St Bartholomews

Happy St Patrick’s Day to everyone in St Bart’s!

I’m very much looking forward to this morning’s whole-school assembly. Last week, each class performed one of their school show songs at assembly and every class was absolutely FANTASTIC! The children will perform their second song to the rest of the school today… I can’t wait!

Mrs Bolland will be meeting with a group of parents/carers from across the school this afternoon to get some final feedback and input on our new three-year strategic plan as well as the priorities for the 2017/18 School Improvement Plan. There will also be some discussion about how we can best spend our Pupil Equity Fund. The outcomes of this afternoon’s consultation will be reported on next week’s blog to allow our whole parent body to give any final input on our future plans for the school.

To our whole school community: have a great weekend, once it arrives.

The Scottish SPCA will be in St Bart’s today to help the children learn about the important work of the charity. Primary 1-3 will have a special assembly and Primary 4-7 pupils will take part in activities within their own classrooms.

We’re delighted to welcome Mrs Eileen Rafferty, Head Teacher of St Anthony’s Primary School in Rutherglen, to St Bartholomew’s this morning. Mrs Rafferty is coming to see Active Literacy in Primary 1 and Primary 6. I know she’ll be very impressed with our hard-working pupils and I’m sure she’ll leave with lots of information and ideas on how to implement the North Lanarkshire Active Literacy programme back in St Anthony’s.

Finally, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to say a formal ‘well done’ to our Primary 3 pupils who celebrated their First Reconciliation on Tuesday evening. There were a few nerves when the children arrived at the church, but 100% smiles by the time they left. “I feel washed clean!” was one of the comments as a pupil left the church. That put a huge smile on my face!

Tickets for our school show, ‘A night on Broadway’ are now on sale from the school office. Tickets are priced at £2 and are limited to two per family, until next Thursday, when surplus tickets can then be available on a first come basis.We are restricted with fire regulations and need to be careful not to exceed this limit.We appreciate your understanding in advance with this important matter.

Our boys and girls have been rehearsing in the hall and in class and I have to admit that they all sound great. As always, St Bartholomew’s puts on a brilliant show and is very much down to the talent of our pupils. Mr Young plays a huge role in the musical accompaniment of each show and we have been extremely lucky to have such a gifted musician in our school!

I am looking forward to working with a number of parents in a focus group that I have organised on Friday. The main aim of this is to consult with parents on our plans for the next three years in St Bart’s. It is always interesting to listen to a variety of opinions and views  and look forward to including these in our future plans. Thank you to everyone who is able to attend, I appreciate your support.

As always, on a Wednesday, Box Fitness after school club is on so please remember kits etc and our Primary 6 pupils have the good fortune to receive training from St Ambrose sports leaders.

Mrs Bolland 😀

Our Primary 3 pupils are looking forward to joining their mums and dads at a short prayer service in the school at 2.15pm.This will be led by Fr Doherty and will be the final part of preparation for their sacrament of Reconciliation which will take place in the evening at St Bartholomew’s Church. Children have all been given allocated time slots, which range from 6pm until 7pm.

The children are all very well prepared and are looking forward to this very important and special part of their spiritual journey of faith. I would encourage our parish community to pray for our boys and girls at this very special time.

Our Primary 5 pupils are looking forward to the input from the Badminton coaches who will be teaching our children some crucial skills during the school day as part of their P.E curriculum. It always looks like everyone is having great fun when I am walking past the gym hall!

Talking of all things sporty – our After School Runniung club is on again today, so please remember kits etc. Again, fingers crossed for nice weather, or at least dry weather…

Mrs Bolland 🙂

St Bartholomew’s is always very keen to learn from other schools, as well as share our own ideas and good practice with others. Mrs McLean and I are heading to St Thomas’s Primary in Wishaw this morning to find out how their staff are supporting the children’s learning. We’ve heard lots of good things about St Thomas’s and are very much looking forward to our visit. We’re confident we’ll pick up some new ideas to bring back to St Bart’s.

If you haven’t been on Twitter for a while, it’s well worth a visit. Six of our eight classes have already had the chance to spend time in our new STEM Zone, and there are lots of fantastic photographs on Twitter showing some of the children’s amazing technological creations. It’s the turn of Primary 6/7 this week and I’m sure the children will enjoy the experience as much as Primary 1 – 5 have over the past few weeks.

Primary 1 – Harvey

Primary 2 – Ella

Primary 2/3 – Naia

Primary 3 – Sophie

Primary 4 – Sean

Primary 5 – Luka

Primary 6 – Charlie Joe

Primary 6/7 – Patrick

It was great to see such a healthy turnout at Parents’ Evening last night. Thank you for taking the time to complete our annual parent/carer questionnaire and for giving your feedback on our updated three-year strategic plan. This information will be collated over the next week and used to shape future developments and improvements in St Bartholomew’s.

Thank you too for all your kind words following the announcement that I will be beginning a secondment in headquarters at the end of this term. What was most encouraging for me, however, was the overwhelming sense of confidence and optimism amongst parents about the future of our school. If I have managed to lead the school to a place where it has the capacity to continue to develop and flourish without me, then I have succeeded in doing what I set out to do five years ago. Thank you for the huge vote of confidence in St Bart’s last night! As the letter that was sent out on Monday said: “One thing’s for sure: the future’s bright and exciting for St Bart’s!”

Our whole-school assembly this morning will focus on our school show, ‘A Night on Broadway’, which takes to the stage on Thursday 30th March. Each class will perform one of their songs to the rest of the school today to help build their confidence and get them over any wee touches of stage fright. The children are sounding fantastic already and the show’s guaranteed to be a fantastic end to the term. Tickets go on sale next week.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at Parents’ Evening after school today and I know the teachers have lots of good news to share about the children’s learning and progress.

We would appreciate it if you would take the opportunity to complete our annual parent/carer questionnaire when you arrive this evening. Your views and feedback are vital in helping St Bartholomew’s make ongoing improvements.

The Book Fayre will be open as usual, with a wide range of books for all ages. Please remember that the school receives commission on every book sold, so every sale will help add to the stock of our library.

Sports Leaders from St Ambrose High School will be in today to work with our Primary 6’s. The children have loved  this experience so far as the leaders provide a good role model and example of how accessible it is to be in a leadership role. It also allows our children to look ahead in to the not too distant future at the many opportunities that can come their way with a little hard work and dedication.

Claire Gordon from Oral Health will also be in today to work with some of our pupils. Healthy teeth is very important to overall health and wellbeing and is something that we hope to invest more time and resources to. Claire always reminds the children how much regular brushing makes to maintaining healthy teeth and gums. Thank you Claire, we appreciate your support!

The second session of Box Finess after school club is on today. I know that the children thoroughly enjoyed it last week and are very much looking forward to it in the coming weeks.

We are all looking forward to seeing you at Parents’ evening tomorrow and will be happy to hear about the children’s success. Seee you all soon.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Thank you to Primary 5 for making me feel so welcome in their class yesterday. I was so impressed with the children’s maturity, work ethic, independence and focus. I almost felt as if I was in a P7 classroom! I spoke to a focus group at the end of the afternoon (see selfie below!) and the children spoke very positively about their class and the school:
“Being in Primary 5 is fantastic! Mrs McFarlane always has good fun with us.”
“I like that the class is so quiet and happy; I can always get on with my work.”
“Mrs McFarlane gives us lots of choice and makes homework fun.”
“I think the class and the school are amazing! The staff are friendly and the building is really nice.”
“This school is outstanding! It’s really calm and people are well behaved. The dinners are good too!”
I know that many of you will have already read the important letter that was put in school bags yesterday. However, for readers who are not parents/carers, I thought it would be a good idea to include the letter on today’s blog.