St Bartholomews

Last week was filled with a wide variety of rich learning experiences. Primary 5 and Primary 6 pupils had the good fortune to receive training on how to prepare a healthy breakfast from a collaboration between Jamie’s Italian restaurants community link and Lidl. Twitter is abound with many pictures detailing this wonderful experience. Thank you to Mrs McLean for organising this fabulous event.

Primary 1 boys and girls wowed their parents and carers with a very special and meaningful prayer service on Thursday. It was fabulous to see how the children are already applying their new skills and knowledge in a practical context. They sung songs, hymns, recited prayers and made some beautiful art work. What an accomplishment! A huge thank you to Mrs Carlin for teaching the children all of these wonderful skills.

On Sunday, it was lovely to seee so many of our Primary 3 and Primary 4 boys and girls at 11.30am mass in St Bartholomew’s church. This mass celebrated the enrolment of all of the children who wish to proceed with sacramental preparation this year to make their First Confession and First Communion. Well done boys and girls! A huge thank you to Mrs MacFarlane for leading the choir in beautiful singing.

This week is again filled with many exciting learning opportunities. On Monday, I will be sharing in the learning experiences with Primary 2 and looking forward to my visit. On Tuesday, we have a nursery parent’s workshop from Sleep Scotland who will be on hand to give advice on this very important issue. I will also be visiting Primary 5, again, sharing in the learning experiences that go in class. Our second Parent Council meeting will take place at 6pm in the staff room, and I would strongly urge all of our parents to consider becoming involved in the life of the school by becoming a member of the Parent Council.

On Wednesday,  I will be visiting Primary 4/5 to share in all the wonderful work that goes on in class. I am looking forward to seeing the wonderful progress that these children have made. On Thursday, we are preparing for our first Parent’s evening of the session and please remember to book your appointment on line. We look forward to seeing you then.

Mrs Bolland

I trust that everyone has enjoyed a few days off during the September weekend  and feeling well rested, ready for the busy week ahead.Welcome back!

The young ladies in the photographs were struggling to hold all of their wonderful trophies. The trophies are recognition for their fabulous successes in dance competitions. We all thoroughly enjoy sharing in our friends successes and appreciate the hard work and commitment that these girls have demonstrated to achieve this personal achievement. Well done girls!

On Tuesday, Sleep Scotland are hosting a workshop in the school on behalf of our youngest boys and girls. Mums and dads of nursery age children are welcome to join in and hear some valuable advice on encouraging children in to creating good sleep patterns. Good quality sleep is so important to wellbeing and if parents in the school would like an input from this organisation then please let me know.

On Thursday,  John Wilson photography will be visiting St Bartholomew’s to take whole school and nursery photographs. Teeth may need an extra brush that morning so that our boys and girls shine in their photograph!

Also on Thursday, Mrs Carlin and and P1 boys and girls will be hosting a beautiful prayer service in school at 2pm. I am sure that parents and carers will be thoroughly looking forward to this very special occasion . Please ensure that you have replied to your child’s invitation so that we know how many people to cater for.

On Friday we have very special guests in school who will be contributing towards our health and wellbeing agenda. Mrs McLean has organised for representatives from a collaborative project between  staff from Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, ‘Jamie’s’ and Lidl. Our Primary 5 and Primary 6 pupils will be learning about healthy breakfasts and will have the opportunity to test their culinary skills. I will certainly pay the  Get Together Room a visit that day!

Mrs Bolland

As you know, it was maths week last week and the children enjoyed a fantastic variety of engaging activities. Pupils especially enjoyed the opportunity to take part in problem solving activities and games. Mrs McLean organised a private company to deliver this and you are more than welcome to view  all of the fun on twitter. Our boys and girls were thoroughly engaged with the Sumdog contest that ran last week and I look forward to the results.Thank you to everyone for all of your efforts.

I am looking forward to joining our Primary 1 pupils and Mrs Carlin on  Monday morning, where I will share in some of the wonderful learning that is a daily experience for our youngest pupils. Many of our staff in St Bartholomew’s have been so impressed with the fantastic progress that these boys and girls have made. In a matter of weeks, children are now able to be responsible for their learning and make valuable contributions in their classroom. What a result!

On Tuesday, the Parent Council are hosting an informal event at 6pm in the music room. The main objective is to share some of the work that the Parent Council do with as many of our parents as possible and to encourage more mums and dads to get involved in the life of the school. The Parent Council meet once a month on a Tuesday evening for an hour or so to discuss school improvements.We look forward to welcoming you then.

On Thursday, I am looking forward to joining our Primary 4 pupils and Mr Morgan  for a learning visit. I am very much looking forward to sharing in the children’s learning experiences. So many of these fabulous boys and girls look so grown up and are behaving responsibly.

Please remember that school is closed on Friday and Monday due to the September weekend. We look forward to seeing everyone back in school on Tuesday 25th September.

Mrs Bolland

Coatbridge Comicon was a fabulous success on Saturday! A huge thank you to Mark and Lucy Millar for organising this fabulous event in aid of supporting local charities. Both St Bartholomew’s church and Townhead church will benefit from the huge generosity of the Millar’s. As you can see from the photographs above, great fun was had by all and there was a huge variety of presentations, stalls and activities to take part in. I saw a number of familiar faces and it was great to see to so many past pupils and their families.

Maths week starts this week and we have plenty of interesting activities for the children to take part. The Sumdog contest started on Friday and continues until the end of the week. We are looking forward to finding out who will win! Our younger children will take part in ‘escapes rooms’ on Monday, which includes fun  problem solving tasks. I know that our pupils loved this last year and are looking forward to taking part.

On Tuesday, our junior and senior pupils will take part in ‘The escape rooms’, which again, include problem solving tasks and will challenge and interest all of our boys and girls. The Airdrie and Coatbridge advertiser will be visiting our school in order to take a photograph of our new Primary 1 boys and girls. Please remember to give those those lovely teeth an extra brush on Tuesday morning so that smiles have a sparkle…

A variety of maths challenges and activities will take place throughout the week and we look forward to further engaging our pupils in maths and numeracy.

On Thursday, Primary 7 representatives will be travellin*to Gartlea Community Centre in Airdrie to take part in the Junior Road Safety Officer’s conference. This is a wonderful opportunity for our senior pupils to meet other children from other schools and pick up some great ideas on how to improve current practices.

Friday will mark the  end Maths Week and we look forward to reflecting back on activities and improved skills and knowledge.

Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Liam

Primary 2 – Talia

Primary 3 – Enid

Primary 4 – Ava

Primary 4/5 – Brogan

Primary 5 – Eva

Primary 6 – Stuart

Primary 7 – Luca

Cool Class: Primary 6

Winning House: Lochend

Tea with Mrs B at 2 pm

As you can see above, there is always fabulous news to share at St Bart’s. Our boys and girls have more than maintained their fantastic start to the new school year- long may it continue.

I trust that everyone has received their newsletter, ( if not, please check your child’s school bag). This provides very useful information and dates related to the first two terms. Please feel free to hang this from the fridge door to remind yourself  of important dates.

On Monday,we will be visited from  8 senior pupils from St Ambrose, many of who are past pupils. They will be offering a helping hand to our class teachers and of course, to our boys and girls. We are all looking forward to working with you.

Tuesday is our first Parent Council meeting and will be held in the staff room at 6pm. We have moved these meetings to a Tuesday, at the request of the chair of the Parent Council so that elected members of the local council can more readily attend. Council members are often busy on Monday evenings with scheduled meetings and it was thought more pertinent to facilitate their potential attendance. A very warm welcome is extended to all of our parents, especially our new Primary 1 parents to get involved in the life of the school. We look forward to seeing you then.

Ms Jan McCrone, our Continuous Improvement Officer, will be visiting St Bart’s on Tuesday afternoon to meet with Mrs Bolland. I know that she will be extremely impressed with our boys and girls smart appearaand fabulous manners. Mrs MacIntyre will be meeting with a music specialist who will be demonstrating a fantastic music system that will make mass celebrations, assemblies and school shows even better!

On the subject of music, we are very lucky to have Sally Wilkinson visit us on Friday. She will be  working with our Primary 5 pupils,using  Kodaly. Boys and girls, you are in for a treat!

St Bartholomew’s will be a very busy place on Friday afternoon with preparations well underway for Comicon on Saturday. If you are lucky enough to have a ticket for this fabulous event, we very much look forward to seeing you then and joining in with a huge variety of fun filled events.
Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Layla

Primary 2 – Aaron

Primary 3 – Brooklyn

Primary 4 – Eve

Primary 4/5 – Kaitlyn

Primary 5 – Sophie

Primary 6 – Leah

Primary 7 – Ellie

Cool Class:  Primary 1

Winning House: Lochend

Tea with Mrs B – 2 pm today

A huge thank you to our parent helpers for walking children to mass on Friday to celebrate the feast day of St Bartholomew. Fr O’Kane was joined by Fr Martin ,as homolist,who was a previous pupil at st Bart’s. What a lovely treat for the children to meet him! Fr O’Kane suggested that all of the pupils from St Bartholomew’s help with creating a new sign for the church and make a competition out of it! We are looking forward to contributing to this very important task.

After interval, we had our first whole school assembly where we discussed our new routine attached to the house system. Children have been put in houses, dependent on sibling grouping and are having a strong focus on encouraging children to feel a strong identity with their house. Everyone will be working hard to gain as many points for their house as possibly. Great rewards will be bestowed upon winning houses! Details will follow…
We had a very special treat on Friday afternoon with ‘The take away theatre company’ who entertained pupils and adults alike. St Bartholomew’s day was certainly full of fun. Well done boys and girls for your excellent manners and appreciation.
Our first parent council meeting will take place on Tuesday 4 the September. I would encourage many of our parents to get involved with the life of your child’s school. We look forward to seeing you then.
Our first term’s newsletter will be with you shortly and will inform you by text when to look in your child’s school bag for it. This will keep you abreast of important dates and events during the first term.

Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Gabriel

Primary 2 – Layla

Primary 3 – Jasmin

Primary 4 – Ellie

Primary 4/5 – Shay

Primary 5 – Molly

Primary 6 – Sean

Primary 7 – Brooke

A huge thank you to all of our parents and carers for ensuring the incredibly smart appearance of all of our boys and girls. The children have received many positive comments about how smart they look and it is clear to see that they have great pride in their appearance. We were discussing this matter at assembly on Friday and talked about ‘look smart, think smart’, which I think is very appropriate. I look forward to the children’s continued smart appearance.

An additional thank you to all of our parents and carers who have adhered to our new rules regarding the playground. As you know, it is very important that the children are allowed some time to prepare themselves for the day ahead, prior to, oand during lining up at the bell. It is very much appreciated that parents are supporting this and gathering behind the pencils or the low wall in order to allow their children to become independent. It is already making a real difference!

On Thursday and Friday last week whilst I was in and around classes, it was clear to me that the vast majority of our children are delighted to back at school. I am sure that many parents and carers will agree with this as 6 weeks can be a long time without the routine of school and daily interaction with friends. All of the St Bartholomew’s team are delighted to see the children back after the holidays and look forward to working with your children for this next session.

Friday is the feast of St Bartholomew. In order to mark this very important day for our faith community, all of our pupils and staff will attend mass at St Bartholomew’s church for 10am mass. We would love it if you could join us for mass on Friday morning as it would be a lovely opportunity for our entire faith community to gather at the beginning of a new school year. We look forward to seeing you there!

Mrs Bolland