The 6th March was Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent and Fr McPhail had offered to come into the school and celebrated 3 Masses for all our pupils. Thanks are due to the Caritas pupils who were involved in the distribution of ashes on this day. Thanks also to Fr McPhail who has offered to say Mass daily throughout Lent. The turnout has been excellent and we have been delighted to see some parents and other members of the community present.

Congratulations to Michael in S6 who was recently runner up in in this year’s National Youth Awards in the Youth Worker volunteer of the year category. Well done Michael!

Our Personal Development class in S5/6 led by Mrs Zambonini organised a Careers Fayre for the whole school recently. We had a number of employers, colleges, universities and other providers in attendance and all pupils in the school had the opportunity to come along. Well done to the pupils for a well-organised and interesting event.

Last week was Autism Awareness week and Mrs Maguire organised a number of activities alongside Bothwellpark HS. There was a coffee morning to start of the week, which pupils from Bothwellpark hosted, and visits to PSHE, Science, and PE classes. As always, the highlight of the week was the joint Karaoke that took place on the Wednesday afternoon, with all S1 pupils attending. This was a great afternoon enjoyed by all. Thanks to all those involved in marking this important week.

As part of our School Improvement Plan this year Mrs Wooley has been working hard to ensure the school achieved the Silver Rights Respecting Schools Award. The visit for this took place last Thursday morning and included meetings with some of the SLT, pupils, staff and parents, as well as a tour of the school. We were delighted that at the end of the visit to find out that we received the Silver award. Thanks to all those involved in this process, particularly Mrs Wooley who has been driving this in the school for over a year now.

Despite everything else that is going in the school at the moment all credit is due to the Performing Arts department for pulling together an excellent school concert. Many pupils were involved in entertaining a larger number of parents and families and demonstrating once again the extent of the talent that we have here in Our Lady’s. The next big event will be the show  ‘Back to the 80s’, taking place from 18th – 21st June.

We have had a fair bit of work completed in the school recently. The whole school has been rewired. Corridors and staircases have been painted. A renovation of a set of the pupil toilets is now nearing completion. And hopefully, by the end of 2019, we will have a new 3G pitch. All of these help make the school a better environment for pupils and staff.

Our final Parents’ Evening of 2018/19 took place and we are grateful to the number of S2 parents who came along recently to speak with teachers. Once again, the feedback from parents was very positive.

The SQA exams will be in on 25th April.  Mr McQuillan has been organising arrangements for these and all the exams and timers can be found in our school app.

As we head toward the holidays, I would like to thank you once again for your support of the school. It has been another excellent and very busy term in which pupils and staff have worked hard. Everyone is in need of a break and will hopefully come back refreshed and ready for the final term of session 2018/19.

Forthcoming Events

Friday 29th March – School closes at 2.30pm for the holidays
Monday 15th April  – School reopens.
Friday 19th April & Monday 22nd April  (Good Friday and Easter Monday Holidays)
Wednesday 24th April  – Last day for S4/5/6 before exam leave.
Wednesday 24th April – S6 Leavers Mass
Thursday 25th April  – SQA exams begin.
Monday 29th April – Parent Council meeting
Monday 6th May – Holiday
Tuesday 7th May – Inservice day (Holiday for pupils)
8th & 9th May – Uniform Evenings
20th May – Proposed date for new timetable
Thursday 23rd May – Sports Day
24th & 27th May – Holidays

Preparation continues in the school for the SQA exams with only about 7 weeks until the first exams takes place. Over the next few weeks practical exams are taking place in Music, Drama and Hospitality and there are write ups taking place in Social Subjects and Admin & IT. It’s a busy time but the pupils are doing really well so far.

In order to help with the preparation Mr Smith has organised a stress relief programme during S4/5 PSHE over the next few weeks to help pupils relax – these include Yoga, metafit, relaxation in the Nurture room, scavenger hunt in Dalziel Estate, etc… It’s important that pupils get the work/life balance correct at what can be a stressful time and so we are delighted to offer this programme this year.

This is also a busy time when we start to prepare the timetable for the next session, 2019/20. In order to do this we have a number of year groups making Options for the following year. We had an Options information Evening for parents recently to let everyone know what was involved in the process and we were delighted with the numbers that came out on the evening. S2 also had an opportunity to sit down with a careers adviser from SDS to have a discussion about their ideas for the future and the implications that this may have on their choices. Options interviews are well under way now with Pupils Support and SLT meeting individually with pupils.

There are a number of pupils undertaking the Sports Leader award in S5/6, which involves coaching groups of younger pupils. They have recently been involved in working with an S1 class. Well done to all those involved!

We are extremely lucky to have a Library in the school and also a full time librarian. Mrs Macfadyen not only spends a great deal of time working with pupils during interval and lunchtimes but also working with departments across the school. Recent examples of this include:

All S1 Art classes have visited the Library to learn about the World Book Day book token competition, discuss eye catching design and gain inspiration from the fabulous covers on the books around them.

Mrs Millar / Mr Maxwell’s S2 English class are completing their blogs on homelessness: proofreading, adding images, hyperlinks, tags and sources.

Mrs Letham’s S2 Social Subjects class investigated potential suspects in the assassination of President Kennedy and prepared to present their conclusions.

This is an excellent resource in the school and we are grateful to Ms Macfadyen for her support and enthusiasm.

As we move into Lent Fr McPhail our school chaplain has offered to celebrate Mass each day throughout this period of time.  Mass will begin at 8.35am and will be finished for the pupils starting class at 8.55am.  Pupils are encouraged to come along and parents or anyone else in the community are also invited to join us any day they can manage.

Forthcoming Events:

• Wednesday 6th March – Ash Wednesday (Masses will be celebrated for all pupils and staff)
• Tuesday 12th March – S2 Parents’ Evening (4 – 6pm)
• Tuesday 19th March – P7 Open Evening (7pm)
• Wednesday 20th March – Careers Fayre (all pupils will have an opportunity to attend this event in the school)
• Thursday 21st March – Spring Concert (tickets are on sale from the Performing Arts Department)
• Wednesday 27th March – NLC Concert in the Royal Concert Hall
• Friday 29th March – School closes at 2.30pm for the Easter break.
• Monday 15th April – School reopens.
• Friday 19th April & Monday 22nd April (Good Friday and Easter Monday Holidays)
• Wednesday 24th April – Last day for S4/5/6 before exam leave.
• Thursday 25th April – SQA exams begin.