Piglet: "How do you spell love?" Pooh: "You don't spell it, you feel it!"

Please can we say thank you for your kindness and understanding this week. The children have all tried to work hard and continue with our daily routines and learning, even though many of our classmates have not been able to come to school. Yesterday morning we had a good discussion about how to keep ourselves and each other happy and well. Obviously we are all having to take each day as it comes, but we have made a plan of things that we can do to keep ourselves busy learning over the coming weeks.

The whole class are sending their love and prayers to those families who are already in self isolation and the class has not been the same without you all. We hope that you are all well and know that we have all been thinking of you.

Following Government guidelines, from Friday afternoon, the school will be closed for the majority of children. Miss Hornby will have been in touch with families in special circumstances whose children will come into school on Monday.

For those learning from home, we will be posting daily learning challenges here on our blog. These will be linked with the Year 3 learning objectives and will continue to develop the children’s knowledge and skills whilst at home over the coming weeks. We will also be posting a list of great websites to use which should also keep that learning ticking over. The children have come home with 3 books - one to be used for maths work and jottings (red cover with squares), one for writing based tasks (this could include English, RE, Science, History, Geography etc - green cover with lines) and one for art work (green with coloured blank pages). Please do use these, as we will be looking at them together as a class when we return to school to see what has been achieved. Please remember best handwriting and presentation, as we will be looking for pen points when we get back to school. Also think about how you could achieve learning character points too.

Please, please, please do stay in touch with us.  We can’t wait to see what the children will be getting up to at home and really want to celebrate achievements with you all. Contact can be made through our emails:
l.brisco@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk and k.edmondson@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk but please do be mindful that we may still be in school or may be working from home and so might not be able to respond straight away. Parents, please do also contact us with any questions or queries - we are here to help!

Let’s Celebrate

Well done Jacob M, you have been a real ‘Co-operative Roger Robin’ with many “Bobby Bee” traits this week. You have shown focus and enthusiasm in every lesson and have worked well with your partner and as part of a team.  We really hope this continues when we return back to school. Well done Jacob!

John Joseph, what a focused ‘Cooper Crab’ you have been this week. You have answered lots of questions in creative ways and shown what a deep thinker you can be. You have listened carefully to all of your teachers this week and kept going, even when learning has become tricky and challenging. Well done, we are really proud of you!

Our French Star this week went to the whole class. Wow!! Well done children.

Our PE Stars were James and Julia for outdoor PE.  Mason, Isabella, Lena and John Joseph were our Gym Stars. Well done to all of you.

Handwriting Stars this week were Kiefer, Kia, Grace and Isabella. Well done—keep practising these skills when you are off school.

As a school, we are wishing each and everyone of you well at this uncertain time.

Stay safe and God bless,

Miss Edmondson, Miss Brisco, Mrs Nel, Mrs Carter and everyone here at Our Lady Star of the Sea

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. — Phyllis Diller

As the week has drawn to a close, the lunch time team have been overcome with the kindness and calmness of the children as the week has unfolded. It has been such a joy to see that in such difficult circumstances, they have had moments to be themselves and to have time with their friends playing, laughing and having fun. The love and compassion they have shared with one another has been quite humbling.

Table of the Week: The Team have decided that All houses are star table, children, you have been absolutely wonderful this week, thank you.

Role Model and Marvelous Manners: Again, the Team has decided that each and every child should receive both role model and marvelous manners. We are so proud of you all. Thank you so much children.

God Bless
The Lunchtime Team

Update on nursery closure

It is important that all parents read the latest post regarding nursery and school/nursery closures which has been posted today on the school’s main web page.

It clearly explains what will be happening from Monday 23rd March. If you have any questions please do give me a call. As always the nursery team will be happy to help and advise you.

May I also tell everyone that throughout these uncertain times I will be making regular postings online with activities to continue your child’s learning at home. Additionally after the Easter holidays I will be emailing ‘Getting ready for school’ booklet and ‘Supercroccy’s mission activity book’ . Newsletters will continue to arrive each month from your key person.

We would love for you to keep in touch with us to let us know what you have been doing.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding and we hope to be back together soon.

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you’re doing the impossible.”– Francis of Assisi

May we say a big thank you for all your patience and understanding this week. Although we have missed some of our friends, we have carried on with all our learning and enjoyed learning new things. We are all sending our love and prayers to those families who are already in self isolation and are continually keeping you and your families in our thoughts.

Today, we chatted a lot about uncertainty and we realised that the future may be different for a while, but it also may hold such possibilities! We learned that we need to take each day as it comes and try hard to look on the bright side. Being kind, striving to improve and to be like all our 8 lovely learning characters will help us face adversity and come out smiling! Be resilient and try hard, believe in yourself, keep focusing, co-operate, show curiosity, be brave, get creative and strive to improve yourself and you will thrive!

Following Government guidelines, from Friday afternoon, the school will be closed for the majority of children. Miss Hornby will have been in touch with families in special circumstances whose children will come into school on Monday.

For the majority of children who are not in school, they can begin learning from home. How exciting! Homework has been set for this week as normal. However, from Monday, I will be setting daily learning challenges here on my blog. They will be in line with Year 4 learning objectives and will enable children to continue to develop their skills over the next few weeks. Many children have been giving me ideas of what they would love to learn at home. There will also be weekly ideas for learning and suggested books which children would love to read.

The children have come home with 3 books - one to be used for maths work and jottings, one for English and writing based tasks, and one for general poster and art work. Please take pride in these, as we will be sharing them together as a class when we return to school to see what has been achieved.

Please stay in touch and let me see what children are getting up to. I do not need to mark each piece of work set but I would love to celebrate achievements with you and I will indicate clearly if there is a project for example that could be emailed or shared.

Children in year 4 would like me to set a weekly baking challenge and they also said they would love to keep collecting vocabulary and finding out what it means from reading books. Why not create a home timetable to organise home learning, chores, relaxation time, outdoors time etc? You could even organise a little office area for them (as suggested by one child today - no pressure!)

Contact can be made through my email:
a.lyons@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk, but please do bare in mind that I may still be in school or may be working from home and so might not be able to respond straight away. Parents, feel free to contact me with any questions or queries - I am here to help and support!

This week:

We have been learning all about Sound in Science. We carried out a fair test to see who was the loudest in our class! We also discovered how sound is made by lots of little investigations.

Today, children loved spotting patterns in the 7x tables and the Percy Parker song (see homework section) proved very popular! WE have also finished our class novel - ‘The Butterfly Lion.’ If your child has been off, this is well worth purchasing and reading as a home reader!

Let’s Celebrate

All children received the swimming star this week for being full of enthusiasm.

French star went to Megan for her super bookmark which was covered in French words!

Certificates this week: A Clara Clownfish certificate goes to Bella this week for asking and answering questions (lots of pattern spotting in maths!) and considering all she does very deeply.

A Sadie Spider certificate goes to Georgia for putting her best effort into all she does and always trying hard.

It has been such a pleasure to be back again with your children, even though it was for such a short time. Here’s hoping there will be more chance to teach them this year!

Please keep in touch and enjoy your home learning!

Mrs Lyons

"Wherever there is change, and wherever there is uncertainty, there is opportunity..."

I would like to say a big thank you for your understanding this week, and I hope that you all keep safe and follow any new advice that we are given over the coming weeks. I have really missed seeing the children this week and I know that Miss Neves, Mrs Malley and I will really miss the children over the next few weeks. I will be uploading daily activities that you and your child can do at home to keep learning, whilst school is no longer open. Please keep visiting our class page to see the daily activities. Along with this, the Reception children are coming home with one book. We ask that you put any work from the directed activities and any extra activities that you think show off some of your home learning inside. We will be able to share these when we are back together as a class once again. Thank you!

I will also be uploading a list with your child’s login details for Purple mash, this is a great website and computer programme that we use across school. Please use this website to help develop your child’s IT skills.

Certificates:

This week we have two Roger Robins who have been very helpful and kind this week.

Co-operative Roger Robin Joseph for… your super effort to be kind and polite this week Joseph! Miss Neves has been so impressed by your kind words towards others. You have also been trying very hard in your learning and concentrating very carefully. We are so proud Joseph! Keep up the great work.

Co-operative Roger Robin Henry for… being so thoughtful around the classroom and always offering your help to others, including your teachers! You are such a polite boy Henry and are not only very helpful, but you have also made such a great learning partner during activities. Well done!

We hope that, during this very unusual time, you all keep healthy and happy.

All our love,

Miss Bassett, Miss Neves and Mrs Malley

Homework to be handed in on Thursday 26th March

Homework set early this week. If you are at home you can be doing this in the next 3 days. More home learning will be set for you tonight. Enjoy!

Maths

7x table. As last week you can use the sheet given to practise. Look for patterns eg Are the answers odd or even?

Try learning Percy Parker’s 7 x table song below:

There is also a link to a site where you can practise all your times tables learned so far. Do a little bit often!

English

Please complete the Purple mash grammar 2 do’s ‘Day out’ and ‘Harry’s Party.’

Don’t forget to learn your spellings too. Can you write a short paragraph including all your spelling words to show you understand what they mean?

Spellings set Tuesday 17th March for test on Monday 23rd March

Year 4 key words:

breath breathe question heart early actual

(Before root words beginning with l, prefix in becomes il

logical illogical legal illegal legible illegible

Please discuss what each word means.

Year 1 Home Learning 13.3.20

English

The children have got a worksheet to complete. This involves adding the prefix -un to a given word, then writing a sentence with the word they have made. If the children want to be brave Tommy Turtles, I would love them to come up with some words of their own .

Maths

Ongoing learning on IXL ‘Skip-Counting’ F.1 - F.9

Reading

Please ensure children are reading every night.

Spelling

The children have been given some spellings to learn. I will be testing them on these next Friday.

1. put

2. push

3. you

4. your

5. they

6. be

7. me

8. she

9. he

10. tree

Flash Cards

A few children have now learned ALL of the flash cards. This is a HUGE achievement and I am incredibly proud of their hard work and determination. For these children their new challenge is to spell these words. They will be tested on the spellings of these words once a week and moved onto the next set when they can confidently spell them.

Year 5 homework to be handed in on Thursday 19th March

Reading

Please read every night - we are half way through the half term and our astronauts (reading target wall) are steadily climbing to the moon! Keep up the focus!

Maths

This week the children have moved on from the expanded method when completing long multiplication- they are now using the short method. A couple of members of the class helped me to make a little teaching video for you to see. The children have to sit you down and explain the method to you. There are then 8 sums to complete by you- your child will then mark them! I have also given them 8 sums to complete on their own and you can check these! Have fun teachers and be well behaved pupils- mums and dads!

Please click on the “how to help your child at home button” on our blog page for the video

Science/English

I have set you a research task on Purple Mash all about Galileo- please complete

Science/Sci-fi writing- FOR MONDAY

Next week we will begin our work on Science Fiction. I start this work with an exploration of science-fiction toys. If you have any please bring them on Monday morning. These could include, toy aliens, star wars related toys, astronaut figures etc.

Science

I would like the children to teach you the following saying:

Mr Van eats messy jam sandwiches under Newcastle Pier! They will tell you why.

English

Relative clause are a very important grammar structure , which we learn in Year 5. I have set you a relative clause task on Purple Mash- have Fun!

Home Learning 12th March 2020

This week the children are asked to complete pages 29 - end of their “Making Things Right” book. Please continue to practise the Act of Contrition prayer which they were asked to learn. (They will need this for 17th March when they receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation) Again, I am pleased to say that there are many really beautiful books. Well done children.

Our Lenten challenge for this week is Can you vacuum the floor for 20p? Well done and thank you to all of the children who loaded the dishwasher or washed the dishes and also thank you to those who have done other jobs at home this week and brought in the money that they have earned. Don’t forget to keep looking at your jobs list and helping where you can. Thank you for all of your support

Some children have been given speaking parts in our Easter Assembly. These have been sent home to learn please. Other children have chosen to have dancing or singing parts—they will know what they need to learn next week. Many thanks for your support.

Our spellings for this week are disappear   early   particular   minute   enough   actually                                                                 .

Remember to keep trying those different ways of learning your spellings. We had quite a few more children who managed to get all of their spellings correct this week. My challenge to the children still stands and we are really going to try to get a full class of everybody getting all of the spellings correct. Can we do it? I think we can but everyone has to try.  Please keep trying!

Can you make up some sentences using each of these words?

IXL - Have a go at any of the addition and subtraction units. (E, F, G, H, I and J)

Can you find any fun poems about machines or robots?

If you have any magnets at home please can these be brought into class next Thursday. They will be returned at the end of the day. Many thanks for your support.

Don’t forget to keep working on Nessy if you have a Nessy login. Can you be our Nessy Star this week?

“Sometimes when we are generous in small barely detectable ways, it can change someone else’s life forever.” Margaret Cho

Another lovely week, with lots of exciting learning

This week we have continued to read our novel, The Iron Man, and we are still loving it! We always seem to stop at a cliff hanger and we just want to hear more. The children continue to show lots of enthusiasm. Our addition and subtraction skills are coming on a treat with the children being able to exchange to help them when adding and subtracting across the columns. The children have continued to solve word problems and explain their working out. This week in science the children have looked at forces.  In PE we had a beautiful yoga session this week with all of the children totally engaged in the moment. Well done children we are all so proud of you.

We have continued to think about our Lenten Promises and the virtues of Generosity  and Gratitude and we continue to try to apply this throughout the day in class. The children have also continued to try to do those little jobs at home and to bring in the money that they have earned for doing them. So far we have raised over £70. We are so grateful for all of your support with this. Thank you.

Certificates

This week I am so pleased to be able to award our certificates to Jacob O  and Abi. Abi was awarded a concentrating Cooper Crab certificate this week. You have been so focused and ready to get on will all of your work this week and you always try your best. Well done. Jacob was also awarded a concentrating Cooper Crab because he too has been very focused and hard working this week. You are always enthusiastic and manage your distractions well. Well done to you too. Keep up the good work both of you.

This week’s French Star was Amber. Well done. Keep up the good work.

PE Stars were Grace and Christian. You were both very focused.

This week we did 2 outdoor sessions (because of Parents’ Evening) so we had more PE Stars, rather than Gym Stars. So our second set of PE Stars went to Jessica and Julia. Well done girls.

Yoga Stars were Saul and Holly.  Well done children we had such a beautiful session and you were both so focused on your own relaxation and inner peace. Well done.

Reminders

Friday morning Lenten Masses at 8am. Please try to come along and share this special time of prayer with us.

Sacrament of Reconciliation Tuesday 17th March at 6pm. School uniform please. Please make sure that the “Making Things Right” book is completed before Tuesday. Please bring to school on Tuesday so that we can share these in class. Thank you.

This week’s Lenten Challenge is vacuuming the floor for 20p. Don’t forget that you can also do any previous challenges and also any of the other jobs on your jobs list.

Yellow group start their multiskills sessions with Mr Nay next week Thursday morning 8am.

Have a lovely weekend. God Bless.  The days are getting longer, let’s hope that the sunshine continues to shine on us.

The Year 3 Team

I light up a room without trying. I am a precious treasure but I cost nothing. All love to experience me, especially children! What am I?

It has been such a joy to be back with your lovely children this week. They have really grown both in height and in maturity whilst I have been away. I am now fully recovered and have lots of exciting things planned for the coming weeks!

So far, we have learned how to solve Anglo-saxon riddles which is why I started with the one above. The answer is : A SMILE which we have certainly had a lot of this week!

We have been learning the 9x tables in maths - some children already had some interesting patterns they noticed about the 9x table. Dont forget they can search for Percy Parker on You Tube if they like to learn by song! We had a super lesson at swimming where children learnt how to save lives by a river. They were very loving as they soothed their survivors after retrieving them from the water.

We are also diving into our Science work on sound - children learned (through an investigation) that sounds get fainter as you move away from the sound source. The big question is ‘What is sound?’ and we will be endeavouring to discover this through many investigations and experiments over the next three weeks.

With Miss Edmondson, children wrote some amazing Brer Rabbit stories earlier in the week. They are so funny and full of character!

Thanks so much for all our Lenten donations so far! I was very impressed with children’s lists of jobs that they are doing at home for Lent - make the most of it parents! This week, we would like children to tidy up one room in the house.

Please continue to support their alms giving and bring in those little donations throughout lent.

Let’s Celebrate!

This weeks learning certificates:

Victor received a Kiki Chameleon certificate for bubbling with enthusiasm in all subjects and using creative thought.

Kaya received a Sadie SPider certificate for being so perseverant on her Brer Rabbit story and for never giving up on her tasks.

Well done both of you!

Notices

Swimming: Next week is a normal swimming lesson. Please come with usual swimming kit. The week after, children will be doing life-saving again so will need their pyjamas and swimming costume as they had this week. Then they have one more lesson as normal. After Easter we no longer have swimming lessons. All children have progressed brilliantly!

Please could you continue to write in children’s homework books each week so that they can be rewarded with learning points. This is really helpful, as we can see exactly what they have been up to. Homework is due in on Thursday to give us time to mark it.

PE times the same until Easter - Wednesday - Yoga, Thursday - swimming and Friday - inside PE - children will need shorts under their tracksuits. If any children have verrucas they will need verruca socks.

We do have two school trips coming up. One is a simple trip to the beach to examine rocks and fossils and another will be a trip to Tatton Park on Friday 22nd May to learn about Anglo-saxons and Vikings. This is a trip where we would like children to dress up as an Anglo-Saxon or Viking for the day- I will give more details in upcoming weeks but I thought I would let you know well in advance!

Finally, thanks for your patience regarding parent’s evening. This will now take place on Thursday 16th April and I look forward to sharing their progress with you.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Lyons