Salt has some very magical powers and has been used for centuries when it comes to food and cleaning. It flavours and preserves, de-ices roads, can be used as a cleaning agent and also medicinal. This week, I was told to gargle salt water by my dentist to help settle down some pain in with my wisdom tooth. But in this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus calls his followers to be, “the salt of the earth.” To demonstrate their role to preserve society and our faith, to flavour and enhance goodness and to continue to shine God’s love in our world today. It shows that we, as God’s people, should have a transformative and positive influence - flavouring our community with kindness. It is immediately followed by the prase, “You are the light of the world.” showing that as disciples we need to be visible and bright - striving to bring positive change to all around us.
This week’s mission - how can you flavour somebody’s life positively this week? How can you be the salt of the earth?
Catholic Life as we move towards Lent…
This Sunday is our next family mass and the first one back with Father Peter. On Wednesday, Father Peter joined my in school, the first time since last July; it was lovely to welcome him back into school, I know how much he has missed us. We spent our time together planning Lent and how we could ensure that the importance of this part of the liturgical year was recognised by both school and parish. Father Peter will be joining us to hear confessions for Year 5 & 6 during Lent. Ash Wednesday is during half-term, please do ensure that if you can get to mass for the children to receive their ashes, that you do. During Lent, we will be:
Recreating the Stations of the Cross through art with each class focusing on one or two of them.
Sending home prayer bags so as a family you can come closer to Jesus as He comes closer to the cross.
Making Lenten boxes for our partner classes. Our almsgiving will be donated to CAFOD.
Trying to walk to Nigeria for CAFOD (not literally). To recognise The World Day of Prayer which starts in Nigeria, and the link to our own Isioma, we are going to try and walk 4,235 miles as a community during lent. I will share more about what this will look like next week on the newsletter.
Partner classes will be attending Mass with Father Peter. Once we have confirmed dates, we will share and hopefully you will be able to join us too.
Food bank donations for February - Baked Beans. The foodbank have seen a significant surge in demand at their food bank over the past few weeks, making it increasingly challenging to meet the needs of those who rely on their services. Let’s help where we can!
“Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!”
On Monday afternoon, 25 of our dancers headed off to Blackpool Tower Ballroom to take part in the Wyre and Fylde Dance Competition. Together with 18 other primary schools and 5 secondary schools, they competed to theme of unity for our world. Inspired by the Winter Olympics that is starting this week, and from sport across the world, each school took to the floor - it was spectacular! Our children were incredible in every sense of word and made memories to last a lifetime - who can say that they have danced on the ballroom floor at Blackpool Tower? A huge thank you to Mrs Harrison who has spent so much time dedicated to putting this dance together with the children. She has lived and breathed this dance for so many weeks; costumes, light up bobbles, hair glitter - the lot. And to Mrs Davis and Mrs Webster who joined us as the hair and make up team. Please do enjoy the dance and the wonderful comments by the judges - I know you will be as proud as we are.
Child and Parent Consultation
Thank you all for your positive comments about the recording I did last week; it has been lovely to get good feedback on it - I can see how appreciated it was. So many comments spoke about trusting the school and seeing the clear vision - this is really important to me. Lots of conversations too about things that parents have learnt, especially around funding, what access we get to support and the length of time things take to put in place as part of a graduated response. I will do these more regularly to keep you all in the loop and hopefully more informed.
Following the presentation, there was the opportunity to add a comment on the consultation form regarding the PE top and assembly. Thank you to everyone who responded as your views are considered and contribute to a wider discussion. I have collated it below:
Uniform
The liking of the PE top was unanimous - 100% of you thought it was a good idea with 94% prefering the two blue option as opposed to the plain navy one. I will now consult with Top Marques regarding this and get it into stock with it being compulsory from September 2026. It will be available to be seen on Parents Day next week.
100% of you like the PE hoodie/zip option. The PE hoodie or branded tracksuit top is compulsory wear now anyway, so this would not change.
Badged polo shirts will still be available, not compulsory but encouraged as it is now. Plain polo shirts are acceptable wear for non-PE days.
Earrings was also mentioned so this is something that I am considering as St Bedes and other schools have a no earring policy. We are getting a variety of earrings being worn which are not complying with school policy so a no earring policy would sort this aspect out and also improve the health and safety aspect of school life.
Assembly
You all love coming to assembly and this has been a welcomed part of how life have changed in school, but receiving the text the night before can be tricky and not everyone can always get there, which you have acknowledged. We will definitely keep parental invitations but just think about how this can be better organised and planned for over the year to give you as much notice as possible.
Celebrating the children’s success is important, but the majority of you spoke about how this does not have to be weekly and that there is often a wait between children receiving things. We will look at how we can give immediate praise and not a weekly certificate. All children being celebrated is the culture we are aiming for and to recognise their contributions. This should alleviate the need to text parents the night before.
The stars are loved - so we will keep those and think about how they are delivered within the classroom and then shared. The messages for the stars are about the children as a person; that is why they are so special.
Some of you mentioned a school weekly roundup rather than individual celebrations - so this is something to think about as well. I have attached some research below on rewards and why we need to think carefully about how they are given. Today’s assembly was an illustration of this as we celebrated the dance team, Nursery storytellers and some artists whose work will be displayed at Lytham Heritage Centre from the 10th February - 1st March.
We will continue to work on a new model of assembly on a Friday; ensuring that parental involvement remains. This will take a bit more work - so leave it with us.
Parents’s Day
Parents’s Day is next Friday, Friday 13th February - either face to face or virtual. Please make sure that you have contacted your class teacher and booked in an appointment. On Wednesday, your child will bring home their mid-term report which will include the areas they are working well at, and the areas that they need some support on - together with attendance, focus in class and learning behaviours. After half-term, there will then be book looks for you to share and celebrate your child’s work.
Tuesday 24th February 9am: Year 5
Tuesday 24th February 2.30pm: Year 6
Wednesday 25th February: 9am: Year 3
Wednesday 25th February: 2:30pm: Year 4
Thursday 26th February: 9am: Year 2
Friday 27th February: 9am: Year 1
The National Year of Reading
2026 is the National Year of Reading with the slogan - GO ALL IN! It is all about children finding their identity as a reader; reading things that they find interesting, exciting or fascinating. We are looking at this in school for World Book Day - Thursday 5th March.
Your child needs to come as their reader identity:
If they love comics - they can come as a comic character.
If they love animal books - an animal.
Non-fiction books about dinosaurs - a dinosaur!
The choice really is endless - but it is all about what they enjoy to read.
We are looking for some additional things for our library: comics, newspapers, magazines. Do you have these at home for children? Could they be donated to school?
Star Virtue and Learners of the Week
Office news
Thank you to everyone who has settled their Parent Pay accounts before half term; we have had a flurry of All Stars payments this week. If you haven’t managed to do so yet, please can you do so before close of play on Friday.
Parking around School
Having a school in the middle of a residential area is not easy to manage. In the morning, I am certainly seeing more cars disregard the yellow line, corners of streets, zig zags around school, neighbours driveways and parking irresponsibly. Please remember that this is a school and the care of the people within it is essential. Please park safely and away from the school. The local PSCO has been alerted and will be doing some spot checks in the coming weeks.
The car park in school is also staff car park. Please can you ensure that when you are dropping your child off or picking up from All Stars, that the car park is not used. The increased traffic coming in and out needs to be minimised. Once staff cars are in, they remain in. All children need walking to the gate and collecting by an adult. Thank you so much for your support with this.
All Stars
No All Stars on Wednesday 11th February due to staff training.
Whole School Attendance
Winter Warmer Snack Booking Form
Here is the winter warmer snack booking form for next week. Please book before 8am on Monday. A reminder text has been scheduled for Monday at 7.20am. Bacon butties are on the menu next week.
Finally, and so importantly, the role of a teacher is one of pure joy; a vocation in itself and far more than a profession - especially to the teachers here at Our Ladys. I am truly blessed to work with such a dedicated team who work so generously to ensure that all of the children feel safe, nurtured and able to achieve the most wonderful of milestones. I am also under no illusion just how hard the staff here work and far beyond the hours of a school day. Many of the staff here wear multiple hats and have young families too who they want to devote as much time to as possible as they grow.
You will all be aware that Mrs Hartley returned from her maternity leave in September after the birth of her daughter the previous year. After lots of discussions with her family and the school, Mrs Hartley has made the decision that for now, her priority is her family, and that to be totally present as her daughter grows and develops, stepping away from teaching at Our Ladys is the right thing to do at this moment in time. We all know just how fast time goes and how quick our little ones grow up; any of us will say that. Mrs Hartley will be leaving us at February half-term, with her final day in school with the children next Thursday and us as a statt on the Friday for INSET. Mrs Hartley has had an enormous impact on Our Ladys; she is a true master of her craft and a perfectionist; she will give 100% to everything. We will miss her deeply but with such a sense of pride at what she is going on to do. Her daughter is so lucky. I am sure that you will join us in wishing her the very best of luck for her future.
School closes for half term on Thursday 12th February at 3:30pm.
God bless you all
Mrs Gregan