We had a wonderful celebration of our faith on Monday evening when 55 of our senior pupils were confirmed by Bishop Toal. The whole community of St. Cuthbert’s parish gathered together to make this a very special occasion. Special thanks must go to Bishop Toal, Father Bogan, the musicians of the parish, the altar servers, members of the parish community and our parents and carers. Thank you to so many staff who came to support our children and particularly our senior school staff who worked so hard in helping our children prepare. However, my biggest thanks goes to the pupils themselves who were a credit to themselves, their families and school on Monday evening. There was a very prayerful atmosphere in the church and the excellent participation of the pupils, both in prayer and song, was commented on by many. I hope our young people now find strength from this sacrament to continue to live their lives in faith and be an example to those around them.

 

Primary 4 had an excellent visit to the Pastoral Centre on Monday to further their preparation for the sacrament of the Eucharist. We were delighted to welcome six senior students from John Ogilvie High who accompanied the children and facilitated the day as part of their Caritas award programme.

 

Primary 1 hosted a visit from a farmer this week. This was part of their topic about The Farm. The children enjoyed listening to what’s involved in looking after a farm.

Primary 6 began rugby sessions with Hamilton Rugby Club this week in preparation for the rugby festival.

Primary 7 had a visit from John Ogilvie High RE department this week. This work was in preparation for the mass that will be celebrated next week to mark the 400^th Anniversary of the martyrdom of John Ogilvie. 8 senior pupils, along with staff, will represent our school at this mass.

 

On a sad note we said goodbye to Karen Wallace, our Home School Partnership worker, on Thursday morning. Karen has been a faithful friend of the school for 10 years helping out pupils, staff and parents in many, many ways. Karen is moving onto a new job and we wish her every success for the future.

 

Also on Thursday Primary 2 hosted Save the Polar Bear Day. This was part of their learning about climate change. Primary 2 spoke at assembly and raised awareness of climate change. They asked that everyone bring an extra layer to wear at school on Thursday and then they could turn the heating down every so slightly. To help keep everyone warm they made Fairtrade hot chocolate and sold this to raise money to sponsor a polar bear. Primary 2 also emailed me to ask that I publish the next newsletter online only and save paper. Watch this space.  An excellent example of Curriculum for Excellence in action. Well done Primary 2!

Finally, Friday was a very busy day. We marked Fairtrade Fortnight with a coffee morning on Friday morning. It was very well attended and my thanks to our wonderful support staff and Fairtrade Committee who helped organise the event. It was great to see so many parents, friends and relatives in our school. While this was happening the whole school, including the nursery, had the opportunity to raise money for our Lenten charities by taking part in our sponsored bounce.

I had the pleasure of taking prospective parents on a tour of the school during this busy day and they were most impressed with the wide range of learning activities and partnership working evident within our school.

 

In the nursery ….

 

Literacy

Lots of children over the last few weeks have shown an improved interest in writing their own names and have been doing this in many ways.

All our children have been recording their learning through their own learning books at group time.

 

Numeracy

Traffic surveys have been taken place and children have enjoyed guessing what form of transport will pass by St Cuthbert’s Nursery class the most.

 

Health and wellbeing

Children have been enjoying outside activities relating to our topic Transport and even made their own car wash.

Gym hall activities have included transport action songs and a very long bounce on the bouncy castle which the children all thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Snack

We have now implemented our new snack menu after taking guidance from the new document Setting the Table. Children have enjoyed wraps and cheese and plain yoghurts with fruit. Please look out for the new snack menu which will be displayed in the cloakroom.

 

Across the Curriculum

Messy play has included junk modeling this week and colour work has been a firm favourite with lots of fantastic models been sent home .

 

Children, parents and staff are all looking forward to a visit to the Transport Museum on Thursday 5th March to finish another successful topic.

 

Thank you for reading my blog,

Mrs Hendry

 

 

Last week was a week of preparation and getting ready for many reasons in St. Cuthbert’s Primary.

 

On Monday morning I walked with Primary 6 and 7 pupils to celebrate mass in St. Cuthbert’s Church. After mass the children spent time in the church getting organised for their Confirmation this Monday evening. The confirmandi pupils have worked extremely hard this week preparing for their Sacrament in many ways. They have reflected on their chosen saint, practised hymns and prayers and are now very excited about being confirmed in the Catholic faith on Monday evening. They also received a visit from representatives from the Legion of Mary from St. Cuthbert’s who spoke about their forthcoming sacrament and gave each pupil a little gift. This illustrates the partnership working between parish and school and enables our children to understand that they are indeed part of St. Cuthbert’s parish community.

 

On Wednesday the whole school walked to the church to celebrate mass for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. My grateful thanks to the many volunteers that helped walk our children to church. The rain also helped by staying away! The parishioners of St. Cuthbert’s were delighted to see the whole school at mass in the church and I was overwhelmed, but not surprised, by the many compliments the pupils received about their behavior, their participation during mass, their high standard of uniform and of course their wonderful singing! Well done St. Cuthbert’s it is once again a pleasure and privilege to be head teacher of this school.

 

At assembly this week we thought about our actions during Lent. We considered how we will pray, do penance and give alms. Our Lenten booklet has been given to all families and is available on the website. Please encourage your child to participate in the opportunities for prayer throughout Lent and be ready for our fundraising activities each Friday.

 

Our two charities this year are SCIAF and St. Andrew’s Hospice. It was heartening that our children decided on these charities especially when Bishop Toal’s Pastoral Letter this weekend reminded us about the importance of SCIAF as the church’s own charity to provide aid for those in need.

 

This Friday is our Sponsored Bounce – pupils can wear casual clothes and school polo shirt for the day.

This Friday will also be Fairtrade Friday. Please come along and support our Coffee Morning in the school at 10am.

 

All pupils had a treat on Thursday with a performance of the Jungle Book from M&M Productions. This was definitely the best one so far! The children enjoyed this treat after all their hard work during the Christmas season. We used money from Cash from Kids to pay for part of the show.

 

On Thursday there was great excitement in the nursery when First Bus arrived in the school playground. This was part of the nursery transport topic. The children boarded the shiny new bus, got a ticket and took their seat. Children then had a chance to be a bus driver in a real bus! Many songs were sung including The Wheels on the Bus! This was a fantastic learning experience for all our children and we now have many aspiring bus drivers in our nursery as a result!

 

Please remember and pray for our Primary 6 and 7 pupils this Monday evening as they make their Confirmation.

 

Thank you for reading my blog.

 

Mrs Hendry

St. Cuthbert’s Primary has been involved in a variety of activities over the past two weeks to celebrate Catholic Education Week. The theme this year was ‘Proclaiming the Joy of the Gospel’. Last weekend, senior pupils represented our school at St. Cuthbert’s Church participating in the liturgy of the word.

Pupils explored the theme in a variety of ways.

Primary 1 made Thank You cards for people in our school community who lived their life following gospel values. They visited many adults within the school saying Thank You for their efforts, giving them a card and a little chocolate. Primary 2 learned about Pope Francis’ Five Finger prayer and Primary 3 focused on words used by Pope Francis to help them understand the meaning of the gospel.

Pupils in our upper school looked for examples of how people in the wider community lived their life following the gospel. They created posters and pieces of writing.

Very appropriately this week our Primary 6 and 7 pupils all participated in a retreat day to Newmains Pastoral Centre. They were accompanied, for the first time, by senior pupils from John Ogilvie High School. These students are participating in the Caritas Award programme. Both days were extremely successfully and staff reported that all involved had enjoyed a very spiritual day that enabled all to take time and reflect on their faith journey.

 

However, the highlight of our week had to be Thursday morning. We welcomed Bishop Toal to our school for a full morning. Bishop Toal was appointed to Motherwell Diocese in June 2014. The bishop is visiting all primary schools within the diocese to meet staff and pupils. Bishop Toal visited all classes within the school. This was a wonderful opportunity for our pupils and staff to meet and speak with the bishop in their own school. Bishop Toal explained his role within Motherwell Diocese and invited questions from our pupils. He was most impressed with our children who, as always, were a credit to their families and school. Every child listened attentively and asked some very good and interesting questions. Primary 1-3 children sang Give me Joy in my Heart beautifully and certainly demonstrated to Bishop Toal that they know how to proclaim the joy of the Gospel. Bishop Toal led prayers in each class, en Español in Primary 5, and gave his blessing to staff and pupils. He then joined all staff and Father Bogan for lunch.

We are very grateful for Bishop Toal’s visit to our school and look forward to celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation with him and our senior pupils on Monday 23^rd March.

Finally, our school community came together on Friday afternoon to celebrate our Catholic Education Week assembly. Through prayer and song, we reflected on our learning and considered how we will continue to proclaim the joy of the Gospel as a school community.

 

Many thanks for reading my blog,

Mrs Hendry

The weather presented us all with a challenge this week but it didn’t succeed in stopping the learning within St. Cuthbert’s.

Many classes have had a focus on the Scots language in writing. At our celebrating Success Assembly on Friday pupils from P3,4, and 6 shared some super pieces with us. They were awfy guid!

 

On Thursday we launched our Internet Safety Week. This is a most important topic as all of our children, staff and families are using the internet in some way. It is crucial that we understand how to use the internet safely and more importantly understand the real dangers that our children can be exposed to if they are not following appropriate guidance.

 

Grateful thanks to Miss Prentice who has organised this event. Every class will engage in learning next week on a variety of topics. Some classes have inputs from our local Police Officer and others have S3 pupils from John Ogilvie High sharing their knowledge. Please support your child this week as they record their digital footprint. A parent event has been organised for Monday 9^th March at 6.30pm. Further details can be found in the current newsletter.

 

In the classes this week …

Primary 1 have continued to learn about The Farm. They are looking forward to a visit from a farmer. They have been studying the story of Noah’s Ark. They made rainbows, ordered the story and made their own promises. Primary 1 were also out and about last week taking messages all round the school.

Primary 2 are loving this weather as they continue to learn about polar animals. They have been watching Frozen Planet and have written reports about polar bears. They have also made a bar chart showing the most popular polar animal in Primary 2.

Primary 3 have been studying materials in science and identifying items as manmade and natural. In maths the topic has been subtraction with exchanging.

Primary 4 have also been working on data collection. They asked every pupil their favourite season. They then used ICT skills to collate and present data in the form of a bar graph.

Primary 5/6 have been looking at mental addition. They love FAB maths – a Big Maths strategy. Some pupils have also been working on the plot for their literacy topic A Tale Unfolds.

Primary 6 have been investigating our energy use throughout the school and documenting evidence. Some pupils have enjoyed real success with their mental maths ability as they achieved their best scores in the Beat That challenges.

As part of their Science topic Primary 7 have been studying he microorganism yeast. They designed their own investigation into what factors affect CO2 production. They also made their own bread and enjoyed eating it with butter and lots of jam!

 

In the nursery …

 

All the new children have settled well into nursery and have been following the nursery routine which has been reinforced at group time and get together time.

 

Art area

Children have been making lovely snow pictures from flour and salt. They made snowflakes with a sparkling of glitter. By creating penguins children have been introduced to different shapes and sizes. Many children have produced beautiful snowmen which are displayed all around the nursery. Clay has also been used this week and the children’s end products are also displayed.

 

Drama activities have included the making of pretend snowmen and balls which was then extended to the outdoor play area with real snow. Great fun was had by all.

 

Science area

Children were encouraged to bring snow and ice in from  outside and place it in the water trough to see what would happen.

 

Numeracy area

Some children have been counting to 20 and beyond. We have also been using the CleverTouch board to work with very popular numeracy games. Children have also made snowy footprints with their wellies and compared the different patterns they made.

 

Literacy Area

Children have been writing their own ideas for keeping warm in Winter. They have produced some fabulous WOW words which included patterns, freezing ,icicles. Many more are displayed on our WOW board.

 

A fantastic week of learning for all pupils in St. Cuthbert’s.

Next week is a four day week for pupils.

 

Please remember school is closed on Friday 6^th February for our Staff Development Day. School closed to all Monday 9^th and Tuesday 10^th February. There will be no blog next week due to the holiday.

 

Thank you for reading all the news from our school.

 

Mrs Hendry

Head Teacher

We welcomed many families to our school this week for enrolment for Primary 1. Many younger siblings are preparing to join our school and also some new families.

The weather caused great excitement for our children this week also and many classes took the opportunity to use the snow and wintry conditions for exciting learning.

In Primary 1, the big writing lesson focused on snow. Knowledge of numbers to twenty continues to develop and adding to 10.
The weather this week complemented Primary 2’s comparison of the Artic and Antarctic. They have been learning all about polar animals and conducted a survey to establish the favourite. The favourite was the Artic Fox!
Primary 3 have learning about life in the Victorian times. They have also been taking about friendship and wrote a recipe for the ‘Perfect Friend!’ In PE the focus has been badminton. Children have been learning how to hold a racquet and how to serve, strike and receive a shuttle.
Primary 4 have begun their study of The Romans by exploring the countries in the Roman Empire. In literacy they have been learning to write newspaper articles and in health they have studied the ‘eat well plate’.
Primary 5/6 the focus for Spanish has moved to Classroom Objects. Primary 6 have continued their learning about the Sacrament of Confirmation and this week focused on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Descriptive poems emerged from Primary 6 using the weather to spark imaginations. The study of Japan was concluded with a very full discussion about what pupils have learned. Primary 6 have been working on decimals in maths, concentrating on value and sequencing.
The theme of decimals continued into Primary 7 for all pupils. This week the children reflected on their learning in drama about being a victim of sectarian violence and wrote an imagined personal response. This is part of their Divided City Book Study.

In the nursery …

The new children all started this week and have settled in very well. We also had Mrs Grady a parent helper in helping with the snack. She enjoyed her spell in the nursery and is eager to come in again.
Children were all consulted to find out what they would like to learn during our Winter topic.
Their ideas included why does it snow? Where does snow come from? What makes the snow melt and why is the wind so strong. So a lot of researching will take place using the internet in the coming weeks!
Parents also submitted their ideas that included making an igloo, making ice and a walk outside to experience Winter first hand.

Numeracy
Number work is regularly taught across the curriculum and through play.
Children have been talking about taking turns and going ‘first, second, third, fourth etc…’ at together time and group time.

Snack helpers are appointed at welcoming time each day. Their jobs this week included preparing snack and organising the number of cups plates etc accordingly.

We look forward to resuming our Spanish lessons with Miss Speirs next week.

At assembly on Friday I congratulated the whole school on the standard of uniform – only three missing ties this week! This is fantastic. The high standard of uniform is a visible sign to all of how proud our children are to be pupils of St. Cuthbert’s. Thank you for your support and please continue to ensure this high standard is maintained.

Lunchtime homework clubs begin this week with Homework club on Wednesday and choir on Friday. Letters will be issued this week for after school classes starting week beginning 26th January. This term we can offer athletics, dance, girls and boys football, netball nippers in addition to judo.

Thank you for reading my blog,
Mrs Hendry

A very happy new year to all. I hope this year is filled with peace and happiness for all associated with St. Cuthbert’s Primary.

As always we have had a very busy first week back.
In Primaries 1 and 2 children have been revising sounds and common words and writing thank you letters to Santa for some very kind presents. Primary 1 have started their new topic ‘The Farm”. They have started to look at the parts of the plant and have promised when the weather improves they will be busy filling our school planters.
Primary 2 received a very interesting package on Friday. The weather was perfect for the delivery of a frozen penguin! The children worked together to defrost the delivery and were rewarded by a letter from their friend Eddie the Penguin. Eddie needs the help of Primary 2 to save the world! Watch this space …
Primary 3 have begun their new topic David Livingstone and were learning about the skill of marbling in art and design.
In Primary 4 we welcomed a new girl to the class. The children were very welcoming and took great delight in helping their new classmate settle very well. At the beginning of the week they discussed their hopes for the New Year. Some very interesting ideas and Mrs McCart is looking to develop Primary 4’s curriculum to take forward some very interesting areas.
In Primary 5/6 Science was on the menu – separating solids and liquids. Some children have also begun a new literacy project A Tale Unfolds. In Spanish the children were learning all about birthdays and in RE they have learned The Angelus prayer.
In Primary 6, following their studies of Japan children created Japanese lanterns and wrote their hopes and wishes for new year inside. Decimal numbers have been a focus in Mathematics.
Primary 7 have also been studying decimal notation. They have been learning about misconceptions surrounding asylum seekers too.
First week back and a whole range of learning opportunities underway.

In the nursery …..
The children returned to nursery so excited to share their festive news. They were all full of energy and eager to learn as we began to think about our first topic, Winter. This week was all about settling back into nursery routine.
We took time to talk about our great Nativity performance and look at the pictures which are now displayed on the cloakroom wall.
On the Clevertouch board many children were writing their names which were then printed out for their learning books.
Winter art and craft activities were offered in the creative area with many children choosing to do snow pictures.
Rain gauges were made and taken outside where the children will monitor them throughout January.
Our new listening unit has been placed in the story corner. The children were able to sit comfortably and enjoy stories and listening to relaxing music.
We look forward to welcoming our new starts this week and also the return of the buddies on Wednesday.

Our school survived the strong winds of Thursday evening reasonably well but our outside classroom fence was not so lucky.

This week is enrolment week for children starting school in August 2015. Enrolments will take place each afternoon in the school. Parents require a FULL birth certificate and 2 recent proofs of address.
Homework begins for all classes this week. Please support your child with activities from class. Details about after school and lunchtime clubs will follow this week.

Thank you for reading my blog.
Mrs Hendry

This week we had two super performances involving all our children in the school. On Monday our Primary 1-3 children entertained our grandparents and ‘senior friends’ with an outstanding performance of ‘Whoops a Daisy Angel’. The audience enjoyed a cup of tea and a mince pie while our Primary 3 narrators brought the house down with their comic additions. The audience was full of praise for our youngsters and rightly so. The performance was then repeated for parents on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday evening the school hall was packed for our Senior School Carol Concert. The boys and girls sang beautifully and were ably assisted by the audience. As in previous years we had a voluntary collection for our business partners St. Andrew’s Hospice.

My thanks to all staff for their hard work over the past few weeks to enable these events to take place. The teaching staff for their direction and the support staff for the invaluable role they play at this time and throughout the whole year.

St. Andrew’s House enjoyed a cinema experience on Friday afternoon as a reward for being the winning house this term. The competition begins again next term as Mrs McCart has now ‘banked’ the totals for terms 1 and 2.
Friday was also Christmas Jumper day for Mary’s Meals. This was organised by Primary 4 who are studying the work of Mary’s Meals this term. The raffle will be drawn next week.

Our nursery week started with a very successful visit to the soft play at Burnbank Centre. Great fun was had by all and lots of physical energy was used up.
The children are getting very excited as Christmas gets closer. We have been exploring the meaning of Christmas through our play.
In the literacy area letters have been finished to Santa and the children have had the opportunity to look at and listen to lots of different Christmas stories.
In the maths area we have continued to match shapes to make Santa’s and trees.
On the CleverTouch board children have been following Christmas activities and using paint programme to make Christmas pictures .
In the snack area the children have been deciding the menus for next week snack particular interest was shown when it came to picking the party food.
Throughout the session the children have been busy practising their songs for our Nativity show and look forward to welcoming you along on Wednesday 17th Dec at 11am and 3pm.

Next week sees our parties for all children. We look forward to the children enjoying these events with their peers. My thanks to the parents who provide and organise these events for all our children.

On Thursday our school choir will entertain shoppers at Sainsbury’s and then residents at Aberglen Care Home. Let’s hope the weather will be kind to us.
One of the highlights of our year will take place on Friday at 11am. Staff and pupils will join together for our Candlelight Carol Service, reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas

We finish school on Friday at 2.30pm – please remember change of time.

May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and holy Christmas and a peaceful new year. Thank you for reading my last blog of 2014.

Mrs Hendry
Head Teacher

The whole school is getting ready to celebrate Christmas in a variety of ways.
My thanks to our wonderful support staff who have decorated the hall and foyer so beautifully. It really is exciting when the lights are switched on for the first time.
All children are busy rehearsing for a variety of performances but the learning still happens in every class.
In Primary 3 this week the children made Advent promises and learned about the Advent wreath. There has been further work on vertical addition too.
Primary 4 have been presenting their mammal projects in class to their peers.
P5/6 have been learning about chemical reactions in science and how to make ‘magic milk’. In maths they have been learning a new strategy for mental addition.
Primary 6 have been presenting their research projects in school about Natural Disasters. They have been learning about the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 and are writing reports based on the topic.
Primary 7 had a visit from Mark Reid who works for The Colours of our Scarves. He facilitated a very effective anti sectarianism workshop in class. They learned about stereotypes, discrimination and criminal sentencing.
On Wednesday we had a visit from Lee Craigie, a commonwealth athlete, who represented our country in the sport of mountain biking. She delivered a very inspirational talk about endeavour and effort to our P4-7 pupils. A phrase adopted in Primary 4 is ‘not to park your bike in the shed’! Primary 7 then participated in a fitness workshop.
In the nursery….
This week saw the arrival of Santa’s helpers, the elves, into the workshop. The children had great fun dressing up and they all looked the part. Lots of wrapping and hammering has been going on. The work bench has been very popular with all children and were hoping to add another one in the following week.
In the snack are the children have been discussing what foods keep them warm now we have entered a new season Winter. Winter has been discussed in all areas of the nursery.
Outside activities have been a great success this week. We were inundated with our nature visitors due to the lovely bird food on offer. The children enjoyed mixing all the ingredients and coming up with a feast for the birds and the birds definitely enjoyed eating it. Children impressed the staff will their knowledge of birds and could tell us the names and identify them. Towards the end of the week when the days got darker the children loved to explore outside in the darkness.

In the literacy area Christmas cards were written by the children who then took a walk to the post office with staff and their buddies to purchase stamps and post their cards.
The afternoon children had the opportunity to go along to the school hall to see the excellent performance of Woops a Daisy Angel. They all enjoyed it and are now eager for their own Nativity performance which takes place on Wednesday the 17th Dec.

Next week we look forward to welcoming friends and family to our Christmas Concerts. Primary 1 will also be attending Glenlee Primary’s nativity as well.
Thank you for reading my blog,
Mrs Hendry

The last week in November was a busy one for all in St. Cuthbert’s.

The highlight of this week was our annual Curriculum Afternoon. It was great to see so many parents and carets join us to enable their children to proudly show their learning environment and share their many successes. I know from the comments made that our Primary 1 parents particularly enjoyed this experience.

We celebrated St Andrew’s day a little earlier on Friday with Fr Bogan celebrating mass, this month led by our Primary 4 boys and girls. Well done to all involved.

In the classes this week ….
Primary 1 have continued to learn about Mr and Mrs Grinling making flashing lighthouses in art.
Primary 2 have been improving their writing by learning about wow words and connectives. They have also been learning the story about the annunciation.
Primary 3 have continued with their weather topic, taking daily temperatures and learning about extreme weather in Buffalo. They then wrote a newspaper article about this event.
Primary 4 have been developing knowledge about grid references. Some pupils visited the school garden in search of bugs to help with their science too!
Primary 5/6 brought together their learning in Spanish to create a comic strip. They also have been learning about Scottish saints and reflecting on how Christianity was brought to Scotland.
In Primary 6, learning has about the skill of skimming and scanning. They then applied this to articles written about the Japanese Tsunami. As preparation for the sacrament of confirmation continues, this week’s focus was the symbols of the Holy Spirit.
In Primary 7 this week there was a visitor from the Scottish Parliament. Pupils took part in a debate about lifting the age restrictions on social media. Pupils took on the roles of presiding officer and MSPs. Our curriculum continues to be enhanced by such events.
Primary 7 have also been learning relaxation techniques, such as a safe place, to help deal with worries and anxieties.

In the nursery …
A visit from the police finished of our very successful topic Emergency Services. The children enjoyed hearing all about the police officers’ jobs and enjoyed getting a chance to enter the van. This topic was thoroughly enjoyed by the children who now know what to do in an emergency. Thanks go to all the visiting services who made their visits very worthwhile and fantastic learning opportunities.

We have now moved onto our new topic CHRISTMAS.

Throughout the following weeks the children will continue to practise their songs and actions in preparation for the Christmas show which takes place on Wednesday the 18th December.

At the expressive arts area the children have started their Christmas activities which will be displayed on the main topic wall.

The role area has now been changed into Santa’s workshop where Santa’s helpers  will be busy making toys and gifts. The work bench will be introduced during the week.

In the Literacy area the children will have the opportunity to write their letters to Santa.

The numeracy area will provide the children with Christmas sorting activities.

On Friday we rounded the week of with a  celebration day for St Andrew’s Day by wearing tartan, dancing to some Scottish music and tasting locally produced Scottish food.

It’s hard to believe that Monday begins December! What a quick year!

Thank you for reading my blog,

Mrs Hendry

The highlight of our week had to be the P6 showcase of learning Safe and Sound. This was work undertaken through the Artsnet programme. The children were outstanding. The amount of learning that had happened in 4 sessions and the quality of the performance highlighted the high level of talent we have within our school. Many family and friends joined us on Tuesday morning and all were most complimentary. Well done Primary 6!

Thank you to many parents who attended the sacrament meetings with Father Bogan and myself on Wednesday evening. The high turnout was most encouraging.

Preparations for Christmas are well under way in St. Cuthbert’s Primary. Primary 1,2 and 3 have been working extremely hard at their nativity rehearsals.
In Primary 1 the boys and girls have been learning about the Christmas story to help them understand the nativity rehearsals.
Primary 2 have been learning Away in the Manger in Spanish. They also completed the story The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark and wrote their first book report.
In Primary 3 the boys and girls have been using the month of November to learn about heaven. They have also been busy measuring the daily temperature and rainfall as part of their weather topic.
Primary 4 have been out and about this week as Angle Detectives! They have been searching all over the school for right, acute and obtuse angles!
Spanish theme again in Primary 5 as they are singing a well know Spanish Christmas Carol Los Peces en el Rio (The Fish in the River). They have also been learning to locate Spain and other European countries on maps.
In Primary 6, with the P6 pupils from P5/6, the theme was food with children sampling Japanese food.
Primary 7 have begun their work on Divided City and started to explore issues of sectarianism. In Science they have been studying microorganisms and can recall the 7 processes of life.

All teaching staff worked together on Tuesday evening where we launched God’s Loving Plan in our school. This is the new programme for relationship education launched by the Scottish Catholic Education Service. The staff were most enthusiastic about the resource. We will have a parent event early in the New Year before this important learning takes place in our classes.

We were delighted to welcome Mrs Collins back to our nursery this week on a full time basis. Here’s all the news from a very busy nursery class!

The nursery children have been learning all about the emergency services.
In the outside area we have been using emergency vehicles and learning all about the traffic light system .The children have been wrapped up to keep warm and had great fun.
In the expressive arts area the children made emergency vehicles from junk. They are now displayed under the main topic wall and will go home next week.
Last week we had a visit from the fire service who brought their fire engine along. The children had the opportunity to try out the safety equipment the helmet being the most popular. They also had a chance to use the hose, which both children and parents enjoyed very much. We got to sit inside the engine and the watch commander even turned the siren on. Please take time to look at our walls to see pictures of the children enjoying this experience.
On Friday we had a visit from the paramedics who brought along an ambulance. During this visit we were invited onto the ambulance where the children could see all the equipment inside. They had the opportunity to lie on the bed, have their heart rate tested and enjoy the loud noise from the siren. Many questions were asked by the children all relating to the paramedics job. This was another very valuable experience that the children thoroughly enjoyed.
Our last visit will be from the local community police officers to finish this topic off.

The nursery were delighted to welcome the long awaited arrival of the P6 buddies into the nursery. Both the nursery children and staff enjoyed having the buddies spending time with the children in all the areas. The buddies were extremely helpful and friendly and look forward to their many ideas they are willing to share with us.

A very successful week in our school filled with fabulous learning experiences!

We look forward to welcoming our parents to our curriculum afternoon on Tuesday 2pm-3.30pm in the school and at 11am and 3 pm in our nursery class. The children will take time to show off their wonderful learning environment and discuss their achievements with their family.

Thank you for reading my blog,
Mrs Hendry