It is incredible to believe that it is Easter already and we have reached the end of the third term. It has been a very busy last few weeks in school. Our Primary 7 pupils continue with the transition programme for secondary school, while we look forward to welcoming our new Primary 1 pupils when they begin their induction programme after the holidays. The pupils of Primary 6 and 7  celebrated the Year of Young People 2018, as they took part in a showcase of talents in the Banqueting Hall at Council Headquarters in Hamilton. Their performance was called ‘Look Inside’ and was well received by a packed venue. Well done to our confident individuals!

Our Parents Evening on the 22nd March was very well attended, with a 99% turnout. This is absolutely tremendous and an indication of the commitment and support of parents and carers for their children’s education.

We concluded the term with our Holy Week service on 28th of March, when we remembered the events  leading up to Jesus’ death on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. Thank you to our readers, Father Stephen and the parents and carers who attended.

The highlight however, was the Primary 1/2 Learning Showcase, “Back in the 1950’s” on Thursday. Parents and grandparents were treated to afternoon tea and a very informative presentation of life in the 1950’s. The presentation was rounded off with a lively jive to ‘Rock around the Clock’. Well done to the boys and girls for such a confident and assured performance and a huge thank you to Mrs Kelly, Mrs Birtles and Miss Tyrell for all their hard work in preparing the children. You can see photographs and video from the showcase on the school Twitter.

We also say goodbye to Miss Tyrell who has been working in Primary 1/2 for the past 12 weeks. I would like to thank her for all her hard work and contribution to the class and on behalf of the whole school, would like to wish her every success in her future teaching career.

Finally, I would like to wish you and your family a happy, holy Easter and a restful, enjoyable holiday.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Yvonne McCart

It has been fantastic to have a full week at school without any disruption! It has been a very busy week with our World Book Day celebrations on Thursday and our Fairtrade Coffee Morning on Friday. The school was an oasis of calm on Thursday as staff and pupils took part in our sponsored Readathon! Children got their opportunity to explore new authors as children shared their favourite books and hopefully continues to foster a lifelong love of reading. Our coffee morning was well supported and I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who came along, as well as our parent and grandparents who helped out on the morning and to all those who sent in home-baking. We made almost £211, which was a fantastic amount. Mrs Holmes and the HEF group are doing an excellent job in organising our Lenten fundraising events and our parents and carers have shown their usual generosity by supporting all of our activities.

As of this week, I have no further updates on when the extension work to the school will begin. The completed plans will be available for you to look at on the forthcoming Parents Evening on the 22nd of March. I will of course notify you once I have more information. We are hopeful with a change in the weather it will not be too far off!

The learning continues apace in the classrooms:

P1/2

In Numeracy, the P1 pupils have been learning number facts for 6 and 7, while P2 have finding out about fractions, looking at halves and quarters. In Science the children have been learning about some of the main organs in the human body.

P3/4

This week P3/4 have also been learning about fractions up to eighths in Numeracy. In science the children continue to investigate properties of materials and have planned a paper absorbency test. In Literacy all of the children are working very hard on their reading strategies, in particular, Visualisation. In Art & Design the children have been focussing on the skills of colour, tone and pattern, by completing some fantastic African silhouettes with Mr Hall.

P5/6/7

In Numeracy & Mathematics the pupils have been working hard as they develop their Information Handling skills and in particular, looking at different ways of representing data on charts, graphs and tables. In Literacy the children are enjoying reading their new novels, The Eleventh Orphan and The Demon Headmaster, which they are using to develop their higher order reading skills. The children are now focussing on their new Social Studies topic, France.

Finally, we are trialling our new approach to homework, using a monthly homework grid which has core tasks sheet and an options grid. This is a way of addressing issues raised in our homework survey. This approach allows for children and parents/carers to complete tasks over a longer period of time as core tasks are issued on a Tuesday and should be returned on the following Monday. The extra tasks and activities on the options grid are not compulsory but rather are there to give parents and carers ideas on how they can further support their children’s learning if they wish. Please let us know your thoughts on this approach, as your feedback will inform how we go forward with this new initiative.

Thank you for reading my Blog.

Mrs Yvonne McCart

Head Teacher