Welcome to our Community

Thank you for visiting our website and taking an interest in our Community

We are still living with mitigations in terms of covid-19 but it does not change the fact that the school is a happy, vibrant place.  We are very proud of our pupils and staff who have shown great resilience.

In September, our School Chaplain,  Canon Harry McKay offered Mass which was concelebrated by Fr. John Campbell, Fr. O’Brien and Fr. Rooney to celebrate Our Lady’s Feast day with a small number of S1 pupils and our S6 House Ambassadors.  This was a very special occasion and it was lovely to have our school chaplain and local priests with us on this day.

Face to face learning and teaching is what we all want and our classrooms are alive.  Staff have been reminding pupils about Microsoft Teams in the event that we need to resort to a blended learning programme in the future.

We thank Our Lady for keeping our community safe and pray that we are moving towards brighter times for everyone.

Mrs Cunningham, Head Teacher

#TheOurLadysWay

SQA Achievements 2021

Once again pupils in Our Lady’s have achieved fantastic SQA results.

In S4, an outstanding 70% of pupils attained five or more National 5 Awards at Grade C or above. This is a fantastic achievement, and our students should be very proud of this.

Congratulations also go to 26 pupils in S4 who attained 7 As in their National 5 awards – a phenomenal achievement. They are Olivia Akindele, Judin Alex, Lisa Bryant, Harris Carberry, Chiara Coletto, Lily De Jong, Lee Donaldson, Hannah Dutton, Mia Eaglesham, Joseph Friel, Andrew Hamill, Ciaran Hegarty, Olivia Hughes, Hannah McCallum, Alasdair McCurrach, Ryan McEnaney, Matthew McGarry, Millar McGroarty, Aiden McGrory, Aiden McKeown, Kaylah McLaughlin, Neve McLay, Christina McMillan, Hannah McSheffrey, Niamh O’Rourke and Amy Walker.

Our S5 pupils also worked hard to ensure success this year. 23 pupils in S5 attained 5 As in their Highers, which was a fantastic achievement. Congratulations to Madison Adams, Imran Ali, Alix Anderson, Nicholas Colella, Patrick Connolly, Jessica Cox, Grace Croal, Gareth Finnieston, Lily-Anna Govan, Keira MacDonagh, Calum Mackenzie, Flynn Malcolm, Rebekah McDermott, Ciara McGrath, Mark McKay, Lucy Morrison, Sarah O’Donnell, Alexander Peters, Roksana Putowska, Liam Sharp, Katie Shearer, Heather Stirling and Jodie Sullivan.

Additionally, 24% of our pupils achieved 5 Highers, 58% achieved 3 or more Highers, and 73% achieved at least one Higher in S5.

Well done to all our pupils for their SQA achievements this year. Even though we cannot recognise this formally at our usual Awards Ceremony we are still extremely proud of their achievements.

House Ambassadors 2021-22

This year we continue with the Our Lady’s Way Ambassador Programme which will provide many leadership opportunities for our senior pupils. The programme includes roles such as Subject Ambassadors, Pupil Voice Ambassadors and House Ambassadors.

This year we are delighted to announce our House Ambassadors for 20-21:

St. Columba House – Roksana Putowska, St. John Ogilvie House – Jessica Cox, St Margaret House – Flynn Malcolm, St. Mungo House – Daniel Shaw and St. Thenew House – Katie Cassidy.

Well done to our young people!

Scotland Basketball Success

Congratulations to Alexander Peters (S6) who has been selected for the Under 18 Scotland Basketball Squad. A great achievement! Well done!

Covid-19 Information Letter

To access a Covid-19 information letter for the new term please click here.

Future Fridays

From the new term in August school will finish at 12.30pm on a Friday but young people have the opportunity to participate in a range of activities on the Friday afternoon as part of the #Future programme. Cast your eye over what’s on offer here…..

To access a printable version click here.

School Uniform

To access a printable version of the school uniform order form please click here.

National Qualifications – What You Need To Know

Please click here to access an information booklet from the SQA entitled National Qualifications – What you need to know.

The booklet outlines the Alternative Certification Model  created by the National Qualifications Group in order to deliver results for young people undertaking National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses in session 20-21.

This year teachers are asked to use the assessments that young people undertake as evidence to decide on provisional results.  This is referred to as using Demonstrated Attainment.

A strong set of checks will be done in school, across schools and nationally to support teachers’ decisions and this is called Quality Assurance.   Quality Assurance helps to make sure that results are decided consistently across the country.

There is also a video that explains the procedure and a section of the SQA website with more information which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTrPgWF6dfo

Further information can be found at https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/84154.html

Kind regards

Mrs Cunningham

Safer Internet Day 2021

Safer Internet Day will be on the 9th February 2021

Safer Internet Day 2021 will be celebrated in the UK with the theme:

An internet we trust: exploring reliability in the online world

This year in the UK, Safer Internet Day explores reliability online. The internet has an amazing range of information and opportunities online, but how do we separate fact from fiction?

Safer Internet Day will be celebrated globally with the slogan: Together for a better internet.

For more information and resources please click on the image below

Message from Mrs Cunningham

The following message was sent to all parents/carers this week:

Dear Parent/Carer

I am writing to you following the Scottish Government announcement yesterday that schools will not open until at least mid-February.  A further update is expected at the beginning of February.

The staff of Our Lady’s are very much looking forward to welcoming all of our pupils back into the school building as soon as we are given the go ahead. Until then we are continuing with online lessons on Microsoft Teams.  Despite some initial problems with the software at the start of last week, things have settled down.  Sometimes a little patience is need when joining a team but things are getting easier for everyone as we get used to the system and this different way of learning and teaching.

I want to once again acknowledge that online learning and teaching can be difficult for families, especially where young people are sharing devices.  While the ideal is for young people to be following their timetable during the day, we are fully aware that some young people can’t access Teams at that time.  A record of the meeting and any work set will be available for any young person joining out with class time.
I have attached two documents to this email.  The first one gives instructions on how to access Teams using a games console such as Xbox or PlayStation. The second document details how to download a free copy of office365 for every young person using their Glow login details.

We want to support our families and our young people as much as we can during this difficult time.  If there is anything we can do, especially to support online learning, please phone the school on 01236 632159 or email enquiries@ourladys.n-lanark.sch.uk

North Lanarkshire Child Payment 

Families whose children receive a free school meal because of low family income, will receive £100 per child directly into their bank account during the last week in January.
In addition NLC are also supporting families at weekends and during the holidays with the Club365 food voucher scheme as well as providing vouchers to cover the cost of lunches during the current lockdown.
be made automatically, and parents/guardians do not need to apply. However, if you have not received a payment by mid-February, email NLChildPayment@northlan.gov.uk

If your family’s circumstances have changed recently and you would like to apply for your child to receive a free school meal please visit: https://bit.ly/39BhUTG

Resources

Jotters and stationary can be collected from the school office.  Please contact us in advance to arrange this.  We also anticipate that jotters will be available from the following local shops after this weekend: Co-op Muirhead, Co-op Stepps, Farm Shop Carrickstone, Spar Abronhill, Spar The Village, Stoneylee Stores North Carbrain, Day Today Greenfaulds and Premier Balloch.

Absence from Online Learning
If you child is unwell or has an appointment and will not be engaging on their online learning, please contact the school office or the enquiries email address and this will be communicated to class teachers.

Kind regards

Mrs Cunningham
Head Teacher

Click here to access the instructions for accessing Glow on your console.

Click here to access the instructions for downloading Office 365 from Glow to a computer.