Remembrance Day gives us the opportunity to stop and pause - to remember. In the demands of life, this can be difficult, but it is so important. On Tuesday, after walking to Ashton Gardens from school, our Year 6 children joined the many service men and women, as well as children from other schools to take part in the act of remembrance. Despite this being a really solemn moment in time, there was so much hope shared in all of the children present. Back at school, it was then special to spend some time with our youngest children listening to their understanding of remembrance. Having written messages on their crosses, they then took them over to the chapel to be placed in the ground there; creating their own remembrance garden. A beautifully moving day.
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"
In Monday’s liturgy we spoke about the temple being destroyed by Jesus who had been frustrated about how the temple was being used. We used this Gospel to talk about life in school and what the Our Lady Way looks like. There are certain rules in school that we must follow in order to keep everyone safe and our ethic of excellence alive and living. These are the things that we spoke about:
Uniform standards to remain high. In particular our PE kit and shorts. Some of the shorts creeping into school for our girls are becoming shorter and shorter. Please can these be looked at so they remain just above the knee.
Walking in and around school. As the children come into school each morning, enter the school building, walk through the hall at any time during the school day; we must always be walking to ensure we are safe and others are at all times.
Toilet trips during the school day. We have carefully crafted the school day to give adaquate time to the children in order to go to the toilet during break and lunch times. Please can we ask that the children come into school having been to the toilet before they arrive, we will then monitor usage during the day and encourage the children to go at break times. We are trying to minimise lesson disruption as much as possible for the best learning to take place for all children. We are aware of medical needs and these are always supported; we are also aware when children just want a 5 minute lesson out and a toilet trip seems like the best way. We know our children really well which always helps in these situations.
We need your support to keep pushing the message of excellence in all we do. Thank you to you all because we really cannot do this by ourselves.
I love my job, despite it being so very challenging and requiring a lot of head space, it really is the best job in the world. Last night I had the honour of being invited to St Bedes to celebrate their Year 11 class of 2025. This was extra special for me as this was my class that I never got to say goodbye to as they left as the pandemic hit. Through the many smiles and the tears last night, I watched these wonderful young men and women receive their GCSE certificates, with many receiving special accolades for individual subjects. My proudest moment was Nathan receiving the Paul Fiddler award for Sports - the first recipient. Many of you will remember the story of the man from Freckleton who lost his life in the storm last year when a tree crushed his van at Hutton. Paul was a friend of mine from St Bedes and Newman, so for Nathan to receive this award, I was beyond proud.
All about Learning
There is so much wonderful learning taking place in our school. We have spent a lot of time getting our curriculum offer right, but we also know that there is more work to be done. The educational wheel constantly moves, and we need to ensure that we are on board with it. Next week, I have dedicated some time to being in classes, to seeing what our children are achieving and to celebrating what we are doing, whilst making plans for how we move forward further. In the Spring term, on Wednesday 21st January, there will be a coffee morning with me in school where we can talk all things school and learning and I can share with you the things that we have been working on and the direction that we are moving in next. There will be an opportunity to tour the school with me and see learning in action too. We have spent a lot of time working on our curriculum pages on the website, in particular the HRSE and RE pages. HRSE is a complex, statutory curriculum which is delivered through Ten Ten and myHappymind.
The above button takes you to the HRSE curriculum overviews, Ten Ten and Parental Portal where you can see what your children will be learning. As the children move up the school, into our Upper Juniors, learning can become more complex and detailed so it is well worth a look to keep you informed and enable you to have conversations at home. All of the login details for you to access this are on the webpage.
Leading Learners from across the school and STAR Virtues
School Office News
Parent Pay accounts have been updated for you to settle.
We are in need of raffle prizes for our Christmas Raffle. Please send donations to the school office. Last year’s raffle was wonderful - let’s keep it up!
The text messaging system has been updated this week and as a result we have had issues with the syncing of contacts from one system to another. Please bear with us as we continue to solve this. Please share any text messages you get just incase people are not receiving them in your class.
PJ Day for Brian House on Monday. Children to wear pjs, trainers, bring £1 and a suitable sized teddy (nothing too extreme).
B Team Football tournament on Friday for our 2 teams at Poolfoot Farm. Please collect your child at 12 midday.
We are in need of a catering assistant in school. LCC have advertised the job which can be found by clicking the button below.
Attendance Matters
We all know the drive to improve school attendance in the recent years from the government and what this has meant for schools. We have become much tighter with what can and what cannot be authorised and are now having to report everything to the DFE. As a result of this data, we have received a report highlighting trends in attendance, but recognising that we are in the top % nationally. Yay us! And that we are back to pre-pandemic attendance levels. This is wonderful and shows that what we have put in place is working. That the messages that we are sharing are working. And that we are all on the same page. One thing that was highlighted was that when our attendance does dip, this seems to be on a Monday. This is something that we can monitor going forward. Over the next few weeks, I will be writing attendance letters for those children who are currently not meeting expected levels.
Whole School Attendance
Sausage barms appear on the winter snack menu on Thursday this week. This will be on the 3rd Thursday each month. Don’t forget to order by 8am on Monday.
Smartphone Free Childhood
Smartphones have fundamentally reshaped childhood. Not because this is what any of us want for our kids. Just because, until now, choosing another path has felt impossible.
That’s why this movement exists. Not to judge or divide, but to stand together.
To say: maybe this isn’t inevitable. Maybe we can pause. Maybe if we work together we can reset – and give our kids something better.
Earlier this week, a meeting was held locally that introduced and shared the idea of a Smartphone Free Childhood. This is a national campaign with the focus on ensuring that our children live both smart phone and social media free for as long as possible. This is something that I am passionate about and that other local heads are too. I know that some of our parents went to the event and have spoken about the power of the collective messages. When we meet as local heads in two weeks, we will be discussing this and how having parent champions in school would be amazing. I know Mrs Barrow and Mrs Kennedy are already thinking about this here at our school. Please do click on the button below to read all about it and how you can get involved. There is a local Whatsapp group to be involved in to hear more and to gain more support. Once we have a plan, we will share it with you.
Finally, our school photographer has been into school recently to take some photos of school life. There are so many wonderful photos to choose from and he will be coming back to get some more of classroom life in particular. Here are some to make you smile.
God bless and have a wonderful weekend
Mrs Gregan