St Bartholomews

Our Primary 5 pupils will be taking part in a lovely retreat today, organised by the diocese of Motherwell. This is especially poignant as it is Holy Week in Lent. Our boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed the previous retreats that they took part in and gained so much in terms of different skills and knowledge. I am confident that this retreat will produce the same outcome for our boys and girls. A big thank you to Mrs O’Neill for organising this for us.

A huge thank you to Mrs Carlin and the Faith in Action group for organising ‘ balloon bingo’ to support our Lenten events and activities. This is such a great event and the children have fantastic fun whilst doing it!

Mrs Bolland

We have the community Police in this afternoon to talk to our Primary 1 to Primary 3 children about stranger danger. I thought that this was a good time of year to arrange this input from Police Scotland as we are coming up to a school holiday, in addition to lighter nights and children being out and about a bit more. Our pupils are always very responsive to the Police and thoroughly enjoy their presentations. We welcome the officers from Police Scotland to St Bartholomew’s!

Some parents have been asking about the time that school finishes in Thursday. It is 2.30pm. This is always the case at Christmas and Easter and we make sure that other local schools follow the same pattern, so that it is convenient for parents.

Mrs Bolland

Apologies that the leaflet above is a little worse for wear! Our Primary 7 House Captains put them to good use when visiting all of our classes to publise the Easter Football Camp , held at Albion Rovers football ground. This is a great opportunity to support your local football team, keep fit, meet friends and generally have fun! The Mark Millar foundation is sponsoring 5 children from both St Bartholomew’s Primary and Townhead Primary to attend for a whole week.I will let the lucky boys and girls who they are tomorrow. Thank you Mark and Lucy for thinking about us, it is much appreciated.

Our lucky winners from the Easter basket competition were delighted that their efforts had been rewarded and were especially excited about the lovely Easter egg that they won. Every child was rewarded with a creme egg to take home, whether 5hey had an Easter Basket or not. We even managed to give all of our staff a creme egg, who I know appreciated the wee sugar boost on a Friday afternoon. Thank you everyone for all of your efforts this week!

As you know, it’s Holy Week and to Mark this very special time in the Church’s calendar, we have asked Fr James to celebrate mass in the school for our entire Parish community. We would encourage you to join us in this celebration of the liturgy and hope to see you at 10am.

Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Fiona

Primary 1/2 – Leyla

Primary 2/3 – Ryan

Primary 3 – Cameron

Primary 4 – Skye

Primary 4/5 – Nathan

Primary 5/6 – Sean

Primary 6/7 – Ellie

Primary 7 – Gabrielle

Cool Class:  Primary 7

Winning House: Lochend

Our Primary 7 pupils will be receiving some input , delivered by staff from St Ambrose High School today. This is part of the transition programme that has been in place for some time. Meeting familiar faces will certainly help the children feel much more comfortable, on their arrival at St Ambrose in August. I know that the boys and girls are looking forward to the next stage in their school career and will readily meet the challenge.

Please remember that our Lenten charity event takes place today. Children have been asked to decorate an Easter basket template and donate £1 to Missio, a very worthwhile charity. Prizes will be given to the most interesting design and all of our pupils will receive a creme egg, which  should fit very nicely into their baskets! Good luck boys and girls.

Mrs Bolland

We are very lucky to have Claire Gordon visit us  today. She will be helping our pupils with toothbrushing. As you know, this is a very important part of health and wellbeing and something that we take very seriously at St Bartholomew’s. It has made a big difference to some of our children’s oral health and the fact that this type of monitoring and  support is available, is fantastic.

There will be no mass at 8.30 am in the Oratory this morning as Fr James has other commitments , as you can imagine, Lent is a very busy time for him. Fr James, will, however be celebrating mass in the school, for all of our pupils and Parish commutation 10am on Monday, 26th March. We look forward to seeing you then.

Mrs Bolland

Our Primary 7 House Captain’s look very official, in their capacity as Playgroung Monitors. The boys and girls report that a marked difference in low level playground concerns have improved, since the introduction of the monitoring system. This provides a great opportunity for some of our senior pupils to  feel responsibility  for their playground.Well done boys and girls, you are doing a fantastic job!

A reminder that the weekly Wednesday prayer service is on this morning at 8.45am in our beautiful Oratory . As it is Lent, this is a particularly special time to spend in reflection and prayer. As always, everyone is welcome. We look forward to seeing you.

I hear that boys and girls are working hard on decorating their Easter baskets, as part of our Lenten charity event. I look forward to filling them with a creme egg on Friday and know that all of our pupils will appreciate this. There will be a lucky winner from each class, who will receive an Easter egg for the most interesting  Easter basket design. Missio will very much appreciate all the £1 donations from the Easter basket event. Thank you very much in advance for your support, it is much appreciated.

Mrs Bolland

All of boys and girls received a brand new homework bag yesterday. Our Primary 7 House Captain’s visited classes to give the children a sneak peek at the new bags. The bags have only to be used for holding homework materials and reading books. Please do not place snacks and lunches in these bags. Your support with this matter is much appreciated.

Mrs Bolland

Our Primary 7 house captain’s have recently been  given responsibility for monitoring the playground. The boys and girls are delighted with their new responsibility and I am sure that they will readily rise to the challenge. I will keep you up to date with their feedback. They had the opportunity to explain this new role to all of our boys and girls, during assembly on Friday.

The Easter raffle was also drawn during assembly and a wonderful hamper and additional prizes were given to the appropriate winners. Well done boys and girls. Some lucky children had also been awarded pupil of the week, in addition to winning a prize from the raffle- what a great day for them!

Our Lenten Charity event, designing an Easter basket, culminates this Friday, 23 rd March. Boys and girls have been given a cardboard template to cut out and design and a winning entry from each class will be announced during assembly. Children have been asked to donate £1, which will be donated to Missio. This is a wonderful charity and Pope Francis himself is a supporter of this important work. During Lent we are asked, not only to give something up, but also to pray and give to charity. We have been very lucky that Fr James has been celebrating mass for us in the Oratory and look forward to him celebrating mass next Monday, 26th March at 10am. This will be a community event and all of our pupils and staff will take part, in addition to Parishoners who usually attend 10am mass. We look forward to seeing you then.

Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Mark

Primary 1/2 – Enid

Primary 2/3 – Shannon

Primary 3 – Kerry

Primary 4 – Molly

Primary 4/5 – David

Primary 5/6 -Summer

Primary 6/7 – Ami

Primary 7 – Patrick

Cool Class Cup:  Primary 3

Winning House: Lochend