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.

This greeting customized with Smilebox

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.

Best Budding Business Winners in National Competition!

The pupils of St. Fillan's Primary school scooped first place in Scottish Power's "Best Budding Business" award. The school nominated their Enterprise Team for the sheer hard work and determination they have shown in their "Fairtrade Cafe" enterprise project. They were presented with a framed certificate and cheque for £1000 by Anne Munro-Easton from Scottish Power. They planned their project then sought funding from the "dragons" as part of Renfrewshire Council's Dragon's Den initiative. The cafe will open to the public tomorrow and the pupils have been honing their business skills on the pupils and staff. The cafe now runs smoothly and will be a sustainable business within the school which will benefit the many charities the children have chosen, as well as offering a choice of fairtrade goods to the school and local community.

Be Bright Day!

Slideshow design customized with Smilebox

Our team of Junior Road Safety Officers helped organise "Be Bright" day for us. As the clocks are due to go back very shortly we'll notice it is much darker in the morning when we get up and after school too. To help keep us safe they wanted to make us more aware about wearing bright colours or reflectors in the winter months. We had lots of fun as well as being reminded of a very important message. Our thanks go to Mrs Kelly from our school and also Jamie who works with our JRSOs. Jamie travelled all the way up from a course in England to join us at assembly on Friday afternoon. Take a look at our photos and see what we got up to.

New Technology Arrives At St. Fillan's Primary!

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

We are delighted to have purchased a set of 33 Promethean Active Expression handsets for use in our learning and teaching.  Many of our classes throughout the school organised enterprising activities last session and these were purchased with the proceeds of these activities.  So far they have gone down well with the pupils as they are all able to contribute and have their say at the same time.  So far we have used them to gather thoughts and ideas from our Pupil Council, as well as using them in a few Spanish classes as a form of assessment.

As technology becomes more and more embedded in our culture, we must provide our learners with relevant and contemporary experiences that allow them to successfully engage with technology and prepare them for life after school.  We hope to update our computer stock shortly so watch this space for more information.  More information on using technology within education can be found on the Learning Teaching Scotland website.

Pupil Council 2010/2011

We have formed a new Pupil Council for this year.  Here they are during our recent "Go Bright"day, organised by our Junior Road Safety Officers.  We have 4 members from last year's Council and 4 new members who have just joined us.  They meet with Mrs Nicholson on a regular basis and represent the pupils in all matters in the school.  They suggest areas where they feel improvement could be made, give updates on events which they have particularly enjoyed and feel the school should maintain, they help around the school with various items and they report back to their classes on our meetings.  They are an invaluable group to the school as they support the Senior Management Team in gathering and providing the pupils' views and ideas across the whole school.

Last session, among many other things, they requested some form of goal posts for the playground and gave their valuable input on the annual School Improvement Plan.  Our Travel Plan group hope to purchase the goal posts with the money they received when they won Renfrewshire's Top Travel Plan group. 

This year the Pupil Council have recorded the areas they wished to focus on.  They recorded their ideas using the new Active Expression handsets.  This year they will be taking on the wall display to the left as you enter the gym hall.  They intend to decorate and maintain a new Citizenship display for the whole school.  Ideas for the wall design were sought from the pupils and the winning design was done by the "Bionic Beanz" group from our P7 class.  Have a look at our wall display when you're next in the school as it should be finished soon.

Papal Visit

Recently Pope Benedict came to Scotland and celebrated mass in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Many of our pupils, family members, friends and members of our parish attended. After days of heavy rain the weather cleared and a great day was had by all who attended. For those of us unable to attend we celebrated the day in school. The upper school went to a service given by Fr. Danny in the morning with the infants attending their own short service together in school (as the church was being painted inside and we couldn't all fit in). We then watched the Pope's plane touch down on Scottish soil. We made flags and carried out research on Pope Benedict, Scottish Saints and his trip to the UK. We went outdoors to wave off members of our local parish as their buses left for the mass. Next day we heard all about events from our friends.

Football Awards 2010

Mrs Nicholson attended the annual Football Presentations on 10th June and thoroughly enjoyed the night. She was particularly impressed by the hard work and dedication of all the players. Medals were awarded to all for a strong performance this season which ended with St. Fillan's finishing third place in the league. The squad is in good form for next season and should continue to do well. Thanks also go to the great team of volunteers who train and support our young players. The players were recognised at today's assembly and we hope to post future match dates online to allow the whole school community to go along and support our school team.

Mask Making in Primary 6

<>The boys and girls of Primary 6 showed their flair for design when they designed their own masks. They each had a unique design, chose their materials, worked together to support each other and persevered when the going got tough! Have a look at their slideshow to see them hard at work.

P2/1 Show and Tell

Some of the boys and girls from Primary 2/1 recently entertained their classmates with some great presentations. They took turns to show and tell each other about items which they thought were of interest to their friends. They were very confident speakers and we asked lots of questions too which they were more than able to answer. Gladigator heard how good we were and even popped in to visit us next day. He almost didn't recognise us as we were in our pyjamas for Pyjama Day! We were raising money for SCIAF.  Have a look at our photos.

Potatoes for Schools Project

Primary 1 are taking part in the Potatoes for Schools project. They have been chitting potatoes on their class window sill for 2 weeks and planted them out today. They are growing 2 different types of potatoes, Rocket potatoes and Vales Emerald. Here are a few of the photos we took.

Crazy Hair Day 2010

The boys and girls of St. Fillan's recently took part in a Crazy Hair day to raise funds for SCIAF.  We had coloured hair, spiky hair, pleated hair, frizzy hair and many more amazing styles.  We held an assembly in the morning where we all had a chance to show off our fancy hair styles to the rest of the school.  A panel of judges (pupils from other classes) chose their favourite from each class.  Have a look at the photos to see the fun we had.