Mr Thomas' Blog

This is the time that the children will be coming down from their classes to visits the stalls in the Fayre. Though out with these times, the stalls for all Primaries will still be selling what all the children have made. If you arrive outside of these times, come see the Office Staff and we will get your children for you from class.

We hope you have fun today at our Christmas Fayre! The children and staff have all worked very hard. 

As we head into one of our busiest times of year, please click on the link below for our November Newsletter.  It has a huge amount of information for you regarding our Christmas Celebrations and things that are happening in our school community for the remainder of the term and beyond.  You will also see some P1-3 Parents as Partners dates which are coming up in January, so save the date!

December 2024

We are looking forward to seeing you all at our Christmas Fayre next week. There is lots going on in the classes and behind the scenes to make it a great morning. However, we are a little short on prizes for our Adult Tombola. If anyone has any unwanted gift sets, candles, bottles of alcohol, chocolates, tins of biscuits etc we would be grateful if you could hand them into school by Wednesday 4th Dec. We always appreciate your support.

THIS WEEK’S SCHOOL MENU:  Week 1

Click HERE to access:

Primary school menu | North Lanarkshire Council

PARENT COUNCIL MEETING:

The Parent Council will meet this coming Tuesday 12th November 2024 at 6pm in the school Dining Hall.  All are welcome to attend.

FRIDAY 15TH NOVEMBER is a Non Uniform Day:

Around this time last year, we held a Non Uniform Day and instead of bringing money in for this, we asked you to send in donations of chocolate!  The chocolate was then used for a Chocolate Tombola Stall for the Christmas Fayre.  We are asking the same of you this year!  We are looking for donations of:

• Chocolate bars of all shapes and sizes
• Bags of chocolate sweets
• Boxes of chocolate
• Basically anything made of chocolate – any shape and size.

Last year’s Chocolate Tombola was a HUGE success and we have learned from our organisational mistakes for this year, so it will be much easier to claim your prize on the day!

All donations gratefully received.

THIS WEEK IS ANTI-BULLYING WEEK.

The theme for this year is Choose Respect which fits very well with our own school Ethos – All About Respect.  One of our revised School Values is also Respect.

Thursday of this week will have a special “Spooky Halloween Menu”.

🔴 – Roast Beef
🟢 – Veggie Meatballs
🟡 – Baked Potato (beans or tuna)
🔵 – Hot Dog

There will be no sandwiches available.

PARENT COUNCIL MEETING POSTPONED

The Parent Council Meeting was due to take place this evening (29th September) but it is now going to take place on Tuesday 12th November at 6pm in the School Hall.  All Welcome!

HALLOWEEN PARADE:  Thursday 31st October 2024

Children should come to school as normal in their school uniform.  The Halloween Parade will take place in the afternoon and children can be in their costumes for this.  This event is for children and staff only.

• Children can go home for lunch and to get changed.
• They will ALL be dismissed at 12:15pm from the main gates (entrance to the playground).  This will include Primary 1 children.
• Please do not come earlier to collect your child!
• Children should return at 1:20pm.  Please try not to come back earlier, as they may need to go out to the playground for a while as we cannot guarantee supervision indoors.
• Children remaining in school can bring a costume with them to change into after lunch and staff will assist.
• Of course, if your child does not want to dress up, they can remain in school uniform!
• Children will be dismissed as normal at 3pm.

THE AFTER SCHOOL FOOTBALL CLUB WILL BE CANCELLED ON THURSDAY, DUE TO IT BEING HALLOWEEN!

FEAST OF ALL SAINTS Friday 1st November 2024

The whole school will attend Mass in St. Columba’s to celebrate the Feast of All Saints.  This is traditionally a Holy Day of Obligation.  Mass is at 10am in the church and everyone is welcome to join us.

There was a lot of information in our latest Newsletter, which you may have missed.  Here are some reminders:

DRAMA CLUB

Drama Club starts on Wednesday 23rd October 2024 and this is open to all children in P4, P5, P6 and P7.  If your child would like to join the Drama Club, please let us know by contacting the school office.

FEAST OF ST. JOHN PAUL II

This takes place today (22nd October) and we will have Mass in the school hall at 11am.  Please come along and support us on our Patronal Feast Day.  We have a new bunch of P6 Pope Francis Faith Award Candidates being enrolled during this Mass.  All welcome to join us.  Lunch time will be earlier to accommodate our Cinema Afternoon!

HALLOWEEN DISCO

Tickets are still available for the Halloween Disco.  Information within the Newsletter.

SACRAMENTAL PREPARATION

If you scroll down on our website homepage, you will see the links to enrol your child for the Sacraments (First Confession in P3, First Holy Communion in P4 and Confirmation in P7).  Please complete the relevant form if you have not already done so!

First Confession:  Monday 11th March 2024

St. Gabriel’s Children:  Takes place in school during the day.

St. Columba’s Children:  In St. Columba’s Church with time slots issued in advance.

First Holy Communion:  Saturday 31st March

11am in St. Columba’s

1pm in St. Gabriel’s

Confirmation:  Thursday 6th February at 7pm in St. Columba’s Church for ALL CHILDREN.  There are no Confirmations in St. Gabriel’s this year, as the Diocese now go to one church year about.

HALLOWEEN PARADE

Please see the detail about our Halloween Parade on Thursday 31st October.  Children can be collected at the school gate (if they are going home to get changed) at 12:15pm and return for 1:20pm in their costumes.  They can also bring a costume to school to change into if that is preferable.

FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

the School will attend Mass for this Holy Day of Obligation on Friday 1st November at 10am in St. Columba’s.  All welcome.

Our dance-a-thon was a massive success yesterday, with everyone having loads of fun raising money for our school funds. 💃🕺🏽 A big thanks to Mrs MacFadyen and her fabulous P7 helpers for organising the day and keeping it running smoothly!!

We raised an incredible £3259.20 – including a £500 anonymous donation from one family. Thank you so much! We are so very grateful for all your support!! If you’ve still to return your sponsor money, you can do so after the holidays!!

In our October Newsletter, we included some forms which we need people to complete.  We thought they may get lost in all of the other information within the Newsletter, so we have added them below for your convenience.  If you have any questions about this, please do get in touch!

First Confession (P3), First Communion (P4) and Confirmation (P7) Registration

We ask all Parents/Carers who are requesting any of the above sacraments to complete a form, even if you attended the meeting in one of the churches.  Please do so before 21st October 2024.

Click HERE for the form.

Literacy & Numeracy Support Volunteers

We are looking for people to offer some of their time to come into school and support small groups of children with Literacy and Numeracy.  All training would be provided and you would be supported by a Teacher too.

Click HERE for the form.

Parent Council Volunteers

The Parent Council need a band of helpers for meetings and events.  This can be for as little or as much as you can offer.

Click HERE to support our Parent Council.

We are please to send out our October Newsletter which you can now download.

The Newsletter is packed with information, dates, upcoming events and lots of interesting things!  It lets you see just how busy we are at St. John Paul II!  Since the beginning of the school year, we have been sending out various items of news on their own through our website and our text messaging system.

Please make sure that we have a valid email address for you as we will be starting to email things out, rather than text, where possible.  Emailing you doesn’t cost us a penny, but wee are spending hundreds of pounds a year on text messages to our Parents/Carers and we would like to reduce this.

What’s in this edition of the Newsletter?

• Last day of term – information about our Dance-a-thon and Non uniform day
• Some reminders to help the school run as smoothly as possible
• Attendance information
• Parent Council dates and events for the entire year
• Halloween Information
• Parents as Partners Dates – save the date and join us!
• P7 Outdoor Education Week
• Patronal Feast Day Celebrations
• Sacramental Preparation Information
• Calendar Dates and Holiday Dates

And lots more…! 

Some of these items have links for you to follow for more information or to complete a form.  Please look our for them!

Click on the link below for our Newsletter.

October 2024