The thoughts and prayers of our whole school community are with those who were involved in the tragic accident in Glasgow city centre yesterday afternoon. This would be a shocking and traumatic event at any time, but it is made all the more sad and heartbreaking having happened so close to Christmas. We will pause at this morning’s assembly to pray for those who died or were injured, as well as for their families.

Last week, I wrote about Primary 6’s Christmas books. The boys and girls spent much of December writing their own special Christmas stories and carefully redrafting these into beautifully made and illustrated books. Yesterday, the boys and girls held a book launch in the library where they read their book blurbs to their P4/5 guests. P4/5 then took a vote and got to listen to the stories which had particularly captured their interest. I popped along for part of the book launch and I was very impressed indeed with both the stories and the confidence of the children as they presented them to their guests. Well done, boys and girls!

On this last day of term, please can I take this opportunity to thank the whole St Bartholomew’s team for all their day-to-day hard work and for their unwavering commitment to our pupils. It is very much appreciated and you all deserve a well-earned rest over the holidays.

To our whole school community – pupils, staff, parents, carers and friends – I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. See you on 5th January!

We’ve finally reached the last week of term! Phew!

We had a special visitor in St Bart’s on Friday. Tom Clarke, MP, dropped by to meet some of our P5-7 pupils. They had the opportunity to hear about the Westminster Parliament and to ask Tom questions about his role. Tom then enjoyed lunch with the staff and took the chance to catch up on what’s been going on in St Bart’s over the past few months.

Our whole school community will gather in the hall this morning for Mass. It’s been a very busy term and this will be a wonderful opportunity for all of us to still our minds and hearts and pause to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

Primary 1-3 have their Christmas party this afternoon. The boys and girls have been practising their dances and games and they are all very excited about a special visit from Santa. As you can imagine, things are extremely busy just now at Santa HQ in the North Pole, so we are very grateful to Santa Claus for taking time out of his hectic schedule to pay a last minute visit to St Bart’s this afternoon!

Please remember that the Forward Together pupil group have organised a ‘Movie-Duvet’ day for tomorrow, the final day of term. Pupils are invited to bring in a £1 donation which the group will use to buy new playground games. In return, the boys and girls will get to wear their casual clothes and enjoy two different films during the course of the day. The children are also free to bring in a cushion to help them chill out during the movies! Sounds like a great way to round off the term!

The nursery Christmas parties take place today and, as the song says: Santa Claus is coming to town! (Townhead to be precise!). The boys and girls are set for a fun-packed day and, despite being a very busy man at this time of year, Santa will be paying a special visit to both the morning and the afternoon children. Have a wonderful time, everyone!

The Faith in Action group raised a fantastic £70 for St Andrew’s Hospice through the sale of Light up a Life cards. Thank you for supporting this very worthwhile cause.

Finally, I had a very proud P3 visitor to my office yesterday. His football team had a trip to Laser Quest in Glasgow last Sunday and this wee superstar came first! We’re all very impressed with your achievement and your fantastic trophy!

What a nice surprise I got when I popped into Starbucks for a quick coffee last night… I heard someone say my name and turned round to see Mark Millar smiling back at me! Mark said he thoroughly enjoyed following last Thursday’s trip to the pantomime on Twitter. It was really nice to be able to pass on a huge thank you to Mark from our whole school community in person.

I received a very touching Christmas card and letter earlier this week from the daughter of Joe McDade, a former member of the community art group which meets in the school every Wednesday. Most of you will be familiar with the beautiful icon of St Bartholomew which greets visitors as they walk in the main entrance. This was painted by Joe during my first few weeks in St Bartholomew’s way back in 2012 (you can read the story in the Information section of our website). Sadly, Joe passed away in August and is greatly missed. However, Joe’s family have very kindly donated all of his paintings from the twelve years he spent in the art group. As a special tribute to Joe, an exhibition of his work will be held towards the end of next term, including a ‘silent auction’ which will allow those who attend to purchase Joe’s artwork (all proceeds will go to the school). Joe’s family are delighted with this suggestion and expressed their sincere thanks to the school in their letter.

Primary 6 and 7 have their Christmas party this afternoon. Have a great time, boys and girls!

Our P1-3 pupils were absolutely fantastic in their nativity yesterday. It was great to see such an amazing turn out in the audience and this gave the children a real boost on stage. Wasn’t it wonderful to hear and see the Christmas story told so beautifully and still get lots of laughs along the way! Well done, boys and girls!

Please can I take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting our various Christmas events. The Christmas Fayre, P4-7 concert and P1-3 nativity raised well over £3000, allowing us to purchase new stage lighting. The £5000 grant from Education Scotland will pay for a new sound system and, if we can pull together sufficient money towards the end of the financial year, we are also hoping to replace the tired curtains in the hall with new roller blinds. This will allow us to completely black-out the hall during school shows and add the finishing touch to a top-quality performing space which will match the amazing talent of the pupils of St Bart’s!

Now that the concerts and shows are over, we can make a start on the more relaxed festive events. It’s Christmas dinner today and P4 and 5 have their Christmas party this afternoon. Keep an eye on Twitter to see us all enjoying tucking into our turkey and roast potatoes as well as P4 and 5 enjoying their party games later in the afternoon.

I’ll leave you with another festive wall-display, this time from Primary 2.

The big day has arrived for our P1-3 pupils as they take to the stage at 2.00pm for their nativity, ‘Jesus in the Manger.’ The show is jam-packed with catchy tunes, great acting, fantastic costumes, impressive dancing and even a special guest appearance from Camila the camel! Please contact the office first thing this morning to check if there are any tickets still available. It’s definitely not to be missed!

A group of 30+ P5-7 pupils are off to St. Bartholomew’s Church hall this morning to put on a special Christmas concert for parishioners. Those of you who were at last Wednesday’s concert will know how impressive the children’s singing is. Athough we’ll only have around 1/3 of our P5-7 pupils today, the parishioners are still in for a real festive treat. We greatly value our links with the parish and are delighted to be able to support them in this small way. All parents/carers are very welcome to join us in the church hall from around 10.00am onwards.

Finally, one of our P6 girls won first prize at a recent hip-hop dance competition in Airdrie. As you can see from the photo below, she returned with a winner’s sash and a very impressive trophy! Well done from all of us!

The infant Nativity, ‘Jesus in the Manger’ is only a day away. The boys and girls have been working extremely hard over the past month or so and will perform today’s dress rehearsal for the P4-7 classes. Tickets are going fast, but there are still a few available from the school office, priced £3.00.

Please note that Mrs Smillie is not in school today, so Mrs Clare will be manning the office for parts of the day by herself. Please bear with us of we take slightly longer to answer the telephone than normal.

Primary 6 have been busy producing their own special Christmas books over the past few weeks. It’s been a long-term project, with each pupil writing their story in stages and redrafting it, along with illustrations, into a handmade book. I took some photos in the early stages (see below) and I’m looking forward to popping in later this week to read the finished masterpieces!

We now have sixty followers on Twitter. I hope that many of you were able to enjoy following our trip to the pantomime on Thursday. To make it easier to access, there is now a ‘Follow us on Twitter’ icon next to the Head Teacher’s blog on the website homepage. Simply click on this and you will be taken to the St Bart’s Twitter page.

I’m looking forward to seeing our nursery parents/carers at today’s Christmas concerts. You’re certainly in for a treat! Performances will take place in the school hall at 10.15am and 2.15pm.

We had an absolutely fantastic trip to the pantomime yesterday and the boys and girls were a real credit to St Bart’s. If you haven’t already followed us on Twitter (@bartholomew_st), log-on today to see photographs of our fun-packed day at the Pavilion Theatre. For now, the photograph below says it all: a representative from each class expressing a huge THANK YOU to Mark Millar OBE for (once again) funding our trip to the Theatre. We are extremely grateful!

The big day has finally arrived for our P1-7 pupils! We’re all off to Glasgow at 10 o’clock for a fun-filled day at the Pavilion Theatre. Our good friend (and former pupil of the school) Mark Millar has, once again, very kindly paid for the whole school to go to the pantomime. It’s Treasure Island this year (Oh, yes, it is!), so it will be a day of pirates, parrots and pieces of eight! The afternoon will finish off with the children meeting the cast before we all head back to St Bart’s in time for the 3 o’clock bell.

If you haven’t already done so, please remember to follow us on Twitter (@bartholomew_st) to receive up-to-the-minute updates throughout the day.

The nursery Christmas concert is tomorrow, with performances at 10.15am and 2.15pm. The boys and girls have been working hard on their songs and looked fantastic in their costumes at yesterday’s dress rehearsal.

Finally, another festive wall-display to brighten up the blog… this time from Primary 6.