At the beginning of this week, we met as a school community to reflect on the events of Easter; the sadness of the crucifixion, the anger felt at Gethsemane and the hope in the resurrection. Quite often, we feel sombre thinking about these times, when in fact, we should be feeling grateful. We have now moved into Eastertide - a period of celebration. As belivers and witnesses to the resurrection of the Lord, we now have the responsiblity to share this far and wide; to the ends of the earth. We all have the fire in us to be that change that we want to see in the world. I have set the children a mission to become witnesses. Can they really spot what is happening in our world and around them; identifying the disciples amongst us all.
Prayer and llitrugy is central to school life. We are passionate about providing the children with calm spaces where they can spend time with God. Over half term, our Worship Area has been decorated to ensure that the children have a beautiful space to write their prayers - this week we have been inundated and the prayer board is filled. You may also spot that the canvases that we had have been replaced by perspex ones, giving us space to add some black and white images depicted Holy Week - they are of our children.
We have also introduced our new virtues for this half-term; being learned and wise. Can the children use what they know to to make wise and informed choices?
How can home and school work together?
For as long as I have taught, home-learning has always been one of those things where we try and create an approach that aims to suit all ways of family life. In the middle of it all are the children and how we can all best support them with their learning to become the very best versions of themselves. Research shows that the more involved parents are with their child’s learning, the more progress they will make and the more confident children will feel with the skills that we need to teach. Practise is everything, the more we can repeat things, the more confident they will then feel applying these across the curriculum. We are also incredibly mindful of how precious family life is and the amount of time that the children are active outside of school. At the end of each school year, home learning is the one thing that is commented on the most by families.
With all of this in mind, we have created a new home-learning approach that will hopefully have something for everybody. Each week, the teachers will put set home-learning on their web blogs that is specific to the key skills that your children will need to be confident across all areas of the curriculum. This will focus on reading, spelling, handwriting and maths. In addition to this, they will also share a half-termly grid which has optional homework on. These are things that the children can choose to do to enhance their learning further. Some of them may have a creative aspect for those children who love to make, others may require you to head out as a family, some will be gathering facts. In addition, the teachers will also pop a conversation question on for you to discuss as a family around the dinner table, before bed, on a car journey - you can choose. This will link to previous learning or learning that is coming up. It will enable you to have a chat as a family without the need to record anything formally.
I have attached our new policy below so you can see in more detail what home learning will look like at Our Lady Star of the Sea.
Learning in school covers a vast amount of areas, and this week two have really stood out for me. We use Times Table Rockstars to ensure that our multiplication speed is high. Knowledge of times tables is key to accessing other areas of the maths curriculum. Currently, Dominic is top of our school leaderboard, being able to answer questions in 0.45seconds - unbelievable. Watch his screen recording below to see how fast he actually is. This speed is what we want to all aspire to gain - can you do it? A new Rockstars display will be going up in school so we can celebrate the wonderful work our children are doing - some have managed to turn their heatmap completely green!
We have also had our Year 6’s taking part in ‘Come Dine with Me’ for their DT Food Tech unit of work. This week it was the turn of the main courses with salmon featuring as the key ingredient.
I have had the pleasure of sampling salmon spaghetti and salmon tacos today - both absolutely delicious!
Learning Role Models of the Week
Virtue Butterflies - Children being Learned and Wise
Learning Role Models
Our Weekly Attendance
Next week, we will be spending time getting the website up to date with Summer Term dates for your diary. Please do keep an eye on what is happening. Extra-curricular clubs have started today with judo and archery, for the very first time. Next week sees cricket starting for all classes from Year 1. Thank you to everyone who has signed up.
Finally, I text out this week regarding the parking around school being dangerous. A number of cars are parking on double yellows and specifically on the corners near the gates to school. This has huge implications for our children who cannot cross the road safely. Some of our older children walk home by themselves, they cannot do this if it is dangerous outside. I have spoken with Fylde police this week who are going to monitor this and do some stop-bys to ensure that the roads around school are safe. They will be working with our student council to ensure that we have crossings on Church Road, but that our children and families can come to and from school safely. We need your support with this matter. The weather is getting better (we hope) please park away from school and walk that little bit further in. Thank you.
Have a lovely weekend with your families.
God bless
Mrs Gregan