Our Lady and St. Francis Primary School

Thank you to our P7s who led our second Advent Service on Monday.  The P7 are doing a fabulous job leading our whole school through Advent.

We all participated in Christmas/Odd Sock day on Monday.  We had all sorts of colours, designs and patterns and I don’t think we had any duplicates.  Well done, everyone.  We also had our Christmas Lunch, Christmas Jumper Day and Movie Day this week.  We ae grateful to the Parent Council for providing the snacks for Movie Day.

P7 went to the Regent Shopping Centre on Tuesday to perform Christmas Songs.  Thank you to everyone who went to support them.  We are still sitting in 9^th place, so if you haven’t voted there is still time.

Our first live Nativity since 2019 was performed by P1-3.  They were amazing and made all of us very proud.  Each performance was very busy and the audience really contributed to the atmosphere.  Thank you to everyone who came along and also to the families who made it to the evening performances, particularly when it has been so cold and dark lately.

On Monday we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent. Our service will be led by P7.

Tuesday is Pyjama Day and Enterprise Day.  Our children have each made a craft for our Enterprise Day and these will be available to buy on Tuesday.  Each class will be given a time to visit our enterprise stalls and make any purchases.

Our Digital Leaders will participate in an event organised by North Lanarkshire Council.  Most schools across the authority will participate in this event, where children will learn some fundamentals about ICT and development in schools.

P1, P2, P5, P6 and P7 all have their parties this week.  Children can be picked up from 12:15pm at the school office.

Thank you to our P7s who led our first Advent Service on Monday and a special thank you to Father Morris who blessed our new wreath.  It was a very positive start to the festive season.

P7 represented our school at St. Teresa’s Church on Wednesday at the cluster mass.  This is an annual event to mark the end of Catholic Education Week and to prepare for the transition to Taylor High School.  P7 started the transition on Friday afternoon where they participated in STEM activities, home economics and health and wellbeing.  The children spoke positively about their experience on Friday and are looking forward to their next transition event.

The children also gathered for a special assembly on Wednesday to mark the end of Catholic Education Week and St. Andrew’s Day.  We introduced our new Vision, Aims and Values to the children, based on the feedback from all stakeholders over the last few months.  These have been emailed to parents/carers and put on the school website.

Primary 4 lead our special mass for the Feast of St Francis Xavier and performed some Christmas songs at the Coffee Morning.   Our Christmas Crafters also sold products which they have been making at their after school club for the last few weeks, led by Miss Kane and Miss McLaughlin. Thank you to everyone who came along and supported us.

Our second Advent Service will focus on Peace as we light our second purple candle on Monday.

Monday is our annual Christmas/odd socks day.  There is no cost for this event.

P7 will make a trip to the Regent Shopping Centre on Tuesday and will perform a medley of Christmas Songs at 11:30.  Please come along and support them if you can.  This is part of The Regent Shopping Centre Competition where 10 schools compete to win vouchers for the centre.  Our Lady and St Francis were holding on to 8^th position but have slipped to 9^th.  Please vote for our choir if you have not already.

Our Christmas Lunch will take place on Tuesday.  This is pre-ordered by children.  If you have not pre-ordered your child’s dinner, please do this by Monday or provide your child with a packed lunch on this day.

Our Nativity will be performed by P1-3 on Wednesday and Thursday (1pm and 6:30pm each day).  Tickets are now on general sale.

Friday is our annual Christmas Movie and Jumper Day.  Our Parent Council are generously providing snacks and drinks for all children.

Taylor Cluster Catholic Education Week Newsletter 2019

Primary 7, led by Mrs Crooks and Mrs Taggart, performed a song for the Regent Shopping centre Competition.  This has now been uploaded to the website ( https://musicdance.co.uk/choir/ ) and voting will go live tomorrow.  Please vote for our school and children – spread the word to all friends and family.  We would very much appreciate the votes.

On Wednesday we held a special assembly where the children learned about Scotland’s National Discussion for Education.  This was a unique live opportunity for everyone involved in education to have their say.  The children got a shout out at the start and then answered various questions using the website Menti.  If you have time I would encourage everyone to have their say on education today.  Please visit https://consult.gov.scot/national-discussion-scottish-education/

We also held our Prayer Breakfast led by our MISSIO Champions.  We said prayers, ate together and sang hymns.  It was a lovely occasion to slow down the pace of the day and take some time to thank God and worship as a school community.

On Friday we held our Annual Day of Dance organised and led by Miss O’Donnell.  We were delighted to see so many parents/carers, grans, grandads, aunties and uncles and even more delighted to see so many join in the Hoolie.  The children had a ball and we hope you did too.

Looking towards next week, the P7s will lead the school in the first Advent Service and Father Morris will come over to bless our wreath.  This will be our first of four Advent Services and this week’s theme is Hope.  This will be followed by our whole school assembly, which will focus on the lives of St Andrew and St Francis.

P7 will visit St. Teresa’s Church at 1:45pm on Wednesday to participate in the cluster mass.  This is an annual event to mark the end of Catholic Education Week and look forward to the P7 transition.  P7s first transition day will be Friday 2^nd December.

Primary 4 will lead our special mass for the Feast of St Francis Xavier and will perform for us, along with the P4s from P3/4, at the coffee morning.  The return of our coffee morning has been hugely successful and we look forward to welcoming you all again on Friday.

Allocated tickets for the Nativity must be purchased by Friday, after this they will go on general sale.  We will give each family 2 tickets for a daytime performance and 2 for an evening performance.  We will attempt to give you the day you want, however if it is oversubscribed we will draw from a hat.

Last week began with a holiday for the children and an inset day for the staff.  Inset days are a great opportunity for staff to complete important development work together.  On Monday we did some work on nurture and self-evaluation.

Our Out Of School Hours Learning Clubs continue, with the Gardening Club having to face some very wet weather.

Thank you Mr Maxwell and Mrs Rimmer who took P4-7 to the Cross Country last week.  They were so proud of our children who represented the school well and showed great sportsmanship. A special congratulations to the following children who made it into the top 16 of their category:

Rose Downs – 4^th place in P4 girls

Nadia Wegrzyn – 8^th place in P4 girls

Noah Ferrie – 1^st place in P4 boys

Nathan Owen – 11^th place in P4 boys

Freddie Mushet – 11^th place in P5 boys

Ava Rose Kearney – 1^st place in P5 girls

Myla Crainey – 2^nd place in P5 girls

Sofia Savage – 4^th place in P5 girls

Freya McKenna – 15^th place in P5 girls

Elysse Gustinelli – 16^th in P5 girls

Michelle Igunma – 1^st place in P6 girls

Lucy Brownlie – 4^th place in P6 girls

Ninna Okwor – 13^th place in P6 girls

Farmil Gomez – 4^th place in P7 boys

Thank you to the Carfin Choristers, our Altar Servers and the children who participated in the offertory on Sunday at mass for Catholic Education Week.  We are so proud of you and the special commitment you show to our catholic faith.

Looking towards next week, the P7s will perform a Christmas song which will be recorded for the Regent Choir Shopping Centre competition.  It will soon be time to vote and we need all the votes we can get as we would like to improve on last year’s position, 8^th.  Good luck, P7.

The Parent Council will hold a face to face meeting in the school at 6pm.

On Wednesday we will have a special assembly where the children will participate in the National Discussion for Education.  This is a unique opportunity for everyone involved in education to have their say.  To find out more visit https://consult.gov.scot/national-discussion-scottish-education/

We will also have our Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday, where the children will come together to enjoy a croissant and a drink whilst offering our prayers and learning a little bit more about Catholic Education Week.

There is possible industrial action on Thursday, as the teachers of Scotland negotiate pay.  This may mean the school will be closed to pupils, however the nursery will remain open.  We will keep you up to date with this, please check Twitter for these updates.

The Annual Education Mass will held in the Cathedral at 7pm on Thursday.

On Friday we will resume our Annual Day of Dance.  This is a fun filled day, where parents/carers are invited to the school to watch the children perform traditional Scottish dances, a special ‘strictly’ dance and the unique and wonderful OLSF Hoolie (please join in).  Parents/Carers are also welcome to have a tea/coffee before or after the performances.  We ask for a small donation on this day to help raise funds for Expressive Arts in OLSF.  The times for class are as follows:

P6a and P6b – 9:20-9:50

P7a and P7b – 9:55-10:25

P3/4 and P4 – 11:10-11:40

P5 and P5/6 – 11:45-12:15

P2 and P2/3 – 1:40 – 2:10

P1a and P1b – 2:15-2:45

Children can wear their uniform with tartan/sparkle or can choose to wear non-uniform with tartan/sparkle.

Last week was an extremely busy week. From Tuesday, Mrs Cahill was taking photographs for the school calendar which we hope to have ready to sell by the beginning of December.  I would like to thank Mrs Cahill for her hard work and effort and our parents/carers who provided some amazing costumes.

The children thoroughly enjoyed showing off their Hallowe’en costumes on stage last Monday as we held our annual Hallowe’en Parade. The children were very excited to be able to come together as a whole school for this event at last.

The whole school attended mass on Tuesday for the Feast of All Saints and Friday for First Friday Mass.  Thank you to P5 who led our mass and coffee morning and to those of you who supported us by either coming along or handing in gifts/cakes.  The P5 year group entertained us by singing 3 songs from hit movies – well done, P5.

Our bookfair was very successful and we would like to thank everyone who came to look and purchased a book.  The school receive books from Scholastic as commission for this and this year we plan on topping up our core reading books.

Looking to next week, we have many Out Of School Hours Learning Clubs starting/continuing.  Please check Twitter for updates on these.

Mr Rankin and Miss Kane have organised our annual World of Work Week this week.  We are lucky to have 3 parents whom have volunteered to talk to the children about their jobs – your support is most appreciated.  Please remember to ask your little one what they have been learning in the class in regards to the World of Work.

On Friday Mrs Taggart will lead the school in celebrating our rights.  Our Lady and St Francis have our Bronze award for Rights Respecting Schools and are now looking to achieve Silver status.

Congratulations to our Carfin Choristers who performed in Evita last week.  It was such a busy week for you and we are all so proud of you. You are all superstars.

Last week we enjoyed our first Hallowe’en Disco since pre-COVID and it was a huge success.  The children behaved so well and did themselves proud.  We had a dino race (congratulations, Kai), our very own Barbie Girl dancing on stage (well done, Gabriella) and we must be in the running for most children squeezed on to a school stage.  It was a fantastic evening!  Our thanks go to the Parent Council for organising this event, the parent volunteers for additional supervision and to the staff who led the dancing.  It couldn’t have happened without you all.

This week we will take the photographs for the School Calendar, which will be a Books and Authors theme.  You should have received an email detailing your child’s birthday month and the day they are getting their photo taken.  This information is also on the Twitter page.  The Calendar was a huge success last year and we would like to thank you sincerely for your co-operation with this.

We will hold our Hallowe’en Parade on Monday afternoon.  Each class will get a chance to dance on stage and show of their costumes.

The whole school will go to mass at 10 o’clock on Tuesday for the Feast of All Saints.

The bookfair has arrived in the school.  Classes will be timetabled to visit the bookfair throughout the week, however parents/carers are invited to come along to see the books and make purchases each day from 2:30pm.  Please go to the school office for this.

The Flu Vaccine will be administered on Thursday 3^rd November.

Primary 5 will lead the First Friday Mass and Coffee Morning on 4^th November.  They will be joined by the P5’s from P5/6 to sing a few songs afterwards.  Please support the children by coming along, if you can’t manage along, please think about donating some raffle prizes.

Review of the North Lanarkshire Council Scheme of Devolved School Management (DSM) was approved by the Education, Children and Families Committee on 13 September 2022.  The below link provides access to the Committee report via the Council’s website:

Review of NLC Scheme of Devolved School Management (DSM) September 2022

Thank you to those of you who managed along to First Friday Mass and our Coffee Morning.  Primary 6b were leading this and were joined by the rest of the Primary 6 year group to sing a few songs, which have been uploaded to Twitter.  We raised a whopping £214.50, which goes to the Parent Council.  A special thank you to Mrs Miller who set up the Coffee Morning and organised the draws.

Congratulations to our MISSIO Champions, who attended mass on Friday afternoon with Miss Loughran.  Such dedicated children, who represented our school beautifully.  The MISSIO Champions will also lead all MISSIO charity related events in the school.  Our MISSIO ambassadors are Lucy Brownlie, Christopher Kelly, Aela Harkin and Keira Ovenstone.

Looking to next week:

• Our assembly will focus on Road Safety.
• The Snapshot Jotters will be sent home to view your child’s progress.
• The school photographs will be taken on Wednesday.
• We will hold our Parent/Carer Information Evening on Thursday from 3 o’clock until 9 o’clock. (Please note after school clubs are cancelled on Thursday).
• We will hold our Winning House Party on Friday (it’s very close at the moment).
• The school will close at the normal time on Friday for the October Week. Happy holiday!

Mrs Semple