St Bartholomews

St Bartholomew’s is very keen this year to create new opportunities for parents, carers and families to get involved in their child’s learning. Two new initiatives will be starting next week.

The first will begin on Thursday 15th September at the end of the school day and will be run by our new Community Learning Development worker, Richard McCabe. We’re going to call it ‘Make Some Noise’ and it will be an exciting opportunity for a pupil and their parent to create some music together using our fantastic music resources. This will include recording a piece of music at the last session using the ‘Garage Band’ iPad. app. The first ‘Make Some Noise’ sessions will be offered to our Primary 5 pupils and parents. Places will be limited and allocated on a strictly first come, first served basis, so please keep an eye out for the leaflet in your child’s bag later this week.

The second opportunity will be for parents and carers of our new Primary 1 pupils. Starting a week on Friday, we will be running ‘Stay and Read’ sessions in the library. Further details will be sent out in the coming days.

Finally, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was declared a saint by Pope Francis yesterday, only 19 years after her death. Her work amongst the poorest of the poor in India should inspire each of us to reach out a hand of love and care to every person we encounter, friend or stranger. We ask for St Teresa of Calcutta’s prayers today.

Primary 1 – Kara

Primary 2 – Patrick

Primary 2/3 – Gracie

Primary 3 – Arron

Primary 4 – Liam

Primary 5 – Brooke

Primary 6 – Neve

Primary 7 – Rebecca

Cool Class Cup: Primary 6

Winnng House: Monklands

St Bartholomew’s has been allocated a new Community Learning Development worker called Raymond McCabe. I’ll be meeting with Raymond this morning to discuss plans for the year ahead and I’m particularly excited about some new opportunities for pupils and parents to use our fantastic music facilities. Watch this space!

This autumn, the Scottish Government will be providing special numeracy and literacy resources to all Primary 1-3 St Bartholomew’s pupils. The ‘Read, Write, Count’ bags will contain a variety of materials to support the children in their reading, writing and maths. Once again, watch this space for further information and keep an eye out for the leaflet in your child’s bag today.

Friday means whole school assembly, which means Pupils of the Week, which means tea with Mr Young, which means a group of very proud pupils! Keep an eye on the website to find out who they are!

I’m delighted to inform parents and carers that thrifty use of last year’s budget has freed-up funds to allow St Bartholomew’s to invest in two areas of the school over the coming month or so. First of all, we will be investing a substantial amount of money in our library to create a high-quality space to inspire pupils across the school to get their nose in a book. This is perfect timing given the recent launch of the First Minister’s Reading Challenge. The second investment is going to be in a brand new area of the school. We will be creating a STEM Zone (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in the upper school corridor, jam-packed with a whole range of exciting construction and technology resources for St Bartholomew’s pupils. Watch this space for news and photographs of these two exciting developments…. and get ready for your child coming home with some enthusiastic stories of their exploits in the library and our new STEM Zone!

Please can I give advanced notice of a sponsored obstacle course which Vickie, our Active Schools Coordinator, will be organising towards the end of term. This will replace our traditional sponsored walk and funds, as in previous years, will be used to subsidise class trips throughout the year.

A quick reminder that our weekly Prayer Service is on this morning at 8.50am in our beautiful Oratory and of course, all are welcome!

Could I please ask our parents and carers to ensure that their children are NOT playing in the large mound of earth on the outskirts of the playground, either before 9 o’clock or after 3 o’clock. This soil is to be used when extending the car park and it is neither a very safe or hygenic place for the children to be playing.The children are always so neat and tidy first thing in the morning and it would be a shame if all of your efforts were in vain!

Keep praying for good weather as it looks set to be nice for the foreseeable future and maybe rumours of an Indian summer are true…

Thank you to all of our parents and carers for ensuring that homework and reading books are returned promptly – we appreciate your support with this very important matter.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

St Bartholomew’s Primary seems to be ever expanding, as I was greeted by two very happy and excited young ladies in the playground yesterday! They are starting in Primary 1 and Primary 2 and make a very welcome addition to both classes. I spoke to them at the end of the day and they reported that they were made to feel very welcome by our wonderful pupils and staff. We are all delighted that you have chosen St Bartholomew’s…

Just a reminder that our prayer service is now on a Wednesday morning at 8.50am and as always, we extend a very warm welcome to our faith community to join us. It is indeed a lovely start to the day and a big thank you to Mrs O’Neill and helpers from our ‘Faith in Action’ group. We appreciate all of your efforts.

I know that Mr Young has expressed concern about parking around the school and I would also  like to highlight a safety issue about children walking through the staff car park, before 9 o’clock and at 3 o’clock. This can be a very dangerous and busy place, and I would respectfully ask that you discourage your child from walking through this area. Thank you very much in advance for your cooperation with this matter.

We are very lucky in St Bartholomew’s to have a number of  St Ambrose pupils wishing to carry out their work experience with us – many of them are in actual fact, ex pupils. Four pupils will be helping us out from next week in various classes around the nursery and school. We are looking forward to working with you…

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Many congratulations to your newly elected House Captains and Vice House Captains. As part of the Forward Together group, these boys and girls will play a lead role in driving forward improvements in St Bartholomew’s as well as encouraging their House teams throughout the year.

MONKLANDS
House Captain: Leah
Vice House Captain: Lauren

LOCHEND
House Captain: Rebecca
Vice House Captain: Nathan

DRUMPELLIER
House Captain: Niamh
Vice House Captain: Jade

SUMMERLEE
House Captain: Leigha
Vice House Captain: Lucy

I have been contacted by a number of parents and local residents concerned about dangerous parking at the top gate at the beginning and end of the school day. The safety of St Bartholomew’s pupils is my highest priority, so I will be positioning myself at the top gate this morning to see the situation for myself. If necessary, I will contact the police to monitor the area from tomorrow onwards. I realise the building work at the nursery is currently causing some disruption, but please can I urge parents and carers who drive their children to school to drop-off and park safely and legally. The forecast is good for the coming week, so you may wish to consider leaving the car at home and walking your child to school if it’s not too far. Thank you, in advance, for your support and cooperation in addressing this situation.

Primary 1 – Arran

Primary 2 – Ellie

Prinary 2/3 – Malinka

Primary 3 – Brogan

Primary 4 – Jennifer

Primary 5 – Cian

Primary 6 – Annie

Primary 7 –

Cool Class Cup – Primary 1

Primary 7 have a very special morning ahead. The boys and girls will be joining around 4000 pupils from across Motherwell Diocese for a special Mass at Carfin Grotto to mark the Year of Mercy. Given the huge numbers, the Mass will be held outdoors. Thankfully, the weather is looking dry, with the possibility of some sunshine. Please pray for our P7 pupils today as they join Bishop Toll, priests from across the diocese and pupils from numerous other schools for what is sure to be an inspiring and memorable celebration.

We’ve reached the end of our first full week of the new school year. The boys and girls have been absolute starts and it’s going to be very difficult indeed for teachers to choose their first Pupil of the Week. However, choose them they must! Keep an eye on the website to find out our first Pupils of the Week and Cool Class.

Great news to share today! I have received official confirmation that new flooring will soon be fitted in the upper school corridor and in classrooms and offices. This is very welcome news as the flooring in the upper corridor is the original 1950s tiles and the carpets in seven of our classrooms are well past their best. We’ll have the tricky, but pleasurable, task of selecting samples next week. Pupils and staff can then look forward to the transformation of St Bart’s over the coming months. Please can I take this opportunity to thank Counsellor Michael McPaik and Mr Dennis Fallon, chair of our Parent Council, for their efforts in securing these improvements to the school building.