As Mother Teresa once told us, ‘It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving.’ It has been lovely to insert some Christmas cheer into our classroom this week and to think about the needs of others before ourselves. We have constantly prayed for the residents of Stella Matitina during this term and I know how much joy the children’s letters have brought to them.

Today the children have ran multiple laps of the soggy field (in the rain), thrown snowballs into a bucket, skipped with tinsel and sang. We thought that it would be lovely to sing carols for the residents and to send them a virtual concert as we cannot sing for them in person. At the close of school today, we have raised a staggering £425 for Stella Matutina so far, we cannot believe it. We know that we still have some more donations to arrive and then the £1 from the Christmas Danceathon - thank you so very much. We are hoping to use the money to send them a big treat like a singer or some form of entertainment to really cheer them up.

I have taken lots of photos today and videos, once I have had time to collate them, I will of course put them on the website.

Learning of course, has been full on again this week. We have been planning our discussion texts on Romeo and Juliet, reading Skellig and discovering that the creature in the garage is Skellig himself. The children should be incredibly proud of themselves in maths as they tackled an end of unit assessment with tonnes of confidence - every child maintained or made progress which is wonderful! In science, it has all been about The Theory of Evolution, which leads into this week’s deep homework! Enjoy discussing that.

We have also been busy writing a poem that will tell our section of the Christmas Story. We will be filming this next week - it will be beautiful. It has linked in so well with our Justice unit of work in RE.

Well done to our learners…

Our three certificate winners have all received the certificate for the same reason, being brave and giving everything a go! This week they have seen just what they are capable of and with some attention to detail, have produced fantastic work.

Well done Lila, Kyla and Jayden.

Assessment Update

You will have seen in the news that assessments in primary schools and high schools are changing slightly to allow for the issues that COVID has brought. As far as we are concerned, we have heard that for the end of year assessments, the children will only be formally assessed in their SATs tests in reading and maths. The government have decided that they will not formally assess spelling and grammar. For us in school, this isn’t too much of a change as I will still have to assess the children’s spelling and grammar as part of their writing. It is constant changing landscape at the moment. If there are any further changes, I will ensure to communicate them as soon as possible.

On Tuesday 15th December, we will be holding a Christmas Danceathon. Although we will not be able to gather on the playground like we usually do, we will ensure that there is lots of dancing in classes and at breaktime. The children will need to wear their PE kits and it is a £1 donation towards our contribution to Stella Matutina.

Thursday 17th December - Christmas party day and Christmas dinner.

Have a wonderful weekend. There will be another liturgy led by the parish on Sunday at 6pm.

Mrs Gregan and Mrs Webster