As we enter Autumn, it has been a busy time in school. We have elected our new Primary 7 House and Vice-Captains for the forthcoming year. The elections were overseen by Mr Hall and I am sure our new representatives will do a sterling job in supporting their House.  Craignethan’s new captain is Erin  and the vice-captain is Chloe. Harrison is captain of de Vere with Brodie taking on the role of vice-captain. In Heathfield the children elected Alexis as captain and Bianca as vice- captain. Finally in Lancaster Noah is captain and Tia is vice -captain.

Thank you to all the boys and girls who completed the Head Teacher’s homework to create a design for our new House Shields and in particular a huge effort from our younger pupils. There were some super ideas and sometimes it was very difficult to pick just one! Jack (P4) and Michaela’s (P4) designs were chosen for Heathfield, Corey’s (P3) was chosen for Craignethan, De Vere’s winning design came from Lexie in P5 and Lancaster’s design came from Michael in P3 and Siena in P4. These will be incorporated on the shields and displayed on the House Wall.

We also celebrated the new school year and welcomed our new Primary 1 pupils to the school with a celebration of Mass in the church on Tuesday. It was a lovely way to ask for God’s blessings on the forthcoming school year. Thank you to Father Stephen for celebrating Mass, Mrs Macneil for the music accompaniment and the parishioners and families who managed to join us.

The classes have been very busy with everyone getting back into the swing of hard work. I visited the classes this week and had a chance to chat to some of the children about their learning. I was delighted to hear how enthusiastic they are and to see the children so focussed and engaged.

In Primary 1 the children have begun their interdisciplinary topic, ‘Down in the Jungle’, where they have been learning about the animals who live there and their habitat. In numeracy the children have been learning to read, write and count numbers to 5. In literacy the children have been working on rhyming words and syllables.

In Primary 2/3, the children are hard at work on their topic on China. They have learned a new song in Mandarin, and I was treated to a lovely rendition as the children were leaving the classroom last week. In Numeracy the whole class has been learning about place value, with P2 looking at numbers up to 100 and P3 focussing on numbers to 1000.

The children in P4/5 have a focus on Ireland for their social studies topic and have linked this to literacy, through exploring Irish folk tales. In numeracy the children have been looking at mental strategies in doubling and halving 2 and 3 digit numbers. The children have also been developing their reading skills with a focus on inference.

Primary 5/6/7 pupils have begun personal research projects on a country of their choice as part of their social studies topic. In numeracy the children have also been studying place value of whole numbers and decimals to thousandths. Their reading skills are being developed through the class novels, with the children looking at inference and metalinguistics, where they explore the meaning of words in the context of the text being read.

Although we are only in to September, our Primary 7 pupils have already begun the transition process for Holy Cross High School, with the Welcome Mass taking place on Monday evening. The children will also begin a new initiative this week called Holy Cross Online. Pupils from all primary schools in the learning community have been put into groups, with each group being named after a Scottish island. The children will study four novels throughout the year and will be set questions/tasks by P7 teachers from each school over the course of each book. Children will record their answers, opinions and thoughts on the books through a blog. This blog will be moderated by the Primary 7 teachers to ensure the content is appropriate. This is an exciting new project, which allows the pupils to develop friendships and enhance their literacy and technology skills.

Some of our afterschool clubs begin next week. Can I ask that children are picked up from the church car park and if your child signs up for a club, then they make all efforts to attend each week. If your child is unable to attend a club, we would be grateful if you could inform the school office so that we can advise the teacher/coach taking the club. Many thanks.

Finally, CM Photography are in the school this Friday for our class photographs. Children should wear full school uniform, including shirt and tie.

Thank you for reading the school blog.

 

Mrs Yvonne McCart

Head Teacher