Monday 7th September 2015

Having been out of school for much of last week, it’s great to be back in St Bartholomew’s this morning. The theme of this year’s Catholic Head Teachers’ conference, which I attended on Thursday and Friday, was ‘Renewing your vocation’. It was good to be reminded that St Bartholomew’s Primary exists for the service of others: parents, the parish, our local community and – most important of all – the 275 children we are privileged to have in our care. I’m looking forward to catching up with the boys and girls today!

The Scottish Catholic Education Service is holding a special event for parents next month. Details are given below.
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Friday 4th September 2015

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It’s the second day of the annual Catholic Head Teachers’ conference. Bishop Robson from Dunkeld Diocese opened the conference yesterday with a thought-provoking address on renewing our vocation. We then heard from Patricia Watson from Education Scotland about the new ‘How Good is Our School?’ self-evaluation document which will be released at the end of this month. Michael McGrath from the Scottish Catholic Education Service also focused on school self-evaluation after lunch, introducing a new resource called ‘Developing in Faith’ before the afternoon closed with Mass. The annual dinner took place in the evening and this was great chance to catch up with Head Teachers from across Scotland. Of course, the blethering continued into the early hours and I’m a bit bleary-eyed as I write the blog this morning! We’ll be hearing from Professor Bart McGettrick and Sir John Jones this morning – both unfamiliar speakers to me, so I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the conference.

Although there will be no whole-school assembly back in St Bart’s this morning, there will still be Pupil of the Week certificates and the Cool Class Cup and house points will also be awarded. Make sure you check out the website later today.

Thursday 3rd September 2015

I am attending the annual Catholic Head Teachers’ Conference today and tomorrow. Mrs Bolland and Mrs McIntyre will be on hand to deal with any issues.

Primary 7 had a fantastic trip to Franky & Bennies yesterday morning. The boys and girls returned to St Bartholomew’s with huge smiles, their very own chef hats, activity packs and (most importantly) the leftovers of their individual hand-made pizzas! Here’s a photograph of their trip; check out Twitter for more.
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One of our Primary 2 pupils was stung by a wasp at lunchtime yesterday. He was an extremely brave boy, without a single tear, so I promised I’d post a picture of him being courageous on today’s blog.
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Wednesday 2nd September 2015

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Primary 7 are off on a very exciting trip today. You may be surprised to know that their destination is Frankie & Benny’s! The children will be given an introduction to the business, find out about the ins and outs of running a busy restaurant and learn about hygiene in the kitchen. Then the fun begins when they will be given pizza bases and toppings to create their own pizza masterpieces! Sounds like a great way to spend a morning!

Having been out of school for the past two days, I’m looking forward to catching up with pupils and staff today. I took the following photograph as I was passing P2/3’s classroom on Friday. It’s a message that could be said about our whole school!
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Tuesday 1st September 2015

The Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser will be visiting St Bartholomew’s this morning to take the annual Primary 1 photograph. Our new intake of pupils have looked ultra-smart from the moment they walked into St Bartholomew’s two weeks ago and I’m looking forward to seeing their enthusiastic smiles beaming out of the newspaper in a few weeks time!

Exciting news! An email from M & M Theatre productions pinged through on my computer just before I left school on Friday evening offering St Bart’s a performance of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ for just £99. The normal price for this production would be over £900, but M & M received a last-minute cancellation from another school and urgently needed to fill the gap that had been left. I was quick off the mark and secured this special treat for St Bart’s before anyone else jumped in. The bargain performance has been booked for Tuesday 27th October… something for pupils and staff to look forward to at the beginning of next term.

Monday 31st August 2015

A very warm welcome to Mrs Debbie Glen who starts in St Bartholomew’s office this morning. Mrs Glen will be with us every Monday and Friday, filling the days created by Mrs Smillie going down to three days a week. I know our whole school community will make Mrs Glen feel welcome and help her settle in quickly to her new post.

House Captain elections took place last week. Many congratulations to our eight new house captains:

MONKLANDS
Kaitlin Jeffrey
Kai Collins

SUMMERLEE
Ryan Menzies
Holly MacFarlane

LOCHEND
Daniel McGregor
Ava Duncan

DRUMPELLIER
Rachael Carlin
Ciaus Goldsmith

My diary has turned out to be chockablock this week and, unfortunately, I will be out of school for four days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). Although this isn’t ideal, Mrs Bolland and Mrs McIntyre will be on hand to deal with any issues and I will be in regular contact with the school during the days I am out of the building. Of course, my absence will have no impact on the daily HT blog: I will continue to message from my various locations!

Friday 28th August 2015

As you know, Mrs Smillie is only with us three days a week this year. Mrs Debbie Glen will be filling Mrs Smillie’s shoes on a Monday and Friday from next week onwards. Mrs Glen paid a short visit to the school earlier this week and is very excited about joining the St Bart’s team.

The Cool Class Cup winners each Friday are rewarded by having the Wi in their classroom for a full week. This special treat just got all the more exciting this year as Mrs Bolland has kindly donated Guitar Hero World Tour to the school, including the guitar and drum kit! I have a feeling Mr Young will be popping along to the classroom of this week’s winners!!!

It’s our whole school assembly this morning, so please remember to check the website for our new Pupils of the Week and Cool Class. Elections took place for House Captains earlier this week and these will also be posted on the website after assembly. It’s all very exciting!

Thursday 27th August 2015

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Ann Munro, the Head Teacher of Bellshill Academy, visited St Bartholomew’s yesterday morning. Once we had finished our meeting, Ann asked for a tour of the building and she was completely blown away by our school!

Ann commented on the beautiful wall displays, the organised, stimulating classrooms, our fantastic computer suite, our beautiful oratory, our HUGE performing arts studio and even our posh staffroom! Most importantly, however, she RAVED about our phenomenal pupils: their outstanding manners, their pristine uniforms, their high standard of behaviour, their impressive work and their infectious smiles! Every pupil from the nursery all the way up to Primary 7 were a real credit to themselves, their teachers and their parents. I’m so proud of you all!

Ann Munro has asked me to pass on her sincere thanks to the children and staff for being such an inspiration yesterday morning. Well done, team!

Wednesday 26th August 2015

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Our current website has served us well over the past three years and we regularly receive comments about its quality look and content. However, the system we use has many limitations and the time has come to transfer over to something more up-to-date.

Mrs McIntyre is busy behind the scenes building our new website and we will be ready to launch it over the next couple of weeks or so. It will have a similar look and feel to our current website, but will feature drop-down menus and the facility to post different media such as video clips. One of the most helpful new features (once we’ve worked out how to do it!) will be the Head Teacher’s blog appearing directly on the homepage as soon as you log in. We’re holding off starting individual class pages until the new website is ready – please bear with us.

So, watch this space: a new, slick, modern St Bart’s website is coming this way very, very soon!

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