Well, it certainly was a very busy week for us last week!  Our pupils and parents have shown great commitment to our Lenten Charity activities.  Each class has their own 5 minute fund raiser where they take part in activities such as mini bring ‘n’ buy sales, raffles, tuck shop and many more unusual ways of raising money to help those less fortunate.

This week we took part in Fairtrade Fortnight.  Our Fairtrade Committee presented an assembly to all pupils to explain to them the benefits of purchasing Fairtrade items.  We then held an amazing Fairtrade Breakfast Club where our Fairtrade Committee and Pope Francis pupils served a yummy breakfast and delicious hot chocolate to the other pupils of the school.  Warburtons and Scotmid kindly donated bread and fruit for the event.  We are very grateful to our parent helpers who gave their time to make the breakfast a success. Pupils were also able to purchase treats at our Fairtrade tuckshop throughout the week.

The pupils of St. Mary’s Primary stopped traffic on Friday morning as they attended St. Mary’s church at 8.30am, however rather than seeing pupils in dressed in their usual smart uniform, Fr O’Brien witnessed characters such as The Queen of Hearts, Goldilocks, Snow White, Miss Trunchbull, Moonface, Harry Potter and his friends, Gangsta Grannies and the Fantastic Mr Fox!  On Friday we celebrated World Book Day and our children were wonderfully dressed as characters from their favourite books.  A fabulous day was had by all!

Primary 7, Mrs Seenan and Mrs Smith worked extremely hard to organise our Childrens’ Café on Friday morning.  Lots of delicious treats were available to purchase, including a special Willy Wonka mix up where our children had the chance of winning a Golden Ticket Easter Egg!  Just over £400 was raised from the event, this would not have been possible without the hard work of our school staff and primary 7 pupils.  Special thanks also goes to Mrs Barghati, our chocolate fountain expert!

Remember to look on our website and Twitter for fantastic photographs from all of our events.

Thanks for reading,

Mrs Elaine Fitzpatrick

This week Primary 1/2 visited New Lanark to enhance their topic on ‘The Victorians’.  They had wonderful day travelling back in time on the Annie McLeod Experience, listening to the life of a mill worker from Victorian Times.  The class was accompanied by their teacher, Mrs McDougall and 4 parents helpers.  Many thanks go to all of our parent volunteers who help with trips and in our school on a weekly basis.  We are extremely grateful for their support and time, without which, trips such as these would not be possible.

Primary 7 were entertained this week by Theatreand’s Road Safety performance organised by Road Safety Scotland.  The performance focussed on Road Safety and explored the consequences of irresponsible behaviour, looking at important issues that our children face on roads.  The performance was followed by an interactive workshop that allowed our Primary 7 pupils to explore the main themes further.

St. Mary’s hosted the first annual Hamilton Burns’ Club musical competition.  Once again, we were extremely proud of all of our entrants who sang and played beautifully to a large audience of friends and family.  Our pupils will now move on to the next round to participate in the Lanarkshire Burns’ Competition.  We wish them all the best of luck!

6 of our Primary 6 pupils participated in South Lanarkshire Council’s yearly Euro Quiz on Thursday morning.  Along with various schools across the authority they answered questions on the culture, geography, finance and history of Europe.  The pupils worked very hard and were a credit to St. Mary’s.

Our monthly Achievements Assembly this week saw many of our pupils being awarded with certificates for their fantastic achievements outside of school.  Achievements such as swimming, dancing, karate and football show the commitment and hard work that our children demonstrate weekly – along with their parents’ commitment of encouraging them and taking them to their clubs!  Their names and achievements are displayed on our Achievements Tree for all to see.  Well done everyone!

On Wednesday night we had our latest Parent Council meeting.  These meetings are an excellent opportunity for parents to become more involved in the life of our school.  We have an extremely dedicated Parent Council Committee and council members who work tirelessly to enhance the lives of all of our pupils through various events and fundraising.

So far, our Lenten fundraising activities have been a huge success – thanks to all of our parents for supporting our worthwhile charities.  We look forward to World Book Day next week and our Primary 7 café! Busy, busy, busy!

Thanks for reading,

Mrs Fitzpatrick