I hope everyone had a lovely mid term break.

Prior to the break primaries 5,6 and 7 enjoyed a super visit to La Tasca, Spanish restaurant, in Silverburn Glasgow. As you know Spanish is taught to all children in our school from nursery to P7. Children, and staff, learned how to make paella, developed their Spanish language skills and also learned about the culture of eating in Spain. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the visit. A huge thanks, or gracias, to Miss Ferrie for organising this super learning experience. To further their Spanish writing skills all pupils in P5,6 and 7 have been writing letters to Spanish pen pals.

On Thursday evening, before the break, P7 joined with their peers from Glenlee Primary to showcase their work on the Divided City book. Many parents took time to visit the exhibition and speak to the children about their work.

Primary 7 have continued with their busy schedule of events – the final year of primary school is such a busy one! They have been busy learning in the Glenlee Woods as part of their John Muir Award writing senses poetry and playing outdoor bingo. They have participated in the Maths Challenge and are awaiting news of the winners who will go forward to compete with their peers from the associated primaries of John Ogilvie High School.

Miss McLaughlin has been busy coaching our P6/7 dancers for the Annual Dance Festival at Glenlee Primary and Miss McKendry is coaching the same stage for the Cross Country event. These activities, and many more, happen during lunchtime and after school enabling our children to develop skills in many areas.

Primary 6 visited Burnbank library this week developing their knowledge and ability to research and reference accurately.

Primary 4 have begun their formal preparation for First Holy Communion. They look forward to working at home and and at school to deepen their understanding of this most important part of our faith. Primary 4 will also visit Newmains Pastoral Centre for a retreat. As part of putting their faith into action, primary 4 have been discussing with Mrs Hall their ideas for fundraising during the season of Lent. They will take their ideas to the Pupil Council in the coming weeks. As a result of a presentation delivered by LEPRA, the Pupil Council have made LEPRA one of our three nominated charities for this year. We will all participate in a Bollywood style workout to raise money for the worthy cause on Wed 26th February.

In the nursery Fairyland continues to grow. We now have a home for Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children have been measuring themselves against the giant and designing flags for the dragon’s castle. Gingerbread men were enjoyed during snack time and children also used their imagination to make a gingerbread house. I do feel underdressed when I visit the nursery these days as the girls in particular are thoroughly enjoying being princesses with a variety of sparkly costumes.

Another busy week ahead but we are all looking forward to Thursday with great excitement. It’s our Inspection Celebration Day – a time for everyone involved with St Cuthbert’s to celebrate the wonderful work of our school.

Thank you for reading my blog. It would be great to read some comments about what you think about the blog.

Mrs Hendry

What a week we have had in St. Cuthbert’s Primary. Our HMIe report was published on Tuesday 28th January. Our follow through visit recognised the efforts and hard work of all involved with St. Cuthbert’s over the past year. The report tells of our ‘motivated and enthusiastic pupils who speak confidently about the skills they are developing.’ Recognition was given to the positive impact our individual pupil Learning Journeys and Learning Books are having to all children knowing their strengths and development needs. The fantastic developments in the areas of Sciences and Art were highlighted as particular strengths. The report recognises the strong leadership of the school and the effective teamwork involving staff, parents and other agencies. We are very proud of our ‘well-designed curriculum’ and our ‘high expectations’ for all pupils.

However, even with our success on Tuesday published, we continued to prepare for our Eco Schools visit on Thursday. Mr Davidson was welcomed to the school on Thursday by Mrs Fletcher, our Eco coordinator, Mrs Wallace, Home School Partnership Worker and the Eco Committee. Everyone gathered in the hall for our assembly where we showcased our Eco Work, chanted our Eco Code and sang our Eco Song. Mr Davidson then spent time with our Eco Committee looking at evidence and visiting classes. Our children, as always, were a credit to their school. They spoke confidently about their learning in all areas related to eco work. Mr Davidson then left us at lunchtime on Thursday to make his decision. I was delighted to receive the phonecall to say that we had successfully gained the Eco Schools Green Flag award. Mr Davidson identified our pupils as a key strength as well as our curriculum design, that featured eco related learning at all stages of the primary school. A huge well done to Mrs Fletcher, members of the Eco Committee and everyone associated with St. Cuthbert’s for another super team effort!

In the nursery this week the Friendly Dragon has been busy delivering letters. A sad story to be told as he has lost Fairyland. However, the boys and girls have been working extremely hard and already the Small World has been transformed into a home for Jack and the Beanstalk! Mr Bruce kindly allowed the children to draw round him to make a giant (I don’t know why they didn’t ask me!) and Jack, from our morning group, agreed to be the template for Jack. I can’t wait to see what we have this week! One thing’s for sure more glitter!
Another busy week ahead even although we have a Staff Development Day on Friday. Primary 5-7 pupils will be developing their Spanish language and knowledge of Spanish food as they make a visit to La Tasca in Silverburn on Thursday. Thursday evening is also the showcase for our Divided City work with Glenlee Primary in the Burnbank Centre.

I hope you find my blog useful in keeping up to date with the ‘going ons’ in our school. Please leave a comment after you visit.
As it is the holiday weekend next week my next blog will be in two weeks time.

The whole school has been preparing for our Eco Schools visit this coming week. The Eco Committee presented a special assembly on Thursday and everyone has been busy learning our school Eco Song and Code.
Primary 7 took their learning to Glenlee Woods on Thursday as part of their John Muir Award work.
We welcomed Roz Neary from the charity Lepra to our school on Friday. She gave a very thought provoking presentation to all pupils at our assembly. Two of our pupils, Heather Cassidy P6 and Aaron Hawkins P2, received awards from the Knights of St. Columba for their entries to the ‘Keep Christ in Christmas’ painting competition. Well done!
I am delighted to report that our focus on late coming has been most successful. On Friday we had only four children who reported to school late – a huge improvement on the previous week when we had over forty children late. We will continue to monitor this situation and I appreciate the continued support from all families.
I hope to have our school bell fixed this coming week as a school with no bell is a very quiet place! However, it has been great learning opportunity for telling the time in all classes!
Our nursery class has been a very busy place this week as we welcome all our new children and their families. Everyone has settled well and our ‘older’ children in the nursery have thoroughly enjoyed showing the new starts where everything is and helping them to settle in.
We look forward to our Eco Schools visit on Thursday and are very excited about the formal publication of our super HMIe report on Tuesday.

Welcome to my blog in which I will keep you up to date with happenings in our school . Please check back soon for recent news and events.