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!!

Our Daffodil Tea for parents and grandparents will take place tomorrow at 11.00am. All proceeds will go to St.Andrew’s Hospice along with the sum raised at our Easter Bonnet Parade.

The school was delighted with the support from the pupils of Pr. 4 – 7 who responded magnificently to the Egg Challenge. Classes used time in the morning to decorate their eggs in preparation for the competition in the afternoon. Poor Mrs.McKeown and Mrs.Redmond had a real challenge on their hands as they had the responsibility of judging the competition. Great work boys and girls because everybody did a marvellous job!! The standard was so high!

The school was delighted to see so many parents and grandparents come along to join in and celebrate with the boys and girls as they had their traditional Easter Bonnet Parade. Well done to everyone for the great effort that was put into creating such masterpieces. They really were quite amazing!! Miss Ross has become our official photographer so as you can see there were lots of pictures taken on the day to record the event.

This week will be a busy week for everyone at St.Augustine’s as we prepare for Easter. Children are encouraged to attend morning Mass at 8.30am in St.Augustine’s Church. The whole school will attend morning Mass on Thursday at 10.00am. We invite our parents and grandparents to join us for the service and kindly invite everyone to join us in school for a Daffodil Tea afterwards.
We aim to inform everyone of the total that was raised throughout Lent and the charities that will benefit from the great work and activities that took place thanks to the great efforts of teachers and children and the support of parents.
Children will be busy at home preparing and creating Easter bonnets for our traditional Easter Bonnet Parade (Pr.1 – 3) on Wednesday morning. Parents/Grandparents are invited to join us. Prizes will be awarded for the best bonnets in each class. For pupils Pr.4 – 7 a challenge has been set to create a decorated egg in class. This activity will take place in the morning with children getting the opportunity to display their eggs for judging in the afternoon. The whole school will get together on Wednesday afternoon for a whole school assembly. Unfortunately due to numbers the afternoon assembly will be for pupils only.
Some of our Pr.4 pupils will be going out of school on Tuesday to attend a Netball Fun 5’s Festival. We wish them well and feel very confident that they will represent St.Augustine’s beautifully.
Please note the school will close at 2.30pm on Thursday 2nd April and will re-open on Monday 20th April.
Please remember to check out our blog throughout the week as we feature the great work taking place in school and feature the Easter Bonnet Parade and whole school assembly.