What does the word rejoice mean to you? What do you rejoice about? What brings you joy and how do you share this joy with others? These are the questions that we have been exploring in assembly today and that will form discussion as part of our prayer and liturgy next week. This week in church is Laetare Sunday - which means to rejoice. It marks the half-way point in Lent and we know that Jesus’s resurrection is not far away. I have loved hearing how the children are collecting money at home for their lenten boxes; there has been allsorts going on. From car washing, to setting the table, to reading to siblings; all of those little acts of kindness will go a long way to supporting the work of CAFOD.
Last night, we welcomed the parents and grandparents of our Year 4 communicants into school so that they could meet with Father Peter and discuss their own faith. The focus of the session was forgiveness and confession. Together, they discussed their own experiences of confession and why forgiveness can sometimes be tricky. Thank you to all of those who attended. We hope it gave you time to reflect and enabled you to have conversations with your family at home.
World Book Day
It certainly is one of our favourite days of the year! A day when all of the work that we do around reading comes to life and we have a little fun along the way dressing up. Reading is the central spine of our curriculum - the more we read the more we know and the more we can apply to other areas of the curriculum. But, there is so much more to just the words. A story can be told through images, through words and through emotions. In the afternoon, our storytelling ambassadors visited each class to hear the wonderful stories that had be written by them. Please visit each class page to see the fun that was had. The photos below are just a snippet of the fun that we all had over the course of the day!
To celebrate World Book Day, we invited Mrs Newell in from the local library to present our GOLD winner! We are so proud of you and the 50 books that you have read at the age of 5. To achieve this is remarkable. I believe you are starting the trail all over again.
Being creative is something that we love here in school and celebrating the arts is something that we are passionate about. On Tuesday afternoon, our choir headed off to Lowther Pavillion to join a number of other schools in The Big Sing. It is the first time that we have taken part in the event - it was beautiful. Together with the other choirs, our children sang songs from around the world in preparation for this Summer’s Olympics. Thank you firstly to the children for commiting your time to make sure that we could send children to represent us. Thank you to Miss Drummond and Miss Woodend who have worked with the choir this year and to Mrs Carter who supported the children on the day. In fact, our staff were singled out for being the most enthusiastic and for getting fully involved. Thank you to all of the friends and family who came to support the children; I hope you had goose-bumps, just like I did!
Parents’s Meetings and Book Looks
There was another group of book looks this week as we welcomed parents and grandparents into school to share the wonderful work that their children have completed this year. There has been a journey through school from Reception to Year 6 and clearly so much work to be proud of. We hope that you have enjoyed sitting with your child and for them to talk about their work. If you didn’t get chance to attend, please do contact your class teacher and they will arrange a time for you to come and have a look at your children’s books.
Next week, parents’s evenings will start and the teachers are very much looking forward to sharing your child’s learning journey with you. Thank you to everyone who has made an appointment, there is still time if you haven’t and class teachers will be touching base with you to do so.
The available appointments will be on:
Wednesday 13th March - from 2.00pm until 5.20pm (for all classes)
Wednesday 20th March - from 2.00pm until 5.20pm (for all classes apart from Year 4 due to Shakespeare)
Tuesday 26th March - from 2.00pm until 5.20pm (just for Year 4 parents)
Appointments can be booked by clicking on this link below.
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.
Learning Role Models of the Week
Learners of the Week
Demonstrating our virtues - loving and compassionate
Nursery Consultation Request
We are incredibly lucky to have a nursery attached to our school. Every single day, I see the beauty of this environment and how it is a place where the children are encouraged to be, to explore and to grow. It is pure magic! As long as the nursery has been here, it has been a private nursery, but very much part of school life in how it operates on a daily basis. We have therefore made the decision that we would like to bring nursery into school officially, rather than remain as a private setting. From September 2024, we are planning on lowering our age range to include 3 year olds from nursery. I have attached a consultation letter below that explains what we are planning to do, and therefore opening to consultation window. The benefits that we have of having a nursery within the school can only be greater by this inclusion. It is a really exciting time and another opportunity to grow our school community further.
Summer is coming
With the arrival of the daffodills in school, there is a clear indication that spring is on its way - with summer soon to follow; this often means a change in uniform. I really love seeing the children come to school in shorts and summer dresses. Towards the end of this term, we will hold a Summer Uniform Sale at school, to get ready for the warmer weather. Over the next couple of weeks, can you have a look at home to see if there is uniform that no longer fits - summer ones. We will then collate in school ready to hold the sale in the final week of term on Monday 25th March.
With so many activites taking place in school, our school PE uniform is really useful, and very smart. The hoodies seem to have been a welcome addition to our uniform list. If I was a pupil here, it would certainly be my choice of uniform on a daily basis if I was allowed. For some classes, the wearing of the PE kit is creeping into days where the children do not have PE or there is a club after school for which they need to get changed into a separate kit. It is becoming a weekly uniform rather than PE kit.
Please can you make sure that:
School PE kit is worn on PE days for your child’s class.
School PE kit is worn if your child has a sport club before school or after school that does not require them to get changed. For example; multi-skills, judo and netball would allow the children to be in PE kit as they need trainers. Football training is school uniform and then changed into a football kit - it is separate to PE kit and needs boots not trainers - therefore PE kit does not need to be worn during the day.
When wearing trainers, the colour is predominatly black, white or blue. There is lots of neon colours creeping in that is not inline with our uniform policy.
I am really proud of our uniform, and whenever our children are out and about, the children look incredibly smart; they are always commented upn. We need to preserve that and also prepare the children for life beyond Our Ladys where there is really high expecatations of school uniform. I really appreciate your support with this so that we create consistency across the school and maintain the very high standards that have been set.
Our Weekly Attendance
Office News
It is hard to believe that we are hurtling towards Easter as some speed. There is only three weeks to go before we finish again for the Easter holidays.
Trips are being planned and teachers will put on their websites the key information that you will need for this. All of the children enjoy trips and they are essential to give opportunities to the children beyond the classroom. We are really lucky to live where we live - our local area is stunning so the more we can get out into it the better.
Trips are the perfect opportunity for you to get involved as parents and grandparents. Our classes need a certain number of adults for ratios, and we need you to make that happen. If you see a trip pop up on your child’s class page and adult support is needed, please do get involved. Trips are magical and the children have so much fun. We have a number of grandparents who support all trips in school. If you are someone who could do that and be a support for trips beyond your child’s classroom - or you have a grandparent who could - please complete this form below so that we can add you to our school contact. Thank you all so much.
Last week, I shared with you that Mrs Marshall had started her much-needed maternity leave. Well, this week our school family has grown by another 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. On Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Marshall’s little girl arrived, weighing 5lb and 14oz - she is beautiful. On behalf of us all, I have wished Mrs Marshall and her family a huge congratulations on the birth of Poppy Wren Marshall. I know you will keep them all in your thoughts and prayers. We cannot wait to see them in school soon for cuddles!
Have a wonderful weekend with your families.
God bless
Mrs Gregan