“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" Isaiah 9:6–7

Throughout our history, there have been some really bossy kings out there! Some that were power hungry, greedy and didn’t see the vision of what the country could be. This week in school, we have been thinking about what we would do if we were king. On Sunday, we celebrate Christ the King. Jesus was a king who ruled with love - nothing else and his kingdom is not of this world. To help us, I asked some of our All Stars what they would do if they were a king. Some of them chose to be the bossy king, some of them chose to rule with love. See what you think?

Next Sunday sees the start of Advent and our second family mass. Our first family mass was so well attended; thank you to everyone who came. This Mass will be extra special as it is the first Sunday of Advent - what a lovely way to start it together.

The children who will be directly involved in the Mass on Sunday are on the PDF below. If your child’s name isn’t listed, they will be involved, just sat with you taking part in the mass. Those children who are in the choir, will be sat in the choir loft with the parish choir. The readers and offertory children can sit with their parents and come up when it is there turn for involvement. Staff will be present too to support.

For the homily, as with every homily on the 1st Sunday of Advent, there will be a letter read out written by Bishop Paul. Having been visited by Bishop Paul this year, it will be special for the children to hear directly from him in a letter.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday 1st December. Following mass, there is the monthly coffee and craft club at the Parish Centre. Please do attend if you are able to.

I have loved hearing the stories of the travelling nativities making their way into each of your homes. What a gorgeous photo this is.

Christmas is coming…

Thank you to everyone who has booked a place on the Christmas Pottery session - it is going to be lovely to get all christmassy after school on Tuesday 3rd December. It will start at 3.30pm straight after school and should be about an hour; with Christmas treats and drinks. Next week on the blog, I will put the booking forms for the KS1 and KS2 film night, you can then book a place.

For the next two Fridays, it is own clothes day and bring something for the Christmas raffle.

Friday 29th November - Own clothes day and bring a bar or bag of chocolate for the raffle.

Friday 6th December - Own clothes day and bring a bottle of your choice for the raffle.

We will be making hamper bags out of the donations to add to the raffle prizes.

The Great Our Lady Bake Off

After the success of last year’s master bake off - it returns for 2024. I know many of the children have already planned their bakes for the day, and I am really excited to taste them! There is a menu of choice again here so you can get involved as much or as little as you want. See the poster to find out the information and decide what you would like to you.

We will open the hall at the end of the day for further cake to be bought by families.

This is such a wonderful fundraiser for the school - and we get to eat cake in the process.

STARs of the Week

Well done to our children this week who have been beacons of light for us all. You have shone so brightly to demonstrate our virtues; intentional and prophetic, and with excellent learning.

Office News

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 this week with 96.7%. Our whole school attendance has taken a hit due to the nasty chicken pox!

What a week it has been with the arrival of our packed lunch service into school. We have needed time to see how it would work and how we would ensure that the children all had enough to eat - which they have; it has been like a buffet! Now that we have mastered this, we can add in some additional options. Next week, there will be some hot dinners in the mix as well as the sandwiches:

  • Monday - Meatball Sub

  • Tuesday - Packed Lunch

  • Wednesday - Packed Lunch

  • Thursday - Beef/Veggie Burgers

  • Friday - Pizza slices

Nativity tickets have flown out of the office this week; please do send in your slips and payment with what you want for the tickets. Mrs Nel is on hand to answer any questions that you might have.

Chicken pox has been doing its rounds this week, especially amongst our younger children. Please do keep an eye on this at home over the weekend. The children can only return to school once all of the spots have scabbed over.

Have a wonderful weekend with your families. The feeling of Christmas will soon be fully upon us.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

“Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” Mark 13:31

On Monday morning, as we gathered for whole-school liturgy, we talked about how important it is to remember; not only to remember but to think why we remember. In the lives that we live, we often don’t have the time to be still and to find silence; this is something that we are really trying to do more often in school. As the two minute silence was respected in school, I took our leadership group to the cenotaph in Ashton Gardens to observe the two minutes silence along with our community. It was a beautiful, somber affair; and so well respected. Together, with others, we placed our wreath at the foot of the memorial.

We also talked about how hard it is to love everyone, even those we find uncomfortable. Sometimes it is even hard to love those people who we are close to. Just like the Samaritan, we have tried to help everyone this week and thought about having a secret mission to be like him. I wonder how we all got on?

Today, our Year 2 children headed down to the parish centre and joined in with the coffee morning there, making Rosary bracelets with the parishoners. In a few weeks time, we will be celebrating our next family mass; Sunday 1st December. It will be lovely to start Advent together. As with the previous mass, if your child can attend and would like to take part, please complete the form below. I can then choose different children to take part in the different elements. Last time, we had 384 people in attendance. It would be great to have the same again.

Christmas is coming…

There has been so much excitement about Christmas and the events that we have planned in school. The children are eager to know what the films are going to be and what they will be decorating at the pottery class after school. The first booking is for the Parent and Child Pottery Painting after school on Tuesday 3rd December. The cost is £10 per person painting. This will cover the pottery that you choose and the glaze; as well as some festive treats and drinks. Mrs Naylor will then arrange for the pottery to be fired and collect to give back out at school. There will be additional pottery on the night if you want to do more. Please complete the booking form if you wish to take part.

You will have seen the raffle tickets appear in the children’s bags this week too. Thank you so much for the donation of gifts so far…they are amazing and so generous. The poster below is just a snapshot of what has been donated. Please send in the raffle tickets with the money once you have sold them, or any blank ones that you still have. Don’t forget owns clothes day and a bar of chocolate on Friday 29th December.

STARs of the Week

Well done to our children this week who have been beacons of light for us all. You have shone so brightly to demonstrate our virtues; intentional and prophetic, and with excellent learning.

Office News

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 this week with 97.3%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 88.2%.

This week we took delivery of the roofing struts for the extension and next week, they will be knocking through! This means that the kitchen team have relocated to St Thomas’s until the kitchen is finished. Packed lunches will be on offer next week whilst Jacqui gets to grips with her new surroundings, we will then get a bit more adventurous the weeks after. Watch this space and I will continue to keep you informed.

Nativity tickets have flown out of the office this week; please do send in your slips and payment with what you want for the tickets. Mrs Nel is on hand to answer any questions that you might have.

We have all been rather cosy in school today as we raised money for our local Children in Need, Brian House. So far we have raised £170 - which is fabulous! That, with our ticket sales, will be our offering to them this Christmas. Have a look at our class blogs to see our pj snaps!

Have a wonderful weekend with your families

God bless

Mrs Gregan

Growing our Catholic Family

This term, I have reflected a lot on what it means to work in a Catholic school, there is only one mission; to bring the children and families that we serve closer to God and for God to be known to them in their lives. There is a vast number of ways in which we do this in school; through weekly prayer and liturgy as a whole-school, our Jesuit school virutes which we adopt and try to live by, our STAR behaviour policy, opportunities to discuss their faith and see Christ through the curriculum we teach, our links with the parish and many more. But most importantly, through our interactions with people around us. Relationships are at the heart of this. It is simply who we are and what we expect of each other.

In order to grow our faith and to continue to live out of the Gospel messages, we must also share with others. One of my main philosphies as a teacher, was to always be outward looking, to work with others and to evolve; this is when we grow the most as I have seen other ways in which things have been achieved; likewise, I have also shared our school too. We are incredibly fortunate that we have a strong Catholic Cluster of schools, including St Bedes, who we work with all of the time; all with the same common mission.

You may be aware that the Diocese of Lancaster has been working closely with the Department for Education to agree a way forward for the Catholic schools in the Diocese to form or join existing Catholic Multi Academy Trusts. These Multi Academy Trusts will be formed by groups of Catholic primary and secondary schools who wish to join and work together. The Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic Multi Academy Trust has been identified by the Diocese and the Department for Education as the right Trust to take forward this vision for Catholic education in the Blackpool and Fylde and Wyre areas. We are now at the point in which Bishop Paul has asked us to start the journey to join the Catholic Multi Academy Trust. This is his directive for us to follow. The process for this has taken some time, and getting to the point at which we are has meant lots of discussions with the diocese, MAT and our school governors to ensure that Our Lady Star of the Sea will continue to remain the special place that it always has been.

After careful consideration and preliminary discussion with the Diocese and other Catholic schools in our area, the Governing Body of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School has decided that they wish to explore conversion to academy status and, in particular, to join the Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic Multi Academy Trust (BEBCMAT) in Autumn 2025. The Bishop’s vision is that all Catholic schools in the Blackpool and Fylde Coast area will join BEBCMAT by 2026.

There are two documents below that explain the Bishop’s directive in more detail and what this will mean for us as a school community.

You will see from reading the letter that there is an opportunity for you to meet the CEO of the Multi Academy Trust and for her to answer any questions that you have. She will explain what this will mean for our school in more detail and what life will look like for us as part of BEBCMAT. If you are able to attend the consultation meeting on Monday 2nd December at 2:45pm, please can you complete the form below so that we can prepare logistically. Please do share any thoughts that you have via the consultation process and we will respond as best as we can. On the main page of the website, there is now a button that when clicked on will be updated with information that I gather. Later on today, I will upload this information onto it so that you can refer to it at a later date and it is easier to find.

A journey is always best when you have a team with you. Since being in role here, I have had nothing but your support, trust and love; we have problem-solved together. This is just another chapter in our journey together…

At the going down of the sun and in the morning - We will remember them.

November can often be a solemn month as we remember everyone who has passed before us; the but the sign of the poppy can too bring a smile. This week in school, we have been looking at the poppy and the symbol that it is. I think the display in our Worship Area is one of my most favourite displays to date. It is made with love. On Monday, I will be taking our Year 6 leadership team to the Cenotaph to be part of the community celebrations for Remembrance, and taking the wreath that we have created. I am sure it will be incredibly poignant.

We have continued to act with intention in school and follow in the footsteps of the Saints who have come before us. In Monday’s liturgy, we discussed the diversity of the saints that we have and the difference in ages. We met Carlos Acutis who became a saint at the age of 15 - we too can be saints and behave like them; always intentionally.

What intentionally kind acts can you spot at home this weekend?

Christmas is coming…

Now the excitement of fireworks and Bonfire have left us, attention in school is quickly turning to Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Songs have started to be heard around school as each class prepares for their own retelling of the nativity story. Nativity letters will be going home with how you can order your tickets and tonight, the travelling nativities will be heading to their homes for the first time. This was something that we introduced last year to ensure that each house welcomed the stable. In each bag you will find; the nativity, purple material, a story, some candles and a book for each child to sketch or write what they feel. Please do take a photo and email it into your class teacher.

We also want to create a menu of opportunity for the children to get involved in events, whilst raising money for the school at the same time. Christmas is about community and family - there really is something for everyone here! Nothing costs the earth either, as I know Christmas is an expensive time for us all. This year Mrs Nel has organised a Christmas raffle - just like the ones that we used to have. These raffle books will be coming home on Monday. We have already started gathering prizes, but if any generous members of our community would like to offer more; please do. In order to create raffle hampers, we will be having two own clothes days; one for a bar of chocolate and one for a bottle. Mrs Naylor will also be running a parent and child pottery night after school on Tuesday 3rd December where you can paint decorations together; she will then arranged for them to be fired. Further information will go on the blog next week.

Creative Playtimes.

Thank you to everyone who has donated blocks and more blocks for our playground. They have been well used this week and we have had so much fun together. We have a dolls house and some cars arriving soon too! The Year 2 girls have been putting on show after show - I think a stage might be next!

Book Looks

Thank you to all of the parents in Year 2, 3 and 5 who came to look through their child’s books with them this week. The children really love sitting down with you and sharing their work - they really have worked their socks off this year so far.

The dates and times for next week’s book looks are below. We look forward to seein you then.

13th November: Year 6 Book Look @ 2.30pm

14th November: Year 1 Book Look @ 9am

14th November: Year 4 Book Look @ 2.30pm

STARs of the Week

Office News

Our kitchen extension is flying up and because of the bought of dry weather, we are currently two weeks ahead of schedule - which is staggering. Despite Jacqui and Mirium feeding the builders large quantities of her famous flapjacks, they seem to have just got on. Maybe the flapjacks were the fuel that they needed! Because we are ahead, it means that they will be knocking through sooner than we thought. Therefore next Friday will be Jacqui and Mirium’s last day in the current kitchen before they move to St Thomas’s to cook our dinners from there. I will communicate next Friday what this means for lunches going forward. We are getting even more excited about what this add to our school and the impact that we have.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 4 this week with 99.7%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 87.6%.

A funny thing has happened in school this week. As you know, we have had a group of workmen outside school completing the extension to our school kitchen rapidly. Well, one of our brick layers has turned out to be a rubgy league player for Leigh Leopards (he is training for life beyond rugby), and as many of you know, our Sale boys are huge fans of the Leopards, infact Josh is their favourite player. Another lovely fact is that Sale Way (which Leigh Sports Stadium is built upon) is named after Tommy Sale MBE (the boys’ great-grandad). Very kindly, Josh has signed some of the boys merchandise and kit for them this week and answered their questions when meeting them - it was so lovely and incredibly special. .

Finally, on behalf of the whole school community, I have sent congratulations to Mrs Hartley and her husband on the safe arrival of their beautiful little girl, Freya. Both mum and daugter are well and Freya is perfect in every way. We cannot wait to welcome them into school for cuddles.

Have a lovely weekend - don’t forget PJ day next Friday for Brian House. £1 and teddy is all you need!

God bless

Mrs Gregan

Love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself.'

In school, you will know that the theme of light permeates through everything that we do and who we are. We constantly talk about how we can shine our light with others and what this looks like as human beings. As the rest of the school arrived back on Monday following their half term break, our Year 6 children headed off to the Lake District to experience 2 nights at Castlerigg. Castlerigg Manor is the Diocesan retreat for young people. It is a place full of love, kindness and spirituality - we experienced all of those this week. Although the theme of the retreat was, ‘Let your light shine.’ We very much looked at how we get light and who gives it us. It was really special to hear the children speak about all of the people who give them light in their lives. At the end of each day, we visited the chapel for night time prayer and mass, led by the Castlerigg chaplin. I talk to the children frequently about how they might not remember specific lessons or conversations that they have whilst they are at school, but they will remember how it made them feel. I truly hope that the Year 6 children remember how they felt during their time at Castlerigg - we have also already booked for our current Year 5 when they are in Year 6. Below is a snapshot of our time there together.

STAR Charter

You may remember at the start of this year, we launched our STAR Charter. This is a way that the children see just how much they can give to their community and the change they can be. For the main charter, this will be completed in class, where they will be given the opportunity to complete 5 different acts. But there is an addional level, for those children who go above and beyond outside of school. Below are some images from a family who have started their charter award and the volunteering act that they commited. By helping clean the war graves ready for Remembrance Sunday, and litter picking, they have contributed to their community. Throughout the year, if your children complete any volunteering acts, please do let us know and take photos to go towards their STAR Charter Distinction.

Speaking of STARs, a huge thank you to Mr Heyes who has made a mud kitchen for our Forest School. I think you will agree that it is fabulous! Miss Lavelle has been away from school this week on her assessment for being a leader, we cannot wait to get started and think about what we will do next!

Before half term I shared the success of the playground zones that we have created in school and how much the children are getting from them. This week, we took delivery of three wooden, hexagonal tables that are now on the playground. This will allow the children to build on them, play small world and cars etc.

If you have any of the following at home, and no longer need it, then please do bring it into school:

  • Duplo

  • Cars and garages

  • Dinosaurs

  • Scooters

I also spoke about mud and how we need to become a mud friendly school. There is lots of ways we can do this to enable the children to still access the playground and field in the winter months. Please can you send in an old pair or trainers or wellies that the children can wear when they are out and about, they can then change them in school. Also an old coat that they can wear when they are den building. This is the most popular area and we want the children to use it. These things can live on the children’s pegs in school. I have bought all of the classrooms a sweeping brush for mud to keep our cleaning team happy, and a cordless hoover for stubborn bits. We will continue to evolve this over the next months and years.

Book Looks

Don’t forget our book looks start next week. Now that you have had these chats, you need to come into school and sit with your child. They want to share their work with you and to talk about their learning. The dates and times for these are below:

7th November: Year 2 Book Look @ 9am

7th November: Year 3 Book Look @2.15pm

8th Novmber: Year 5 Book Look @ 9am

13th November: Year 6 Book Look @ 2.15pm

14th November: Year 1 Book Look @ 9am

14th November: Year 4 Book Look @ 2.15pm

For our children in Reception, there will be an opportunity to come and stay and play with your child. Miss Drummond will contact you directly about these times.

STARs of the Week

Fundraising in School

Thank you so much to those parents who have downloaded the Easy Fundraising App, in one week there has been £10 worth of donations to the school from various companies. If you haven’t downloaded it or allocated to our school, please do. This is of no cost to you - just from the businesses that you online shop with. They pay a % of your shop to school via a donation - it is really easy to do! In the run up to Christmas, now is the time to do it! Our supporters are growing which is wonderful.

There a lots of events after half-term for the children to be involved in. On Friday 15th November, we will have our annual PJ Day for our local children in need - Brian House. In the run up to Christmas, we will also be bringing back the old Our Lady raffle as well as the Christmas Bake Off! We will be on the hunt for amazing donated prizes; so please get thinking and collecting! Christmas Bake Off will take place on Friday 13th December. The day will be all things cake, cake sales and Christmas jumpers!

Office News

I can’t believe just how quickly our contractors are working on the kitchen extension and how quickly things seem to be happening. I am trying to document each stage of the process and we have a large display in school for the children to see the progress and to know what is happening week by week. Just a reminder that we have a new menu below for the Autumn/Winter until Jacqui relocates to St Thomas’s.

All of our extra-curricular clubs start next week and the clubs are all now full - which is great. There is still space at the judo club which is being run by Judo Education. So far 14 children have signed up for the club which means they will be competing and grading. Do sign up if you are able to.

We have added more places to some of our busier after school club sessions. If you do require wrap around care, please contact Mrs Nel in the office and she will be able to assist.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 4 this week with 99.6%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 90.4%

Please do not worry that school photographs have not taken place, these are taking place in the Spring this year (both individual and class for Reception & Year 6) and will be outside instead of in the hall. We will let you know the date when we return after Christmas.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

“When you intentionally use your everyday life to bring about positive change in the lives of others, you begin to live a life that matters.”

It always comes as a surprise when half-term arrives. Even though it has been a 7 week one, it has gone really quickly - we really have packed lots in! This half term has been all about introducing our new STAR approach to create consistency across the school. As a Catholic School, we want our children to come face to face with God in whoever they meet; and as STARs, that is something that we strive to do on a daily basis. We can only do this if we are committed to living the Gospel values and our Jesuit virtues. When we return, our new virtues will be to be intentional and prophetic. These are perfect as we approach Advent and the arrival of Jesus as a baby. To understand what it means to be intentional, we will understand the parable of The Good Samaritan and the intent he showed to the man who needed his help; even when others turned their back. This Advent we will be led by our Mini Vinnie team who will help us to become The Good Samaritans our community needs. The first thing that we will be looking at when we return is remembrance. Last year our chapel was beautifully adorned with poppies made by our community and they are still there today. On Monday 11th November, I will be taking some pupils to the cenotaph to take part in remembrance day alongside our community.

You can see from the photos below that our new canopy area has been built outside ready for our Forest School journey to start. Miss Lavelle and Mrs Tierney are super excited. I know there is also a mud kitchen being built this half term. This process is going to take some time, but we are excited with what it could be.

Our playground zones have been a really big hit amongst our children - for many different reasons. The whole approach that we are taking is ensuring that the children maximise their time outside and experiences quality play. By combining different year groups, the children are supporting each other and helping each other to problem-solve - we are no longer dealing with the playground disputes that we had before. To really embrace the approach that we are taking, more zones need to be added. After half term, there will be some tables on the playground that the children can use for cars, duplo, construction and small world. We want to enhance the children’s creativity and to provide them with the natural tools to do this. I apologise that some of the children’s uniform may be getting a little muddy - we do remind them to wear coats, but we also want to become a mud aware school and not see this as a barrier to their learning. We will continue to problem-solve this to maximise the learning our playtimes can bring. Wellies can be brought in for pegs and old coats that they wear for outside. Maybe even an outdoor top that they don’t mind getting dirty!

Looking at Learning

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time today to speak to class teachers about their child’s progress. These conversations are so important and the teachers want to share all of the wonderful things with you. Now that you have had these chats, you need to come into school and sit with your child. They want to share their work with you and to talk about their learning. The dates and times for these are below:

7th November: Year 2 Book Look @ 9am

7th November: Year 3 Book Look @2.15pm

8th Novmber: Year 5 Book Look @ 9am

13th November: Year 6 Book Look @ 2.15pm

14th November: Year 1 Book Look @ 9am

14th November: Year 4 Book Look @ 2.15pm

For our children in Reception, there will be an opportunity to come and stay and play with your child. Miss Drummond will contact you directly about these times.

Fundraising in School

Thank you so much to those parents who have downloaded the Easy Fundraising App, in one week there has been £10 worth of donations to the school from various companies. If you haven’t downloaded it or allocated to our school, please do. This is of no cost to you - just from the businesses that you online shop with. They pay a % of your shop to school via a donation - it is really easy to do! In the run up to Christmas, now is the time to do it!

There a lots of events after half-term for the children to be involved in. On Friday 15th November, we will have our annual PJ Day for our local children in need - Brian House. In the run up to Christmas, we will also be bringing back the old Our Lady raffle as well as the Christmas Bake Off! We will be on the hunt for amazing donated prizes; so please get thinking and collecting! Christmas Bake Off will take place on Friday 13th December. The day will be all things cake, cake sales and Christmas jumpers!

Office News

As I sit in my office this morning, the site outside has been cleared for the new kitchen extension to start. As you can see from the photo, the ground has been marked up ready for the work to start on Monday.

Due to the work taking place, the menu has had to be adapted for the time being. There are many factors that we need to consider, including reducing the cooking for our kitchen team. You can see from the new menu below that we are having to put in two packed lunch days for the children. The menu below will be the menu in school whilst Jacqui is still in our kitchen, once she has to relocate to use the kitchen in St Thomas’, we will change the menu further. Thank you so much for your understanding. We cannot wait for our new kitchen and the ability to offer a wider choice of meals!

Don’t forget to book your child a place on the extra-curricular programme for Autumn 2. There is a Year 5 & 6 indoor athletics competition coming up, so the more practise that we have the better. We also need more numbers for our school choir in preparation for the Christmas festivities. Each Christmas, we visit Stella Matutina Care Home to sing to the residents - we need a large choir for that. Please visit the sports page or news around the school to book.

We have added more places to some of our busier after school club sessions. If you do require wrap around care, please contact Mrs Nel in the office and she will be able to assist.

Our Half-Termly Attendance

Above you will find the half-termly attendance. The winning class, who will receive 30 minutes additional break time is - Year 4; followed by Year 2 with 20 minutes extra and Year 1 with 10 minutes extra!

I hope that you have a lovely half-term holiday with your families. School opens again on Monday 28th October at 8.45am.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Every so often, I have to attend meetings that are run by the diocese; this week was one of those weeks. On Wednesday, I was asked to attend the annual Headteacher’s Conference of Lancaster Diocesan heads up in Kendal. With the rain pouring, and the wind blowing, driving along the M6 was not a pleasant experience - especially when I knew that enrichment was taking place in school. But, I had the most wonderful centering day. Life is so hectic, school can be so busy, that time is sometimes needed for reflection. On Wednesday, along with all of the other Catholic leaders, we explored what it meant to be a leader of a Catholic school. What was important to us; what made us unique and what was our purpose. Above anything, we reflected on a quote that Pope Benedict said, “A good Catholic school should help all of its students to become Saints.”Can you imagine a school like this? I am pretty much sure that is something that we are always working towards. By following our Jesuit virtues and by living out our mission statement in everything we do; “You are Precious in my eyes” we are aiming to create the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Harvest Offerings

Thank you to each one of your for your generosity with our Harvest collection this year. This morning, we took a small selection of it down to church to show what we had been collecting, the rest will be collected on Monday from Fylde Foodbank. I know that our Mini-Vinnies have some wonderful ideas about how we can further support those in need. Thank you once again.

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

It has been really lovely to share our celebration assemblies with families over the past half term. So many of you have said how lovely it is to be part of school life and pray with us on a Friday. The culture of a school is so important, it is what makes us who we are, and it has to involve everyone. Thank you for taking time to be part of it all.

Please do not forget to download the MyHappyMind Parent App. They are offering a fantastic prize to the school that demonstrates the highest levels of parent engagement using our Parent App. This prize will not only enhance our school’s resources but also foster even greater parental involvement in supporting your children’s education.

The competition runs from now until Friday 25th October.

Parents’s Meetings

After a few technical glitches last week with School Cloud, we are back up and running with 75% of pupils having had an appointment made. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. If you haven’t yet made an appointment, please do. Class teachers will be contacting those who haven’t next week.

The available appointments will be on Friday 18th October from 8.30am - 5.20pm. Appointments can be booked from 4pm today by clicking on this link:

School Cloud

When it asks you to input your child’s class at login please input the following:

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

When booking, it is crucial that you use your child’s legal forename and surname – those recorded on our school management system. If any part of your child’s name is hyphenated, again it needs to be so when typing in their name. Your own name on Sims is now recorded with one of the following titles Miss, Mrs, Mr or Dr. The system will also ask for an email address so that a reminder can be sent out. If you are having any problems, please do email Mrs Nel on bursar@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk and we will help you next week.

Fundraising in School

Fundraising is central to the survival of any school. With decreasing budgets, we need to make sure that we are constantly looking for ways in which to fundraise for our school; but with minimal impact on families. We also know that times are hard and on the run up to Christmas more so. Charity work is also at the heart of our Catholic Life. As you know, we have been supported by Lytham Foundation to build our canopy area for Forest School which will be going up next week. But we have now set up an easy fundraising page. Easyfundraising partners with over 7,000 brands who will donate part of what you spend to a cause of your choice. It won't cost you any extra. The cost is covered by the brand. It links to any online shop - all you need to do is to download the app and create an account. Every time you shop online, it will ask you whether you want to link. Please do! It is of no extra cost to you - but it a fundraiser that is supplemented by the brand. By clicking on the button below, it will take you to our cause page. I will update the details next week, but we will be using this to continue to develop the area outside.

In the run up to Christmas, we will also be bringing back the old Our Lady raffle as well as the Christmas Bake Off! We will be on the hunt for amazing donated prizes; so please get thinking and collecting!

Office News

As we look ahead to next half-term, the new extra-curricular clubs are up and running to be booked on News Around the School & the Sports page of the website. Please do book a place if you would like your child to take part. As was explained in the blog last week, our new kitchen extension will start to be built; you should see some bricks being laid when you return. I have received the planned programme this week. The build should be in place for both Autumn 2 and Spring 1, with the kitchen reopening following February half-term. Whilst the initial building stage takes place, our kitchen will remain open and the team can continue to cook meals from school. There will be some changes to this menu due to certain regulations, but I am meeting the team next week to know what this will look like. Once they then knock through into our kitchen, Jacqui and Mirium will re-locate over to St Thomas’. From here, they will prepare our lunches which will then be transported over. There will be quite a bit of change here, but still just as delicious! Please do not worry, once we have sat down and discussed the menu next week, we will communicate it to you. Unfortuantly, there will be no sit down Christmas Dinner this year, but I know Jacqui has something up her sleeve to still be just as festive. Next half-term is a really long one - 8 full weeks in school. Therefore dinner money will be £100. 40 dinners payable at £2.50 each.

During the planning meeting with the contractors last week, I did bring the nativities to their attention as on the performance days, they will need to be really quiet. I was assured that if we needed any extra carpenters then they could provide!

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 4 this week with 99.2% who will receive extra playtime next week. Our whole school attendance for this week is 91%

Mental Health is such a big talking subject at the moment. Here in school, we are really trying to be proactive rather than reactive. Yesterday was a celebration of all things yellow as we celebrated World Mental Health Day. Our friends at Excel Fostering also dropped some goodies off for the staff team too. Due to your donations, we managed to raise £200.24 for our new Parent Library which will be filled with resources that link into what we read in school; creating consistency and commonality.

Finally, well done to Bamber and Harcourt who won this half-term’s house points. You now earn a house colour day next Thursday. Don’t forget about our proud cloud in school. We are so proud of the things the children do beyond school that it is important that you share them with us. Please do send them in.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Gregan

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. “

In Monday’s liturgy, we talked about times when we have been jealous in our lives and learnt about a young girl called Bernadette who was visited by Mary 18 times. This young girl lived in the town of Lourdes, which is now one of the most visited sites by Catholics around the world. October is the month of the rosary, and in school, we will be praying the rosary throughout, led be our Mini-Vinnie Good Shepherds. In school we use a resource called Ten Ten to support our prayer and liturgy, they have started to provide their own Parent Newsletters. Why not click on the link below to find out more.

Don’t forget our first family mass on Sunday 6th October. Some of the children from across the school will be reading, taking the offertory and taking part in the choir. Please don’t gravitate to the back, the point of these masses is that the children witness the entirety of the mass and see what Father Peter does, along with the parish. Children need to be sat with their families, as would normally happen at Mass. The choir will be with Mrs Lyons in the choir loft - no school uniform required for anybody. Just a lovely mass together.

Next Friday, our children from Year 1 - Year 6 will be walking down to church for the Harvest Festival. If you are able to walk with us, we would be so grateful. We are finding it increasingly hard to walk the children to church so if you can, we would really appreciate it; especially with our littlest children.

“Nature is a tool to get children to experience not just the wider world, but themselves.” – Stephen Moss.

In our final week of this half-term, our Forest School canopy will be built. We are so excited to see the start of our journey begin. Miss Lavelle and Mrs Tierney have been having working lunches every Friday to plan what they want to see and how it will look in our grounds. From hammock areas, to mini beasts and the fire pit; we cannot wait to see it come to life. This week, Miss Lavelle has been on her Forest School leaders training - and by the look of the photographs, she has had a wonderful week! From climbing trees, to making a three course dinner over the fire, she is bursting with ideas to bring back to school.

For us to develop our area, we also need to look at what others are doing too. On Wednesday afternoon, 4 of our Earth Angels from Year 5 headed to St Peters to see what their forest school was like. They had the best time, and other than getting a school dog, have the most wonderful ideas to share.

We have also had a new addition of tyres onto the playground this week and cogs!

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

Parents’s Meetings - Hold booking for now - some parents data is not bein rectified. Will text when back up next week.

In two weeks, there will be the opportunity to speak to your child’s class teacher and find out how they have settled into school this year. Again, we are taking a hybrid approach to hopefully include everyone - a mixture of in school and virtually. After half term, there will be a series of coffee mornings and stay and plays so that you can see your child’s work first hand.

There is now an opportunity for parents to meet virtually with your child’s teacher. We would like to invite you to a virtual parents’ meeting to discuss your child and to celebrate their achievements. We will be using the same system we used in the past, called SchoolCloud. This will allow you to access the meeting from where ever you are (even if you are flying off somewhere exotic), with no need to wait in school. This can always be tricky, especially if you have multiple children, or have planned October half term holidays. We have found in the past year that parent attendance has been higher virtually, than it was in person. I even had the pleasure of conducting a parents’ meeting whilst the family was on a beach in Mexico!

This platform has no app for you to install, you simply use your web browser, and you will be automatically connected with the teacher at the time you have booked in the appointment schedule. Each appointment will last ten minutes and start at the allotted time. You will then see the time and count down on the screen. Please note: when the countdown ends, the meeting is automatically closed and the next appointment is started, we have no control over this. Please log in and check the audio and visual before your appointment starts.

Within the program there is a facility to add a note when you book. If there is something specific which you would like to discuss, this will enable you to communicate it to the teacher before the meeting.

The available appointments will be on Friday 18th October from 8.30am - 5.20pm. Appointments can be booked from 4pm today by clicking on this link:

School Cloud

When it asks you to input your child’s class at login please input the following:

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

This has to be typed exactly as above for you to enter into the booking page.

When booking, it is crucial that you use your child’s legal forename and surname – those recorded on our school management system. If any part of your child’s name is hyphenated, again it needs to be so when typing in their name. Your own name on Sims is now recorded with one of the following titles Miss, Mrs, Mr or Dr. The system will also ask for an email address so that a reminder can be sent out. If you are having any problems, please do email Mrs Nel on bursar@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk and we will help you next week.

Office News

With two weeks to go until the end of the first half term, please can you ensure that your Parent Pay accounts are clear and All Stars payments have been made. Those children who were booked onto All Stars from the start of September will automatically roll over to the next half-term. Those children who were booked on as a result of extra-curricular clubs will come off. The club timetable for Autumn 2 will be live next week for bookings to be made.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 this week with 99.3% who will receive extra playtime next week. Our whole school attendance for this week is 92.4%

Finally, after many many meetings and emails, we have a start date for our kitchen extension. The work will start during October half term. This is quite a lengthy build and our new kitchen should be ready after February half term. For now, food will still be cooked in school until the point that they knock through. Once more formal plans have been made, I will let you know what will be happening.

Have a lovely weekend with some sunshine I hope. These Autumn days are beautiful, but so much nicer when there is no rain.

Mrs Gregan

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to him, the more intensely missionary we become.”

There are certain weeks where the Gospel and the theme of our school week fit perfectly. This week was one of them. We heard all about the meaning of the word greatest, and what transpired was to be the greatest servant of all, you must indeed serve. Today has been a really special day in our school’s life as we welcomed Bishop Paul Swarbrick to our community. You all know how proud I am of us, and in particular our Catholic identity. It is this that drives us and ignites our desire to be the best human beings possible. It only seemed right that we started his visit in church, where we celebrated mass together, before coming back to school to meet our staff and governors. Bishop Paul worked his way around the classes, speaking with pupils and was even given some worms in nursery. What a lovely way to celebrate our school. The children shone so brightly and spoke so elequently. Thank you to the choir who led us so beautifully in church. Bishop Paul commented on their singing. Thank you to everyone who joined us today and who walked with us. We will need you again on Friday 11th October for our Harvest Festival please.

One of the main jobs of the day for Bishop Paul, was to meet with our newly formed Mini-Vinnie Good Shepherds. These children will be turning concern into action, and alongside our leadership group, running iniatives in school. Watch out for their work in the coming months as we build up to Harvest and Advent. Their first meeting in school will be Monday 7th October from 3.30 - 4.15pm.

Don’t forget our first family mass on Sunday 6th October. Readings, offertory and choir will all be finalised on Monday. Thank you to everyone that has filled in the form saying that they will attend. As with everything that we offer in school, these are just opportunities and are never compulsory, just another way of coming together. Ironically, the theme of the Gospel that weekend is children coming to God - seems just perfect.

My Happy Mind

On Wednesday morning, we welcomed 30 parents into school to hear all about our safeguarding and well-being programme for children. Already, we have seen the power of this programme with the children discussing their hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex as part of normal language; why not ask them about neuroplasticity! As part of the coffee morning, each parent was given a copy of the myHappyMind journal for coming and downloaded the parent app too. They have been given the mission to spread the myHappy word and to get every parent to download the app. Here you can track what your children are learning in school and also access key resources to support well-being. The button below will take you to a letter that explains how to download the app and link to our school. After half term, there will be an open morning where you can come and watch a session take place. Let’s spread the word!

On Thursday 10th October, it is World Mental Health Day and we will be supporting Hello Yellow. On this day, the children can wear yellow and bring in £1 or a donation. With that money, we want to create a parent library that is linked to myHappymind and buy books for you to understand what we are doing in school. We look forward to shining brightly in our yellow and being rays of sunshine!

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

Parking around school has been an increasingly concerning issue this week. With the bad weather and the addition of road works in the vicinity, we have had a number of phone calls from very upset residents who can either not get out of their drive or have been spoken to in a rude way. In the Spring and Summer, we did a really good job of parking away from school and walking in. I am asking if we can do that again, to keep the roads around our gates quiet and to keep our children safe (and neighbours happy). Next week, we are being visited by Road Safety Lancashire and the policing team to discuss and observe. Please be mindful where you are parking, thank you.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 5 this week with 99.3% who will receive extra playtime next week. Our whole school attendance for this week is 91.4%

School sporting fixtures got back underway this week - there was certainly a buzz around the school on Tuesday. The netball and football team headed off to LSA to compete against St Peters. We were incredibly proud of the sportsmanship of all the children who competed. There is no fixture next Tuesday due to it being LSA open evening for Years 5 & 6, but the girls will play their football match on Thursday here at school after it was postponed earlier in the week.

On next week’s blog, you will be able to book your appointment for Parents’ Day on Friday 18th October. As these are virtual, you will able to access them from anywhere, so do not worry if you are away on holiday. After half-term, there will be the opportunity to come and see your child’s work and talk to them about what they are most proud of.

Have a lovely weekend with some sunshine I hope. We are certainly clinging onto the sunshine as much as we possibly can!

Mrs Gregan

“Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

This week’s Gospel could not have been more perfect for the week that we have had in school. Jesus’ message is clear, for anyone who wants to be first, must put themselves last and be the greatest servant of all. On Tuesday, we celebrated every child in school and awarded our leadership positions for this academic year. Giving every child a leadership role in school is incredibly important, not just for our older children, but even our youngest too. The children have responsibility in the classroom, with prayer and liturgy and on the playground; it really is a beautiful thing to see. We know what it means to be a servant to others, this is something we are striving to be; which is sometimes so very hard. Our Year 6 children have all been given a position, from Office Monitors, to Digital Leaders and our new Deputy Head Boy and Girl working alongside our Head Boy and Girl. Our extended leadership team will be responsible for our Catholic Life and Student Council this year. Our House Captains had one really important job to start off with, present every child in school with their house badge. Belonging to their houses is incredibly special and to be recognised is something that we want to develop this year. Please do not panic; they do not need to be worn every day, that is up to you. The children have loved them and are proud of their house colour - there is no pressure. Whatever you all find easiest. I know about many of them having had a few washes in the washing machine already!

Today, our Year 3 class completed the first part of their STAR Charter; they attended the Parish Coffee Morning, to sing French songs and share scripture cards. Over the course of the year, each class will have a parish connection. Please do join us on these events, they are really special and keep and eye out for those coming up!

On Sunday 6th October, we will be having our first family mass in church at 9.30am. These are the usual Sunday Masses which we are inviting our school community to make a special appearance. There will be no liturgy on these days, instead the children will be encouraged to stay in church and be part of the mass. We want the children to read, to take the offertory and to sing with the parish choir. If you will be able to attend, please can you complete the form below so we can select the readers etc. We will rotate these around as the years goes on and work alongside the children. Not everyone will want to read, and that is ok. It is a lovely opportunity for us all to come together beyond the school walls.

Bishop Paul’s Visit

Next Friday, Bishop Paul will be visiting us for a morning. Again it seems fitting that not only is it Our Lady Star of the Sea’s feast day but also Saint Vincent de Paul. St. Vincent de Paul is primarily recognised for his charity and compassion for the poor; for being a servant to others. To start the morning, Bishop Paul will join us for 9:30am Mass at church, followed by a visit to school where he will meet the children, staff and governors. One of the most important parts of his visit will be to meet the newly formed Mini Vinnies - Our Good Shepherds - who will lead Catholic Life this year. We need a group of children in Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 who want to get involved. Application forms have gone home tonight and need to be back in on Tuesday next week. Our Mini Vinnie Good Shepherds will meet with Miss Bassett every Monday after school from 3.30pm - 4.15pm, exploring Catholic life, and how we can contribute to our wider community. Eventually, we are hoping that our group can connect with other SVP groups. Please do encourage your child to apply if they are able to. Those in All Stars can apply and then head back to the club room after their weekly meeting.

It would be lovely to have a big school community turn out for the Bishop’s visit. If you are able to walk down to mass with us, please join us at 9am in school.

My Happy Mind

I can already see the benefit of this in school, and if you read the home-learning and weekly blogs carefully, you will see references to the brain and hypocampus! On Wednesday morning, I will be taking you through the programme and the benefit that it can have for you at home too. I will be setting up a My Happy Mind parent library of the book linked to the programme for you to sign out and borrow. They have also launched a competition for parental engagement - I know we will do well on that front. If you can join us on Wednesday morning, please fill in the form below.

Plea from School

We are still looking for the following items for school. How can you help?

  • Ground sheets, picnic blankets and water proof blankets for den making.

  • Tyres - we are in need of some tyres in our den area.

  • Dressing up costumes - has your child grown out of their costumes at home? Could these be donated to school for All Stars?

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

Office news…

What a week with All Stars! Mrs Shields and Mrs Nel have been really busy setting up accounts for all of the childcare vouchers that you use - they have done a remarkable job. And it has paid off as the first payments have been made. When searching for our school, please do not click on the nursery, these accounts are being deregistered as nursery has now moved into school; only use the school account. Amounts owed are on Parent Pay so you can all find which payment works for you; if you have any questions, please do contact the school office. I am so proud of how the children have settled into the Wrap Around Care on site and the numbers speak for themselves. Thank you to all of the staff who are making this possible - proper All Stars!

Don’t forget that we have a welfare position available in school. If you are interested, please click on the link below.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 2 this week with 100% who will receive extra playtime next week. Our whole school attendance for this week is 96.4%

Next week, the netball and football fixtures start for our school teams. All of the information is on the sports page of the website so you can arrange collection and take to the correct venue. We can’t wait to get started!

Have a lovely weekend with some sunshine I hope. We are certainly clinging onto the sunshine as much as we possibly can!

Mrs Gregan

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."

In this week’s gospel, we were reminded about all of the names that Jesus is called and how some people struggled to know who he was. We have found a challenging gospel message too. In life, it would be just wonderful if everything went the way that we had planned, there was no obstacles to bear and we knew the direction that we were travelling. This week, we are asked to trust in God; we may not understand why something is happening or why God has chosen it to happen. By trusting that everything will be ok, it gives us the hope that we need to hold on to.

Today we had our first group of parents join us to celebrate their child’s achievements over the past week and to join our end of the week prayer. They each received a secret text last night to attend today and share in our liturgy of the word and hear about what has happened in school this week. We hope you enjoyed the end of the week as much as we did; especially the singing by the children. Next week our Reception children will be part of the celebration too.

Our week in school…

It has been really nice to have a full week in school this week. Normality has been resumed and we look forward to welcoming our Reception class in full-time next week. They are so eager to get started and fully involved in school life.

  • On Mondays, we now start the week all together in prayer and liturgy before heading into class for My Happy Mind time. Don’t forget the coffee morning on Wednesday 25th September where I will share everything about the programme and some Kidsafe information too. If you could fill in the form below indicating whether you will be attending, that would be great. I can then plan refreshments. We will be launching the My Happy Mind Parent App too, so you can keep an eye on what your child is doing in class and share that information at home.

  • Extra-curricular clubs started across the school this week and have been really well attended. It has been lovely to see the older children step into the sports teams and for our younger children to get involved with Mr Nay and Mr Murray’s multi-sports.

  • The playground has been a really big hit! For years, we playtime has been the time of the day that we need to problem-solve the most, purely because it is unstructured. This year we have mixed ages so that our oldest children in Years 4, 5 & 6 have responsibility and leadership opportunity. The scooters have been a really big hit - although, we have used a few plasters as the children have learnt to risk assess more. I know that they will get better and create fun and exciting ways to manouver. The den making has been just wonderful. It has been fascinating to see what the children have built and how they have had to negotiate as they go.

  • Miss Lavelle has been out of school for the past two days on her Forest School First Aid Course. We are so excited to hear what she has learnt.

Next week is all about LEADERSHIP. This week, the school have been watching the House Captain videos from our Year 6 candidates and then casting their votes. Staff have been voting for Head Boy and Head Girl and applications have been made for other positions around school. On Tuesday, we will be presenting our leadership badges and electing our student council for this year. One of the first jobs for our house captains will be to present every child in school with their house badge. This is to be worn on their school uniform and treasured - showing that they belong to their team and are part of another family. Please do look after these.

Excellence and STAR Quality

Thank you to everyone who has really focused on the school uniform expectations for this year. The children are all looking so smart coming back in, and I haven’t seen many black joggers or leggings for PE either, and all trainers are either white, blue or black - thank you so much! Our school uniform is incredibly simple, smart and available from most shops; which makes it ideal for all families. I can also see that there has been a real attention to detail with headbands and bows etc, all school blue and not every shade of rainbow.

We are incredibly proud of how our school community responds to ideas; we know that you support us in wanting the best for the children - which has been shown in the vast donations we have had to our playground and All Stars Club. Understandably, since the return to school, we have had to have a few conversations with the children regarding healthy snacks and lunch boxes. I know that the summer holidays can be filled with treats and lovely things, but in school we are required to follow NHS and The Public Health England guidance. Parents play such important and influential role in determining their child’s food and drink choices and preferences, and we would like you to revisit this with your children at home, so that we are all educating them to make the right choices when it comes to their diet. There are many ways to keep the lunch box exciting, for example adopt a colour theme for each day, take inspiration from holidays or different countries and foods that are in season or grown in the school or home garden. The leaflet below has been sent to us from Public Health, it is a great starting point if you are struggling to discuss lunches with your child.

There is also the guidance on snacks to be sent into school for break times. Please can you ensure that you have had a good look at the list and again, planned for the week ahead. In KS1, there is an abundance of fruit available to the children that they can access. Things like marshmallow rice crispie bars, mini cheddars, crisps and coco pop bars are coming into class. Please, again, can you have a look at this at home. I have attached the guidance, that was written by the children, below. Just a reminder that we are also a nut-free school. We have a number of pupils and staff with nut allergies, some that require medical intervention straight away. Please can nuts not come into school in any shape or form. Thank you so much.

Plea from School

We are still looking for the following items for school. How can you help?

  • Ground sheets, picnic blankets and water proof blankets for den making.

  • Tyres - we are in need of some tyres in our den area.

  • Dressing up costumes - has your child grown out of their costumes at home? Could these be donated to school for All Stars?

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

Office news…

We managed to end last year with a clean slate in terms of dinner money - thank you all so much! Mrs Nel has been incredibly busy this week setting up All Stars and ensuring that payments can be made via Parent Pay. If you have a tax-free childcare account, we have now registered with that and it is in the process of being set up. For you to use this, we need to know your child’s specific code so that when payment is made, we can find it within the system. Please contact Mrs Nel with your code if you have one.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 4 this week with 100% who will receive extra playtime next week. Our whole school attendance for this week is 98.4%

Finally, this weekend The Barrow family, accompanied by a whole host of friends and family, will be making the walk from Manchester Children’s Hospital to Blackpool Victoria Hospital to raise money for The Brain Tumour Research Charity. We all know just how much Dominic has been cared for and the journey that he has had over the past year. The £3000 that we raised went to Manchester Children’s Hospital. The link below will take you to this weekend’s walk page. Good luck team - we are all cheering you on and it has been so wonderful to have Dominic in school with us more and more.

Have a lovely weekend with some sunshine I hope. The kite festival is on as well as the Lifeboat Open Day tomorrow from 10.30 - 4.30pm. Enjoy.

Mrs Gregan

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you.”

A school is a place of magic. Seeing what the children achieve and who they are on a daily basis is the reason why we all do what we do. The first week of a new school year is nothing but exhausting, but it is one of the best as each child figures out their new environment, makes new relationships and reignites old ones. This week has been nothing but joyous. Today we all walked down to church to celebrate the start of the new year with God; asking for his prayers and blessings as we take on every challenge that comes our way. Year 6 read beautifully and we all sang our hearts out in praise. I have a feeling that this year is going to be even more successful than the last.

As with each new half-term, we focus on the Jesuit virtues to guide us on the right path. This half term we are aspiring to be attentive and discerning. Paying close attention to the things that matter in our lives and making the right decisions about how to live our lives. As we meet as a whole-school community every Monday morning, we will unpick these further and explore them in the gospel messages.

Meeting your teaching team…

On Wednesday 18th September, you have the chance to meet your teaching team. There will be two chances to come in and listen to all of the exciting opportunities that your child will experience this year.

3.45pm - 4.30pm and 4.45pm - 5.30pm.

If you have children in different classes then you will be able to do both. Ideally, please try and come without your child so that you can have a really good conversation and ask those questions that you would want to without little ears.

Shining like STARS…

Way back, last June, we started to talk to the children about what it meant to be a STAR at Our Lady Star of the Sea. There are lots of meaning of the word star and we wanted to ensure that this embodied the behaviour and relationships that we are trying to foster here in school. For a school to be really successful, there has to be consistency across the school and for everybody to be singing from the same hymn sheet (so to speak). Our policies and proceedures also have to work with our current community and be understood by all. With all this in mind, we have devised a new behaviour strategy and written a new behaviour and relationships policy, with a strong focus on praise and how we celebrate everything that we do well. There are some really specific actions in there that we are trying to develop and our policy will be tweaked over the next term to ensure that we are happy with it and it is understood by all (that is why the review date is also this term). All of the words below have been developed from what the children have said and the words that we discussed. We are STRIVING, THRIVING, ASPIRING and being RESPECTFULLY RESPONSIBLE. This language will embody everything that we do and who we are. Please do mirror this at home and have a conversation with your child. They have blown me away this week with how responsive they have been and how quickly they have shone like the Our Lady Star.

Communication in school

The prime reason a child make such wonderful progress, and is above all happy at school, is that communication between home and school is there. I am passionate about making sure that there is more opportunities for parents to experience school life. This will continue next week when the parents of our certificate and butterfly winners are invited to Friday’ celebration assembly. There is also more of an opportunity to touch base with the class teacher after school when required. As well as being passionate about parental involvement and the opportunites we can give for you to share in the magic of school, I am also passionate about our school staff having time with their families beyond the school day. They all work incredibly hard with some in school at 7am and not leaving until 6pm. Being a teacher is just one of the hats that they wear in their lives. We are one of the only schools who use email as a main way to communicate, and not a school app, and sometimes the ease of email can result in them being sent from staff and parents beyond 8pm at night. I really want us all to be aware of this, and to foster those healthy interactions where we can. Teachers will respond to you via email within the school working hours; not during teaching time when they are with the children. You may have noticed an automated message when you do email. There are so many ways that you can communicate with us and us with you - that is the wonderful thing!

We also want to ensure that we are empowering the children to communicate with their teaching team when something has happened that they have needed to share. These are also discussed with the child and perspective is created. Please can you also encourage this at home. If your child comes home and tells you something has happened during the day, encourage them to come and speak to a teacher and build their resilience.

Questions like; what happened? How did it make you feel? What could you do next time? Who is the trusted adult who you could speak to in school? These all help the children begin to problem-solve for themselves and reason situations. They are going to come across many situations in their lives where we need to provide the tools for them to problem-solve. Right from the earliest age of our children, they are able to do that. If we always investigate for them, they don’t become empowered to do so themselves and rely on the adults and others around them to do it for them - which is such a skill to have in life; and sometimes it can be something that has been spotted. We really appreciate your support with this and are always here if you need to sound something out with or ask a question.

On Monday we will be launching MY HAPPY MIND with the children in school. We are so excited about this programme and how it will support the mental health of all of our children.

Each week there will be a question that you can discuss with your child at home.

Don’t forget about our launch coffee morning on Wednesday 25th September at 9.15am where I will be explaining the programme and how you too can use it at home.

Enrichment in School

I cannot thank you for all of the donations that we have received from scooters, to dolls houses, to lego and everything in between. Our scooter zone is ready to be launched on Monday and the All Stars Club has been up and running this week. It has been lovely to see the children coming in each morning, having fun and eating breakfast and then having fun after school too. I think it is an excellent addition to our school community.

Now we have another plea - den making. Our den area is also being launched on Monday and whilst we have some tarpaulin, rope and crates, we definitely need more. Please can you raid your garages for the following items - we know we can count on you!

  • Waterproof picnic blankets

  • Ground sheets

  • Plastic crates

You will have seen that our All Stars children enter and exit school from the gate on Kenilworth Road. This is a locked gate at all times of the school day. Clubs start next week and the children who will be taking part in them are now on the sports page of the website. If there are any children coming or leaving the extra-curricular clubs on the school field, please can you do so via the gate on St Patricks. That way we keep all children safe and where they need to be. This will be for football and netball mainly. The other clubs can be accessed through the main reception and into the hall.

Finally, our school family has grown this week with the arrival of our new Reception class. 30 children have all skipped into school, eager eyed and in the shiniest shoes I have ever seen. We are so incredbly blessed to have them in our school and thank God that we are going to be part of their history. Another week of part-time next week and then they will be fully fledged the week after.

Have a lovely weekend with your family

Mrs Gregan

“You will shine . . . like stars in the sky.” Philippians 2:15

The start of a new school year is always filled with much excitement for us in school. We are excited about getting to know the children in our classes, excited about the learning opportunities that will come the children’s way, but most excited about seeing just how much the children grow this year and how they become even better versions of themselves. Last year, the main theme was light - how could we be a light to others and navigate, just like a lighthouse does. This year, we are taking time to focus on our school name and how we can shine like stars in the sky. If we truly are to live the life that God intended us to, then we must look at how we can do all of those small things well and shine like a star. This message will be the golden thread in everything that we do and who we are this year; recognising all of the stars that shine so very brightly. At the end of last term, I shared with you our new STAR CHARTER which all children will be working towards in their classes throughout the year. At the end of the year, we are hoping that every member of our school community will have achieved the charter award and be presented with their star badge. You will notice that there is an opportunity for distinction; this is for children who continue to shine like a star beyond the school via:

  • Raising money for a charity or cause close to their heart.

  • Volunteering and contributing to their community. This might be as a sports coach, singing in the parish choir, visiting a vulnerable family member for a sustained period of time - there are lots of ways this can happen.

  • Laudato-Si: Pope Francis has asked us to care for our common home. We would like the children to do something beyond the school that contributes to theirs. This might be a beach clean or litter clean of their street, making something for their community or getting involved in a community initiative.

  • Attending family mass: This year, we are introducing family masses on a Sunday where school and parish come together. The children will be reading, taking the offertory and our choir will be joining the church choir. We would love to see as many families there as possible. The two family masses for this term are on Sunday 6th October and Sunday 1st December.

Any applications for the STAR DISTINCTION award will be submitted in the Summer Term.

I am in the process of updating the school calendar on the website with key dates for this year. I want to try and get as much on at the start of the year to give you as much notice as possible for key events that are taking place. Please do keep an eye on it over the next week.

Over the summer we have had some decorating and flooring work take place in the Year 6 block and corridor leading to the hall. It is now looking bright and spacious down there, ready for a new group of children to take the helm. The additional classroom down there has been transformed into our new Wrap Around Care room, ready for the All Star Club to start on the first day back. There is now a new page for this in Engage on the website. Please do have a look. As with anything new, this will take us some time to establish it and to get it just how we want it. Please do be patient with us and let us iron out any teething problems that we may have. I was also hoping that the new kitchen extension would be well on its way, however, there has been a contractor delay and we are still waiting for the first brick to be laid. The kitchen will therefore be operating as normal when we reopen.

Just a few reminders for the new year:

  • I am sure you are all super organised with your uniform (unlike me who still needs to sort it out). Just a reminder of the uniform expectations that I communicated last year. Full school uniform is expected on all days, with a school badged jumper or cardigan. On PE days, the school PE kit can be worn which is a navy school hoodie or school tracksuit and white, blue or black trainers. Leggings or jogging bottoms can be worn but these must be navy - not black. Navy school shorts (not football shorts) to also be worn. Next Friday, 30th August, there will be a uniform table outside of the front of the school office full of donated uniform. Please do pop down and see if there is anything that you need.

  • Water bottles need to be in school and to be of the right size - nothing enormous. All of the children have chair pockets that fit their water bottles in so that they can be regularly accessed throughout the school day. Water bottles must fit in these and ideally no bigger than 20cm in height. The same with pencil cases for our older children too. Please make them manageable. Organisation is crucial in school and trying to keep 30 children organised can be a tough ask. All these little things really help.

  • We are tweaking our Prayer and Liturgy this year and introducing a Monday whole-school liturgy. Our Friday celebration liturgy will still be taking place with a focus on the gifts and talents of our children, that have been given them by God. We would love for you to celebrate this alongside your child. If your child is being awarded a butterfly for demonstrating our virtues or a certificate for learning, you will receive a text on the Thursday evening inviting you to the assembly the following day. There will be 2 places per child, so please do not invite the entire family, just 2 of you. It would also be lovely if you did not tell your child - let’s keep it as a surprise for them. Friday assemblies will start on 13th September at 2:30pm.

I do hope that you have had a lovely summer and had lots of aventures together. I can see that lots of you have used the time to get organised and de-clutter; thank you for the scooter donations and helmets that we have received. We are really looking to revamp breaktimes at school and set up our new wrap around care. Please do have a look to see if you have anything unwanted that we can use in school. We are still in need of the following:

  • Scooters and helmets for our playground scooter zone.

  • Lego and duplo to be used at breaktimes and after school.

  • Train tracks, train sets, cars, vehicles etc. All of these things can be used across the school and encourage creative play.

  • Dolls or dolls houses - I know lots of children who will love playing with these.

  • Board games

School will be open next week (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) from 9.30am - 3:30pm for anything that you do find and would like to drop off. We really appreciate it and hopefully we can help you with the decluttering.

We look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Tuesday 3rd September at 8:45am and our new Reception children from Thursday 5th September.

Enjoy the last week of your holidays

Mrs Gregan

'In every end, there is also a beginning.'

And so…here we are. I feel nothing but pride for our whole community and how we have moved forward together, each and every day. In assembly this morning, we held our first STAR Awards. A time to recognise everything that we are thankful for. We listened to the Gospel of Jesus healing the ten lepars and how thankful they were. Now is definitely the time for gratitude. There have been so many memories from this year and I wish I could capture them all. I have popped a few in the video below.

Today we also awarded our first STAR Charter winners. This was presented to Year 5 for the work that they have done over the year to support Dominic, ending with the fabulous afternoon of sport. Because of their hard work, they were each presented with a star pin badge to recognise their efforts. We have raised over £3000 for Manchester Children’s Hospital! Many of you have asked how you can continue to support the cause. The Barrow Family are taking part in a Walk for the Brain Tumour Research. I have attached a link to their story here. I hope that next year, 240 STAR Awards are given out as every child in the school completes the Star Charter Award.

KS2 Award Winners

KS1 Award Winners

Nursery Award Winners

Today we say a big thank you to our Year 6 Leavers who have worked so hard and always led with compassion. We wish them all the luck in the world as they head off to their new adventures; knowing just how much they are loved!

As you are aware, we are due to have a kitchen extension over the Summer Holidays. I am currently in discussions with contractors about what this will mean for us in school and how it will affect our dinner service. As soon as I know, I will communicate this to you ready for the new school year. Finally, thank you. Thank you for the many gifts that have been received into school and for the tonnes of kind words and emails I have received over the past week. Have the most wonderful summer with your families and we look forward to welcoming you into school on Tuesday 3rd September at 8.45am.

God Bless

Mrs Gregan

Dominic's Sport Fest 2024 - Information

Tomorrow, we will be raising money for our final cause of the year, and what a cause it is. You will all know just how much it means to us to be able to raise money for Manchester Children’s Hospital - who quite simply saved Dominic’s life this year.

Here are some pointers for the day:

  • All children can come into school in any sports wear. If your child belongs to a community beyond school: football, netball, gymnastics, rainbows, scouts, dance, acting - this list goes one - then they can wear that kit or t-shirt. It would be lovely to see how many families we belong to beyond the school. We want to celebrate the feeling of family as much as we possibly can!

  • The day is being run by Year 5 and their parents. In the morning, during break times, the children will be running a cake stall for each class. If your child would like to buy a cake from the cake sale, then they need to bring in 50p for the cake sale.

  • In the afternoon, the plan is that all 240 children are outside taking part in sporting challenges, as set by Dominic and Year 5. From musical statues, to bench ball to an obstacle course - they will have lots of opportunity to get involved. Due to the whole school being outside at the same time, we will not be able to open up to parents until 3pm. Just because of space and logisitcs.

  • At 3pm the gates will open and you will be able to come in and get involved at this point. Year 5 have organised a tombola for the end of the day with a whole load of prizes. You will be able to visit the tombola stand and collect your child to do so.

  • Please don’t forget sponsor money tomorrow. Anything from £1 to whatever you can manage. It does all add up for a wonderful cause.

We have had some lovely messages from parents who have also made a donation from their businesses to support Dominic - we are blown away with your generosity!

Year 5 have organised this day to ensure that at some point, everyone is involved.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."

I am incredibly proud of our school, and I want to share that with as many people as possible. We are a special family who has a firm place in the wider community of St Annes. Over the past few weeks, we have been thinking about our global family; and where we fit into it; how we can contribute to it and how we can make it grow in love. Today in assembly, we have been looking at God’s call to go out and spread the Good News. We don’t have to be like Mother Theresa, Oscar Romero or Francis of Assisi, we can do the little things in life really well. Sometimes is it is really hard to do the right thing, it is much easier to do the wrong thing - we can only try.

Last Saturday, on a soggy morning, we had a great turn out for the Carnival Procession. Thank you to all of the children and parents who braved the conditions, with big smiles on faces, and represented our school and parish. We did have a lot of fun collecting sweets and collecting money on route.

Over the past few weeks, I have asked the Student Council to complete a mission in school; to explore with their class what it means to be a STAR. Today, all of the councillors brought back their designs and thoughts ready to share and create a consistent vision across the school. Being a star is going to be the focus of our year next year in terms of behaviour, expectations of work, contribution to school life and catholic life. Our pupils will drive this and decide just what is possible. More will come on this next week.

Looking forward to next year…

Transition tasks have taken over this week! On Wednesday, we welcomed our new Reception children into school for the first time, and all other classes moved up to meet their new teachers and see their new environments. It is always such an exciting day and enables the children to feel more relaxed about what is coming; and the staff too! Not only has transition happened within school, but in other schools as well. Our Year 6 children headed off to St Bedes to see what life will be like there, and our Year 4 children too. They went to St Bedes yesterday to take part in a prayer day with our other Catholic schools. It really was a beautiful day, full of song and prayer, and ending in a mass. Next week, Year 5 will be heading to St Bedes for a PE day; I am sure that they will have lots of fun.

The children all know who their teaching team will be next year, but with any year there is an element of change. One thing I know about our staff is that they are master plate spinners. Not only do they do what they do in school each and every day, but they are parents, coaches, Brownie leads, children themselves, all with a life beyond Our Ladys. For the past few years, Miss Neves has been completing an art degree alongside her work here in school. Ultimately she wants to be a secondary art teacher; which we know is right up her street. Next year is her final year of her degree, and for that she needs time. Time to concentrate on her work and time to complete the degree to her highest standard, alongside the other plate spinning that she does. Miss Neves will be leaving us at the end of this year to pursue her dream! We cannot thank her enough for what she has given to our school community and for the passion that she has instilled in our children, and staff! We know that whatever Miss Neves goes off to do, she will always have our support and pride - she is truly precious in our eyes!

There will be a few tweaks and changes to school life in September, nothing too major and always to enhance what we do. I don’t want to overwhelme you all at once so will be dripping it into my newsletters over the coming weeks.

As part of our School Improvement Plan next year, we will be looking at the Ethic of Excellence. How can we ensure that the offer we provide for our community is excellent and what does this look like at Our Ladys. We all have a responsibility with this in terms of the expectations that we have. Even though we have not finished this academic year, I know you will already be thinking about uniform for next year. There are no changes, I just want to reiterate our uniform expecations. The full branded items are still available at Top Marques if you require them; including the badged polo shirt. These can be requested as I know many of you prefer them. I have attached the uniform PDF for you here.

We have tried to ensure that only a few of the items are school badged, the rest can be bought easily from most shops. There has been an increase in football shorts and black creeping into school as of late. Please can you ensure that when you are buying uniform for next year, that it is blue. Navy PE shorts, plain navy jogging bottoms and navy leggings please.

Another thing to think about and solve is water bottles. We have seen the size of these mulitply in recent months, and as you can imagine, the size can interfere with the space that the children have on their table when they have their books and resources out. All children in school have a sleeve that we have had made on the back of their chair. In the sleeve, the children store their reading books, pencil cases, white boards and water bottles so that they can be accessed throughout the lesson and without any disruption to classroom routines. When purchasing new water bottles for next year, please can smaller ones be bought that fit into the space at the back of the chair. We used to have these, but they seem to have grown! All classrooms have sinks where the children can refill them. Space in classrooms are so tight, organisation is definitely key. 30 perfectly sized water bottles that fit into the back of chair sleeve would be amazing!

Next week I will share the changes to attendance, curriculum and Catholic life that we are implementing.

Our week in school…

There have been so many opportunitites in school this week, here is a flavour of what has been happening.

  • Our final enrichment session of the year took place on Monday across the school. The fact that every child in school has been taught by every teacher is just amazing. New skills beyond the curriculum have been taught and everyone has had a wonderful time.

  • Year 4 had a visit from some parents who told them about the jobs that they do. It is so important that our children can dream big and know what is possible. Thank you to the parents who gave their time so generously. We are really grateful.

  • Today our Year 5 & 6 children were visited by Natwest Money Sense Programme. Year 5 linked their session to Crime and Punishment and Year 6 to Saving our Planet. Natwest offer a whole host of sessions and we will be looking how to implement them across the school next year.

Plea from School

We are still looking for the following items for school. How can you help?

  • Scooters: do you have any old scooters at home that your children no longer play with or use, maybe they have grown out of them? We could use them in school at play times for our new scooter zone.

  • Board Games: our new Wrap Around Care Offer is in the planning stage and we are looking at our resources. We could do with some board games. Have you got any board games at home that you no longer play with? Could they be donated to school?

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

Office news…

Thank you so much for everyone who has settled their dinner money balances this week. We started the week with an outstanding balance of over £1500 and we are now down to just over £500. Can you please check Parent Pay this weekend for any payments that need to be paid. I will send letters out on Monday for anything that need paying before the close of the year.

Play tickets have been steadily leaving the office this week ready for The Greatest Show in just over a week’s time. If you are a Year 5 or 6 parent, please come and get your tickets sooner rather than later. A waiting list has been established for additional tickets. All tickets are £3 each.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 1 this week with 100%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 96.2%

We also need your help! We have a missing scooter that has been taken off the school site this week at the end of the day. When Jacob went to collect it, it wasn’t there. We are hoping that someone has accidentally taken the wrong scooter. Please can you all check at home? Hopefully we will be able to return it to its rightful owner.

Next Friday, 12th July, Year 5 are organising a Sports Fest. This will be a sponsored event so that you do not need to worry. You can bring 20p to £20 - there is no minimum to get involved. Sponsor forms will be going out on Monday. On the afternoon, all children in school will be out at the same time taking part in a range of activities designed by Year 5; from dancing to racing, to football and everything in between. For the event, they would like the children to come in a kit or uniform that they belong to. For example: St Annes Football Kit, NW1 Academy t-shirt, Clifton Academy, CN Sports, Rainbows, Scouts, Sea Cadets - whatever you belong to, that is your uniform for the day. Please keep it appropriate, especially with gymnastics wear.

The class are also planning a cake sale in the morning and a tombola too! I am so proud of Year 5, Mr Cornwell and Mrs Mather for their initiative with this. We want to do what we can to support them and have lots of fun whilst doing it! Cakes will be available to be bought during morning breaktimes for 50p a cake. If the children would like to buy one, they can bring 50p in on the morning. I am assured that all dietary requirements have been catered for!

It has been lovely to see everyone in red, white and blue today with the hope of instilling some national good luck for the English Football Team tomorrow. It is always nice to have a whole-school initiative and the children look very patriotic, having fun at the same time! Last week, we also had a familiar face visit school. You may remember that last year, Stuart Robinson (wheelchair rugby superstar) visited our school to talk to the children about his sport and put them through their paces. Well, Stuart was visiting St Peters this week, and popped into school for a brew and catch up. He filled me in on his preparation for the Paralympics and his excitment at going for the gold again. We could not let the visit pass without warm wishes from us. A card was whipped up and good luck wishes sent.

I hope those who are going to festival have really enjoyed it. Fingers crossed again for England tomorrow (although I am a secret Spain fan due to the staff sweepstake). Let’s hope they can do themselves justice and overcome Switzerland!

Mrs Gregan

“Let us not become weary in doing good .”

In assembly today, we looked at how the country is required to make some big decisions next week in how it will be governed. The children watched a video about what a General Election is and what it means in terms of the Prime Minister. We thought about all of the ways that we have democracy in school: how we choose the student council, our parent governors, the new reading shed! Leadership is about being visible and being kind; next year there will be lots of opportunites to develop leadership in our pupils across the school - I cannot wait to see them in action.

In preparation for next Thursday, let’s pray that our leaders make the right choices, and lead with compassion and generosity.

Heavenly Father,

We come before you today with a heart of prayer for our world leaders. We ask that you give them wisdom and discernment as they make decisions that affect the lives of so many people.

We pray that you would give them a heart for justice and righteousness and that they would seek to bring peace and prosperity to the nations they lead.

Amen

You may have spotted our Reading Shed in the garden. This week, because we have had such beautiful weather, the shed has been open for business. On Wednesday, after a few days of office meetings, I headed out into the garden to spend some time with our children and see what they were up to; it was a hive of activity. I am hoping that next year we will be able to set up a Parent Library where you can swap books and pop in some really lovely reads. Thank you to our fundraising in school, we have been able to buy this for our children.

Next year, there will be quite a few changes in school to how we run our school day, what break time and lunch time will look like (of course with the upcoming kitchen extension), and parental opportunity too. I will start sharing things with you over the coming weeks, as to not bombard you with everything when we come back. As the summer is approaching, and we have more time to spend at home, often decluttering, we wondered if you could help us. We are in need of a few things in school:

  • Scooters: do you have any old scooters at home that your children no longer play with or use, maybe they have grown out of them? We could use them in school at play times for our new scooter zone.

  • Board Games: our new Wrap Around Care Offer is in the planning stage and we are looking at our resources. We could do with some board games. Have you got any board games at home that you no longer play with? Could they be donated to school?

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the week

Virtue butterfly award winners

Office news…

As we approach the end of the school year, it is important that all finances are settled please on Parent Pay. School dinners is the biggest one. Next week, Mrs Nel will be sending a text message with your balance on. Please can you arrange payment by Wednesday next week. I will be sending letters out for any outstanding payments so that we can start next year on a clean slate.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 1 this week with 98.7%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 95.6%

Thank you to those who have filled in the form saying that they can walk with us at St Annes Carnival. The weather is looking better tomorrow, and hopefully dry enough for the parade at least. Roads will be closed at 9am, with the parade starting at 10.30am. We will be meeting from 9.30am onwards outside Ashton Gardens Gate on Clifton Road North. All of the children who are walking will need to be in full school uniform, looking smart, with a pair of good walking shoes for the parade. We will be walking with the parish too. The children will be walking together, with the support of staff and parents, keeping them safe. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow, and seeing plenty of you on the route.

I know we have asked for so much lately, but my goodness, you have been so grateful and generous. Currently, we have raised over £1700 for Alder Hey and The Firefighter’s Charity from our Gym Jam Jog. And as it stands, over £600 for Manchester Children’s Hospital for Dominic.

On Friday 12th July, Year 5 are organising a Sports Fest. This will be a sponsored event so that you do not need to worry. You can bring 20p to £20 - there is no minimum to get involved. Sponsor forms will be going out on Monday. On the afternoon, all children in school will be out at the same time taking part in a range of activities designed by Year 5; from dancing to racing, to football and everything in between. For the event, they would like the children to come in a kit or uniform that they belong to. For example: St Annes Football Kit, NW1 Academy t-shirt, Clifton Academy, CN Sports, Rainbows, Scouts, Sea Cadets - whatever you belong to, that is your uniform for the day. Please keep it appropriate, especially with gymnastics wear.

The class are also planning a cake sale in the morning and a tombola too! I am so proud of Year 5, Mr Cornwell and Mrs Mather for their initiative with this. We want to do what we can to support them and have lots of fun whilst doing it!

God bless and have the most wonderful weekend. Let’s hope England do well on Sunday - we can then plan a red, white & blue day next week!

Mrs Gregan

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

What is a star? What is the job of a star? What does it mean to be part of Our Lady Star of the Sea? This week I have met with the Student Council who have all be tasked with creating a research board about being a star. What does this look like in our school and how can we all ensure that the behaviour we show demonstrates this? Next year is going to focused on this with lots of opportunites to shine. One of our nursery councillors said it so well, “It is about being like Jesus.” Every school should have a sense of belonging and a clear mission. We want to create shining stars who know their worth in our world and can make a positive contribution. Once our councillors bring their research boards back, we will be collating their ideas to create our behaviour focus for next year. This will span the entire school, from nursery through to Year 6, inside the classroom and outside too!

Running for Charity!

The past two weeks have been jam-packed with sporting opportunites as the children (and lots of staff) have ran for charity. I have spoken at each of the Sports Days, talking about how we are using opportunites of gratitude to be generous with our approach. Even though a lot of children have never known Harrison Bretherton, or may be in a distant class to our Dominic, you have all gone above and beyond for wonderful causes. To date, we have raised over £1500 for Alder Hey and The Firefighter’s Charity, on behalf of Harrison, and £580 for Manchester Children’s Hospital. On Friday 12th July, Year 5 will be hosting Dominic Fest! They will be in touch in the coming weeks to see just how you can all get involved. Thank you, for your generosity and for supporting these causes that are so very close to our hearts.

Looking forward to next year

School is so very busy at the moment, with an awful lot of things going on! There is so many more memories to be made in our current year groups, we want to hold onto them for a few more weeks yet. On Wednesday 3rd July, our Year 6 children will be heading off to St Bedes for their induction day there; this gives us an opportunity for all of our other children to move up and sample some time in their new year groups. All of the teaching teams will be visiting their classes in the coming weeks before transition morning, just to say hello and meet their classes in their own environments. We will also be welcoming a new teacher next year, Miss Hanlon, who will be joining us in Year 1 as Mrs Hartley’s maternity cover.

The teachers for next year are:

Nursery: Barbara

Reception: Miss Drummond & Mrs Hartley (until maternity leave starts)

Year 1: Miss Hanlon

Year 2: Mrs Hotchkiss

Year 3: Mrs Naylor

Year 4: Mrs Lyons

Year 5: Mrs Cornwell

Year 6: Mrs Harrison

Miss Bassett will continue to work across a number of classes supporting PPA and Miss Woodend will continue as SENCO. All of our wonderful teaching assistants will also be supporting the children across the school in lots of different ways.

Our Year 6 children have been busy organising the Outdoor Reading Shed ready to launch next week in the sunshine. There is a variety of books for all year groups in there to be enjoyed in the sunshine.

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the half-term

Virtue butterfly award winner

Office news…

Thank you to everyone who voted in our Parent Governor elections this week. We received over 180 votes across the school - which is massive! It demonstrates just how invested you all are in our community and the strength of biographies from our two candidates. Having counted the votes, I am pleased to say that Michael Heyes will be joining us as our new Parent Governor. Thank you again for being involved in the development of our community.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 6 this week with 94.9%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 94.9%

Wrap Around Care

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the expression of interest form for the Wrap Around Care. It was really useful to help us formulate plans and to see if it could work being based at Our Ladys. Whilst there is still a lot of the detail to work out, as setting up a new club from scratch isn’t easy, we are in a position to take bookings for the Autumn Term. The government have stipulated wrap around care from 8am - 6pm; our Breakfast Club will run from 7.45am - 8.45am and our After School Club from 3.30pm - 6pm. The pricing poitns are the next thing that we will be looking at, but please be assured that we will make it as affordable as we can for our families and in line with provision in the area. Please note that this is for children from Reception through to Year 6.

Please complete the following form to book a place for the Autumn Term:

Thank you to those who have filled in the form saying that they can walk with us at St Annes Carnival. We need more children! If you can, please do complete the form and support us and walk with us. It is lovely that our school is so visible in the community, but we need our pupils for that!

And finally!

The overall winners of the 2024 Our Lady Star of the Sea Sports Day ……..

HARCOURT

God bless.

Mrs Gregan

"The Kingdom of God is close at hand."

I don’t think many of us can believe just how quick this year has gone. It does not seem two minutes since we were opening the doors to school in September, and yet here we are in the final half-term of the year. It seems really fitting that the last two Jesuit virtues of our school year are Grateful and Generous. There is so much to be grateful for as we look back but still so much to give. Our Year 6s are showing us how to be generous with our time; they have embarked on their jobs around school, supporting children in classes and leading at sports days. We couldn’t be prouder of this group of children and how they have grown throughout their time at Our Ladys. In assembly today, we talked about the Kingdom of God and how we can bring it alive here in our community. Next week I will be meeting our student council to discuss what it means to be a star. The more and more I think about our children and community, the more I see them shining so very brightly. We are going to bring this idea across the school next year; from nursery through to Year 6.

Sports Days

Schooling is all about creating memories; good or bad, they are the times and events that we remember as we grow up and can shape our outlook on things. Sports days are one of those memories. Despite my absolute love of sport, I still remember getting my polo shirt button caught in the cargo net of the obstacle race at the age of 7. The sun kind of shone this week, meaning that we could complete the KS2 Sports Days. All 120 children gave it their all as they jumped, threw, ran and hurdled with the aim of collecting enough points for their houses. Parents, grandparents and friends cheered from the sidelines; the louder they got the quicker the children ran. Plessington were victorious in Year 5 & 6 and Harcourt in Year 3 & 4; currently, Plessington are the overall winners as we move into Key Stage 1 next week. The weather is looking unpredictable so please keep praying for nice weather so our younger children can have their chance to shine.

This week also demonstrated our new virtues fully as you showed just how generous you are and how grateful we are for the care Dominic has received. Before half-term, I told you how we would be raising money this half-term for causes close to our hearts; for Harrison Bretherton and for Dominic Barrow. A team of Year 5 children, buckets in arm, manned the gates to Sports Day, collecting funds for The Manchester Children’s Hospital. Just this week, we have raised £298.40 for the cause - WOW! Let’s see if we can keep this going into our Key Stage 1 events.

The Gym Jam Jog will take place on Monday morning at 8am (weather dependant). Don’t forget pjs, teddies and your sponsor money - have a hearty breakfast before you come to school! If the weather is not good, we will postpone and rearrange so that it is an enjoyable event for all. I will send out a text on Sunday to confirm.

Thsi morning I hosted the Lytham St Annes Swimming Gala at Palatine Swimming Baths. All of thye local schools send swimmers from Year 5 & 6 to compete in individual and realy events. Our team were magnificent, if not a little depleted. Despite this, we had more finalists than we have had before and earned more points. Well done to all swimmers! A special shout out to Benjamin and Ella who both medalled at the event in their individual races!

Learning Role Models of the Week

Learning role models of the half-term

Virtue butterfly award winner

Office news…

Before half-term, I asked for biographies from parents who wanted to be involved in school as a parent governor. I know that we have asked alot for this recently and have appointed a few times in recent years, so I am incredibly grateful that Michael Heyes and Kate Howcroft have stepped forward. I have attached their biographies below for you to read over the weekend. Voting slips will then be going out on Monday for you all to cast your votes and return to school. Thank you so much.

Below you will see our attendance for this week. Thank you to all of the parents who have been away during half-term and experienced delays on the return; thank you for communicating them to us. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing with you the government changes to attendance that will be implemented next year. I will try and make it as easy to understand as I can.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 6 this week with 98.3%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 94.9%

In a couple of weeks, Saturday 29th June, St Annes Carnival Day will be coming to town. Last year we walked with our parish family as a school, and this year we plan to do the same. If your child would like to walk with us as a school and parish, please can you complete the form below so that we can plan for numbers. It would be lovely to have a good group of children and parents walking like we did last year.

Finally, on behalf of us all, I would like to extend our congratulations to Mrs Hartley and her husband who are expecting their first child together. We are so happy for them and know that the reception class are incredibly excited! Once teachers for next year have been finalised, I will of course share them with you. They will all be popping in to work with their new classes in the next few weeks before transition day on Wednesday 3rd July; on this day, the children will be visiting their new classes and getting a taste of what life will be like next year.

God bless and have a wonderful weekend. I know many of you will be excited about the Euros - fingers crossed for England (although I have Spain in the staff sweepstake!)

Mrs Gregan