It was lovely to see the school community gather together for First Friday Mass last week. Father Kane spoke to the children about May being a special month of devotion to Our Lady and also spoke about our Primary 4 pupils who will receive their First Holy Communion in the coming weeks. Our next school service will take place at St.Augustine’s Church on Friday 5th June. We look forward to joining with the parish community at this service and seeing as many of our parents and grandparents coming to worship with us as a coummunity of faith.
All posts by Mrs Docherty
Musical talent on show from Pr.1
There was a lot of mystery taking place around strange events in Room 1 and 2 last week. Class pets Floppy and Spud went on a walkabout and were posted missing for a whole day! Wanted posters and search parties were sent out to find out their whereabouts. They eventually turned up in Mrs.Docherty’s office. They are really mischievous dogs who were up to no good so the boys and girls now know they will have to watch their pets really closely. Some of our Pr.1 pupils made their own delightful song with musical accompaniment to help find their pets! A creative bunch indeed!
Whole School Assembly
At our whole school assembly on Tuesday there were a number of awards given out that Mrs.Docherty found in the office. Children who attended the Speech and Drama Festival and the Music Board of the Royal Schools of Music exam received their awards and were clearly delighted. One of our pupils was delighted to share her with everyone the medal she received. What a group of talented children!!
Pr.1 Gymnastics!!
Primary one have been learning great skills in gymnastics. They can travel safely along a bench and perform a pencil jump and a star jump. They also had great fun learning to do forward rolls and wanted to let you know how active they have been during their P.E. slots..
Pr.1 in the garden
If you are passing the entrance to the school you will have noticed the great work that has been taking place in the school garden. The whole school is now taking part in maintaining school grounds and a timetable has been drawn up to ensure everyone is involved. This week our two Primary 1 classes were working as a team to address our targets of biodiversity, as part of this they tidied the garden by collecting sticks and stones from the ground. They put them into the wheelbarrow and then used biodiversity challenge cards to work as part of a team and make garden pictures. In teams they made pictures such as: a house, an animal, a car and a person, all from the collected sticks and stones.
Some children also worked with Mrs Chisholm to plant bean plants into the ground. They had been in our greenhouse over the holidays and are growing very tall.
Great work Primary 1!!!!
The Week Ahead
Our week ahead is a busy one as always at St.Augustine’s school.
MONDAY – Running Club Pr.5 – 3.00- 4.00 (Mrs.Robb). This week a letter will be issued to all Pr.5
pupils to invite more of our pupils to attend. Details will also feature in the
newsletter to raise awareness at whole school level of all our clubs. Permission letters
in regard of all clubs will be issued this week.
TUESDAY – Claudia Mendonca will visit the school to discuss parking concerns in light of work on
the school travel plan.
WEDNESDAY – Mrs.Cameron will be out of school to attend a training course and Mrs.Gilhooly will
cover the class in the morning.
Mrs.Docherty will meet with Ciaran Fagan from Parent Action for Safe Play in regard of
plans for activity clubs this session.
Gardening Club – 3.00 – 4.00 (Mrs.Chisholm)
John Muir Club – 3.00 – 4.00 ( Mrs.O’Neil)
PARENT COUNCIL MEETING – 6.30pm
P.T.A.MEETING – 7.30pm. New members are welcome.
THURSDAY – Badminton – Pr. 6 classes 1.20 – 3.00pm. Badminton afterschool club to commence 3.00pm
FRIDAY – Pupil Learning Communities first meetings.
Our Pr. 7 pupils have responded magnificently to our appeal for greater supervision within the dinner hall to ensure our school is an effective Eco school that recycles fully. The Pr.7 pupils are currently working on a rota basis which means that they would be required to work as a Lunchtime Eco Monitor only twice (two lunchtimes) in a whole term for a period of only 30 minutes. This would ensure that they still have adequate time to play during their lunch break.
The school is looking forward to returning to school on Monday to see the new flooring that has been fitted in the hall marked with appropriate floor markings that will facilitate its use as a gym hall with netball court and badminton court lines marked out for the use of all classes.
The school is awaiting confirmation in result of imminent building work that we hope will take place as soon as possible to address ongoing concerns in regard of the roof. Last week we had a visit to our school kitchen from North Lanarkshire to discuss a possible refurb. We will keep you posted in regard of the outcome of the meeting. As always our fingers are crossed.
The school has ordered a skip for this week that will enable us to begin clearing the school of old furniture as we spring clean the school. Several classes are being looked at with a view to equiping them with new furniture for the start of the new session in August.
Our monthly newsletter will be issued this week so please remember to check your child’s school bag as it will have important dates for your diary.
Primary 7
Our Primary 7 pupils are busy with their art work which looks rather intricate. We look forward to seeing the finished mosaic masterpieces!
A busy week back at school!
This week the children had the opportunity to enjoy this continuing spell of warm weather. Let’s hope it continues throughout this term as there are a great number of events taking place and we want to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. I was delighted to see that our wonderful gardeners are back in business and doing a wonderful job in our school grounds. Many thanks to Mrs.Chisholm who gives up so much of her own time to ensure our garden area is well maintained.
A number of parents have approached myself enquiring if the girls could wear a summer dress in this warm weather. I am happy for this to be the case this term with the preferred colour of either green or blue as they match with our school colours. I will include this information within our next newsletter to ensure all parents are aware of this. For the beginning of term in August all pupils must return to school in full uniform.
This week our Primary 6 pupils started a block of badminton coaching. An afterschool club for badminton will commence next Thursday for Pr. 6 in the first instance and extended to Pr.7 pupils.
Details in regard of the afterschool clubs for this term will be issued this week.
Update on dining hall arrangements. This term we have introduced the banding system in order that we can reduce food waste, speed up serving times and ensure all pupils receive their preferred food choice for lunch. There has been a dramatic increase in snack to go options for lunch and the overall number of pupils receiving a school lunch has increased considerably. No doubt because Mrs.McKeown and her catering team make such delicious lunches. We have experienced several hitches but we hope to have this addressed this week to ensure an efficiently run service at lunchtime. Our fingers are crossed!!
Staff have been busy this week planning Interdisciplinary projects with their classes for this term. They have consulted the children and are making inquiries about organising outside visits for this session. Details in this regard will follow as soon as bookings have been made for this term.
Pupil Learning Communities – this week staff and pupils were consulted in regard of setting up learning communities across the school that will enable all children to be part of a committee with a clear aim and rationale for bringing about change within our school, local community and globally. The children’s proposals were well thought out and demonstrated that our children are keen to be responsible citizens and effective contributors that want to make a difference. The school aims to pilot the Learning Communities and Pupil Voice Groups this term. Updates will follow as soon as progress is made in this regard.
Solo talks by Pr. 2 and 3
The wonderful children of Room 6 delivered fantastic solo talks about their recent Interdisciplinary Learning Project about space. The children had all completed a homework challenge that enabled them to present and share their learning with their peers. Great work boys and girls!! I was hugely impressed. Well done.
Welcome Back!!
It was wonderful to return to school this morning and to welcome everyone back after a lovely Spring Break. It was lovely to see a hall full of smiling faces (pupils and staff) eager to start a new term and feeling fully refreshed. Children were reminded that this is a very busy time of the year with lots planned throughout the school term. Children were also informed that their teachers will be very busy working on writing end of term reports to be shared with parents. Everyone left the hall knowing that they had to work hard this term to impress their teacher and to prove that they were ready for the next big move whether it was to a new primary stage or to high school. I look forward to updating you on a regular basis about the great work taking place here in school and to the great variety of events that take place throughout the term. Please remember to check our school blog and our twitter account for regular updates and news.
