St Bartholomews

Today is a non-uniform day. All pupils are asked to bring in an item of tinned food, with all donations going to the Whifflet food bank.

There was a great turnout at Parents Evening yesterday and – as always – huge smiles from lots of parents and carers as they left the hall. There must have been plenty of good reports! I’ll be encouraging the children at today’s assembly to take on board any advice they were given last night and to begin next term with a determination to do their absolute best and reach their full potential.

Please can I take this opportunity to thank all St Bartholomew’s staff for their commitment and hard work last night; I know you will have been tried at the end of the evening. However, the October holidays are now only a few hours away and a well-earned break awaits!

Many thanks to Mrs Di Cacca for running the Book Fayre. It’s always a busy place on Parents Evening, but never fails to run like clockwork in your capable hands! Thanks too to Mrs Woods for organising the raffle: we now have a healthy pot of money to cover any outlays for the Christmas Fayre.

Finally, thank you to Mr Fowler for gathering the views of parents and carers on the essential learning experiences parents feel St Bartholomew’s pupils should encounter during their seven years in the school and to Miss Duffy for promoting and providing input on Class Dojo.

There will be Pupil of the Week certificates and trophy awards as usual this morning, and this week’s raffles will also be drawn at assembly. All winners (including for the raffles) will be posted on the website later today.

Have a fantastic holiday, everyone, and see you on Monday 24th!

The children had a fantastic time taking part in yesterday’s sponsored obstacle course. You can check out Twitter for some photographs of the children making their way through the various challenges. Many thanks to Vicky, our Active Schools Co-ordinator, for organising yesterday’s event and a HUGE well done to all the boys and girls for their efforts. Please can I encourage everyone to get their sponsor money in as soon as possible, ideally by the end of the first week back after the October break. Thank you.

The children will be staying in their gym kit today for some football coaching. This input is being delivered to all classes and I’m sure the boys and girls will thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to improve their football skills.

It will be a quick turn-around in the hall after football to get things set up for Parents Evening. As you know, an interim report card was sent out a few weeks ago; we hope parents and carers found this information helpful. Tonight will give parents an opportunity to speak directly with their child’s teacher and to have a look at their work. Mr Fowler will be gathering the views of parents and carers on the essential experiences they think their child should have during their time in St Bart’s. These will be used to inform our revised curriculum programmes, so please do take the opportunity to jot down your ideas on a post-it. Miss Duffy will be providing information on Class Dojo and, as always, the Book Fayre will be open throughout the evening. Of course, a St Bart’s Parents Evening just wouldn’t be complete without a raffle! I look forward to seeing you this evening.

Yesterday our  boys and girls from the after school running club represented St Bartholomew’s Primary at the outdoor centre in Langloan for a cross country event.Mr Fowler reported that the children did us all proud and displayed beautiful manners at all times.You can see by the happy and smiling faces below that the children really enjoyed taking part in this event.Well done boys and girls!

Remember it’s our sponsored obstacle course today and the children can come to school with their gym clothes on. Primary 2/3 are  visiting the Botanic Gardens and surrounding area today and have been asked to come along dressed for the outdoors.I am looking forward to hearing all about it when the children return to school…

All of our pupils will have a chance to take part in ‘Fun Football Sessions’ on Thursday and are asked to bring their gym kits to school.Uniform is required to be worn to school that day.

Friday, however is a non uniform day as the ‘Faith in Action’ group have organised a charity event to support Whifflet Soup Kitchen.This is a very worthwhile cause and I would respectfully ask that child bring along a tin of soup,meat or whatever you can spare.All donations are much appreciated.

Mrs Bolland 😀

Our book fair has created lots of excitement this year, with boys and girls showing plenty of interest in new and exciting book titles.A huge thank you to our parent helpers, we couldn’t do it without you!

Tomorrow, Wednesday 12th of October we have our sponsored obstacle course. This will be set up in the gym hall and we are all looking forward to having fun, keeeping fit and raising money…all at the same time. Remember that children come to school dressed in their gym clothes –  I would suggest that either jogging trousers or track suit bottoms would be more suitable than shorts. The weather is certainly not warm enough for them and the children would be more comfortable in long trousers as they go through the course. Thank you in advance for your support with this matter.

As you know, Parent’s Evening is on Thursday and we are very much looking forward to catching up with everyone and sharing your good news. We like to hear your views and appreciate and value all of your suggestions, and as result, we would like to canvas some of your thoughts and opinions on Thursday. Mr Fowler from the school and Mrs Whelan from the nursery will be in the foyer to ask you a few questions so that we can incorporate your views into our plans for the future.

We also have have a link below that would simply take a few minutes of your time in order to comment on future plans for our school grounds and would appreciate it if you could take part in this small survey.
Parent Council survey

Mrs Bolland 🙂

We’re now into the last week of term, with the October holidays beginning this coming Friday. Where does the time go?!!

Please remember that our sponsored obstacle course takes place on Wednesday. It would be fantastic if every St Bart’s pupil could collect two or three sponsors… as mentioned in last week’s blog, if every child manages to get £5 of sponsors, we will make over £1000 to boost school funds.

A few parents and carers will be meeting first thing this morning to begin organising this year’s Christmas Fayre. This short meeting is simply to get things off the ground, and I’m hoping that other parents, carers and friends of the school will be able to help out with all the various jobs between now and the big event on Saturday 26th November. If you’re able to help, please speak to Mrs Clare in the office.

St Bartholomew’s will be hosting a Motherwell Diocesan event this afternoon. Many of you will know that Mrs O’Neill, one of our class teachers, also works as the Diocesan Religious Education Advisor two days per week; Mrs O’Neill thought the Performing Arts Studio and our oratory would be the perfect venue for today’s course. A warm welcome to all those attending.

Primary 1 – Daniel

Primary 2 – Cameron

Primary 2/3 – Marysa

Primary 3 – David

Primary 5- Ellie

Primary 6 – Amy

Primary 6/7 – Leah

Cool Class Cup: Primary 2/3

Winning House: Summerlee

Our six Pupil Voice groups meet today and there will certainly be a lot for the boys and girls to discuss, from healthy snacks to the refurbishment of our school library. I understand the Faith in Action group are planning a non-uniform day with a bit of a difference next Friday… watch this space! The six chairpersons will meet with me on Monday for a Pupil Voice Business Meeting and you’ll be able to access the minutes from this meeting on the school website.

Primary 6/7 have been busy rehearsing this week and are all set to welcome their parents and families to their class assembly this afternoon. There’s an African theme to the children’s presentation, including masks and even some songs from ‘The Lion King’. The assembly begins at 2.00pm and there will be the usual reception and refreshments in the children’s classroom afterwards. I look forward to seeing you there.
Finally, the Parent Council is very keen to engage with the entire St Bartholomew’s parent body and have prepared a short questionnaire to gather the views of parents and carers. Please click on the link below and take a few moments to complete the Parent Council survey. Thank you!

Parent Council survey

I know Mrs Bolland mentioned next week’s sponsored obstacle course in yesterday’s blog, so I hope you don’t mind me giving it another wee plug today. A healthy school fund enables us to offer lots of ‘extras’ during the course of the year. For example, ALL class trips are subsidised to keep the cost as low as possible. Next term, we have arranged for a company to deliver an exciting ‘Samba’ day free of charge for St Bart’s pupils, all paid for from the school fund. We have also just purchased a fantastic pirate ship to be the centre piece of our new sea-themed library and, once again, the money came from previous fund-raising events. St Bartholomew’s now has 212 children so if each pupil manages to collect even a few sponsors, we’ll still be able to give a real boost to school funds. For example, £5.00 of sponsors from each pupil would raise over £1000! Every little really does help!

We are now only a week away from Parents Evening. As you know, we have had a display just inside the front door over the past few years entitled ‘What will St Bartholomew’s look like in June 2016?’ Of course, June 2016 has now come and gone and I’m delighted to say that we have met each and every one of our goals and aspirations! However, St Bart’s never rests on its laurels and our school community now needs to think ahead to where we’d like to be, and what we would like to achieve, in the next three-five years. Part of our consultation with parents and carers will take place on Parents Evening. Mr Fowler will be co-ordinating a ‘brainstorm’ board where all parents and carers will be able to add things they think their child should have learned or experienced by the time they leave St Bartholomew’s. For example, ‘Be able to speak Spanish’, ‘Have the chance to go on a residential trip’, ‘Make a positive contribution to the community of Townhead’. Once collated, we’ll make sure these contributions are incorporated into our revised curriculum programmes. We’d love to hear your suggestions, so get your thinking caps on between now and next Thursday!

Our Primary 7 pupils are  looking forward to a visit from the transition team at St Ambrose High School, first thing this morning. This is a great opportunity for the children to meet some of their teachers  from  High School and is the beginning of an entire programme of transition events that will be happening throughout the year. I know that our boys and girls will make us all proud with their exempliary behaviour and manners and I am looking forward to reporting back with some positive feedback…

A gentle reminder that our annual sponsored event is coming up soon and will take place on Wednesday the 12th of October. Letters and sponsor forms are already in the children’s bags, so make sure you have them! We do not expect the sponsor forms to be filled – just a few sponsors from each pupil would be plenty. The main aim of this event is to raise money for school funds and everything that is raised is very much appreciated. We are all looking forward to having great fun on the obstacle course.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

We had a visit from two Health and Safety officers yesterday, who popped in to our new nursery extension. They were both impressed with this new space, and although it is not finished, the potential is evident. Both ladies commented on how well turned out and polite our pupils are and how well organised and welcoming our school is! It is always lovely to share such positive comments.

Just a reminder that the book fair is arriving on Thursday and that it will be here until Friday the 14th of October. I know that our boys and girls like to spend some time looking through the books in order to make an informed decision prior to purchase. A big thank you to our parent helpers for their assistance with this.

I have heard the Primary 6/7’s rehearsing for their assembly on Friday and I am confident that parents and carers are in for a treat. We are looking forward to welcoming you then.

Mrs Bolland 🙂