A very happy St Patrick’s Day to everyone, especially those many individuals from our school and parish community who have Irish connections.

Our netball team will be heading off to the finals this morning with Mrs McBride. Good luck, everyone!

Our rehearsals for ‘Joseph’ intensify this week and P4-7 will begin the day with a song practice. Please remember to put Thursday 1st May in your diary. Tickets will go on sale next week.

Primary 3 will be decanted to the library this morning as the workmen fit the new timber cupboards in their classroom. This is the last room to be done for the time being and we’re looking forward to things getting back to normal around the school for a few months. However, the boys and girls have taken the noise and disruption in their stride and haven’t allowed it to affect their work or behaviour at all – well done everyone!

Finally, I leave you with some of St Patrick’s own words, the Scottish saint who devoted his life to bringing the Christian faith to Ireland:

“I pray to God to give me perseverance and allow me to be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life.” (St Patrick)

Primary 6 have their class assembly this afternoon. The children have been busy practising their presentation on The Scottish Wars of Independence and are looking and sounding great. Get ready for a fascinating and entertaining assembly along with some St Bart’s hospitality (including home-baking!) in the P6 classroom afterwards. I look forward to welcoming P6 parents, family and friends at 1.30pm this afternoon.

There’s now only one remaining classroom to be fitted with new cupboards. As you can see from the photographs below, the transformation is remarkable and the generous amount of storage they provide is every teacher’s dream! Visiting teachers to our school are definitely going to have cupboard envy!

You can see more photographs of the transformation on Primary 1’s class page.

OUT WITH THE OLD… IN WITH THE NEW!

It’s the final day of this year’s Personalisation & Choice modules. The boys and girls have had a fantastic time getting stuck into their various activities and I’ve loved watching all the enthusiastic faces head off around the school each Thursday afternoon. I can’t wait to find out from the Crime Solving Team who stole the Cool Class Cup and get it back in the trophy cabinet before the end of today!

I popped into the hall yesterday afternoon to watch the dance routine Primary 6 have been working on with pupils from Buchanan High School. It was utterly mesmerising and I was absolutely blown away by the talent of our children. All that hard work is really beginning to pay off, boys and girls. Well done, Primary 6!

What an amazing sight out of my office window yesterday afternoon: a marching cohort of Roman soldiers, complete with shields! Check out Primary 5’s class page to find out more!

Finally, Father Doherty will be in St Bartholomew’s this morning to celebrate Mass in the oratory with Primary 5. Primary 6 and 7 pupils really appreciated the opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist in this intimate setting and I’m sure today’s Mass will be equally special and memorable for our Primary 5s.

We were absolutely delighted to receive a donation of £80 from the St Bartholomew’s Music Club yesterday. This was raised through the recent Starr Awards event and couldn’t have arrived in our office at a more perfect time. Our talented netball team have managed to get through to the finals this coming Monday and we were wondering where we were going to find the money to pay for the bus. Well, it looks as if someone up there was looking out for us and sent Dennis Fallon along at just the right time! Many thanks to the music club for their generous gift.

I combined the separate Power Point slides of all the songs from ‘Joseph’ yesterday and got a bit of shock – 105 slides in total! However, P4-7 only have a couple more songs to learn and are doing great. We have a song rehearsal this morning and I’m sure the children will be in fine voice!

Mrs Laird will be back in school this morning to do some home baking with P6 in preparation for their class assembly on Friday. I caught a sneak preview of the assembly yesterday afternoon and it’s looking and sounding great! Keep up the super work, boys and girls.

As you know, Catholic Education Week took place at the end of last month and we had various events across the school. This year’s theme was ‘Shining the Light of Faith’ and as part of our celebrations, every pupil in the school designed a candle. These have been displayed outside the Get Together Room and look absolutely fantastic. Many thanks to Mrs O’Neill and the Prayer Group for organising this and well done boys and girls for coming up with such creative designs!

Contractors are making excellent progress on work across the school. The new timber cupboards have now been fitted in all P4-7 classrooms and work will begin in Primary 1 today. The new toilets outside P4/3 are almost complete and they really are looking fantastic. We’ve definitely been given the 5-star treatment!

I will be meeting with Council representatives this morning for further discussions on arrangements for re-wiring the school. This work is scheduled to begin at the end of June and will also involve the corridor ceilings being replaced. Having seen the new ceilings in the P4/3 toilets, I can guarantee this work will absolutely transform the interior of our school!

Today is Commonwealth Day and St Bartholomew’s staff and pupils are joining people across the world for ‘Sport Your Trainers’ to show our support for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. In addition to this, St Bartholomew’s will join tens of thousands of children and young people from hundreds of schools in over 30 countries for the World’s Biggest Assembly. P1-7 will come together in the hall this morning at 11.00 o’clock to reflect on two of the Commonwealth values:
– tolerance, respect and understanding
– peace and conflict resolution

Pupils are invited to donate £1 to wear their trainers today. The money raised will go to this year’s SCIAF Lent appeal.

There are probably not too many of you who are aware that three of our Primary 5 pupils are learning to play the bagpipes. The children receive lessons on a Friday morning form Mr McGowan and are making great progress. As is always the case when learning the bagpipes, the children have started off on the chanter. However, I look forward to seeing (and hearing!) them move onto actual bagpipes as they progress through the school. Keep up the good work, boys and girls!

It’s our whole-school assembly this morning. Look out for our Pupils of the Week and trophy winners on the website later today.

Next Friday is Primary 6’s class assembly. The boys and girls are busy practising and I look forward to seeing P6 parents, carers, family and friends a week today. As usual, the children will be doing some home-baking on Wednesday for their special event. You’re in for a treat!

Primary 4-7 are sounding absolutely fantastic during our song rehearsals for ‘Joseph’. Despite the huge amount of words, the children really are rising to the challenge and having huge amounts of fun at the same time! Mrs McFarlane has been busy coordinating auditions and the parts have now been picked – the children will find these out today. So, we’re now at the point where we can begin to get the cast onto the stage and really bring the songs to life. It’s all very exciting!

We had initially planned to put on the show this side of the Easter holidays. However, the official performance date has been set as THURSDAY 1st MAY with both an afternoon and an evening performance. Tickets will go on sale in a couple of weeks time. Make sure you put Thursday 1st May in your diary… it’s definitely not a show to be missed!

Today is Ash Wednesday and, as a faith community, we embark together on our Lenten journey. I imagine many of us will have already decided on what we intend to ‘give up’ over the coming weeks. However, it’s worth remembering the words of Isaiah:

“The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear.’ (Isaiah 58: 6 & 7)

This is very much in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Lenten message for this year, in which he challenges us to ensure our sacrifices genuinely ‘cost’ us something and make a real difference to those in need.

The weekly prayer service takes place in the oratory this morning at 8.45am. This is a wonderful way for us to begin the season of Lent. Although this formal prayer service only takes place once a week, individual pupils who wish to set aside some daily quiet time are free to use the oratory from 8.45am throughout Lent. This is something I’m personally going to endeavour to fit into my daily schedule during the coming weeks.

Please remember that all parents and carers are invited to join our school community for Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church this morning at 10.00am.

Mrs Dolan was putting the finishing touches to a new purple banner for our oratory lectern yesterday afternoon – a reminder that the beginning of Lent is now only a day away. Our school community will join the parish for Ash Wednesday Mass at 10.00am tomorrow morning. All parents and carers are welcome to join us at St Bartholomew’s Church.

The parish ‘Pray for our School Group’ meets in the oratory at 11am this morning. All parents, carers and parishioners are very welcome to attend.

Anyway, I really can’t believe it’s pancake Tuesday again. Honestly, it’s just crêped up on me!!!

Have a good day, everyone!