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!

Our school week actually began on Sunday, 22nd November when our school choir sang on stage in the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow at Mary’s Meals open day!  The choir opened the event by singing ‘Just a Single Voice’ and ‘Lean on Me’ reflecting the history of Mary’s Meals of Magnus McFarlane-Burrow being the single voice who was so moved by the plight of children in Bosnia he decided to start the organisation.  Our children then closed the afternoon presentations by singing their rendition of Paolo Nutini’s ‘High Hopes’, echoing the message of having hope, part of the vision of Mary’s Meals.  Mrs Cluckie, Mrs Phillips, Mrs Tappenden and I were very proud of all of our children who sang beautifully and behaved impeccably throughout the day.

On Thursday afternoon, Rooms 2 and 3 were joined by their parents and grandparents who helped the children write instructions on how to make a sandwich.  They began by making the actual sandwich and then had to write the instructions together.  The language lesson is part of the pupils’ interdisciplinary topic of ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’.  Photographs of the afternoon can be seen in our gallery.

Our Junior Road Safety Officers have been working extra hard this term.  Our pupils have commented that they have noticed some cars drive the wrong way round our one way system and that they drive quickly therefore, the JRSOs have shown the infant classes the safe way to enter and exit the school grounds by using the pedestrian crossing and making sure they stay on the pavements.

Our Christmas Fayre is on Friday 4th December and our Christmas Crafts Club have been busy creating decorations and gifts to be sold at the fayre.  With only 3 weeks to go until our Christmas holidays, we are looking forward to a busy week ahead!

Hi, this is my first post on St. Mary’s HT blog.  I hope to keep you up to date with everything that is happening at our wonderful school each week.  Please keep checking to find out about all of our exciting acitvities!