St Bartholomews

Our sponsored obstacle course was a great success. The children all loved their experience in the gym hall and enjoyed trying out new equipment and resources. A huge thank you to Vikki, from NLC Active Schools who organised this event. We will inform you of a final total from sponsorship contributions, after the deadline at the end of the month. I know that it will go to very good use and enhance learning experiences for all of our pupils. Thank you in advance for your donations.

Today, our Faith in Action pupil voice group are holding a wonderful event to help those in need. As you know, children are invited to wear non uniform and bring along a tin of soup for the helping hands soup kitchen in Coatbridge. This is a great idea that includes being a good citizen, whilst having fun, wearing a choice of clothes. It’s a win win situation!

School closes today at 3pm for the October break holiday and will reopen on Monday 23rd October at 9am. All the staff at St Bartholomew’s wish you all a wonderful holiday.

Mrs Bolland

Our pupil Council business meeting was a great success. Mrs McLean and I were incredibly impressed with the wonderful ideas that the children have devised in order to make St Bartholomew’s an even better place to learn. Some of the actions that the group have agreed, include; organising a litter busters rota and moving one of our bins nearer the football areas, after a recent survey suggested that the majority of rubbish gathers in that area. The re introduction of fruit bags and the introduction of ‘healthy homework’and also bringing back the buddy stop in the playground. These are only a few of the many great ideas that were discussed.
In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned that a little bird had told me that something exciting was afoot. The Faith in Action group have organised a special treat for all of our pupils in St Bartholomew’s. On Friday, boys and girls can come to school dressed in non uniform and as always, no football colours please. The group have also respectfully asked that children donate a tin of soup, as a contribution towards the Helling Hands Soup Kitchen in Coatbridge. This would help provide something warm to eat for the soup kitchen’s visitors, and would be especially useful at this time of year when the weather is getting colder. Your generosity, as always will be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this very important matter.
A quick reminder that it’s our sponsored obstacle course today. Any donations, however small, are very much appreciated and will go to good use. We will keep you posted on what our plans are for the contributions from this fundraising event. Children are permitted to come to school dressed in gym clothes. Long sleeved tops and track suit trouser/ jogging trousers would be advisable due to the nature and set up of the equipment . Check out our class pages and twitter for photographs of this exciting event!

Mrs Bolland

The lovely , smiling faces in the photograph above, belong to some of our Primary 1 pupils! They were first to arrive in my office with ‘ It’s time to take your jotter to see Mrs Bolland’ stickers. They are randomly placed in both daily writing and maths jotters so that I have the opportunity to make a comment in all of our pupils jotters. This allows me to keep up to date with core learning and catch up for a quick chat with the children. It is a lovely time, in a very often, hectic day!
As part of the feedback included within our comment board on Parents Evening, the new appointment booking system that NLC introduced was mentioned. The vast majority of people have been very positive about its use and the convenience of making appointments from the comfort of your own home. It is very much appreciated that there have been teething troubles, as there are with most new systems.In the future, please be advised that anyone experiencing difficulty gaining access online, please remember that the local library has constant internet access, and it’s free, which is even better! Failing that, Mrs Dunn and Mrs Clare are always happy to help and will organise your appointment manually.Thank you for your patience during these initial teething troubles and I am hopeful that this will not be the case in March, for our next Parents Evening.
Pupil voice groups all meet today and our leaders from Primary 7 will chair both the senior and infant meetings. I know that our groups have some wonderful ideas and a little bird tells me that our Faith in Action group may have a treat in store for everyone on Friday. Watch this space…

Mrs Bolland

St Bartholomew’s is a very busy place, even in the last week before the end of term! Our pupils are busy, both in and out of school. As you can see from the photograph above, some very talented young ladies have achieved fabulous success in dancing competitions. They popped in to my office, laden with the fruits of their labour. We are continually reminded, in St Bartholomew’s that our boys and girls have opportunities to develop their talents and gifts out with the classroom. Well done girls!

Our Primary 6/7 pupils are very busy rehearsing for their assembly on Friday. Their theme is based on recent topic work about the Scottish Parliament, which I know they have thoroughly enjoyed, and I am sure that you do too! Parents and carers are certainly in for a treat as I had a sneak preview ,yesterday, when children were taking part in rehearsals. As always, tea, coffee and treats will be available after the assembly and we look forward to welcoming you then.

All of our pupils are excited about taking part in the sponsored obstacle course on Thursday. You may remember that in years gone by, all of our pupils and staff walked around Drumpellier Loch as part of our annual sponsored event. This was very much dependent on the weather , hence the reason we decided to change it to a more reliable , indoor event where no umbrellas are required! Each class will now have the opportunity to enjoy some fun and try out some new sporting equipment at the same time. A huge thank you to Vikki from NLC Active Schools for organising this event.
Pupil Voice groups meet this week and I know that our newly elected leaders are looking forward to chairing meetings and reporting back to myself and Mrs McLean. We will keep you up to date with the outcome from the meetings.

Mrs Bolland

The photographs above illustrate our Pupil Voice leaders, who were elected democratically to their prestigious positions by their peers.They each represent;Health for Life, Eco, JRSO, Forward Together and Faith in Action.All groups are given equal importance and contribute positively to the life of the school.Each group works hard to make a difference for of the all pupils of St Bartholomew’s and we look forward to following their progress and examining their impact.

It is very important to all of the staff, and in fact, our entire parish community, that our pupils have an authentic and meaningful voice within the school. The boys and girls will provide the impetus for change and make many contributions towards improving their school. We will keep you up to date with future plans.Thank you boys and girls and the very best of luck in your new roles.

Mrs Bolland

Primary 1 – Ryan

Primary 1/2 Brooke

Primary 2/3 – Jennifer

Priamry 3 – Kaidyn

Primary 4 – Alex

Primary 4/5 – Sophie

Priamry 5/6 – Rhys

Primary 6/7 – Kacey

Primary 7 – Annie

Cool Class Cup : Primary 2/3

Winning House: Monklands

The photograph above illustrates an example of wonderful work in Primary 7.The children have been studying Scottish artists and have replicated some of this work. What a fabulous job! This is our final display board to be shown this week and I know that the children love having their work posted on the HT blog. There are always fantastic examples of children’s work on class pages, please ensure that you keep up to date with this through accessing class pages.
Our parent’s evening last night was a great success! Thank you to all of our parents and carers who came along to receive positive feedback on their child’s learning. It was great to see so many happy smiling faces, from both parents and children alike. As you know, we are always interested in your views and opinions and truly appreciated your cooperation with our feedback board. There was an abundance of positive and encouraging comments, alongside a couple of development points. All comments are important to us and assist in making St Bartholomew’s an even better place to learn. Thank you.
I hope that everyone has a very well deserved and enjoyable weekend, especially as it is the final week of term next week.

Mrs Bolland

As you can clearly see, the photograph above illustrates that St Bartholomew’s have won a gold award! We have been awarded this from Sports Scotland, after meeting a very robust set of criteria , where the organisation felt that we were deserving of the gold school sports award. This award is not readily given, and we are very lucky to receive it. In order to receive this prestigious award, we ensured that our pupils were given a huge variety of opportunities and experiences with regards to their physical health.A huge thank you to Vikki from NLC Active Schools who has been instrumental in coordinating a number of events throughout the year. We truly appreciate all of your help and support.

Talking of all things sporty…. Our Sponsored obstacle course will take place on Thursday 12th October. Due to the unpredictable nature of the weather, we have planned for this event to take place indoors. As you may recall, from past experience, the children love this event and very much look forward to taking part. Sponsor sheets will be with you shortly, please do not feel obligated to fill this page as a few sponsors from everyone will be sufficient. We will keep you up to date with how we intend to use this contributions towards school funds. Thank you in advance for your support with this matter.

As you as no doubt aware, Parent Interviews start at 3.15pm today and will continue into the evening. This is a wonderful opportunity to share in children’s progress and be assured that children have settled very well into St Bart’s, with the help of our wonderful teaching team! It would be very much appreciated if you adhere to our 10 minute appointment time, as you can imagine, there are a lot of parents and carers to see within a reasonably limited time frame. As always, we look forward to welcoming you to St Bartholomew’s Primary

Mrs Bolland

The photograph above represents some of the hard work that’s currently going on in Primary 6/7. Pupils have been thoroughly enjoying learning about Scottish politics and have increased their knowledge on current affairs, as a direct result. Well done boys and girls for producing such great art work.

The children have been super excited to view all of the fantastic books from the book fayre this week and will be picked up on Friday. Please remember that if a book is particularly popular, we can order a copy and normally takes a week or so to arrive. I am sure that the book fayre will be particularly popular tomorrow evening at parents evening due to the many wonderful reports that the children will receive. Please get in touch with Mrs Dunn or Mrs Clare if you require confirmation of your appointment time. We are all looking forward to seeing you then.

I am looking forward to welcoming a number of Head Teachers from North Lanarkshire Council to St Bartholomew’s today, so that we can share ideas on how to improve learning experiences for all of our pupils. I am very confident that they will be impressed with the wonderful manners and attitudes from our boys and girls.

Mrs Bolland

The photographs above illustrate the hard work carried out by Primary 3 and also , from our nursery children. Primary 3 pupils have been learning about the rainforest and the interesting animals that live there. This is such a wonderful topic and one that is rich in variety of learning opportunities. Our nursery boys and girls have been learning about themselves and how to talk about their likes and dislikes. This topic provides many opportunities for children to increase their talking and listening skills. I especially liked the home links that were developed with this topic. A big thank you to all of our wonderful staff in the nursery!

A big thank you is also extended to all of our parent helpers,supporting the children with the book fayre. This help is very much appreciated and essential to the success of such ventures. Children have been visiting the book fayre and keeping a note of books that they quite like the look of. Obviously, parents and carers will have the opportunity to purchase a book for their child on Thursday, at parents evening, although the opportunity to buy a book before Thursday is also available.
Mr Young popped in to the school yesterday along with a colleagues from the attainment challenge, both of whom were very impressed with our beautiful school and even more wonderful pupils! The children were super excited to see Mr Young again and he thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone again.

Mrs Bolland