Winter has definitely arrived as it was a very icy week this week at St. Mary’s!

Continuing the ice theme Room 9a enjoyed their trip this week to Braehead Arena to cheer on the Scotland team at the European Curling Championships.  They enjoyed their time at the fan zone and watching the professionals in action.  Room 9a weren’t the only ones to enjoy wandering further afield this week, Rooms 3 and 4 visited Glasgow Science Centre taking part in many learning activities related to their interdisciplinary topic of Space.

This year every class has had the opportunity to visit Hamilton Townhouse Library.  This week Rooms 1 and 2 listened to a live version of ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’, whilst Rooms 7 and 8 took part in a story telling session with author Gerry Durkin.  Some pupils from the classes also had the opportunity to be the visiting authors as they read their own stories to an audience of pupils from surrounding schools.

Our Primary 6 pupils are developing their role as buddies for nursery pupils in Lilybank and Cadzow Nurseries.  Every Wednesday, 5 of our primary 6s visit the nurseries to work with their children.  This is a great opportunity to develop buddy skills and to get to know our future Primary 1 pupils.

We are looking forward to a busy week next week preparing for our Parent Council Christmas Fayre on Friday!

Thanks for reading,

Mrs. Elaine Fitzpatrick

We began the week with a whole school assembly.  Our assemblies give us a chance to share our learning with each other and to pass on important information about what is happening in our school, our community, South Lanarkshire, Scotland and our world.  Mrs Seenan led our ECO assembly to introduce pupils to ‘Switch off Fortnight’, a national initiative encouraging us to save energy.  Our ECO committee work with Mrs Seenan on our ECO priorities each year, they educate and encourage the pupils of St. Mary’s to think about their actions and the affect they have on the environment.

Our Missio Assembly presented by a representative from Missio Scotland showed our pupils how our donations to Missio can help children on the other side of the world.  We were told stories of children who have been given help and the impact that has had on their lives.  Missio Scotland is one of the charities we donate to each year, we are very grateful to our pupils and families who help us support this worthwhile cause.

Another charity who our Confirmandi and Pope Francis pupils have supported this week is Operation Christmas Child where our pupils made shoeboxes filled with gifts to donate to children overseas.  We donated nearly 100 shoeboxes and received a visit from the Catholic Observer and Hamilton Advertiser to mark the occasion.  I am constantly amazed at the generosity and love shown by our families towards those less fortunate than ourselves.

On Sunday our Confirmandi and Pope Francis pupils took part in their enrolment mass.  They proudly stood in front of their families and members of our parish to begin their journey of the Sacrament of Confirmation and the acts of faith they will perform as part of their Pope Francis Faith Award.  We are very blessed to have such dedicated and honourable pupils.

Many thanks,

Mrs. Elaine Fitzpatrick

We had a fantastic time during our Mental Health and Well Being Week during which we focussed on Dyslexia Awareness, coinciding with Dyslexia Scotland’s Dyslexia Awareness Week.  We started the week discussing the movie ‘Happy Feet’ and everyone’s talents and skills.  All of our classes listened to very insightful and honest presentations given by Primary 7 pupils on “What it’s like to have Dyslexia.”  The feedback from pupils on the presentations was amazing and something that our Primary 7 presenters should be very proud of:

“I didn’t know having Dyslexia could be so hard.”

“Now I know what it would be like to have dyslexia but also that people can help me.”

“Sophia must be very clever to have Dylsexia and do well at her work.”

“Lots of famous people have Dyslexia and if you have it you can get help and you can do things to help yourself.”

We also had a wonderful and emotional day with Fischy Music when we were visited for the day by the creator Stephen Fischbacher on Thursday.  Pupils in primary 4 to Primary 7 took part in workshops and in the afternoon the whole school had a Fischy music concert, joining in to great songs that will help us deal with our emotions.  This will partner our programme of Emotion Works that our classes will be taking part in.

On Friday morning, Primary 3 took part in a Yoga class, courtesy of Prana Yoga Studios, Hamilton.  The children learned some yoga positions to help them stretch and relax their bodies and minds!

Each term the reward for the winning house is a non uniform day.  This was voted for by pupils last year when discussing a reward that they would enjoy and work hard for.  Marian House were the winners for the first term, so came to school on Friday wearing their own casual clothes rather than school uniform!

As always we have a very busy term ahead, however our choir are extremely excited for Monday, 14th November when they will be visiting STV studios in Glasgow!  Follow us on Twitter and watch this space to find out why!

Thanks for reading,

Mrs Elaine Fitzpatrick

We had a spooky start this week with Hallowe’en on Monday.  Rather than dressing up in the usual manner, we celebrated the day with a Pumpkin Parade.  This gave our pupils the opportunity to work with their parents to carve a fantastic pumpkin creation.  I was astounded by the imagination and skill of our pupils.  At assembly each class showed their pumpkins to the whole school and Mrs Cluckie, our School Captains and I judged the best from each class for a Hallowe’en prize.

On Tuesday we attended mass at St. Mary’s Church for All Saints’ Day.  I am extremely proud of every one of our staff and 371 pupils who attend mass as a school and show reverence and respect throughout.  I am also very grateful to St. Mary’s parishioners who make way for us to take up most of the pews in the church!  It is a wonderful opportunity to gather together as a parish to celebrate Mass, led by Fr. O’Brien.

On Wednesday and Friday our Primary 3 classes attended their Reconciliation Retreat at Holy Family Church in Mossend.  Each day, they were accompanied by 5 Holy Cross 6th Year Caritas students.  They had a great day and it was an excellent way for them to reflect and prepare to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation in March next year.

Our Active Schools partnership continues with our P5 and P2 lunchtime clubs and P6 Rugby.  Our netball and football teams also proudly represented St. Mary’s at tournaments this week.

A highlight of the week for many of our classes was exploring the Coral Sea and walking along the Great Wall of China courtesy of Google Expeditions!  Thanks to virtual reality equipment our pupils in Primary 4 – 7 took part in various workshops bringing to life the amazing sights before them.

This week we also started our Rainbows workshops, which will last for several weeks.  Most of our teachers have been trained as Rainbows Facilitators led by Mrs Seenan. The workshops are for children who have suffered loss in the form of bereavement, separation or divorce.  They give children the chance to discuss and listen to the stories of others, let them know that they are not going through things alone and that any feelings they have are normal.  Discussions in the workshops are highly confidential and form a place of trust where the children feel comfortable to verbalise their feelings.

All of the activities and opportunities offered to children in St. Mary’s ensure that we are creating pupils who demonstrate the 4 capacities of Curriculum for Excellence – Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens.

Best wishes,

Elaine Fitzpatrick