud and were all ‘stars’ on the stage.   The feedback from parents and friends was that this year was even bigger and better than last year and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  These events don’t happen by chance however, and it seems only right that once again I thank the truly amazing team at OLSF for their involvement; from walk-on parts, to making costumes, backdrops, props, musical direction, the list goes on…. We are blessed with a dedicated and exceptionally hard-working team that always makes sure they go the extra mile for our little people.

We also had a lovely Mass on Tuesday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Primary 6 led the liturgy and represented our school exceptionally well.

On Thursday our whole school visited the Panto at Motherwell’s Civic Centre.  The children had an absolute ball and enjoyed their bag of treats from our Parent Council.  A huge thank you must go to all of our parent helpers, without which we couldn’t go.  Thank you also once again to our fabulous Parent Council for organising a bag of treats for every single child in our school – every penny they generate goes straight back to our children – fantastic!

We have a very busy week ahead – we have confessions for our upper school each day from 11am until 12pm.  Taylor High Continuity Programme continues for our P7 pupils. On Tuesday we have our Christmas lunch – the deadline for orders has now passed, so if your child hasn’t already placed their order then they will need to bring a packed lunch in on Tuesday.

Our Christmas parties kick off on Wednesday afternoon with P7.  Please note, for all parties, children can be collected 15 minutes early for lunch but note that there will be no crossing patrol outwith the normal times.  It will be the responsibility of parents and careres to cross their children safely on the main road.

Thursday it’s the P5 and P6 Christmas party – all children from P5 and P6, regardless of whether they are in a straight or a composite class, will have their party on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, we have had to change the running order, so our P1 and P2 children will have their party on Friday.

Our P3 and P4 children (regardless of class) will have their party on Monday 21st in the afternoon.

Our backpack appeal continues – please take part if you can and donate a bag for Mary’s Meals.

…And one final push – tomorrow is the deadline for voting in the Regent Shopping Centre Choir Competition – if you haven’t already voted, please do so!  It is very close between ourselves and St. Patrick’s New Stevenston and every vote counts.  If we are successful, we will get the opportunity to go back to the Regent Shopping Centre on Friday to perform again and our school will receive £500.  Fingers crossed!!

Our continuity programme continued this week and as always our pupils represented our school well.  Wednesday saw the last of our Choir After School Club until after Christmas.  On Thursday, our Nursery children performed their Nativity for parents and grandparents and did very well.  Many thanks to our hard-working Nursery team for all the preparation involved in this.  On Friday, our choir performed at the Regent Shopping Centre in Hamilton to a huge crowd and were absolutely outstanding.  They sang beautifully, and a few tears were shed when they sang O Holy Night and Auld Lang Syne.  There is only a week to go before the Regent Choir Competition winners are announced, so if you haven’t already voted, please do so as they deserve to win.

We have a very busy week ahead!

On Monday, we have our first performance of our Upper School Carol Concert in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, we have Mass at St. Francis Xavier to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and there will be no coffee morning that day. We will then have our first afternoon performance of our Infant Nativity.  On Tuesday evening, we have both our Infant Nativity and our Carol Concert.

On Wednesday, we have our final performances of the Carol Concert in the morning and the Infant Nativity in the afternoon.

On Thursday, our whole school visits the Panto at Motherwell Civic in the afternoon – a letter was issued to all parents with detailed information of this outing as we will have a late return to school and there will be no bus or crossing patrol.

On Friday, we will have the chance to catch our breaths before another busy week the following week!

There are still tickets left to all performances of both the Nativity and the Carol Concert – please contact the school office if you would like more tickets.

There will be early lunches on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week due to afternoon performances and our pantomime – a text reminder and tweet will be sent to remind parents of any children who are going home for lunch.

We hope you can make it along to one of our performances this week as our children have worked very hard and are sure to entertain you!

What a busy week we have just had!  Our week began with a very successful Day of Dance on Monday; our pupils performed very well and all of our visitors enjoyed it very much.  Many thanks to our fabulous ladies who assisted with tea during the day, we couldn’t do it without them!

Practices for our Nativity and Carol Concert were in full swing and the children are doing very well.  Please look in your child’s bag for a letter with details of tickets (issued on Friday).  Due to our limited hall capacity, we have allocated (in the first instance) two tickets per child to one of the day time performances and one ticket per child to the evening performance.  Any unsold tickets will be sold on a first come, first served basis on Friday.

Our children enjoyed an assembly by the SSPCA on Thursday, and as always, our visitors commented on our fabulous children.

Our Primary 6 children learned last week that they had won the Edina Trust Bulb Project photograph competition – very well done, Primary 6 and Mrs Taggart!

We also learned very late on on Friday that our choir have been asked to sing at the Regent Shopping Centre on Friday 4th December from 11.30am until 12pm!  This is because we are one of the ten finalists for the competition.  Permission slips will be issued for this on Monday and we will also be looking to change the date of our first Friday Mass.  Mrs Shearer will liaise with Father McGachey on Monday and organise an alternative date, and information regarding this will be issued as soon as possible.

For our week ahead, the Continuity Programme for Taylor High and Primary 7 continues on Tuesday.  Taylor High Caritas pupils will visit us at assembly on Thursday regarding Mary’s Meals.  There will be lots of last minute practices and preparation for our Carol Concert and Infant Nativity.  Our Nursery will perform their Nativity on Thursday  morning and afternoon and it looks set to be fabulous!

On Friday, our choir will be performing at the Regent Shopping Centre in Hamilton from 11.30am until 12pm.

Finally, here is a reminder of all the important dates you need for our very busy December:

Thursday 3rd December       Nursery Nativity Performances

Friday 4th December             Choir performing at the Regent’s Shopping Centre

Monday 7th December         Carol Concert @ 1.45pm

Tuesday 8th December         Infant Nativity @ 1.45pm

Tuesday 8th December         Infant Nativity @ 6.45pm

Tuesday 8th December         Carol Concert @ 8.15pm

Wednesday 9th December   Carol Concert @ 11am

Thursday 10th December     Whole school trip to the Panto (late return to school)

Tuesday 15th December       Christmas Lunch

Wednesday 16th December  P7 Party

Thursday 17th December      P5 and P6 Party

Friday 18th December          P3 and P4 Party

Monday 21st December       P1 and P2 Party

Tuesday 22nd December     Nursery Party

Wednesday 23rd December  School closes at 2.30pm for Christmas Holidays

Last week began with an inservice day for all staff.  Staff benefited from input from North Lanarkshire’s Attainment Adviser and a Growth Mindset speak at Cathedral Primary School.

Our continuity programme continued on Tuesday at Taylor High School and P7 pupils continue to enjoy the experience.

Mrs Ewart worked with all of our upper school pupils on Thursday afternoon, helping prepare them for our upcoming Carol Concert – more details to follow very soon!

On Friday, Mrs Ayton was successful at interview for the post of Acting Principal Teacher within Our Lady & St. Francis and we are delighted to have her join our Senior Management Team.

We are having our Day of Dance on Monday, but this year it’s with a twist!  Traditionally it always had a distinctly Scottish flavour, but this year children have been learning dances from France and Spain too.  It promises to be quite a morning and we are looking forward to welcoming you into the school to show off our children’s hard work.  Children should wear clothes or colours from either Scotland, France or Spain, but no football strips please.

The RSPCA will be visiting the school on Thursday morning to remind us all that ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’

The flu vaccination will take place for all pupils who have returned consent from P1 to P7.

Our Primary 7 pupils continue to enjoy their continuity programme with Taylor High and we are continuing to receive great reports about them from Taylor High staff.

Our after school clubs are in full swing now and this week some of the clubs on offer were jewellery making, cooking, football, choir and hama beads.

For our week ahead, please remember that Monday 16th November is an inservice day and the school and nursery are closed to pupils.  All of our staff will benefit from training held at Cathedral Primary in the morning and staff updates back in OLSF in the afternoon.

Our infant department will be busy practising for our upcoming Nativity performances this week.  Our senior department will also be busy practising for their Carol Concert – more details of this to follow.  I’ve had a sneak preview this week and they’re looking fantastic already!

Our Primary 7 pupils once again visited Taylor High on Tuesday morning as part of our continuity programme.  They are enjoying this experience greatly and we are having positive reports back from Taylor High School regarding our fabulous pupils.

Mr McCormick, Head Teacher and Mrs McGraw, Depute Head Teacher visited our school on Wednesday evening to speak with Primary 7 parents.  Two of our previous pupils were on hand to answer any questions that parents had.

Our choir were recorded on Thursday for the annual Regent Shopping Centre Choir Competition – they were fabulous and have a very good chance of winning this year.  We will rely on your votes for this – more details to follow nearer the time.

On Friday we had a beautiful Mass, led by our Primary 6 pupils.  Our P6 pupils enrolled for the Pope Francis Faith Award and I am sure they will take part in this journey very seriously.  Mass was followed by a very successful coffee morning – a massive £312 was raised.  Many thanks goes to our lovely ladies who give up their time every month to set up and clear up – we couldn’t do it without them.  Thanks also to all who contributed baking or raffle prizes.

Our continuity programme continues this week ahead for our Primary 7 pupils.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions for our blog, please leave a comment.