The Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser will be visiting St Bartholomew’s this morning to take the annual Primary 1 photograph. Our new intake of pupils have looked ultra-smart from the moment they walked into St Bartholomew’s two weeks ago and I’m looking forward to seeing their enthusiastic smiles beaming out of the newspaper in a few weeks time!

Exciting news! An email from M & M Theatre productions pinged through on my computer just before I left school on Friday evening offering St Bart’s a performance of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ for just £99. The normal price for this production would be over £900, but M & M received a last-minute cancellation from another school and urgently needed to fill the gap that had been left. I was quick off the mark and secured this special treat for St Bart’s before anyone else jumped in. The bargain performance has been booked for Tuesday 27th October… something for pupils and staff to look forward to at the beginning of next term.

A very warm welcome to Mrs Debbie Glen who starts in St Bartholomew’s office this morning. Mrs Glen will be with us every Monday and Friday, filling the days created by Mrs Smillie going down to three days a week. I know our whole school community will make Mrs Glen feel welcome and help her settle in quickly to her new post.

House Captain elections took place last week. Many congratulations to our eight new house captains:

MONKLANDS
Kaitlin Jeffrey
Kai Collins

SUMMERLEE
Ryan Menzies
Holly MacFarlane

LOCHEND
Daniel McGregor
Ava Duncan

DRUMPELLIER
Rachael Carlin
Ciaus Goldsmith

My diary has turned out to be chockablock this week and, unfortunately, I will be out of school for four days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). Although this isn’t ideal, Mrs Bolland and Mrs McIntyre will be on hand to deal with any issues and I will be in regular contact with the school during the days I am out of the building. Of course, my absence will have no impact on the daily HT blog: I will continue to message from my various locations!

As you know, Mrs Smillie is only with us three days a week this year. Mrs Debbie Glen will be filling Mrs Smillie’s shoes on a Monday and Friday from next week onwards. Mrs Glen paid a short visit to the school earlier this week and is very excited about joining the St Bart’s team.

The Cool Class Cup winners each Friday are rewarded by having the Wi in their classroom for a full week. This special treat just got all the more exciting this year as Mrs Bolland has kindly donated Guitar Hero World Tour to the school, including the guitar and drum kit! I have a feeling Mr Young will be popping along to the classroom of this week’s winners!!!

It’s our whole school assembly this morning, so please remember to check the website for our new Pupils of the Week and Cool Class. Elections took place for House Captains earlier this week and these will also be posted on the website after assembly. It’s all very exciting!

Ann Munro, the Head Teacher of Bellshill Academy, visited St Bartholomew’s yesterday morning. Once we had finished our meeting, Ann asked for a tour of the building and she was completely blown away by our school!

Ann commented on the beautiful wall displays, the organised, stimulating classrooms, our fantastic computer suite, our beautiful oratory, our HUGE performing arts studio and even our posh staffroom! Most importantly, however, she RAVED about our phenomenal pupils: their outstanding manners, their pristine uniforms, their high standard of behaviour, their impressive work and their infectious smiles! Every pupil from the nursery all the way up to Primary 7 were a real credit to themselves, their teachers and their parents. I’m so proud of you all!

Ann Munro has asked me to pass on her sincere thanks to the children and staff for being such an inspiration yesterday morning. Well done, team!

Our current website has served us well over the past three years and we regularly receive comments about its quality look and content. However, the system we use has many limitations and the time has come to transfer over to something more up-to-date.

Mrs McIntyre is busy behind the scenes building our new website and we will be ready to launch it over the next couple of weeks or so. It will have a similar look and feel to our current website, but will feature drop-down menus and the facility to post different media such as video clips. One of the most helpful new features (once we’ve worked out how to do it!) will be the Head Teacher’s blog appearing directly on the homepage as soon as you log in. We’re holding off starting individual class pages until the new website is ready – please bear with us.

So, watch this space: a new, slick, modern St Bart’s website is coming this way very, very soon!

I received a wonderful surprise yesterday morning in the form of a cheque. Some friends from the local Townhead community handed me a cheque for £230. The benefactors have asked to remain anonymous, but I still want to publicly acknowledge the gratitude and thanks of our whole school community. The money has now been banked and will be used to help subsidise class trips. Thank you for your generosity!

We discovered this year’s first set of Pupils of the Week on Friday. These hard-working children were also the first to enjoy ‘Tea with Mr Young’: a chance to have juice, a biscuit and a blether around the table. Here are the eight proud certificate winners:

Today, 24th August, is the feast of St Bartholomew, the patron of our school. Our whole school community will be attending Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church at 10.00am this morning. All parents, carers and friends are very welcome to join us.

Perhaps you’ve wondered who St Bartholomew was. Saint Bartholomew was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, usually referred to in the New Testament as Nathaniel. He was introduced to Jesus through Saint Philip. You can read about his first encounter with Jesus at the end of chapter 1 of Saint John’s Gospel. At first, Saint Bartholomew was skeptical about the Messiah coming from the town of Nazareth saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” However, as soon as Jesus saw Bartholomew, he immediately said, “Here is a man in whom there is no deceit.” Our school motto, ‘Sine Dolo’ (Without Deceit) is taken from this verse. Saint Bartholomew reappears at the end of Saint John’s Gospel as one of the disciples to whom Jesus appeared at the Sea of Galilee after the Resurrection.

Some sources record that, after the Ascension, Saint Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. It is also thought that, along with Saint Jude, he brought Christianity to Armenia in the First Century. Saint Bartholomew is said to have been martyred in Albanopolis, Armenia. According to one account, he was beheaded. However, a more popular tradition holds that he was skinned alive and crucified, head downward.

Please note that we have yet to be given a clerical assistant to cover the two days created by Mrs Smillie going down to three days per week. This is placing considerable pressure on the office on Mondays and Fridays, so please bear with us if it takes longer than usual to answer the telephone and door or deal with queries and requests. Thank you.

It’s hard to believe we have reached the end of the first week of term. It’s as if we’ve never been away… but in a good way! Every single class has settled into the new year exceptionally well and it’s an absolute pleasure walking through the corridors of St Bartholomew’s. Behaviour, manners, uniform, enthusiasm, attitude and work are all of the highest standard and every single teacher has commented to me how proud they are of their pupils. The only downside of this week is that it’s going to be EXTREMELY difficult for teachers to choose a Pupil of the Week and equally difficult for me to select a winning class for the Cool Class Cup. Nevertheless, check out the ‘Success’ section of our website later today to find out who the hard-working certificate and trophy winners are.

This coming Monday, 24th August, is the feast of St Bartholomew. Our whole school community will be making the short walk to St Bartholomew’s Church for a celebration of Mass in honour of our patron saint. Mass will begin at 10.00am and all parents, carers and friends of the school are very welcome to join us.

Have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday for the start of another exciting week in St Bart’s!

Our Term 1 newsletter was sent out yesterday. If your child didn’t hand it to you, please check their school bag at the end of today to ensure you don’t miss out on any information. There are a number of important dates listed in the newsletter including the annual sponsored walk, Parents Evening and the school show.

We had our first fire drill of the year yesterday. We now have around 240 children to safely evacuate from the building, but the boys and girls managed to exit the school calmly and in an impressively short period of time. A special well done to our new Primary 1s: they did great!

Finally, as mentioned in the newsletter, head-lice are a regular pest in any primary school. Unfortunately, they have made a very early arrival at St Bartholomew’s this year, so PLEASE check your child’s hair regularly and treat them before they return to school. Thank you for your help in keeping head-lice at bay!

What a fantastic first day back we had! Despite some last minute nerves from a few of our new P1 pupils, all of the children from P1-7 settled in really quickly to their new classrooms and were beavering away with their work in no time at all. Uniforms were immaculate, manners were exemplary, and behaviour was excellent right across the school. There were lots of smiling teachers at 3 o’clock and one very, very proud Head Teacher! Keep up the super work, boys and girls!

I’m hoping to get the Term 1 newsletter out today, so please check your child’s school bag at the end of the day.

Finally, I couldn’t resist taking the following photograph. Without any discussion or planning, Mrs McLean and Mrs Keirnan both turned up for work yesterday in EXACTLY the same outfit, including matching handbags! You can imagine the surprise they got when they came face to face! Despite Mrs McLean and Mrs Keirnan having such great taste, I can confirm that we don’t have any plans for a St Bart’s staff uniform!!!