Latest News
Birds of Prey
The pupils of St. Martin's recently had some very interesting visitors! Huge thanks to KG Hawks (family members of a St. Mary's pupil) for bringing along Yoda, Seize, Snoopy and Grizzly for us to see. To see some pictures click here.
STEM Visit
One of our parents at St. Martin's recently came in to discuss his job to develop our young workforce. Jamie McCarte, a STEM, ambassador, kindly spent a great deal of time with our P6/7 pupils informing them about aortic aneurysms and how his job involves developing implants to help these. He also brought along some very 'cool' instruments that engaged and perplexed our pupils! A hugely successful visit and we are very grateful that he gave up his time for us. To see some pictures click here.
If any other parent would be willing to come in to our school and share their work with our pupils, please contact Paula Borzacchiello by phoning the school or email paula.borzacchiello@ourcloud.buzz
P5 Gardening Club
Primary 5 are working with the Leamy Foundation to transform our gardens along with the staff and children of Riverside ELC. Thanks to Angela for teaching us these important life skils
Hallowe'en!
Huge thanks to Jacqueline Millar for providing an excellent disco for our pupils. Each and every one of them (and the staff!) had a great time at the Hallowe'en Disco. Thanks also to the families who came along to see the parade. Here are some of our photos but keep an eye on the local papers for some of their photos of this event.
WDC Foodshare
Attached is a flyer produced by WDC Community Foodshare who are one of our partners in attempting to eradicate holiday hunger. This has been produced to highlight the work of the charity, the supports on offer and the items welcomed by the charity to support our children, young people and their families. Use of this service has increased year on year to a point where the charity are struggling to meet demand. Your support in this would be appreciated
WDCF leaflet.pdf#mathsweekscotland at St. Martin's
Here are some photographs of our Maths Week fun! All pupils participated in a variety of events to celebrate Maths in action even completing a maths community trail around Renton for homework. Some pupils visited Waterside View to play board games with the residents, the P1-P4 pupils took part in the Maths Olympics and P6/7 created maths games for their buddies
Family Learning - Ourcloud.buzz
The family learning sessions at St. Martin's started with an Ourcloud session. Thanks to all families that came along. The pupils enjoyed sharing their learning on Google Drive and Google Classroom and even challenged their families to a variety of online games.
Open Water Swim Event
Some of our P6 and P7 pupils took part in an open water swimming event in Loch Lomond. This was organised by the WDC Swimming Development team to allow the more confident swimmers exprience how to safely swim in open water.
St. Martin's Fun Day
St. Martin's Parent Council and school held a fantastic fun-filled day to bring together the community. Football, dancing, raffles, face painting, tattoos, bouncy castle...the list goes on! Thank you to all the parents and staff who helped organise this and we managed to raise over £500. Click here to see photos from the event.
Sport's Day 2019
Well done to all our pupils for taking part in this years Sport's Day with great enthusiasm! To see pictures of the day, click here.
First Holy Communion
Our P4 pupils received the Sacrament of First Holy Communion on Sunday 19th May. Fr Anthony commented on how wonderful the pupils were, they are a credit to their families and the school. God Bless each and every one of them
Football Tournament
Some of our P4 - P7 pupils were lucky enough to take part in the football festival that was organised by WDC Active Schools. All pupils participated with enthusiam. Man of the Match definitely goes to the goalie, Elise Graham, for giving 110% to the team and even endured a fractured wrist for the good of the team! To see photos of the team in action, click here.
storytime 2019 blue.docxMentoring Project
Become part of WDC and MCR Pathways’ Young Dunbartonshire Talent - an Award Winning Mentoring Programme. Help reach more young people who need and deserve a better chance. Ensure their futures are determined by their talent and never by their circumstances. Join #TheRippleEffect and gain new skills to help propel your own career and job satisfaction. Click here to find out more.
Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global movement which encourages us to think about how to protect our planet. All over the world, people will turn off all non-essential power at 8.30pm on Saturday 30th March for one hour in support of this cause. At St. Martin's, we wanted to do our bit for the environment so we staged our own No Power Hour in school. We took part in lots of activities that didn't involve using electricity. The STEM challenge to build a house from baking materials proved to be the most popular! Click here to see what we got up to
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Our Primary 3 pupils received the Sacrament of their First Confession on Tuesday 26th March in St. Martin's Church from Father Anthony. All pupils were a credit to their families - God Bless them all on their Sacramental journey.
Auchengillan March 2019
Our very excited Primary 7 pupils headed off to Auchengillan for their 3 night stay. We wish them all the best and hope they enjoy this memorable experience!
Monday Funday for SCIAF
Click here for some photographs of the fun that we had on our out of uniform day for SCIAF. We took part in lots of different activities and had a visit from Michael Rainey, a representative for SCIAF who informed us of the very important work taking place in Uganda. The money we raised will go to support this charity. Thank you! Here are the photographs from their journey.
Clyde in the Classroom
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 and STEM education.
Our P4 - P7 pupils were involved in this and they recently took the fish that they had been looking after to set them free in to the River Leven. To read more about what was involved, click here.
To view more photos of the big release, please click here.
Sacrament of Confirmation
Our Primary 7 pupils continued on their Sacramental journey on Tuesday 19th February alongside pupils from St. Mary's and St. Ronan's. The pupils received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Archbishop Philip Tartaglia with the support of local Parish Priests, Father Charles and Father Anthony. Huge thank you to all involved in making the service so special.
May God Bless these children as they continue on their journey of Faith.
Safer Internet Day 2019
This week every class were doing a little bit extra in Digital Technologies by learning about the importance of Internet Safety. As it was Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 5th February, we have been taking part in a variety of engaging activities to widen our knowledge of the importance of staying safe when online, including the importance of 'consent' when posting pictures and videos on Social Media. We have been focusing on looking at how much personal information we should actually share in the virtual world. If you wish to read more about this, please visit the Uk Safer Internet Centre which also has many fun activities you can take part in at home with your child.
WDC Basketball Final Event
Huge congratulations to our P5 and P4 pupils that took part in this event. Their teamwork was outstanding and they had a fantastic attitude which was obvious from the very first game. Pipped to the post purely down to goals scored so won second place officially (we all know they are joint first really!).
Thank you to the families and staff that came along to support them. Your support is much appreciated by the pupils and the school. Click here to see more action shots of the event.
Farewell, Mr. Kennedy!
On Friday 18th January 2019, we said goodbye to our Head Teacher Mr. Charles Kennedy. We thank him for all of his support and guidance over the past 5 and a half years and wish him health and happiness in his well-deserved retirement. Primary 1 - 7 presented a beautiful assembly to him in his honour. Here are some of the photographs and a video of the P1/2/3 pupils singing a very special song.
We look forward to extending a very warm welcome to Mrs Kathryn Gallagher who will be our new Head Teacher.
47393471_335440643977261_6385617243794833408_n.mp4
Scottish Book Week
What is Read, Write, Count?
Read, Write, Count is a new campaign to support parents of children in primaries 1 to 3 who want to take a more active role in their children’s learning.
Read, Write, Count’s website gives lots of simple ideas for working fun reading, writing and counting activities into your daily life. These are things you can do while shopping, on the way to school, at bedtime or mealtimes. You can have fun and help your child get the best start in life!
Read, Write, Count also gifts free bags of books, counting games and writing materials to all children in P2 and 3. Writing and counting materials were added to the Bookbug Primary 1 Family Bag.
Visit the Read, Write, Count website where you can find more easy, fun ideas for activities to do together. Follow Scottish Book Trust on Facebook or Twitter and Read, Write, Count on Facebook or Twitter and you’ll get access to lots of ideas, competitions and more!
Parent club website has lots of useful ideas too….
https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/primary-2-activity-bag
West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare
We have decided to support this worthy cause again this year as your support was amazing last year! We will place a box near our office in which you can place items from the shopping list (see image) if you wish to help. We will forward on your donations regularly. Your support in this initiative would be gratefully appreciated.
Year of Young People Opportunity
We have been contacted about an exciting opportunity for our young people to showcase their artistic talents. Please see below for further details:
'I’m getting in touch regarding a Year of Young People opportunity that’s taking place in Balloch at the Loch Lomond Centre on Sunday 4 November from 11-4. This a free art workshop that we thought some of your pupils might be interested in.
ScotArt is a nationwide youth engagement project that’s asking young people living in 14 regions of Scotland to identify an iconic image or symbol that represents why or what they love about their region.
Each symbol will be made into an incredible wicker sculpture by our Lead Artist and showcased at the Edinburgh Torchlight Procession, to mark the finale of Scotland’s Year of Young People.
To find out each region’s symbol, our Young Champions are leading workshops, inviting young people (aged 8-26) and youth groups along, and through fun activities and discussion, choosing the final symbol. Following this, the young participants will have an opportunity to work with our Lead Artist and make their own artwork out of wicker, wire and spraypaint (see pictures below).
The regional workshop for Dunbartonshire & Argyll & Bute will be taking place on Sunday 4 November at the Loch Lomond Centre in Balloch.
This is a fantastic opportunity for pupils to represent their region, express themselves creatively, and make their own artwork. If this is something that you’re interested in, please get in touch to let me know. See our flyer below for more details'
Dun visual invite.pdf
Parent Forums with Laura Mason
Please take a moment to read the following letter that has been received from the Chief Education Officer for West Dunbartonshire Council. It is an invitation to be a part of a parent forum across all schools in WDC and have the opportunity to listen to and discuss upcoming plans within education.
The first meeting is scheduled for 18th September at Vale of Leven Academy.
GGL31296_Edu Chromebooks_for_Parents_v02 (1).pdfourcloud.buzz Information
As we are a Digital School, we encourage our pupils to use the internet in a safe, learning way. Each pupil has their own ourcloud account which gives them access to Google apps. We use Chromebooks in school so please take a moment to read the attached information sheet about this.
Safer Internet Day 2018 will be celebrated globally on Tuesday 6th February 2018 with the slogan “Create, Connect and Share Respect: A better internet starts with you”.
St Martin's is proud of the work we do to educate children on using the internet safely and encourage parents and carers to help children develop good habits when online. If you would like more information about Internet Safety Day and using the internet with your child, click here to download the information pack.
We appreciate all parental support and ask that if you were able to attend the Internet Safety Day in school, could you take a minute to complete this survey below.
Our whole school took part in Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 6th February 2018. We invited families along to learn with their children about how to use the internet in a more positive way.
In May 2017 we became a digital school! We work hard to improve our technology skills and embrace the digital learning approach. Click the image above to find out more about what it means to be a digital school.
Some children were able to attend the Digital Schools award ceremony and were presented with the award for the school - a huge achievement!
