What a week we have had as I’m sure your children have shared with you.
I have to begin my blog on Thursday – our Inspection Celebration Day. We certainly celebrated in style and a fantastic time was had by all. The day began with a super production of Oliver Twist from M&M Productions. Some of our nursery children joined us for this treat and joined in cheering and booing at appropriate times. After interval we made our way back to the hall for a whole school photograph with some parents and our Home School Partnership Worker. The message is clear that we are indeed a team at St Cuthbert’s! The Pupil Council also had a picture with myself and Mrs McCart, our Principal Teacher, and parents Mrs Whitson and Mrs Healey. In the picture we have our framed photograph of our special star of words taken from our report. This star also featured on the commemorative bookmarks that the Pupil Council presented to every pupil in our school. There was then an early lunch and I was overwhelmed by the effort made by pupils and parents for our party afternoon. Many children were collected for a ‘home lunch’ and returned looking very smart indeed! I am delighted with the support that parents continually offer our children and school, it is very much appreciated.
Mr Sinclair provided the disco in the afternoon and the party certainly started after the Pupil Council performed their final duty of the day – cutting the yummy cake!
Many thanks to our wonderful school staff who helped make this day possible for all our children – their many talents were used to the full! (I will not mention the dancing demonstrations by certain staff!)
This week was also Financial Education Week. Miss Ferrie had worked very hard to secure a range of visitors for the whole school to raise awareness and knowledge of the importance of money. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the inputs and the evaluation activity on Friday clearly showed that pupils had a more secure understanding of money. All families took home a leaflet on Friday so the learning can continue at home.
On Wednesday we welcomed some S1 and S2 pupils from John Ogilvie High School. Miss McAnich, Head of Mathematics, organised this event where secondary pupils led a learning experience with a small group of P6 pupils. Feedback from all involved was very positive and our P6 pupils enjoyed working with pupils from the secondary school. I will be speaking with Mr Morrison, Head Teacher of JOHS, to discuss more events like this.
On Wednesday evening many P7 parents joined us for our annual meeting about our P7 residential trip and our Education for Love programme. This year we are travelling to Lockerbie Manor for the first time. We welcomed Graham from Manor Adventure who gave a very professional presentation about the centre. I have never had so many parent helper requests for a trip! The facility looks first class and I am sure that our P7s, along with Miss McKendry and Mrs McCart, will have a super time.
In the nursery Fairyland has continued to develop while everyone joined the party celebrations on Thursday. This week’s focus was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This linked to numeracy learning about size and number. For snack, Mrs Collins worked with the children to make their very own porridge!
Finally, our school was represented at St. Cuthbert’s Church this weekend as it is the beginning of Catholic Education Week. The Airlie family took part in the offertory procession on Saturday evening and the McLaughlin and Healey family represented our school on Sunday morning. The children, as always, were a credit to everyone in full school uniform. We look forward to continuing the theme of ‘Shining the Light of Faith’ this week in school and will conclude with a Service of Light on Friday afternoon. I hope many parents and careers will join us for this occasion in the school hall at 1.45pm. After the service parents are welcome to join us for a cup of tea or coffee to mark Fairtrade Fortnight.
Mrs Hendry
