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.

We recently marked Holocaust Memorial Day with S1 pupils. The afternoon involved a number of reflective activities. The pupils were very moved the stories they heard and entered fully into the activities.

The science department recently set of to Disneyland Paris with a group of nearly 40 pupils and had a great time. Follow up activities to the trip in the school are also planned!

Thanks to all the parents of S4 pupils who managed along to the recent Parents’ Evening. This is an important time for the pupils as they move into the final stretch before SQA exams. The S5/6 pupils have now completed their prelim exams and they too are preparing themselves for the exams which begin very soon after the Easter holidays. The first exam takes place on Thursday 25th April and so pupils’ last day before study leave begins will be Wednesday 24th April.

The first of our P7 Information evenings took place recently where parents were given further information about the school followed by a tour. There are two more sessions planned for those who couldn’t make that particular date – details are below. We also had the pleasure of welcoming all the P6 pupils to the school for the first part of their transition programme. They spent the day in the school following a timetable and getting a real taste of what it is like to be in a secondary school.

In schools football, the U16s were narrowly defeated 2-1 by Braidhurst. U13s beat Chryston HS in a penalty shoot out after a hard fought 2-2 draw. Girls had a great performance recently in a tournament with a 2-0 win, 2-2 draw, 3-0 loss and 1-1 draw.  and an unfortunate loss for the U15s, beaten 6-1 by St Margaret’s. It is great to have so many teams taking part and thanks have to go to the members of staff who give up their time to take teams.

As S4/5/6 pupils get to this time of year some of them may be thinking about moving on from school. We now have a new Twitter account, Our Lady’s DYW (@OLHSDYW), which pupils and parents should follow. DYW stands for Developing the Young Workforce. This twitter account posts a range of opportunities that are available for pupils.

There is some work that is going to take place in the school soon. First of all, one set of pupil toilets in the school will be getting upgraded very soon. The other set have been done more recently are still in good condition. Also, plans are underway for the completion of a 3G pitch which is going to make a huge difference to the school. I have to thank the Parent Council who have been campaigning over the years for these developments to take place. We are delighted that they will now be happening and are very grateful to North Lanarkshire Council for these upgrades.

Forthcoming Events

• Tuesday 19th February – Options Evening
• Friday 22nd February – S2 Skills Development Scotland Workshops
• Monday 25th February – P7 Open Afternoon
• Friday 22nd February – S2 Workshops with SDS
• Monday 4th March – Parent Council Meeting
• Wednesday 6th March – Ash Wednesday
• Tuesday 12th March – S2 Parents’ Evening
• Tuesday 19th March – P7 Open Evening
• Wednesday 20th March – Careers Fayre
• Thursday 21st March – Spring Concert
• Wednesday 27th March – NLC Concert in the Concert Hall
• Friday 29th March – School closes at 2.30pm for the Easter break.

It’s been a fairly quiet few weeks since we came back after the Christmas holidays. A quiet few weeks can be a good thing and it has certainly helped the pupils and staff settle back into a routine.
Second year pupils had a visit recently from the author Allison Galbraith who spoke to them about their future at a time when they are starting to think about Options for S3. She also spoke to them about the environment. This tied in with work that the school are doing with Developing the Young Workforce and with our work towards becoming a Silver Rights Respecting School and looking at some of the Articles from Unicef’s Rights of The Child.

S5/6 pupils had only a couple of weeks back before their prelims. So far, these are going well and hopefully the hard work in preparation pays off.

Thanks to the number of parents who came along to the recent S3 Parents’ Evening. Staff have commented on how they enjoyed the opportunity to meet with parents and the feedback we got from parents was also very positive.

We recently had a wee flurry of snow, which brought with it the usual disruption on the roads. I would take this opportunity to highlight the use of Twitter (@OLHSMotherwell)  to keep parents updated on any relevant information in times of adverse weather. I would also encourage you to download the school app if you haven’t already done so, as we can easily message via the app far quicker than we would be able to using any of the other forms of communication.

The Arnold Clark apprenticeship team visited the school recently to deliver interactive workshops and discuss their apprenticeship programme. S4/5/6 pupil had the opportunity to sign up to these and the many who did got a great deal out of them and some are looking to apply when the application process opens soon.

As part of our improvement plan we are looking to update our Mission, Values and Aims.  Mr Lang sent an email in December to all parents with a link to a short form to be filled out to help us in this process.  If you have not already done so, please spend a few minutes filling this out.  We will be discussing this further with staff at the Inservice Day in February and with the Parent Council in March.  Pupils had an opportunity to complete this exercise in December.

If you have not been receiving any emails at all from the school please contact the school office ASAP who will update the email address that we have for you.

Forthcoming Events

• Thursday 23rd January – S1 Holocaust Memorial Afternoon
• Sunday 27th January – Tip to Disneyland Paris leaves.
• Thursday 31st January – S4 Parents’ Evening
• Monday 4th February – Parent Council 7pm
• Tuesday 5th February – P6 Transition Day
• Tuesday 5th February – Trip to Pistoia leaves
• Thursday 7th February – P7 Open Evening
• Monday 11th & Tuesday 12th February – School Holidays
• Wednesday 13th February – Inservice Day (Holiday for pupils)
• Tuesday 19th February – Options Evening
• Friday 22nd February – S2 Skills Development Scotland Workshops
• Monday 25th February – P7 Open Afternoon

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

Welcome to the latest HT blog. It has been a busy few weeks with pupils getting involved in a number of activities across the school.

As part of our transition programme we were delighted to welcome the P7 pupils from our associated primary schools. They had a great day following a timetable and getting an experience of several departments in the school. It was a busy day with an extra 130 pupils in the school but certainly worth it as pupils get to know a bit more about Our Lady’s.

On the same day that our P7 pupils visited the school the P6 pupils visited the Cathedral where they were given a guided tour by a number of our Caritas pupils as part of the events in place to mark the 1918 Education Act.

S6 pupils organised a Halloween Disco for S1 and S6 pupils that included games and competitions. There were many fabulous outfits and some great dancing. Well done to all!

Our Librarian Ms McFadyen does a great job of getting pupils involved in competitions and events over the course of the year. Congratulations to the Kids Lit Quiz teams who came 4th and 10th overall in the recent quiz, which is our best ever result! Ms McFadyen and the school were very proud of all the hard work, teamwork and occasional brilliant guesswork!

November 1st was the feast of All Saints and we were very grateful to Fr Bruce McPhail who came in to the school to celebrate a whole school Mass for us on that morning. I am always greatly impressed by our pupils’ behaviour, participation and reverence at such events. They are an absolute credit to the school and, more importantly, to their parents.

The Social Subjects department recently organised for all of the S2 pupils to make a visit to Bannockburn where they got to handle replica weapons and armour as well as experience the 3D room.

On the 8th November I was delighted to attend a Civic reception at Motherwell Concert Hall along with our Head Girl and chair of the Parent Council. The reception was to mark the Centenary of the 1918 Education Act and Catholic education in Lanarkshire. It was also great to see a number of Our Lady’s pupils participate in one of the choirs that were performing on the night.

Well done to the staff, pupils, parents and friends who organised and participated in the Race night recently to raise funds for the school’s football teams. The teams have been playing a number of games recently and doing well, eg, U14s drew 2-2 with Taylor HS, S1 beat Coatbridge HS 4-2, U-15s beat Airdrie Academy 2-0, U-16s drew 2-2 with St Ambrose HS, Seniors beat Wallace HS 2-1, U-14s beat Caldervale HS 5-2. All the monies raised goes towards cost of pitches, referees and buses. This all adds up and so we are grateful to all those involved in raising funds to support this.

Congratulations to the Senior netball team who came 2nd in the suicide prevention netball tournament. The girls narrowly lost to Caldervale HS 6-5 in a very competitive final. It was a fantastic day for a very worthwhile cause.

Dyslexia Awareness week was marked this year with a number of events organised by our PT Support for Learning Mrs Maguire. One of these was a visit from Keith Cook, our National Dyslexia Ambassador who led a workshop with a group of  S1-S4 pupils.

S6 pupils have recently  organised a shoebox appeal, which we are encouraging pupils to support:

Our Christmas Fayre takes place on Wednesday 28th November from 54.30 – 8.30pm. The Personal Development class are organising this and there are a number of clubs have started to help make products for this event to raise funds for the school. Please come along and support this event.

Forthcoming Events

• Monday 19 November – Inservice Day
• Tuesday 20 November – S1 Parents’ Evening 4 – 6pm
• Tuesday 20 November – Annual Education Mass in the Cathedral at 7pm.
• Wednesday 28 November – OLHS Christmas Fayre
• Thursday 29 November – War Memorial Mass at 7pm
• Thursday 6 December – S5/6 Parents’ Evening
• Friday 7 December – Main diet of S4 Prelims begins
• Thursday 13 December – Christmas Lunch
• Monday 17 December – S1-3 Ceilidh
• Wednesday 19 December – S4-6 Ceilidh
• Friday 21 December – School closes at 2.30pm

It’s been a busy few weeks with lots of opportunities for pupils to get involved in.

We were recently visited by a representative from St Andrew’s Hospice who spoke with S6 pupils who thereafter signed up to become ambassadors for the coming year.

On the following Sunday we had a number of staff and pupils get out their beds early and head to Strathclyde Park for the Hospice 6K. Congratulations to Ronan who came in first from the OLHS group. A huge well done to everyone for coming along and supporting this wonderful cause and thanks to those who sponsored the pupils.

The S6 pupils and some staff continued their fundraising efforts for the year with a ‘Soak the Teacher/S6 Pupil’ event at lunchtime one day. This was a really enjoyable event (to watch!) even just to see some of the teachers’ outfits!

Maths Week took place recently and the Maths department lined up some events to get the pupils involved. These included a daily Countdown Challenge and an S1 Maths relay race as well as work in the library on different number systems.

As part of the North Lanarkshire initiate ‘Read to Succeed’ S1 pupils were lucky enough to have a fantastic visit from author Alex Scarrow. Alex was good enough to spend some time on a workshop with some of the senior pupils as well.

Most of S4 attended the Fire Up Scotland event in Glasgow recently. This was a huge event with thousands of pupils from across Scotland in attendance. It was a day filled with thought provoking and inspiring speakers, entertainment and even the opportunity to learn a new trick!

We had our Senior Awards Ceremony last week and it was lovely to see so many of our young people being recognised for their achievements over the last year. We had the pleasure of welcoming back to the school former pupil and captain and now actor/writer/producer Martin McCardie. Martin has made appearances in a number of successful shows including Shetland, Taggart, Monarch of the Glen and City Lights. He is also a successful writer and was Writer and co-creator of the very successful ‘Tinsel Town’ set in Glasgow, which won him a nomination for a Best Newcomer BAFTA. Other writing credits include, The Bill, Taggart, Big City Park, Katie Morag and presently, River City. Martin spoke about resilience and some of the things that he had to overcome along the way. It was a great evening and we are grateful to Martin for taking the time out to join us for the evening. Well done to all the pupils who received awards.

60 of our boys form across all year groups have just returned from a very successful trip to Madrid. The group visited Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid, had training sessions and played several matches while they were away. They had fantastic weather while they were, which is not always great when you’re running around a football park!

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

• Monday 1st October – Parent Council and AGM
• w/b 8th October – 4A & 4C Work Experience
• 11th October – Caritas Commissioning Service
• w/b 15th October – October Week Holiday
• w/b 22nd October – 4M & 4C Work Experience
• 6th/8th November – S2 Bannockburn Trip

A group of our S6 pupils recently enjoyed two days and an overnight at the Conforti Institute in Coatbridge on a Servant Leadership course. This included team building exercises and discussions on leadership. It is hoped this will not only help them in their involvement in S6 but also as they move on after school.

Each year at the end of August a Vocations Mass is celebrated in the Cathedral with Bishop Toal and a number of priests from the diocese. There was a great turn out from pupils across the diocese and once again we were delighted with the number of Caritas pupils from Our Lady’s who managed to make it along.

We have a number of clubs that have started in the school now and if you follow the link (https://olhs.wordpress.com/clubs-activities/) you will find out more information on what’s available. There are opportunities for the pupils to visit the library at lunchtime to read, do homework and play games.

North Lanarkshire is trying to encourage reading for pleasure in all our pupils. As part of the Read to Succeed initiative each secondary school in North Lanarkshire was supplied with a large collection of new books aimed specifically at the S1 age group, providing something to suit every reading age and ability. This was launched at an event recently that some of our pupils were fortunate to attend and meet with the author Teresa Breslin. Also, all of S1 will be visited this week by the author Alex Scarrow.

Last year, S2 pupils worked on a Scottish scientist project with Science, English and the Library. Pupils who had written the best creative essays visited the University of Glasgow for the day. As part of the visit, Martin Hendry, Professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology, gave a lecture about scientists connected with the University in a lovely lecture room in the Kelvin Building.

Following an application and interview process our School Captains for the year were appointed. Congratulations go to our Captains – Lucy & Lewis. And to Vice Captains – Chloe, Shannon, Sean & Jonathan. I have no doubt they will work hard throughout the year to help take the school forward.

As mentioned in the last blog the decision was made to move our Feast Day Celebration to September, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Blessed Virgin Mary, in order to make it more of a celebration as the March date coincided with exam preparation and deadlines. Following that move we soon discovered we are actually moving the Feast Day back to when it was celebrated originally. As a result of that move all pupils were off timetable all day in order to enjoy a proper celebration. The day started with a lesson on our Patron and House Saints. This was followed by Mass celebrated by Bishop Toal and in the afternoon, various activities including karaoke, quiz, sports, baking, ICT,  games.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

• Friday 14th September – S1 Author Visit (Alex Scarrow)
• Tuesday 18th September – Senior Awards Ceremony
• Friday 21st & Monday 24th September – School Holidays
• Saturday 22nd September – Real Madrid Trip leaves
• Monday 1st October – Parent Council and AGM
• w/b 8th October – 4A & 4C Work Experience
• w/b 15th October – October Week Holiday
• w/b 22nd October – 4M & 4C Work Experience