Well done to S4 pupils for their hard work in preparing for their recent. These are now finished and preparation are now underway to prepare for the S5/6 prelims beginning on Monday 21st January.  The S5/6 Prelim timetable can be found by following the link: https://olhs.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/2019_prelims/

There have been many events over the last few weeks that staff and pupils have been preparing for and delivering. We had a number of pupils involved in the North Lanarkshire Schools’ Christmas Concert. I managed along on the Tuesday evening and it was a fantastic event showcasing the great talent in the authority.

We then has our school concert organised by the Performing Arts department which really showed off not only the talent in the school, but also the large numbers of pupils involved in the department. We even had a staff choir who joined in!

Mrs Zambonini and her Personal Development took to do with most of the organisation of the Senior Citizens’ Lunch. It was great to welcome about 80 members of our wider community in to the school for a bit of lunch and some Christmas entertainment as well as a visit from Santa.

The majority of our S1 pupils had an enjoyable visit to the Pantomime Cinderella in Glasgow last week. Oh no they didn’t!! Yes…they did actually!!

We had our annual Inter House quiz recently and in a repeat of last year’s result, Sinclair House came out on top. Well done to all!

As part of the preparations for Christmas Fr McPhail organised for a number of priests to come to the school and Confession was made available to all of our S1 and S2 pupils. Many thanks to Fr McPahil and the local priests who came along to help out.

With just under a week left we still have other events and activities happening : S1-3 and S4-6 Ceilidhs,  pupils visiting Park Springs Care Home, Christmas Parcels collection for homeless shelters in our local community and our Christmas Service on Friday. So, plenty to keep us all busy.

I would just like to finish by wishing you all a Happy and Holy Christmas when it comes and a Happy New Year.  Enjoy some quality time with friends and family.

God Bless.

Forthcoming Events

• 17th December – S1-3 Ceilidh
• 19th December – S4-6 Ceilidh
• 21st December – school closes at 2.30pm for Christmas holidays.
• 7th January – school reopens.
• 21st January – Main diet of S5 Prelims begin
• 22nd January – S3 Parents’ Evening
• 31st January – S4 Parents’ Evening

We had our third Inservice day of the year in November. Part of our School Improvement Plan is about sharing good practice and so we had a fantastic morning with workshops covering the use of Glow, Growth Mindset, the Solihull approach and Read, Write, Inc. It was very worthwhile for staff to see what was going on elsewhere in the school that they would not normally get a chance to.

There was a fantastic turnout of over 85% for our S1 Parents Evening recently. The S1 pupils have settled in particularly well this year and so there were plenty of positive reports. Some parents may not have had the opportunity to get an appointment with all the teachers they wanted to. If there are particular concerns about a particular subject then parents are invited to phone the school at any time and speak to the Pupil Support teacher about progress.

Well done to our finalists in the WoSPEG quiz who came second. Once again they had a great performance and did the school proud. Well done Raymond, Connor and Wiktor!

We were visited recently by representatives from NLC for our Attainment visit. They were very pleased with the results in the school that compare favourable in the authority, nationally and against our virtual comparator. Well done to all the pupils for their hard work and the teachers who have supported them through the process.

Our School Fayre took place on a wild evening last week. Despite this, we had a great turnout, making over £800 for school funds. Many Thanks to Mrs Zambonini, her Personal Development class, those who had stalls and all those who helped out or came along on the evening.

Our annual Remembrance Mass took place last week and we were delighted that Bishop Toal was able to join us to celebrate the Mass, remembering former pupils and staff from Our Lady’s who lost their lives in WW2.  It was lovely to welcome former pupils and relatives of those who had died.

St Andrew’s Day was celebrated in the school and thanks goes to Andrew House led by Mrs Connor for the events organised on the day including a piper at lunchtime to keep us entertained.

All of our S3 pupils have recently been involved in workshops from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), giving an insight into some of the work they are doing as well as raising their awareness of some of the issues around the world.

Our main diet of S4 Prelims begin on Friday 7th December. Pupils have been working hard to prepare for their exams and if you follow Twitter you will see the variety of ways that the Social Subjects department have been helping pupils to revise.

There have been a few staffing changes over the last couple of months:

• Welcome to Mr Molloy PE teacher in the Lifestyle Development department (Job Share with Mrs Cooper), Ms Bell a Drama teacher in the Performing Arts Department (to replace Mr Deans), Ms McClymont to the Modern Languages department (to replace Mr Pegard) and Mr Shepherd to the Science department (covering Ms Walmsley’s maternity leave).
• Mrs Woodside returns from her maternity leave on 13th December. Thanks to Ms Natesan who has been covering this leave.
• Mrs Moore (DHT) is absent at present and Mr McHugh (PT RE) will be taking on the role of acting DHT. Mrs Hill will take on the role of acting PT RE.

Some of our S6 pupils organised a Shoebox Appeal recently and managed to collect over 70 boxes as well as donations. The project ‘Operation Christmas Child’ is an initiative of Samaritans Purse which brings joy to many poor children and families across Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia by providing them with a Christmas present of a wrapped shoe box filled with gifts.

As you will be aware we are working towards our Silver award as a Rights Respecting School. Mrs Woolley has been working with a group of staff and with pupils in taking this forward. Thanks to the selection of pupils from our RRS Steering Group that helped work on our School Charter during a lunchtime recently. Mrs Woolley also spoke recently with the Parent Council to update them on the progress of the work to date.

Catholic Education Fortnight now takes place across the country in November between the Feast of St Margaret (16th November) and the Feast of St. Andrew (30th November) to replace the Education Week that used to take place in February. We had pupils speaking at a number of Masses in our local Parishes one weekend, telling parishioners about some of the work we have been carrying out in the school.

We continue to use our school app to communicate with parents and would encourage you to download this if you have not already done so. The app includes important dates throughout the year, which can easily be added to your diary in your device with the click of a button.

Forthcoming Events
• 6th December – S5/6 Parents’ Evening
• 7th December – Main diet of S4 Prelims begin.
• 10th/11th December – NLC Music Groups Christmas Concerts
• 12th December – Clydeview Party
• 12th December – Christmas Concert
• 13th December – Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party
• 14th December – S1 Panto Trip
• 17th December – S1-3 Ceilidh
• 19th December – S4-6 Ceilidh
• 21st December – school closes at 2.30pm for Christmas holidays.
• 7th January – school reopens.
• 21st January – Main diet of S5 Prelims begin
• 22nd January – S3 Parents’ Evening
• 31st January – S4 Parents’ Evening