Our week ahead is as busy as always!! Quite a few of our Pr.6 and 7 pupils will be attending a Gaelic Football Tournament at St.Ambrose on Tuesday. It would be lovely if they could play in some nice warm sunshine but the weather forecast is not looking so favourable at the moment. Our new entrants will come to the school on Thursday afternoon to visit their classroom and meet the teachers. Their parents will attend a parents information afternoon and will also get to hear about the role of the Parent Council and our P.T.A. At the moment we have 55 children registered to start in August.
Congratulations to our last group of Pr.4 pupils who received their First Holy Communion on Sunday. As soon as the photographer sends us the group pictures we will get them posted on the blog. As a treat for our Pr.4 pupils the school has organised a special treat for the children on Thursday afternoon.
Friday of this week and Monday of next week are Bank holidays and the school is closed.

Friday was the first day of our whole school gathering together to form our various committees to promote pupil voice and to give everyone greater opportunity to take on leadership roles. This term we have formed six committees that will enable pupils to lead awareness raising campaigns and so make a difference at school, local and national level. Each committee appointed a chair and vice chairperson and decided upon the aim of their committee and formed an action plan. We have a picture of two of our committees after their first meeting. There are 6 committees for Pr.1-3 and six committees for Pr.4-7. We now have Eco, Health, Enterprise, Global Citizens, Pupil Council and JRSO committees that will meet throughout this term.

This week is a short week at school for our pupils as we have a Bank Holiday and an in-service day on Thursday. The school will be used for election purposes so staff only have access to certain parts of the building on that day. This week we have visits from Action for Safe Play who will run a mini play rangers programme for some of our senior pupils. Two of of senior pupils will attend an Eco Conference at Greenhill School on Tuesday morning along with Mrs.Chisholm. Our Pr.4 pupils will make two visits to the Church this week to prepare for their First Communion on Sunday.
As part of our self-evaluation process the pupils will complete a questionnaire this week that will let us know what they think of school and how we can continue to improve and make it better for all pupils. The staff are looking forward to seeing the collated results.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

Our Daffodil Tea in aid of St.Andrew’s Hospice raised over £120 thanks to donations on the day and the sale of raffle tickets. The school is delighted to announce that thanks to donations and raffles sold at our Easter Bonnet Parade the school raised over £500 from both events which is a tremendous sum of money. We look forward to inviting a representative from the Hospice to come along to the school in the new term to make our presentation. Visiting parents and grandparents were entertained at their morning tea thanks to the talented bunch of musicians we have here at S.Augustine’s. The morning was a great opportunity to show off their talents!

Miss Ross’s group of chefs from the cooking club were delighted to be awarded their Junior Chef Certificates at the end of term.
They completed their training and are now ready to assist with all cooking jobs at home!
Children made many delicious dishes throughout this club such as Bruschetta and experienced a real life cooking experience during a recent trip to Frankie & Benny’s!
A very successful learning experience for all. Let’s hope they put all that training to good use in their own kitchen!!