St Bartholomews

St Bartholomew’s will be a busy place today! We have our long anticipated Art Auction in memory of Joe McDade today in the hall. There is a wide selection of beautiful paintings to choose from and I am sure that Joe’s family will be delighted to see them displayed in all their glory. Doors open at 1pm and all are welcome- even for a wee nosy!

As a result of the Auction, we are having an early lunch today so that we have time to set up the hall. Lunch will be at 12-12.45pm, then interval will also be 10.30-10.45am. We are all excited…

Primary 4 will also be super excited today. They are out of school today as they are visiting ‘Summerlee Heritage Centre’. Mrs McLean has organised  a brilliant workshop with lots of fun activities so that the children can further extend their learning on the ‘Victorians’. We are all looking forward to the pictures. As always, school uniform is worn on school trips.

Mrs Bolland 🙂

A MASSIVE well done from our whole school community to St Bartholomew’s FC. The team played a great match yesterday afternoon which finished with an impressive 5-1 win to St Bart’s. Mr Fowler’s dedicated coaching & the team’s commitment and hard work have paid off! Well done to you all… we’re so proud of you! Here’s a photo of the boys relaxing after the match:

Please don’t forget to support our art exhibition/auction tomorrow. Joe McDade’s family are travelling all the way from Liverpool and filling the hall with parents, parishioners and friends of the school would be a great tribute to Joe, whose talent we continue to appreciate on a daily basis every time we walk past the painting of St Bartholomew. The exhibition/auction begins at 1.00pm.

St Bartholomew’s FC have their next fixture at St Ambrose after school today. Under the skilful coaching and watchful eye of Mr Fowler, the team is going from strength to strength and I’m sure there’ll be a very positive result this afternoon. Good luck, team!

Please remember this Friday’s art exhibition/auction of Joe McDade’s work. The event starts at 1.00pm and it would be fantastic to see a full hall.

As you know, Primary 7 visited St Andrew’s cathedral in Glasgow last Thursday afternoon. Mrs MacFarlane took a photograph of the children in the cathedral’s cloister garden and this turned out to be a fascinating image, due to the reflection in one of the mirrored plinths. Cast your eyes to just below the sunbeam in the top centre of the photograph. Can you see the image of Jesus’ face smiling down on the children???

There has been a change to my days in headquarters this week and I will be in St Bartholomew’s over the next three days, as well as Friday afternoon. I’m looking forward to joining pupils, staff, parents and parishioners for the weekly prayer service this morning at 8.50am.

Many thanks to our Primary 2 pupils for their super assembly on Friday. You spoke out and sang exceptionally well, boys and girls… Thank you for encouraging all of us grown-ups to use our talents wisely!

As Mrs Bolland mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the art exhibition/auction of Joe McDade’s paintings (the artist who painted the image of St Bartholomew which hangs at the main entrance) takes place this coming Friday at 1.00pm. Joe’s family will be travelling up from Liverpool to join us for this special event in memory of Joe, so please can encourage all parents, carers and friends to make a special effort to be there on Friday. It will be a great opportunity to pick up some original works of art at bargain prices and raise money for school funds.

Primary 3 are only one week away from their First Reconciliation. A letter outlining arrangements for next Tuesday will be sent out to P3 parents/carers today. Please remember the boys and girls in your prayers over the coming days.

What a beautiful day! My comments last week about the miserable weather must not have fallen on deaf ears. It looks like Spring is upon us.Thank goodness.

Talking about Spring…. Vicki, our Active School’s coordinator has informed us that as the Easter Holidays are fast approaching, the NL Leisure Easter Camp registration is now open.  This year it will take place at St Ambrose High School. The link posted below contains all the information you need:

http://www.nlleisure.co.uk/holiday-programmes/easter-club

Our long awaited Art Auction in memory of Mr  Joe McDade will take place on Friday at 1pm in the hall. Joe was a member of our well established ‘Community Art Club’ and is sorely missed. There is a super selection of paintings to choose from and would be a welcome addition to many homes!

However, as a result, Primary 3/2’s Assembly will be postponed and another date will be organised soon. Parents/ carers will be informed immediately to allow for a suitable amount of notice. We can’t wait to see it Primary 3/2!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

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!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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!