St Bartholomews

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.

Primary 1 – Ava

Primary 1/2 – Maddison

Primary 2- Emma

Primary 2/3 – Keira

Primary 4 – Leon

Primary 5 – Oscar

Primary 5/6 – Jack

Primary 7 – Elle

Winning House: Drumpellier

Cool Class Cup: Primary 1/2

Mrs MacIntyre and Mrs MacFarlane had the opportunity to have a bit of a spending-spree earlier this week, as St Bart’s had over £900 of Book Fayre commission to spend on new books. Wow! Thank you for supporting our Book Fayres… these new books will be a great boost to our library and class literacy resources. Our next Book Fayre is scheduled for the week of Parents’ Evening at the end of term.

As mentioned in Wednesday’s blog, employees of Santander were in St Bartholomew’s earlier this week working with P4-7 pupils on money management. The workshops were hugely beneficial to pupils and the boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I was delighted to read an email from Santander yesterday:

‘Just wanted to send a huge thanks from myself and the other girls for having us today. We were all impressed by the impeccable manners of the children holding doors open etc, it was really nice to see!’

We wouldn’t expect anything less from the fantastic pupils of St Bart’s!

It’s hard to believe it’s Friday already which, of course, means assembly, certificates, trophies and tea with Mr Young! As always, winners will be posted on the website later this morning.

Finally, I had the most fantastic day in P1/2 yesterday. I was thoroughly impressed by the boys and girls’ enthusiasm, behaviour and hard-work. Can you believe that the children were learning about atoms! I think we have some mini Einsteins lurking in the bottom corridor! Well done, boys and girls, and many thanks to Mrs Carlin for making me feel so welcome.

I’ll be spending most of today in Primary 1/2. I’m very much looking forward to joining in with the children’s learning activities and hearing the boys and girls’ thoughts and views about being a pupil in St Bartholomew’s. Many thanks to the P1/2 parents/carers who completed and returned the questionnaire; we really appreciate your feedback and comments.

During our Primary 4-7 assembly today, I was extremely impressed with the quality of  the responses to my questions about Lent. The children were a credit to themselves and their families with the wonderful insight that they demonstrated. I was particularly pleased when the children made heartfelt comments about the extent of Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice for us, and they were then able to reflect on the small sacrifices that we are all asked to make during Lent. Well done boys and girls!

On another note, St Bartholomew’s football team have another fixture later on this afternoon and I believe it’s with St Bernard’s in Shawhead. We all have our fingers and toes crossed boys and girls! I can’t wait to hear how they get on and look forward to a positive result which would be very well deserved as there has been a lot of hard work dedicated from both Mr Fowler and the team. Good luck!

Mrs Bolland 🙂

We have arranged for a number of different organisations to come in to our school to provide the children with knowledge and experiences that will certainly benefit them in their daily lives. Firstly, in our nursery we have a ‘Minibeasts’ workshop, where children are learning about life cycles through some small furry friends and creepy crawlies…. I know that our young pupils will love it.

Then, all of our boys and girls, from Primary 1 to 7 enjoyed learning about how to look after their pets and some interesting facts about lots of other animals, in general. We were very lucky to have Lindsey from the SSPCA in yesterday and she even gave out rulers to all of the children to take home as a momento of the visit. Thank you Lindsey!!!

One of our younger pupils had an extra big smile on his face yesterday. He was playing football as part of the NLC football festival and won a gold Medal! A huge well done from everyone at St Bartholomew’s.

We are all very much looking forward to a visit tomorrow from the financial organisation, Santander. Their staff will be working with our children to make sure that they are ‘money savvy’ – I am sure you will agree that this is something we can all benefit from, especially at this time of year.

Mrs Bolland 🙂