Our Lady and St. Francis Primary School

This week we had a very successful Financial Education Week.  Mrs Mushet organised the events and set a STEM challenge for pupils to participate in.  We were overwhelmed by the response from the children and by their creativity and imagination.  Thank you so much to everyone who participated, not only in the challenge, but in the success of Financial Education Week.  We will announce the winners this week.

We finished the enrolment of our new Primary Ones.  We were delighted to see so many of our current nursery boys and girls and we loved meeting the children  new to our school.  We look forward to seeing them all again together on the 7th May for the first induction.

Mr Martin Mann came to speak to the children about the work of MISSIO.  He described his recent trip to Africa, how money raised by the children is used and shared stories of those whom have benefited from the work of MISSIO.  We will continue to raise funds for MISSIO, knowing it is such a worthy cause.

Thank you to everyone who attended our Sacramental Meeting on Wednesday.  We appreciate you coming out to support your child in sacramental preparation, particularly on such a wet and windy night.

Next week, we will wave goodbye to our P7s who will leave for Kilbowie on Monday.  We hope they try their best, challenge themselves and do our school proud.  Thank you to Mr Maxwell, Mr Daly, Miss Newall, Mr Rankin and Miss Hughes for giving up a week with your own family to accompany them.  Good luck, boys and girls… and staff!

On Thursday our nursery boys and girls will receive their annual fluoride varnishing.

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing weekend.  I will see you all tomorrow morning.

Miss Lewis

Our first week in 2020 has been a quick one.  Our Primary 7s continued their transition programme to Taylor High School.  Their behaviour has been exemplary so far and we are so proud of their efforts.

All class photographs were taken on Wednesday and will be available over the next few weeks to purchase.  More information to follow.

A huge thank you goes to Mr McGuire, one of our nursery parents, and his colleague, Mark, who gave up their Saturday morning to build an outdoor shelter for the nursery boys and girls.  It came at a perfect time, as we are experiencing lots of rain and wind at the moment.  The children will use the shelter to get changed and to allow them protection from the elements, without having to go indoors.  Thank you again Mr McGuire and Mark for helping us.

Looking towards next week, we will be enrolling our new P1s every day between 130 and 3.  If you are enrolling your child, bring along a birth certificate, proof of address and a baptismal certificate, where available.  I look forward to meeting our future OLSF P1s.

Next week is Financial Education Week.  We start the week by having a whole school assembly on Monday to introduce the children to the world of finance and to give the children a little insight into what they can expect for the rest of the week.  We have experts coming to deliver money workshops in the upper school and the infants will have a money themed Big Play in the gym hall.

On Tuesday, our nursery will hold the first Solihull group for parents.  It is an excellent programme, helping parents understand their children.  We hope it is very successful and all participants find it worthwhile.

A representative from Missio will talk to all the children at a whole school assembly on Wednesday.

We will have our sacramental meeting on Wednesday at 6pm in the school gym hall.  Parents of both Reconciliation and First Holy Communion candidates can attend and will learn a little more about the sacrament, what their role will be and how the school will support the children through sacramental preparation.  We look forward to seeing you there.

P7 will continue their Taylor High School visits and will be looking forward to their Kilbowie trip the following week.

We will end our week on Friday with a whole school assembly to conclude Financial Education Week.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend and I look forward to see you all tomorrow.

Miss Lewis

Children who attain the age of 5 years between 1^st March 2020 and 28^th February 2021 should register for school during the week beginning Monday 13^th January to Friday 17^th January 2020.

Registration will be available daily Monday to Friday from 1.30pm to 3.00pm. Parents who wish to register should bring along their child’s Birth Certificate, current Council Tax Bill and Baptismal Certificate where available. Please note that all children should enrol in their designated catchment area school where advice will be given regarding placing requests.

Please pass the above registration arrangements to any friends or neighbours who have children of age to start school in August 2020.​

We have had such a busy week!  We started the week with Christmas Lunch.  We had turkey or steak pie and finished with ice-cream and cake – yummy!

After 4 amazing nativities, our P1-3s were rewarded with a wee day off on Thursday.  Our children were super stars and had the same energy for the last show as they did the first.  Well done, boys and girls!  I would also like to thank the staff for all their hard work  and effort.

We finished the week with the P6 & 7 party.  They were dressed in their finest clothes and, if the noise from the hall is anything to go by, they had a brilliant time.  Thank you to our wonderful parent council for providing sausage rolls, snacks and selection boxes.  We are very lucky to have you supporting us.

Looking forward to next week, we have four more parties:

P4s and P5s on Monday 16th December

P2s and P3s on Tuesday 17th December

P1s on Wednesday 18th December

Nursery on Thursday 19th December.

Thursday will be a dress down day, a letter will be sent out with more details.

We close at 230 on Thursday.  I hope everyone has an amazing holiday and a truly magical Christmas.

Miss Lewis

We are well underway with the infant nativity practices.  Make sure to get your tickets at the school office for our big performances next week.

Primary 6 and 7 represented our school very well at the cluster mass on Tuesday.  A huge thank you to them and to their teachers, Mrs Crooks, Miss Hughes and Mrs Taggart.

After a quiet week last week, we are expecting the next 3 weeks to be very busy.

The Parent Council will meet on Monday, between 6 and 7.  New members are always welcome.  Our wonderful Parent Council has secured a magician to come to the school on Tuesday and perform for the children.  #abracadabra

As Sunday was the First Sunday of advent, we will hold our own Advent Service with the children on Tuesday morning.  P6/7 will lead this for us.

The flu vaccine will be administered on Wednesday.

The nursery will have photographs taken on Wednesday.

The nursery boys and girls will kick-off our Christmas performances with a Sing-along.  They have been practising for weeks and are proving to be a very talented bunch (not to mention super cute).  Please come along and hear them.  We will host tea and coffee afterwards – and maybe a chocolate biccy.

The school choir will perform at the Regent Shopping Centre on Thursday.  They have a whole medley of Christmas songs to perform and they will have you tapping your foot and wishing it was Christmas every day.

Mass has been cancelled on Friday.  We will inform you tomorrow if the Parent Council intend to continue with the coffee morning.

As we prepare for Christmas and have entered the season of Advent, bless each and everyone of you and though the next few weeks will be busy, always keep Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas in your thoughts.

See you all tomorrow.

Miss Lewis

Primary 7 have had a busy week.  They continued their visits to Taylor High School, as part of the continuity programme.  They are getting on well and we have had great reports about their excellent behaviour.  Well done, boys and girls.  They also had the information evening for Kilbowie this week.  There were many excited children in attendance.  Primary 7 were also joined by Primary 6 in attending the SCIAF Mass this week.  Our children represented the school well and Bishop Toal thanked them for attending.

At assembly on Wednesday, the children learned about Catholic Education Week.  Taylor High School are producing a newsletter about the work of the school and associated primary schools – please look out for this at church on Sunday.

Looking forward to next week, Primary 6 and 7 will be attending the cluster mass at St. Theresa’s Church on Tuesday at 11 o’clock.

Please check school bags on Friday for Interim Reports.

I hope everyone enjoyed the rest at the beginning of the week and are ready for tomorrow.

Miss Lewis

Last week we welcomed visitors from Education Scotland in our nursery.  We hope they enjoyed spending a few days with us and could see some of the fabulous work going on in our nursery.  A letter will be published in due course with their findings.

The nursery, P1 and P2 had their fluoride varnishing – apparently it doesn’t nice!

Some of our children took part in cross country this week – a record 51 of them!  Mr Maxwell and Mrs Rimmer escorted the children and were so proud of their efforts.  Dylan in P7 came 1st, Cara in P6 was 3rd and we had a few more in the top 10.  We also had many finishing in the top 50, which is a fantastic achievement.  I am delighted with the hard work and the resilience displayed by all of our pupils, particularly those who finished the course with one shoe – a great show of determination.

We had another nursery induction this week, where we welcomed children who will be starting over the next 5 months.  The children played in the nursery and settled in so well – they could easily start tomorrow!  We can’t wait to see them again.

The school photographs were taken on Friday and the nursery family groups.  We will let you know when they arrive in school.  The nursery individual photos will be taken on the 4th December and will be ready by Christmas.

Looking to next week, we have the Hallowe’en disco on Monday.  630-745 for P1-3 and 800-915 for P4-7.

The Hallowe’en parade is on Thursday at 130.  If you wish to take your child home to get changed, you can pick them up at the usual place at 1215.

P6 will host our coffee morning after the mass for All Saints, which is a Holy Day of Obligation.  We welcome prizes for the raffle and any donations of store bought baking.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing some fabulous costumes this week.

Thank you to all our friends and family who came to our Meet the Teacher evening, for the school and nursery.  We hope you found the evening informative and enjoyable.  All evaluations from the night were positive and attendance was high.  We appreciate your continued support and we are delighted to give parents/carers the opportunity to be involved in the life of the school.

Next week is the start of our September weekend and children do not attend on Friday 27th September or Monday 30th September.  I hope everyone has the opportunity to spend some time together with their family.  I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow morning.

Miss Lewis

This week our JRSO’s went to an induction at King’s House in Motherwell.  Mrs Rimmer accompanied the children and I am confident our Road Safety Officers will be planning competitions and raising awareness soon in Our Lady and St Francis.

Our nursery boys and girls have been experimenting with loose parts and were doing lots of counting and pattern making this week.  We have welcomed 4 new children this week, who have settled in well.

Next week we will have our annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ evening, which will begin at 600.  Nursery – P4 will begin in classes, where you will find out what your child will be learning this year.  P4/5 – P7 will begin in the gym hall where I will give a presentation on the Solihull Approach.  At Nursery – P4 will come to the gym hall and P4/5 – P7 will go to the classes.  We hope you find the evening informative and enjoyable.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend and are ready to start a fresh new week.

Miss Lewis

Thank you to everyone who joined us at First Friday Mass and then came along to our Coffee Morning.  As usual, we had lots of raffle donations and your generosity was greatly appreciated.  We raised £183 towards school funds, through our raffle and money draw.  P6, P6/7 and P7 also sang the hymn to St. Theresa, in honour of the blessed relics being brought to our church for veneration.

This week our teaching staff joined up with South Lanarkshire Schools to continue our inter-authority moderation.  This year we will be looking at the STEM subjects and delivering lessons in South Lanarkshire, similarly our South Lanarkshire friends will be delivering lessons in Our Lady and St Francis.  It has been an important and worth-while project and one we hope to benefit from over the next few years.

Our nursery children visited the local post office.  The postal workers were wonderful to our children and gave them a tour of the post office and explained how it works.  The children read The Jolly Postman and enjoyed learning where our letters go.

Looking towards next week, our choir will continue to practice with Mrs Cahill and Mrs Ewart.  Last week they had extra tuition and hopefully they will soon be ready to give us a proper performance.

Thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Miss Lewis