Carol Singing

Many of our children went to the "Piazza Shopping Centre" in Paisley to help raise funds for charity by carol singing for shoppers.  They went with Mrs Cleary and were commended on their singing by staff who were impressed by how much they raised in their 30 minute slot.  Well done to all who attended!

Working with Wales

The pupils of Primary 3 class made Christmas cards and decorations and sent them to their friends in Wales. They go to Ysgol Heulfan and we looked at where they go to school using Google Earth. On Friday we were really excited when a box arrived in the post for our class.  The pupils in Wales made us all a Christmas card each and a Rudolph decoration each so we took them home to hang them on our Christmas trees.  Thank you and Nadolig Llawen!

Loose Change for SCIAF

Our House Captains and Vice Captains have been leading the school in collecting all our small loose change during the season of Advent.  Our aim was to make the school badge from the loose change.  The House Captains were delighted by the overwhelming response and they received a whole basketful of loose change which is now being counted, before being sent to SCIAF.  Thanks to all for your support.

Christmas Show

Thursday saw the last performance of our Christmas Show, "The Real Meaning of Christmas".  The show was written and produced by Mrs Gavin during music and drama time.  For the second year running the pupils enjoyed taking part in a whole school production for their parents and members of the community.  The second performance was followed by our Community Fairtrade Cafe which was extremely busy.  Christmas hampers were given to members of the community and everyone enjoyed catching up as well as chatting about the school show.  After posting photos of our Primary 1 pupils a few days ago, we now have some more photos of many of the cast members who took part. Particular thanks go to the Pupil Council members who met and greeted all our visitors over the 3 days, issued programmes, sold raffle tickets and performed the lucky programme draw at the end.  Well done also to Jack Chambers who ran the music for the show single-handed and to all our back stage helpers.  We hope you enjoy our slideshow.

Primary 1 Nativity 2011

Our Primary 1 nativity was incorporated into a whole school show this year again. All pupils in the school took part however here are our newest members of the school, our Primary 1 class. They have now performed two shows with their third and final show tomorrow so they are now fully-fledged actors! Here they are straight after their second performance today. Well done to you all - you were fabulous!

Litter Pickers On Duty

Here are the first two members of our litter picking team. Litter in the playground will be monitored for the next 4 weeks and as it's Primary 3's class ECO action, they will monitor the results and feedback to the rest of the school in the hope our litter will improve further. Each pupil has chosen 2 slots in which to litter pick with a partner. Pupils have been trying out the new equipment and proudly wearing their new "litter monitor" badges. Our first 4 pairs of pupils have already fedback to the whole school at assembly last Friday. They are keeping a chart in class to check that the litter levels are reducing.

It's Showtime!

Pupils from Primary 1 to Primary 4 were entertained last week by the crew from M & M Productions. They thoroughly enjoyed a fabulous performance of "Jack & the Beanstalk" and the hall was filled with boos and cheers as the show progressed. This was a fitting end to Primary 1's "Jim & the Beanstalk" topic, a new slant to a traditional story.

Pupils Present Art Gallery

Recently our pupils presented their work to their parents and members of the local community. Every pupil in the school worked on a piece of art which was sent off and framed. A full display of the work was then shown in our school gallery and the pictures sold to fundraise for events in the school.

Second Level Curriculum Evening

We concluded our series of Curriculum Evenings last week when we held our evening for parents of pupils working at second level within Curriculum for Excellence. An update on Curriculum for Excellence was given by Mrs Maher, followed by Mrs Nicholson's presentation and activity on "Big Writing" which is now used across the whole school. Our parents devised a very creative story with many connectives, not to mention several splashes of humour!
Mrs Cleary, Mrs McKay and Mr Keenan then walked parents through active learning tasks in maths to show them the skills progression expected within the same outcome at second level. The evening was rounded off by a presentation by Mr Johnston and Dr Phelps from St Benedict's High School, linking into third level and beyond. Thanks to all those who attended & we hope you found the evening informative.

Gryffe Camera Club Visit School

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Primary 3 Cake and Candy

P3 are currently working on their Roald Dahl topic. To celebrate Roald Dahl Day today they planned and ran their very own Cake and Candy sale. Each pair of pupils ran their own "Cake Shop" and were responsible for presenting their cakes, pricing them and selling to the rest of the school. As their current maths topic is "money", they got the chance to try out their learning with a real life task. They were ably supported by our new Pupil Council reps. Primary 3 wore their special hats representing characters from the novel they are reading together, "James and the Giant Peach". They chose this book as it's 50 years old this year. Thanks to all who made donations of cakes and who came along to buy from them today. £133.50 was raised and P3 will be sending half away to charity and they will be using the other half to buy some additional language resources for their class.

Technology Club

This is a new afterschool club we have started this session and the number of pupils signing up for this is encouraging as it is now full. Each week we will be exploring different areas of technology and the pupils can return to their favourites or explore some areas of technology not yet covered in class. This week there was a competitive streak in the air as some of our members reviewed the wii game "Super Mario at the Olympics". They were asked to think how younger classes may use this software within their maths but as you can see from the picture the urge to win took over and the competition heated up. On the other side of the room some pupils were exploring all the components of our Purple Mash software whilst others were "morphing" their faces with photo editing software, after a demonstration by Matthew. Next on the cards is how to blog so keep an eye out for our Techno Team on the Pupil blog shortly.

Parent Council A.G.M.

The Parent Council held their annual A.G.M on Friday evening and received an excellent turn out. A full update was given on the work of the Parent Council this year and new members were sought to replace outgoing members. Each class gave a presentation on their work last year and the Travel Plan group, Pupil Council and Eco Committee also contributed. The Parent Council heavily invested in new computers for the school last session and the children are currently enjoying the benefits of this, across all areas of the curriculum. Well done to all our presenters and thank you to all parents who have helped support St. Fillan's over the last 12 months.

House Captains Elected

Each of our four "houses" (Ogilvie, Ninian, Columba and Queen Margaret) met with Mrs Maher and carried out their elections for their House Captain (from P7) and Vice Captain (from P6). The voting was very close for some houses and the results were announced at our last assembly. Here are our new House Captains in the back row, with their Vice Captains at the front. They will meet regularly with Mrs Maher and will begin their duties shortly. Well done on being elected!

Horticultural Flower Show

Many of our pupils had entries in the recent Bridge Of Weir Horticultural Society Annual Flower Show. Here are the prizewinners from the Craft section. Overall winner for the older children's classes was Romy Morris. Sue Whittaker, the current Chairperson called at the school to present Romy with a beautiful silver cup which dates back to 1959. Well done to all who entered.

New Pupil Council Voted In

Our new Pupil Council has now been elected for the coming year. As usual we have 2 members from each of the 4 mid/upper school classes. They will also represent the infants. Well done to all who were elected as there was an increased number of pupils standing for election this year and competition was stiff. Some classes had to run a second vote due to the close results of the initial round of voting. The Pupil Council glow group is open to all pupils and staff so feel free to leave any ideas and comments there for the Pupil Council to pick up.

Olympic Torch Arrives in Houston!

In preparation for the Olympic Games coming to the UK in 2012, we launched our Olympics Topic in June 2011.  It began immediately after our annual Sport's Day and also coincided with National School Sport's Week in Scotland. 

We are working together on this topic as a whole school with each class following a different line of study, relevant to our age and interests.  When we share our learning we learn lots about the Olympics.  We have been discussing the Olympic values (Respect & Excellence) and also the Paralympic values (Courage, Determination, Inspiration & Equality).  We have also been researching various countries who will compete, as well as the different sporting events which take place.

We are going to continue to study the Olympics as part of our ongoing work in Health & Wellbeing.  The whole school will be working on learning more about the Olympics and Paralympics and also exercising more during every term this year, in the run up to the main event.  Have a look at our Opening Ceremony below.

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Community Artists

Our P7 pupils worked with an artist (Meredith) to design artwork for the local underpass area.  They did this along with P7 pupils in Houston P.S.  They chose several themes and spent weeks researching, drawing & painting their ideas until they were happy with their final designs.  They then spent time down at the underpasses painting their designs onto the walls.  As you can see from the slideshow, they had fun whilst helping to brighten up the local community.  The pupils identified these areas as putting children off walking to school and the project was funded by the Scottish Government through the Sustran's "Tackling the School Run" grant.  We hope you like it and it stays graffiti-free!

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Keeping Houston Tidy!

In term 4 Mrs Cleary and the boys and girls from Primary 3 headed down to the local shops in Houston to clear the litter which had been dropped.  They decided to go to the underpass area as they thought this had most litter.  As you can see they managed to find plenty and worked well together as a team.  Many thanks to the Mums who came along to help supervise and collect litter with us.  Thankfully the sun shone which made it easier!

BBC Junior Bake-Off Competition

We have just been notified that the above competition is now accepting entries.  If you're aged between 9 and 12 years and wish to find out more, please click here to go to the website for more details.

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Travel Planning School of the Year 2011

Each year Renfrewshire Council launches the Travel Plan Awards.  We are very proud to announce that for the second year running we are Renfrewshire Council's Travel Planning School of the Year 2011.  We returned the silver cup to Renfrewshire Council not so long ago to allow it to be polished up and ready to be presented to this year's winners.  Little did we think we'd be putting it back on our trophy shelf again the following week! 

In addition to winning the above title we also took first prize in a further category this year.  The school won the Best Walking Initiative category too & brought home another silver cup to the school as a result.  Our congratulations go to the pupils and parents of the Travel Plan Committee who are able guided by our Principal Teacher, Mrs Kaney.  They have led the school this year in many exciting initiatives which have made us think more about how we travel to school each day.  Well done to every school pupil who made a change to their school travel this year - no matter how big or small that may have been.  If any pupil, staff member, parent or member of the community has any ideas on how we can improve further, we'd love to hear from you . 

Health & Wellbeing

P1/2 are currently looking at health & wellbeing. We will be exploring different types of food and what food keeps us healthy. Today we were speaking about our favourite fruit and vegatables (and the many different ways we can eat them). We know that they are grown for us to eat and we are exploring what plants need to grow. We went out to the school garden and planted lettuces. They should be ready to harvest in about 4 or 5 weeks.

Here we are recording our learning in our big floorbook.

P7 Trip

Our P7 pupils left today on their 3 day residential trip to Lockerbie Manor in the borders. They have a wide range of activities planned and the staff left armed with cameras and flipcams, as well as the usual sick bags for the bus journey!  P7 were VERY excited this morning when they all arrived in school with their suitcases and sleeping bags. 

Our Primary 1 pupils and some of Primary 2 pupils headed outdoors to wave off their "Big Buddies" as their bus left. We look forward to seeing all their photos when they return. We have heard they arrived safely in Lockerbie.

A Day with the Fire Fighters

Our Primary 7 pupils recently spent the day with our local fire fighters.  They brought uniforms to the school and kitted everyone out in protective clothing.  The children then saw the work that the firemen did as they looked after, maintained and used the equipment.  They were trained up by them and worked well in teams to carry out our tasks.  All the other classes had a chance to look at the fire engine during too and many had a shot of hosing the playground.  It's now spotlessly clean!  Everyone had a fabulous day and the teachers seemed to enjoy having the firemen in the school that day too!  Bridget our cook even made some freshly-baked, hot apple pie for their tea break.  Our thanks go the fire fighters for coming out to visit us and for the great job they do keeping us safe.

CPR Training

The pupils of Primary 7 recently took part in CPR training with Mrs. Cleary. They also learned about updated procedures regarding health and safety & practised their CPR techniques on our first aid dummies.

Supporting FairTrade

Four of our pupils went along to Freeland Church in Bridge of Weir to share the good work which is being done in our school with regards to Fairtrade . Lots of stalls were at the coffee morning and we joined together to show that people in Bridge of Weir and Houston take FairTrade very seriously. We spoke to lots of villagers about our work and we were lucky enough to receive a visit from 2 Palestinian olive farmers who are helped by FairTrade (Um Shehadeh and Vivien Sansour).   Martin Rhodes, Director of the Scottish FairTrade Forum also spoke to us about Scotland becoming a FairTrade nation.  We will be back out in uniform next Saturday when Houston village hosts the next FairTrade coffee morning so come along and join us if you're out and about. Click "play" on our slideshow to find out more about what we did today.

Here are some of our FairTrade achievements to date:
- We raise awareness of Fairtrade in our school and in our families
- We formed an Enterprise group to promote FairTrade in our school
- We made a pitch to the "Dragon's Den" for money to set up our Fairtrade Cafe
- We were awarded the full amount we asked for and purchased a trolley & stock
- This Fairtrade trolley runs 2 or 3 times every week for pupils and staff
- We also run a full Fairtrade Coffee morning once each term which is open to our families, parishioners and members of our local community. Our next school coffee morning is on 30th March so come along and join us if you can
- We won Scottish Power's "Best Budding Business" in December 2010 for our Fairtrade Enterprise project. We were awarded £1000 for our school
- We have won Young Enterprise Awards for the last 2 years
- We were given an award by COSLA, in conjunction with Renfrewshire Council DTS
- We have won an Enterprising School Award in conjunction with the Enterprise Academy
- Many staff are now using FairTrade products in the staffroom
- Our dinner hall uses Fairtrade products wherever possible
- We have been nominated for the Scottish Executives Enterprise awards
- We work closely with LTS and DTS in delivering Enterprise education
- We link with outside agencies to support our Fairtrade work
- We are learning more and more about FairTrade as we continue with our work

Cross Country Running Tournament

Forty of our pupils from Primary 6 and Primary 7 took part in the recent Crosscountry tournament, organised by Renfrewshire Council. Pupils from secondary schools ran in the morning and the primary school section was in the afternoon. We went to Linwood Sports Centre and started the course from the stadium. All pupils who took part ran well and showed great determination and stamina. Have a look at our slideshow to see who represented us. Perhaps some of these are our future Scottish athletes?

Rotary Club Local Winners 2011

Our team from Primary 7 took first place for the second year running in the local heats of the Gryffe Valley Rotary Club School Quiz. They beat off 3 other local schools to scoop first place. The team answered ten rounds of questions on a variety of topics and they kept their nerve through some of the trickier rounds. The team was awarded with a trophy which will be placed in the central area. Certificates and goody bags were also issued. The team look forward to spending their book vouchers and swotting up for the national finals later in the school year. Thank you to the organisers for an enjoyable evening.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2011

Fairtrade Fortnight starts today and to kick it off we held a whole school assembly. All the pupils and staff in the school have decorated a panel of bunting made from fairtrade cotton. Fairtrade cotton is being highlighted in this year's campaign. Here are some of our P2 pupils with some of the bunting panels. They will be sent off and joined with other bunting to try and make the longest fairtrade bunting in the world!

We learned more about cotton farmers during our assembly. We learned how cotton grows, the challenges faced by farmers and ways in which we can help. Cotton farms take up 2.4% of farming land worldwide, yet cotton farming uses 50% of the pesticides used in farming overall. This is not good news for our environment. Some of us are heading along to coffee mornings in Bridge of Weir and Houston over the coming weeks to share the fairtrade work from our school. We are designing a quiz to spread the facts about fairtrade to more people. We will also be opening our Fairtrade Cafe to our families, parishioners and community before the end of term so watch the school website for more details.

P6 Amazonia Trip

Today P6 went to visit Amazonia as part of their Rainforest project. We had great fun whilst learning lots at the same time. We learned about the 4 layers of the rainforest, the species which live in it and more about the rainforest ecosystem. We loved the hands-on part of the visit where we got the chance to hold a snake and a tarantula. We also enjoyed the interactive room where we could choose to visit the different layers of the rainforest to see what creatures lived there. Why not have a look at our photos.

Scottish Catholic Education Video

Our pupils took part in our Catholic Education Sunday mass to launch this special week. Fr. Danny will also be opening our Parent's Workshop on Tuesday 22.2.11 and discussing the latest changes to Catholic education.

Oompa Loompa on the Loose!

Well, who says school is boring? This week Primary 5 continued working on their special project, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". P5 came into class one afternoon expecting to get changed for their gym lesson to find an full-size "Oompa Loompa" in their classroom.
The children were excited to learn they would be designing their own oompa loompa dance at P.E. time over the coming weeks, as part of their creative dance. The children, ably guided by the oompa loompa made an impressive start to their routines. The oompa loompa was also spotted by other pupils around the school, en-route to the gym hall. Unfortunately Mrs McKay (our newly-married Miss McBrearty) missed all the excitement as she was nowhere to be seen when the oompa loompa was in the building! Now that's a strange coincidence!
Enterprising P5 have also designed their own unique Wonka recipes which they will be making shortly. Each pupil in the school will have the option to purchase one of the much sought after chocolate bars. Five of the limited edition bars will contain a golden ticket and the winners will be invited to have a Grand Tour of the P5 Wonka Chocolate Factory, when it opens to the public. The golden sashes are hanging on the wall, awaiting the 5 lucky winners. More information will be issued by the pupils of P5 as their project progresses.

St Vincent's Hospice Visits School

Our pupils invited a member of staff from St. Vincent's Hospice to visit the school to receive a donation  from our school show proceeds at Christmas.  This was presented to her by the P6 Pupil Council Reps as well as "Mary & Joseph" from our school show.  St. Vincent's Hospice is the charity chosen by our P6 pupils this year as their chosen class charity.  We also heard about the hospice movement, the history of the hospice and the varied and useful work the hospice carries out.  Many questions were asked by the pupils and Elaine kindly anwered them all for us.  It takes over £5,000 to keep the hospice running so please support the many initiatives it runs throughout the year, if you possibly can.  We hope to be working with a member of staff from the hospice at our forthcoming Health Day in mid February.

Congratulations ECO Warriors

There were whoops and cheers to be heard all round the school on Friday as the ECO Committee delivered the good news that we had been successful in securing our second green flag.  Mrs Brown and our very competent ECO Committee have continued to lead us in our efforts to make St. Fillan's a more ECO friendly place.  The inspectors were impressed with what they saw and heard and we passed with "flying colours".  Pupils from P1 to P7 were able to tell them about the various actions and initiatives which take place in the school.  P3 gave a great assembly to the whole school about their eco action and P6 ran our regular Fairtrade Cafe.  Some of the Gardening Club members gave the inspectors a tour of the school grounds and gardens and explained about the work that had been outdoors too.  All other classes were visited by the inspectors.  We await the delivery of the flag and will fly it with pride when it arrives.

Anyone for Tennis?

Primary 6 are enjoying their tennis coaching sessions with Strathgryffe's Tennis Club's Head Tennis Coach, Derek Brown.  These sessions will run over the next few weeks and pupils will improve their tennis skills under Derek's watchful eye.  The coaching will culminate in an inter-school tournament at the club later in the term so fingers crossed for the St. Fillan's team.

(image courtesy of Strathgryffe Tennis Club)

Christmas Show 2010

This year every child in the school took part in the Christmas Show.  We gave 4 performances of "Children of the World" to our families, friends, parishioners and members of the community.  We enjoyed the preparation in music and drama lessons and despite the snow and having to reschedule a few performances, we managed to entertain all who attended.  We showed that even though we're all different, we all celebrate the birth of Jesus in our own unique way.  Our Primary 1 pupils were fantastic and we hope they and any new pupils who joined us this year, enjoyed their first Christmas at St. Fillan's Primary School.  As well as raising funds for new software we will be making a donation to St. Vincent's Hospice.  They are coming to one of our assemblies in January to tell us about the work they do and we will give our donation then.  Thanks also go to our great Pupil Council who ably assisted Mrs Nicholson with many aspects of the organisation for the school show.  We hope you enjoy our slide show.

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