My weekly blog has to begin at the end of the week. On Friday we held interviews within the school for the position of class teacher. All candidates were of a very high standard but I was delighted to successful appoint Miss Nicola Prentice. Miss Prentice has been fully involved with St Cuthbert’s for over four years. Everyone was absolutely delighted to welcome her now as a permanent member of staff. The pupils of primary 6 were thrilled to know that Miss Prentice will be with them for the remainder of the year.

I visited Primary 2 on Monday morning and was very impressed by their learning in Art. The pupils were engaged in Andy Warhol inspired activity. The children were keen to discuss their learning with me and demonstrate how they have developed their skills this year.
Primary 1 had a visit from Colin the butcher from Morrison’s. This was part of their learning about the farm. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed learning about the role of a butcher and extending their knowledge about the journey of food from farm to plate. Some very interesting questions were asked!
On Thursday we welcomed Primary 7 from St. Blane’s Primary for our Passport to Europe afternoon. Señorita Ferrie organised this event that enabled our senior pupils to work with peers from another school to use their language skills in a variety of ways. The pupils excelled themselves and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Muchas gracias to Señorita Ferrie for organising this event.
Primary 6 also had visitors on Thursday. Mrs Hewitt organised a visit from two pupils from Trinity High school, her son Joseph from S5 and Rachel from S6. Both pupils delivered a very informative presentation to P6 about the Battle of the Somme as a result of their educational excursion to France. Miss Prentice was most grateful for this input to the class learning about World War I.
Primary 4 continued with their work on inherited characteristics by welcoming grandparents to the class on Thursday for family tree work.
The curriculum within St. Cuthbert’s is continually being enhanced by staff looking for every opportunity to engage with partners and bring learning to life. This results in high quality learning experiences for our young people.

Five of our Primary 7 pupils, who formed the winning group for the Maths Challenge, participated in the final at John Ogilvie on Friday. Miss McKendry said that pupils participated very well and all enjoyed their experience.
The nursery are continuing to look for signs of Spring. The water tray has changed into a bird’s nest with the children hunting for birds and demonstrating their counting skills. The nursery had some visitors this week from Primary 1. Miss McLaughlin and Mrs Hewitt took Primary 1’s learning to the nursery as they all took to the bikes to develop their directional skills. Great fun was had by all!

We welcomed Miss Kirkwood to our school on Wednesday. Miss Kirkwood is our newly appointed Additional Support Teacher. She will be in school each Friday morning supporting our children where required.
Friday marked Down Syndrome Awareness Day. We supported this initiative by wearing odd socks! The Down Syndrome association is one of our chosen charities this Lent.
Please continue to support all Lenten initiatives within our school as we prepare as a community of faith for the great feast of Easter.

On a final note we said farewell to Miss McKale and Mr Brownlie as they completed their final year teaching placements on Friday. Both students have worked extremely hard in Primaries 5 and 7. Many thanks to them both for all their efforts and we wish them every success in their future careers.

This coming week is Road Safety Week. Our focus is to encourage pupils to enter the school gates safely, especially our many cyclists who can enter our school gates at quite a speed! Miss Collins has organised many other activities during the week too.
Spanish phrase of the week is Que tal? Muy bien!

Hasta luego!
Señora Hendry