Welcome back! I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable long weekend.

I’m delighted to announce that we raised an amazing £802.73 during Lent for SCIAF and this money will be doubled to an incredible £1605.46 by the UK government. What a fantastic achievement! We also had a special collection on Friday for SCIAF’s Nepal earthquake appeal and raised a total of £100. Thank you so much for your generosity.

There was a fantastic atmosphere in St Bartholomew’s on Friday for our ‘Festival of Faith’. The hall was packed with pupils, parents, parishioners and friends for our special Mass with Bishop Toal and it was wonderful to see so many generations from the St Bartholomew’s parish community worshipping together. I’m not sure what the exact gap in age was from the youngest to oldest, but it must have been 80+ years! It was particularly encouraging to see pupils and visitors chatting together in the tearoom after Mass. Many, many thanks to everyone who turned up on Friday to support us!

Of course, a major highlight of Friday was to have the Blessed Sacrament reserved in our oratory for the very first time. As you can see in the photograph below, the sanctuary lamp is now lit next to the beautiful tabernacle donated to St Bartholomew’s last year by the Passionist community, Glasgow. What a huge privilege for our school!