Even though the Jubilee Year, The Year of Hope, was officially launched on Christmas Eve when Pope Francis opened the Holy Door; today was the launch for all schools. In today’s world, we absolutely need hope - what the perfect theme. In assembly today, we watched this video which explains just what a jubilee year is, but more importantly - about the Holy Door and how we can all open doors of hope this year. A door is something so simple, but yet so important and something that we all experience daily. It can be opened to welcome somebody in, shut after somebody has left, be solid where no light shines through or made of glass. This year we are all challenged to open a door of hope. In school, I have challenged each class to make their classroom door into a door of hope and over the next few weeks, I will share their doors with you. We will then be creating a pilgrimage around the school where the doors of hope can be stood in front of and prayers said.
The diocese are really keen for as many people to be part of the Jubilee celebrations as possible; with lots of events taking place throughout the year. One of the first events is an art competition - which we love here at Our Ladys. There is not just a competition for the children, but one for adults too (and after pottery painting, I know that we have some very talented parents). Below are the instructions as to how you can get involved and when the work needs to be brought into school. Read the instructions carefully and look at the inspiration given. Let’s see if we can get lots of entries to submit to Bishop Paul.
Family Mass Celebration
Next Sunday, 2nd February, is our next family mass. The mass will be celebrating Candlemas which is the end of Christmastime. Candlemas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the presentation of Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem. It is also centred around light - which fits our school mission perfectly.
Thank you to everyone who has filled the form in with what their child would like to be involved in. Again, I have rotated things around so that all get a chance throughout the year. Readings will be given out to the children at the start of next week, please can these be practised at home too.
Parents’ Meetings - Friday 14th February
In a few weeks, there will be the opportunity to speak to your child’s class teacher and find out how they are getting on following your conversation in October. In the Summer term, you will again be invited into school to sit with your child and see their work alongside them. There is so much wonderful learning taking place.
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. 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 14th February from 8.30am - 5.00pm. Appointments can be booked from 4pm today by clicking on this link:
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.
I had the pleasure of meeting with the Student Council this week, with two main agenda items: the playground and the library. We have so many books in school and our library is a space where there is just too much furniture. The Student Council have decided to de-clutter and reorganise the library to make it more spacious and more like a ‘magical’ bookshop. This will be happening before half-term hopefully - we think it is a quick fix but one with huge impact! We can’t wait to share the outcome with you!
Shining the way this week…
Our STAR virtues and learning award winners this week
Office News
Our Weekly Attendance
There have been a team of dedicated parents and grandparents this week who have gone to war with the state the pavements around school have been left recently from dog walkers. We seem to have been inundated with deposits of dog poo near the gates of school and down the pavements that the children and families walk on to school. Armed with brushes and disinfectant, they have cleaned the pathways and contacted the local council too. I cannot thank them enough for their compassion in supporting and looking after the children. But we need to do more. I would love for the children to make some posters about this that we can enlarge and laminate to attatch to the fencing around school; especially around the gates. The key messages need to be:
Why is it so important to keep the pavements clean?
How is it making the children feel?
Make them bright and bold - really clear and drop them into my office next week, we can then start putting them up. So many of the children have dogs, can you send me a photo of your child with their dog (that would be appropriate for a poster outside school) these too can be used to spread the message of looking after our school. Send photos to head@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk. Our slogan is…if we can look after our dogs, then you can too!
This week, I had a planning meeting with the contractors who are overseeing the new kitchen build - and we are on track! The walls are completed and the flooring has been laid; we are now just a week away from the kitchen fitters completing their work. I am hoping to be able to share our new menu with you in the coming weeks. I cannot thank you all enough for your patience with this, but more so our wonderful school cooks who have ferried food forward and backwards for numerous weeks. We are very nearly there!
A final thank you to a team of builders who have donated paving, laid it and built our new Forest School shed; unfortuantly, the storm today was just too strong for it and we had to bring it down for safety - it was a scene out of The Wizard of Oz. Thank you to Jude and Blythe’s dad’s who donated paving and to Blythe’s dad who organised for it all to be laid. After half term, we will be taking delivery of 160 saplings and hedgerow trees that will enhance the area that the children use and protect the canopy seating area and will need some parent help to get planting! We also have another shout out for donations coming into school next week - and a little project to protect the trees. Watch this space!
Thank you to everyone who ensured safety for all today. The winds were certainly ferocious and as mentioned earlier, our new shed didn’t make it. The shed is essential for Forest School storage and after raising money for it; we are sad that it didn’t withstand the storm today. If anybody has a company out there who would like to sponsor a new ‘industrial’ shed (we are going bigger and better now) or donate, then we would be very grateful! It is a shame that the weather has scuppered our plans after all of our hard work.
What was lovely this morning, was seeing all of our older children walk into school, hand in hand with their parents. I can imagine this does not happen much any more and was a little treat. There was a lot of mummy smiles being seen. Please continue to stay safe this weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.
God bless
Mrs Gregan