Our Lady and St. Francis Primary School

As part of our health & wellbeing learning outcome for this month children have been very active this week. Everyone has had the opportunity to participate in basic Yoga techniques in small groups. We have also been using our outdoor area for physical games and a variety of different exercises.

While developing our literacy outcome, the children rolled icing to form the initial letter of their name. Some children have enjoyed choosing other words with the same sound to compliment their names, you may have heard these at home.

We are listening to both familiar and unfamiliar sounds outdoors but identifying them has sometimes proved challenging. Indoors the children have been creative with sounds they can make using different parts off their body.

Awareness of patterns continues with printing and colour patterns in art. Children have used beads and connectors to develop fine motor skills, while also following colour patterns.

We have just finished a very short week, with pupils only being in Thursday and Friday.  Friday saw the start of our Lenten Themed Fridays and it was Onesie/PJ day on Friday.  Many thanks to all who sent in their voluntary contribution of £1 for our Lenten charities.

Looking to our week ahead, Mr Dorris from Taylor High maths department will be working with our P7 pupils.  The dental nurse will visit our P1s and nursery pupils. On Monday evening, it is the enrolment Mass for our P3 and P4 pupils at 7pm.

On Wednesday and Thursday, our nursery pupils will visit P1 as part of our extensive transition programme.  On Thursday, some of our P6 pupils will be participating in a K’next Challenge at Taylor High School.

On Friday, it is ‘Rainbow Day’. Children should come to school dressed as colourfully as they can.

Our new learning context of “Under the sea” has been keeping the children busy this week. In the art area we have used pattern to create tropical fish with spots and stripes. Lots of discussion has taken place around pattern on our clothing and within the environment. The children have been making necklaces with beads while looking at colour patterns and octopus collages have been created within art allowing the children to look at patterns within the natural word.

Our literacy focus has been on how letters and sounds make words and our aim is to encourage the children to develop their pencil hold and begin to write their own names. This week the focus has mainly been on our names and the sounds within them. All the children sign in at the beginning of the nursery session giving them the opportunity to recognise their own names and begin to form some of the letters within them.

Within our Health and Wellbeing outcome we are learning about being active. This week we have been using exercise as a group, incorporating marching and simple aerobics with music. We have of course been outdoors in all weathers where the children are learning that being active is also a way off keeping warm.

Just a reminder that the children will return from their  holiday next Thursday 15th February.

Last week a group of P6 pupils represented us very well at the Euroquiz competition in Airdrie on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, our P7 pupils were superstars at the mock court trials in Stirling Sheriff Court.  Their confidence, enthusiasm and delivery were outstanding and we are very proud of them.  On Thursday, representatives from every class attended a cluster Mass in St. Francis Xavier Church at 11am to celebrate Catholic Education Week.  On Friday, P5 led the liturgy beautifully at first Friday Mass and then hosted a very successful Coffee Morning, raising £264 for school funds.

Looking to our week ahead, Mrs Martin will be making cheesecakes again with our upper school children as part of their topic.  On Wednesday it is our second parents’ evening of the session and we look forward to meeting with you then.  On Thursday, some of our cross country team will be competing in a Cross Country Festival at Dalziel Park.

Please remember to sign up for twitter notifications from OLSF, if you haven’t already done so, as this is our main means of communication.

• The last week of our Scotland context has more than covered our learning outcomes for the children. Some children have drawn castles and then used their drawings to help them construct impressive models using building blocks and lego.
• Various stories have been read and discussed giving the children the opportunity to ask questions to further their knowledge and understanding. “Two craws sat upon a waa” has been added to our singing collections with the meanings of Scottish words being explained to the children.
• In the art  area we have painted our own homes and discussed the different types of housing in our local environment. Some children have experienced this first hand during a walk in our local community. Local landmarks were also pointed out and discussed.
• Counting and number recognition is highlighted daily using table games, printing and items within the sand tray. Within the gym hall we experimented with the 5 little ducks and focused on music and drama. The  use of masks certainly brought it to life!

Next week some more children will experience the forest kindergarten over a six week block. Parents will be notified if their child is taking part this term.

We have just finished another busy week at OLSF. Our nursery children enjoyed a play session in Primary 1 as part of our extensive transition programme.

Looking to our week ahead, some of our P6 pupils will represent our school in the Euroquiz competition on Tuesday morning.  Our P7s will be going to Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday after school to participate in their mock court trial (P7 parents, can you let the office know if you would like to travel with us on the bus and we will accommodate as many as we can).  Our pre-school nursery children will enjoy another transition ‘play’ visit with P1 again this week.

As it’s Catholic Education week, a cluster Mass has been organised for Thursday at 11am in St. Francis Xavier Church.  Representatives from every class will attend this Mass.

On Friday, it is our First Friday Mass and coffee morning led by P5.  As always, everyone is welcome and we are looking for donations of shop bought baking and raffle prizes.

We are nearing the end of the Tesco Bags of Help competition – please remember to ask for your tokens if shopping in any local Tesco store and vote for OLSF to give us the chance to receive £4000 for our yard.

We have continued our Scottish theme this week by learning some traditional songs which I’m sure you have all already heard at home. It seemed fitting that the children also experienced a traditional burns supper of haggis, neeps and tatties for snack, served with our other national drink….milk! The children learned about food which is linked to the health and wellbeing experience we are currently working on.Tartan has been created in the art area, where the children rolled marbles in the paint tray and some of their work has been displayed in the cloakroom. Within the writing area, tartan kilts were made to add to our self portraits.Some of the children experienced a bus ride to the library where we read a number of stories before choosing the best ones to borrow. Last week, a number of other children experienced a walk to the Grotto and had snack in the pilgrimage centre. These trips are widening the children’s knowledge of the local environment. We continue to look at counting and number during play experiences. This week the children are accessing a variety of number games and songs on the internet and developing their counting skills to serve cakes in the cafe. Within the art area play dough is being used to make number symbols and create items for the Scottish shop.

Last week, our upper school children enjoyed a YDance taster session on Monday afternoon.  The Mock Court event at Stirling that was planned for Wednesday has had to be postponed until 31st of January because of the weather. The P6 health and wellbeing event that was due to take place at Taylor High on Friday was also postponed because of the weather and a new date will be agreed soon.  On Friday, we had a visit from WCS Clydebank Engineering and children ejoyed a STEM session with David Docherty.  Our children very much enjoyed lots of outdoor play in the snow, making snowmen, snow angels and even an igloo!

Many thanks to all staff, parents, grandparents and carers for ensuring children were collected safely on Friday before the worst of the weather hit.  It is hugely important that we have up to date contact details for parents in circumstances such as these, so if you’ve had a change of telephone number or contact details recently, please alert the school office as soon as possible.

Looking to our week ahead, we have a Parent Council meeting on Monday at 6.30pm in our staffroom and all are welcome.  We welcome colleagues from South Lanarkshire on Tuesday morning, as part of our North/South Family Group.  On Wednesday, our nursery children will join Primary 1 pupils for ‘Big Play’ as part of our extensive transition.

Let’s hope for better weather this week!

Last week we held our Sacramental Information Evenings for P3 and P4 parents. It was lovely to see so many parents coming along and supporting their child’s faith journey.

This week, our P6 and P7 pupils are having a YDance taster session on Monday afternoon.

Our P7 pupils are going to Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday to participate in the mock court project.  They have been preparing hard and are really enjoying the experience.  There is still room on the bus for any P7 parents that want to come along and see their child undertaking their role in court.  Please contact the school office if you want to come along and join us.

Our P6 pupils are attending Taylor High on Friday for a Health and Well-Being event which kick starts their Continuity programme for going to high school.

Please remember, if you are shopping in any local Tesco store (Carfin, Coltness, Wishaw, Motherwell or Bellshill) ask for your tokens and put them in the Our Lady and St. Francis slot in-store.  If we have the most votes, we stand a chance to wine £4000 for our outdoors area.  Happy shopping!

Lovely to see all the children back after the holiday! Staff would like to thank everyone for the lovely gifts they received at Christmas, they are very much appreciated

• We have had a busy first week back with the introduction of our new learning intentions. The focus is on our Scottish heritage. Some time has been spent on introducing Scottish music into our day with photographs of our beautiful countryside.
• The health and wellbeing outcome involves preparing food and the children have been involved in making carrot soup for snack. We have discussed where foods come from and what we prefer to eat during snack time. Counting has and will be a daily focus centred around a variety of table games along with new and familiar number songs being introduced at activity time.