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

The highlight of this week was our Validated Self-Evaluation by South Lanarkshire Council. We welcomed Mrs Ann O’Neill and Mrs Jan McLaren, Quality Improvement Officers, to the school on Wednesday as part of a visit to quality check the school’s self-evaluation processes and the teaching and learning. They spoke with me about progress of our School Improvement Plan and then visited classes throughout the day. They met with groups of pupils to talk about their learning. I am delighted to say that they were thoroughly impressed by our school and the quality of teaching and learning that takes place. They commented that children were confident, have high aspirations and were fully motivated and engaged in a range of learning activities. They highlighted that the skilled use of questioning by teachers led to a deeper understanding of concepts being taught and that all learners were supported well.

Fantastic feedback and a huge well done and thank you to all the pupils and staff whose dedication and commitment, make St. John’s Primary a tremendous place to work and learn!

On Monday the teaching staff met with our colleagues from across the Holy Cross High School at St. John the Baptist Primary School. We listened to an inspirational presentation by Ian Hart from Education Scotland, about raising attainment in our schools. This was followed by collegiate working on aspects of the Learning Community Improvement Plan.

Christmas preparations are well under way now and Primary 1 and 2 have been working very hard on their Nativity. Primary 3 to 7 have chosen the songs/carols that they will perform and are practising hard too.

In the classrooms:

Primary 1/2

The boys and girls have been working hard learning about Money. They have been working in the class Post Office/Toy Shop using money in a real life setting. The children have deigned their own Christmas stamps to sell as part of their Enterprise topic for this term.

Primary 2/3/4

The boys and girls have been learning about money and how to count and give change. They have been using their money skills to budget for a ‘camping’ or ‘glamping’ trip. They have also started to learn about and use Scots language to celebrate the forthcoming St. Andrew’s Day celebrations. The teachers tell me they are doing braw!

Primary 5/6/7

The pupils are continuing their work on money, working on budgeting for various projects including, parties, holidays and making their own movies! The pupils are working collaboratively to produce a PowerPoint presentation to ‘pitch’ their Enterprise product to the rest of the school at Assembly.

Just a reminder of a few upcoming events this week. We have the Partnership Group meeting on Wednesday at 6.00 pm. On Thursday morning we hope to attend Mass but are awaiting confirmation from Fr Stephen and finally on Friday we have our Christmas Fayre in the school from 3.00 until 5.00 pm. Please come along and support the school.

 

Many thanks for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

Head Teacher