Year 5 Weekly Blog 9.1.2026 - "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34).

In RE this week, we have started our new branch; Galilee to Jerusalem with a focus on who Jesus is and why he came to us. There was time spent on the retrieval of the Ten Commandments and why these had been given to us, with the challenge to remember as many as they could. Before we then moved onto look at the New Commandment. Jesus didn’t come to undo the work of those who had come before him, but to build upon it and the New Commandment does this. Today with Mr Stocks, the class have looked at The Transfiguration of Jesus. The Transfiguration is a pivotal biblical event where Jesus's appearance transformed, revealing his divine glory to three disciples (Peter, James, and John) on a mountain. This is so special as it truly shows Jesus as both man and the divine figure that he is.

This half term, we are looking at what it means to be Eloquent and Truthful. As we look for God in all things and use his teachings to speak his words eloquently and truthfully in our every day life. This is something you can discuss at home too.


Forest School

So much learning has taken place in class this week, led by Mr Stocks who will be with us next week whilst Mr Cornwell enjoys time with his family. From The Windrush book, to consolidation of maths and some excellent french! But I think the highlight of the week has been forest school where mud skincare was the choice activity - amongst shelter building and frog finding. The pictures speak for themselves!

Conversation Starters

In RE this week, we have been looking at laws and the new commandment that we were given. If you could create a new law to live by, what would it be and why?


Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star: Rosa

Rosa has been really kind and welcoming this week; showing that she is a kind and considerate member of the Year 5 team.

Learner of the Week: Heath

Heath has shared lots of fantastic ideas this week in all lessons. There has also been a real focus on his effort to stretch his vocabulary.

Notices

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

  • Bikeability will be on Friday 16th January and Friday 23rd January. You will need to bring in your bike and your helmet and wear full school PE kit. Please dress warm as the children will be out and about whatever the weather. On the morning, please bring your bikes to the gate on Kenilworth Road where they will be placed on the playground.

  • PE days for this half term: Outdoor PE will be on a Tuesday and Indoor PE on a Thursday

    Mr Stocks, Mrs Gregan and Miss Johnson

Year 5 Homework- Due Thursday 15th January

Compulsory Homework

Maths

We have now started our new unit of division by dividing 2 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers. Our table facts are crucial in order to access Year 5 division level so keep chipping away at TTRS and keep practicing those trickier facts.

Reading

All children have began working towards their new target for this half term. Try and aim for at least 20 minutes of reading at home per day.

Spellings

Here our new spellings for this weeks test. Can you spot our suffix focus for this week. Remember, the ending of the root word will slightly change the ending of the suffix.

Practice writing these words three times on the line in your BEST handwriting. Make sure to complete lots of mini spelling tests in preparation for our weekly test on Friday.

  1. poisonous

  2. mountainous

  3. nervous

  4. famous

  5. continuous

  6. courageous

  7. outrageous

  8. furious

  9. glorious

  10. victorious

  11. obvious

  12. curious

  13. serious

  14. dangerous

  15. hideous

Year 1 weekly blog - 9.1.26 "Every day we must begin anew. Have patience with all things - but first of all with yourself" - St Francis de Sales

A very warm welcome back and wishing everybody a wonderful year in 2026! It has been such a joy to see the children this week, so full of excitement to share with each other what their Christmas holidays were like. They have all made many wonderful memories and have spoken so fondly about the time together as a family. On Monday we began with a special prayer and liturgy to celebrate the Epiphany, it is always such an important part of our week to gather together as a whole school. We have also introduced our virtues this half term, ELOQUENT and TRUTHFUL we have learnt what these two words mean, knowing that as we look to see Jesus in all things, we are learning to be able to share His teachings clearly with others, to be truthful to God in our words and actions.

In our child led liturgy we thought about the Kings and the gifts they gave. We have reflected on what our gifts to Jesus will be as we begin this new year, helping us to continue to grow closer to God. As always as we sit and hear the children’s reflections we are always so astounded by how carefully and deeply they think and reflect at such a young age!

Going deeper in conversation

During RE we put of our Superstrength glasses and we looked carefully at pictures to see what we could see. We then heard about two special people in the bible, Simeon and Anna, who had superstrength glasses too! Can you remember what they did and said when they saw Jesus?

Magic moments

Coming back together as a class family and hearing all of the wonderful memories of Christmas was definitely a magic moment in itself. Another stand out moment was choosing jobs in our classroom for this half term. I know how much the children love to have responsibility and they really do LOVE their jobs and they mean so much to them. When sharing who had which job, the children spontaneously celebrated everyone, clapping and smiling, no one wanted someone else’s role, everybody was just so happy for each other. It made for such a magic moment seeing how much our children love and care for one another.

Let’s Celebrate

A huge well done to Diya who has been awarded this weeks learning certificate for being a focused Cooper Crab. Diya, you ALWAYS try do achieve your absolute best! You concentrate so well in every single lesson and we are so impressed with how hard you work! Each piece of work you do, you always make sure you have concentrated carefully, asked super questions and put 100% effort in. This really shows in your immaculate work! Well done Diya.

A huge well done to Willow who has received the Star award for demonstrating our Eloquent and Truthful virtues. Willow, you are always looking out for your friends demonstrating your eloquence through your words, actions and daily interactions with others - sharing Gods message that everyone is precious and we should look after one another. Thank you for being such a special part of our our class!


Finally, an apology for the delay in providing individual photographs. I had tried and failed many times at the end of term, I am still unsure as to why they would not load. I was greatly relieved on Wednesday when they loaded successfully! Please enjoy having a look at these snaps taken after our first performance for our school friends.

Reminders

Cold weather: Remember to bring a coat, hat, scarf and gloves - this week has been especially chilly!

Uniform: Please can you check your child’s uniform as we are missing a few pieces! Please be on the look out for some black leggings and a school cardigan (size 28), both are labelled and have Maggie’s name on. We are also missing a school hoody, again labelled with Rosalie’s name. Thank you!

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

This week...

Welcome back everyone and a Happy New Year!

Worship

We started the week by finding out about some special people who wanted to celebrate Jesus’ birth. We listened to a story called ‘A very Noisy Christmas’. Click here to watch at home. We all made lots of noise to cheer, sing and shout for Jesus! Jesus was born as a gift to all, symbolising hope, love, and salvation for everyone. Christians around the world celebrate Christmas to remember this, mirroring the joy of the angels, shepherds, and wise men who came together in Bethlehem to witness and rejoice Jesus’ birth.

On Tuesday we celebrated the Feast Day of Epiphany. Using our worship sack we all chose an object which would help us understand the scripture Matthew 2:1-12, which refers to the Magi from the East; foreign astrologers who followed a star to find and worship the newborn Jesus, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Learning Landscape

This half term our ‘Learning Landscape’ has changed…we are learning all about space and our Solar System! We have already started to learn the names of the eight planets and some of their properties! We know that the sun is a hot star and planet earth only has one moon! We are well underway creating a wall display to show everything we are leaning about.

We have recreated the moon landing in one of our sand trays and also made a reading rocket planetarium, we have to use torches to see and there are stars twinkling in the darkness!

We have also been learning about ‘more’ or ‘fewer’. We have been playing a tricky game where the children have to say is Sam or Pat have more or fewer objects…we are finding the word fewer difficult to grasp but just like Sadie Spider we keep trying!

This week we have explored the shape ‘triangle’. We have been trying to tessellate lots of triangle shapes joining and fitting them to gether. One friend noticed he had made a hexagon! WOW!

Everyone has been practising their pencil hold and have been writing patterns we are getting so good…keep going everyone.

Meet Lucky Number 7

On Wednesday we met number 7! We watched the video before we started our exploration of the number.

  • We experienced the relationship between 7 and the other Numberblocks.

  • Practised counting numbers to 7 and started to use ordinal number names (first, second, third).

  • We noticed that 7 is also related to the number of the colours of the rainbow and the days of the week.

  • As with previous numbers, seven is created through adding one to the previous number, combining six and one. Each consecutive number is one more than the previous number.

I am sure you will agree that 2026 has started with some gusto! Next week will be even busier!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and I will see you all on Monday!

Stay safe and God Bless

Barbara

Year 6 Weekly Blog - 'The best is yet to come. The start of a New Year is the chance to rewrite your book.'

As the Magi followed the star, so Epiphany reminds us that God still places light on our path—guiding us toward truth, hope, and the places where Christ is quietly waiting to be found.

Earlier this week we celebrated the Epiphany with a beautiful liturgy from the chiuldren. This day celebrates the moment when the Magi followed a star to find the newborn Christ, recognizing Him as the light of the world. For us, that guiding star symbolises how God continues to lead us—often quietly—through the uncertainties of our own lives. Just as the wise men trusted the light set before them, we are invited to trust God's guidance, believing that He directs our steps toward truth, hope, and deeper encounter with Christ. As part of their going forth mission, the children then responded by writing the ways in which they will continue shining the light of advent this year.

This half term, we are looking at what it means to be Eloquent and Truthful. As we look for God in all things and use his teachings to speak his words eloquently and truthfully in our every day life. Earlier this week we shared a liturgy where we looked at these virtues and shared the bible scripture, when God calls Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3), Moses initially protests that he is “slow of speech.” Yet God assures him that He will be with his mouth and give him the words to say. This shows that true eloquence is not about perfect articulation or polished skill, but about speaking with God. Moses becomes eloquent precisely because he allows God to speak through him. His eloquence is rooted in humility and obedience, not in natural talent. We then discussed how we can use these two virtues in our lives, the children were then asked to write a prayer on ‘flames’ to add to our ‘burning bush’ display in the classroom.


Wishing you all a very happy new year. It has been so lovely to welcome the children back to school this week, despite the bitter cold earlier this week. The most important part of any school is the people within it. We have loved seeing the smiles and listening to all of the wonderful stories that the festive season has brought.

The children have been thinking about what 2026 might look like for them. The children have all reflected on their year ahead and thought about their new year’s resolutions- what do they want to improve this year and what are they going to do to achieve this. They are all going to come across some monumental experiences and opportunities this year. Some of them will be challenging, some will be exciting, some they will be anxious about. Whatever happens, they know they have the skills to tackle it with great resilience and determination. I have to say, they have all come back to school extremely well rested and ready to take on all the challenges they come across in their learning- I am so proud of them this week, they have worked so hard!

This week we have done lots of work on rlounding to the power of 10, looking at the critical digit and identifying the previous and next multiples, as well as working on the accuracy of our arithmetic work. Our focus in English has been on gathering content, analysing biographies, looking at it’s features and using cohesive devices. Next week, we will spend each day writing a paragraph on our class biography of Henry VIII, I can’t wait to see how they put everything they have learnt in to practice. This week in indoor PE we have been practicing and developing our athletics events and trying to beat our personal best in speed bounce, standing long jump and triple jump. Children have now completed their level 2 cycling proficency, they worked hard on developing their road skills and had a lovely afternoon cycling to Fairhaven Lake- I bet they slept well that night!


Delving deeper through talk …

What is your new years resolution this year? What do you know you want to improve on and master before the end of year 6?

How can you be eloquent and truthful in your life by letting God speak through you and following his guiding light just as the Wise Men followed His star?


Leading Learners

Well done to Rory.

Rory, you work tirelessly in lessons to be the best you can be and I love teaching you as you are so focused and engaged, with your great attention, you have the ability to think deeply about subjects, taking your learning that step further! Your thirst for learning is contagious and how you strive to challenge yourself in your work is wonderful- keep this up Rory!

Eloquent and Truthful Stars

This half term we will be on the lookout for all the children that are eloquent in their words, that show the language to ask questions, express emotions, speak beliefs, talk about matters of faith and hope, debate points of view, and engage in conversation. Those who are truthful, who speak the truth about themselves and others. These children are the role models of the school. This week we thank Tilly for always being eloquent and truthful.

Helpers in the mornings:

This week and for the first week back after Christmas we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

Charlotte Seth Toby Isioma

Notices

Indoor Athletics Competition- Will take place on Wednesday 14th January at Lytham St Annes Sportshall. Those that have been picked will have been informed and information will be on the sports page.

Forest School- Next Friday Year 6 have their Forest school takeover. The following are the groups below, where group 1 will be doing forest school first, therefore can come in to school in their forest school clothes. So will need to bring their uniforms in and get changed after. Group 2 will come to school in their uniform and will get changed in to forest school clothes at school.

Please make sure they have warm clothes: coats, hats and gloves.

Homework is handed in every Thursday and goes out on Friday.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

 

 

Year 6 Home Learning 9.01.26

Homework to be completed and handed in to school on Thursday.

English- ThiS week we have been revising relative clauses to add extra information. Some children need a bit more work on this. Please complete the activity in your books and have a look at the following website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsrt4qt#zw2y46f

Maths- Please complete the rounding worksheet in your homework books.

Reading- Please complete the example SAT’s reading paper that will also help our biography work.

OPTIONAL HOME LEARNING FOR THE HALF TERM TO ENHANCE OUR CURRICULUM

Dance Tickets - Tower Ballroom

The Dance Competition is being held at Blackpool Tower Ballroom on Monday 2nd February. The children will be there for the afternoon, but doors will open for the public from 5.45pm with the competition starting at 6.30pm. More details around the arrangements will be sent out nearer the time for your logistics and what the children will need but for now…

THE TICKETS ARE ON SALE.

This event will sell out so please purchase your tickets as soon as possible as once they are gone - they are gone. If you click on the button below, it will take you to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom via Ticketsource.

Year 1 Homework to be handed in on 12th January

Happy New Year! Here is this weeks homework along with the optional homework ideas which link to our learning throughout this term.

Year 1 Optional homework tasks below:

Spring 1 Extra-Curricular Timetable

As we start a new year, there is lots of opportunities to get involved in activities at school this half term. As with all aspects of school life, excellent behaviour is expected from our pupils at all times and the same is when they attend extra-curricular clubs.

As well as the timetable below there is also our Mini-Vinnie group who will meet on the following Mondays:

12th & 26th January, 9th & 23rd February, 9th & 23rd March

Please sign up to the clubs using the buttons below. For those clubs with a limited amount of places, names will be collated and drawn out of a hat ready for the club to start the following week.

It's party time!!

A week full of Christmas party fun! We are all exhausted. We kicked off with the Christmas Raffle with LOADS of prizes. Well done to the lucky winners!

The Christmas party on Thursday was FANTASTIC! We all came dressed in our finery and played party games and had a jolly good dance. We even had a visit from Father Christmas…he also brought us a little gift because we were all on the good list…yay!

At snack time we had Christmas buns to celebrate Baby Jesus’ birthday. We sang happy birthday and gave Him three ‘quiet’ cheers.

For party day afternoon we joined KS1 for a movie afternoon in the hall

Take a look at our wonderful photos.

The fun continued on Friday with the annual staff panto! It’s the children’s favourite even of the year. It’s the best have looked all year!

On behalf of all the nursery team may I say a HUGE thank you for all your kind words and generous gifts this Christmas. It is truly overwhelming. Thank you.

All the staff love your children so much and it is a privilege to be able to play a part at the start of their education journey. The fact that each one of you trust us implicitly with the care of your child is a reward in itself.

This term has been joyous and full of challenges and learning. Each and everyone of us have grown our brain and I for one cannot wait for 2026, to see where our learning will take us

Have the the most wonderful Christmas and New Year.

May God bless you and keep you safe.

Barbara

Year 1 Weekly Blog 19.12.25 - "When they saw the star they rejoiced with great joy." Matthew 2:10

In this weeks Gospel we heard how Joseph was visited by an angel in a dream. The angel told Joseph to take care of Mary, that she was going to have God’s Son who would save the people of their sins. Joseph showed great faith in God and did as the angel had asked. We thought about Mary and how she too showed great faith and joy in God’s will. Our reflection this week was to think how we could be thoughtful, kind and bring joy to others during this final week of Advent. This week we also met with our Year 5 partners and together we went on a pilgrimage around the school, stopping and reflecting at each prayer station. It was such a special time watching our older children take such a caring role of their partners as they guided our children around the school and read so beautifully each piece of scripture.

Going deeper in conversation

During RE we have had a great time creating our own artwork to show the night of Jesus’s birth. We have decided that it is so important that our artwork should include Jesus, Mary, Joseph and really show what the night of Jesus’ birth looked like. We also thought carefully about how we as Christians prepare for the birth of Christ. We looked at our parish news letter and saw the events that our community are holding to help us to prepare. We saw that today at 7:30pm there is Christmas tree decorating at church and on Monday at the parish centre we can join in with carol singing. The children created wonderful posters to let people know about these events, so that everybody can feel prepared for Jesus’ coming!

We have had such a special week in school! We had great fun on Monday with Mrs Harrison for Enrichment, she taught the children a wonderful Christmas dance! I wonder if they can remember it? On Tuesday we watched the junior children in their carol concert which was the most beautiful afternoon! Not only that but we also had the very exciting Christmas raffle (what a lucky bunch we have!! So many winners!), a delicious Christmas dinner, our Christmas party and DVD afternoon and finally the teachers Panto! We are definitely all in the Christmas spirit!

Magic moments

Coming together as a EYFS and Key Stage 1 team was a real magical moment for us this week. The children had a wonderful party with lots of Christmas songs, dance moves and fun to be had. We even had a special visit from Father Christmas who came to visit us in our classroom to give each gift a child. It was wonderful way to come together to celebrate the end of our Autumn term and to continue the Christmas festivities!


Let’s Celebrate

This week our awards were selected by the children who each voted for someone in the class who they felt had demonstrated our Learning Characters and virtues. The children thought carefully about who their vote was for and could give specific examples as to why. They all had such wonderful things to say about one another.

A huge well done to Adele. Adele, your classmates had the most wonderful things to say about you. They spoke of your focus and hard work, how you try your best in every lesson. As well as these wonderful qualities, they spoke highly of your consideration towards others; how you help them to focus, to make good choices and to try their best too. What a wonderful role model you are and how lucky we are to have you in our school!
Well done Adele!

A huge well done to Isabella. Isabella, your classmates had wonderful things to say about you and spoke of your bravery towards new activities and challenges in school. You are a wonderful friend Isabella and you treat others with kindness and compassion and that is why your classmates spoke so highly of you. They have noticed how brave you are and how you are stepping forward to try new things. Your friends said how proud they were of you and how much they enjoy being in the class with you. Thank you for reminding us all to be brave, to have a go and why it is so important to be a good friend! Well done Isabella! 

Reminders

Please can you check your child’s uniform as we are missing a few pieces! Please be on the look out for some black leggings and a school cardigan (size 28), both are labelled and have Maggie’s name on. We are also missing a school hoody, again labelled with Rosalie’s name. Thank you!

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Finally we wish you all the most special and Holy Christmas! Thank you for being such a wonderful and supportive bunch! We are such lucky teachers who get to be a part of your child’s learning and their journey through school. It truly is such a privilege! We will be thinking of you all on Christmas day, we hope you enjoy all of the celebration and fun together, making memories and enjoying that precious quality time together.

We look forward to welcoming you back on Monday the 5th and hearing all about your special two weeks together.

God bless.

Miss Bassett, Mrs Hartley and Miss Hennessy.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 19.12.25- ' For God loved the world so much, he gave his one and only son'

What a magical week is has been! Tuesday evening really was the epitome of this wonderful week as the whole of KS2 sang their hearts out in front of a capacity audience at Church. The children were rewarded the following day with their KS2 Christmas Party, which included lots of energy, excitement and laughter. Throughout the week, the children have continued with their festive activities such as taking our buddy class around the travelling nativity stations, Christmas crafts, Christmas films, quizzes and much more! We ended our week together as a school in the hall , as it was the children’s turn to become the audience in the traditional staff panto! In which the children took great joy in watching their teachers look very silly on stage. The children have worked super hard this term and they really do deserve this break. Recharge those batteries, make lots of wonderful memories and have a safe and happy Christmas- we can’t wait to see you in January!

Conversation Starters

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year because it is spent making memories with loved ones. What are you going to remember about your build up to Christmas in Year 5. What happy memories will stay with you for a long time?

Riddle of the Week

If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you haven’t got me.

What am I?

Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star of the Term: Our awards this week have been voted by the children, for whom they think has displayed our virtues continuously throughout the entire term. The class have voted for… Phoebe

Learner of the Term: Our awards this week have been voted by the children, for whom they think has displayed all of our learning characters continuously throughout the entire term. The class have voted for… Liam

Notices

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

  • School will reopen on Monday 5th January. Have a magical and Merry Christmas

  • Bikeability will be on Friday 16th January and Friday 23rd January. You will need to bring in your bike and your helmet. If you have informed us on the sign up sheet that you require a bike or helmet, then you will be provided one.

    Mr Cornwell and Mrs Johnson