St Bartholomews

Our whole school community thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s theatre production, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’. The stage set, costumes and lighting transformed the hall and the children absolutely loved the story as well as all the songs to sing and clap along to. I was delighted when the cast approached me after the show to say that it was one of the best-behaved, enthusiastic and participative audiences they’d encountered…. a lovely compliment for our fantastic pupils! Check out Twitter (@bartholomew_st) for photographs of yesterday’s show.

We have six Pupil Voice groups in St Bartholomew’s: Forward Together, Faith in Action, Impact, Eco, Health for Life and Rights Respecting Schools. Our six upper school Pupil Voice groups met yesterday morning and new chairpersons and secretaries were appointed. The infant groups meet later today and then the six chairs will attend a business meeting in my office on Friday to feed back to me the discussions, ideas and decisions of their group. There is a dedicated Pupil Voice section on the school website, so please keep an eye on this to stay up-to-date with the work of our Pupil Voice groups.

The Halloween disco takes place tomorrow evening. The P1-3 disco runs from 6.00 – 7.00pm and the P4 – 7 from 7.15 – 8.15pm. Tickets are still available from the office, priced £1.50.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our special visitors from the Scottish Government, Paul Johnstone and Fiona Robertson, thoroughly enjoyed their visit to St Bartholomew’s yesterday. They were extremely impressed with the fantastic writing in P1/2, the mature discussion about skills for the world of work in P7 and the magnificent maths in P4. The rest of the children didn’t go unnoticed and it was great to see everyone so busy and well-behaved as the visitors made their way through the school. Well done, team!

M & M Theatre company will be transporting the pupils and staff of St Bart’s to the city of Paris today as they re-tell the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Here’s a taste of the exciting tale the boys and girls will be treated to this morning:

‘Poor Quasimodo has no friends. Even his own brother, the evil Mayor De Vile, despises him. After being abandoned on a cathedral doorstep as a baby, because of the way he looks, life doesn’t seem to have dealt him a fair hand. He does meet a beautiful girl called Esmeralda who is the first person ever to be kind to him but thinks she could never love some like himself. It becomes worse when his flamboyant mother is framed for stealing the famous golden chalice. This chalice has the power to transform a person who drinks from it, but only if that person has a good heart. Quasimodo knows he has been set up by his nasty brother but is locked up in the bell tower of the cathedral so he can’t tell anyone. All seems lost until he meets an unusual character….’ ENJOY THE SHOW!

St Bartholomew’s will welcome two special visitors from the Scottish Government this morning. Paul Johnstone, Director General for Learning & Justice, and Fiona Robertson, Director of the Learning Directorate, will arrive at St Bartholomew’s at 11.00am. As part of their tour of the school, Paul Johnstone and Fiona Robertson will make special visits to Primary 1/2 to see the children engaged in literacy activities, Primary 7 to talk to pupils about developing skills for the world of work and Primary 4 to join the children for a maths lesson. Our visitors will be accompanied by David Craig and Lorraine Fisher, two Education Officers from North Lanarkshire Learning & Leisure Services. A very, very warm welcome to you all; we hope you’re inspired by your visit to St Bart’s!

Please remember that tickets are now on sale for Thursday’s Halloween disco, priced £1.50. A meeting for parents/carers who have volunteered to help out with the disco takes place in the Get Together Room this afternoon at 3.30pm. Many thanks in advance for your help!

Primary 1 – Paige

Primary 1/2 – Liliana

Primary 2 – Aiden

Primary 2/3 – Lewis

Primary 4 – Oskar

Primary 5 – Chloe

Primary 5/6 – Niamh

Primary 7 – Rachael

COOL CLASS CUP – Primary 5/6

HOUSE TROPHY – Lochend

Tickets for next Thursday’s Halloween disco go on sale today, priced £1.50. There will be prizes for the best costumes, so it’s time to start planning your Halloween outfit!

Our whole-school assembly takes place as usual this morning. Check out the website later today for this week’s Pupils of the Week, Cool Class and winning House.

Finally, please remember to explore our class pages regularly to stay up-to-date with the exciting learning that’s going on across the school. Simply click on the ‘class pages’ link on the right hand side of this page.

Despite not being on the winning side yesterday, our football team did St Bart’s proud. They gave 100%, worked as a team and were gracious in defeat. Well done, boys!

St Bartholomew’s received news yesterday that Paul Robertson, the Scottish Government Director General for Learning and Justice, will be visiting the school on Monday morning. News has reached him of the good work that goes on in St Bart’s and he is keen to see this for himself. The Director General will visit several classes across the school where he’ll have the opportunity to chat to pupils and staff.

One very, very proud P2 pupil turned up at my office yesterday to show off his super work. I promised him I’d post his picture on today’s blog!

Finally, today is the feast day of Saint John Paul II, a pope most blog readers will remember well. Here are some wise words from this remarkable man:

As is so often the case here in St Bart’s, yesterday’s visitors couldn’t resist asking for a tour of the building. They were ultra-impressed with everything they saw, from the fantastic wall-displays to our impressive resources and facilities. Of course, it was our phenomenal pupils who impressed our visitors the most. Primary 7 performed their two songs from the show (tie-dyed t-shirts and surf boards included!) and some friendly P3 pupils even gave our Head of Service, Isabelle Boyd, an unexpected hug! Everyone felt very welcome indeed!

Our newly-formed football team have their next fixture at St Ambrose High School today. Mr Lynch has added some additional players to the team and I know the boys will do St Bartholomew’s proud by being great team-players and sportsmen. Good luck, team!

The new term got off to a great start yesterday and there was a settled, productive atmosphere right across the school. Well done, boys and girls!

Many thanks to those parents and carers who indicated at Parents’ Evening that they would like to help out with school events or would be interested in joining the Parent Council. The next Parent Council meeting takes place a week today, Tuesday 27th October, and the next opportunity to help out in the school will be our Halloween disco on Thursday 29th. We will be in touch by letter with those who volunteered their help. Many thanks again.

Finally, St Bartholomew’s will have a number of visitors to the school this morning as our Staff Development Base is being used as the venue for a local authority meeting. A very warm welcome to our guests.

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday, especially with the weather being so beautiful.

A very warm welcome today to Karen Glen from ‘Curriculo Solutions’. St Bartholomew’s piloted the new ‘Curriculo Solutions’ materials last year, which focus on skills for the world of work. The aim of the programme is to build pupils’ confidence and resilience in knowing who they are and what skills and strengths make them who they are. The programme also relates skills and strengths to the workplace, giving an early look at how these help people make career choices and how skills and strengths enable people to do their jobs. Karen will be working with our Primary 7 pupils and I know the boys and girls will gain a great deal from this afternoon’s input.

 

PUPILS OF THE WEEK

Primary 1 – Bridgit and Maia

Primary 1/2  – Cara and Ellie

Primary 2 – Brodie and Skye

Priamry 2/3 – Daniel and Alisha

Primary 4 – Cian and Stephen

Primary 5  – Stella and Daniel

Primary 5/6 – Lucy and John

Primary 7 – Holly and Elle

COOL CLASS CUP: Primary 2/3

HOUSE TROPHY: Monklands