Weekly Message from the Principal

The ‘countdown to Christmas’ brings its excitement (and pressures) into many Willow homes. The advertising and media hype surrounding the festive season especially last week with Black Friday can create a frenzy of plastic desire and perceived needs in children (and adults).

Protected from this sometimes, crass commercialisation in December and November, a primary school can be an antidote to such extremes and be a lovely place to visit. Be it Scottish ceilidh dancing in the Hub to raising a phenomenal amount of money for Saint Vincent de Paul or gathering as a Spiritan community on Saturday evening to celebrate the Eucharist together – this is the answer we need.

In Willow, our Junior boys prepare for their Nativity presentations – full of costume, colour and song, whilst the older boys have their masses, carols and concert. The school is decorated with crib, tree, a hobbit-sized Santa and a multitude of Christmas, biblical images - stars, gifts and scenes of Nazareth. Music and youthful promise fill the air.

So, I invite Willow families to visit our school in the days leading up to Christmas- be it for your son’s (or grandson’s) Nativity presentation, carols or concert……. or just to experience the joy, song and prayer that pervades a school- (essentially a child’s world)- at this special time of year.

And you never know it might just be a white Christmas…….

"Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God"

G.F. McDougall