Year 1 Weekly Blog 13.3.26 - "Prayer is certainly the most wonderful medicine in the world" - St Hyacinth

In this weeks Gospel we have focused on Jesus bringing healing and light into the world. We listened to the piece of scripture of Jesus healing the blind man. Jesus brought light into the mans life and He can does this for us too! The children have reflected on ways Jesus brings them healing, “he helps me to make good choices” “he helps me say sorry” “he teaches me to be kind” - the children all felt that Jesus helps them and guides them to help others.

Going deeper in conversation

In RE we have used drama to retell the moment Jesus entered Jerusalem. What can you remember? How did the crowds react to Jesus arriving? What did they do with their cloaks? Can you remember what special word they shouted?

Magic moments

We have had a super week in school and have really enjoyed discovering more about patterns and shapes in maths. It has been a real joy to watch the children so motivated to create patterns and for us as teachers to observe them exploring their spacial reasoning through, rotating, moving and fitting different shapes together. The buzz in the classroom has been fantastic!

A huge well done to Roxie who has been awarded our Determined certificate. Roxie your effort and determination is fantastic! Seeing your self confidence soar is just brilliant and one of the biggest joys to watch! This greater self belief is having such a wonderful impact in your learning and you are now such an independent little writer who has a go and doesn’t give up. We are so proud of you Roxie! Well done!

A huge well done to Ralph how has been awarded our star this week for being so intentional all everything he does. Ralph your actions towards others are so kind and thoughtful, you really are a calming friend for others. You use words of encouragement when you see someone in need, making sure everybody feels precious, you really do live our school mission statement.

Reminders

PE days: As we began the new half term our PE days have changed. Our outside PE will continue to be on a Monday afternoon, however indoor is now on Wednesdays. Thank you!

Sponsored Walking: Please continue to walk and encourage family and friends to sponsor you!

Own clothes day: On Monday 23rd March we will be having an Own clothes day. We ask for an Easter egg donation on this day to help us with our annual Easter Egg raffle (one of the most egg-xciting parts of the year!)

Have a wonderful weekend!

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

This week...

Worship

This week we have continued our ‘Desert to Garden’ topic with ‘Lent around the World. Our key words this week were CARE, LENT and WORLD.

We were very excited to open up some letters this week! We had 4 letters to open that told us all about how different people celebrate Lent around the World. We heard from Luca in Italy, Sean from Ireland, Anaya from India and Sofia from South America. It was so interesting to hear about the things they did.

Our final letter was from South America. Sofia told us all about what they do at the end of Lent, just before Easter. They make beautiful flower carpets using colourful flowers, leaves and dyed sawdust and work together to make beautiful pictures in the streets. We also watched a video that showed us the Holy Week processions in Guatemala. Click here to watch.

We made our own beautiful carpets in Nursery. They look amazing! The children really enjoyed choosing different colours and adding flowers.

Our child led worship this week was about Palm Sunday. The children remembered lots of our previous discussions and knew that the people waved palms, shouted Hosanna and one of our friends even remembered that we use the palms to make the ashes for next year!

We used our little people and set up Jesus’ procession through the people on his donkey.  We all said, Hosanna! Hosanna! Finishing with singing ‘Sing Hosanna!’. We love this song! We spoke about how joyous it must have been when Jesus arrived on his donkey. 

Learning landscape

Another week of finding out and experimenting.

We have continued with our investigation of heavy and light using balance scales, we are get good at predicting what will happen and how to rectify problems

We have been exploring ‘capacity by using lots of different sizes containers and jugs to measure water from one container to another, using the words full, empty, nearly full and nearly empty . The children have also been designing their own boats and testing them to see if they float or sing in the large water trough (with mixed results!).

As always we have enjoyed our number work! I am amazed at the mathematicians we have in nursery! I have really tried to trick them with some difficult games, but I can’t.

Mummies I hope you liked you Mothers Day card and biscuits. The children have been very eager to give them to you.

In the garden we have started to plant seeds ready to create a array of colourful flowers in our garden this summer.

The children that visited Forest School with Emma made some beautiful threaded hanging decorations.

To accompany our theme of growing we have made a fruit and veg shop…it’s rather expensive though…hundreds of pounds for an apple!

Food bank donations for March - Biscuits. The foodbank have seen a significant surge in demand at their food bank over the past few weeks, making it increasingly challenging to meet the needs of those who rely on their services. Let’s help where we can!

Easter Events in School

Easter will soon be upon us and in traditional Our Lady’s style we have a new event for the occasion, as well as our Easter Egg Raffle.

On Thursday 26th March we have organised another Pottery Event after school where you will have the opportunity to paint Easter themed pottery. There will be refreshements too. Just like Christmas, it is £10 per person. Please complete the form below booking for this event.

On Monday 23rd March, it is own clothes day but to bring an Easter Egg for the raffle!

Lastly, I think everyone has earned a good rest this weekend! Enjoy the time you spend with your loved ones.

Stay safe and God bless.

Barbara

Year 5 Homework- Due Thursday 19th March

Compulsory Homework

Maths- Multiplying and dividing decimal fractions

The children have been given a question sheet with some calcuations to complete. There is an example question to help with the working out.

Reading targets have been set for the new half term so lets get quizzing so we can smash our targets. 20 minutes minimum a day.

Spellings

We are looking at nouns that end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ . When these nouns become plural, the end of the word changes.

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. halves

  2. loaves

  3. elves

  4. thieves

  5. knives

  6. leaves

  7. wives

  8. hooves

  9. wolves

  10. scarves

  11. yourselves

  12. lives

  13. dwarves

  14. shelves

  15. calves

Easter Assembly- Wednesday 1st April

Children have been given their scripts for our holy week preparations. Make sure to practice your lines and to really focus on the expressing this with emotion.

Year 6 Weekly Blog 'Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each community and every believer. Above all it's a time of grace' Pope Francis

This week we reflected on the gospel story John 9:1–41, where Jesus meets a man who was blind from birth and lovingly gives him sight. We discussed how this shows us that Jesus cares for everyone, even when others overlook them. It also teaches us that God can do wonderful things in our lives, even when we don’t understand what’s happening. We reflected on, how as Christians, we can use this story by remembering to trust Jesus, be kind to others, and look for God’s goodness every day. When Jesus helps us, changes us, or guides us, we can rejoice because His light helps us see the world in new and beautiful ways—just like the man who could finally see for the first time!

Thank you to the following children for the beautiful liturgy they led on Mary, where we listen to the Magnificat…

 

This run up to May is always a crucial one, where we can really refine the skills we need and reinforce any necessary information. So many of you have asked how you can help your child at home and what you can do to give them confidence in the final few weeks. Staying calm and not putting unnecessary pressure on children will ensure that they remain confident and continue to have that ‘I can’ attitude; early nights will be crucial over the next few weeks as they will be tired from all of their hard work and of course keep talking to them about their success but also areas to improve, helping them to set a plan of what they can do to reach their targets. One HUGE way to support your child, is homework. Every week, I spend time organising and planning for the areas that Year 6 need the most, complimenting what we are doing in class. Having a parent work alongside them to do this homework WILL help them. Reading is the other area, reading alongside your child every night- modelling fluency and pace, modelling reading punctuation and asking them questions about what they have read will also have a great impact. If you are looking at extra ways to work with your child then please press the following button below for more geat websites. ANTON is a new revision tool we have brought in to guide your child and help them practise necessary skills, I have set areas for them to focus on, please do not think they have to complete EVERY area for the deadline, 10 minutes each night would help them massively- it is hard to set as different children will take less time or more time to complete, so they need to manage this to suit them and each individual’s needs. Please feel also free to look at different areas, where your child may feel they need to revise or look at also.

Below you will see what the week of SAT’s will look like:

We have fit in so much learnign this week: from simplyfying and adding fractions, to practising our reading skills in focused groups, practising our forward hand in tennis and learning the simple and perfect tense!!

Black history is taught throughout the school, and in Year 6 we learn about the Transatlantic Slave Trade as part of our history curriculum, which we will be starting next week. This important topic helps pupils understand a significant period in world history and the experiences of those affected by slavery.

The topic is discussed in a safe and supportive environment, and children may come home with questions or want to talk about what they have learned. We encourage open conversations at home.

Leading Learners

Well done to Amelia this week.

Amelia, you have been so resilient in your learning and this week we can see how your hard work is paying off! You have persevered with that deep learning, listening and reflecting on how you can improve. Your fraction work this week has clicked in to place and you are reflecting on your responses during comprehension tasks. We love your ‘I CAN’ focused approach, reflection and determination!

Intentional and Prophetic stars

This half term we will be on the lookout for all the children that are intention in their actions. Children who make conscious decisions for the greater good. We will also be spotting children who are prophetic, who choose the right decisions with integrity and who display them publically. These children are the role models of the school. This week we thank Tommy for being intentional and prophetic to help others.

Helpers in the morning

This week we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

John Paul Tommy Amelia Poppy

Notices

  • Date for the diary- Year 6 Resurrection Assembly is on Thursday 2nd April.

  • School Leaver Hoodies- a Parent payment of £20 has now been set for all those wanting to purchase a school leavers hoody. These are a great keepsake for the children and usually they request to wear these on their leavers day out ready for a class photo! Top Marques, St Annes, are now expecting you to go in to shop to make sure you get the correct size and let them know what size you want- payment is not needed in the shop this is through ParentPay.


Have a lovely weekend.

We will see you on Monday.

 

Year 6 Home Learning 20.03.26

Maths

Please complete the fractions sheet to help reinforce previous learning of fractions. You have also been given your log in details for ANTON please keep worjing on the areas I have set you.

Reading

Please complete the reading comprehnesion. This is a short reading test, to help you with your fluency and speed. Please read and complete the questions in 10 minutes.

Grammar

This week the children received their grammar feedback and got their papers back. They will bring them home this weekend to look through before their next mock test next week. Below is the paper, with a link at the side to follow for games and quizes that a relate to each style of question and area- it is a brilliant resource! This will allow the children to look at the areas they need to improve- the questions they have got wrong and practice this area in a fun way!

2019 grammar paper revision tool

Year 5 Homework- Due Thursday 12th March

Compulsory Homework

Maths

TTRS- Just 5 minutes a day to make sure we stay super speedy.

Reading targets have been set for the new half term so lets get quizzing so we can smash our targets. 20 minutes minimum a day.

Spellings

It has been recap week as we have looked at high frequency words that are commonly missplet across Year 4 and 5.

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. exercise

  2. experience

  3. extreme

  4. famous

  5. guard

  6. guide

  7. imagine

  8. increase

  9. material

  10. pressure

  11. probably

  12. recent

  13. remember

  14. determined

  15. appreciate

Easter Assembly- Wednesday 1st April

Children have been given their scripts for our holy week preparations. Make sure to practice your lines and to really focus on the expressing this with emotion.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 06.03.26- ‘Indeed, the water I give them will well them up to eternal life’

What a week it has been in Year 5 this week! Ranging from school trips, inspections, planters and world day of prayer, we have been kept busy. Thursday was a huge day for our school as we celebrated Catholic life through prayer, worship and our RE curriculum in the presence of the diosese. We came together as a class for our worship on this coming weeks gospel reading- where we looked at the importance of water and where it is found within the Bible. During our RE lessons, we have been recapping on prior knowledge of sin and the commandments in order to link these together.

Thursday was also an iconic day as it was also World Book Day! The theme this year was ‘your reading identity’ and the children certaintly let theirs shine through their costume and choice of books. We gathered together in the hall to talk about the greatest, and also most read book in the world, our Holy Bible as we shared some of the stories as a whole school. In the afternoon, we linked up with our buddy class to share our reading identities and to endulge in the joy of reading alongside others.

On Wednesday, we took a trip to Preston to visit the Science department at UCLAN for a day all about the Solar System. We were thrown straight into lots of learning and practical experiments as we transformed into scientists with our lab coats, safety goggles and gloves. The children all came home on Wedneday with some of the paper tasks that we carried out during the day.

And finally! To finish our week, we had a combination of ‘Love Yourself Day’ and ‘World Day of Prayer’. Lots of children braced the harsh weathers for our annual ‘People We Love Planters’ session, in which I’m hoping many of you parents would have recieved a planter gift from your children. For CAFOD’s World Day of Prayer, they have started in Nigeria this year, in which we had a Q and A session with the lovely Isioma, who enlightened us with what life is like in Nigeria.

Conversation starters

Science- We did lots of practical experiments and learned lots of new interesting facts about the planets of our Solar System. Tell your parents something new that you have learned from our trip to UCLAN.

RE- How many stories do you know in the Bible that include water? We had a lovely worship on Thursday all about water. The children could recite lots of famous stories in the bible that involve water. How many do your parents know?

Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star: George Lett

You have been so intentional with your actions since coming back from half term George. You have reflected on your own personal targets within the classroom and have showed the right attitude and work ethic througout lessons. You were so prophetic during our morning of RE on Thursday by contributing so much throughout our worship and lesson.

Learner of the Week: Jackson

I knew that Wednesday’s Solar System trip would be right up your street Jackson. I loved how enthudsiastic you were about all of the different elements of the day and how engaged you were throughout all of our practicals. You came into the day with so much knowledge about this topic and it was amazing to see you shine infront of the university teachers leading the lessons.

Notices

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

  • Monday 23rd March- Bring an Easter Egg to school. Children can come into school in their own clothes with the small cost of donating an easter egg for our easter raffle.

  • School Photo Day- Wednesday 25th March

  • Year 5 Easter Assembly- Wednesday 1st April

  • School closes on Friday 2nd April at 2pm

Year 1 Weekly Blog 6.3.26 - "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." - John 4:7-12

In this weeks Gospel we have listened to the time when Jesus met a Samaritan women at the well and their encounter. We discovered that in those times, Jews would not have spoken to Samaritans and how this scripture highlights God’s love for everybody. God doesn’t have favourites, we are all precious in His eyes. We focused our attention to the living water that Jesus speaks of and how this is a sign of everything Jesus offers us. Water is a sign of life, a fresh start and it draws us closer to God.

Going deeper in conversation

Water is a special symbol in our faith. Can you find out how many times water features in the bible? How does Jesus use the water? What does He use it for? How does it help others?

Magic moments

There really are SO many magic moments from this week. It has been jam packed with lots of wonderful memories made; we have planted beautiful flowers for our gardens, celebrated World Prayer Day and paid close attention to CAFOD and their focus this Lent, and of course World Book day! It was so wonderful to hear the children share their story books with their Year 5 partners! Please enjoy the photos!

Let’s Celebrate

A huge well done to Arla who has been awarded our concentration certificate this week. Arla you are such a wonderful learner. You try so hard and concentrate so carefully in every area of your learning.

A huge well done to Archie who has received the Star Virtue award this week. Archie you have spoke with such intention this week understanding that our words can make a difference to others. On Wednesday you spoke prophetically about our school, sharing some of the special memories that you have and the wonderful ways we help God’s world.

We are so proud of you both!

Reminders

PE days: As we began the new half term our PE days have changed. Our outside PE will continue to be on a Monday afternoon, however indoor is now on Wednesdays. Thank you!

Sponsored Walking: Please continue to walk and encourage family and friends to sponsor you!

Book Fair: Our school book fair will be held afterschool from Wednesday 11th March - Wednesday18th March.

Own clothes day: On Monday 23rd March we will be having an Own clothes day. We ask for an Easter egg donation on this day to help us with our annual Easter Egg raffle (one of the most egg-xciting parts of the year!)

Have a wonderful weekend!

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

This week...

Worship

This week in Worship we have continued our ‘Desert to Garden’ topic. Our key words this week were CARE, LENT and GROW.

Our first session began with a lovely story called ‘Penguin and Pinecone’ Click here to watch. In the story Penguin shows love and care by planting Pinecone in a place where it can grow. Over time, Penguin’s love helped the Pinecone grow into a big, strong tree. We have continued this theme by planting seeds in our garden and adding playdough blossom to twigs…new life!

We then saw some photos of a baby – can you remember who the baby in the photos was? Just like Penguin, this grew big and strong because of the love and care from her family. It was Barbara!

Lent is a special time to care for others with kindness and love. When we help someone, share things or say kind words, our love grows, just like Pinecone grew into a tree and Barbara grew into a caring and loving nursery lady!

Lent reminds us that when we care for others, we grow closer to Jesus and help make the world more loving.

Our second session this week we heard about the Good Samaritan. Lent is a time to care for others, and we can help and be kind to everyone. Jesus said, “Be like the Samaritan. Love others and help them when they need you.”

We also heard about ‘Jesus and the woman of Samaria’. We saw a picture of the woman with Jesus at a well, and had a think about what they may be doing there. We heard words from the Gospel (John 4:42), “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the World”. We thought about and discussed the question, ‘How can you show Jesus’ love to others through your actions this week?’

We have concluded our sessions this week by praying in our prayer garden around our statue of Mary. Some of us have chosen to this ourselves as well throughout the day. It was so lovely and peaceful.

Throughout the week we have been collecting steps towards Cafod’s Big Lent Walk. Each day we have been walking around the school field. The CAFOD Big Lent Walk 2026 invites individuals, schools, and parishes to walk 200km during the 40 days of Lent to raise funds for fighting poverty, including projects supporting communities in Nigeria. Funds raised help combat widespread poverty, conflict, and climate issues, while supporting water access and empowering women and girls.

The stations of the cross

This week we all went on a pilgrimage around school to visit the stations of the cross. At each station we discussed what we saw which helped us to understand more about Jesus’ journey to the cross. The children were so moved they haven’t stopped talking about it.

Learning landscape

A week full of experiments with questions such as; what will happen if? what do you think? can you tell me? We have been:

  • balancing objects using balance scales using words like heavy, light, and balance.

  • predicting which objects will sink or float?

  • following instructions to recreate images using magnetic tiles

  • using number patterns to 9 to fill the numicon boards. Yes, nine a new number! The children were sooooo excited. We are now finding out about number 9

  • following cue cards to build flowers

  • using the iPad to complete matching games

    and next week we will be learning some new letter sounds!

World Book Day

A great day at nursery! Everyone came dressed as their favourite book character…well done everyone! Take a look at our pictures!

Lastly, have the most wonderful weekend, fingers crossed the sunny weather will continue.

Stay safe and God bless

Barbara