St Bartholomews

Tickets for our annual Valentine’s disco will be on sale from the office, priced £1 from Thursday of this week. The disco is on Thursday 9th February.A big thank you to the parent helpers who have organised this.

Mrs MacIntyre has organised boxing and fitness sessions to take place today. This is part of our Health & WellBeing programme and allows the children to try out new sports and activities in order to increase fitness levels and improve health. All classes will be scheduled in throughout the day. Have fun boys and girls!

A reminder to Primary 1 parents and carers that a whole day trip to Summerlee is taking place tomorrow. I hope that the rain stays off – make sure that the children are suitably wrapped up just incase. This is a wonderful facility and we are very lucky that it is located so near the school in Coatbridge! I am looking forward to hearing about it and finding out what the children have learned.

Mrs Bolland 😉

Our ‘Running After School ‘ club is on today – hopefully it will be dry outside so that the children can experience the fresh air and the natural ‘ups and downs’ of the local terrain… Good luck boys and girls and thank you to Mrs McLean for organising this great club!

Just a wee reminder to parents and carers to phone the school when your child is absent, especially after a text has been sent as we have regulations to comply with if we don’t hear from anyone. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this matter.

The annual education mass is on at the Cathedral this evening at 7.30pm. As always, everyone is welcome and would encourage you to attend. A number of St Bartholomew’s teachers will be there and in fact two of our Primary 7 pupils have the privilege  of reading  the prayers of intercession during this very special service.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

 

Many of you will know that Mrs O’Neill currently works part-time as Primary RE advisor for Motherwell Diocese and has split her week between her two different jobs over the past two years. Although it’s very sad news for the school, I’m delighted for Mrs O’Neill that Bishop Toal has asked her to work full time for the diocese from mid-February. I imagine this will have been a difficult decision for Mrs O’Neill to make after teaching for almost 25 years in St Bartholomew’s. However, she has been flourishing in her role as RE Advisor and is very excited about the opportunity to devote more time and energy to supporting primary schools across the diocese. Mrs O’Neill’s last day will be Friday 10th February, just before the long weekend. We’ll have the opportunity to say cheerio and wish her well in a couple of weeks and, of course, will still see Mrs O’Neill in St Bartholomew’s every so often as our RE Advisor. Well done on your new full-time position, Mrs O’Neill!

The parish Pray for our School group meets in the oratory tomorrow morning. With me being out of school two days a week, it’s been some considerable time since I’ve had the chance to pop in to chat to members of the group. Please can I take this opportunity, then, to thank this group of parishioners for continuing to give of their time to pray for our school. You play a vital role in the success of St Bartholomew’s.

Finally, just a wee reminder of some important dates this term:

Valentines Disco: Thursday 9th February
Holiday: Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th February
Inservice Day: Wednesday 15th February (school closed to pupils)
Parents Evening: Thursday 9th March
First Reconciliation: Tuesday 14th March (exact times to follow)
School Show (‘A Night on Broadway): Thursday 30th March (afternoon and evening performances)

Primary 1 – Guy

Primary 2 – Amy

Primary 2/3 – Rhys

Primary 3 – Lucie

Primary 4 – Stuart

Primary 5 – Ami

Primary 6 – Kiera

Primary 6/7 – Heather

 

Cool Class Cup: Primary 1

Winning House: Lochend

Thanks to the generosity of St Bartholomew’s pupils, Euan McArthur from the Apostleship of the Sea will be popping along to our whole school assembly this morning to collect a cheque for £150. The Apostleship of the Sea was our Advent charity last term and we pray that our small donation will help further their important work with seafarers around the coast of Scotland.

Please can I remind all blog readers that our annual Education Mass, marking the opening of Catholic Education Week, takes place a week on Sunday, 5th February. The Mass will begin at 11.00am in St Bartholomew’s Church and it would be wonderful to see the pews filled with pupils and parents.

I wonder who our Pupil of the Week line up will be today? Keep an eye on the website to see the list of proud winners, along with the winning House and Cool Class.

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I’ve very much enjoyed following one particular class on Twitter during my two days out of school this week. Primary 1 have been busy using our brand new STEM Zone over the past few days and it’s been great to see them so engrossed in the fantastic construction materials, designed to inspire and challenge their inquisitive minds. I also noticed on Twitter that the second Primary 1 GLOW homework club has taken place, giving pupils and parents the opportunity to learn together in our Digital Learning Zone.

As you know, we had enrolments for new Primary 1 pupils last week and there was a very healthy turn-out. With our new Primary 1s, our projected school roll for August 2017 is approximately 220, an increase of almost 80 pupils in five years. We’ve still to take a close look at numbers across the school, but it’s almost certain we’ll need to form a ninth class. It’s really encouraging to see St Bartholomew’s flourishing.

St Bartholomew’s is also about to become a busier place due to the arrival of some very young additions to our school community. Our nursery extension for 2 year olds is now complete and is just about ready to receive its first child. I retweeted a photograph from St Thomas’s Primary in Wishaw earlier this week; they welcomed their first two year old on Monday.

Happy Burns Night.I am sure there will be some celebrations this evening that may involve haggis, neeps and tatties….Enjoy!

Our Primary 7 pupils will be looking forward to their visit from St Ambrose High School staff this morning. I know that they will be keen to impress…the staff were full of compliments for behaviour , manners and appearance on the previous visit. I am confident that the children will receive a very similar report.

Ms Allington is very kindly taking some of her after school club pupils to a gymnastics festival later on this morning to Airdrie Academy. I am looking forward to hearing how the boys and girls got on. Good luck everyone!

As scheduled, both the Glow and Netball after school clubs are on later this afternoon. I know that the boys and girls are eagerly anticipating these fantastic clubs. Thank you to Mrs Carlin and Mrs MacFarlane for committing their own time to this.

Our Primary 1 children had a fantastic time in our newly created STEM zone. They were the first class in the school to experience some of the new resources. Mrs MacIntyre has been working hard on setting up this area and it is a huge success. There are lots of opportunities to create wonderful models. Check out the photographs on Twitter- they are awesome…

Our first Parent Council meeting of the year occurred last night, where we discussed how we are intend to implement the next three year’s plan for the school. As always ,exciting ideas are on the horizon…

Mrs Bolland 😀

We’re sending a netball team to a tournament in Bellshill today. Good luck, team! Staying on the theme of keeping fit and active, the Zumba club for Primary 2 and 3 pupils takes place after school.

Our annual whole-school photo will be taken today. John Wilson photographers will work their usual magic by taking 200+ individual photographs and painstakingly combining them into one photograph that looks as if we were all standing perfectly in rows in the hall. Clever stuff, indeed! A class photograph will also be taken of Primary 1 and Primary 7 for those parents/carers who would like to purchase a keep-sake of these two milestone years in their child’s education.

Finally, the Parent Council meets at 6.00pm this evening in the staffroom.

Primary 1 – Lucie

Primary 2 – Kalinka

Priamry 2/3 – Maddison

Primary 3 – Layla

Primary 4- Grace

Primary 5 – Wiktor

Primary 6/7 – Paige

 

Cool Class Cup : Primary 1

Winning House: Summerlee