St Bartholomews

Our Primary 6/7 pupils are looking forward to visiting Buchanan High this afternoon. They are taking part in a Bible exhibition and I know that they will greatly benefit from this very special spiritual input.  I am looking forward to hearing about it when they return.

We have two after school clubs on today and as always, our Running club is featuring and children would be advised to wear long jogging trousers as the weather is certainly taking a turn for the worse! Thank you again to Mrs McLean for organising this very popular and worthwhile club.  Ms Seggie is starting the Origami after school club today and I know that the boys and girls are really looking forward to it. Thank you Ms Seggie for devoting your time in order to allow the children to experience this very interesting activity.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

The fitting of our new flooring will be completed by the end of this week. Mrs Clare is back in her own office and Mrs Bolland and Mrs McIntyre are now permanently based in what was Mrs Smillie’s office.

The cold weather has suddenly arrived and the maximum temperature for tomorrow is forecast to be a chilly 5 degrees. It’s definitely time to look out those winter jackets, gloves and scarves so that your child can enjoy the crisp sunshine at playtime without getting a chill.

Finally, please remember to take a few moments to complete the Parent Council survey:
Parent Council survey

Primary 1 – C-Jay

Primary 2 – Jamie

Primary 2/3 – Emma

Primary 3 – Emma

Primary 4 – Breagh

Primary 5 – Ciaran

Primary 6 – Stella

Primary 7 – John

Cool Class Cup: Primary 6

Winning House: Monklands

I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous blogs that St Bartholomew’s is part of a ‘family’ of schools who work together to offer support and challenge. I’ll be paying a visit to one of these schools this morning – St Bernadette’s in Motherwell – and am very much looking forward to learning from their good practice and picking up some new ideas.

Of course, I’ll be back in plenty of time for Primary 6’s class assembly. The boys and girls have been practising hard on their presentation on Spain and I’ve had to stop myself lurking around the hall for a sneak preview! The assembly kicks-off at 2.00pm, with the usual reception in the classroom afterwards. See you there!

Mrs Bolland will be taking the whole school assembly this morning, so keep an eye on the website for this week’s Pupils of the Week and trophy winners.

Finally, a massive thank you in advance to the team of mums who have volunteered to begin building our new library furniture today. There’s still room for more helpers, so please feel free to turn up (mums, dads, friends!) if you’d like to contribute your screw-driving skills!

The reflooring of the school is nearing completion and the whole place really is looking fantastic! Contractors will work over the weekend to fit the remainder of the corridors, so the end is in sight. Many of the children have made enthusiastic comments about the new classroom carpets and it’s great to see the boys and girls take such pride in their school.

Please can I put out another appeal for volunteers to help build the new library furniture. We have set St Andrew’s Day as the date to open our refurbished library, so we’re very keen to get going with the furniture. Please contact the school office if you are able to help. Thank you.

Finally, Mrs Clare informed me on Tuesday that the recent sponsored event has raised around £1200. This is a fantastic amount and will allow us to continue to subsidise school trips and to offer regular out-of-the-ordinary learning opportunities for the children, such as the samba workshop (coming up at the end of November) and Zoo Lab (booked for the new year). Thank you for helping us boost our school funds!

Our boys and girls were a credit to their families and the school on Tuesday as they walked in the beautiful sunshine to celebrate mass at St Bartholomew’s Church for All Saints feast day. Their behaviour was exempliary at all times and the children received a number of compliments as a result. A big thank you to our parent helpers for escorting the children. We appreciate your help!

It was great to see the After School Running club members out and about enjoying the lovely outdoor weather that we are experiencing at the moment. Mrs McLean tells me that the children are making good progress and I certainly think that fitness levels will undoubtably increase. Keep up the good work…

Remember that we have both the Art and Netball after school clubs on today. I know that the children enjoy extra curricular activities very much and we are  lucky to have committed and energetic staff to facilitate this. Thank you to all of our staff who give up their own time to organise these clubs.

Our  ‘bring a healthy snack to school ‘ challenge is working well at the moment and I  checked in with a number of classes to see how things were going. I am glad to report that there has been a good uptake from each class and would encourage you to maintain this. The winning classs will receive an extended play time with our active schools coordinator, Vicki.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Today is All Saints Day and is a Holiday of Obligation. All parents, carers and friends of the school are most welcome to join us for Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church at 10.00am.

Our Primary 6 pupils will be formally enrolled in the Pope Francis Faith Award during this morning’s Mass. The Pope Francis Faith Award is designed to help children show “signs of love” in their daily lives, inviting them to use the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to make a difference in their home, school and parish. The short ceremony during today’s Mass is an opportunity for our school community to pray for our Primary 6 pupils and to ‘send them out’ on their various ‘missions’.

“How beautiful it would be if each of you, every evening, could say: “Today at school, at home, at work, guided by God, I showed a sign of love towards one of my friends, my parents, an older person!”  
(Pope Francis, addressing young people, April 2013)

Tomorrow, 1st November, is All Saints Day and is a Holiday of Obligation. Our school community will join parishioners for Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church at 10.00am. All parents, carers and friends of the school are very welcome to join us.

During tomorrow’s Mass, there will be a short enrolment ceremony for our Primary 6 pupils who are participating in this year’s Pope Francis Faith Award.

The fitting of new flooring continues this week and will include the school office. Please bear this in mind if you are looking for Mrs Clare later in the week… she may not be in her usual location!

As I have mentioned several times in my blog, we have invested a considerable amount of money in revamping our library, including purchasing some exciting new pieces of furniture. Now that the new floor is down and new blinds fitted, we are in need of a team of volunteers to help assemble the new library furniture, including the pirate ship which will form the centrepiece of the new space. Are you a dab hand with a screwdriver? Have you built flat-pack furniture before? Do you fancy a day working alongside other parents and friends of the school? If so, ST BART’S needs you! If you can help, please contact the school office and we’ll co-ordinate the rest. Thank you.

Finally, the Parent Council survey on the school grounds has been kept open for another few weeks. Please take a few moments to let us know your thoughts by clicking on the link below:
Parent Council survey

Primary 1 – Lucy

Primary 2- Bridget

Primary 2/3 – Nathan

Primary 3 – Sophie

Primary 4 –

Primary 5 – Katie

Primary 6 – Ally

Primary 7 – Melissa

Winning House: Monklands

Cool Class Cup:

The boys and girls had a fantastic time at the Halloween disco last night and there were some phenomenal costumes… Check out Twitter to see them for yourself. A MASSIVE thank you to the amazing team of parent helpers who organised and ran last night’s event. Things ran like clockwork and your hard work resulted in the children having a SPOOKtacular time! Thanks again!

Primary 4 are off to the Science Centre today. Have a great day, boys and girls!

I received a nice surprise via email earlier this week from another St Bartholomew’s Primary, way down in Bolton. A teacher in the school contacted various St Bartholomew’s Primaries across the United Kingdom and suggested a clever way of the schools connecting with each other. The idea is for the seven year groups from each school to write and send a postcard to the other schools and then they’ll receive seven postcards in return. Watch this space to find out how things unfold!

Great progress is being made on the fitting of our new flooring. All classrooms have their new carpet and the new vinyl is as far down as Primary 2/3. Two of the offices will be carpeted today and the library and staffroom will be fitted with new flooring over the weekend.

St Bartholomew’s school community and, indeed, the whole of Townhead are deeply saddened by the death of Sean McKenna, a former pupil of the school. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sean’s family and friends at this very sad and difficult time.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Sean McKenna, Rest In Peace