I received some fantastic news yesterday from Mark Millar. Mark has purchased the new books for our school library through a friend and has managed to secure a 25% discount. In real terms, this means that there will be approximately 300 brand new non-fiction books coming our way in a week’s time! What an absolutely fantastic boost to our library!!! I’m sure you’ll wish to join me in thanking Mark for his friendship and ongoing support to St Bartholomew’s and for this extremely generous donation in particular.

Parents and carers of Primary 7 pupils, please remember that the children’s induction day at St Ambrose is TOMORROW. The children should make their own way to St Ambrose, ready for a prompt 9am start. As the induction day will finish before 3 o’clock, the boys and girls will be walked back to St Bartholomew’s and dismissed from here at the usual time. Pupils should wear their school uniform. I know the children are looking forward to their day at high school. Best manners, work and behaviour everyone, please! DO ST BART’S PROUD!

The new door at the infant end of the school has now been fitted and will be operational as from TODAY. Primary 1, 2 and 3 pupils will now enter and exit from this door. Please remind your child to line up at the new door this morning and bear in mind that they will no longer be leaving from the main entrance at 3 o’clock. Thank you.

Many of you will already be familiar with the work of Mary’s Meals, a global organisation that helps children in some of the world’s poorest communities. The charity provides one daily meal in a place of learning to attract children into the classroom where they receive an education to help give them a better future. There are currently over 750, 000 children being fed by Mary’s Meals every day. Over the next few weeks, the St Bartholomew’s school community will be collecting various items for the charity which will be used to fill school bags to send to Africa. This week, we are collecting stationery. Donations of pencils, pens, rubbers, rulers, sharpeners, etc. can be placed in the box located immediately outside the gym hall. It would be fantastic to see this brimming over by Friday afternoon!

Please note that Sports Day will take place on Wednesday 29th May. I realise this seems very early, but we have had to free up June for show rehearsals this year. Further information on sports day will follow in due course.

St Bartholomew’s church was packed to the doors for yesterday’s First Communion Mass and it was a truly wonderful occasion.  The P4’s looked absolutely fantastic in their dresses, kilts and suits and were extremely respectful and prayerful throughout the Mass.  They also sang their thanksgiving song beautifully.  I hope it was a special and memorable day for each and every one of you, boys and girls, and that you had a great time celebrating and partying in the afternoon.

Many thanks to the P3, 5, 6 & 7 pupils who formed the choir at yesterday’s Mass.  Your singing was fantastic and I really appreciate you giving so willingly of your time. I also need to say a huge thank you to the parishioners who did so much behind the scenes – the flowers looked beautiful and your hospitality for staff after the Mass (the best cooked breakfast I’ve ever tasted!) was beyond the call of duty… but very much appreciated!  Finally, many thanks to Miss Docherty for preparing the children for the sacrament and also to Father Doherty for presiding at yesterday’s Mass.

The parish ‘Pray for our School’ group meets in the oratory at 11am this morning.  Further information is available in the ‘Faith’ section of our website.  As usual, the group will enjoy tea and cake with some of our P7’s afterwards.

Have a great day, everyone.

Good morning! As you know, I usually only blog on school days. However, this is a very important and special day for our Primary 4 pupils. Boys and girls, you are very much in our thoughts and prayers as you receive your First Holy Communion this morning.

‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ (2 Corinthians 13:13)

Many of our blog readers will be old enough to remember the advert with the catchphrase, ‘THANK CRUNCHIE IT’S FRIDAY!’

It was great to meet our new P1 parents yesterday afternoon. I look forward to seeing you at our other three transition events over the coming weeks.

Of course, our most important piece of news today is the Primary 4’s First Communion which takes place this coming Sunday. I know the children have been busy preparing for the Mass and are all very excited about their special day. See you on Sunday morning, boys and girls. We’ll be remembering you in our prayers and look forward to seeing you in your dresses, suits and kilts.

Things were so rushed yesterday morning that I forgot to say welcome back to Mrs Gillooly!  Tut, tut, Mr Young!  GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK IN ST BART’S, MRS GILLOOLY!

Today is Ascension Day and the whole school will be attending the 10am Mass at St Bartholomew’s Church.  Unfortunately, I have a number of meetings this morning, so will be unable to join the boys and girls.  However, I know they will all show their very best manners and behaviour and do the school proud, as always.

We welcome the parents and carers of our new P1’s to St Bartholomew’s later today for the first part of our Nursery-P1 transition programme.  This will take place in the music room at 1.30pm.  I’m very much looking forward to meeting you this afternoon and launching this final programme of events in preparation for your child beginning P1 in August.  A very warm welcome to St Bartholomew’s Primary!

Aidan and Ethan, two members of our Pupil Council, represented St Bartholomew’s at a special conference in Cumbernauld yesterday.  The conference was attended by pupils from all over North Lanarkshire and gave Aidan and Ethan the opportunity to explore the roles and responsibilities of Pupil Councils with boys and girls from lots of other schools.  While the boys were busy with their tasks and activities, Miss Lee got the chance to blether to Mr McCrorie, a good friend of mine from Woodlands Primary where I used to be Depute Head!  Aidan and Ethan will tell us a bit about the conference at this Friday’s assembly.

Welcome back, everyone. Hope you had a great long weekend. It was fantastic to see the sunshine yesterday; fingers crossed it’s a sign of things to come!

We welcome a familiar face to St Bartholomew’s this afternoon. Our good friend, Mark Millar, will be visiting the school to discuss the investment he plans to make in our library and also look ahead to arrangements for a trip to the pantomime in Glasgow in December.

Primary 4 are making their very final preparations for the celebration of their First Holy Communion which will take place this coming Sunday. Please continue to remember the boys and girls in your prayers and, if at all possible, try to attend the 10am Mass at St Bartholomew’s Church on Sunday to offer them your support.

Once again, it’s lovely to see everyone back this morning. Have a great day.

You’ll notice lots of new photographs dotted around our website today. These were taken by John Wilson Photographers and, I think you’ll agree, add the final professional touch to our new-look website.

We are delighted to welcome a representative from SCIAF to our assembly today. The boys and girls will hear about the vital work of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, who work amongst some of the poorest people of the world, and the Prayer Group will present the charity’s representative with a cheque for £400 – the fantastic sum of money our school community raised for SCIAF during Lent. The Bible says: ‘Do not forget to do good and to help one another, because these are the sacrifices that please God.’ (Hebrews 13:16) Many thanks to everyone in St Bartholomew’s for remembering our brothers and sisters around the world who need financial support and for giving so generously during Lent. Your money will make a real difference.

Today is Miss Mooney’s last day in St Bartholomew’s. Thank you for everything you have given to the school during your time with us. We will really miss you… please keep in touch!

Both Monday and Tuesday are holidays for pupils. Have a fantastic long weekend, boys and girls! See you bright and breezy on Wednesday morning!

Rehearsals are now underway for our whole-school end of year show, ‘A Night on Broadway’. Primary 1 have made a great start learning their two songs from ‘The Jungle Book’, Primary 6 have already developed very convincing Cockney accents for their two ‘Oliver’ numbers, and the Primary 4’s lifted the roof of the music room yesterday with their enthusiastic singing of two hits from Mama Mia! As for the nursery children, they’ve already mastered an ultra-tricky word: Super-Cali-Fragil-istic-espi-ali-docious! Make sure Thursday 20th June is in your diary – it’s going to be a fantastic show!

There’s been a slight delay to the fitting of our new windows this week. However, the Primary 6 classroom will be completed before the end of the week.

Great to see the sun shining again today. It looks as if the start of May has finally brought the arrival of spring. During the month of May, St Bartholomew’s Primary keeps the Catholic tradition of reciting the Angelus, with a bell ringing at 12 noon each day to call our school community to prayer. For those of you who would like to join us in this May devotion, the words of the prayer can be found in the ‘Faith’ section of our website.

Today, 1st May, is dedicated to St Joseph the Worker. We ask St Joseph to pray for the many, many hard workers in the St Bartholomew’s school and parish communities. ‘Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for people, knowing that the Lord will repay you.’ (Colossians 3: 23, 24)

We have a fantastic group of very supportive parents here at St Bartholomew’s and I thought it might be an idea to put a question to this morning’s blog readers: Have you ever thought about joining the Parent Council? It’s a great opportunity to play a lead role in taking the school forward and making a real difference to the education of your child. The Parent Council AGM will take place on Tuesday 28th May. There’ll be a chance to hear about what has been achieved this year and new office bearers will also be nominated and elected. It would be fantastic to see a good number of parents at the meeting. The Parent Council is there to serve and be the voice of all St Bartholomew’s parents, so please put the 28th in your diary. St Bart’s needs you!

The Parent Council has arranged for the Primary 7’s to bag pack in Asda for school funds on Friday 31st May. However, this is dependent on finding enough parent helpers to supervise on the day. This is a nice, easy way of raising money, so please help out if you possibly can. Thank you.

Mrs Gillooly returns from maternity leave next week and it will be lovely to have her back in the school. Of course, this means that Miss Mooney will be leaving us. She has been a real asset to the school this year and a valued member of the team. St Bartholomew’s will be very sad to see Miss Mooney go, but we wish her all the very best as she takes up her new post in St Timothy’s.