… And as we head towards the end of November and the days get colder and darker, the excitement and anticipation of our forthcoming Christmas events are keeping everyone warm and happy. Our  preparations begin with our Christmas Fayre, which the Partnership Group have been very busy organising. This takes place on Friday 1st of December at 3.15 pm where I’m sure you will find lots of festive treats and great Christmas gift ideas. Thank you to everyone who contributed prizes for the Tombola stall at the Fayre.

Our Daily Mile continues, weather permitting,  and the children and staff are fairly clocking up the miles! We received our first batch of bread from Warburtons this week for the hot buttered toast which is a welcomed treat on the cold mornings.

This Thursday is St. Andrew’s Day and we will begin our celebrations by attending Mass in the church at 9.10 a.m. The pupils are invited to wear something tartan that day and bring a £1 to school, which will contribute to our Christmas fundraising for St. Andrew’s Hospice.

Advent as you know is a time of preparation leading up to the celebrations on Christmas Day and as part of the faith life of St. John’s, our Pope Francis Faith Award pupils will lead an Advent reflection and Rosary on a Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the hall at 8.45 a.m. All pupils are welcome to attend.

In the classes this week Christmas preparations are afoot:

Primary 1/2

The pupils have been busy rehearsing for their Nativity performance ‘Hey Ewe’. In numeracy the children are learning about money, recognising coins and counting and adding amounts. As a conclusion to their topic, the children enjoyed a visit from the Scottish Wild life Trust, who told them all about the local wildlife and their habitats.

Primary 3/4

In numeracy the children a re looking at partitioning and multiplication of multiples and money to £10 as part of the class enterprise topic; the class are organising a Christmas cinema. They are also designing gift boxes to sell at the Christmas Fayre. In Literacy the children continue to enjoy their class novel ‘Animalcolm’ by David Baddiel.

Primary 5/6/7

Pupils in P5/6/7 are working hard in their Enterprise groups, creating PowerPoints and adverts to promote their products. In numeracy, the children are developing their skills for life, learning and work as they are learning about budgeting and calculating profit/loss. Some of the children of Primary 6 and 7 are about to begin their preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation and will be supported in this most important Sacrament, by their classmates.

 

Finally, a reminder that this is the final week of our afterschool clubs, with the exception of our P1-P3 football skills club which will run for the final time on the 8th of December (please note that P1-P3 football club and the netball are cancelled this week). The Partnership Group meeting scheduled for the 29th of November is also cancelled. Our next meeting will take place in January 2018.

Thank you for reading my Blog.

 

Mrs McCart

 

Welcome to my first Blog of Term 2 and already we’ve got off to a flying start.  We are delighted to welcome  Miss McInroy and Miss Nicolson, BA 1  teaching students from the University of the West of Scotland. They have been working in Primary 3/4 this week and will work in P5/6/7 and P1/2 in the forthcoming week.

Our Hallowe’en celebrations went ‘spooktacularly’ well. The school was looking very ghoulish and a huge thanks to the staff for decorating the whole school so well. The children looked fantastic in their costumes. Thank you to Mrs Cairney and Mrs Tops from the Partnership Group who organised the disco, and Ms McTaggart and Mrs Hughes who helped out on the day. Below are a selection of photographs from the disco:

Our footballers and netballers took part in their second friendly tournament of the year. The children were accompanied by Mr Hall and Mrs McKie, who said that the children acquitted themselves very well as they always do. Some good results for both teams as they prepare for the competitive tournaments in the near future.

The Partnership Group held the first of their Drop in for a Cuppa sessions on Friday morning. Thank you to the parents who attended. It was a very useful conversation and lots of good ideas were suggested on how they could support the school. What came out of the conversation was that parents found it difficult to make the Wednesday evening meetings due to no childcare/children attending clubs and needing picked up or dropped off. It was suggested that an informal meeting could be held in the school on the Friday following Partnership Group meetings. This would be hosted by a member/members of the Partnership Group. More information will follow in the future but if you have any ideas or suggestions please let us know.

Thank you to the parents/carers who completed our online homework survey. We had a total return of 25 responses from a possible 63. I am currently collating the results and will issue a response in due course. We have our Homework Club up and running at lunchtime on a Wednesday. This is overseen by Mrs Holmes. If you have a busy week or your child needs to catch up on homework, please encourage them to pop into the club where help and support can be given to complete tasks.

In the classrooms:

P1/2

The pupils of P1/2 have enjoyed learning about different woodland creatures as part of their interdisciplinary topic. They have used what they have learned in their Writing, by creating a fact book on their chosen animal. In Numeracy the children in P1 have been ordering numbers form 0-10, identifying numbers before, after and between given numbers. The P2 children have been learning subtraction facts for numbers to 20. Mrs Kelly tells me that rehearsals have begun for the P1/2 Nativity! Hard to believe it’s that time already.

P3/4

The children in P3/4 have been testing soil samples from the Blackwood area to find out whether they are acid, alkaline or PH neutral. They have been using litmus/PH paper to find out and recording their results. The boys and girls have enjoyed the Hallowe’en celebrations and have been learning how to stay safe around fireworks. In Numeracy, the children are learning about Multiples and in Mathematics they have been looking at 2D shape, in particular the properties of different types of triangles.

P5/6/7

The P5/6/7 pupils are focussing on Money in their Numeracy 7 Mathematics lessons and will apply the skills they learn in their Christmas Enterprise project. In Literacy they have been working on developing character, setting and plot to write an exciting dramatic story. In Science the boys and girls have been learning about the properties of Light.

Finally, a reminder that our Partnership Group meeting takes place on Wednesday evening at 6 pm in the school. Please try to pop along and lend your support to the school.

Many thanks for reading my Blog!

 

Mrs McCart