St Bartholomews

Today is sure to create special memories for our Primary 6 and 7 pupils. Bishop Toal will celebrate Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church at 7.00pm, during which he will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on the children. Please can I invite our whole school community, along with parishioners and friends, to pray for the boys and girls in these final hours of preparation.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on those receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation this evening.
Grant them:
the gift of WISDOM to see the world through Your eyes;
the gift of COUNSEL to make difficult decisions;
the gifts of KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING to use their minds to know You and to love You;
the gift of FORTITUDE to have the courage to live out their faith, despite difficulties and disappointments;
the gift of PIETY to be able to express their love and commitment to You;
the right kind of awesome FEAR that makes them pause each day to wonder at and revere God’s amazing love.
Amen

Another brilliant day in St Bartholomew’s… every time I was in a classroom today, the quality of work and wonderful ‘can do’ attitude was very apparent. Well done boys and girls.
It also seems like there is a constant stream of new faces, with new pupils joining us all the time. We are delighted to have you!
Primary 6 and 7 walked down to the church today to ensure that they know exactly what to do and what is expected of them on Thursday evening for their confirmation. Mrs MacFarlane and Mrs MacIntyre reported that the children were brilliant and listened very attentively. I am sure that the whole school community is praying for our confirmandi.
Following on from the last couple of days, an extract from Mr Young’s address on Education Sunday is as follows:
Our love for God should always, of course, lead us to love others: ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind’, Jesus said… ‘and love your neighbour as yourself.’

In today’s reading from 1st Corinthians, St Paul hits home the message that love is an action, not an emotion. The kind of love Paul talks about is seen, experienced, and demonstrated. This is contrary to our culture that puts huge value on personal feelings. We do what we want when we want because we “feel” like it. And if we don’t “feel” like it, we don’t do it.

In contrast to this mindset, Pope Francis encourages each of us in this Year of Mercy to reflect upon and practice the ‘works of mercy’, both corporal and spiritual. Each of us has a responsibility to feed and clothe those in need; we should all welcome the stranger into our communities, our parishes, our schools. We also have a responsibility for the spiritual care of others: helping those trapped in despair or loneliness, showing love and patience towards those who might cause us harm, remembering all – whether living or dead – in our prayers.

During this Year of Mercy, St Bartholomew’s staff will make a special effort to help pupils make sense of these ‘works of mercy’ and to connect them to the words and actions of Jesus. We will be exploring the parables of mercy – the Lost Son, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin – and will learn what they teach us about the unfailing mercy of God.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Our usual weekly prayer service will take place today in our beautiful oratory and I would encourage as many pupils, parents and carers to come along. With Lent around the corner and the year of Mercy a huge consideration, it is particularly important to pray at this time.

As promised, in yesterday’s blog, a second extract from Mr Young’s speech from Education Sunday’s address is as follows:

I’m sure you will have noticed the simple motto that appears on our school website and also greets us at the main entrance to the school: Love God, Love others, Love learning. Loving God lies at the heart of St Bartholomew’s. When we pause for prayer at various points through the day, we invite God into the ordinariness of our daily routine and these brief moments of lifting the heart and mind to God are simple expressions of our love for him. We also show our love for God when we gather for Mass, and our school community celebrations of the Eucharist are always special and moving moments of grace. Of course, we are particularly blessed in St Bartholomew’s to have the Blessed Sacrament reserved in our school oratory, and what better way to express our love for God than to spend some quiet moments each day before the tabernacle. As we pour out our love for God in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, He, in turn, pours out his unlimited and perfect love upon us. Pope Francis describes it like this:

“Do you allow yourselves to be gazed upon by the Lord? But how do you do this? You look at the tabernacle and you let yourselves be looked at . . . it is that simple! It can sometimes be a bit boring; I sometimes fall asleep. Fall asleep then! He is still looking at you. Know for sure he is still looking at you!”

An important reminder for our Primary 7 pupils and carers – An Information Evening is taking place this evening at 7pm at St Ambrose High School. This will equip both parents and pupils with essential knowledge about this imminent transition to High School.

I would recommend that tickets for the Valentine Disco next Thursday are bought this week. As you know, children have a mid-term break next week and return on Thursday the 12^th of February. This is the day of the disco so it might be an idea to think about buying tickets as soon as possible.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

A huge thank you to all pupils, staff, parents, parishioners and friends who joined us for yesterday’s Education Sunday Mass. It was fantastic to see such a packed church. As usual, I gave the Head Teacher’s address and extracts from this will be included in the blog over the coming days.

Yesterday’s mass officially marked the opening of Catholic Education Week, 2016. This year’s theme is ‘Learning to Merciful’ and staff will be helping pupils throughout the next five days (and, indeed, throughout this Year of Mercy) to reflect on the mercy of God and think about how they can show mercy to others. Please remember the pupils and staff of St Bartholomew’s in your prayers this week and, if you can, pop along to the parish ‘Pray for our School’ group which meets in the school oratory tomorrow morning at 11.00am.

Head Teacher’s Education Sunday address, 2016: Part 1
“Catholic Education is about partnership: the three dimensions of home, school and parish working together to ensure the very best for our pupils. On this Education Sunday, I would like to take the opportunity to thank those numerous individuals who support the work of St Bartholomew’s in so many ways and who faithfully pass on the faith to our children. To the staff for their dedication, hard work and their genuine personal faith. To our parents and carers for coming today to show their commitment to Catholic education and for their ongoing support of all that we do in St Bartholomew’s. To the parish for being such an enthusiastic, supportive and spiritual bunch of people. To Father Doherty for the support he gives us as chaplain to the school. Of course, my biggest vote of thanks goes to the pupils of St Bartholomew’s. We must never forget that they’re the reason why we get up in the morning! Particular thanks to those pupils who have joined us for Mass this morning.

How appropriate, in this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, that today’s second reading presents us with St Paul’s well-known words on love from his first letter to the Corinthians. If we don’t have love – even if we have every other gift or talent imaginable – then we have nothing. Love is the greatest gift; love never fails.”

Primary 1 – Bridgit

Primary 1/2 – Maddison

Primary 2 – Lucy

Primary 2/3 – Kelsey

Primary 4 – Jake

Primary 5 – Luca

Primary 5/6 – Rebecca

Primary 7 – Julia

Winning House: Lochend

Cool Class Cup: Primary 1/2

Please can I extend a final invitation to this Sunday’s annual education Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church. As usual, our pupils will lead the music and I will be giving the Head Teacher’s address. The Faith section of our website says:

‘Catholic education is a great deal more than schooling. It is a lifelong process of human growth and development which begins in the home, continues in the school and matures through involvement with the Christian community in the parish. These three dimensions of home, school and parish must work together in St Bartholomew’s if the Catholic education we offer is to truly attain its goal of contributing to the formation of happy, balanced, loving individuals in the image and likeness of Christ.’

This Sunday’s education Mass offers a wonderful opportunity for the three dimensions of home, school and parish to come together to celebrate the gift of Catholic education. I would strongly encourage all of our pupils and families to make a special effort to join us on Sunday morning at 11.00am.

See you on Sunday!

Mr Young 🙂

On Tuesday evening, I had the opportunity to share some important news with the Parent Council. The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act now requires local authorities to offer eligible families of two-year-old children up to 600 hours of free early learning and childcare. After many months of planning by North Lanarkshire Council, St Bartholomew’s will soon become one of the nurseries offering provision for two-year-olds and this will involve a purpose-built extension being added to our existing nursery. The unit is currently being built off-site and will be craned into place in the coming months. Further information, including details of those children who may be eligible for a place, can be found at

http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/childcare

Primary 6 and 7 are now only a week away from receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. Please continue to remember the children in your prayers.

Finally, please remember that this coming Sunday, 31st January, is Education Sunday. It would be wonderful to see a packed church for the 11.00am Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church, so please join us for this annual celebration if you possibly can.

Some of you may have noticed a new face at Breakfast Club? We are very lucky to have Vicki from Active School joining us on a Wednesday morning to encourage children to exercise. An online video called ‘Jump Start Johnny’ is shown on the ‘big screen’, where all the children can follow his instructions while dancing and exercising to the music. It’s brilliant fun and I’m pretty sure I’ve noticed our dinner ladies dancing along to the music! The nursery staff were so impressed with it that they now use it for ‘physical time’ in the nursery and the children always look forward to it.

Talking about music… We have our annual ‘Valentine Disco’ next Thursday in the school. Tickets are now available from the school office and details are posted below on a photograph of one of our tickets.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

Our boys and girls were a credit to themselves, their parents and the school yesterday for their appearance and lovely manners for the whole school photograph. They were super smart and smiling the whole time! We are all very much looking forward to the end result and can’t wait to see the final photograph. We will keep you up to date..

Our Parent Council have a meeting tonight at 6pm in the staffroom to discuss school business and any new events that are up and coming in St Bartholomew’s.New parents to our school are welcome. We will keep you informed with the outcome of this meeting.

I encountered a very pleased young lady in Primary 1/2 yesterday who had a beautiful shiny trophy for her hard work and talent at a dancing competition – well done Ellie McLean. St Bartholomew’s are very proud of you.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

John Wilson photographers will be in St Bartholomew’s today to take our annual whole-school photograph. As was the case last year, the photograph will be created using some technical wizardry: each pupil and adult will have an individual photograph taken and these will be put together back in the studio using a computer to create the final photograph. Clever stuff, indeed!

Education Sunday falls this coming Sunday, 31st January, and will mark the start of Catholic Education Week. As always, St Bartholomew’s Primary will provide the music at the morning Mass in St Bartholomew’s Church and I will give the usual Head Teacher’s address. Letters have already been distributed to P4-7 pupils inviting them to be part of the choir. I would encourage as many pupils and families as possible to make a special effort to attend the Education Sunday Mass, when our school and parish communities will come together to give thanks for Catholic education and the work of St Bartholomew’s in particular. Mass begins at 11.00am.

Our Primary 6 and 7 pupils will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation a week on Thursday, 4th February. Please remember the boys and girls in your prayers over the coming days.

Finally, with it being Rabbie Burns Day, I thought I’d share some wise words from our national poet: