Congratulations to Fifth Year Student Breeanne O’Hara who recently achieved her Scottish Qualifications Authority level 4 in British Sign Language. Breeanne has undertaken this qualification in addition to her school studies attending evening classes at Coatbridge College. This qualification involved successfully achieving a variety of vocabulary units throughout the year and this award is a credit to the amount of work Breeanne has put into achieving a subject she holds close to her heart. Well done Breeanne!

Catholic Education Week recently  took place with the theme for this year being ‘Shining The Light of Faith’ which draws on the first Papal Encyclical of Pope Francis ‘Lumen Fidei’ – The Light of Faith. As part of the week’s events the wider school community joined together for the annual Cluster Mass including staff, parents and pupils from Taylor High School, Christ the King Primary, Holytown,  Our Lady and St. Francis Primary, Carfin, St. Mary’s Primary, Cleland, St. Patrick’s Primary, New Stevenston and St. Teresa’s Primary, Newarthill. The staff and students of the school Music department led by Principal Teacher Fiona Cannon provided the musical liturgy for this Mass which took place in celebration of Catholic Education Week in St. Frances Xavier Parish in Carfin. Fr. King provided the liturgy for this service and had some inspiring words for the young people, parents, carers and staff members of our wider cluster community. Thanks go to the music department Fiona Cannon, Miss Suzanne Evans and Miss Kerry Smith. Special mention to Mrs Honor Miller of the Modern Languages department, and Sixth Year House Captain Caitlin Miller who provided beautiful vocal performances as part of the musical liturgy. Our thanks to Stage Head Mrs. Sandra Devlin who co-ordinated this service,  Fr. King for his continued support in celebrating the strong faith of our school, and to the pupils from our associated primary schools and our own House Captains, Caitlin Miller for St. Ninian, Caitlin Cogan for St. Kentigern, Mark McShane for St. Andrew, Conor Duffy for St. Margaret, Julia McKendrick for St. John Ogilvie and Mark Muldoon for St Columba House for all their wonderful contributions to the service on the evening.

The Visiting Examiner for music will visit the school on Tuesday 11th March and Wednesday 12th March to conduct National 5 and Higher Performance examinations.

Sixth year students Aidan Spiers and Emily McGuinness have been very busy working on their Caritas Award.  The students recently volunteered to help at this annual Social Event for the older members of their parish and are now in the process of  arranging a coffee morning for later next Month.   Both students are undertaking thier award as part of St. Teresa’s Parish in Newarthill.  The students were inspired by the work of female staff in the school who last year donated almost 200 pairs of pants to be sent Mzimba in Northern Malawi after hearing of the plight of local women. The students recently heard that the community of Mzimba are raising funds to be sent to the community to try and help them build, and furnish,  a community room for pre-school children in the village and so Aidan and Emily offered to try and help.  The coffee morning will be held on Sunday 23rd March in the church  hall following the 11am Mass. Aidan and Emily are looking for donations of homebaking, on the day, and any raffle prizes. These can be handed in to the school office any time.

Catholic Education Week takes place this week running from Sunday 23^rd February until Saturday 1^st March. To begin the week representatives from our Senior Management Team along with young people from the school made valuable contributions at their local parishes over the weekend participating in various services and distributing our Catholic Education Week Cluster Newsletter. The theme for this year is ‘Shining The Light of Faith’ which draws on the first Papal Encyclical of Pope Francis ‘Lumen Fidei’ – The Light of Faith.  An extensive set of resources has once again been prepared, edited and published by the Scottish Catholic Education Service on behalf of the Catholic Education Commission for Scotland. The staff and students of the school music department led by Principal Teacher Fiona Cannon will be providing the musical liturgy for the annual Cluster Mass which takes place in celebration of Catholic Education Week this evening, Thursday 27^th February at 7.30pm in St. Frances Xavier Parish in Carfin. We very much look forward to celebrating the liturgy with all members of our wider cluster community.

S5 and S6 Prelims start on Thursday 30th January and end on Thursday 6th February.Good luck to all pupils sitting exams!

FREE SCHOOL MEALS / CLOTHING GRANT ( 2013 -2014 )

Families who are entitled to support should apply for this.

Parents who applied last year have either been sent a letter advising them of their entitlement and automatic award or an application form for completion.

Application forms will be available soon in the school and will be made available to pupils on request.

Application forms can also be downloaded via:
www.northlanarkshire.go.uk/freeschoolmeals.

Applications relating to the new term will be accepted by First Stop Shops from the first week in May.

Early submission is advisable to ensure clothing grants are made and that free school meals are registered for the start of the new session.