St Bartholomews

North Lanarkshire Council is hosting toy giveaways,taking place in many locations across North Lanarkshire. The next event takes place in Coatbridge today. If your family, or any family you know,needs some extra help this Christmas tell them about the council’s free toy giveaway today. Come along to the Kings church on the 13th December between 4pm- 7pm. Please spread the news!

Our boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed  their Christmas lunch yesterday. All hands were on deck,as staff very quickly served every pupil in the school. It was the fastest service yet! A huge thank you to Susan and Sandra for cooking such a delicious meal. The children ate up all of their turkey and steak pie, with very little waste. They finished off with ice cream and a chocolate treat. I think many of our pupils were incredibly full up in the afternoon and were probably a little tired when they left at 3pm.

Hopeful everyone will be full of energy today as it’s dress

rehearsal day, for our Primary 4 – Primary 7 pupils, and their last opportunity to practise their Christmas carols and songs before performing in front of mums and dads on Thursday. Please purchase tickets from the office, prior to the event. Thank you.

Mrs Bolland

These two young ladies appeared in my office ,this afternoon, to tell me about their wonderful success. The young lady on the left won two prizes, one first prize for ‘fast ‘ dance and the other for third place in ‘slow ‘dance. Our other young superstar won first prize for ‘ slow’ dance. What a talented bunch… look out ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ !

It’s Christmas Lunch today! Our pupils, teachers and  support staff thoroughly look forward to and enjoy this day. The dining room has a great atmosphere about it, with Christmas tunes in the background and lovely , decorated tables. All made extra special with teaching staff serving the starters, main courses and puddings to our wonderful pupils.

Please remember that our Primary 4 to 7 pupils are performing a variety of Christmas hymns and carols for their parents and carers on Thursday, this week. Tickets are available from the office. As always, Mrs Dunn and Mrs Clare will be happy to assist.

Mrs Bolland

We are entering a very busy period in St Bartholomew’s. Please refer to your Christmas newsletter to remind yourself of the variety of important dates that are coming up. On Tuesday we are hosting our annual Christmas lunch. This is a wonderful experience for everyone at St Bart’s as teacher have the opportunity to serve the children their lunch, with Christmas music playing in the background and beautifully decorated tables . I can’t wait!

We have ‘Big Bingo’ on Wednesday. Please remember to ask your child to buy  tickets for adult guests, from Primary 7. Tickets are £2 each, and only adults are required to pay. It will be a fabulous morning with lots of fun prizes to be won. This is a great opportunity to work alongside your child and see what goes on in their classroom on a daily basis- lots of hard work and fun!

Thurdsay is the day when our Primary 4 to Primary 7 pupils will performing for parents, carers and friends of St Bartholomew’s in their Christmas concert.Tickets are on sale from the office, and as always, Mrs Dunn and Mrs Clare will be delighted to assist. I have heard the children rehearsing and can assure you that you are in for a treat. We have such  talented boys and girls in St Bart’s…

On Friday , our Faith in Action group are organising a cake sale on behalf of Missio. This is a wonderful charity and know that we can rely on your continued support with giving to others at this very important time of year where we try very hard to remember others, both in our prayers and by charitable deeds. We appreciate your help and support.

Mrs Bolland.

Primary 1 – Oskar

Primary 1/2 – C-Jay

Primary 2/3 – Cheyenne

Primary 3 – Ellie

Primary 5/6 – Cameron

Primary 6/7 – Ami

Priamry 7 – Oscar

Cool Class Cup: Primary 4

Winning House: Drumpellier

The Forward Together pupil voice group are organising a ‘Big Bingo’ parental engagement event on Wednesday, next week on the 13th of December. Tickets are priced £2 for adults, as children are not required to pay in order to attend the event. Tickets can be bought from the P7 class, so please ask your child to pop in with the appropriate amount of money. The vast majority of money raised from ticket sales will be used on bingo prizes, hence the reason we need to be fully aware of numbers prior to Wednesday.Parents/carers and other family members are asked to join their child’s class just after 9am. Primary 7 children will meet guests in the foyer and take them along to the appropriate class.This will be a fun filled activity and we promise that questions will not be too tricky!
Talking of fun…Our pupils had a fabulous day yesterday, at the Pantomime in Glasgow. They said it was the best show yet. St Bartholomew’s pupils were a credit to themselves, their families and the school, and were all incredibly well behaved. The teachers and parent helpers had a great time and they especially enjoyed meeting the cast after the school. This is something that is a little bit special and that everyone appreciates. Please check out on pictures on twitter.

We will be attending mass on Thursday the 21st of December in order that all of our pupils and staff start their Christmas holiday with a special blessing, before the end of term.As always, we need parent helpers.Please contact the school office and speak to Mrs Dunn or Mrs Clare if you are able volunteer.

Mrs Bolland

It’s panto day! The children have been looking forward to this day for some time now, and it has finally arrived. We will all be leaving St Bartholomew’s around 9.30am,for the 11 o’clock show at the Pavillion theatre in Glasgow. The children will be in for a treat as The Pavillion have decided to go back to a more traditional theme and I am sure that everyone will very readily get into the Christmas spirit and be very much in the mood for all that this festive season  has to offer.

Boys and girls are asked to bring a packed lunch along, and those in receipt of free meals will receive a pack a snack. Children will have the opportunity to eat this during the interval and will also receive an ice cream. At the end of the show, the cast will pop up to meet all the children. This is something that the children love and is a very nice ‘little extra’. All of this is courtesy Mark and Lucy Millar , who very kindly organise this for us, every year. We truly appreciate this generosity. Thank you Mark and Lucy.

We will all return before 3pm, in time for the bell. Be prepared for some very excited children!

Mrs Bolland

Our Primary 5 pupils had a fantastic time at the Time Capsule yesterday. They had the opportunity to learn new skills in the dry sports area and then swap over with the other half of the class to the swimming pool. Ms Kiernan reports that the boys and girls were a credit to the school and that everyone listened attentively to their instructions. Something that is very important when you are in a pool full of water!

Pupil Voice meetings are on today, where our various groups will meet together to discuss how to improve learning experiences for our pupils. Mrs McLean and I are looking forward to our ‘Business Meeting’ where a chairperson from each group will report back with the groups’ future plans.

Please look out for a Christmas newsletter in your child’s school bag. Mrs Dunn has organised a letter with all the necessary dates for your diary. There are so many different things going on at this time of year that we thought it necessary to provide a guide of what’s going on.

Mrs Bolland

As you can see from the photograph above, we are gold winners! We were visited by Sportscotland, yesterday, who awarded us a gold school sport award. This is in recognition for all of the hard work that staff, pupils ,parents/carers and of course Vikki from NLC Active Sports have contributed over the past year. The award is given on very specific criteria and a wide variety of supporting evidence must be presented to comply with achieving gold standard. Our boys and girls have proven that they are very active in sports related activities and that St Bartholomew’s provide a huge range of sporting activities and opportunities. Well done boys and girls!

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I would provide a grand total from the Christmas Fayre. We are delighted to announce that £2429.80 was made from all of the efforts from this annual event. Much appreciation to everyone in the St Bart’s community. This money will be put to very good use in order to enhance the learning experiences of our very well deserving pupils.

A reminder to our Primary 5 parents and carers that  swimming lessons begin today. As always, we will share transport with Townhead Primary to visit the Time Capsule in Coatbridge, where children will take part in both dry sports in addition to swimming lessons. What a wonderful opportunity! Please remember locker money and  both swimming and gym kits.

Mrs Bolland

Priamry 1 – Ewan

Priamry 1/2 – Louisa

Priamry 2/3 – Lucie

Priamry 3 – Marysa

Priamry 4 – Brogan

Priamry 4/5 – Logan

Primary 5/6 – Gary

Priamry 6/7 – Keira

Primary 7 – John

The Christmas Fayre was a great success on Saturday and Mrs Dunn will be counting all of the contributions this morning. I will be able to post a final figure on how much we have raised on tomorrow’s blog. Fingers crossed, it is our best one yet! There was certainly lots of activity in our hall and most people left, laden with gifts and other goodies. Boys and girls, both from our school and out with, enjoyed their visit to Santa and they were able to let him know what they wanted for Christmas, in person.

A huge thank you to all of our parent helpers who spent a considerable amount of time and effort organising this event. As you can imagine, an awful lot of work goes on behind the scenes, so that we can all enjoy a fabulous day and raise as much money as we can. Thank you ladies.

I was back in Coatbridge yesterday, attending the sacramental enrolement  mass in St Bartholomew’s church at 11.30 am. Boys and girls from Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 6 and Primary 7  were asked by Fr James to come along , with their families, to enrol themselves for their appropriate sacrament. It was lovely to see the Church so vibrant and full of our young people in the community. Long may it last!

Mrs Bolland