I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the burst of summer sunshine.

Primary 3 had a bit of trouble logging onto their own blog page on Friday, so I promised I’d post it on my own blog this morning:

‘Welcome to Primary 3’s page!

We have had a good first week and are beginning to settle into our new session. Most of our week was spent finding out about our patron, St. Bartholomew, and we completed the week by going to mass to celebrate his coming feast day.

Annie Hamilton carried out some home research on St.Bartholomew. She writes;

“St. Bartholomew got skinned alive that is why he is always shown with a knife in his hand. St. Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Aspotles of Jesus and is usually identified with Nathaniel who is mentioned in John 1. He was introduced to Christ through Philip, another of the twelve apostles.”

This term’s theme is The Egyptians so if you see a lot of children walking in a strange manner don’t worry – they are just walking like Egyptians!

Thank you, Primary 3, for your entry.

Have a good day, everyone!

Today, we celebrate the feast of our school’s patron, St Bartholomew (many thanks to my friend, Mrs Murphy, for her happy St Bartholomew’s Day wishes!). We will join the parish community in the church for Mass at 10.00am. All family and friends are invited to join us. I noticed Primary 7 wrote prayers for St Bartholomew’s Day yesterday. One of these can be found on the P7 page (click on the ‘learning pencil’ at the bottom of the website homepage).

Primary 4 had a very interesting visit from the police yesterday. Thankfully, the police officer wasn’t turning up to arrest anyone, but to give the children a presentation on the valuable work of the police within our local community. The children listened exceptionally well and did the school proud! You can read about the visit on the P4 class page.

We had our assembly a day early this week. Congratulations to our first ‘Cool Class’ of the year (Primary 4) and our seven Pupils of the Week. Please check out the ‘success’ section of our website to see who got this week’s awards.

It was brought to my attention earlier this week that, in our eagerness to disappear for the summer holidays on the last day of term, we forgot to post the Cool Class and Pupils of the Week. Sorry, boys and girls! To Molly and all the other pupils of the week, as well as our final cool class of the 2012/13 session (P5), belated congratulations!!!

Happy St Bartholomew’s Day, everyone!

The forecast is not particularly summer-like for tomorrow, so there will be no picnic to mark St Bartholomew’s Day. However, we will attend Mass at St Bartholomew’s Church as a whole school community at 10.00am. All family and friends are invited to join us.

The School Improvement Report for the 2012/13 session was sent home to each family yesterday and is also available on our website in the ‘Information’ section. The report highlights the excellent progress the school made last session and celebrates the good work which goes on each and every day in St Bartholomew’s. Of course, the positive report is entirely down to our enthusiastic, hard-working pupils, our fantastic team of dedicated and talented staff, and the ongoing support of parents, carers, parishioners and friends. Thank you to everyone, once again, for making last session such a success. This term’s off to a great start and I’m sure it’s going to be another fantastic year in St Bart’s!

Please remember that you are able to leave comments on our blog page. It’s always good to hear from parents, carers and friends!

Many parishioners and friends of the school will have already heard the sad news of Miss Mary Dolan’s death. Mary was a well-loved member of the infant staff in St Bartholomew’s Primary for many years and numerous people will have very fond memories of her as a dedicated teacher, supportive colleague and loyal friend. Mary retired from the school in 1993.

The Holy Rosary will be recited in Mary’s home (56 Coultar Avenue, Gartsherrie) at 8.00pm on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Mary’s body will be received into St Bartholomew’s Church at 6.30pm on Friday evening and her Requiem Mass will take place at 10.00am on Saturday morning.

Our school community will remember Mary during the first Prayer Service of the new session. This will take place this morning at 8.45am in the school oratory. All pupils, parents, staff and parishioners are very welcome to attend.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon her.
May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

It’s only the third day back, but it has been exciting to see the boys and girls already taking their first steps on this year’s learning journey. As the old Chinese proverb says:

‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

I was very impressed when I popped in to see our new Primary 1’s yesterday. They were writing their alphabet letters onto their whiteboards as if they’d been in Primary school for a whole term! I was also delighted to have a visit from two Primary 4/3 pupils who brought down their ‘maths mobile’ to show me. They had been practising counting up in 10’s and their colourful mobile is now hanging in the classroom as evidence of their super mathematical talents!

If you are a daily blog reader, you’ll be delighted to hear about a new addition to our website. Each class now has their own blog page which they will use to showcase some of the things they are learning in class. However, please be patient – this is a new venture for staff (and pupils) and it will take a bit of time to master the skill of posting information online. However, our plan is to have the class pages properly up and running by the end of this term. I see that Primary 7 have already been busy – their page now has a fantastic photograph on it and several comments from some of the pupils. You can have a look for yourself by clicking on the ‘learning pencil’ at the bottom of the homepage, then on Primary 7.

Well done P7!… and good luck everyone on your learning journey this year!

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
(Greg Anderson, American author)

It was fantastic to see the boys and girls back in school on Friday after their summer break. The children looked very smart indeed in their uniforms and lots of them were eager to show off their shiny new shoes! It was a great start to the term, with the children settling in quickly to their new classes. A special ‘well done’ to our new Primary 1’s – they got through their first day like absolute professionals and still had huge smiles on their faces when the bell went at 3 o’clock. Well done to everyone – pupils and staff – for such an enthusiastic, smooth start to the term!

Following on from the letter I sent out on Friday, I’m pleased to inform you that there will be no disruption to the tuck-shop at morning intervals.

Our school community will be celebrating St Bartholomew’s Day this coming Friday (23rd). The whole school will attend Mass at 10.00am in St Bartholomew’s Church and, weather permitting, we will enjoy a picnic together outside later on in the day. A letter providing further information will be sent out tomorrow.

Have a good day, everyone!

WELCOME BACK, EVERYONE! I hope you all had a fantastic summer holiday and enjoyed the wonderful sunshine we were blessed with from beginning to end!

A very special welcome this morning to our new Primary 1’s! Our Primary 7 buddies are standing by to look after you today and I’m sure St Bartholomew’s will feel like home before you know it!

There have been several last-minute changes to our staffing for this session. Mrs Gillooly and Miss O’Brien have taken up posts in other establishments. They will both be greatly missed, but we wish them all the very best in their new schools. We welcome five new members of staff to St Bartholomew’s today. Mrs Deeney will be teaching Primary 3, Miss Hamill will be working with Primary 2 and Mrs McLean will be our Primary 5 teacher. Miss Cairns will also join the staff on a temporary basis, working in Primary 2 on a Friday and the Nursery on a Thursday morning. Our new Additional Support Needs Assistant is Mrs Davidson. I hope each and every one of you will feel very much at home here at St Bartholomew’s.

Contractors have been working in the school throughout the summer to replace the oil boilers with a new gas system. This job has proved more complicated than initially anticipated and the school will be without heating or hot water for the next few weeks. A letter providing full details of the situation will be sent out today, so please check your child’s school bag at 3 o’clock. School meals will continue to be prepared at St Patrick’s and will be served on disposable plates; this means there will be no disruption to the usual arrangements for hot lunches. Classrooms and toilets have been supplied with antibacterial gel for the washing of hands. I am confident the children will be unaffected by this delay to the new boilers… and we can all look forward to a new, efficient heating system in time for the winter months!

Many of you will have already read in the press about Mark Millar’s latest donation to St Bartholomew’s. Mark has raised the phenomenal sum of £3500 from his recent film ‘Wolverine’ and this has been earmarked for the school. We are still picking our jaws up off the floor after this huge surprise! I plan to speak to Mark over the next week or so to discuss how we will use the money to benefit our pupils. Mark, thank you so much for your friendship and your ongoing support of St Bartholomew’s – we must be the luckiest school in North Lanarkshire!

As we embark on another exciting year at St Bart’s, we ask God to bless all we do and ask Him for the grace to build an even stronger school community in which all of us can flourish and reach our full potential.

‘Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out.’ (Proverbs 16:3)

Have a great first day in your new class, boys and girls!

The Primary 7’s had an absolute blast at their beach party last night and it was great being able to chill out together in the evening sunshine. Have a great final day of primary school, boys and girls, and all the very best as you move on to secondary school. Make sure you pop in and see us now and again.

Miss Docherty, Miss Lee, Mrs Ruddy and Mrs Bell: we will all really miss you but wish you all the very best as you wave goodbye to St Bartholomew’s later today. Keep in touch!

So, we’ve finally arrived at the last day of term. It’s been a jam-packed year, full of fun, and I know we’re all taking lots of good memories of the past eleven months with us into the summer holidays. Thank you to the St Bartholomew’s staff for all your hard work and support since my arrival at St Bart’s. You’re a great team and definitely deserve a well-earned rest over the summer! To parents, carers, parishioners and friends, thank you for welcoming me so warmly this year and for supporting the work of St Bartholomew’s so wholeheartedly. We couldn’t get by without you. However, my biggest vote of thanks needs to go to our AWESOME pupils. You’re the reason why we’re all here and you are the ones who truly make St Bart’s the fantastic school it is. I’m so proud of everything you’ve achieved this year. Well done to you all!… you’re absolute STARS!

Have a fantastic summer holiday, everyone! See you at 9 o’clock on Friday 16th August (9.45am start for new P1’s). So…

LET THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS BEGIN!!!

Mr Young 🙂

It’s a very special day for our Primary 7 pupils and their families.  Our whole school community will join the boys and girls in the school hall this afternoon to celebrate our annual Graduation Mass.  We will also be joined by our good friend, Mark Millar, who has, once again, very kindly donated a number of special awards.  We pray for each of our Primary 7 pupils, giving thanks for the contribution they have made to St Bartholomew’s Primary School over the years and asking God to be with them as they embark on an exciting new chapter in their lives.

‘I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.’  (Jeremiah 29: 11)

After the three o’clock bell, the Primary 7’s will be heading home to look out their coolest beach wear in preparation for the outdoor beach party which kicks-off at 7pm.  It’s sure to be a fun-packed evening and a fantastic opportunity for the boys and girls to let their hair down on the eve of their final day of Primary School.  See you on the beach, P7!

Please feel free to post a message on the blog for our Primary 7’s to wish them well at secondary school. They’d love to hear from you!

I look forward to seeing parents and carers at our nursery graduation this morning.  Things kick off at 10.30am in the hall.  See you there!

The final newsletter of the year will go out today.  This will include arrangements for next year’s classes, so please check your child’s school bag.

Have a good day everyone!