St Bartholomews

Today is the solemnity of St Andrew, patron saint of Scotland. To mark our national day, St Bartholomew’s school community will gather for Mass in the church at 10.00 o’clock this morning and then classes will have fun entertaining each together in the afternoon with Scottish songs, poems and dances. All parents and carers are very welcome to join us for Mass in St Bartholomew’s church.

Despite the inclement weather, the Christmas Fayre was a huge success on Saturday. The money raised will be counted today and the total posted on tomorrow’s blog. Please can I take this opportunity to express my very sincere thanks to Mrs Smile and the fantastic team of parent helpers who prepared and ran this year’s fayre. It is an annual event which involves a massive amount of planning and preparation behind the scenes and it simply would not happen without Mrs Smillie’s expertise and drive and the commitment and hard work of volunteers, including staff. Thank you to everyone who was involved!

It will be a busy day here at St. Bartholomew’s as we set up for tomorrow’s Christmas Fayre. There will be the usual array of stalls and games tomorrow, with something for all ages. Even Santa is making a special visit! Doors open at 10.00am. See you in the morning!

Special announcement: Primary 1 are selling reindeer dust at 50p per bag today in aid of Mary’s meals.

The five visiting Head Teachers thoroughly enjoyed their time in St Bartholomew’s yesterday morning and were very impressed indeed by our enthusiastic, hard-working and mannerly pupils. The visitors also commented on the high quality of our wall displays, so I thought I’d take the opportunity in today’s blog to showcase displays from up and down the corridors of St Bart’s. Enjoy!

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A very, very warm welcome this morning to the Head Teachers of St Stephen’s, St Edward’s, St Bernadette’s, Keir Hardie Memorial and Golfhill primary schools. These five schools have been joined with St Bartholomew’s to form a new ‘family group’. The purpose of this group is to provide an opportunity for Head Teachers and other staff to connect with schools similar to themselves in order to share expertise and ideas and to offer support and challenge. We are delighted to be hosting the very first school visit and hope that our new ‘family’ will have a thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring morning here in St Bart’s!

Order forms for our special 2015/2016 tea-towel were sent home yesterday. The tea-towel is priced £3.00, with all profits going directly to school funds. Please return the order form with your payment as soon as possible. Your order will be with you in time for Christmas.

Following the beautiful invitations I received from the boys and girls last week, I’m very much looking forward to visiting Primary 1/2 this morning to join in with some of their learning. P1/2 always have huge smiles to greet me and never fail to be brimming over with enthusiasm, so it’s sure to be an inspiring visit!

As mentioned last week, we have commissioned a special 2015/2016 St Bartholomew’s tea-towel which features a self-portrait of every single pupil in the school. The tea-towel will be printed in red and white and available to purchase in time for Christmas. Order forms will go out later this week, so please check your child’s school bag.

I bumped into Mark Millar on the way to Mass yesterday and he was asking after everyone here at St Bartholomew’s. I took the opportunity to pass on the thanks of our whole school community to Mark for his generosity, once again, in paying for this year’s trip to the pantomime. The trip takes place a week on Thursday, 3rd December, and it’s guaranteed to be a fantastic day for everyone, young and old alike!

Our Christmas Fayre is this coming Saturday. We have an absolutely AMAZING team of parent helpers beavering away behind the scenes getting ready for our main fund-raiser of the year. Thank you so much for all your hard work! We would still really appreciate any donations for the Christmas Fayre; these can be handed into the office anytime up until Friday morning.

Primary 1 – Ava

Primary 1/2 – Ava

Primary 2 – Emily

Primary 2/3 – Emily

Primary 4 – Harvey Jo

Primary 5 – Des

Primary 5/6 – Olivia

Primary 7 – Wiktoria

I got a lovely surprise from Primary 1/2 yesterday when I was handed a whole pile of colourful, beautifully-written invitations (see below) asking if I’d make a special visit to their classroom next Tuesday. I accepted straight away, of course! If that wasn’t enough of a surprise for one day, Primary 2/3 wrote me persuasive letters, asking if I’d come to see some of their learning next Friday. The boys and girls’ letters were so compelling, I was persuaded in an instant! I’m very much looking forward to my visits to P1/2 and P2/3 next week.

If you’re reading this today, you’re probably a regular blog reader. However, are you remembering about our class pages? They’re packed with photographs and information about the children’s recent learning and there’s also the facility to leave a comment. Simply click on the link on the right to start exploring!

Mr Fowler and I were so proud of our football team last night. They played fantastically well, working as a team and staying positive throughout the match. Unfortunately, a controversial penalty resulted in St Bart’s being beaten by one goal rather than the match ending in a 4-4 draw. However, a HUGE well done to the team… you did us all proud!

The fruit bags sold by the Health for Life group were a huge success last week and orders are being taken for next week’s delivery. The Health for Life group are committed to seeing St Bart’s pupils eating lots more fruit and these bargain fruit bags (5 pieces of fruit for only 50p!) are sure to bring a huge health-boost to the school.

The date of our whole-school trip to the pantomime at the Pavilion Theatre has now been finalised. Our special day away will take place two weeks today, Thursday 3rd December. Further details will be sent out in due course.