St Bartholomews

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

Happy St Andrew’s day everyone ! As always, our pupils are encouraged to wear a wee bit of Tartan today. A little bit of ribbon, a scarf or socks is absolutely fine. Please do not buy anything new for this very low key event. There are enough higher profile events coming up shortly, such as the Nativity play, Christmas Concert, parties and choir visits. St Bartholomew’s is a very place indeed!

Our Primary 7 pupils had a wonderful time yesterday, during their visit to St Ambrose High School. This was a great opportunity for our pupils to make connections with the staff and pupils. I am looking forward to hearing about in detail…

Our dedicated teaching staff had a development meeting last night about evaluating the catholicity of our school, in order to think about any future improvements that we can make. Fr James very kindly joined us and was impressed with the quality feedback that all of our teaching staff provided from this activity.Thank you for your input everyone.

Christmas plates will be judged today and prizes will be awarded to one lucky pupil from each class. I am looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful entries. I know from experience, last year, that this is a very tricky task! Thank you to everyone for all of your donations for class hampers and we will put them together tomorrow, in time for the Fayre on Saturday. Remember, the Fayre starts at 10am, tickets are on sale at the door. We look forward to welcoming you then.

Mrs Bolland

Our Primary 7 pupils will be taking part in an exciting transition event at St Ambrose High School today. Sixth year STEM leaders will be working with our boys and girls in small groups, whilst completing a series of short, fun experiments. This event will take place in the Community Centre, instead of the school hall, and I am reliably informed that the school’s hall will be full of sequence and fake tan as rehearsals for Strictly will be taking place today!

The children will set off from St Bart’s at 9.30 am as they have a prompt 9.45 am start . It would be greatly appreciated if boys and girls bring a packed lunch, and as always, those in receipt of free meals will be provided with a pack a snack from our dining hall. The reason for this is due to lunch time being out with that of the High  School’s and as a consequence,the canteen will be closed. The workshop will finish at 2.15pm, where the children will make their way back to school, in plenty of time for the 3pm bell. A big thank you to our parent helpers, who are supervising the children on this outing.

A quick reminder to parents and carers to hand in Christmas plates, for judging, on Thursday and it would also be very much appreciated if  any donations for class hampers could be handed in by this date. Thank you very much in advance for your support with this matter.

Mrs Bolland