I had the pleasure of interviewing eight fantastic candidates for class teacher posts yesterday, each of whom expressed a genuine desire to join the St Bartholomew’s team. The panel’s recommendations have been forwarded to Personnel and we should know in a week or so who has been allocated permanently to the school. I’ll keep you posted.

Thankfully, the forecast is still looking dry for next week so, as intimated in the letter that went out yesterday, Sports Day will take place at 1.15pm on Wednesday. We can’t promise sunshine, but we CAN promise enthusiastic children with lots of energy and skill!

Our whole-school assembly takes place this morning, so please keep an eye on the website for pupils of the week, the winning house and the Cool Class.

Please pray for Kamil Krol as we prepares for his move to Braidhurst High School & School of Football.

We had a surprise visitor in St Bartholomew’s yesterday afternoon. Father Ben is visiting Scotland all the way from Uganda and he wanted to make his first port of call St Bartholomew’s Primary. As you know, St Bart’s raises money on an annual basis for Father Ben’s work, including the school located in his parish. Father Ben met with members of the Faith in Action group yesterday who gave him and Mrs Starrs a tour of our newly refurbished building. Of course, Father Ben was particularly impressed with the oratory (a space which didn’t exist the last time he visited the school) and he took the opportunity to pray with the children here before he left at 3 o’clock. The photo below shows Father Ben and Mrs Starrs next to our wall display on Uganda.

I will be shut away in my office throughout today interviewing candidates for permanent teaching posts within the school. We were absolutely delighted to receive 54 applications and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming new faces to the St Bart’s team come August. It will probably be one or two weeks before the Personnel Department confirm those who have been appointed. However, I will let you know as soon as I do.

Please pray for Megan Flannigan as she prepares for her move to St Ambrose High School.

IMPORTANT NOTICE!
The weather forecast for both Thursday and Friday is very poor and the grassed area of the playground is already water-logged. Unfortunately, we have no option but to postpone Sports Day. However, a dry spell is forecast from Saturday onwards and we now plan to hold Sports Day a week today, Wednesday 10th June. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience… that’s the Scottish weather for you!

We are really looking forward to welcoming our new Primary 1 pupils back to St Bartholomew’s at 9.15am this morning. All 36 of the children will be heading down to the Primary 1 classroom to spend some time with Mrs Carlin. The boys and girls were extremely well-behaved and polite when they visited the school last Wednesday and I’m sure they will really impress Mrs Carlin when they visit their Primary 1 classroom for the first time today.

Weather-wise, it has been a very disappointing start to June. It’s felt more like autumn than summer! However, walk through the doors down at Primary 1 and any depressing thoughts of the wild, wet weather simply disappear! As you can see from the photographs below, the boys and girls have created a beautiful wall display, filled with spring and summer flowers, which is absolutely bursting with colour! Thank you for brightening up our days, boys and girls!

Please pray for Eilidh Gilmour as she prepares for her move to St Ambrose High School.

Primary 3 are off on a trip to Calderglen Park in East Kilbride today. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is looking a bit unpredictable, so let’s hope for more sunshine than showers! The boys and girls will have lots of time to explore, visit the castle, play in the park and will also have a special animal workshop at the zoo. Have a fantastic day, everyone!

Primary 6 had a great trip to Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument yesterday. Check out Twitter for photographs of their historical adventure!

The parish Pray for our School group meets at 11.00am in the oratory this morning for their final meeting of the session. The lucky boys and girls who will enjoy a cup of tea and a biscuit with parishioners after the meeting will be those generous individuals who volunteered to be part of the choir for our First Communion Mass. Very well deserved!

Please pray for Scott Hamilton as he prepares for his move to St Ambrose High School.

Primary 6 are off to Stirling today for a trip related to their topic on the Scottish Wars of Independence. Unfortunately, the weather forecast isn’t the best. However, I’m sure the boys and girls will still have a fantastic day finding out about William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Have a super day, boys and girls!

Primary 7 are now back in St Bartholomew’s after their two induction days at St Ambrose High School. As the children begin their final month of Primary School, I thought it might be a nice idea to ask our school and parish communities (as well as friends from further afield who read the blog) to pray for each of our Primary 7 pupils in turn – one per day between now and the summer holidays. Moving to high school is an important milestone in the lives of our P7 pupils, so it’s important that we give the boys and girls as much support and encouragement as we can, including our prayers. So, please take the time to say a prayer (even a simple Our Father or Hail Mary) for the pupil whose name is posted on the blog each day over the coming weeks. Thank you.

Please pray for Morgan Hay as she prepares for her move to St Ambrose High School.

Primary 4 are off to Summerlee Museum today for a workshop on the Victorians. Have a super time, boys and girls!

Primary 6 were the oldest children in the school yesterday and had the chance to have a trial-run at being P7s. I must say, the boys and girls embraced the opportunity with a huge amount of enthusiasm and did a fantastic job helping to monitor classes during a wet interval. It looks like we can look forward to a mature, enthusiastic and reliable new P7 class after the summer holidays. Well done, boys and girls! You were a credit to yourselves and to Mrs McLean.

Meanwhile, it looks like things went well with our existing P7 class down at St Ambrose High School. Here’s the Tweet that was posted at the end of the day:

Primary 7 are off to St Ambrose High School today and tomorrow for their induction days. I’m sure the boys and girls will have a busy and exciting two days and we look forward to hearing all about it when they return to St Bart’s on Monday morning.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
After chatting things through with staff yesterday, we have made the decision to postpone our school show, ‘Welcome to the Sixties’, until after the summer holidays. Although I have taught the songs to the children, various factors such as the York trip, May holidays and temporary members of staff have left us with very little time to pull things together into the sort of slick performance everyone has come to expect of St Bartholomew’s. With interviews for class teacher posts (both here and in another school), sports day and a string of other commitments in my diary, it would also have been very difficult for me to find sufficient time to play for rehearsals. It’s been a difficult decision to make, but staff are all in agreement that it would be much better to put on a high-quality performance in October rather than a mediocre show in three weeks time which wouldn’t give our talented pupils the opportunity to truly shine on stage. Please accept our apologies for the late change of plan, but we promise an absolutely fantastic show just before the October holidays next session!

Of course, our current Primary 7s won’t be here in October. However, as you know, the children had the unique opportunity last term of working with the Citizens Theatre and putting on an amazing performance of ‘Divided City’. Postponing our show will also now free-up time for our P7 pupils to properly prepare and rehearse for their Leavers’ Mass and Graduation ceremony. The children have already started to choose songs and brainstorm their ideas and we’ll now have sufficient time to do these justice and give this important event the attention it deserves.

We welcome our new Primary 1 pupils, along with their parents and carers, to the second of our transition events this morning. The children will have the opportunity to do some literacy and numeracy activities and get a feel for ‘the big school’. The session begins at 9.15am in the performing arts studio.

I’m delighted to inform you that permanent class teacher posts were advertised recently and that we have received a total of 54 applications from people wishing to teach in St Bartholomew’s. We are hoping to interview towards the end of next week and have several new permanent members of staff join the St Bart’s team in August. Great news!

Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic long weekend and enjoyed the sunshine that came our way.

We have a busy week ahead:

The prayer service takes place in the oratory this morning at the usual time of 8.50am.

The Parent Council meets this evening in the Staff Development Base at 6.00pm.

Our second Primary 1 transition event takes place tomorrow morning at 9.15am in the performing arts studio.

Primary 7 are off to St Ambrose High School on Thursday and Friday for their two induction days.

Primary 4 will visit Summerlee museum on Friday for a trip relating to their Victorians topic.

A busy end to the month of May! Enjoy!

It was fantastic to meet our new Primary 1 parents yesterday, particularly those who are brand new to St Bartholomew’s. I hope you felt very much at home.

Primary 7 will receive a demonstration of various musical instruments this morning from St Ambrose High School. It is hoped that the demonstration will inspire the children to learn to play an instrument once they move to high school after the summer holidays. St Ambrose is renowned for its music and I’m sure we’ll see many St Bart’s pupils adding their musical talents to the school in the years ahead.

Please remember that St Bartholomew’s is closed tomorrow and Monday for the May holiday. The school will reopen as normal on Tuesday morning.

Enjoy the long weekend!