St Brendan’s Weekly News
Welcome back to our Weekly Blog with our exciting news and learning experiences from our pupils.
Take a look at the exciting learning experiences our pupils have been involved in this week!
Spotlight Story of the Week – Skills Academies
This week we want to reflect on our skills academies and the opportunities it provides our pupils here at St. Brendan’s. Last week we provided an insight into our most recent ‘Critical thinking’ skills academies, sharing the wonderful experiences of our young people.
Our skills academies provide pupils opportunities to build essential life skills from a young age and promotes independence, resilience, and creativity through hands-on learning experiences. Pupils are given opportunities to explore new activities and discover hidden talents, which can increase self-confidence. All of our academies are fun, practical, and interest-based learning which helps keep pupils motivated and engaged. This in turn helps our pupils to develop a growth mindset, understanding that effort and practice lead to improvement.
Here is what our pupils think about our skills academies:
Thea, P4:
“I am in the design and manufacture skills academy. What I like about skills academies is that we get to share our thoughts and learn new things. We have been using tools to build a bridge using cardboard, this showed me I could be creative in my own way and when we were using the tools we got to see what they did and got to learn more about them. My favourite thing is that we can work in teams because if you don’t know something you can learn from your friends.”
Amelia. P5:
“I am in the community skills academy. I think this is really good because we get to go outside sometimes and see our community. At our critical thinking academy we got to make circuits, we used wires, a battery and mini lightbulbs. We put them altogether and we made a light work. I liked how we got to work in partners with younger kids. I learned a little bit about engineering and taking care of things in the community, like, turning off the lights.”
Emma, P6:
“I am in the creativity skills academy. I like creating new things and using my imagination and growth mindset, so that I don’t doubt myself when drawing. I’ve learned how to use different types of paints. At critical thinking, we were drawing the story of red riding hood”.
Amelia, P3:
“I am in the food technology academy. I like spending time with my friends and making food. I’ve learned to cut using knives, mix and stir things, weigh things and carve pumpkins. I’ve got to try new foods which I liked. I am half Polish and I liked the week we tried Polish food and learned Polish words. My favourite thing that I have made is the cookies.”
Lukas, P5:
“I am in the life skills academy. I like to learn new things every time I go. I’ve learned the skills to help someone if I see someone in danger and how to do CPR. I’ve learned to trust people and about keeping safe online. We looked at fake news so you don’t get hacked. I learned if it’s not sponsored it could be a scam so it made me become more aware when I’m on the internet. I feel every time I go, I am more confident, I learn new things about trust”.
Our Spotlight class of the week P2
Our spotlight class this week is Primary 2 with Mrs Kennedy
Primary 2 have had a busy & fun filled week and are so excited to be our ‘Spotlight class of the week!’
We have been continuing to enjoy our P.E topic – Gymnastics and have been learning new skills. We have been working on our balancing, jumping and stretching.
We have also been busy in Maths. As we are coming to the end of our Multiplication topic, we have been busy recapping our learning of the 2, 5 & 10 times table. In Literacy, we have been learning our ‘igh’ phoneme this week and have been enjoying exploring a range of activities to help us learn and understand these new words.
Also, this past week we LOVED being able to go out into our local community for a walk during our ‘Outdoor Learning’ time. As our IDL topic this term is ‘Our Community’ and we have been learning all about our local area of Muirhouse. Throughout this topic the children have been looking at identifying the key amenities/features within the area, different styles of houses that we all live in and the importance of communities.
Therefore, during our walk we were able to identify all of these within our area, we took our class iPads and worked together to take pictures and discuss all of these throughout.
Digital showcase to other establishments
This week we were excited to host a Digital Showcase to another establishment within our local authority to highlight the inspiring work, creativity, and achievements happening across our school. As stated within our HMIE report of practice worth sharing, it was noted that here in St. Brendan’s we:
- consistently use digital tools and resources to enhance pedagogy and learning experiences across the curriculum
- support children to develop the foundational skills needed to use digital tools fluently and meaningfully, then
- create opportunities for learners to apply digital skills to achieve purposeful outcomes which demonstrate learning
This visit allowed our staff and pupils to share our innovative digital teaching practices with other practitioners. We were able to showcase how we use technologies daily to consume content, create content of our own and communicate our thinking with others.
If you would like to read more on our ‘practice worth sharing’ you can access the document here.
https://education.gov.scot/media/jttfdjwk/st-brendan-s-ps-sif-210323.pdf
Amazing Assembly Awards
At this week’s assembly, we were thrilled to celebrate our pupils’ outstanding achievements as they received awards for being successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors, and responsible citizens. These awards recognise pupils who have shown exceptional effort in class, demonstrated confidence in new challenges, contributed positively to school life, and acted responsibly within the school community. It was inspiring to see their hard work, determination, and kindness being celebrated. Congratulations to all our award winners—you truly embody the values we strive for every day here in St. Brendan’s.
Reconciliation Retreat
Yesterday, our pupils attended a special retreat in preparation for their First Reconciliation. The day provided a calm and reflective space where children could learn about the importance of forgiveness, saying sorry, and God’s love. The pupils had the opportunity to attend Mass with the parishioners. The rest of the day was spent in our chapel hall participating in stories, prayers, activities, and quiet time. Pupils were encouraged to think about their own actions and how they can grow closer to God. The pupils had a great time and the retreat helped them feel supported, confident, and ready to take this important step in their faith journey.
Hope for Autism Assembly
This week we were lucky enough to have Derek from ‘Hope for Autism’. A long-established Charity supporting autistic people and their families in North Lanarkshire since 2002., come to our school to deliver a wonderful assembly to all of our children. Our pupils were given the chance to learn all about autism, what it is and how it can affect people in different ways. The session helped children understand the importance of kindness, inclusion, and celebrating differences. Pupils were encouraged to think about how they can be good friends and support everyone in our school community.
Mini Vinnies
Our Mini Vinnies is our SSVP group run by Mrs MacDermid and are the youngest branch of our Vincentian family tree. The group is comprised of P4-P7 pupils who meet together most weeks to plan and help anyone in need, in school and in the local community. This group provides wonderful opportunities for young people to share their ideas and concerns, to have fun, learn, pray and support each other. The SSVP model of faith in action is a great way to assist young people with thinking and talking about their spirituality – connecting their beliefs and values with service activities and issues in their community to help make their faith real, meaningful and relevant.
Over the past few weeks our Mini Vinnies have been raising awareness and gathering clothes for our local Baby Bank, supporting families in need. With the rising cost of living, many parents and guardians within our community struggle to provide essentials for their little ones, but our group is hoping to make a real difference.
The pupils have been collecting new and gently used children’s clothes, blankets, and essential items from families within our school community to give every child the best possible start. Our group believe no donation is too small and have been working hard to sort through the items and organise them.
This week our Mini Vinnies made our first donation.
If you would like to join us in spreading kindness. Donations are being welcomed at our office throughout Lent.
Cross Country Final
Well done to the nine members of our Cross Country team who qualified to run at this week’s NLC Active Schools final. On this week’s windy Wednesday morning, the boys and girls headed to Wishaw to take part in the races. A big congratulations to all children who completed the race and placed commendably whilst running with the best of the best runners in North Lanarkshire.
Golden Times Club – World Building
This week’s spotlight golden time club is ‘World Building’ with Mr Bradley.
In World Building, we kicked off by discussing some of the things we would need to create throughout our time together…first of which was what our world would look like! Using dice to help, we created a continent map, comprising of floating islands and volcanoes amongst other landscapes. We then set off to create key cities to place throughout our continent. Using dice and some nifty symbols, we were able to construct vibrant cities. Moving forward, we will look to fill these wonderful places with different people, communities and societies to hold our stories in.
Stay Tuned – Upcoming news
We hope you have enjoyed this week’s Weekly Blog and the snapshot of our learning experiences from the past week.
Stay tuned for our highlights next week.
