St Bartholomews

Primary 7 had a great day out in Glasgow yesterday… check out Twitter for photographs of the trip. As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the children rounded off their day with a visit to St Andrew’s Cathedral. Mrs MacFarlane was delighted at the many compliments which cathedral parishioners made about the children. Of course, we wouldn’t expect anything else of St Bart’s pupils. Well done boys and girls!

Our Primary 2 pupils (all 40+ of them!) are very excited about presenting their assembly to parents, family and friends this afternoon. Their assembly is all about using our talents wisely and I’m sure it will give everyone lots of food for thought as well as bring smiles and laughs to the audience. The assembly begins at 2.00pm and is followed by an informal reception in the children’s classrooms which will include a cup of tea. I look forward to seeing you this afternoon.

Finally, I promised to include a photograph of one of our Primary 1/2 pupils today. She won this very impressive trophy for dancing. Well done!

I’m very much looking forward to spending this morning (and part of tomorrow) in Primary 2/3. I’ll be joining in with the children’s learning and also finding out the boys and girls’ thoughts and views on being a St Bartholomew’s pupil. Many thanks to those P2/3 parents and carers who returned a questionnaire; we very much appreciate your views and feedback.

Primary 7 are off to the People’s Palace in Glasgow today to find out more about life during World War II, including the chance to sit inside a real Anderson shelter! I’ll be joining the class after lunch for a visit to St Andrew’s Cathedral. The children will have the opportunity to visit the Arandora Star memorial in the cathedral garden. The Arandora Star was torpedoed and sank during World War II with the loss of hundreds of Italian civilians who had been living in Scotland at the outbreak of the war. The boys and girls will then attend the 1 o’clock Mass after which Monsignor McElroy will give the children a tour of the cathedral. It’s set to be a very varied and enjoyable day for Primary 7!

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As you are aware, our car park has lost a number of spaces due to the construction work being carried out for our nursery extension. Although we are all delighted about this extension, a certain amount of inconvenience goes alongside this. We have many visitors to our school and all the spaces and more are needed on a daily basis. With that in mind, could I ask that parents try to refrain from using the car park and appreciate your support with this matter in advance. Hopefully, we will have a nice extension to our car park in the very near future!

Could I remind and encourage parents to take advantage of the facility for paying up for York. It is a great way to spread the cost and saves having to part with larger sums of money at the one time. Mrs Smillie and Mrs Glen are more than happy to help with this and please feel free to pop in some money for this fabulous trip. I bet everyone can’t wait!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Believe it or not, Today is the first official day of Spring! Let’s hope we see a little bit more sunshine in the next few days. In particular, we hope Thursday is at least dry as Primary 7 are going to the People’s Palace in Glasgow for their school trip. Have a wonderful time boys anfd girls!

Parents and carers of Primary 2 pupils will no doubt be anticipating a wonderful performance on Friday as it is their assembly. I was passing the ‘Performing Arts’ room the other day anf heard beautiful music so I know that we are all in for a treat. The assembly starts at 2pm and then parents/ carers will have the opportunity to go for a cup of tea and something nice afterwards. There will also be a chance to visit the classroom and have a look around at all the brilliant work that goes on. We can’t wait!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Mrs MacIntyre has been very busy over the past week or so organising some of our new resources. One of our big spends this year has been on new reading books for both the infants and the middle/upper school. As you can see from the photograph below, the shelves in our central resource area are now filled with literally dozens and dozens of brand new titles for our Primary 1-3 classes. The children have already started using the new books and are absolutely loving them! Mrs McFarlane consulted with P4-7 pupils to choose new novels for their literacy work. Scotia Books in Kilsyth provided us with a whole host of sample books and each class chose two titles to supplement the existing novels for their stage. As you can see from the photograph, there are some exciting new books which I know the children are going to love reading.

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Primary 4 carried out an exciting homework project recently which challenged them to design a toy of the future. One pupil popped down to see me on Friday to show me their invention, ‘Mr Navigator’, which included a working model. I wonder if we’ll see his invention in the shops in 20 or 30 years time?!! Well done to all of our young inventors in P4!

I can’t quite believe we’ve reached the end of another week. As they say, ‘Time flies when you’re having fun!’ There’s certainly been a lot of fun in St Bart’s this week. I make a point of getting into each class a couple of times during the course of each day and I’m always impressed by the exciting lessons and activities our dedicated teaching staff plan for their pupils and the enthusiasm and effort the children bring to these. There’s always a great buzz about the place!

I thoroughly enjoyed my day in Primary 2 yesterday. The children worked extremely hard and I was particularly impressed by the level of independence and maturity many of them showed. Well done, boys and girls!

Although there will be no assembly this morning, there will still be Pupil of the Week certificates, Cool Class Cup and winning House. Keep an eye on the website.

Have a great weekend once it arrives!

I’m very much looking forward to spending much of today in Primary 2. I’ll be joining the boys and girls for various learning activities during the course of the day and will also be taking the time to find out their thoughts and opinions on being a St Bartholomew’s pupil.

Our annual whole-school photograph was taken in January and was delivered to the school last week by John Wilson Photographers. The picture below gives an idea of how fantastic the boys and girls (and staff!) are looking, but please take the opportunity next time you’re in the main foyer to have a proper look at the photograph and pinpoint your child.

A big thank you to Andrew McKenzie from’ Gladiator Rocks’ basketball academy for coming in to speak to our Primary 5 to 7 pupils today at assembly. Andrew encouraged the children to pop along on a Thursday between 5pm and 6pm to St Ambrose High School community hub for a game of basketball. Children have to come appropriately dressed in t-shirts, shorts/ jogging trousers and trainers. The cost of the coaching is £2.50. It was also highlighted that this is a good way for our Primary 7 pupils to get to know their future classmates as children from our cluster primary schools will also be there. It is certainly worth serious consideration! If you require further information, this is available on; ladyrocks06@gmail.com .

Could I also remind parents to check school bags on a regular basis for letters as there will be some important information regarding school trips being sent out to our Primary 4 and Primary 7 pupils? I know that the boys and girls are very much looking forward to it and will have a great time!

Finally, thank you to the parents from our Parent Council for popping along to the school and meeting to discuss and contribute towards improvements to our school community.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

We are very lucky this morning to have Andrew McKenzie from the ‘Gladiators’ basketball team in to speak to our Primary 5 to 7 children about being involved in basketball after school. This is a great opportunity and we hope that many of our children will join up and keep fit whilst having fun! Thank you Andrew.

I had a very special visitor from Primary 2 in my office today. This young man had to be escorted by another pupil as he had so many ‘winnings’ to carry. As you can see in the photograph below, he won four different medals for his talents in Tae Kwon Do. Well done from all your friends at St Bartholomew’s. Keep up the good work….

Just a reminder to all parents that our Parent Council meeting is on tonight at 6pm, where we will share a variety of news regarding all the great work that going on to improve St Bartholomew’s.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

My day will begin at St Edward’s Primary School in Airdrie. As mentioned in my blog back in December, St Bartholomew’s is now part of a ‘family’ of schools which aim to learn from one another and offer ongoing challenge and support. The Head Teachers from the other five schools in our ‘family’ visited St Bart’s before Christmas and then we all paid a visit to St Stephen’s last month. These visits have been of huge value… it’s always good to see how other schools do things and pick up new ideas.

I didn’t manage to squeeze in ‘Tea with Mr Young’ on Friday, so I’ll have two week’s worth of Pupils of the Week popping down for juice, a biscuit and a blether later on today. Well done to each and every one of these hard-working pupils!

Finally, please note that the Parent Council meets tomorrow evening in the staffroom at 6.00pm.