St Bartholomews

As you can see from our photographs above, the talent continues at St Bartholomew’s! Trophies were awarded for dancing and a medal awarded for skills in running at the Santa dash. Well done boys and girls.

On Monday, we welcome Clare from NHS Lanarkshire dental team. Thank you for all of your help with toothbrushing. Our pupils really benefit from your input.Mr Graham from the SAM group will also be visiting us to help some of our pupils with digital technology. A representative from SCIAF shall be  delivering  a Pope Francis Faith Award workshop with our upper school pupils.

On Tuesday, Mrs Brown and Ms Fallon will be researching some effective ideas in outdoor play at other establishments in NLC. Good luck ladies…Mrs McLean will be supporting the recruitment process of  prospective students to Strathclyde University as a member of the interview panel for those wishing to establish a career in teaching. I am sure that this will be a very interesting experience.

On Wednesday, Primary 4 to Primary 7 pupils will be performing our annual Christmas Concert on the stage at 1.45pm, doors will open at 1.30pm.Tickets are available from the office. I have heard the children during rehearsals and can assure you that you are in for a treat! Raffle tickets will also be available at the door and your support with this is very much appreciated.

On Thursday, it’s the panto! Mark and Lucy Millar are supporting this fabulous event for all of our pupils. We are very grateful for the tickets and the children absolutely love it. The performance at the Pavillion theatre is Cinderella this year, and the children will look forward to a visit from the cast at the end of the show. What a great opportunity! Again, a huge thank you to Mark and Lucy for their continued support with funding this super event.

On Friday, the Nursery are hosting their annual Christmas Nativity play at 9.30am and 2pm in order to accommodate both morning and afternoon children. Again, I have been lucky enough to hear rehearsals and the children sound great, well done boys and girls!

Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Sinead

Primary 2 – Connor

Primary 3 – Ciaran

Primary 4 – Kalinka

Primary 4/5 – – Emma

Primary 5 – Jim

Primary 6 – Zaynab

Primary 7 – Harvey Jo

Cool Class Cup: Primary 6

Winning House: Lochend

Healthy Breakfast Diary Winners – Sarah Louise, Malinka & Maddison

As you can see from the photographs above, great fun was had on Saturday  at the Christmas Fayre. A huge thank you to our parent helpers who tirelessly supported the school, and as a consequence, all of our boys and girls. The tremendous figure of £2316.35 was raised on the day and  funds from this will contribute towards keeping the price of outings as low as possible and allow our pupils to have access to as many opportunities as possible. Thank you to all of our parents and carers who supported this important fundraising event.

You may have noticed that the Christmas plates competition produced some great work and prizes were awarded to the worthy winners. The winners are as follows;

Primary 1, Liam  Gray,

Primary 2, Brooke Malone

Primary 3, Harvey McGhee

Primary 4, Ava Menzies

Primary 4/5, Maya Kirkland

Primary 5, Molly Maguire

Primary 6, Zaynab Abram

Primary 7, Ami McGhee

The winner of the large elf soft toy was Brodie and Bridget won the unicorn. Well done, you guessed the correct date of birth and name respectively. What fabulous prizes!

Mrs Dunn has kindly produced a December newsletter, which is a reminder of all of the dates pertaining to parties, concerts etc that will be coming up within the next few weeks. All of the dates included in this already appear in your term 2 newsletter.

Mrs Bolland

Again, the photographs above illustrate some very talented pupils in St Bartholomew’s who have been rewarded for their success in dance.Well done girls!

A huge thank you to our parent volunteers who have donated their time and efforts in order to prepare for our Christmas Fayre on Saturday. There are lots of exciting things to look forward to-; Santa’s grotto, glitter tattoos, hair bows, chocolate fountain, children’s Christmas crafts, cup cakes, class hampers, tombola, raffles, toys /bric a brac and much more. Please look in school bags for a letter detailing some wonderful opportunities for our boys and girls to win fabulous elf and unicorn soft toys. We would also be very grateful for Christmas plates to be returned so that they can be judged in time for the Fayre and prizes awarded for best entries. Thank you in advance.

On Monday, Mrs Kinniburgh will be visiting the school in order to support some pupils with an input from Educational Psychology. As always, visitors to our school are always welcome. Our staff will be meeting after school today to work collegiately to make improvements to key areas such as Stem, literacy and numeracy.

On Tuesday,Mrs Newton from Community Learning and Development will be working with some of our parents, alongside our  first aid partners. This is a wonderful opportunity for our parents to achieve formal qualifications. Thank you Mrs Newton. Our parent council will also meet today at 6 O’Clock in the staffroom. As always, all are welcome and an open invitation is extended to all of our parents, from Primary 1 to Primary 7. We look forward to seeing you then.

On Thursday, we welcome Ms  McLeary from Strathclyde University  who is undertaking a tutor visit for Ms Clark. I am confident that she will be impressed with all of the fabulous work that goes on in Primary 1. Our Primary 6 children will receive an input from Celtic coaches. The boys and girls particularly enjoy the dual aspect of this, where they take part in both physical activities alongside classroom tasks.

On Friday, we will be very busy with preparations for the Christmas Fayre and transforming our school into a ‘Christmas like’ environment. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Mrs Bolland

I hope that parents and carers enjoyed the day off school on Monday!As it was an Inservice day, St Bartholomew’s teaching staff received training from our NHS partners on Low Intensity Anxiety Management. This will benefit our pupils and contribute towards staff development. It proved to be a very interesting and worthwhile day.

On Tuesday, a past pupil of St Bartholomew’s will be begin her student placement in our nursery. This is a special request and one that we are happy to fulfill.  We are delighted to report that some parents have volunteered their time to make preparations for our Christmas Fayre this morning, and other times this week. Our pupils and staff are grateful for any help and would be very happy to see you. Either turn up unannounced or phone the office. You are most welcome! Mrs MacIntyre will be visiting NLC’s literacy base , where she will learn about the latest literacy  initiatives that will benefit our pupils. We are looking forward to implementing recommended improvements.I will also be working with one of  Mrs Wilson’s intervention groups in the morning and look forward to sharing in their learning.

On Wednesday, Primary 3 and Primary 4 pupils will be working with our NHS dental partners as part of the tooth varnishing programme. This is a very worthwhile project and will contribute towards good oral health. Mrs McLean and Mrs MacFarlane will both be out of school in order to  contribute towards improvement in numeracy for all of our pupils. Again, we look forward to establishing how this compliments our school improvement plan.

On Thursday, Bernadette Newton, our CLD representative will be leading a  SQA group in St Bartholomew’s. This is a tremendous opportunity for our parents and carers to gain qualifications that will help support them, both on a personal and professional  basis. I will be attending a meeting at the Edward Lawson Centre in Wishaw to learn about current plans on the new 1140 hours initiative from Early Years. Our youngest pupils and their families will certainly benefit from these new plans. We welcome coaches from Celtic Football club today, who will be working with Primary 6 pupils. Our children thoroughly enjoy this time to enhance their skills and knowledge.

On Friday, all of our teaching staff will receive Number Talks training from NLC’s  Numeracy team. This will provide our pupils with a greater understanding of how to apply a number of strategies in order to work out a wide variety of concepts and potentially improve attainment.

Finally, any contributions, however small that parents and carers can make towards our Christmas Fayre would be very gratefully received. Thank you in advance. We look forward to using the money from this fundraiser to support pupil experiences such as school trips etc.

Mrs Bolland

I am sure that you  will agree, all of our boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed Developing the Young Workforce week 2018. The wide variety of activities and outings that the children engaged with inspired them with ideas for future careers. A huge thank you to our parents and carers who volunteeed their time in order to supervise children on trips and outings out with school. We look forward to next year’s event, a huge thank you to Mrs McLean for organising this.

On Monday of this week, I will be attending a meeting at Head Quarters in respect of child protection, an area that we take seriously at St Bart’s. Claire from the dental team will also be visiting us to look after our pupils’ teeth and oral health. Thank you Clare.

On Tuesday, we are holding a meeting in my office in order to organise our Christmas  Fayre on Saturday 1 st December. We have already sent out paper plates for our annual Christmas Plate competition, where one child from each class will win a prize for the most creative design. We look forward to the returns! Companies  who are donating prizes for various raffles have recently been in touch and with me and we look forward to further donations. Thank you.

On Wednesday, I will be attending an early years meeting, where the upcoming  1140 hours expansion will be top of the agenda. There are exciting opportunities afoot within the nursery sector which will benefit our youngest pupils.

On Thursday, Celtic coaches will visit our school again and spend time with our Primary 6 pupils. I know that the coaches have been incredibly impressed with our boys and girls. Well done! Bernadette Newton from CLD will be taking a SQA group in our school. What a wonderful opportunity for some of our parents to achieve recognised qualifications .

On Friday, it’s P3’s assembly and I know that the children have been working hard to present a wonderful assembly for parents and carers. We are looking forward to sharing your experiences. In addition, nurses from NHS Scotland will be conducting flu immunisations which will benefit our pupils and keep them safe and healthy this winter.  Sally will also be visiting us in order to teach our Primary 5 children, Kodaly techniques. This will further enhance the singing and musical talents of these children. What a great opportunity!

Mrs Bolland

What a talented bunch we have at St Bart’s! The young ladies with the trophies have been successful in recent dance competitions- Perhaps Strictly stars of the future? Our other young lady with the script had been writing a very imaginative story in her spare time- what a star. Well done and congratulations to our talented girls.

It’s our Developing the Young Workforce week again! Mrs McLean has been very busy organising a number of exciting events and activities for all of our boys and girls. On Monday, Primary 1 to Primary 3 will experience class workshops with Social Enterprise Academy. Local business Retronix will support our launch assembly with Primary 4 to Primary 7 pupils.

On Tuesday, Primary 4/5 will have the fantastic opportunity to visit Easterhouse Farm in Newmains, where they will experience a busy working farm with a variety of livestock and understand the food chain in real terms. Primary 4, Primary 5 and Primary 6 will take part in an online engineer presentation and chat. This will better the children what it’s like to be an engineer.

On Wednesday, Primary 7 pupils will visit the University West of Scotland and experience student life and have a great insight into the facilities that are on offer. What a fabulous opportunity! Enjoy your day boys and girls.  Primary 6 will visit Terex, again another local business that have been kind enough to support us. I remember last year that the children thoroughly enjoyed their time with this firm and I am sure that it will be the same again this year! Primary 5 will visit Sky Academy, where the boys and girls will have the fantastic experience of behind the scenes at a TV studio and have the opportunity to be presenters for the day.

On Thursday,  Primary 1 to Primary 3 will have a visit from ‘Hoots Owls’. This is a wonderful experience for the children and a great learning opportunity to gain a better understanding of the work of falconry.  The children will take part in workshops and experience the owls up close – they can’t wait! Primary 4 will be visiting the Retronix factory in Coatbridge where children will experience the world of electronics.  Primary 4/5  and Primary 7 are lucky to have an engineer visit their class and children will the opportunity to ask lots of interesting questions.

On Friday, we are holding a Careers Fair in our hall where a variety of companies have volunteered their time and personnel to visit our pupils. Children will visit a number of delegates and find out what their job entails.  A huge thank you to all of the delegates who are providing a great opportunity for our pupils. In the afternoon, we are holding a Dragon’s Den type of activity for our younger children, and the winner will be announced in the afternoon.

What a busy week… Thank you to Mrs McLean and all of the delegates and various companies who have volunteered their time for the benefit of our pupils.

Could I please ask that all sponsor monies from the obstacle course event be handed in to the office? Your contributions are very much appreciated and will be put to very good use in order to enhance the learning experiences of our pupils. Thank you.

Mrs Bolland

A huge thank you to the parent helpers who organised and supervised the Halloween disco on Wednesday. It was great to see such a fabulous turn out from parents as these type of events rely so much  on parental support. The children appreciated it and it is very clear to see their enjoyment from our twitter pictures. Thank you- your support is very much appreciated. We had quite a few apples left over, which we put to good use and gave them to our younger children at interval time. They loved them!

On  Monday, staff are meeting after school to work together on ideas to mark the Centenary celebrations for Catholic School’s in Scotland. We will keep you posted…

On Tuesday we will welcome Mrs Kinniburgh, our Educational Psychologist and look forward to her input. Our Parent Council will meet in the staff room at 6pm, and as always,  parents and carers are very welcome to attend. It was very encouraging to see some new members at the previous meeting. We look forward to seeing you then.

On Thursday, our Primary 6 children will  experience sports coaching from a representative from Celtic football club. The children will learn some new skills and apply previous knowledge and skills to new activities.  Thursday 1 st November is also All Saints day which is a holiday of obligation and an important feast within  the Church’s calendar. We hope to see you at mass! Our nursery pre school children will have their eye tested during their nursery session, which is a very helpful assessment prior to starting school in August.

On Friday, our Primary 5 children will receive musical instruction from Sally, our Kodak’s specialist. The children thoroughly enjoy this fantastic input from a very talented instructor.

Mrs Bolland

A very warm welcome back after the October break and I look forward to catching up with everyone’s news!

Huge congratulations to our Primary 6 pupils who performed a wonderful assembly on the last day of term, based on their topic of the ‘80’s. It was a fabulous display of talent, lead very ably by Mrs MacFarlane. Parents and carers thoroughly enjoyed themselves, a few of which experienced a trip down memory lane. Well done boys and girls!

Vikki Sadler, our  NLC Active School’s co-ordinator visited us to help and advise our support staff on creating interesting games and activities in the playground. We look forward to their imminent introduction.

Could I please ask that children return sponsor forms and money from our annual fundraising event, the sponsored obstacle course? This will help to fund important resources and activities for all of our pupils. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this important matter.

The week ahead includes Childsmile visiting St Bartholomew’s on Monday and they will be administering fluoride varnish to our Primary 1 to Primary 4 pupils. We are very lucky to have this input as prevention  of tooth decay is crucial at this important stage of  children’s development.

On Wednesday, our parent volunteers are hosting our annual Halloween disco. Primary 1 to Primary 3 pupils’ disco starts at 6.15pm and finishes at 7.15pm. Primary 4 to Primary 7 pupils’ disco starts at 7.30pm and finishes at 8.30pm. Children will be entertained by music and games from a DJ, enjoy treats and ‘dooking for apples’.Prizes will be awarded for ‘best costumes’ and we look forward to seeing inventive and creative designs! Children can purchase tickets from the office where Mrs Dunn and Mrs Clare are only too happy to assist.

A huge thank you in advance to our parent volunteers who decorate the hall and organise all the fun on the night. There is still scope for parents to volunteer an hour or so of their time on the evening of the disco- please phone the office to let us know. This help is very much appreciated and essential to the organisation of disco’s and other such parent led events.Thank you.

Fr O’Kane and myself will be hosting a sacramental preparation meeting in the school, in the very near future. I will keep you informed with a date and time shortly.

Mrs Bolland

Yesterday was the Feast of Our Lady Of The Rosary, a very significant feast in the Church’s calendar. Pope Francis has asked that we all pray the rosary in the month of October. Please keep our staff and pupils in your prayers.

Today, I am hosting a meeting with senior representatives from Childsmile. This organisation is one of our NHS dental partners, who contribute a great deal in terms of maintaining oral health amongst all of our pupils, from nursery to Primary 7. As a result of our many successful health initiatives we will be welcoming very important guests to our school. I will keep you posted…

On Wednesday,  the Icon of ‘Jesus the Teacher’ shall be visiting St Bartholomew’s church at 2pm. We are so fortunate to be chosen for this very special occasion and myself and two senior pupils shall be representing our school. We look forward to seeing many of our Parish community there.The Icon will be visiting other Parishes in North and South Lanarkshire until the end of November and you can follow it’s journey online. Earlier on in the day, I will be attending a Scottish Attainment Challenge Meeting. Head Teachers in North Lanarkshire shall be meeting to be advised of current issues in order to improve outcomes for our pupils. Again, I will keep you up to date with appropriate initiatives.

On Thursday , we are holding our annual  sponsored obstacle course event which is very kindly organised by Vikki Sadler, our North Lanarkshire Active School’s advisor. Children received sponsor forms last week. As always, please do not feel pressure to fill this and one or two endorsements will be gratefully received. All monies will be used to fund improvements to pupil experiences.

On Friday, our senior pupils in Primary 6 will be hosting their assembly. This will take place at 2pm in the hall, and as is the tradition in St Bart’s, parents and carers will be invited thereafter to the classroom. This will provide a wonderful opportunity to share in the children’s work and experience a flavour of recent topic work. We look forward to welcoming you then.

Vikki Sadler, our NLC Active school’s coordinator will meet with our support staff in order to provide advice on playground games in order to enhance pupil experiences in the playground. Thank you Vikki.

Mrs Bolland