Our footballers had a busy week this week.  After competing in the Davey Cooper Cup last Sunday, our girls played on Wednesday at Hamilton Palace Grounds, whilst our boys competed in the Shinwell Cup on Friday afternoon, successfully qualifying for the next round.

Our Study Skills club after school on Monday continues to be very popular with nearly 30 pupils attending each week.  Mrs O’Neill, Mrs Devine and Mrs Benson have been working with pupils from Primary 5 and 6 to help them with their homework or work on an aspect of their learning that they wish to develop.  Huge thanks goes to our members of staff who give up their time each week for pupils to take part in after school activities such as football, netball, recorder, choir, dance, cross country and study skills.

Our Primary 7 pupils have been involved in Literacy and Numeracy assessments this week to prepare them for secondary school in August.  All pupils from schools in the Holy Cross Learning Community undertake these assessments during the same week in order for staff from Holy Cross to gain an insight into the strengths is extremely thorough with team building days, induction days, primary visits and joint assessments.  All of this means that the staff at Holy Cross will know our pupil’s strengths and development needs by the time they begin secondary school.

On Thursday we joined together as a school to say a decade of the Rosary in honour of the 100th Anniversary of Fatima.   The pupils and staff also watched a cartoon telling the story of the  3 children visited by Our Lady.  The date was particularly poignant for us as the anniversary occurred on 13th May, the date when pupils of our school received their First Holy Communion.  Saturday, 13th May was a fabulous day.  50 of our pupils, mostly Primary 4, received the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time.  The children were wonderful throughout the service.  There was not a dry eye in St. Mary’s church listening to the pupils and choir sing throughout the mass and watching them on the altar receive their First Communion and then sing their Communion Thanksgiving Hymn.  They were joined by family and friends to help them celebrate this special day.  Thanks to Mrs Cluckie, Mrs Feeney and Mrs Campbell for working with our pupils to prepare them for their special day and to members of our choir for giving up their time to join us.

Thank you for reading our weekly blog,

Best wishes,

Elaine Fitzpatrick