How can we let our light shine out? - Castlerigg Day 2

This has been a key message for us today at Castlerigg - how can we let our light shine out and where does the light come from in your life? Yesterday was all about how we shine our light and today was how we can share our light with others?

Before bed last night, we had the most beautiful night time prayer. The chapel here at Castlerigg is the old stable building, which is perfect as we prepare for the arrival of Jesus this Christmas. Jamie, the youth worker here, took us through a section of prayer and asked us to think about how we can helps others. It was incredibly moving and the children were so reverent in their prayer and reflection. We then snuggled up and listened to a bedtime story from Diasy. A rather lovely end to our first day.

This afternoon we headed off to the lake for some much needed reflection and fresh air. The children found out about places of interest in Keswick, headed to Derwent Water to skim stones which they loved! It was so lovely to take in the views of the lake and spend some time in God’s world. The children were great.

After a delicious tea of sausage and mash, we are now getting ready to settle down for some creativity tasks and getting ready for the party!

Enjoy your night and we will see you tomorrow. We are departing at 1pm so should be back at school for 3pm - we will keep you posted!

Year 3 Homework- To be handed in Tuesday 21st October

Spellings

This week we have been revisiting a few spellings we have found tricking in our Paddngton unit of work


1. flood
2. said
3. family
4.made
5.blue
6.station
7.does
8.goes
9.stairs
10. doesn’t

Maths - Please complete the questions in your homework book.

Reading
Please continue reading daily at home. Our reading target boards is overflowing with children who have achieved their reading targets this half term…Well Done!

Our new class novel is The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton is also our Author of the month for October. I have found a free link to Enid Blyton’s Bedtime stories online. It would be lovely if you could share a story with your child at home. There are many short stories that are ideal for sharing together.

Enid Blyton Bedtime Stories

Class Assembly Script

The children have blown me away this week with their confidence reading their assembly lines - thank you for practising at home. On Tuesday they practises sing Coldplay’s Someone Special, they sound fantastic. Please keep practising at home. Our class assembly is on 11th November.


Autumn 1 Optional homework

Year 3 Autumn 1 Optional Homework





Year 1 Homework to be handed in Monday 20th October

Thank you once again for the wonderful homework this week. We are so grateful to be working alongside such supportive parents! Don’t forget to send in any proud achievements via email, photos or medals etc. We love celebrating the children and putting these photos onto the schools ‘Proud Cloud’ display in the hall.

Optional extra homework

As we are praying the Rosary this month we would love some pieces of artwork of Our Mother Mary. You could take inspiration from a famous piece of artwork or a statue.

Maths: We had fun playing a counting forwards / counting backwards game earlier today. Could you replay this game at home. Pass a teddy around saying the next number as you go. On a signal (clap / timer / buzz) switch directions passing the teddy back saying the number before. Keep going until it feels time to stop. You could start easy, counting up to 5 or 10 and back. Then move onto larger numbers (we are currently working with numbers 0-20).

Year 3 Parents Day Appointments

Thank you for responding to to the request for face to face meetings or virtual.

I have managed to speak to a few of you at the end of the school day and arranged times for meetings.

If you have not yet arranged a meeting time with me, please email me with your preferred time.
I will add appointments as I receive your emails and update on the list below.

email: l.naylor@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk



Year 5 Weekly Blog 10.10.25- 'Lord, if you're willing, let me clean you'- Matthew 8:1-5

It has been a very reflective week in Year 5, especially in our worships as we celebrated the rosary on Tuesday on ‘one million children day’. It was lovely to see so many of the children’s rosary beads as we came together in worship on this special day. In this weeks gospel, we looked into the story of how Jesus healed the leaper and how he had complete faith and trust in him to carry out such a miracle. We then linked this to gratitude and the classed shared what they are grateful for in their life.

In our RE lessons, we have been looking at all things virtues and understanding what these are, especially with us as a school celebrating these in children weekly. We looked deeply into the meaning of a virtue and also different types of virtues such as theological and cardinal. Do you remember the difference between the two? In English, it has been a full week of independent writing as the children brought their creative ideas to life in our version of ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’. In History, we have been learning about the battle of Marathon and role played this to get a real feel for what it was like.

We finished our week off in good spirits as we celebrated World Mental Health Day. We discussed what we know about the term ‘mental health’ and understood how it is important to know that our emotions are constantly changing (just like the weather) and we discussed mindfulness strategies to help calm us down and also ways to help make us happy.

Kidsafe

Here is what we have learned this week in our kidsafe lesson.

Kidsafe- Session 4

Riddle of the Week

Test your parents on today’s riddle.

Which five letter word, spelt in capital letters, can be read the same when turned upside down?



Question of the Week- conversation starter

This week in RE, we discussed that virtues are habits and qualities that we have which makes us good people. Ask your parents what they would say their biggest virtue is and also what bad habit do they do the most.




Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star of the Week: Our virtues for this half term are learned and wise. Our winner this week goes to Rodnie. You really are a role model Rodnie when it comes to these two virtues! It is no surprise that you said these were your biggest virtues in our RE lesson and I couldn’t agree more. You are so attentive in your lessons and you apply such wisdom into your work.

Learning Certificate Winner of the Week: Our winner this week goes to Jackson for being an focused and creative learner. I have seen a real increase in your level of focus these past couple of weeks Jackson. You are super sharp when it comes to cold calling and have been able to get through more content because of your focus. I love when you put your own creative spin into your work whilst also hitting our learning objectives.


Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog for your child’ weekly homework, including the deadline date.


  • Sports Timetable- A full timetable for all of the sports opportunities this half term is available on the sports page of the school website [engage-sport] along with sports fixtures for this half term.

  • Parents Day- Friday 24th October- Please read the parents day blog on the Year 5 page and sign up for a slot to hear about your child’s progress and how they have settled into Year 5.

  • Year 5 Class Assembly Tuesday 14th October- The children will be performing their assembly twice in the morning. First assembly will begin at 9:15am and the next at 9:35am. You are welcome to attend both of these if you would like.



  • Year 5 Book Look Tuesday 21st October- This will be held at 9:15am and this gives you parents a chance to have a look at your child’s work so far in Year 5.


  • Harvest Festival Thursday 23rd October- This year, we will be celebrating harvest festival in school and as usual, each class has been given an item, in which we will be collected for the harvest. This year, Year 5 are collecting beans.

  • Half term- School will finish for half term on Thursday 23rd October at normal time. School will reopen on Monday 3rd November.

Year 3 Weekly Blog Friday 10th October - And He said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

The weeks are flying by so quickly and it’s hard to believe that we’ve only got a couple more weeks left of the first half term. Our word of the week has been ‘Gratitude’ and my goodness I have so much to be grateful for this week - your children are amazing. From the minute they have come into year 3 they have grabbed all opportunities with both hands and worked their little socks off. So I am grateful to them and to you as their parents for supporting them and encouraging them to be the best versions of themselves.

Read more

This week....

Worship

This week our ‘Creation and Covenant’ topic has continued with ‘God’s World is Good’. Our key words this week were GOOD, THANK YOU and WORLD.

We looked again at God’s wonderful world. God created the world and said, ‘Indeed it is very good’(Genesis 1:31). God’s world was beautiful and full of love.

We passed a candle around the circle and thanked God for something he had made. These included our family, the trees, the flowers and the sharks! We had a go at drawing some of these things on the interactive whiteboard. Our pictures were beautiful and look lovely in our Worship book. Take a look at our beautiful picture of all the wonderful things God created for us.

One Million children praying the Rosary

One Million Children Praying the Rosary is a global prayer initiative inspired by St. Padre Pio’s vision of children changing the world through prayer.

St. Padre Pio, believed that “when one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change,”

On Tuesday afternoon the we joined children all around the world praying the Rosary. We all made a prayer pebble to put in our prayer garden and also our own Rosary.

We prayed the Rosary using our fingers by counting each prayer by moving to a different finger for each prayer. We started with an Our Father, then three Hail Mary’s and a Glory Be. We took Mary into the garden and placed her in the special grotto we had made for her. Mrs. Gregan and some of our School Governors came to join us.

It was so moving it nearly reduced Mrs. Gregan to tears!

Our Learning this week…

A lovely week in the garden! Gardening club has been tidying up the planting boxes and sweeping the leaves after a very blustery weekend!

We have been doing lots of sound spotting (m,a,s,t,d), subitising numbers 1-3 (subitising is the ability to see small quantities of objects and instantly know how many there are without counting, a fundamental skill in developing mathematical understanding. We are getting extremely good! We love to play the spotty game, ask your child about it!

To make our sorting games even more tricky we have been playing ‘Guess my Rule’. The children are asked to identify how groups have been sorted by identifying similarities between the objects. They then had to sort the objects based on their own criteria. This was tricky! We are going to continue this game next week!

After an Autumn walk in Forest School we were inspired to make Autumn colour collages. They are so beautiful, I will put a picture of our display on the blog next week.

Harvest Festival

This year Harvest Festival will be held in school. This year Nursery are asking for donations of Pot Noodles.

School Admissions 2026

If you haven’t done so already can I remind parents of children starting school in September 2026 you will need to apply online now! Closing date for applications is January 15th 2026. You will also need to complete a supplementary form which is to be found on the main page under Admissions. Please return this completed form to the main school office with a copy of your childs birth certificate.

Finally, have a lovely weekend and enjoy some lovely family time.

Stay safe and God bless

Barbara

Year 5 Homework- Due Thursday 16th October

Compulsory Homework

Reading

Everyone has now completed their star reader assessment and has been to the library to choose a book. Lots and lots of reading to help achieve our class word goal and to also help bring your writing skills alive!

Times Tables

Lots of TTRS practice to keep being super speedy- a large majority of the Year 5 Maths curriculum is based on solid times tables knowledge so keep practicing- even if you have already gone green!

Spellings

The children have a spelling sheet to complete which is based on this weeks spellings. The children should be familiar with how to complete this as we have practiced this in our spelling lesson.

Vocabulary check- Our tricky Year 5 spellings are the final 5 spellings on our test. Use a dictionary to find the definitions of these words and write them in your homework book.

  1. car

  2. never

  3. motor

  4. favourite

  5. library

  6. surprise

  7. caught

  8. skipped

  9. chosen

  10. children

  11. awkward

  12. privilege

  13. neighbour

  14. immediately

  15. determined

Year 1 Weekly Blog 10.10.25 - "Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”" Luke 17:19

This week we were led by three of our children who shared the most beautiful prayer and liturgy all about our mother Mary. The children passed around the Rosary beads as we prayed an Our Father, three Hail Mary’s and the Glory Be. In this weeks Gospel we heard about the time Jesus healed the Ten lepers, yet only one came back to praise and thank Jesus. This left us thinking… what are we thankful for and how can we show our thanks?

Last week we have a naughty visitor who trapped our fruits and vegetables and turned the classroom upside down… this week we have had conformation that it was, in fact, THE EVIL PEA! We have set to work writing sentences to describe the Evil Pea and these have been put up around the school. We are hopeful that someone will soon have some more information for us!

Going deeper in conversation

In our Gospel and in RE lessons we have been thinking deeply about giving thanks to God for all of our blessings and for the beautiful world He created for us.

Question to ask: What are you thankful for? How do you show that you are thankful? think about being a steward for God.

Magic moments

In RE we have been celebrating the beauty of creation. We went into the school garden and each picked a stick along with petals, grass, flowers and leaves. We brought these back into the classroom and made our own nature brush. We then used these brushes to paint beautiful pieces of art to celebrate the beauty of creation. Our following lesson then was to create a piece of poetry about creation. The children’s written work was incredible and they had the biggest, beaming smiles as they performed their poetry to each other using our instruments. It turns out we have a rather musical bunch!

Let’s celebrate

A huge well done to Archie who has been an inquisitive and curious Clara Clownfish this week. Archie, it has been wonderful to see just how much you are enjoying our topics in Year 1. You listen intently to discussions and ask the most inquisitive and thoughtful questions, demonstrating  your curiosity and wonder towards the world around you. Thank you for sharing this gift with us and for encouraging us all to think and challenge ourselves!

A special congratulations to Hugo who has been awarded with the Star this week for embodying our Learned and Wise virtue. Hugo, you have wonderful thoughts, ideas and reflections on our discussions and we have really enjoyed hearing you share these with your peers during our whole class learning. You have thought about what wise choices can be made and how these can benefit us in all of our learning opportunities.

Reminders

Parents meetings - Thank you to those who have already made their appointments. Please see the remaining available slots (red slots have been taken). If you could please email me with your preferred time slot and we will try and and as close to your preference as possible. Parents meetings will be taking place on Friday 24th October.

Book Look - It is Year 1’s book look next week on Thursday 16th October. This is in school at 9:00-9:45 and is a chance to see all the wonderful learning the children have already completed this year.

Coats - Please make sure you come to school with a coat to put on should the weather take a turn during the school day.

Water bottles - Please ensure your child comes to school with a water bottle. These are taken straight out of bags in the morning and children are able to access them throughout the day to keep hydrated. We are often talking about how important it is to drink plenty of water and water bottles make it easier for them to do this independently. Polite reminder that the water bottles should contain water and not juice. Thank you for your support.

Harvest - This year we are collecting tins of soup for the foodbank. All donations welcome!

Uniform check - Maggie is missing her cardigan, it has her name on. Please could you check if it’s accidently gone to the wrong home. Thank you!

EVENT
Maths Workshop for Parents WEDNESDAY NOV 5th

Last year we successfully hosted - parents and child maths workshops. These were led by the KS1 teachers in the hall. Parents sat with their child and enjoyed playing maths games together. As your child moves through KS1 we would like you to help them become proficient at recalling number facts and loving numbers. We would like to invite you once again to school on Wednesday November 5th to take pasrt in the next phrases of their maths journey-

Year 1 workshop after drop off 9:00 - 9:15 am

Year 2 worskshop before pick up 2:10 -3:10pm

Following the workshop and for the next 5 weeks- you will recieve maths games to play each week. These are sent home and linked to the class homework blog.

Please sign below - it is lovely for the child to have you at the session or if you are unable to attend a grandparent.

Thank you - Mrs Hotchkiss Miss Bassett and Mrs Hartley

Maths Workshop Year 1 and 2

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend!

Year 6 Weekly Blog - 'Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love edures forever' Psalm 107

Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17: 11-19

This week we have had two focuses in our liturgies. Firstly, our word of the week has been gratitude where we have focused on Sunday’s gospel, where Jesus heals ten men with leprosy. On hearing this we discussed how thankfulness strengthens our relationship with God. Harvest is also a time of thanksgiving and gratitude; to thank God for the things we have and all that God has given to us. This has linked beautifully to our RE lessons where we have studied ‘the fall’ and the effects of sin, in contrast, how when we sin our relationship with God is broken.

Ocotber is the month of the rosary, we have been learning about and saying the roasry most days this week. In particular, on Tuesday was the ‘one million children praying the rosary’ campaign, where children all around the world would have been praying to Mary at the same time. It was a beautiful time, where children have been deep in reflection and focusing on the different mystery each day.

This week we had a beautiful liturgy on the rosary where we reflected on the sorrowful mystery of ‘the garden of Gethsemane’ and the children compared this to the Garden of Eden, which is was we have been studying in our RE lessons …

When I reflect on the week, I am so proud of the amount of learning Year 6 are getting through. They are working so hard and trying their absolute best in every lesson! The big push has been reading this week, as there were a number of pupils that are not reading or quizzing regualrly enough, and the children have responded really well to me setting them targets when they should be quizzing by- please encourage them at home to relax and have quiet time out with a book!

In our English lessons, we are loving our class novel and seeing how the mysteries unfold. We have written diaries in the perspective of the main character and next week they will get feedback on this, but I have had a quick look and I am excited to get reading! In music we have been looking at variations in an ochestra and comparing these to pop art to express the feeling each variation gives us and in Science we revisited electricity, we discussed that static electricity is produced when electrical insulators rub together. Opposite electrical charges (positive and negative) will attract whilst similar electrical charges (e.g. positive and positive) will repel. We rubbed balloons on our clothes and hair then drew and labelled a scientific diagram to explain our findings: there is an excess negative charge on the balloon and an excess positive charge on our hair. Opposites attract so our hair moves to the balloon. Can you remember what are the features are of a correctly drawn scientific diagram?

Here are some highlights of the week …

Kidsafe

This week, we have completed our 5th and final Kidsafe lesson, before our recap in summer term, about hearing parents/carers arguing. Please click the button below to find out more detail about this lesson.

Please click the button below to find out more detail about this lesson.

kidsafe lesson 5

Castlerigg

We are really looking forward to going away after half term, it is a perfect way to all come together and learn more about one another. We are asking all children to arrive at school between 8:45am and 9:15am on Wednesday morning, at the Kenilworth gate entrance, where we will gather in the ‘All Stars’ room next to the Year 6 classroom. Please bring your child to drop them off, and at this point you can give us any medication that we will need for the children. School will be open as usual for those that use breakfast club in the morning. Unfortunately, you will not be able to stay and see your child on to the coach as we will be leaving at a later time, as Castlerigg does not expect us until midday. Instead, we will spend the morning doing some short tasks in preparation for their retreat and continuing with our learning.

If your child does need medication for the week, then please make sure that this is clearly labelled with their name. We will have forms for you to fill out on the day.

We can assure you that this week, we will love and look after your children, whilst making sure that they have the best time and grow deeper in their faith! Every evening we will do our best to post on the blog about their day (sometimes the wifi is sketchy) and hopefully a photo or two of each group, which we will try our hardest to make sure every child is on the photographs, but please do not be worried if they are missed off.

On the Friday, our coach will be picking us up 1:00pm, so we aim to arrive back approximately 3:00pm. However, this is traffic dependent, so therefore, we will be in contact with school to give a more accurate time and then you will receive a text message, so you know when to come and collect them.

I know you have a kit list list which I am sure you have all studied, but just a couple of reminders of the vital items:

Duvet and cover or sleeping bag

no valuable or electrical items please (apart from a hairdryer if necessary)

make sure all clothing items are labelled with names

No aerosols please as it sets of the fire alarm system

packed lunch box filled with food and refillable bottle

indoor and outdoor shoes

a book or a notebook to write in for quiet time

bags will be carried by the children and have to be lifted up stairs by themselves up to their rooms, so please make sure you pack lightly.

Lastly, parents: relax and enjoy, with the reassurance that they will be in safe hands and have the BEST time!

kit list

Delving deeper through talk …

What are you grateful for? How can we show we are grateful in lots of different ways?

Helpers in the mornings:

This week Year 6 will only be helping on Thursday and Friday. We have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

Isioma Hugo John Paul Lily

Leading Learners

Well done to Charlotte this week.

Charlotte, you are such a reflective learner and this is what makes your work fly! You listen to feedback and respond, trying hard to improve all the time. We love the way you can also independently reflect on your own work without prompting, always eager to get it right, try your hardest, edit and use that purple pen!

Learning and Wise Stars

This half term we will be on the look-out for all the children that are learned in their actions, finding God in all things. Those who are wise, who use their learning for the common good. These children are the role models of the school, who drive their own learning and who have the wisdom to know when and how to apply one’s learning. This week we thank Lily for working for the common good of our classroom this week.

Notices

  • For next week only- indoor will PE will be on Tuesday not Monday.

  • Please donate to our Harvest collection- Year 6 are collecting washing up liquid- many thanks!

  • Please do visit Mrs Gregan’s blog for important information.

  • Have you booked your parent’s day appointment for Friday 24th October? Please email me your prefered time and I will do my best to accomodate you.

  • please encourage children to complete homework on time and handed in on Thursdays- it is great preparation for High School

  • Monday 20th Ocotber at 2:30pm - Year 6 Book Look- please join us in school to see all the wonderful work your child has done this half term.

  • Biekability (7th and 14th November)

Year 6 Home Learning 10.10.25

Can homework please be brought back early next week ready to stick in their History books?

Read- Read as much as you can this week- let’s get quizzing and get to target by half term! Three people have made it already!

Maths- Please keep going on TT Rockstars- 5 minutes every night!

History- Please watch the following video and use it to answer the questions on the sheet. Please do not stick the sheet in your homework books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1ZKbFz7558

OPTIONAL HOME LEARNING FOR THE HALF TERM TO ENHANCE OUR CURRICULUM

AUTUMN 1 OPTIONAL LEARNING