Welcome to my final blog of the academic year 2016-2017 and what a year it has been! St. John’s Primary has enjoyed a very successful year and everyone associated with our school should be rightly proud of what we have achieved.

It has been an extremely busy week and we have had many highlights but of note must be the fantastic performance of our P4-P7 pupils in our summer show, Sleeping Beauty, The Ugly Truth. This was a perfect showcase of the talents of our pupils and was raved about by audiences at both performances. A huge thank you to Mr Hall and Miss Costello for their hard work in putting the show together and to the children themselves, whose commitment and hard work was evident with such outstanding performances. St. John’s truly does have talent!

On Thursday morning we had our Leavers’ Assembly and the stars of Primary 7 shone brightly in the school hall as we were joined by staff and pupils to celebrate the achievements of our children.  The winners of the House Shield were Lancaster House. Congratulations to Mariana Pinheiro and Logan Burns our House and Vice Captain for their great leadership this year. And of course a huge well done to all the members of Lancaster House, a fantastic achievement! Our footballers and netballers were also recognised. Congratulations to Noah McLean (P5), the Coaches’ Player of the Year; Stephen Barclay (P7), Players’ Player of the Year; and Adam Brennan (P5), Most Improved Player. In netball, the Coaches’ Player of the year was Mariana Pinheiro (P7) and Eva Quadrelli (P7) was Players’ Player of the Year. An excellent achievement girls. Riley Bulloch (P1) and Dylan Cunningham (P2) were awarded Savvy Savers of the Year by Lanarkshire Credit Union and Mrs Birtles recognised our green-fingered gardeners for all their hard work in St. John’s Community Garden.

On Friday we had our Sports Day which, despite the lovely Scottish summer weather, went ahead. The elements certainly didn’t dampen the children’s enthusiasm and everyone competed well. Our healthy tuck shop went down a storm and well done and thank you to our HEF group and Mrs Kelly for organising this. Our netballers provided a display of their sporting prowess in an exhibition match in the afternoon and Mrs Quadrelli was rightly proud of their achievements and progress throughout the year. We then presented our inaugural Sports Trophy to Lancaster House who were our overall sporting winners on the day and throughout this year.

And so to our final week. Our final celebration of faith will take place on Monday at 10.00 am in the school hall at our P7 Leavers’ Mass. Everyone is welcome to join us for this very special occasion. This is an opportunity to say a final farewell to our Primary 7 boys and girls and to staff who are leaving us. We are sad to say goodbye to Miss Dunlop,who has been with us this year and worked with all the children throughout the school, and Miss Costello and Mrs Mutch for their fabulous contribution to St. John’s. I would like to take this opportunity thank them on behalf of pupils, staff and parents and wish them well in their new schools next year.

May I also take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy, safe and relaxing holiday and I hope the sun shines wherever you are. It has been an absolute privilege to be Head Teacher of St. John’s Primary this year and I look forward to another very productive year of learning next session.

Thank you for reading my blogs throughout this year.

Mrs McCart

We may be moving closer to the end of term but everyone at St. John’s is as busy as ever! We were delighted to welcome parents and grandparents of our Sacrament children ( First Reconciliation and First Eucharist) to their Thanksgiving Assembly on Thursday the 1st  of June. We were also joined by Fr Stephen and all of the pupils and staff of St. John’s to support our young people as they reflected on these important milestones in their faith journey.

Our World of Work day on Wednesday the 7th of June, gave our pupils the opportunity to hear first hand from our speakers about the skills for life, learning and work that they will need in the future. The children also had the opportunity to ask questions of our guests and then in the afternoon reflect on what type of job they would like to do in the future and the skills that they might need. I would like to thank all of our volunteers for giving up their time to support our pupils.

Our induction programmes for transition to Primary 1 and secondary school have now been completed. Our Primary 7 pupils have taken part in the induction days at their respective secondary schools and I am delighted to say that they have returned from these visits happy, confident and looking forward to the future. Their busy schedule continues  as they prepare for their leavers events over the next few weeks, including a Leavers’ Assembly and Leavers’ treat on Thursday 22nd June, with celebrations culminating with our Leavers’ Mass on Monday 26th of June. We were delighted to welcome our new Primary 1 pupils to the school on Friday the 9th of June. The children had the opportunity to work in their new class with Mrs Kelly and were presented with their Induction pack by their P6 Buddies, whom I’m sure will do a fantastic job in August, making sure their charges settle in well to life in St. John’s.

Our final Partnership Group meeting took place on Wednesday and preparations continue for the Summer Fayre on Saturday the 24th of June. If you know of anyone who would like to run a stall or if you are available to help out, please contact the Partnership Group. All funds raised at these events go straight back to the school to benefit all pupils.

Rehearsals continue apace for the school production of Sleeping Beauty, The Ugly Truth. I have heard little snippets and it sounds great! Please come along and support us by buying tickets for one of the performances!

Finally a little flavour of what’s been happening in the classes over the past couple of weeks.

P1/2

The children enjoyed their educational trip to the Museum of Rural Life as a finale to their topic on The Farm. The children then wrote a recount of their visit. In Numeracy & Mathematics the focus had been on reading and writing analogue times. In Health & Wellbeing the children have been learning about relationships and looking after a baby and they were delighted to welcome Mrs Cunningham and new baby Aaron to the class. The children got the opportunity to ask lots of questions about Aaron.

P2/3/4

The children enjoyed outdoor learning visit to Blackwood Estate and brought much of their knowledge back to the classroom as they have written super recounts of their visit. In Numeracy & Mathematics they have been working on durations, looking at am/pm times, the 24 hour clock and reading and using timetables.

 

P5/6/7

Of course the boys and girls have been busy with rehearsals for the summer show, transition programme for P7 and swimming for P5! But they are still carrying on with their learning in Literacy and Numeracy. In writing they have created informative travel brochures about Germany as part of their interdisciplinary learning. In Numeracy & Mathematics they have also been focussing on Time and durations.

 

The best way to keep right up to date with events in the school is to follow us on Twitter and look out for our new St. John’s App coming in August. This is another way of enhancing communication between school and home, and keeping parents and carers involved in what’s happening in school. More information to follow.

Thank you for reading my blog.

 

Mrs McCart