Mrs McAuley and I will be accompanying the Primary 7’s to a special outdoor Mass in Carfin this morning to mark the end of the ‘Year of Faith’. Every Catholic school in the diocese will be represented, with around 3000 young people taking part in what is sure to be a memorable celebration of the Eucharist. Although we will have raincoats and umbrellas at the ready, we’d still appreciate your prayers for dry weather!

Our new Promoting Positive Behaviour policy is now available on the website. The policy reinforces the procedures which have been in place in St Bartholomew’s over the past twelve months. These have proved to be very successful and now become fixed school policy from Primary 1-7. I would encourage you to find a bit of time to read the policy for yourself so you are familiar with the various approaches we use to reward and sanction pupils across the school. It can be accessed in the ‘Information’ section under ‘Policies & Documents’.

On the same theme, I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents and carers for their ongoing support in relation to behaviour and discipline. It’s a fact of life that we can’t be good all of the time (Mr Young especially!), but it’s always very much appreciated when the school receives backing and support from the home when dealing with misbehaviour. Of course, the vast majority of our pupils rarely, if ever, need to be told off. Their good behaviour doesn’t go unnoticed and many of them will be rewarded with a Pupil of the Week certificate, the House trophy or the Cool Class Cup this afternoon.