St Bartholomews

The images above depict the wonderful work that is going on in Primary 1 and Primary 1 / 2. This illustrates a common theme in both classes, related to Religious Education , where the children examined and appreciated the creation of themselves and their loved ones. What a fantastic activity, and I know that it would have been one that produced insightful discussion,that both supports and contributes towards our Catholic ethos.

Our Primary 7 pupils set off for Kilbowie just after 9 0’clock yesterday morning. Mrs McLean has phoned to say that all the children and staff, arrived safe and well in Oban around lunch time. It wasn’t long before the boys and girls were gathering up equipment and suitable outdoor clothing in order to start their first activity. I am sure that it would have been early to bed for everyone! It’ll be an early alarm call this morning, with a full day of fun activities scheduled. Please keep up to date with the children’s progress on twitter and, of course, the blog.
Thank you to many of our parents who have responded very positively to their children’s interim report. This report simply provides a sense of how children are settling in to class and responding to their learning environment. Long may this great success continue for many of our pupils!

Mrs Bolland

I hope that the break for September weekend has provided a nice relaxing break for all of our pupils, parents and staff and now feel refreshed and ready to get back to work! The end of the first term is upon us, although we have lots of exciting plans, before the last day of term. Parents evening takes place on Thursday 5th October and although there have been teething problems with our new online appointments booking system, I have also received positive feedback on how convenient it was. I always appreciate feedback  from our parents and carers and look forward to keeping informed with how we are doing!

Our Primary 7 pupils will be setting off for Kilbowie this morning, and will be looking forward to three nights away from their familiar routines and surroundings. As always, we will keep parents and carers up to date with progress on Twitter and the daily HT blog. Could I ask that parents and carers please remember to provide children with travel sickness medication in plenty time before the journey.Thank you for your cooperation in advance with this important matter.

Mrs McGuiness will be in today and the pupils from our junior department are looking forward to their cookery lesson. I suspect that some very tempting aromas will be wafting out of our kitchen today, and will need to ensure that I am in the vicinity when the finished products come out of the oven. We also extend a warm welcome to Lesley McSherry from Community Learning and Development,who will be visiting our nursery today and look forward to catching up with her.

Mrs Bolland

The photograph above illustrates our first ‘ Business Meeting’ from the Pupil Voice groups. The meetings from all six groups were a great success ,and  teachers commented on how well the P7 leaders conducted themselves. The purpose of the meeting is for the Chairperson and Secretary from each pupil voice group to report on the content of meetings and specifically, what actions will be taken. I am looking forward to the  impact that our pupils will make, so that St Bart’s becomes  an even better learning environment.

Please remember that school is closed on Friday and Monday for the September weekend, we look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday of next week. I hope that all of our pupils, parents and staff enjoy a well deserved break. It has been a very busy start to the first term.

Mrs Bolland

We had a visit from our numeracy support officer, from NLC, who was very impressed with all the procedures and resources that we have in place. So much so, that we will be used as an example of good practice and teachers from other schools will be visiting us shortly. Our visitor was blown away with the wonderful learning environment that the team at St Bartholomew’s has created. Naturally, our boys and girls demonstrated wonderful manners and were true ambassadors for St Bart’s . Thank you boys and girls.

Pupil Voice groups start today, for the first time this session and we are all super excited! This is a wonderful opportunity for all of our pupils’ voices to be heard in a meaningful way. As always, our Primary 7’s will fulfill the roles of secretary and chairperson for each group and will offer support to our younger pupils. I am looking forward to hearing about the great ideas that come from each group at our ‘Business Meeting’, later on in the afternoon.

Mrs Dunn has recently typed a letter, explaining a new system that NLC has put in place to provide online appointments for Parents Evening. Mrs Dunn has also sourced an instruction booklet that will be  given out to our parents and carers, to provide some initial support to access this new system. This should make the process of organising appointments more efficient and appropriate to individual preferences.

Our weekly prayer service will start at 8.45am, and as always, be lead by the children. This service provides a lovely start to the day and I would encourage as many people from our parish community to attend.

Mrs Bolland

I thought it was worth sharing  a very poignant gospel reflection from Matthew 18:21-35;

God’s mercy towards us is strictly linked to the mercy we show others. In fact, there are many people whose relationship with God is at a complete standstill because they cannot or will not forgive someone who has upset them or offended them in the past.And our relationship with God will remain at a standstill until we have the courage to reach out the hand of forgiveness to our ‘enemies’.The reason that it is difficult or even impossible for some to forgive is because we are trying to do so with our own strength, when it can only be done with God’s help.

We need to pray for the opportunity to make things right with our brothers and sisters and for the grace to recognise and accept the opportunity when he offers it to us.

Mrs Bolland

Maths week went very well last week, with lots of exciting and new activities organised for the children and then topped off rather nicely with the ‘Family Maths Quiz’. Thank you for your support and for all the positive comments on feedback forms. It is much appreciated.A huge thank you to all of our staff who organised their own events in class, whole school events and those involving parents and carers. There is a selection of photographs on Twitter to illustrate this.

Please remember to keep up to date with everything that is happening in St Bart’s through Twitter and class pages. There is always a nice selection of photographs and text about about the children’s work.

This week ,and next week are four day weeks, as the school is closed on Friday and Monday for the September weekend. I am sure that our new Primary 1 boys and girls will be looking forward to the rest! They have coped really well with the transition from nursery to Primary school and are all working hard, thank you to Mrs Carlin and Ms Duffy.

Fr James will be popping in today to give out letters to our sacramental classes. We look forward to welcoming him in St Bartholomew’s and I hope that many of you have had the opportunity to meet him at mass.

Thank you to all of our parents and carers who have appreciated the importance of allowing the children a bit of space in the morning, and not standing too near the lines before 9 o’clock. This means that the boys and girls can  properly prepare for the day ahead . It is much appreciated.

Mrs Bolland

It’s the final day of Maths Week! The children have had brilliant fun, whilst learning new skills and increasing their knowledge at the same time. As you can see, from the pictures above, our senior pupils are thoroughly enjoying themselves. They had to work collaboratively and systematically in order to answer ‘tricky’ questions ,which then allowed them to collect a number of clues that then contributed towards working out codes that would unlocked their respective boxes. It was exciting stuff…

Today, we are finishing Maths Week with a bang. Our family maths quiz takes place in the hall, younger children will take part with their families in the morning and then, senior pupils will do the same in the afternoon. Answers to the quiz will then be read out and after that, family members will be encouraged to take part in  the eight activities, set up in the hall.There are; games, puzzles,maths trails and lots of other fun activities for everyone to enjoy.Tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits  will then be served. A big thank you to Mrs MacFarlane for organising this event! We look forward to seeing you there.

Mrs Bolland

Our Primary 4/5 parents and carers are in for a treat this morning! As it is ‘Maths Week’, with the theme being ‘ Making Maths Count’, Ms Allington has organised a parental engagement event with this in mind. Parents and carers have been asked to join the children in class at 9.15am, this allows administrative tasks such as registration and lunch arrangements to be completed, prior to hosting this event. Parents are welcome to wait in our reception area after the bell has gone, and before the event.

Ms Allington has planned exciting maths tasks for the children to carry out alongside their parents. I’m sure everyone will have a super time and I look forward to popping in to Primary 4/5’s class to join in with the fun!
Mrs McLean has organised some fantastic events to take place this week, in the name of ‘ Maths Week’. The gym hall will be booked out all day as our infant pupils in Primary 1- Primary 3 will be taking part in some fantastic problem solving activities. The skills that the children will learn through this experience are invaluable and are readily transferred to future learning.
On a completely different note, please come along to our weekly prayer service in the oratory. This service is lead by the children and instills a great sense of duty and responsibility in them, whilst deepening their faith at the same time. It is a truly wonderful start to the day and as always, the invitation is extended to everyone in our parish community.
Mrs Bolland

Yesterday, we had ‘Alan’s road safety magic show’ in St Bart’s for our Primary 1-Primary 4 pupils and also for the same stage of pupils at Townhead primary. The laughter from the boys and girls could be heard at the other end of the school!Great fun was had by all, and all in the name of important information about road safety .What a super afternoon.

A big thank you to all of our parents and carers who attended the Kilbowie information evening. It was great to see such a good turn out and a number of people commented on how reassured they felt after the meeting. The children couldn’t hide their enthusiasm as they watched the video clip about Kilbowie, which gave a great insight into what to expect in terms of activities and day to day life. As always, during the trip to Kilbowie, we will continually keep parents up to date via Twitter and the blog, in order to follow the children’s progress.

Ian Webb from community learning and development will pop in today to speak to our Primary 7 children about the local youth group. Community projects like this are a fantastic opportunity for children from all over Townhead to get together and get to know one another a little better. Thank you Ian!
Mrs Bolland