St Bartholomews

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 🙂

We are now into the month of October. The term has absolutely flown by and the summer holidays are now a distant memory. However, what a great term it’s been so far! Hopefully, you will have been checking out our class pages regularly to keep up-to date with your child’s learning: St Bart’s is always a hive of activity!

Despite me being tied up with a couple of meetings today, there will be ‘Tea with Mr Young’ for our eight most recent Pupils of the Week at 10.50am this morning. Very well done to these hard working pupils!

Many thanks to Mrs Carlin and Primary 1 for leading the Prayer Service for their parents and families on Friday afternoon; it was a very special time. Primary 6/7 will be busy this week practising for their class assembly, which takes place this coming Friday at 2.00pm. All I know about the boys and girls’ presentation is I was asked to record two songs from ‘The Lion King’ for them… all will be revealed at the end of the week!

Finally, please remember that Parents Evening takes place a week on Thursday, 13th October. We’ll have our usual Book Fayre, both in the lead up to the day and throughout the evening.

Primary 1 – Paige

Primary 2 – Ava

Primary 2/3 – Shay

Primary 3 – Skye

Primary 4 – Logan

Primary 5 – Molly

Primary 6 – Alan

Primary 6/7 – Jack

Winning House: Summerlee

Cool Class Cup: Primary 1

Our Primary 1 pupils (and their families!) have a particularly busy day ahead. The second ‘Stay and Read’ session takes place in the library first thing: a really enjoyable chance for each child and an adult to choose and read a book together. The children will then be welcoming their parents and families to a special Prayer Service at 2.00pm. This is an opportunity to give thanks to God in song, words and art for the children’s new start at St Bartholomew’s Primary. The boys and girls have settled in exceptionally well and are powering ahead with their learning, so we have much to be grateful to God for. The Prayer Service takes place in the hall at 2 o’clock and refreshments will be served in the P1 classroom afterwards.
Every primary school in North Lanarkshire is part of a ‘Family Group’. The purpose of these groups is to connect similar schools to support ongoing improvement and ensure that all establishments reach their full potential. Our family group consists of St Bartholomew’s, St Edward’s, Golfhill, St Bernadette’s and Keir Hardie Memorial. I’ll be visiting Keir Hardie Memorial Primary this morning to see what St Bartholomew’s can learn from their good practice. It will be my first time in the school, so I’m very much looking forward to my visit.

Although I’m not in St Bartholomew’s this morning, Mrs Bolland will take a short assembly to award our usual Pupil of the Week certificates. Names will be posted on the website later today.

Although there remains quite a bit of work to do on the outside, the interior of our nursery extension is now more or less complete. A representative from the Care Inspectorate will visit St Bartholomew’s this morning to inspect the new space and sign things off. Hopefully, the work on the outside won’t take too much longer and we’ll have things (including the car-park) back to normal before too long.

I do hope you found the report card that went out before the September weekend helpful and that we were successful in providing you with information on your child’s progress relevant to this early stage of the school year. I know many of our parents and carers will have taken the opportunity to chat things through with their child and I’m sure this will give many St Bart’s pupils the encouragement and incentive they need to make any necessary changes before Parents Evening which takes place in two weeks time.

Please can I take this opportunity to thank staff for their input in developing the new reporting format and for the time, thought and care they put into completing their reports. St Bartholomew’s is blessed to have such a dedicated team of teachers who want the very best for their pupils and who are always willing to go the extra mile to keep parents and carers up-to-date with their child’s learning and progress. This is the eighth school I have worked in over the years, so I know what a good teacher looks like: the teachers in St Bartholomew’s really are quality with a capital Q!

It was a lovely surprise over the weekend to receive an email all the way from Detroit, Michigan in the United States. Maria Meszaros had come across our school website and was particularly taken with the selection of prayers in the ‘Faith’ section. ” I love your website page with the prayers on it!”, Maria writes. “Your school is so very blessed! Good Catholic Schools are so difficult to find! May God continue to bless you all!” How encouraging to know that someone at the other side of the Atlantic has heard about St Bartholomew’s and is, I am sure, now praying for our school community. Thank you for your email, Maria!

My days in St Bartholomew’s are a bit of a mix this week. I’ll be here all day today, tomorrow morning and Friday afternoon. Thank goodness for the very capable hands of Mrs Bolland!