"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

Welcome back to the final half term...

Welcome back to our final hal term together before we finish for the Summer holidays in July. I hope that you have all had a lovely break with your children and families, there are certainly some golden tans on show in school today. This half term, we are looking to be grateful and generous. As we complete our school year together, the summer term is an ideal time to look back and be grateful for all of the experiences that we have experienced this year. Our staff team are unbelievably dedicated and so kind; I personally want to thank them for what they have given so far this year; they really do go above and beyond.

The final half-term is filled with special times that create memories: sports days, school trips, ranger visits, sporting competitions and the end of year play in July. Please keep an eye on the school newsletter each week and the dates section of the website to find out all of the information and what is coming up.

Sports Days

Mr Cornwell has been busy planning this year’s Sports Days. This morning, for the first time in a long time, we have had a track painted on the school field. Practise is well and truely underway! Please check the following dates for this year’s Sports Afternoons:

  • Tuesday 11th June at 1.30pm - Year 5 & 6 Sports Day

  • Wednesday 12th June at 1.30pm - Year 3 & 4 Sports Day

  • Tuesday 18th June at 1.30pm - Nursery & Reception Sports Day

  • Wednesday 19th June at 1.30pm - Year 1 & 2 Sports Day

As with the good old British weather, we cannot rely too much on forecasts. It is looking dry and bright this week; hopefully we will be able to get this week’s event completed. The children are always the priority and we want to ensure that they enjoy the events. If there has been rain or it is forecast, we will look at how safe the ground is for them to compete. If we need to postpone the event because of the weather, we will do so at 11am. This will give all parents the chance to rearrange work or to make plans. It has been deliberate to put the events in quickly when we have returned, just incase there was any rearranged ones needing to take place.

Just a reminder that we are collecting for The Manchester Children’s Hospital in honour of our Dominic. Please bring change with you for our collection buckets!

Parent Governor Role

As mentioned before half-term, we need a new Parent Governor to join our governing body. I am extending the deadline to this Friday as we have had lots of people away over half term. Our school needs you! If you think that you could support us with the governance of the school in the next four years, please can you send a 150 word biography to Mrs Gregan at head@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk by Friday please. There is some really exciting opportunities and progressions coming up, we need people on board to help us steer the ship that we have created!

Board Game Club

There appears to have been a problem with the link to Year 2 and Year 4 Board Game Club which will start next Monday on the 17th June. Please find it below.

Please note, there will be no club on Monday 24th June, it will recommence on Monday 1st July.

We all did so well to keep the roads quiet around school during May; it was much safer for everybody in our community. Just because the class rewards have stopped, that does not mean that we cannot continue our good work. Please do try to park further away from school and walk, scoot or cycle. We have shown that we can do it - let’s continue!

Here is to a wonderful (hopefully sunny) summer together. There will be a number of transition events for the children to also meet their new teaching teams for next year, these will be arranged gradually.

Kind regards

Mrs Gregan

"Come, Holy Spirit Come."

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday; the feast day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The disciples were given tongues of fire and this incredibly gift to give them strength to tackle whatever came their way. They now had the responsibility to ensure that God’s Kingdom continued to grow here on earth, and for us all to hear the word of God without any fear.

There is a group of children this week who have tackled everything that has come their way with no fear and with pure determination. At the end of Year 6, the children have to complete a set of national assessments that all children in Year 6 have to do before heading off to high school. I could not be prouder of our children this week. Each morning, the children have walked into the hall with a huge smile on their faces, knowing that this was their time to shine. We spoke about not always been good at shining, that we are very modest as a community. But this week…boy did they shine and boy did they need a treat at the end of it!

Next for the children is the end of year play and jobs around school. In their final half term, they will be taking on SERVICE WITH A SMILE. Auditions and interviews will be taking place next week, and songs from The Greatest Show will be heard after half term as our Year 5 & 6 children will be putting on the show of all shows!

Becoming Sustainable

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in Green Day today, raising money for new litter pickers and bird houses for our garden. So far, we have raised £182. If you are yet to donate your £1, please do. Let’s see how much money we can raise.

Next Thursday the Forest School Area will start to be cleared. Fylde Ranger team, together with Year 5, will be clearing the floor and cutting down bushes to create space for the canopy area that will be built in the Autumn term. It really is exciting!

Learning Role Models of the Week

We managed to get mixed up on our pictures today!

Learning Role models and Virtue Butterflies

Office news…

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 this week with 100%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 97.7%

As we approach the final week of school this half-term, please can you ensure that you have visited Parent Pay and paid for all experiences your child has had: judo, archery, trips etc; and dinner money for this half term has been settled. For Summer 2, dinner money will be £2.50 per meal, costing £75 for the half term. Thank you kindly.

Wrap Around Care

Thank you to everyone who completed the form for wrap around care during the next half-term. Having looked at the numbers with Mr Nay, we are able to put on a club from 8am-3pm on Monday 3rd, Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th June. Unfortuantly the numbers were too low for the Thursday and Friday. If you click on the button below, you can book a place for the days that you require.

We are also at the point where we can confirm that wrap around care will be opening in school from September. This will take the form of a breakfast club and after school club. We have been asked to ensure that we are providing care from 8am - 6pm. In order for us to plan how this will look for us in school, we need some firmer market research and expression of interests. If you would like a place in our school wrap around care (name of which to be decided) please complete the expression of interest form below. As we gather more information and formulate plans, we will release more details in due course. This is a really exciting development in the offer that we are providing for our pupils. It will mean that they can attend both clubs in school and wrap around care.

Tomorrow, our next group of children will be making their First Holy Communion. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. I look forward to sharing their photographs with you next week.

All of our extra-curricular clubs (cricket, judo, archery and football) have finished for this half-term. The new timetable will be published next week for the final half-term in school.

Have a lovely weekend with your families.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

"Christ has no body on earth but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours."

In this week’s Gospel, we are told that it is now our responsibility to live as Jesus helped us to. Now that he has ascended to heaven, it is down to us to care for our common home and the people who live on it. At mass today, Father Peter reminded us of this in his homily, and a very important prayer that was written by St Teresa:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Starting on May 19th, Pope Francis has set Laudato Si Week - Seeds of Hope. He has asked us to see our world as a suffering plant, calling for us to plant seeds of hope. Let us be seeds of hope in our lives and our world, rooted in faith and love. It seems appropriate that next Friday, our Eco-Team in Year 5 are asking us to be GREEN for the day. This will start our Laudato Si week in school. They have a mission to buy new litter pickers for the school and to buy some bird houses and feeders for the garden. Thank you Year 5 for caring for our Common Home so well.

We watched the CAFOD video in assembly today - why not watch it at home too.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Year 6 to The Grand Theatre in Blackpool to see The Boy at the Back of the Class. This novel tells the story of a young boy who simply arrived at the back of his classroom; with no information about him. This story tells us how a group of friends fought for his friendship, protected him against prejudice and discrimination and ultimately reunited him with his family who had been lost when he became a refugee. I can tell you there was not a dry eye in the theatre from beginning to end. The message in this book demonstrates everything we need to be as human beings; what a beautiful link to our common home and the key messages from this week.

Over the next two weekends, our Year 4 children will be making their First Holy Communion. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they embark on their next sacramental journey. Our Year 6 children also have a big week next week as they take their end of year statutory assessments. Please keep them in your prayers too. We are so very proud of them and what they have already achieved.

Learning Role Models of the Week

Virtue Butterflies - Children being Learned and Wise

Learning Role Models

Walk to School in May

The lovely weather that we have been having has certainly helped our walk to school campaign. It has been really lovely seeing so many innovative ways that the children have created to come to school; I think many parents have done the same. We cannot thank you enough for your support with this and our roads do appear to be a lot quieter.

Next week, the weather isn’t looking quite as nice as it has been - this is your real test. Can you keep up the good work in damp conditions? We have every faith that you will.

More student councillors will be out and about next week with their flyers encouraging safe driving, safe parking and walking to school.

I have met with the Year 3 & 4 councillors this week who have decided to pool their winning prize money together and buy some scooters; creating a scooter area on the playground. These are role models and innovators in this area; we have never done this before. This week’s winning classes are Reception and Nursery!

Office news…

On Monday, sponsor forms will be going out for our annual JIM JAM JOG - a firm fixture on the school’s calendar. Every Summer, 240 children, staff and parents come dressed in their pjs ready to run as many times around the school field as possible. The funds raise always go towards the development of the school; this year that is our outside area and break time equipment. This year, it will take place on Monday 17th June at 8am.

In addition, this year we wanted to help another cause. It is very important that our children are aware of their community and causes that are close to them and us. There have been a number of significant events that have really made us stop this year and reflect. We hope that this summer, we can raise money for them both.

On 15th September 2023, we lost a very dear former pupil of ours, Harrison Bretheron. In a couple of week’s time, the family and friends of Harrison will be running his 22nd mile. Harrison never made it to 22 years of age; this is their tribute to him. All money raised from the run will be donated between Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and The Firefighter’s Charity; both of which have supported many of our current and former families. So far, they have raised over £15,000 - it is remarkable. We want to do our bit as well. Please support this event as much as you can - get your pjs ready!

We will be hosting a second charity towards the end of the year which our Year 5 children will tell us all about in a few week’s time.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 this week with 98.3%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 96%

Attendance letters have been issued to any children whose attendance has fallen below 90%. We know that there are many reasons for this, and each child is different. By law, we have to have working relationships with parents, alerting them to their children’s attendance. As always, please come and speak to me if you have any concerns.

Wrap Around Care

Over the last few months, we have been looking at the offer we provide for Wrap Around Care, in line with the new guidance that will be available in the coming months. We will be in a position to let you know our plans in school before half-term.

One area we are continuing to look at is half-term provision. Judo Education successfully ran a half-term club at Easter. Our May half-term is always two weeks and I know that this may be an issue for those parents who need additional care; especially in that second week of the holidays. I have spoken to Mr Nay and Mr Murray who have said that there is a possibility of them running a club for children from Reception to Year 6 from 8am-3pm here at school. For this to happen, we have to have the numbers to support it and make it viable to run. If you would be interested in this provision, please can you complete the expression of interest form below. We will then be able to gage interest and let you know if it is something that CN Active can provide.

Have a lovely weekend with your families.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

"Love one another as I have loved you."

Next week, we will be walking down to church to hear the most important commandment of all:

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

This may seem easy enough to say, but how do we act it out on a daily basis through our words and actions. How easy is it to truly love each other? How can we demonstrate this freely? On Thursday, Father Peter will tell us all the Gospel reading of the Ascention; the time when Jesus left us on this earth to bring his kingdom of God alive through the lessons that he had taught us. We hope that you will be able to join us for our school mass.

Another period of time has just started with the arrival of May; the month of Mary. Being Our Lady Star of the Sea, this is a special month to us as we share in the lessons we can learn from her. A vital part of this is the rosary. In assembly today, I shared with the children a set of rosary beads that I was given by my auntie and uncle on my Holy Communion; ones that I still use to this day. Over the next few weeks, the children will be praying the rosary in their classes. Could you use the time at home to devote time to the rosary too?

School Developments…

Over the next few months, there will be some building work taking place at school. This will span into the summer holidays and beyond. When our kitchen was built, it was only built for 40 dinners; we are now nearer 160 dinners each day. Because of this increase in numbers, we need an increase in size - which is very exciting for Jacqui our wonderful cook. You will start to see a few bricks being laid as we double the size of our current kitchen, making it fit for purpose.

Another area of school which we are looking to develop is the area of land to the left of the allotment on the field. This is a dense area and one that can be used in lots of different ways. To do this, we need your help.

  • Do you know someone who could help us prepare the ground of this area?

  • Have you worked with someone who you would recommend to the school?

  • Have you got some spare time on your hands where you could support our school?

We need a committed team of gardeners who can help us achieve our vision of what this space should look like.

The plan is to remove the brambles and nettles that have grown and prepare the ground for a canopy area to be made with log seating. We want to create our own forest school area. If you know someone who could help, please do email me at head@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

We really need your help to get this project off the ground and made into something that our whole school community will benefit from.

Enrichment

I have loved seeing the children and staff interact differently this year. Each half-term, the children have visited a different area of the school, and a different teacher, to learn something new. I think the teachers have enjoyed it more than the children. This week:

Recpetion visited the allotment with Mrs Hotchkiss; Year 1 completed some Van Gogh inspired craft with Mrs Naylor; Year 2 made some pasta salad with Mrs Lyons; Year 3 tackled team games with Mr Cornwell; Year 4 went all Strictly and learnt the waltz alongside Mrs Harrison; Year 5 visited Mrs Hartley and learnt German and Year 6 built some sedementary rocks with Miss Drummond in science.

Learning is all about the wider experiences. How can we encourage our children to experience more and therefore learn more?

Learning Role Models of the Week

Virtue Butterflies - Children being Learned and Wise

Learning Role Models

Walk to School in May

A huge thank you to EVERYONE who has made such an effort with walking, scooting, cycling and any other none car way to get to school. It has been quieter at the start and at the end of the school day around the gates. I am parking much further away from school and walking whilst my little one scoots. This is about a big team effort which we are so good at here!

We understand that it isn’t possible to do this every day, and that is fine, little and often is great. Even parking at the end of the road and walking for 2 minutes to school counts - it keeps our roads much quieter. What we want is to create quieter roads for those children who need to be brought in by car each day and for our Year 5 & 6 children who walk to and from school.

Data has been collected this week and the winning classes will have £50 donated to them for them to spend how they wish - hopefully to encourage more exercise in their class. This week, our winning classes were Year 3 & 4 who both had a total of 53 walks over the past three days.

Let’s see how many we can get walking next week!

Thank you to this week’s student counsellors who were giving flyers at the gate this week. They are being really proactive with their approach to our safer roads. Next week we will have a new batch of children with their flyers ready to go!

Office news…

We have one plea from the office for this week. If your child has a medical appointment or is delayed coming into school for any reason, please can you ring ahead with their dinner choices. We have to submit dinner numbers to our kitchen by 9.30am and if children are arriving in after that, we are then finding our numbers are skewed. Thank you so much for your support with this.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 2 this week with 99.3%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 96.3%

Next week we will be announcing two fundraising events that will be taking place in the Summer term for causes very close to our heart.

A bank holiday weekend is always welcome. I hope you enjoy your weekend and extra day on Monday. We look forward to welcoming you back to school on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend with your families.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me."

In this Sunday’s Gospel, we will hear about The Good Shepherd; someone who knows their sheep and their sheep know them. Someone who will always seek out the sheep who need their support and love the most; someone who will go out of their way to ensure that their sheep return. This is what Jesus does to us.

It seems fitting that this Sunday in church, Father Peter will be sharing this Gospel message with us on the week of his 50th anniversary of ordination, 10 of which have been spent at our parish. Father Peter does not like fuss, or any form of compliment; he simply sees himself as a servant of our faith and that it has been his vocation in life to act on the will of Christ. I cannot think of someone more who deserves the celebrations and gratitude that will be coming his way this week. On Thursday morning, we will be walking down to church to celebrate the start of his jubilee, just in the way that he will want it; through prayer, scripture and song. It would be wonderful if as many as our school community that we can fit inside the church came - please do join us if you are able to. The children will be walking down at 9.05am from school, we will desperately need walkers to support us. These events happen very rarely in anyone’s life or the life of a priest. Let’s make it a true celebration for someone who gives us so much of himself.

There is an event in the Parish Centre for Father Peter next Sunday afternoon. I know that many of you will already be going. Please see the parish newsletter for more information.

Learning Role Models of the Week

Virtue Butterflies - Children being Learned and Wise

Learning Role Models

There has been so much learning taking place in school this week. I have loved popping in and out of classes; hearing all of the wonderful experiences and opportunities that are coming the children’s way. I walked into the Year 1 classroom the other day to see the table tops full of different types of food. The children were having to work out, through scientific clues, if the food was a fruit or a vegetable. Year 5 are fully involved in their crime and punishment unit of work, exploring the laws of our country and making some discoveries of their own. They have also walked down to Hope Street Park today to see the bulbs that were planted by their hands last year. Year 6 are working so very hard preparing for their end of year assessments - I have had the pleasure of teaching them this week and will do next week. Year 2 children have got an exciting week planned next week as they take on Shakespeare. Please have a look at the website blogs that the teachers have written to share your child’s learning with you.

With the arrival of the sunshine (we hope) comes the start of the gardening club again in school. Mrs Mather and her little helpers have been busy preparing the ground, moving soil and planting potatoes this week. We are really hoping that we can update the outside grounds further this summer and may need a team of able parent helpers to support and project manage. Watch this space for how you can get involved!

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 this week with 99.7%. Our whole school attendance for this week is 96.2%.

Attendance Update…

My attendance officer came to see me this week for my termly update and check in. He is always happy with our attendance figures and how we work together as a community to ensure that any leave of absence is reduced to a minimum.

Whilst he was here, we looked at the new attendance guidance that will become statutory in September. These are some of the main points to be mindful of:

  • A child’s attendance will be analysed every 10 weeks to ensure that they meet level of attendance that is required in school.

  • Holiday requests will be on a rolling analysis for 3 years. For example, if you ask for a holiday out of school, in the 1st year, there will be a penalty notice. If this is repeated, in the 2nd year, the penalty notice will be issued but it will be at the highest amount. In the 3rd year, it will be legal action.

The government are really promoting high attendance and trying to crack down on term time holidays. The guidance will be really clear. I will share this in more detail as we approach the summer holidays. I am planning on developing a termly newsletter with key information for you going forward.

We are still urging people to park safely around the school perimeter and to monitor their speed on their approach to the school. Being in a residential area means the roads are narrow and often congested. Please be mindful of this in the coming weeks.

The school calendar for this term is now populated on the main page. There is lots of opportunites for the children and events taking place. I am currently working on the calendar for 2024/2025 with the hope of releasing all of the important dates and events for the year in September. You will also receive the holiday list for the following academic year, giving you plenty of time to get your diaries organised for the year ahead. Hopefully the more notice we can give you on things, the more available that you will be.

Have a lovely weekend with your families.

God bless

Mrs Gregan

“Repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations. You are witnesses to this.”

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

Well done to Year 2 this week - 99.3% 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

"“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here."

Holy Week is the most important week in the liturgical calendar, but it too is the most important week in our school. Each day this week, we have been touched deeply by the performance of our children as they have told the story of Jesus’s passion. From the peace at The Last Supper, to the anguish of Gethsemane. The dispair of the Crucifixion, to the hope in the Resurrection. I hope that those of you who came to see it felt it deeply. I am so proud of the children and the teaching team who created the memories of this week. The photographs below speak for themselves. During the holidays, our Worship Area is being decorated. We will be proudly displaying some of these photos as a symbol of our faith.

Over the past few days, Mrs Shields has been busy counting the lenten box money. So far, we have raised over £1200 for CAFOD. We will update you with the final total after half term.

At the end of each term, I like to share with you the prayer and liturgy from the term. It is so important to me that we come together as a whole school community; our prayer and liturgy is central to this. Shine Jesus Shine has been a firm favourite for sure!

Learning Role Models of the Week

In the midst of such a busy day, our certificate and virtue winners did not have their photos taken. We will do this on the first day back.

We had our first parent virtue winner - Mrs Couch who has taken our chicks home to be rehomed. Thank you for your generousity. The chicks have been a really welcomed addition to our school community this half-term. The children have loved seeing them grow from being born.

Our Weekly Attendance

Well done to Year 3 & 1 who are our winners for the term!

Finally, we had our very first Our Lady Easter Egg Hunt today. The Easter Bunny kindly dropped off 240 chocolate eggs, each with a child’s name on, that all needed to be found somewhere in the school gardens. It was enormous fun!

We look forward to welcoming you back to school on Monday 8th April at 8.45am, ready for our Summer Term.

Have a lovely weekend with your families. We wish you a very happy Easter.

God bless

Mrs Gregan