Good morning! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend.

Pupils, staff and visitors will be greeted by our fantastic new main entrance when they arrive at St Bartholomew’s this morning. The foyer has been fitted with brand new doors and floor to ceiling glass panels; this has flooded the whole area with light and created a bright, welcoming entrance to our school. New flooring will be fitted over the next few weeks, two large plants will be delivered today and a beautiful statue of the Sacred Heart has been donated by St Joseph’s Church in Stepps.

Our school community is continuing to collect items for ‘Mary’s Meals’ this week. Many thanks to everyone who donated stationery last week – there was a great response! We will be collecting toiletries between today and Thursday. Once again, donations of toothbrushes, toothpaste and bars of soap can be placed in the box outside the gym hall. The Prayer Group will use the various items we collect to make up backpacks in a few weeks time; these will then be sent to children in some of the poorest parts of the world.

An incubator, along with a number of eggs, arrived in the nursery this time last week. There was great excitement amongst the children as they watched them hatch and we now have five beautiful, fluffy, yellow chicks! Mrs Wheelan couldn’t resist volunteering to take our little friends home to look after over the weekend. Thankfully, she has brought them back safely and the boys and girls can enjoy watching the cute little chicks peck around throughout this week. Please check out tomorrow’s blog for photographs of the new arrivals!

Finally, a reminder that this is only a four day week: St Bartholomew’s will be closed on Friday 24th and Monday 27th.

Boys and girls, staff, parents, friends and chicks, have a great day!

Friday already!  Where has the week gone?!!

It’s a very busy term, so I thought I’d use this morning’s blog to remind readers of some key events coming up over the next few weeks:

Thursday 23rd: Nursery-P1 transition event in Music Room (1.30pm)
Friday 24th & Monday 27th: Holiday
Tuesday 28th: Parent Council AGM
Wednesday 29th: Sports Day (pm)
Thursday 30th: Nursery-P1 transition event in Music Room (1.30pm)
Monday 3rd – Friday 7th: P7 trip to York
Tuesday 11th: Nursery-P1 transition event (11am)
Thursday 20th: School Show (1.30pm & 7pm)

I’m looking forward to seeing you at the above events.

Please remember to click on the ‘Success’ icon at 3 o’clock to discover seven proud Pupils of the Week, a very happy winning House and an ecstatic Cool Class!

Finally, I meant to mention last week that readers can now post comments on the St Bartholomew’s blog.  Simply click on the date at the top of each entry and follow the instructions.  Please note, however, that I need to authorise comments before they appear in public, so polite, constructive comments only! Thank you.

Have a great weekend.

I’m at a Head Teachers’ meeting today, so just a quick blog this morning.

The Primary 7’s are off to St Ambrose for their induction day. I know that Mrs Douglas and the St Ambrose team have got a great day lined up for the children and there’ll also be lots of opportunities for them to make new friends from our cluster primaries. I’m looking forward to hearing all about it, boys and girls.

Please remember that we are still collecting stationery for Mary’s Meals. Items should be placed in the plastic box outside the gym hall. Many thanks for supporting this very worthwhile cause.

Have a good day, everyone. See you all tomorrow.

I received some fantastic news yesterday from Mark Millar. Mark has purchased the new books for our school library through a friend and has managed to secure a 25% discount. In real terms, this means that there will be approximately 300 brand new non-fiction books coming our way in a week’s time! What an absolutely fantastic boost to our library!!! I’m sure you’ll wish to join me in thanking Mark for his friendship and ongoing support to St Bartholomew’s and for this extremely generous donation in particular.

Parents and carers of Primary 7 pupils, please remember that the children’s induction day at St Ambrose is TOMORROW. The children should make their own way to St Ambrose, ready for a prompt 9am start. As the induction day will finish before 3 o’clock, the boys and girls will be walked back to St Bartholomew’s and dismissed from here at the usual time. Pupils should wear their school uniform. I know the children are looking forward to their day at high school. Best manners, work and behaviour everyone, please! DO ST BART’S PROUD!

The new door at the infant end of the school has now been fitted and will be operational as from TODAY. Primary 1, 2 and 3 pupils will now enter and exit from this door. Please remind your child to line up at the new door this morning and bear in mind that they will no longer be leaving from the main entrance at 3 o’clock. Thank you.

Many of you will already be familiar with the work of Mary’s Meals, a global organisation that helps children in some of the world’s poorest communities. The charity provides one daily meal in a place of learning to attract children into the classroom where they receive an education to help give them a better future. There are currently over 750, 000 children being fed by Mary’s Meals every day. Over the next few weeks, the St Bartholomew’s school community will be collecting various items for the charity which will be used to fill school bags to send to Africa. This week, we are collecting stationery. Donations of pencils, pens, rubbers, rulers, sharpeners, etc. can be placed in the box located immediately outside the gym hall. It would be fantastic to see this brimming over by Friday afternoon!

Please note that Sports Day will take place on Wednesday 29th May. I realise this seems very early, but we have had to free up June for show rehearsals this year. Further information on sports day will follow in due course.

St Bartholomew’s church was packed to the doors for yesterday’s First Communion Mass and it was a truly wonderful occasion.  The P4’s looked absolutely fantastic in their dresses, kilts and suits and were extremely respectful and prayerful throughout the Mass.  They also sang their thanksgiving song beautifully.  I hope it was a special and memorable day for each and every one of you, boys and girls, and that you had a great time celebrating and partying in the afternoon.

Many thanks to the P3, 5, 6 & 7 pupils who formed the choir at yesterday’s Mass.  Your singing was fantastic and I really appreciate you giving so willingly of your time. I also need to say a huge thank you to the parishioners who did so much behind the scenes – the flowers looked beautiful and your hospitality for staff after the Mass (the best cooked breakfast I’ve ever tasted!) was beyond the call of duty… but very much appreciated!  Finally, many thanks to Miss Docherty for preparing the children for the sacrament and also to Father Doherty for presiding at yesterday’s Mass.

The parish ‘Pray for our School’ group meets in the oratory at 11am this morning.  Further information is available in the ‘Faith’ section of our website.  As usual, the group will enjoy tea and cake with some of our P7’s afterwards.

Have a great day, everyone.

Good morning! As you know, I usually only blog on school days. However, this is a very important and special day for our Primary 4 pupils. Boys and girls, you are very much in our thoughts and prayers as you receive your First Holy Communion this morning.

‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ (2 Corinthians 13:13)

Many of our blog readers will be old enough to remember the advert with the catchphrase, ‘THANK CRUNCHIE IT’S FRIDAY!’

It was great to meet our new P1 parents yesterday afternoon. I look forward to seeing you at our other three transition events over the coming weeks.

Of course, our most important piece of news today is the Primary 4’s First Communion which takes place this coming Sunday. I know the children have been busy preparing for the Mass and are all very excited about their special day. See you on Sunday morning, boys and girls. We’ll be remembering you in our prayers and look forward to seeing you in your dresses, suits and kilts.

Things were so rushed yesterday morning that I forgot to say welcome back to Mrs Gillooly!  Tut, tut, Mr Young!  GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK IN ST BART’S, MRS GILLOOLY!

Today is Ascension Day and the whole school will be attending the 10am Mass at St Bartholomew’s Church.  Unfortunately, I have a number of meetings this morning, so will be unable to join the boys and girls.  However, I know they will all show their very best manners and behaviour and do the school proud, as always.

We welcome the parents and carers of our new P1’s to St Bartholomew’s later today for the first part of our Nursery-P1 transition programme.  This will take place in the music room at 1.30pm.  I’m very much looking forward to meeting you this afternoon and launching this final programme of events in preparation for your child beginning P1 in August.  A very warm welcome to St Bartholomew’s Primary!

Aidan and Ethan, two members of our Pupil Council, represented St Bartholomew’s at a special conference in Cumbernauld yesterday.  The conference was attended by pupils from all over North Lanarkshire and gave Aidan and Ethan the opportunity to explore the roles and responsibilities of Pupil Councils with boys and girls from lots of other schools.  While the boys were busy with their tasks and activities, Miss Lee got the chance to blether to Mr McCrorie, a good friend of mine from Woodlands Primary where I used to be Depute Head!  Aidan and Ethan will tell us a bit about the conference at this Friday’s assembly.

Welcome back, everyone. Hope you had a great long weekend. It was fantastic to see the sunshine yesterday; fingers crossed it’s a sign of things to come!

We welcome a familiar face to St Bartholomew’s this afternoon. Our good friend, Mark Millar, will be visiting the school to discuss the investment he plans to make in our library and also look ahead to arrangements for a trip to the pantomime in Glasgow in December.

Primary 4 are making their very final preparations for the celebration of their First Holy Communion which will take place this coming Sunday. Please continue to remember the boys and girls in your prayers and, if at all possible, try to attend the 10am Mass at St Bartholomew’s Church on Sunday to offer them your support.

Once again, it’s lovely to see everyone back this morning. Have a great day.