St Bartholomews

St Bartholomew’s received a lovely card from Joe McDade’s daughter, Rena, yesterday thanking us for organising the recent exhibition of Joe’s work. ‘It turned out to be such an amazing afternoon’, Rena writes. ‘A bit emotionally overwhelming but happy overwhelming, all in our dad’s memory.’ Rena also said one of the highlights was meeting and sharing chats with her dad’s art friends. We’re delighted that the McDade family had such a special visit to the St Bartholomew’s and I’m also very happy to announce that the auction of Joe’s work raised £270 for school funds.

A HUGE well done to our dance group who did a great performance at St Ambrose High School last night, walking away with the second prize. Well done, team! Hopefully the rest of the school will get the chance to see your winning performance next week.

I had one very proud Primary 1 visit my office yesterday with a football trophy he’d won. I promised I’d post a wee picture on today’s blog:

With the close of school today, we enter one of the most sacred periods in the church calendar. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper takes place in churches across the world this evening, we commemorate the Lord’s passion and death at the Good Friday liturgy tomorrow, we welcome the light and joy of Christ rising from the dead at Saturday’s Easter Vigil Mass and Christians throughout the globe will gather to celebrate the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. St Bartholomew’s pupils have been learning about the Easter story in school this week; please take the opportunity to talk to your child about what they’ve been learning and, if you possibly can, attend Mass as a family over the Easter weekend.

Please can I take this opportunity to wish our whole school community – pupils, staff, parents/carers, parishioners and friends – a very blessed and happy Easter. St Bartholomew’s reopens on Tuesday morning.

It’s good to be back in St Bartholomew’s this morning after two days in headquarters.

Stations of the Cross continue this morning. Praying the Way of the Cross is a beautiful Catholic tradition, especially during Holy Week. I would encourage pupils, parents, staff and parishioners to join us in the oratory at 8.50am.

With it being Holy Week, we are holding off doing our annual ‘Egg-stravaganza’ until after the Easter weekend. All pupils are invited to bring in a hard-boiled egg, along with any materials they require to decorate it, a week today, Wednesday 30th March. There were some fantastic creations last year and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what whacky and imaginative ideas the children come up with this time round!

Finally, please note that there is no early closure tomorrow. The school day ends at the usual time of 3.00pm.

As mentioned yesterday, Stations of the Cross will be held in the Oratory all week , as it is Holy Week. Primary 5/6 pupils will be leading this as they are working towards  their Pope Francis Award this year. I am sure that our faith community will support these children at this very important time in the Church’s calendar. As always, everyone is welcome.

Primary 3/2 parents and carers  will be delighted to hear that the class assembly will take place on Friday the 1st of April at 1.30pm in the hall and thereafter in the open area outside the classroom for tea and biscuits and also a wee nosy around the class!  The children are  really looking forward to this as it has been re scheduled in the past and they are desperately keen to show off their talents. We are all anticipating a wonderful show!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

 

What a wonderful bright and sunny weekend we’ve just had – lets’s hope it stays like this all week!

Primary 4 parents and carers had a fantastic time on Friday afternon, watching a wonderful class assembly. The costumes were fabulous, the singing was exemplary and the boys and girls remembered every line and spoke out beautifully… I think the West End beckons for some of this class!

As it is Holy Week, the ‘Faith in Action’ group have organised Stations of the Cross every morning at 8.50am in the Oratory. We are very lucky to have such a beatiful space to pray and reflect at this very special time of year.

 

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Primary 1 – Cameron

Primary 1/2 – Lewis

Primary 2 – Emily

Primary 2/3 – Sarah Louise

Primary 4 – Cian

Primary 5 – Jennifer

Primary 5/6 – Jack

Primary 7 – Ava

Cool Class Cup: Primary 2

WOW! Primary 7 were absolutely fantastic in their show, ‘Archibald’s War’, last night. The children put on a very professional performance, transporting the audience back to the 1940s when Britain was at war. The children remembered all of their lines, acted out their parts with great enthusiasm and sang out the songs like professional Westend stars! It was particularly lovely to see everyone playing a part (many of the children played several parts!) and working as a team to make the show such a huge success. Well done, boys and girls! Particular thanks to Mrs MacFarlane for all her hard work preparing the children for last night’s performance as well as Mr McGinty and all the other staff for the various jobs they did behind the scenes.

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It’s Primary 4’s turn to take to the stage today as they host their class assembly for parents, carers, family and friends. The boys and girls have been working hard on their presentation about the Victorians and, as usual, this will be followed by an opportunity for guests to enjoy some refreshments and visit the P4 classroom. Today’s assembly begins at 2.00pm.

Finally, today is Mr McGinty and Miss Dunbar’s official last day in St Bart’s. Please can I take this opportunity to thank Mr McGinty for all his hard work with Primary 7 over the past few months and Miss Dunbar for all her hard work in Primary 4. You’ve both been great members of the team and you’ll be missed by both pupils and staff alike. I know today won’t be the last time we see you (we’re not letting you get away that easily!), but we do wish you all the very best in the last few weeks of your university studies.

Sona lá St Pádraig! (Happy St Patrick’s Day!) And I hope that the luck of the Irish will be shining upon you today….

We certainly have a few shining stars in Primary 7, as rehearsals for the ‘World War 11’ show this evening have been going really well . I’ve managed to have a sneaky peak in the hall, over this past few days and we are unquestionably in for a treat! Mrs MacFarlane has asked that children arrive at 6pm and go straight into the ‘Performing Arts Studio’, from the back door. Guests of Primary 7 are welcome to take their seats in the hall ready for a 6.30pm start and it is worth mentioning that there is no charge for this event. Tea and coffee will be available after the show and also an opportunity to look at the wonderful models that the children have been working on. It will be a super evening!

As you know, it’s that time of year again , Parent’s evening is fast approaching and will be on Thursday the 31^st of March. Letters containing your individual appointments will be with you shortly. Our Book Fair will be starting the week before, on Thursday the 24th of March and children will have the opportunity to purchase a book from then. It will be uplifted on Friday the 1^st of April. I know that our Book Fair is very popular on Parent’s Evening as mums and dads usually reward their children for a positive report. I am confident that our parent helpers will be extra busy with selling a huge amount of books to all of our Superstar children.

Mrs Bolland  🙂

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed towards the success of ‘Rich or Poor?’. Approximately £50 was raised for SCIAF, who are a very worthy charity indeed and will greatly appreciate our efforts. Thank you to our ‘Faith in Action’ group who organised this event.

Miss Duffy in Primary 1 has organised a brilliant surprise for her class today! Staff from ‘Pets at Home’ will be visiting the class today at 1.30pm with a whole host of furry friends. The children can expect to see guinea pigs, rabbits and hamsters as well as lots of others animals… what a wonderful treat! Miss Duffy organised this to correspond with the children’s learning in R.E, which has been about ’Caring for others’ and as God’s creatures are  very much a part of this, an event like this is more than appropriate. I will definitely need to pop down to Primary 1 in the afternoon to join in the fun!

Our upper school girls will be well aware of the upcoming ‘Dance Festival’ which takes place on the 23^rd of March at St Ambrose High School from 6 pm- 8.30 pm and have all been given one ticket each. As there are so many different schools taking part, tickets for this event are restricted by fire regulation that coincide with the hall’s capacity. However, there are some extra tickets, although, not enough for everyone. Therefore, Mrs MacIntyre will be organising a ballot and will inform children on Friday as to who has an extra ticket. Fingers crossed….. I think you will agree that this appears to be the fairest way of doing this. Good luck in advance girls!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Our weekly Prayer Service today will undoubtably have a very special meaning for some of our Primary 3 pupils today. It is a great opportunity for our whole school community to pray for the boys and girls who are receiving the sacrament of Reconcilliation for the first time, this evening.

Primary 3 had the opportunity to pop down to the church yesterday so that they could experience the ‘Confessional Box’ first hand and not be too overwhelmed with such a new and potentially , daunting experience tonight. Each child has been given a time to arrive at St Bartholomew’s church, beginning at 7pm, and the format will be simple, private and reverent. Mr Young and Mrs MacLean will be there to direct and support the children. Our thoughts and prayers will be with the children and their families at this very special and important time in their lives.

Our ‘Faith in Action’ group have organised a SCIAF event today  called, ‘Rich or Poor?’. Children can buy a ticket priced 50p which will then go into a draw. Five  ‘Rich’ tickets will be drawn and the respective children will be able to eat juice and chocolate. The remainder of the tickets will be ‘poor’ which means that the children will be given rice cakes and water. All proceeds are donated to SCIAF, who then distribute the money to very worthy causes that can make a huge difference to people’s lives. It is a very worthwhile cause indeed!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Primary 3 are now only a day away from making their First Reconciliation. The boys and girls have been preparing both in class and at home, reflecting on the love and mercy of God which leads us to repentance. The children will make the short walk to St Bartholomew’s Church this morning for a class penitential service in final preparation for receiving the sacrament tomorrow. The children will also take the opportunity to see inside the confessional, just to alleviate any worries they may have about this new experience. Please remember Primary 3 in your prayers this week.

The art exhibition/auction was a great success on Friday afternoon and it really was amazing to see just how many pieces Joe McDade painted over the years. It was a moving occasion for Joe’s family, many of whom had travelled all the way from Liverpool, and the event also brought back many happy memories to members of the art group Joe attended each Wednesday. Many thanks to Mrs MacFarlane and the Forward Together group for organising Friday’s event; you did both Joe and St Bartholomew’s proud! One of our parents left a comment on the blog which sums up the afternoon perfectly:

‘Wow, what a great afternoon at the art auction! Seeing all the beautiful works and enjoying a cake and coffee… what could be better! Joe’s family were so gracious and I came away with four paintings that will look fantastic on our walls. Thanks to everyone involved in the organisation.’

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