St Bartholomews

Our Primary 7’s leave for Kilbowie today! I hope that the beautiful sunshine continues and is also shining in Oban, and especially for the rest of the week. Boys and girls should report to the music room first thing this morning with mums and dads. I appreciate that some children and their parents may be anxious as some may not have experienced 4 nights away from home before. I promise that Coatbridge will be a dim and distant memory for everyone when the activities and the meeting of new people begins. Enjoy yourselves everyone!

Mrs Dunn in the school office will send a text to all the Primary 7 parents to let them know that the children have arrived safely. I will be in regular contact with the centre for daily updates and will obviously pass this on via the blog.

Friday’s ‘Pupils of the week’ were posted under ‘This weeks Superstars’ on the blog and will be having ‘Tea with Mrs B’ today – I am looking forward to this immensely!

Our Parent Council meet tonight at 6pm in the staffroom to discuss current issues that affect our school community. We appreciate the hard work and dedication from our members. Thank you for all of your help and support.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Primary 1 – Orlaith

Primary 2 – Jayden

Primary 2/3 – Corey

Primay 3 – Darragh

Primary 4 – Keira

Primary 5 – Gary

Primary 6 – Annie

Primary 6/7 – Leigha

Cool Class Cup: Primary 4

Winning House: Joint Winners –  Lochend and SummerLee

We will welcome Claire from the Coatbridge dental team to St Bartholomew’s today. The importance of looking after our teeth and dental health is crucial to our general health and wellbeing.Thank you Claire for your input- we all appreciate your help and support.

Vikki from NLC active schools will be another welcome visitor to our school and will be in to meet with Mrs MacIntyre to discuss exciting future activities…watch this space!

Primary 4 have invited their parents/carers in to St Bartholomew’s today as part of First Communion preparations. The children are very excited about sharing their experiences with their families and I am sure that mums and dads feel the same.Receiving the Eucharist for the first time is a very special experience and one that the children will remember for the rest of their lives and the appropriate and relevant preparations that lead up to this special event are also very meaningful .We are delighted that mums and dads can share in this alongside their children.

I am looking forward to meeting all of our visitors today!

Mrs Bolland 😀

And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the
temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day.
—ACTS 3:2

I heard about a book by Katherine Boo called Behind the Beautiful Forevers, about a slum in Mumbai. The title comes from a giant billboard that marks the edge of the makeshift settlement. In sunshine yellow, the sign advertises ceramic tiles by repeating the words “Beautiful” and “Forever.” Today’s reading has a similar irony. The lame and deformed and hungry gather under “the Beautiful Gate.” But it’s only ironic to those who can’t see beyond what people look like on the surface. Peter walked right up to the crippled man and “looked intently at him” and saw the man’s “jumping and praising” spirit. So he “took him by the right hand and raised him up.” The man stood and walked around and everyone else could finally see what the gate had already proclaimed.
Acts 3:1–10
Psalm 105:1–2,3–4,6–7,8–9
Luke 24:13–35

I think we can all learn something from looking beyond the surface and try to see ‘the contents page’ instead of simply looking at ‘the title page’…

Mrs Bolland 😀

What a fabulous first day back after the holidays! All of our boys and girls looked like new pins and were extremely well turned out. The enthusiasm from the children as I visited the classes was tremendous. I think that two weeks of relaxing was more than enough for a lot of our children and they were more than delighted to get back to work and learning new things. Long may it continue….

A meeting was held last night regarding Kilbowie and York for our Primary 7 parents. This was very well attended and the boys and girls were visibly excited about both of these very important excursions. I have been to both Kilbowie and York and can thoroughly recommend them as valuable opportunities to develop new skills, increase self confidence and to meet new friends. It is also a crucial step in developing maturity and independence through staying away from home, with the added bonus of being within a safe, secure and structured environment, with familiar faces. They will remember both of these excursions for a very long time!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

A huge welcome back to everyone and I hope and pray that all of our pupils, parents, carers and staff have had a happy and Holy Easter. As it is the most important feast within the Catholic calendar and allows for a prolonged period of reflection, forgiveness and new beginnings, it is quite apt that St Bartholomew’s is experiencing change and new beginnings at this time. As you know, I will be taking over from Mr Young and I am very much looking forward to the exciting challenges that lie ahead. As always, my door is continually open in order to spend time with parents and carers that may need to discuss concerns or share important information with me. I look forward sharing your news after the holidays!

We have a very busy term ahead and a meeting for Primary 7 parents and carers begins at 6pm this evening regarding the forthcoming Kilbowie trip next week. I look forward to seeing you then.I know that our senior pupils are very much looking forward to this and great fun and adventure are in store for all. We can’t wait to hear about it!

Mrs Bolland 😀

The children were absolutely fantastic in our school show, ‘A Night on Broadway’, last night. ‘THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC!’, boys and girls, and thank you to all the staff for doing such a fantastic job in the lead up to the show and behind the scenes yesterday. What a brilliant way to round off the term!

As it’s the last day of term, we have a non-uniform and crazy hair day today, with all £1 donations going to SCIAF. The children will be taking part in our annual egg decorating competition and there’s a prize for the winning egg from each class. We’ll also be squeezing in an Easter egg hunt before our assembly. Please remember that the school closes at the slightly earlier time of 2.30pm today.

I can’t quite believe that, after five years of sharing daily news on the school website, this is my last blog. I took the opportunity last night to look back at some blog entries from the past few years and it was a reminder of just what a special and vibrant school community St Bartholomew’s is. There’s never a day goes by without something exciting going on up and down the corridors of our fantastic wee school and I will be taking so many special memories with me as I hand over the reins to Mrs Bolland at the end of today.

Please can I take this opportunity to thank all pupils, staff, parents, carers and parishioners for their love and support over the past five years. You are an absolutely amazing bunch! Although I’m going to really miss being around the school every week, my full-time role in Headquarters will include giving support to St Bartholomew’s, so I’ll still be popping in from time to time. As the wee phrase says: Goodbyes are not forever, goodbyes are not the end, they only mean “I’ll miss you!” until we meet again.

Have a wonderful Easter holiday, everyone, and see you soon!

Mr Young 😘

Welcome to ‘A Night on Broadway’, our phenomenal whole-school show for 2017! The weeks of practice are now over and the boys and girls are all set to take to the stage at 1.30pm and 7.00pm today to entertain a packed hall of parents, carers, family and friends. Our audiences really are in for a treat!

Please remember that both performances are now sold out and that strict fire regulations mean we are unable to admit anyone without a ticket. Thank you for your co-operation.

We have two final show-themed wall displays to share with you today. Primary 4’s display illustrates their two songs from ‘Oliver’ and Primary 2’s display sets the scene for their two songs from the Sound of Music. Many, many thanks to all of the boys, girls and teachers throughout the school for their beautiful wall displays. Please take the opportunity to wander round our wall displays before and after today’s show performances.

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Our displays are from Primary 7, who are performing two songs from Grease and Primary 5, who are performing two songs from  Mama Mia.

We are certainly becoming a much healthier school, with two of our classes today receiving sports tuition . Primary 2/3 are lucky to have Mini Sports Athletics today as part of their PE input. I know that the children will really this! Primary 5 will have Badminton tuition today and I know that both the children and their instructor thoroughly enjoy this experience.Fingers crossed that St Bartholomew’s produces future athletes!

Our  Parent Council met last night and we were delighted to see Dennis Fallon back from a short absence. We discussed many important items that will benefit both our pupils and community. A survey that was sent out regarding the outdoor area and playground had a limited response and the Parent Council agreed that re sending this would help gather information and evidence for funding such projects. We would all appreciate your support with this important matter. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Mrs Bolland 😀