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.

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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?

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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 4 Weekly blog. Friday 9th January 2026 "Yesterday has gone. Tomorrow is yet to come. We have only today - Let us begin. (St Teresa of Calcutta)

I hope you have all had a very happy Christmas and New Year. Children have come back raring to go! This week, in worship they have thought about making a fresh start. They have made new year resolutions of how they can become the best versions of themselves and follow Christ’s light. This week in our RE lessons, we have been focusing on Peter recognising Jesus as the Christ - the chosen one everyone had been waiting for. We have also recognised Jesus as ‘incarnate’ meaning God made man and thought about His qualities which prove He is fully human and fully God at the same time. We ended up in a very deep conversation about Jesus always being there as God and the start of all creation! Children have also worked hard planning their group worships for this term.

This week children have been putting all their English skills to good use - writing the story of ‘The Little Match Girl,’ a sad fairy tale set on New Year’s Eve. Next week we are starting Hamlet - Shakespeare. They have learned all about condensation in Science and to finish last half term’s history topic, they have been learning about other Ancient civilisations, like the Shang Dynasty and the Indus Valley civilisation.

Conversation starters

RE

Why is Jesus fully human? Why is Jesus fully God? What does ‘begotten not made,’ mean in the Creed prayer of belief?

Science

Can you explain these processes: Melting, solidifying, evaporation and condensation?

Let’s Celebrate

Our certificate this week is a Sadie Spider determined learner. This goes to Barnaby You are becoming so dedicated to learning well. You have been so alert and attentive this week and the work you have produced is so good! Keep up this effort.

Our virtues this half term are being eloquent and truthful. Eloquent by expressing their thoughts, feelings and beliefs clearly and truthful by reflecting on oneself and speaking with integrity. This week, Danny receives our star for being so reflective on his own learning and being self-driven to be the best he can be.

Notices

Please could we ensure that on Thursdays children bring their completed homework consistently and also ensure they are doing TTrockstars. These tasks will always reinforce the week’s learning and help children consolidate, helping them to feel confident and secure with skills.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Lyons, Mrs Carragher and Miss Cardwell

a.lyons@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

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!

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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.

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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!

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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?

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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

Year 4 homework to be handed in on Thursday 15th January

Maths

Please complete the two sheets in your homework book that practice column addition with 4 digit numbers

Keep practising your TTROCKstars for 10 minutes each day

Spelling

All spellers this week

This week we have learned to spell words with the tion and ation suffix. USE THE COLOURFUL WORDS strategy we practised in class to add the suffixes on (in a different colour) to complete the word. Remember to drop the e if you need to.

TION WORDS

invent + tion

protect + tion

complete + tion

react  + tion

erupt + tion

select + tion

object + tion

ATION WORDS

admire + ation

explore + ation

observe + ation

quote + ation

Optional Home Learning - Spring 1

Please have a go at some of these tasks over the half term:

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.

Year 4 Weekly blog. Friday 19th December Merry Christmas everyone!

What a beautiful week we have had in Year 4 and as a whole school! It has been a week of Christmas fun and also really deep reflection about the birth of Jesus and what this means for the world. In RE this week, children have thought about the type of King Christ is and how unlike a typical earthly king He is. Children recognised him as our ‘Servant King,’ who was full of humility and compassion for others. He taught us to lead is to serve. The conversations we have in class often leave me in awe of their deep understanding of their faith. They truly use Jesus as their role model.

Speaking of awe again, children sang like angels on the altar in their carol concert on Tuesday. What a team effort - they have been so calm and focused on giving this gift to you.

We have been on our pilgrimage with Year 2 around our nativity stations - and again children were so reverent.

The rest of the week has been so JOYOUS! The Christmas party rocked! The Christmas cards made are beautiful! Christmas spirit was in abundance at the raffle and in class with our Christmas film and crafts.

It is a privilege to serve your children and their growth in one term has been astounding. I cannot wait to see what is next!

Sadly, we will be saying goodbye to our dear Miss Slater, who I know is so popular with the children because of her calm, kind manner. She will be very missed. We welcome back Mrs Carragher, who the children had in Year 1. She has spent the week with us this week, re-acquainting herself and cannot believe how independent your children are now!

We will also be welcoming a student teacher after Christmas - Miss Cardwell. Lots of new faces in the New Year.

Here is a video of our Christmas fun!

Conversation starters

RE

What kind of King is Jesus? What would His kingdom on Earth be like?

Let’s Celebrate

This week, the certificate winners were chosen by the children in class. They voted for Jude Cl who they said has improved so much in his work - especially with his writing and he is such a responsible, kind person. They also voted for Isla who they said is a role model. She is always instantly ready to learn and gives 100% focus to everything. She is kind, funny and tries her best all the time.

Have a lovely Christmas with those beautiful children of yours. Thank you for all your support over this term.

Mrs Lyons, Miss Slater and Miss Carragher

a.lyons@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

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