The school and PTA are delighted to make this astonishing announcement thanks to your amazing support.  Our PTA raised the  outstanding sum of £2,800 from their great efforts at the Christmas Fair and the Children’s Christmas stall they ran last week in school.  The school raised the astonishing sum of £1630.59 at the Christmas Fair thanks to their class enterprise projects and our other stalls.  In total our endeavours and your great support raised the quite astonishing sum of £4,430.59.  Totally awesome!!! A huge big thank you to everyone for contributing to the great community spirit we have here at St.Augustine’s.  Well done everyone!!!

Our week ahead is as action packed as always with lots of exciting things taking place over the course of the week.

On Monday, Rooms 1 – 4 and Rooms 15 and 16 will go out to see Sleeping Beauty.  Own clothes may be worn for this special Christmas treat.

On Tuesday, Rooms 6 – 14 will go out to visit the panto.  Own clothes may be worn for this special day.  St.Ambrose will visit the school to speak to Pr.7 as part of their transition.

On Wednesday it is time for Christmas Lunch with Pr.1 – 3, Rooms 1 – 8.

On Thursday it is time for Christmas lunch for Pr. 4 – 7, Rooms 9 – 16.

On Friday it is time for our dress rehearsal for the Christmas Show.

The whole school will be leaving the school on either Monday or Tuesday to see Sleeping Beauty at Hamilton Town Hall.  The excitement is sure to be high as every child may come to school in their own clothes to join in all the festivities on the day.  Reindeer antlers, elf ears and santa hats will all be out in force.  Keep up to date on the blog for our picture gallery of the panto.

On Wednesday we had our weekly assembly with some special invited guests. Two representatives from the Knights of St.Columba came to award one of our talented Pr.7 pupils a very special award.  She won the overall award for her age group in the competition Keep Christ in Christmas.  She was awarded a framed certificate and a money award. Well done and congratulations! Later at the assembly it was the turn of some of our Pr. 6 and 7 pupils who received medals as a result of their performance in the recent sportshall athletics qualifiers.  Due to their great team effort the school has qualified for the finals which will take place in January at Ravenscraig. A super achievement boys and girls!!

Room 9 pupils have been working in partnership with St.Andrew’s Hospice to plan, organise and sell their products that raise much needed funds for the Hospice.  From tomorrow they plan to sell a variety of badges – santa, snowman, elf and reindeer, priced  at £1.00.  Room 9 pupils have already made visits to classes to inform them of their plans.  On Tuesday and Thursday they will also be selling Christmas Cards for the Hospice at lunchtime.  They will also be selling the cards at the Christmas Shows.

This week is a busy week as always with lots going on both inside and outside of school.  Today we celebrated St. Andrew’s Day with Holy Mass at 10am at St.Augustine’s followed by our wonderful concert in the afternoon.  Reminders were not sent out as this concert was in our newsletter for the term with all our important dates for your diary.

On Tuesday our Pr.5 pupils begin their 10 week swimming block.  The children will have a swimming block and will also attend the gym for a coaching session in the main hall.  In the afternoon the children will enjoy a special treat as a result of all their efforts for our Christmas Fair.  A visiting theatre company will perform Robin Hood to the whole school at 1.30pm.

On Wednesday we will gather together for our weekly assembly.

On Thursday our hardworking PTA will invite each class to our multi-purpose room for a Children’s Christmas Stall.  Please remember to give your child some money for the stall.

On Friday Rooms 13 – 16 will attend First Friday Mass at 10am.  Mrs.Docherty will attend St.Ambrose patronal Mass at the high school at 11.30am.  In the afternoon all pupils will gather i their committees for their next committee meeting.

The whole school took part in a wonderful celebration of Scottish music,    song, dance and poetry as we celebrated our patron, Saint Andrew.  It was a great opportunity to showcase the wonderful talent we have here at St. Augustine’s.  We were also delighted to have Kieron and Jamie from St. Ambrose who very kindly stayed all afternoon to play the bagpipes and pipe each class into the hall. We were also very privileged to have our talented pupils accompany their class playing the piano and violin. That was a real treat. Many thanks to our very talented janitor, Mrs. Karen Redmond and our wonderful cleaner Mrs. Jean Marie Innes for their great support as they made all our tartan sashes.  All donations and raffles sold were in aid of St. Andrew’s Hospice. A later blog will update you all on what was raised today.

The school will be awash with tartan today as we celebrate the Feast Day of our Patron Saint, Saint Andrew.  The school will attend Holy Mass at 10 am in St. Augustine’s Church and we look forward to being joined by parents, grandparents and parishioners.  At 1.00pm we open the doors to all parents and grandparents so that they may  join us for a St.Andrew’s Day concert that will celebrate all things Scottish.  We hope to entertain everyone with plenty of Scottish songs and ceilidh  dancing.  Money raised today from donations and raffles will be given to St.Andrew’s Hospice.