The nursery karaoke night was a great success on Friday and raised the fantastic sum of £1300 for nursery funds. Many thanks to everyone who helped organise the event and to nursery parents, carers and friends who supported it and helped raise such an impressive amount of money.

Our Book Fayre begins today and will run until Friday. This not only provides an opportunity for pupils to pick up a great book which sparks their interest, but also earns the school free books and resources. October’s Book Fayre raised enough credit for us to purchase over £700 worth of infant reading books. This was a real boost to our literacy resources. Please support this week’s Book Fayre and remember that it will also be open during Parents’ Evening on Thursday.

There will be three separate meetings in school tomorrow evening. The Parent Council meets in the staffroom at 6.00pm. There will also be a meeting providing information about the P7 trip to Kilbowie in the Music Room at 6.30pm, followed by a meeting about the York trip. Please could I ask all parents and carers to enter and exit the school via the back door on Deveron Street. Thank you.

I’ve been out of school for two days at the North Lanarkshire Head Teachers’ conference. Although it was really refreshing to listen to the various speakers and catch up with colleagues from across the local authority, it’s also great to be back in St Bart’s. I’ve missed the buzz of the place and I’m looking forward to catching up with the children and staff. Many thanks to Mrs Bolland and Mrs McIntyre for holding the fort in my absence.

The Nursery have their karaoke night this evening to raise funds for the children. Despite being a musician, karaoke is not something I’ve ever indulged in. However, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of willing volunteers tonight and that everyone’s in for a great time! As part of this fundraising event, the Nursery are also having a raffle. There are some great prizes, including a signed football top. Tickets will be on sale around classes today, with the draw taking place tonight.

Of course, with it being Friday, we have a new set of Pupils of the Week and trophy winners to recognise and celebrate at today’s assembly. As usual, names will be posted on the website later today.

We are now less than a week away from Parents’ Evening. This takes place next Thursday from 3.15pm onwards. Times of appointments have now been sent out; please notify the office as soon as possible if you are unable to make your appointment and we will endeavour to slot you in at an alternative time.

I heard an inspirational children’s choir at the Head Teachers’ conference in Motherwell yesterday. I’m not sure of its exact title, but the second song was about reminding ourselves that we can achieve anything we put our mind to. Although it’s good to have this sort of positive, optimistic outlook, it’s also important to remember that change in the world always starts with ourselves: something to bear in mind as each of us continue our journey through Lent.

This story was written by a monk who lived almost 1000 years ago.

‘When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realise the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realise that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.’

Food for thought.

There was a beautiful, peaceful atmosphere in St Bartholomew’s Church last night as our Primary 3 pupils celebrated their First Reconciliation. Despite feeling a little nervous as they arrived, the children did exceptionally well. Everything ran very smoothly and – most importantly – was carried out with a real sense of reverence and prayer. It was wonderful to see the children’s smiling faces at the end of the service! Many thanks to Mrs Deeney for preparing the children for the sacrament and thanks too to Mrs O’Neill for supporting the children during last night’s liturgy.

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and the husband of Mary. He must have been doing something right and been given a lot of grace to end up with such a huge responsibility.

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 also the patron saint of carpenters:
we ask him to bless the workmen who have been fitting our new toilets and new classroom cupboards over the past few weeks.

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.

We pray for our Primary 3 pupils today as they receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. The children, under the guidance of Mrs Deeney, have been preparing for their First Reconciliation for a number of months now and the liturgy will take place in St Bartholomew’s Church this evening at 7 o’clock. We ask God to bless the boys and girls on this special day.

Although they did not return with the winning trophy, our netball team did St Bartholomew’s proud at yesterday’s finals. Their excellent behaviour, enthusiasm and team spirit did not go unnoticed and one of our pupils (as you can see from the photograph below) was chosen as the overall ‘player of the day’. Well done, boys and girls!

A very happy St Patrick’s Day to everyone, especially those many individuals from our school and parish community who have Irish connections.

Our netball team will be heading off to the finals this morning with Mrs McBride. Good luck, everyone!

Our rehearsals for ‘Joseph’ intensify this week and P4-7 will begin the day with a song practice. Please remember to put Thursday 1st May in your diary. Tickets will go on sale next week.

Primary 3 will be decanted to the library this morning as the workmen fit the new timber cupboards in their classroom. This is the last room to be done for the time being and we’re looking forward to things getting back to normal around the school for a few months. However, the boys and girls have taken the noise and disruption in their stride and haven’t allowed it to affect their work or behaviour at all – well done everyone!

Finally, I leave you with some of St Patrick’s own words, the Scottish saint who devoted his life to bringing the Christian faith to Ireland:

“I pray to God to give me perseverance and allow me to be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life.” (St Patrick)

Primary 6 have their class assembly this afternoon. The children have been busy practising their presentation on The Scottish Wars of Independence and are looking and sounding great. Get ready for a fascinating and entertaining assembly along with some St Bart’s hospitality (including home-baking!) in the P6 classroom afterwards. I look forward to welcoming P6 parents, family and friends at 1.30pm this afternoon.

There’s now only one remaining classroom to be fitted with new cupboards. As you can see from the photographs below, the transformation is remarkable and the generous amount of storage they provide is every teacher’s dream! Visiting teachers to our school are definitely going to have cupboard envy!

You can see more photographs of the transformation on Primary 1’s class page.

OUT WITH THE OLD… IN WITH THE NEW!

It’s the final day of this year’s Personalisation & Choice modules. The boys and girls have had a fantastic time getting stuck into their various activities and I’ve loved watching all the enthusiastic faces head off around the school each Thursday afternoon. I can’t wait to find out from the Crime Solving Team who stole the Cool Class Cup and get it back in the trophy cabinet before the end of today!

I popped into the hall yesterday afternoon to watch the dance routine Primary 6 have been working on with pupils from Buchanan High School. It was utterly mesmerising and I was absolutely blown away by the talent of our children. All that hard work is really beginning to pay off, boys and girls. Well done, Primary 6!

What an amazing sight out of my office window yesterday afternoon: a marching cohort of Roman soldiers, complete with shields! Check out Primary 5’s class page to find out more!

Finally, Father Doherty will be in St Bartholomew’s this morning to celebrate Mass in the oratory with Primary 5. Primary 6 and 7 pupils really appreciated the opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist in this intimate setting and I’m sure today’s Mass will be equally special and memorable for our Primary 5s.

We were absolutely delighted to receive a donation of £80 from the St Bartholomew’s Music Club yesterday. This was raised through the recent Starr Awards event and couldn’t have arrived in our office at a more perfect time. Our talented netball team have managed to get through to the finals this coming Monday and we were wondering where we were going to find the money to pay for the bus. Well, it looks as if someone up there was looking out for us and sent Dennis Fallon along at just the right time! Many thanks to the music club for their generous gift.

I combined the separate Power Point slides of all the songs from ‘Joseph’ yesterday and got a bit of shock – 105 slides in total! However, P4-7 only have a couple more songs to learn and are doing great. We have a song rehearsal this morning and I’m sure the children will be in fine voice!

Mrs Laird will be back in school this morning to do some home baking with P6 in preparation for their class assembly on Friday. I caught a sneak preview of the assembly yesterday afternoon and it’s looking and sounding great! Keep up the super work, boys and girls.

As you know, Catholic Education Week took place at the end of last month and we had various events across the school. This year’s theme was ‘Shining the Light of Faith’ and as part of our celebrations, every pupil in the school designed a candle. These have been displayed outside the Get Together Room and look absolutely fantastic. Many thanks to Mrs O’Neill and the Prayer Group for organising this and well done boys and girls for coming up with such creative designs!

Contractors are making excellent progress on work across the school. The new timber cupboards have now been fitted in all P4-7 classrooms and work will begin in Primary 1 today. The new toilets outside P4/3 are almost complete and they really are looking fantastic. We’ve definitely been given the 5-star treatment!

I will be meeting with Council representatives this morning for further discussions on arrangements for re-wiring the school. This work is scheduled to begin at the end of June and will also involve the corridor ceilings being replaced. Having seen the new ceilings in the P4/3 toilets, I can guarantee this work will absolutely transform the interior of our school!