St Bartholomews

A huge well done to our nursery boys and girls for their fantastic performance in ‘Pop up Nativity’, which they performed to their parents and families on Friday. You looked and sounded absolutely fantastic and everyone was ultra-impressed by how well you remembered all those words! Well done to our nursery children, as well as to the staff for all their hard work.

Primary 4-7 (as well as Mr Young!) will spend much of today rehearsing for our Christmas concert. We’ve stuck to our usual format: two carols/songs and a Christmas reading from each class, sandwiched between all 100+ P4-7 pupils taking to the stage at the beginning and end of the concert to entertain the audience with a variety of festive songs. This year’s highlights include two Latin verses of Adeste Fideles, a jazzed-up version of Jingle Bells and a beautiful arrangement of ‘When Christmas comes to Town’ from Polar Express. The concert begins at 1.30pm, and tickets are on sale from the school office, priced £1.00.

We still have St Bartholomew’s Christmas cards left over from the Christmas Fayre. These will be on sale at this Wednesday’s concert and at next Monday’s P1-3 Nativity.

The boys and girls (as well as the adults!) thoroughly enjoyed the pantomime in Glasgow yesterday. ‘Elfie’s Magical Adventure’ went down a treat and the smiles and laughter are there for all to see on Twitter. A huge thank you, once again, to Mark Millar OBE for funding this annual trip.

Today sees the start of our Christmas shows/concerts, with our nursery children being the first to take to the stage. I’ve enjoyed listening and watching the boys and girls practise for their nativity over the past few weeks and am very much looking forward to seeing the two performances today. Of course, it’s no small feat getting a crowd of 3 and 4 year olds onto a stage and for them to remember all their words and songs… Thank you to the nursery staff for all your hard work, patience and perseverance!

Don’t forget to grab your tickets for next Wednesday’s P4-7 concert and for the P1-3 Nativity which takes place on Monday 19th.

A big thank you to our parent/ grandparent helpers who helped escort the Primary 5 children to the Time Capsule yesterday,for their weekly swimming lesson. Great fun was had by all and I hear that some of our pupils are showing great promise as good swimmers.

As always, both the Art and Christmas Crafts after school clubs are on today. I know that the boys and girls love to put their creative ideas into practice and I am looking forward to the results!

Our Primary 2 pupils were visiting Summerlee Heritage Park yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed their time there. Plenty of compliments were given to the boys and girls for their lovely manners and smart appearance. We don’t expect any less from St Bart’s boys and girls…

Mrs Bolland:)

Our primary 5 pupils will be visiting the Time Capsule again, as part of their Physical Education programme. Ms Duffy reported that the boys and girls were a credit to the school and that staff at the Time Capsule were very happy with the behaviour and good manners demonstrated by St Bartholomew’s children. Well done boys and girls! I am looking forward to a similar report later on this afternoon.

The Origami after school club will be on today and I am curious to see what creative pieces the children will be producing….. Thank you Ms Seggie for organising this wonderful club.

As always, our prayer service will take place in the Oratory tomorrow morning at 8.50am and a warm welcome is extended to everyone in our community. I can’t believe that we will be lighting the third candle on the advent wreath this Sunday! Time flies when you are having fun….

Mrs Bolland

Two weeks’ worth of Pupils of the Week will finally get Tea with Mr Young today. Thank you for waiting so patiently, boys and girls!

We’re all very excited about our annual whole-school trip to the pantomime this coming Thursday. Thanks, as always, to the generosity of Mark Millar OBE, our whole school community will make the short journey to Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre for ‘Elfie’s Magical Adventure’. What a treat!

A wee reminder of our other Christmas events before the end of term:

Friday 9th: Nursery Christmas Show (10.00am and 2.00pm)
Wednesday 14th: Primary 4-7 Christmas Concert (1.30pm)
Monday 19th: P1-3 Nativity (2.00pm)

Tuesday 20th: Primary 4 and 5 Christmas Party
Wednesday 21st: Primary 1 – 3 Christmas Party
Thursday 22nd: 6 and 7 Christmas Party

Primary 1 – Gabrys

Primary 2 – Ryan

Primary 2/3 – Cara

Primary 3 – Hayley

Primary 4 – Jayden

Primary 5 – Jake

Primary 6 – Des

Primary 6/7 – Olivia

Winning House: Lochend

Cool Class Cup: Primary 5

Friday already! I’m looking forward to finding out this week’s eight Pupils of the Week at assembly. As always, there’s been some great work going on across the school and I imagine it will be a tricky decision for each teacher to choose just one pupil.

The children are now busy practising for their Christmas concerts and it’s lovely to hear various festive songs coming from classrooms as I walk through the corridors. Don’t forget to buy your tickets in advance from the school office, priced £1. Due to fire regulations, we are limited in the number of chairs we can set out in the hall, so please don’t leave it too late to purchase your tickets.

Finally, thank you once again to all parents, carers and friends for supporting the Christmas Fayre. £2200 is a phenomenal amount of money to have raised and will allow us to:
– continue to subsidise ALL class trips throughout the year
– provide ALL pupils with a samba drumming workshop on 11th January
– provide ALL pupils with a Zoo Lab exotic animals workshop in February
– buy new games and benches for the playground, including a new painted fitness circuit
– provide ALL pupils with a music workshop from ‘Fischy Music’ in March

…. all fantastic things to look forward to!

A huge thank you to Mr Morris, one of our P1/P5 parents, for giving so generously of his time earlier this week to begin getting our library back into shape. Mr Morris worked the whole of Tuesday organising our non-fiction books into the Dewey system to allow pupils to locate books on different topics easily. He’ll be back in St Bart’s next week to put fiction books into alphabetical order and then our new library will be ready to open its doors to classes. Thank you, Mr Morris!

I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, but I really do want to highlight again the extraordinary dedication of St Bartholomew’s staff. There were three different after-school clubs on last night, all run by class teachers who had already had a busy day of teaching and still had a pile of marking to do. I know how much the children enjoy their clubs, and I’m sure the boys and girls’ enthusiasm makes the extra time and effort worth it for the teachers. However, I want staff to know that this extra work does not go unnoticed, either by myself or by parents and carers. Thank you!

We’re now into December and well through the first week of Advent. It’s lovely to see the Christmas decorations up, especially the crib in the foyer to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. Pantomimes, concerts, parties, advent calendars, cards, presents are just some of the things that will be fighting for our attention over the coming weeks. However, the words from today’s Gospel reading at Mass – ‘It’s not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven’ – challenge all of us not just to focus on the ‘surface’ things of Christmas, but to allow our hearts to be changed and to try our best to reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves. Let’s not just sing about peace, love, hope and joy, but work together to bring peace, love, hope and joy to those around us and be ready to welcome Jesus into our hearts at Christmas.

A very happy St Andrew’s Day to you all! Our school community will gather together this morning for an assembly to honour our national patron saint and celebrate Scotland’s special day.

St Andrew was a fisherman, so what better day to welcome Euan McArthur from the Apostleship of the Sea back to St Bartholomew’s. The Apostleship of the Sea – perhaps unfamiliar to many of you – is a Catholic charity supporting sailors and seafarers worldwide and is St Bartholomew’s chosen Advent charity this year. The organisation provides practical and pastoral care to all seafarers, regardless of nationality, belief or race. Given that we’re never more than 50 miles away from the sea in Scotland, this is a very worthwhile charity to support. Euan will be working with all pupils during the course of the morning before joining us for our St Andrew’s Day assembly.

Our Christmas concerts are fast approaching and tickets go on sale TODAY, priced £1.00. Dates are as follows:

Primary 4-7 concert: Wednesday 14th December, 1.30pm
Primary 1-3 nativity: Monday 19th December, 2.00pm

The nursery concert takes place on Friday 9th at 10.00am and 2.00pm

As promised in yesterday’s blog, the winning names from the ‘Christmas Plate’ competition are as follows;

Nursery (am)- Caleb Wilson, Nursery (pm)- Iva Romanski,

Primary 1 – Kaiden Doran, Primary 2 – Ava Menzies, Primary 2/ 3- Kalvin Doran, Primary 3- Layla Murray, Primary 4- Jennifer Fleming, Primary 5- Molly Cairns, Primary 6- Oscar Duncan and Primary 6/7- Leah Eadie.

You can see from the picture below that all of the winning entries deserve their place in the competition and children were awarded individual prizes as a reward. Well done boys and girls!

All of the proceeds from the Christmas Fayre have now been counted and we have raised a whopping £2200!!!! This will be a great boost to school funds and will be used very carefully over the reminder of the session to contribute to the enhancement of children’s learning experiences. We look forward to keeping you up to date with our plans…

Mrs Bolland