We had a fabulous celebration on Tuesday afternoon when Robbie Stewart along with many other invited guests came to our school to present us with the Gold Award from SportScotland.  After gaining the award in November 2016, Tuesday was our chance to share the many ways St. Mary’s pupils are involved in sporting activities with our pupils, staff and sporting partners.  Our Sports Committee began the ceremony by delivering a presentation on sport to the whole school, we then watched a short film  of how we celebrate sport and fitness in St. Mary’s through P.E., extra curricular clubs, tournaments and achievements outwith school.  Our invited guests included many of our sport partners and people who have supported us throughout the years,  we are extremely grateful that we were able to share this special occasion with them and for their continued support.  Robbie Stewart, from SportScotland, presented Mr McManus and Laura Somerville, along with our sports captains with the Sport Scotland Gold Award flag, which we will proudly display in our gym hall for all to see.

Our Primary 6 and 7 pupils had a lovely time at Holy Family Parish Centre, Mossend, on Thursday and Friday, where they attended a Confirmation Retreat.  During the retreat the Confirmandi had the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the sacrament and the gifts they will gain during their Sacrament of Confirmation on 25th February.  The pupils were accompanied by Holy Cross Caritas students who helped deliver and support the sessions.  We have an excellent partnership with Holy Cross and the S6 Caritas students who helped us were great ambassadors for such a wonderful school!

Room 8 celebrated Harry Potter day this week!  The pupils used their literacy and numeracy skills to design and create robes, make potions, work on duration and time using the Hogwarts Express timetable and converted Muggle Money to Wizard Money!  The children all had great fun throughout the day!

Room 10 visited Hamilton Townhouse Library on Friday to develop their research skills.  The children used their literacy skills to research and look for facts and then delivered their finding to their peers.

Our Reconciliation and First Communion pupils are looking forward to taking part in their Enrolment Mass, tomorrow, Sunday 5th February.  During the mass they will promise to prepare with their family and friends for their upcoming Sacrament.  This mass will also celebrate Catholic Education Week, where students from Holy Cross and St. Mary’s will deliver the readings and be involved in the offertory procession.

Thanks for reading about our week,

Mrs. Elaine Fitzpatrick

For Burns day this week our Primary 5, 6 and 7 classes began rehearsing a famous Burns poem to recite at the Hamilton Burns Competition in March, where various schools from across Hamilton compete to move onto the next stage at the Lanarkshire heats.  Our Primary 1 classes are studying, ‘Children Around the World’, so have appropriately started with traditions and practices in our own country of Scotland.  As part of this Mr McManus taught the pupils some traditional Scottish dancing and they also celebrated Burns’ Day by tasting some Scottish food.

Our netball team took part in their first tournament of the year, led by Miss Graham.  They also had a very special visitor, Bethan Goodwin, who spoke to pupils in Primary 6 and 7 about being Holy Cross Sports Captain and playing Netball professionally for the Sirens!  Bethan also stayed after school to coach our netball team on shooting skills.

Rooms 7, 8 and 9 braved the icy cold at Hockey this week.  Each week they will be taught by Tom from Uddingston Hockey Club, who is extremely dedicated in helping our pupils develop their talents by working with them every Friday and at our after school club.

Our Sports Leaders continue to work with younger pupils each week under the guidance of Laura Somerville.  They are developing their skills in leadership by organising games for pupils in Primary 3.  Our Primary 6 pupils are also developing their leadership skills by visiting Cadzow and Lilybank Nurseries every Wednesday.  Each week a group of P6 pupils go to the nurseries and work with the younger children to prepare them in their role as P7 buddies next session.

As always – thanks for reading!

Mrs. Elaine Fitzpatrick

This week we broke our Twitter record and now have 202 followers!  We have found that using Twitter is a very efficient and easy way to share what is happening in St. Mary’s with our parents.  Thank you to all of our followers.

Some of our Primary 6 pupils decorated a Christmas Postbox for Frankie and Benny’s and as a reward were given a ‘Pizza Party’.  The pupils visited the shop during the week and created their own pizzas, taking into consideration the necessary ingredients and how to cook their creations.  As a thank you the pupils were given a ‘free kid’s meal for a year’ pass to Frankie and Benny’s!

During P.E. this week pupils have been studying gymnastics.  They have been looking at ways of travelling, jumping and rolling.  Lots of our pupils attend gymnastics classes outside of school and have been sharing their skills and talents with others during the lessons.

South Lanarkshire’s primary 1 enrolment process began this week, although the process takes a lot longer than one week!    At regular intervals all schools must submit their pupil numbers to SLC in order to be informed of how many classes they will have next session.  Between now and June we will be looking at our class configuration and how to best accommodate all of the pupils in our care to ensure their success.

Our Primary 3, 4, 6 and 7 classes are busy preparing for their upcoming Sacraments in February, March and May.  Through lessons in class, home sessions and church practices our pupils will be fully prepared to receive their Sacraments and become fuller members of our church.

Mrs. E. Fitzpatrick

Head Teacher

Happy New Year!  I can’t believe that 2017 is here.  After a lovely Christmas holiday our pupils and staff returned to school on Monday 9th January eager to start the new year.

Primary 6 and 7 didn’t get long to settle back into the school routine when they received vocal tuition on Monday morning from Scottish Opera to prepare them for their performance of Tam O’Shanter later on in the week!  A team from Scottish Opera came to school on Thursday to work with our senior pupils.  They spent the morning working on an operatic production of Tam O’Shanter which resulted in an amazing performance for Primary 4 and 5 to watch in the afternoon.  A huge thank you to Scottish Opera for sharing their time and expertise with our pupils and staff.

This week we welcomed Mrs Claudia Duncan to St. Mary’s, a new member of teaching staff, who will be working with Rm 9a and Rm10.  I am sure she will be made very welcome at St. Mary’s and has already commented on the impeccable behaviour and work ethic of our pupils, encouraged by our school values each day.

As always, life will be busy at St. Mary’s this year as we look forward to many exciting learning opportunities for our pupils and we also look forward to enrolling our new Primary 1 pupils next week!

Best wishes,

Mrs. Elaine Fitzpatrick