St. Mary’s Primary School Newsletter

Cadzow Street, Hamilton, ML3 6JT

Tel: 01698 282850

E-mail: gw14stmaryshamoffice@glow.sch.uk

http://www.st-marys-hamilton-pri.s-lanark.sch.uk

@saintmarysps

January 2016

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2016! We have had an excellent start to the new year in St. Mary’s. It was lovely to see all of our children return to school after the Christmas holidays eager and ready to learn. Our school website has proven to be successful in sharing learning and events with the wider community. We are also updating our class pages and school pages weekly, with further information and photographs of what our children are learning. Our website can be viewed in different languages, when viewing the site on a computer, and we hope to add a page solely for our newsletter so that this can also be translated into various languages. We can now tweet all updates and events for parents through our new Twitter account. To follow @saintmarysps simply click on the Twitter follow button in the top right hand corner of our website. All of our tweets are protected, therefore parents have to request to follow us. This will give parents instant information of what is happening at St. Mary’s Primary School. We are only granting access to known parents, therefore, if you request to follow us, it may be unclear who you are from your Twitter name. If this is the case, please give your child a letter addressed to Mr Rimmer stating your Twitter name so that we can grant approval. Unfortunately, the Scottish weather has had an impact on our outdoor learning and play, with lots of indoor break times for the pupils. Each day, Mr McGurk and I, risk assess our playground to make sure that it is a safe environment for our children to play in. Unfortunately, this has not been the case and we have had to keep the children inside during break times. We have made arrangements for classes to play on the pitch in the afternoon if it is dry and poses no safety issues. Although this is not an ideal situation, our children, as always, continue to be on their best behaviour in classes, playing games with each other and the class monitors. Yours sincerely, Mrs. Elaine Fitzpatrick, Head Teacher

St. Mary’s clubs: There are many extra curricular clubs at St. Mary’s that pupils at different stages are able to take part in.

These will change throughout the year to ensure that all of our pupils have the opportunity to become involved.

Due to adverse weather clubs may have to be cancelled. In the event of this we will contact parents to inform them. Can you please ensure that we have up to date contact details for your child to help us with this?

Monday:

Boys’ football club/Girls’ football club (alternate weeks)

Choir

Tuesday:

Chess club

Wednesday:

Cross Country club

Gymnastics Club

Rainbows

Thursday:

Netball club

Friday:

Hockey club

Many thanks to all of the staff and volunteers who give up their time each

week to help develop skills for life, learning and work in our children.

Skilled Staff Our pupils enjoyed a day of rest on Thursday 21st January due to a by-

election being held in St. Mary’s. Our staff used this day as an opportunity

to up level their musical skills through Mrs. Cluckie leading

training on ABC Music. Staff also increased their technological

knowledge following inservice from Mr. Rimmer and Mrs. Campbell on technology resources, our school

website and Education City.

Our Holy Father Pope Francis' prayer intentions for the month of January are...

Universal: That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice

Evangelisation: That by means of dialogue and fraternal charity and with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians may overcome divisions

Watch our Achievements Tree grow throughout the year!

Last week saw the first of our Achievement Assemblies, where pupils will bring in certificates, medals and trophies to recognise their achievements out of school. This has started as a result of our last COGS meeting, where pupils and staff felt that our children show a huge commitment to various clubs outside of school and that their achievements at these should be celebrated. Each month as a whole school, we will come together

in our house groups and celebrate successes outwith school. Pupils can bring in certificates, medals etc. of their achievements throughout the month, however, achievements must be from January this year.

Clyde in the Classroom

Primary 5 thouroughly enjoyed their outing to Glasgow Science Centre last week to mark the beginning of their involvement in the Clyde in the Classroom initiative. Clyde in the Classroom is a hands-on project which

uses the life history of a native Scottish species, the brown trout, to promote awareness of river ecology among young people across the River Clyde catchment. The project is delivered by the Clyde River Foundation

and is a great basis for outdoor learning. During their trip to the Science Centre, pupils found out all about the geography and history of the River Clyde and the fish that live in it.

We will soon welcome trout eggs into the school in their hatchery, which our primary 5 pupils have to take

care of. This is not an easy task, as the eggs have to be kept at a specific temperature throughout the day and night to encourage them to hatch. To do this, our primary 5 pupils will have to use various maths skills such as estimation, prediction, reading temperature and telling time. When the eggs have successfully hatched

our pupils will release them back into the River Clyde.

We are looking forward to sharing our photographs and videos of our trouts with you.

Having fun at the Science Centre

House Shields:

Responsible Citizens:

During advent our school choir raised £250 by carol singing at Morrison’s. This money was donated to Stroke Association Scotland. A representative from the charity will visit the school in May to speak to our Primary 4-7

pupils about their work.

The Marvellous Mikado:

This year our Summer Show will be based upon Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera The Mikado.

Mrs Cluckie and Mrs Phillips have been busy creating an up to date script - blending some old favourite musical pieces with some new songs, guaranteed to entertain!

Safe and Sound:

Can I remind parents that our car park operates a ONE WAY SYSTEM, by which cars must enter and exit via the allocated gates? Our pupils regularly cross through the carpark and will not expect a car to be travelling in the wrong

direction, therefore putting themselves in danger if a driver decides to take a short cut the wrong way. Many of our parents are extremely courteous drivers and take care in the car park by driving at a slow speed,

keeping their distance between cars and parking in the appropriate spaces.

The pedestrian gate from Auchingramont Road, will continue to be locked after 9am and after 3pm. The safety of our pupils is our priority, therefore this ensures that no one can enter our playground unofficially, as all visitors to our

school, between these hours, must report to the main entrance.

Marvellous Masterclass:

Planning for our Primary 4 – 7 Masterclass initiative is underway. Our pupils are looking forward to taking part

in specialist classes such as guitar, gardening, knitting, karate, cooking, technology, ukulele, French and indoor

curling. Watch our website for photographs of our children developing their new skills.

Education City is ‘Glowing’:

We are very grateful to our Parent Council for funding another year’s subscription to Education City. Every

child in the school has a unique log in that enables them to play various educational games in school and at home.

Children also have their own Glow log in that allows them access to various educational website and

activities. Please check your child’s diary for their Education city and Glow log in details.

Important dates for your diary:

31st January 2016 Beginning of Catholic Education Week

3rd February 2016 Rm 6 & Rm 8 First Communicant Retreat

4th February 2016 Rm 7 First Communicant Retreat

5th February 2016 Staff Development Day – school closed to pupils

8th & 9th February 2016 February weekend – school closed

10th February 2016 Ash Wednesday, school to attend 10am mass

14th February 2016 P3 Reconciliation & P4 First Communion Enrolment mass, 10am

17th February 2016 Rm 11 & 12 trip to Bannockburn Heritage Centre

24th February 2016 7pm, Parent Council meeting

Our house captains and vice-captains held a competition for pupils to design a new house shield for the particular house that they belong to. Pupils researched the history of their house and why the names Hamilton, Douglas, Marian and Chatelherault were chosen as houses for St. Mary’s Primary School. Here are our winning shields:

Attackers and Defenders:

Rooms 7 and 8 had an amazing trip to Edinburgh Castle this month to complete their topic of Castles. The children were given a tour of the castle and took part in an Attackers and Defenders workshop. This trip complimented their study of Castles by discussing the essential features a castle must have and why. The children witnessed these various aspects first hand on their tour around Edinburgh Castle. Whilst on the trip, Mrs Campbell and Mrs Cotter uploaded photographs to our Twitter feed so that parents could see how much fun their children were having and what they were learning about.

You said, we listened:

As part of our ongoing consultation with parents, we would like to find out your views and opinions that you, as parents, may have with regards to our ongoing improvement. Simply tear off the slip below and give it to your child to hand in to the school office.

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