Monthly Archives: December 2015

14.12.15

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This week saw our children celebrating Christmas with their peers at their various Christmas parties.  On Tuesday, all of our Primary 7 pupils looked very dapper as they strutted their stuff on the dance floor!  Various ‘social dances’ such as The Gay Gordons’ and ‘The Canadian Barn Dance’ ensured that all of the children had a ball as they whisked their way around the hall.  Mrs Cluckie and I even managed to sneak in!  On Thursday, Primaries 5 and 6 joined in the fun at their party, whilst Primaries 3 and 4 finished the week at their party on Friday afternoon.  It was wonderful to watch all of the children dressed in their party clothes enjoying themselves dancing and playing party games.  Our support staff ensured that the parties were all catered for, so our pupils enjoyed a welcome break from partying with some crisps, sweets and juice.

On Wednesday, all of our pupils were entertained by Jazz Art’s pantomime ‘The Wiz That Woz!’  Many thanks to our Parent Council for funding this performance.  Money raised from our Christmas and Summer Fayres, 50/50 club and other fund raising ventures allows our parent council to fund events such as the pantomime.  This year’s Christmas Fayre was a roaring success, raising an amazing £2000!  Without the hard work of our Parent Council and the support of our parents, family and friends this would not have been possible.

Our school choir entertained customers at Hamilton Water Palace and Sainsburys on Friday, singing some well known festive tunes and songs from our Nativity performance.   Donations from these performances will go to Stroke Association Scotland, a charity close to our hearts at this particular time.

Our Advent Appeal of collecting food items for Hamilton Food Bank has been an amazing success, due to the generosity of our families.  On Monday 21st December, a representative from the Food Bank will speak to our pupils at assembly to explain the ‘job’ of Food Banks and what will happen to the children’s donations.  I think that they will need to bring a lorry in order to take everything away with them – the donations have filled our stage! Thank you so much for your support for this local charity.

We finish for Christmas on Wednesday, 23rd December at 2.30pm.  All of the staff of St. Mary’s Primary School wish you a happy and holy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Thank you once again for reading – see you in the New Year!

7.12.15

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It was another busy week at St. Mary’s Primary School in the lead up to Christmas with our various Advent events.

Family, friends and invited guests watched in awe on Wednesday and Thursday as Primary 1, 2, 3 and 4 performed St. Mary’s Nativity.  Our Primary 4 First Communion classes took the lead and told the story of that first Christmas beautifully.  Primary 1 were angelic angels and very confidently sang Happy Birthday to baby Jesus in front of a large audience.  Our Primary 2 shepherds and Primary 3 kings enhanced the performance by adding their own touch of magic to the show.  Primary 5, 6 and 7 joined in the finale, singing ‘Christmas isn’t Christmas’ and ‘Oh Holy Night’ making the whole nativity very moving indeed!  Special thanks to our hard working, talented and dedicated team of staff who worked with all of the pupils in the school to make the performance one to remember.  Photographs from the nativity can be seen in our website gallery.

On Friday  we had our delicious Christmas lunch in very festive surroundings.  As Christmas music played, pupils were served by staff, making it a special lunch for all.  Thanks to our canteen ladies and staff for going above and beyond to make it a lovely meal for everyone!  Christmas Jumper Day was also on Friday making the whole day a very festive one and getting us all in the mood for Christmas.  Special thanks to parents for supporting this venture to allow us to purchase games for classes to use during Activity Time and Golden Time.

The wet Scottish weather has resulted in a lot of wet playtimes and lunch times for all of our children.  Our Primary 7 monitors are doing a wonderful job of being in classes during break times as part of their leadership responsibilities.  Our classes are also supervised by support staff and Mr McGurk during these times.

We are looking forward to the week ahead of Christmas parties and pantomime, however every single one of our classes are still working hard, ensuring that our children learn something new every day they come to St. Mary’s.

Thanks for reading!

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30.11.15

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Every week in our school is a busy and productive one and last week was no exception!

We began the week on St. Andrew’s Day with Rooms 11 and 12 entertaining family and friends with ‘Tea and a Blether’.   The pupils began their Scottish showcase with ceilidh dancing followed by singing ‘Scots Wha Hae’, written by Rabbie Burns in 1793, which pupils explained was based upon Robert the Bruce’s speech before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.  Pupils entertained the audience by retelling the comical Scottish poems of ‘A Dug, A Dug’ by Bill Keys and ‘Lament to a Lost Dinner Ticket’ by Margaret Hamilton.     Orla and Emily then recited Burns poetry ,’Willie Wastle’ and ‘Poor Mailie’s Elegy’.  The fantastic showcase finished with the audience and pupils singing ‘The Jeely Piece’ song before everyone went to the dining hall for a cup of tea and a blether!  Well done rooms 11 and 12!

On Monday, Primary 6 were joined by their family as they enrolled in the Pope Francis Faith Award.  Fr O’Brien led the enrolment ceremony where the children promised to promote faith actions at home, school and in their parish.  Their first official faith action is the organisation of our Advent Appeal to help Hamilton Food Bank.

On Tuesday evening parents came to school for our sacramental preparation meeting for Reconciliation and First Holy Communion.  Parents were informed of the work their children will be undertaking as part of their preparation to receive the sacrament and listened to Fr. O’Brien explain the importance of the sacrament and what it means for us.

‘This Is Our Faith’ is the syllabus for Catholic Education in Scotland.  As a denominational school we follow ‘This Is Our Faith’ and over the last week Miss Tierney and Mr Russell have attended twilight inservice to enhance their knowledge of using ‘This Is Our Faith’ at their particular stage.

The week concluded with our extremely successful and extremely busy Christmas Fayre.  The fayre had many things on offer to suit all of the people who attended.  Over the last few weeks our after school arts and crafts club have been preparing Christmas Crafts to sell at the fayre.  Our Parent Council also organised various outside businesses to sell their goods at the fayre along with a very popular toy and sweet stall.  The charity organisation ‘LEAP’ were there publicising their ‘Hands On Project’ that offers support services to older people across South Lanarkshire.  Our ECO committee were also on hand selling our ECO water bottles and sandwich wraps.  The ‘no adults allowed Secret Room’ held many wonderful gifts for the children to purchase as Christmas presents for their family.  Our school choir entertained the visitors to the Christmas Cafe with many magical Christmas songs to get everyone in the festive mood.  We were even joined by a very special visitor who stayed for a while in his grotto with his loving wife to meet all of our lovely children!  A massive thank you to our Parent Council Chairperson, Mrs Docherty,  her band of merry helpers and the school staff for working tirelessly to ensure the fayre was a huge success!