St. Brendan's Primary School and Nursery

This week in St Brendan’s

Parent and Carers Evening

A big thank you to all the parents and carers who attended our first Parents evening of the year. It was lovely to see so many of you and to share how well the children are settling into their new classes.

Your support and involvement mean so much and help us ensure every child feels happy, confident and ready to learn. We had a 92.4% turnout of parents and carers attend our settling in evening on Tuesday. If you didn’t manage to make it along on Tuesday evening, please call the school office to arrange an appointment.

We’re excited for the term ahead and appreciate your continued partnership in making our school such a special place!

Primary 4 and 5/4 enjoy a trip to Summerlee!

 Our Primary 4 and 5/4 classes had a fantastic day at Summerlee Museum on Wednesday as part of their topic on The Victorians. The trip was a wonderful opportunity to step back in time and experience what life was like over a hundred years ago!

The children had great fun dressing up in Victorian clothes, playing with old-fashioned toys and exploring traditional Victorian homes. One of the highlights of the day was going down into the mines — a real eye-opener into how different working life was for people during that time.

Everyone came away buzzing with excitement (and a bit of coal dust!) after such a memorable, hands-on learning experience. A huge thank you to the staff and helpers who made the visit possible — and to the children for their fantastic enthusiasm and behaviour throughout the day!

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Developing our readers and community links

A big thank you to Alistair, a valued member of our community, who visited St Brendan’s this week to read to both our Early and Upper School pupils.

The children were absolutely captivated by the stories and loved every minute of the experience. Alistair’s enthusiasm and storytelling brought the books to life and sparked great discussions across all age groups.

It was a fantastic reminder of the joy and value of reading together. Thank you, Alistair, for giving your time and making such a positive impact – we hope to welcome you back soon!

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Celebrating our successes!

This week’s assembly was a fantastic celebration of our learners’ achievements. We recognised pupils who have shown excellence as Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens, Confident Individuals and Effective Contributors. Their hard work, positive attitudes and dedication to learning truly stood out.

We also shared and celebrated successes from clubs in our wider community—highlighting the amazing talents and efforts our pupils show beyond the classroom.

Well done to everyone involved!

A fantastic first term!

As we wrap up the first term of the school year, we just want to say a massive thank you to all our amazing pupils, staff and parents here at St Brendan’s Primary.

It’s been a busy term, filled with learning, laughter and plenty of memorable moments. From classroom achievements, assembly awards, whole school litter picking to clean up our community and raise money for our upcoming pantomime trip. Winning football tournaments, continued engagement in the Motherwell Diocesan project, strengthening our community links and of course featuring in Parliament for our outstanding relationships and many other memorable moments. It really has been a jam packed term!

To our pupils – thank you for your hard work, your kindness and the way you look out for one another. You’ve shown great effort and enthusiasm and we’re so proud of how you’ve started the year.

To our staff – thank you for your dedication, energy and care. Your support and encouragement mean so much and you’ve helped make this term a positive one for everyone.

We’re proud of the whole St Brendan’s community, pupils, staff and families – for working together and making our school such a happy and welcoming place to learn and grow.

We hope that everyone has a restful, fun-filled break and we look forward to seeing everyone back and ready for Term 2.

Take care and enjoy the holidays!
The St Brendan’s Team

Primary 5 have returned from the holidays with fantastic enthusiasm and have fully embraced their learning across all areas of the curriculum. Throughout Term 1, they have demonstrated a positive attitude, strong engagement, and a growing sense of independence and responsibility.

Literacy

In Literacy, the class have been following the NLC Active Literacy Spelling Programme. Working in a four-week cycle, pupils have been learning about different phoneme families, spelling rules, and common and tricky words.

In Reading, we recently completed our whole-class modelling block using the novel The Iron Man, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. They confidently presented tasks that demonstrated their understanding of the text and will now apply these skills to their group novels. The Purple and Green groups are currently exploring non-fiction texts linked to our IDL topic, while the Blue group are engaging with a selection of Rapid Readers, which include both fiction and non-fiction stories.

All children have the opportunity to explore a wide range of books from our class library during soft start and DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time. It is lovely to see their growing confidence and enjoyment in reading, with noticeable improvements in fluency and comprehension.

In Writing, we have focused on narrative storytelling. The children have developed the key building blocks of imaginative writing—starting with characters and setting, then progressing to plot development. They are encouraged to apply grammar knowledge to enhance their stories, particularly through the use of adjectives and adverbs to add detail and engage the reader. We also explored information report writing, linking this to our novel studies and IDL themes.

Numeracy and Maths

In Numeracy, we began the term by consolidating our understanding of place value with numbers up to 10,000. Pupils then developed their addition and subtraction strategies. They have been working hard to recall number bond facts within 20 at speed through competitive and interactive games. These skills have supported their work with larger numbers, including adding and subtracting multiples of ten and one hundred. Strategies used include number lines, making tens, partitioning, and the standard written method. These concepts are regularly reinforced through Number Talks and Daily 10 challenges.

In Maths (non-number), the focus has been on Measurement, specifically length and perimeter. These concepts have been brought to life during outdoor learning sessions, helping pupils to contextualise their understanding and apply it in real-world situations.

Learning Across the Curriculum

Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL) 

Our class topic, We’re All From Somewhere, has provided a meaningful and engaging context for learning. We began by exploring Article 7 of the UNCRC – a child’s right to a name and nationality. Pupils used their knowledge of world flags to design creative nameplates that reflect this right.

We have developed our digital literacy skills by researching terms such as refugee, immigrant, and migrant. Pupils read non-fiction texts sharing real-life stories of people fleeing conflict, deepening their empathy and understanding. Through the novel The Boy at the Back of the Class, we are exploring the thoughts and feelings of children who welcome a refugee peer into their classroom.

As part of this topic, we will explore cross-cultural studies through expressive arts, including drama, dance, and music. The children have shown great enthusiasm and curiosity and are excited to continue discovering new cultures and traditions.

Kodály Music Programme

We are lucky to have Mrs MacGregor visit our class every other Friday to lead Kodály-based music sessions. Through songs, rhymes, and games, the children are developing their musical understanding and confidence.

“I love playing games. Mrs MacGregor teaches the best singing games!” – Laura
“I love the teamwork and learning new games – it gives me courage to try and enjoy new things!” – Thea
“I like that Kodály improves my singing and gives me the courage to take a step further.” – Oliver

Mrs MacGregor also runs the Golden Time Fun Choir Club alongside Mrs MacDermid, which several pupils from our class have joined. We look forward to seeing their performances throughout the school year.

Physical Education (PE)

Primary 5 always approach PE with energy and enthusiasm. This term, our focus has been Athletics. Pupils have developed techniques in various athletic events such as javelin, baton relays, hurdles, high jump, long jump, sprints, and long-distance running.

Weekly team races have encouraged healthy competition, teamwork, and perseverance, all while earning dojo points. We look forward to moving into racquet sports in Term 2.

Religious Education (RE)

The start of the school year provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on our own faith and beliefs. We also began exploring Other World Religions, starting with Judaism. Pupils have compared its key beliefs, traditions, and symbols with those of Christianity, developing a deeper appreciation of diversity and respect for others.

Skills Academy

On Thursday 25th September, we launched our first Skills Academy session of the year. Pupils had the chance to participate in one of the following academies:

Community, Creative, Life Skills, Food & Technology and Design & Manufacture

Our focus this term was Collaboration, and the children thoroughly enjoyed working together across stages, developing valuable skills and forming new friendships.

It has been a fantastic start to the year for Primary 5.

Their enthusiasm, creativity, and willingness to learn have been truly commendable. We look forward to an exciting Term 2 with lots more opportunities for growth, challenge, and fun!

St Brendan’s make it to Parliament

We are thrilled to share that St. Brendan’s Primary made it to Parliament!

As a follow up from our visit from MSP Jenny Gilruth, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on the 17^{th of} June, we were highlighted as a school of excellent practice for the relationships we have developed here in St. Brendan’s. During her visit here at St. Brendan’s MSP Jenny Gilruth met pupils, parents and staff as part of the national action plan on behaviour and relationships in schools, which was published last August.

St Brendan’s bring home the trophy!

Last week our A team successfully defended their trophy, winning 6 games, drawing 1 without conceding a goal. Wow! We are so impressed with these impressive scores and look forward to seeing what the next game has in store.

Our B football team took part in the first round of the Motherwell Fair Play Cup at Fir Park winning 1 game, drawing 1 and losing 2. We are so proud of their effort and determination, and we look forward to the next round!

Cleaning up our community!

We are so excited to announce the success of our whole-school litter pick which took place last week.

As part of our commitment to making St Brendan’s an eco-friendly school pupils were provided the chance to make a positive impact on our school grounds and local community whilst raising funds for pupils to attend The Glasgow King’s theatre pantomime at Christmas. Every class had so much fun taking part in collecting litter and we are so grateful for all the donations which have been made, thank you once again. A special thank you to the lovely man who kindly donated whilst P4 were out on their litter pick, we greatly appreciate it!

From our litter pick we collected around 187kg of rubbish from our school grounds and local community. A whopping amount of rubbish!

We are so thrilled that we can make such a difference to our local community!

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Golden Time clubs have started back!

Today we are so excited to announce that our Golden Time Clubs have started back. Here in St. Brendan’s pupil voice is so important. We take a whole-school commitment to listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all children and young people.

Last week our primary 7 pupils visited each class, providing pupils the opportunity to select their three top choices for their selected golden time club. Our clubs place focus on developing a range of meta skills whilst having lots of fun!

Here is a wee overview of the clubs we have on offer to our pupils!