St Bartholomews

The day of the Primary 4-7 Christmas concert has finally arrived. The concert starts at 1.30pm and tickets, priced £1.00, are still available from the office. There will be the usual raffle as well as an opportunity to purchase our special St Bart’s 2015/16 tea-towel, priced £3.00. See you this afternoon!

There was great excitement amongst the St Bart’s football team yesterday as they got together to select a new football strip. The recent boost to our school funds from the Christmas Fayre gives Mr Fowler the opportunity to replace the current kit, which is a bit tired, with a new modern strip, complete with badge (see below). The strips should hopefully be with us in time for the January fixture at St Ambrose and I know the team will wear them with pride!

Our nursery had an unannounced visit from Care Inspectorate yesterday and I’m delighted to say that we were graded ‘very good’ in all areas. Well done to our hard-working, dedicated nursery team… and, of course, to our fantastic nursery children who the inspector was ultra impressed with!

We are only one day away from the Primary 4-7 Christmas concert. The children have been working hard preparing a selection of songs and carols; you are in for a real festive treat! To allow Mr Lynch to set up the hall for the concert, only pack-a-snacks will be available tomorrow lunchtime. This will also be the case on Friday for the nursery nativity as well as for the P1-3 nativity on Wednesday 16th. Of course, we will have Christmas dinner on Thursday to make up for all those sandwiches!

Primary 5 were decanted from their classroom for two days last week to allow timber cupboards to be fitted in place of the old tin lockers. This work is now complete and Primary 5 have moved back into their smart new room. The final room to have the tin lockers removed is the library. Contractors are in the process of removing these and replacing them with purpose-built open shelving. Once finished, we will have a library which will be the envy of many other schools.

Finally, today, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, marks the opening of the ‘Year of Mercy’, a year in which Pope Francis invites each of us to encounter the unconditional love, kindness, generosity and acceptance of God. What better way to begin this special year of grace than by joining us for our weekly prayer service in the oratory at 8.50am.

We are now into the second week of Advent. Members of our school and parish community are continuing to prepare their hearts for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

You may have already noticed that, as from today, there is a handy Twitter feed on the right-hand bar of our school website. I hope you’ll find it helpful having the blog, class pages and Twitter posts all in the one place.

The Primary 4-7 Christmas concert takes place this Wednesday at 1.30pm. Don’t forget to pick up your tickets from the office, priced £1.00.

Primary 1 – Jada

Primary 1/2 – Maya

Primary 2 – Junior

Primary 2/3 – Sean

Primary 4 – Sean Michael

Primary 5 – Shakira

Primary 5/6 – Paige

Primary 7 – Jason

Winning House:  Summerlee

Cool Class Cup: Primary 2/3

The children and staff had an absolutely fantastic time at the Pavilion Theatre pantomime yesterday. The show was jam-packed with amusing story-lines, lively songs, hilarious jokes, stunning special effects, delicious ice cream and lots of general nonsense! Once again, a huge thank you to Mark Millar OBE for funding our special day!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The boys and girls recently took part in a Christmas art competition organised by the Knights of St Columba. I’m delighted to announce that one of our pupils is a winner and that a trophy will be awarded to them at this morning’s assembly by members of the KSC. What a great achievement!

Please remember that tickets are on sale, priced £1, for this coming Wednesday’s P4-7 Christmas concert as well as for the infant Nativity on Wednesday 16th December. Please also remember to order your St Bart’s tea-towel, priced £3… they’re going fast!

Finally, many of you will have noticed the police presence around the school at the end of the day yesterday. This was in response to complaints from concerned members of the public about unsafe and inconsiderate parking around the school, including in the car-park. The police informed me before they left that they had witnessed and spoken to a number of drivers who were in breach of the Highway Code. Although the police’s aim yesterday afternoon was simply to educate and warn car users, they informed me that they will continue to monitor the situation around St Bartholomew’s and, if necessary, take more serious action.

There will be great excitement as the boys and girls arrive at school this morning because our annual trip to the Pavilion Theatre pantomime has finally arrived! We’ll be boarding the buses around 9.45am and heading off to Glasgow in time for the 11 o’clock performance of ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town’. As always, the trip has been entirely funded by Mark Millar OBE, including the 200+ ice creams! St Bartholomew’s is eternally grateful to Mark for his friendship and generosity; we are one very, very blessed school! Please keep an eye on Twitter to see photographs of our special day.

Do you have a Christmas card you’d like delivered? Help is at hand! Primary 1/2 have set up a Christmas postal service and cards can be posted in the special postbox located in the main foyer. There is a daily collection at 1.15pm.

Have you ordered your St Bart’s tea-towel yet? Demand for these is high, so don’t miss out on the must-have item for Christmas 2015! There’s a possibility we may be ordering another batch, so if you are interested in purchasing more than one tea-towel, please let the office know.

Many thanks, once again, to the parish ‘Pray for our School’ group. This faithful group of parishioners met in the oratory yesterday morning (as they do every month) to pray for the needs of St Bartholomew’s. A group of Primary 7 pupils joined them for tea, a biscuit and a blether afterwards – always a treat for parishioners and children alike!
Our annual trip to the Pavilion Theatre pantomime in Glasgow, kindly funded by Mark Millar OBE, takes place tomorrow. This year’s panto is ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town’, and it’s guaranteed to be a fun-packed day for the children (and staff!). Photographs of our special trip will be posted on Twitter throughout the day. We will be leaving and returning within the normal school day, so there’s no need to make any special arrangements. However, please remember to provide your child with a packed lunch if they are not taking a pack-a-snack from the dinner hall. SCHOOL UNIFORM MUST BE WORN.

Finally, if you didn’t notice the announcement on yesterday’s blog, the Christmas Fayre raised almost £2300… and there’s still more money to come in. Wow!

The current total from the Christmas Fayre stands at a fantastic £2268.10 !!! There are still items to be sold, including the tea-towels, so this amount should rise to around £2500. Many thanks for your support; this money will go directly towards resources and activities for St Bartholomew’s pupils.

We are now into the season of Advent, the four weeks of preparation in the liturgical calendar for the coming of Christ at Christmas. Our Advent wreath has been set up in the main foyer and, as an additional reminder of this holy season, a wreath will also appear on the daily blog, with a candle burning for each week of Advent.

Och aye, we had a pure dead brilliant time at our St Andrew’s Day assembly yesterday afternoon! Check out Twitter for photographs of each class’s Scottish-themed performance.

Tickets go on sale today for the P4-7 Christmas concert (Wednesday 9th December, 1.30pm) and the P1-3 Nativity (Wednesday 16th December, 1.30pm). I am very aware that, with last term’s concert, the Christmas Fayre, the school tea-towel and the various Mary’s Meals fund-raisers, families have been asked to pay out quite a bit of money in recent months. To ease things at this expensive time of year, tickets for our Christmas events will be priced at £1.00.

Primary 1 – Kerry

Primary 1/2 – Corey

Primary 2 – Alex

Primary 2/3 – Stuart

Primary 4 – Michael

Primary 5 – Carly

Primary 5/6 – Jack

Primary 7 – Rhys

Winning House – Drumpellier