Our Lady and St. Francis Primary School

It’s been another busy week in nursery as we continue with our “Put your rubbish in the bin” context. A recycling centre has now been created and the children are enjoying sorting the rubbish into different skips. As well as establishing the idea of helping the planet, this also improves our maths skills and creates responsible citizens.

Outdoors we investigated the use of vehicles in the world of work as part of our health & wellbeing outcome. We used the bikes to create jobs we could do, Pizza delivery was very popular!! We also created some postmen delivering mail, police officers, lorry drivers and even an Amazon delivery driver. In the art area we discussed a few jobs within the school before creating some lollipop men and janitors with collage materials. Some of their work is displayed in the cloakroom for you to view and read the ideas the children suggested  for  job descriptions.

We also looked at the coast guards job while playing in the water with the use of some play people, boats, life belts and ropes. This experience also involved imaginative play.

Creating opportunities to investigate our maths outcome involved some sorting, using different criteria in a variety of areas and the creation of a bar graph to show us what was the most popular job outdoors.

Thanks again to everyone who brought in materials for recycling.

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The dental nurses visited us last week to complete the fluoride varnishing programme, and our P5 pupils enjoyed both kodaly and swimming.

Looking to our week ahead, our P5 pupils will enjoy a STEM workshop on Monday.  We are also having a Parent Council Meeting on Monday at 6pm and as always, all are welcome.

Our cross country team will be participating in a North Lanarkshire event on Wednesday afternoon and our P5 pupils will continue with their swimming programme.

Letters will be coming out regarding out of hours clubs on offer for term 4 – please check your child’s school bag.

• Its lovely to see all the children back after the Easter break ! We have moved on to a new context, “Put your rubbish in the bin”. Discussions have taken place about recycling and we would ask that you bring a few items from home to allow us to do this in a more practical manner next week. We are concentrating on  three important factors, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
• Some of us visited the janitor  to learn about some aspects of his job. Our Health & Wellbeing outcome this month reflects on the jobs people do. The children also had the opportunity to use the litter picker to clear some rubbish and put it in the correct bin.
• After a walk to the library some children decided to make posters highlighting different bins . Their designs are displayed in the cloakroom for you to see along with floorbooks which have also been completed this week.
• The children are also learning a song which you may hear at home  ” We have the whole world in our hands”. The song  is about what we can do to save the planet.

Experiences and outcomes for this context can be found displayed in the cloakroom area.

We hope you have all had a lovely break, despite the weather, and are ready for a busy term 4 at OLSF!

This week, the dental nurse will visit nursery on Monday and will be busy with the fluoride varnishing programme on Tuesday.  Our P5 pupils will resume their swimming block on Wednesday, so please remember to send in their swimming/PE bags.

We have lots of out of school hours learning planned for term 4 and more details will follow regarding this.  Our school show this year is Madagascar, and rehearsals will start in earnest from this week onwards.

We are hoping to make more use of our outdoor space, so please ensure your child is wearing appropriate footwear and an outdoor jacket.

Last week our nursery children enjoyed visiting Deep Sea World and our P3 children made their Sacrament of Reconciliation at a beautiful service on Tuesday evening.  Our P6 pupils represented our school well at a Health and Wellbeing event at Taylor High School on Wednesday, and SCIAF came to speak with our children about all of the good work that they do and how our Lenten fundraising is helping.  Our week ended with ‘Funky Hair’ day on Friday and we were amazed at how creative some of the ‘hairdos’ were!

This week is Holy Week and is our last week before the Spring Break.  Father will hear confessions from our P4-P7 pupils in preparation for Easter.  The whole school will attend Mass on Wednesday at 10am as it is Holy Week; please note there will be no coffee morning following Mass on Wednesday.

St. Andrew’s Hospice will join our assembly on Wednesday and our P5 pupils will have their second block of swimming.

Please note, school closes at 2.30pm on Thursday and Nursery closes at the usual time.  

School and nursery reopen on Monday 16th April 2018. 

We wish you all a very restful break.

• It has been a quick week in nursery, after our trips to deep sea world. We all had a great time and learned a lot about how to look after our sealife. The children enjoyed the opportunity to observe many different sea creatures and also experienced touching a starfish.
• We continue to develop our maths concepts which involves sorting and matching. The children have been sorting emotions this week using facial expressions and discussing how they might be feeling. At the maths area we have been sorting frogs into colours and  have been using Colorino to match colours while creating pictures.Outdoors, we have been drawing chalk balloons and discussing how we can let our bad feelings float away. In the cloakroom we have a little jar of happiness created by the children and would encourage parents to add to this. Paper and pens are available beside this display for you to write down one of the many things that make you happy about your child.
• Today marks the end of this terms forest kindergarten. The children involved will be receiving their graduation certificates and have a special treat in store for them. Hot chocolate and marshmallows outdoors, YUM.

Last week our children enjoyed a karate taster session on Monday, and our choir performed beautifully at the Glasgow Music Festival.  Our P4 and P4/5 children participated in Stations of the Cross with the Legion of Mary over at the Grotto on Tuesday. Mary’s Meals spoke with our children at our weekly assembly on Wednesday, and our school had a very European feel on Friday (except the weather, of course!).

Looking to our week ahead, please keep our P3 pupils in your prayers as they make the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Tuesday evening in St. Francis Xavier Church.  Our P6 pupils will enjoy making cheesecakes with one of our very talented parents and our P5 pupils will commence their swimming block on Wednesday.  Also on Wednesday, our P6 will attend Taylor High School for a Health and Wellbeing Event.  Representatives from SCIAF will visit our assembly and speak with the children about the good work that they do.  Friday is the last day of our themed Lenten Fridays and it is ‘Funky Hair’ Day’! Please remember to send in your donations of £1, if you can, for our Lenten Charities.

It’s been a busy week in the nursery!  So nice to see so many mums, dads and grans joining us for stay and play. A wonderful time was had by all. The children enjoyed sharing the routines of the nursery and showing everyone how independent they have become.

We continue to discuss emotions within the nursery and have used a variety of different games on the computer to explore these further.  The children have been hearing more about Alfie at story time and the emotions he has while encountering everyday situations.  These stories have been extended outdoors, allowing the children to further their understanding of the emotions and experiences the character Alfie has encountered.

As our maths outcome for this month is related to sorting and matching, the children have been utilising targeted skills at tidy up time. Some of our children have been involved in sorting dinosaurs by type and matching shape and colour indoors. Others have been outdoors and  have been matching welly sizes on the ground.

Our outings to Deep Sea World are next week and we’re all so excited!  Monday IS for the children who attend the morning session and Tuesday is  for our afternoon children. Everyone should arrive back safely by 3pm.  We ask that children wear their nursery uniform where possible. If you have any questions regarding this please see a member of staff.

We have just finished another very busy week at OLSF. On Tuesday, our P6 pupils were visited by the Legion of Mary to participate in Stations of the Cross as part of our Lenten journey.  On Wednesday, our footballers participated in a North Lanarkshire football festival at Ravenscraig and played well.  The Beatson Charity visited with our pupils on Wednesday to explain how the money we raise during Lent will help their charity.  On Thursday, there wasn’t a dry eye in the gym hall when our P1 pupils performed their assembly for their parents, grandparents and extended families.  P1 had a particularly busy day on Thursday, because they also had a visit from the Fire Brigade as part of their People Who Help Us topic.  Our week was rounded off on Friday with ‘Dress as your favourite book character’ day – a huge thank you to Mrs Taggart and Mrs Crooks for organising the many fun activities that the children enjoyed during book week.  Thank you also to parents and carers for their efforts with the fantastic and creative costumes on Friday!

Looking to our week ahead, our choir will perform at the Glasgow Music Festival on Monday and I am certain that they will do us proud.   We are having a Parent Council meeting on Monday evening and as always, we are always looking for new parents to come on board.  On Tuesday, our P4 and P4/5 pupils will participate in Stations of the Cross with the Legion of Mary.  On Wednesday, Mary’s Meals will visit our assembly and talk to our children about the good work that they do and how we are making a difference.  It is ‘European Day’ on Friday – children should come dressed as their favourite European country, i.e. in colours of the country’s flag etc.

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This week saw the introduction of our new learning context “If your happy and you know it”. We have been exploring our feelings using emotion masks, drawings and songs. This has provoked some discussion amongst the children on what makes them happy and what makes them sad. The happy dance has been introduced via our new smart board and the children have enjoyed participating in this. Indeed you may have experienced some of this at home or in the cloakroom at the end of the session!

Our Technology outcome of constructing models has encouraged creativity as well as improving our problem solving skills. A variety of models have been created in the art area using household junk. We would appreciate any donations of empty boxes, cartons or tubs to allow the children to continue with these over the coming week. Models have also been developed in the construction area using blocks.

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