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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St. Andrew's Day Highland Games

A huge well done goes to the group of children from Primary 5 who represented the school at Renfrewshire Council's Highland Games.  The team took first place in their heats in early November and when everyone else was on holiday from school, they met in Paisley with all the other heat winning teams from Renfrewshire to compete in the finals.  Supported by Mrs Kelly and Mrs Maher, they scooped the top prize of first place and returned to school next day with more silverware.  They proudly showed their new trophy to the rest of the school at that week's assembly.  Well done to all who took part!

St. Andrew's Day Celebrations

We had a lovely St. Andrew's day in the school with many celebrations.  The day started with the whole school heading across to church to join Fr. Danny and the parishioners for a St. Andrew's Day service.  Our hymns and music had a distinctly Scottish theme.  Afterwards we enjoyed Scottish storytelling sessions with Marjorie, our storyteller.  From tales of faeries to stories of our historic kings and queens, the pupils hung onto her every word.  Each class carried our their own Scottish celebrations in class and then we finally came together for a whole school assembly to conclude the day.  Every class celebrated Scotland in some way whether singing, reciting a poem or acting out a piece of drama.  Our Primary 5 class acted out the story of St. Andrew for us to remind us what our special day was all about then the whole school rounded off the day with some rousing Scottish songs.