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