Stations of the Cross continue in the oratory this morning at 8.50am and then Fr Doherty will be in school at 11.00 o’clock to celebrate our end of term Mass. It’s been a particularly hectic term, so this will be a very welcome opportunity – midway through Holy Week – to step away from the busyness and be still in God’s presence. All parents and parishioners are very welcome to join us for Stations of the Cross, but this morning’s Mass is for pupils and staff only.

Please can I ask you to put Friday 1st May in your diary. St Bartholomew’s will be hosting a special ‘Festival of Faith’ on this day and there is an open invitation to all parents, carers, parishioners and friends of the school. Bishop Toal will celebrate Mass at 9.15am and we will be joined by a number of special guests including Isabelle Boyd (Head of Service), Paul Corrigan (Education Officer) and Councillor Bill Shields. There will be a small exhibition in the Music Room, a tea-room and themed wall displays. The children will have the opportunity to participate in some special workshops including a journey through the Bible and input from SCIAF. It would be great to see a good turnout on the day as we celebrate the Catholic faith which lies at the heart of our school.

Don’t forget boiled eggs and any other materials for tomorrow’s egg decorating challenge! Please also remember that the school closes at 2.30pm tomorrow.

The painters are almost ready to move onto their final classroom (Primary 1 Rockets) and will then only have a few small areas of the building to finish off. We’ve taken the opportunity during the painting to have a major spring clean and although this has resulted in ultra tidy classrooms, it has also meant that the open areas have filled up with lots of unwanted stuff. To enable us to have one final push at the big clear-out, we’ve hired a skip this week with the aim of having the corridors back to normal by close of school on Thursday and every inch of St Bart’s spick and span for the new term! So, if you happen to catch me, Mrs Bolland or Mrs MacIntyre in an old pair of jeans and t-shirt today, you’ll know why!

It was great to see such a great turnout at yesterday morning’s Stations of the Cross. Stations of the Cross will continue in the oratory throughout this week at 8.50am. All pupils, staff, parents and parishioners are very welcome.

This is Holy Week, the special days leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The Stations of the Cross will be prayed in the oratory at 8.50am throughout this week. I would encourage all members of our school community to take advantage of this special opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and prepare for the great feast of Easter.

A huge well done to all the boys and girls (and, of course to mums and dads!) for their phenomenal creative efforts for Friday’s crazy hair day! Here’s a photograph of our eight winners, but make sure you check out Twitter for more photos from our special day.

Our annual Easter egg decorating challenge takes place in school this coming Thursday (the last day of term). Please help your child to think ahead and get their hard-boiled egg, everything they need to decorate it and (most importantly!) their ideas ready in time for Thursday’s challenge. There’ll be a prize for the best egg in each class.

It’s our crazy hair/non-uniform day today, with all proceeds going to SCIAF. Keep an eye on Twitter this morning for photographs of some of the whacky hair-dos that walk through the door!

It was great to see such a good turn-out at Parents Evening last night. All parents and carers were given a sheet as they arrived with the collated results from the questionnaires distributed earlier this term. The sheet also included a copy of the school’s long-term strategic plan, outlining where St Bartholomew’s plans to be by June 2016. Please keep this sheet safe; we are committed to meet our aspirations and goals by our target date.

As you will have noticed, we laid out a mountain of lost property at last night’s Parents Evening with the hope that the items would be identified, collected and taken home by the end of the evening. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photograph taken at the end of the night, the pile hardly went down at all! Please can I urge all parents to have a final check through the lost property box by the end of school on Tuesday as all unclaimed items will be heading off to a charity shop at the end of term. Thank you.

Don’t forget about tomorrow’s crazy hair/non-uniform day. All £1 donations will go to SCIAF which will, with the UK government doubling the money, raise around £350 for this very worthwhile cause.

Parents Evening takes place later today. We are very much looking forward to welcoming parents and carers to the school to share and discuss their child’s learning and progress. Please remember that the Book Fayre will be open throughout the evening with a wide range of books for all ages.

Primary 6 are currently learning about the Scottish Wars of Independence. Mrs McLean set the boys and girls a homework challenge of creating a 3D object or model linked to their topic. I popped into the classroom last week to see the finished products and was totally blown away by the children’s efforts and talents. Take a look for yourself:

Our two Primary 6 representatives in yesterday’s cross-country finals did St Bartholomew’s proud and returned smiling after their fantastic achievement. Well done to both of you!

We have another sports superstar in our midst this week. This Primary 3 pupil has won the Student of the Week trophy in his Judo club. Mr Young will know who to come to if he’s needing a bodyguard!

The painters are still working hard behind the scenes. The Nursery was transformed over the weekend, the ‘Get Together Room’ is almost finished, Primary 3 should be back in their classroom tomorrow and the network of rooms and cupboards behind the stage are also in the process of being painted.

Following last night’s Parent Council meeting, the Open Evening for parents to look round the building will now take place on Tuesday 26th May rather than the 28th April. This will allow more time for us to get the school back to normal once the painters have gone.

Ryan and Caitlin from Primary 6 are representing St Bartholomew’s at the Cross Country finals today. Best wishes to both of you from everyone in St Bart’s!

The Parent Council meets tonight at 6.00pm in the Staff Development Base. Some of our discussion will revolve around an Open Evening we plan to host on Tuesday 28th April which will allow parents/carers the opportunity to get a proper look at our refurbished building. Details will be sent out nearer the time.

I will also be sharing with the Parent Council the collated results from the parent questionnaires which were sent out during the course of this term. Many thanks to all parents and carers who took the time to complete the questionnaire. The feedback you gave us has been extremely valuable and has highlighted several areas which we need to work on and improve in the months ahead. All parents/carers will receive a copy of the collated feedback at this Thursday’s Parents’ Evening.

Primary 2 were absolute stars during their class assembly on Friday. They did a fantastic performance about their ‘When Gran was a Girl’ topic, including a very enthusiastic rendition of ‘Oh, yi cannae shove yer granny aff a bus’! Well done to Primary 2 and Mrs Polsinielli.

There are quite a few events on this week, so please make note of the following:

The Book Fayre runs throughout this week, with a large selection of books available for pupils to purchase.

The Parent Council meets tomorrow evening at 6.00pm.

Parents’ Evening takes place on Thursday. Appointments have been sent out.

Friday is our crazy hair/non-uniform/cinema day, with all money going to SCIAF.

Primary 2 have their class assembly this afternoon. The boys and girls are looking forward to welcoming family and friends to see their presentation at 2.00pm, followed by a small reception in their classroom afterwards where there’ll be tea and biscuits for their guests.

There will be a rare solar eclipse in the UK this morning, beginning at around 8.30am. The Moon will slowly pass across the Sun over the course of an hour until the sun is 98% covered by 9.34am. It will then take about another hour for things to return to normal.

Looking directly at the sun can cause serious permanent damage to the eyes, so we’ll be unable to go outside as a whole school to witness the eclipse. However, we will spend a bit of time learning about eclipses during assembly this morning and also make a point of pausing at 9.34am to experience the eclipse at its darkest point.

There may be some parents who wish to keep their child at home to view the eclipse safely through specialist glasses. There is absolutely no problem with this; please just phone the school office to let us know your child will be arriving slightly late.

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and the husband of Mary. St Joseph was a quiet, humble, hard-working man. There’s such a lot we can learn from him and we ask for his prayers today.

St Joseph is the patron saint of fathers:
we pray for the dads of the pupils and staff of St Bartholomew’s.
St Joseph is the patron saint of workers:
we ask him to help us do our very best work in school today.
St Joseph is the patron saint of carpenters:
we thank God for all the workmen who have done so much to improve our school building this year.