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

The pupils may have been at school for three days this week but so much has been happening.

On Saturday, eight  of our Primary 4 children received their First Holy Communion. This was a very spiritual occasion and a most important step on the journey of faith for our pupils. The children were wonderful and the sun shone! Many people contributed to making this such a memorable occasion. My thanks to Father Stephen and the parishioners of Our Lady and St. John’s for decorating the church so beautifully. To Mrs Quadrelli, for preparing the children so well and to all of the school staff for their help in organising the day. A special thanks must go to Anna Thomson, who piped the children into the church to the strains of Highland Cathedral and our choir, who sang so beautifully, accompanied by our musicians, Mrs MacNeil, Mrs Seagrave and Mr Lynch. Thank you also to Mrs Kelly for preparing the choir. Finally  a huge thanks to our First Communicants who were a credit to themselves, their families and the school.

On Tuesday we welcomed Mr Hammond, one of our Primary 1 parents, to the school. Mr Hammond is a chef who has been working with the pupils of P5/6/7. This week the children were making shortbread. It was absolutely delicious as the staff can testify to and we are already looking forward to see what we will be sampling this week!

On Wednesday morning we had dance taster sessions in the school delivered by Charlotte Grieveson. The children thoroughly enjoyed the input and we look forward to welcoming Charlotte back to the school on Wednesday for the Primary 4-7 afterschool dance class.

On Friday we welcomed our new Primary 1 pupils and their parents and  to the school for an open afternoon. They were given a tour of the whole school by some of our senior pupils and then returned to the hall for some refreshments and the chance to chat to Mrs Kelly and Mrs Donnellan and Mrs Hammond, two of our current P1 parents who volunteered to come along on the afternoon. My thanks to them. We are looking forward to seeing our new Primary 1’s again this Friday, when they will meet their buddies for next year.

Finally a reminder that we are holding a uniform afternoon in the school hall on Friday the 12th of May. LogoXpres will be there for trying on blazers, jumpers etc. from 2.30 p.m. until 4.oo p.m.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

Welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. I can’t believe it is the final term – how quickly the time has gone. The pupils and staff have come back after the break, revived and looking forward to what will be a busy couple of months.  As part of our induction programme, we will welcome our new Primary 1 pupils and their parents and carers this Friday, at our open afternoon. For our Primary 4 and 7 pupils it is a very important term.

Preparations are well underway for the Sacrament of First Holy Communion which takes place this coming Saturday. The Primary 4 children have been learning about this most important Sacrament and have been well prepared by Mrs Quadrelli. The Primary 5-7 pupils of the choir have also been rehearsing to support our First Communicants.

Of course our Primary 7 pupils are now in their final term at St. John’s and are looking forward to their induction days in June. We also welcomed back Mrs Fraser, a post-graduate student, for her final placement. She will continue to work in the P5/6/7 class until the 19th of May.

On Friday we welcomed Mr Dyer , a SLC Development Officer for Science, to the school. He worked in the P5/6/7 class where the pupils worked in collaborative groups to undertake a Rollercoaster challenge. In P2/3/4 the children learned about Classification. Everyone enjoyed the lessons and Mr Dyer commented on how well the children worked together.

It’s been business as usual in the classrooms as the boys and girls settle back into the class routine.

Primary 1/2

In Numeracy & Mathematics the pupils have been learning about position and movement, following simple directions and developing their knowledge of left and right. As part of the class interdisciplinary topic the children have been developing ideas for creating a model farm and constructing a letter to a farmer, asking about life on a farm.

P2/3/4

In Numeracy & Mathematics the class have been working on Time. Primary 2 have been working on the calendar and o’clock and half-past the hour. Primary 3 have been on quarter past/to the hour. Primary 4 have been learning about minutes to and past the hour on digital and analogue clocks. The boys and girls have also been working hard on developing quick recall in mental maths. The class have also been studying maps as part of their topic work, They have been looking at the world map and that of Australia, finding out about territories and climate zones.

Primary 5/6/7

In P5/6/7 the children have been working on various aspects of decimals, fractions and percentages. The class have been working in collaborative groups to research and produce a presentation on a major city as part of their topic on Germany.

Finally we wish the Primary 4 pupils good luck in their final week of preparations for Saturday and we will be keeping our fingers crossed that the sun shines!

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

It has been a busy few weeks in St. John’s and my final blog of term 3 gives a snapshot of events and activities in the school. We begin with our official school opening on the 9th of March. It was a great morning and we were delighted to welcome to the school, local councillors including Councillor Gordon Muir who officiated at the ceremony. We were also joined by Mr Brian McKenna Depute Chairman of the Education Resources Committee, Head of Education Mr Stewart Nicolson, Mrs Ann O’Neill, Quality Improvement Officer as well as Mrs Carla Fagan, Depute Head at Holy Cross High School and Head Teachers from the Holy Cross Learning Community. The wider parent body was represented by the office bearers of our Partnership Group and the local community by Father Rooney who performed a blessing at the end of the ceremony.  Our guest were piped in by Anna Thomson (P7). The children entertained our guests in song and word and were lauded by our guests for their fantastic performance. A huge thanks to staff for all their hard work in getting the school ready and organising the gifts for our guests as  well as preparing the children so well for their performances.

We also said goodbye to Miss Wadsworth during that week, when she left St. John’s to take up a permanent class post at a new school. We wish her well in her new post and are delighted to welcome Miss Natalie Costello, who will team teach with Mr Hall in Primary 5/6/7.

The school received a visit from Zoolab on Monday 20th of March where the children got up close and personal with snakes, tarantulas and cockroaches!! I’m assured by the class teachers that the children enjoyed the experience but don’t know if I can say the same for the staff!!

Our Lenten fundraising continues with our Fun Day taking place on Friday. It was a great afternoon which raised over £200. Thank you to all the staff for organising the activities and giving the children such a fun afternoon. We will conclude our fundraising this week with our Easter Bonnet Parade. Parents and carers are welcome to pop along and see the parade at 2.00 pm. A huge thank you to all our parents and carers for your support as we wouldn’t be able to send such large donations to our chosen charities without your generosity and kindness.

Our Primary 7 pupils who will be moving to Holy Cross High School in the Summer, continued with the transition programme by taking part in a Team Building day on Friday morning. Despite a few nerves and some trepidation before they set off, the children returned to school full of excitement after having a fantastic morning and are already looking forward to their induction days in June.

It is hard to believe this is the final week of term 3! Just a reminder that the school closes at 2.30 pm on Friday 31st of March and re-opens on Tuesday the 18th of April at 9.00 a.m. May I take this opportunity on behalf of myself and all the staff to wish you lovely relaxing holiday and a Happy and Holy Easter. Hopefully the sun shines like this weekend!

Thank you for reading my Blog.

Mrs McCart

We began our Lenten fundraising with our World Book Day celebrations on Friday. The children looked magnificent in their costumes and we had an eclectic mix of favourite characters, ranging from Harry Potter, Wally from Where’s Wally, Dennis the Menace and Goldilocks. The boys and girls in Primary 2/3/4 also had a surprise visit from Miss Trunchable who certainly kept them minding their P’s & Q’s!!

In the morning, older children paired up with a younger pupil and took part in a book quiz during assembly. Well done to Logan Burns (P7) and Robert Merski (P2) who were our winners.

The children then had the opportunity to listen to staff reading extracts from their favourite books after which they took part in class based activities. Thank you to all who donated £1 to dress up- a great start to our fundraising!

On Tuesday of this week twelve of the pupils from Primary 3 celebrated the Sacrament of First Reconciliation in Our Lady & St. John’s church. It was a lovely service and the children were a credit to themselves, their families and the school. A huge thank you to Mrs Quadrelli  for preparing the children so well and to Father Stephen for all his support.

Ash Wednesday saw the start of Lent and the staff and pupils joined parishioners for Mass in the church. This saw the start of our Time to Pray Lenten activities. We will be attending Mass every Thursday at 9.10 a.m. from the 16th of March and there will be a Lenten reflection service for pupils every Monday morning from the 6th of March at 8.40 a.m. in the school hall.

Finally we are making the final preparations for our official school opening on Thursday the 9th of March when we look forward to welcoming Councillor Gordon Muir who will officiate at the ceremony.

Thank you for reading my Blog.

Mrs McCart

It has been a very busy week with everyone in St. John’s working hard. Twelve of our Primary 3 pupils held a prayer service on Monday afternoon, in preparation for the Sacrament of First Reconciliation. It was a lovely service and we were delighted to welcome Father Stephen as well as parents and grandparents along.  The children will celebrate the sacrament in Our Lady & St. John’s church on Tuesday 28th of February at 7.00 pm and we wish them luck as they take this next important step in their faith journey.

We had a surprise visit from Mrs Wong and baby Caleb on Tuesday. They are both doing really well and there was much excitement in the playground when Mrs Birtles took Caleb for a walk in his pram at lunchtime!

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and  we will be attending Mass in the church at 9.10 am to receive ashes. It also begins the season of Lent and you should have received a leaflet outlining the activities taking place in the school during Lent. The families of St. John’s have been most generous during school fund raising activities and we hope you continue your generosity for our 2 charities, Mary’s Meals and Let the Children Live!

On Thursday the 9th of March we have our official school opening! The children will be entertaining our guests in word and song as part of the opening ceremony. As part of the legacy of the opening, the pupils in Primary 5 and 6 have created a school poem in the spirit of Edwin Morgan’s poem for the opening of the Scottish Parliament. Congratulations to Caitlyn Tops in Primary 6, whose poem has been chosen as our school poem. This will be recited by the pupils at the ceremony.

In the classes the learning continues apace:

Primary 1/2

P1/2 have started working on their next IDL topic ‘The Farm’ and have enjoyed painting ‘Pigs in the Mud’ in Art & Design and learning about animal names. They have begun practising their song for performing at the school opening, ‘I’m a St. John’s Wean’. In writing the children have been using describing words to create animal information profiles as part of their topic. In Health & Wellbeing the children have been learning about Road Safety, an essential life skill.

Primary 2/3/4

The children have been learning about weight measurement in Numeracy & Mathematics. P2 have been identifying objects heavier/lighter than 1Kg. P3 have been working with Kg weights and P4 have been converting Kg to g’s. All children are also developing their division skills relevant to their age and stage. The children have been creating fact files on the Scottish terrier dog linked to their class novel Greyfriar’s Bobby. They have also been preparing questions for their visitor from the Dog’s Trust who visits the school on 6th of March and  learning the song Caledonia for the official school opening. A very busy time!

Primary 5/6/7

The children in P5/6/7 have been learning about the Highland Clearances and are creating their own class clans. In Numeracy & Mathematics, P7 are learning about angles and triangles. P5/6  are measuring lengths in metres and developing their long multiplication skills. In Literacy the children continue with their novel studies and are learning how to write a newspaper article. In Science the focus continues on the Salmon Homecoming project. As with all the classes, the children are rehearsing for the school opening, with P5/6 reciting our school poem and P7 performing a drama based on Robert Burns’ poem a Red, Red Rose.

Finally, a reminder that our monthly Partnership Group meeting takes place on the 1st of March at 6.00 pm in the school. Among the items on the agenda is the forthcoming St. Patrick’s night event in Blackwood Bowling Club.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

Welcome to my Blog. Once again we have had a very busy week in St. John’s with lots of exciting learning going on. I will begin with today’s events as Mrs Quadrelli, Mr Hall and myself attended  12 o’clock Mass at Our Lady and St. John’s Church to begin our celebration of Catholic Education Week. I was delighted to see so many girls and boys from the school there too. A special word of thanks to Jan MacNeil, Katie Thomson, Caitlin Cairney and Caitlyn Tops who read the bidding prayers and Eva Quadrelli and Logan Burns who took part in the Offertory Procession. The theme for this year is Developing a Community of Faith and Learning and pupils will now explore this through lessons and activities in class throughout this week.

On Thursday of this week we received a visit from the SSPCA who visited all of the classes to talk to pupils about looking after our pets and the welfare of wild and domestic animals. The children thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

On Friday our football and netball teams took part in their second tournament of the year at Blackwood Primary School. Mr Hall and Mrs Quadrelli were delighted with the teams who competed well. Our netballers were especially delighted with their two victories and a draw and our football team, who are playing against boys and girls 2 years older than some of our them,  played well and earned themselves some good results. Well done to all involved!

In the classes this week the learning continues apace:

P1/2

The children have been learning abut objects that float or sink in Science. In Art & design they have enjoyed learning about the Chinese New Year and have created their own ‘Rooster’ to celebrate this year’s animal.

P2/3/4

In Numeracy & Mathematics the boys and girls have been learning to apply their multiplication skills in a real life context. They are also compiling data on dog breeds and are presenting their findings. In R.E. the children have been thinking about times in which they lose their way from God and about the importance of forgiveness.

P5/6/7

The fish eggs have finally arrived in school and the pupils of P5/6/7 are very excited. The children are learning about the life cycle of brown trout in Science to complement their Clyde in the Classroom project. In their Social Studies topic the children continue to expand their knowledge about Scotland by researching famous Scottish landmarks. In R.E. the children have been focussing on how they live the Beatitudes, in their own lives.

Finally just a reminder that our next Partnership Group meeting takes place on Wednesday the 8th of February at 6.00 pm in the school.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

Welcome back, I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year! As always we have had a very busy first  two weeks back, with the children and all the staff settling quickly into the school routine.

It has been a very busy week in school. I have been enrolling the boys and girls who will join us in August 2017 and look forward to welcoming them to St. John’s when we begin the Primary 1 Induction programme. We had our sacramental meetings with Father Stephen, and Mrs Quadrelli on Monday evening. We spoke to parents and carers of Primary 3 and 4 pupils about preparations for our forthcoming Sacrament celebrations and our patron’s Feast Day Mass, which we will celebrate on Thursday the  26th of January.

The Partnership Group Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday the 18th of January and I am delighted that Mr Tops has been re-elected as Chairperson, with Mrs Cairney as Vice-Chairperson/Clerk, Mrs Tops as Treasurer, Miss Livingstone as Fundraising Co-ordinator and Mrs McLean as Parish Representative. I look forward to continue working with them and the other members of our Partnership Group, and thank them for all their efforts and hard work in supporting our school.

On Thursday the girls and boys from Primary 5/6/7 visited Glasgow Science Centre to find out about the Clyde in the Classroom project in which they are going to be involved.  Clyde in the Classroom is a hands-on project which uses the life history of a native Scottish species, the brown trout, to promote awareness of river ecology among young people across the River Clyde catchment.  The project encourages children to engage with nature and develop a sense of pride in their local environment. The children are responsible for the care of brown trout within their classroom and will work weekly with the Clyde River Foundation scientists. The children had a great day and found it very interesting and informative. They have had their first visit on Friday afternoon from one of the scientists, who set up the tank for the fish eggs and explained to the class what they have to do. Mr Hall tells me our visitors will arrive on the 1st of February and we will keep you up to date with their progress.

It’s been back to the hard work for the boys and girls of St. John’s and here is a flavour of some of the learning taking place in the classrooms:

Primary 1/2

The girls and boys have been learning Scots language through their new topic Katie’s’ Pairty. They have enjoyed making shopping lists and writing invitations for the ‘pairty’ as part of their writing lessons. In numeracy and mathematics, Primary 1 are working on addition within 10 and Primary 2 are working on ordering numbers to 100 and place value.

Primary 2/3/4

The children are really enjoying their new interdisciplinary topic about dogs. They are comparing and contrasting  a dog’s anatomy with that of a human being in Science. This week they studied the characteristics of dogs. In Literacy, they have written thank you letters for  their Christmas gifts. In numeracy and mathematics,  the boys and girls are learning about measure, with a focus this week on length. The Primary 2 and 3 children are using non-standard units of measure such as footsteps and hand spans, while Primary 4 are using metres and 1/2 metres.

Primary 5/6/7

The pupils of P5/6/7 are really enjoying their class novels, ‘Shadow’ by Michael Morpurgo and ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ by Michelle Magorian. The children are really engaged in the stories and are thoroughly enjoying the reading tasks linked to the books. In numeracy and mathematics, the P5/6 pupils are working on addition and subtraction while P7 are learning about the order of different mathematical operations using the BODMAS rule. In religious education, the children have been learning about saints associated with Scotland.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

The last week was a busy one for all in St. John’s.

The highlight of this week was our Validated Self-Evaluation by South Lanarkshire Council. We welcomed Mrs Ann O’Neill and Mrs Jan McLaren, Quality Improvement Officers, to the school on Wednesday as part of a visit to quality check the school’s self-evaluation processes and the teaching and learning. They spoke with me about progress of our School Improvement Plan and then visited classes throughout the day. They met with groups of pupils to talk about their learning. I am delighted to say that they were thoroughly impressed by our school and the quality of teaching and learning that takes place. They commented that children were confident, have high aspirations and were fully motivated and engaged in a range of learning activities. They highlighted that the skilled use of questioning by teachers led to a deeper understanding of concepts being taught and that all learners were supported well.

Fantastic feedback and a huge well done and thank you to all the pupils and staff whose dedication and commitment, make St. John’s Primary a tremendous place to work and learn!

On Monday the teaching staff met with our colleagues from across the Holy Cross High School at St. John the Baptist Primary School. We listened to an inspirational presentation by Ian Hart from Education Scotland, about raising attainment in our schools. This was followed by collegiate working on aspects of the Learning Community Improvement Plan.

Christmas preparations are well under way now and Primary 1 and 2 have been working very hard on their Nativity. Primary 3 to 7 have chosen the songs/carols that they will perform and are practising hard too.

In the classrooms:

Primary 1/2

The boys and girls have been working hard learning about Money. They have been working in the class Post Office/Toy Shop using money in a real life setting. The children have deigned their own Christmas stamps to sell as part of their Enterprise topic for this term.

Primary 2/3/4

The boys and girls have been learning about money and how to count and give change. They have been using their money skills to budget for a ‘camping’ or ‘glamping’ trip. They have also started to learn about and use Scots language to celebrate the forthcoming St. Andrew’s Day celebrations. The teachers tell me they are doing braw!

Primary 5/6/7

The pupils are continuing their work on money, working on budgeting for various projects including, parties, holidays and making their own movies! The pupils are working collaboratively to produce a PowerPoint presentation to ‘pitch’ their Enterprise product to the rest of the school at Assembly.

Just a reminder of a few upcoming events this week. We have the Partnership Group meeting on Wednesday at 6.00 pm. On Thursday morning we hope to attend Mass but are awaiting confirmation from Fr Stephen and finally on Friday we have our Christmas Fayre in the school from 3.00 until 5.00 pm. Please come along and support the school.

Many thanks for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

Head Teacher

On Monday we welcomed Mrs Montgomery a PGDE student from Strathclyde University who will be working in the Primary 1/2 class until the 15th  of December. We hope she has an enjoyable time in our school.

On Thursday of this week I attended the Head Teacher’s conference where one of the keynote speakers was Dr Janet Goodall who spoke about the importance of parental engagement in closing the attainment gap. It was good to hear that some of the strategies she was speaking about are already in place in our school but there is always room for improvement and so I hope to discuss this at the forthcoming Partnership Group meeting on the 30th of November.

On Thursday the whole school took part in Judo taster sessions with Andy Malone. The children thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and participated enthusiastically. Andy is a very experienced coach and has classes running throughout South Lanarkshire and we thank him for giving up his time to come along to our school.

On Friday afternoon we had our first COGS session.  The focus of discussion was the learning and teaching of Numeracy and Mathematics in our school. The teachers who facilitated each group were delighted with the way the pupils could articulate their opinions and thoughts about what and how they learn in this important curricular area.  Everyone found it an enjoyable and interesting activity. Mrs Kelly and I will collate all the information gathered and feedback the results in the near future.

This week also saw the start of our festive preparations with rehearsals underway for the Primary 1 and 2 Nativity. It’s hard to believe it is that time of year already!

In the classes this week it has been business as usual.

Primary 1/2

The children have been working on lots of active learning in their new initial sounds (P1) and spelling (P2). In Numeracy they have been working on money, recognising coins and counting amounts. The pupils have also been introduced to their new topic “The Jolly Christmas Postman”.

Primary 2/3/4

In Numeracy, the pupils have been working on money this week. They have been using their addition skills to help them find totals up to £1, £5 and £20. In Literacy the class have been looking at persuasive writing techniques and  have watched a Newsround report on the US election to help them.

Primary 5/6/7

The class have been working very hard in their groups to create their business plans for their Enterprise topic. Mr Hall and Miss Wadsworth report that things are looking very interesting. In Literacy the children have been writing letters from the trenches to commemorate 100 years since the Battle of the Somme. In Numeracy the pupils have continued to investigate money, including how to work out a budget.

This week we welcome Mrs Fagan from Holy Cross High School for the Primary 7 Information evening on Tuesday at 5.30 pm.  The Primary 2, 3, 4 pupils visit the Vue Cinema in Hamilton for a screening of Pete’s Dragon on Thursday of this week. Next Monday the 21st of November is an in-service day and the teaching staff will be spending the day at St. John the Baptist Primary School with our colleagues from the Holy Cross learning community where we will be working together on aspects of the Learning Community improvement plan.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mrs McCart

Head Teacher