I know Mrs Bolland mentioned next week’s sponsored obstacle course in yesterday’s blog, so I hope you don’t mind me giving it another wee plug today. A healthy school fund enables us to offer lots of ‘extras’ during the course of the year. For example, ALL class trips are subsidised to keep the cost as low as possible. Next term, we have arranged for a company to deliver an exciting ‘Samba’ day free of charge for St Bart’s pupils, all paid for from the school fund. We have also just purchased a fantastic pirate ship to be the centre piece of our new sea-themed library and, once again, the money came from previous fund-raising events. St Bartholomew’s now has 212 children so if each pupil manages to collect even a few sponsors, we’ll still be able to give a real boost to school funds. For example, £5.00 of sponsors from each pupil would raise over £1000! Every little really does help!

We are now only a week away from Parents Evening. As you know, we have had a display just inside the front door over the past few years entitled ‘What will St Bartholomew’s look like in June 2016?’ Of course, June 2016 has now come and gone and I’m delighted to say that we have met each and every one of our goals and aspirations! However, St Bart’s never rests on its laurels and our school community now needs to think ahead to where we’d like to be, and what we would like to achieve, in the next three-five years. Part of our consultation with parents and carers will take place on Parents Evening. Mr Fowler will be co-ordinating a ‘brainstorm’ board where all parents and carers will be able to add things they think their child should have learned or experienced by the time they leave St Bartholomew’s. For example, ‘Be able to speak Spanish’, ‘Have the chance to go on a residential trip’, ‘Make a positive contribution to the community of Townhead’. Once collated, we’ll make sure these contributions are incorporated into our revised curriculum programmes. We’d love to hear your suggestions, so get your thinking caps on between now and next Thursday!