Year 1 Weekly Blog Friday 4th September 2026

What a lovely first two days we have had in Year 1! The children have settled in so well and it has been great to see them getting used to their new classroom, new routines and, of course, being back with their friends.

In English, we have started our new All About Me topic by looking at what a sentence is and what we need to include when we write one. We have been practising saying sentences aloud and remembering our capital letters and full stops.

In Maths, we have been practising counting forwards and backwards within 10. We have also revisited the composition of 5, thinking about the different ways to make 5 in our maths mastery.

Next week in RE, we are looking at the creation story in an immersive way!

GOING DEEPER IN CONVERSATION

At the beginning of every year we start with our Safeguarding lesssons for children. These help the children to know how to keep safe. This week (session 1) we have reflected on feeling specifically “yucky” feelings. This does not mean the feelings are bad - it mean they are telling us something is wrong. Ask your child what the “yucky feelings” are and what they can do if they have them.

The key message - tell your trusted adult. Here is s letter about the lessons and what we did today

Homework

On Tuesday 8/9/26, i will send home the homework books. The children’s homework is to just decorate the front of the books and make it their own! This could be with pictures, drawings, backing paper- whatever you like! Please keep their name labels visible. We will need their books back for monday please!

Kidsafe session 1 parents letter

LET’S CELEBRATE

As agreed, through our school council, our learning awards will no longer be handed out in assembly on Friday. We now have mini certficates for learning which can be given when we spot amazing learning in class. Keep an eye out for these - many will be coming your way!

The Virtue Star remains and will be awarded next week. We are trying to be Loving and Compassionate.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

if you havet already, please complete the following consent form for the year ahead. This gives your permission for various things, such as school trips, use of technology and photographs to be put on the website. In addition, if your child has a medical condition such as asthma or an allergy that we need to know then please complete the medical form below - thank you once again for those who have completed.

Year 1 Permission form 2026/27
MEDICAL IF YOUR CHILD HAS A MEDICAL CONDITION ONLY

Year Three Weekly Blog 04.09.26

What a wonderful and wholesome start to the new school year! The children have come back so eager to learn new things, embrace all of the new challenges coming their way and continue to keep blossoming into the lovely young people they are! I feel incredibly lucky to be their teacher and cannot wait to see what this year brings.

We have begun our year by talking through our new routines and what is expected of us now we are in the juniors. As a team in Year 3, we have taken on some new and exciting responsibilities, which I know the children will take very seriously and be wonderful with! Some have chosen to be a part of the ‘cloakroom crew’ whereas others have chosen to embrace roles such as the ‘Equipment Experts’ or ‘House Point Chiefs’. Alongside this, we have also looked closely at some of the really meaningful messages, such as kindness, in one of my favourite books - The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. The children have all discussed what characteristics they would like to work on in Year 3 and we shared this together as a class.

GOING DEEPER IN CONVERSATION…

During our RE lesson today, we have revisited and remembered the Creation Story from Genesis. We thought carefully about the different stages of creation and discussed the Christian belief that God created the world and everything in it. The children worked together to recall the story and explored some of the key messages within it, including the importance of caring for our wonderful world. They shared thoughtful ideas about how we can show gratitude for creation and discussed ways we can look after the environment and the people and animals around us. It was lovely to see the children building on their previous learning, asking thoughtful questions and making connections between the Creation Story and their own lives. A wonderful opportunity to reflect on the world around us and our responsibility to care for it!

The children then made links between the Creation Story and the message of Pope Francis in Laudato Si’. Pope Francis reminds us that our world is a precious gift from God and that we all have a responsibility to care for our “common home”. He encourages us to think about how our everyday choices can help protect the Earth and look after the people, animals and natural world around us.

At Our Lady’s, caring for our common home is something we are working so hard on as a school family. We want our children to understand that caring for creation is not just something we talk about in RE, but something we can live out every day through our choices, our actions and the way we care for one another and the world around us.

LET’S CELEBRATE

As agreed, through our school council, our learning awards will no longer be handed out in our celebration assemblies on a Friday afternoon. We now have little versions of these certificates for learning, which can be given whenever we spot some amazing learning in class. Keep an eye out for these - many will be coming your way!

The Virtue Star remains and will be awarded next week during the Friday afternoon assembly. We are trying our very best to be Loving and Compassionate.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Please complete the following consent form for the year ahead. This gives your permission for various things, such as school trips, usage of technology and photographs to be put on the website. In addition, if your child has a medical condition such as asthma or an allergy that we need to know about, then please complete the medical form below. Thank you for those who have already completed.

Year 3 Permission form 202627
IF YOUR CHILD HAS A MEDICAL CONDITION

Please also note, our first PE lesson back will be on Monday 7th September. On Tuesday 8th September, I will also be sending home the homework books for this school year! The children have been given the very creative and exciting task of decorating their homework books! We can’t wait to see the finished designs! If possible, please can I ask that you decorate around the printed label already stuck on the front cover - thank you! The homework books will be due back in on Monday 14th September.

Lastly, I’d just like to say the biggest thank you to you all for being so supportive and welcoming me so kindly into the Our Lady’s school family. If you ever need to contact me directly or wish to ask me a question, my school email address is:

e.brookes@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with your little ones and I’ll look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Miss Brookes & Mrs Austin

A huge welcome!

We just want to say welcome to all our new friends that will be starting with us on Thursday. Also, to say welcome back to the children returning after the summer holidays.

We hope that everyone has managed to have some down time and make some memories that will last forever.

As we start the new academic year i have just a few housekeeping reminders for you:

  • no jewellery is allowed in nursery (including earrings). Nursery is a very physically active and adventurous environment, jewellery is a health and safety hazard.

  • PE sessions are on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, please can your child wear trainers. We have two outdoor sessions appropriate clothing is required on these days.

  • your child will need an Our Lady book bag (available from Top Marque in St Annes). Please no back packs.

  • all items brought to nursery should be clearly named, especially clothing.

  • your child will require one piece of fruit or veg for each session they attend.

  • dress your child to match the weather, sensible shoes/trainers please.

  • spare clothing is required case of toilet accidents again all named.

  • your child will need a family picture to add to ‘Our Family’ wall.

  • please now that your ParentPay login details will be coming home this week. This will allow you to pay any fees and your voluntary sundries donations online.

I think that’s it but please check the the nursey and school blog every Friday as this is where events etc. are posted. We don’t want your to miss anything!

Lastly, we are so excited to greet your children on Thursday, We have lots of exciting activities and learning planned. the most important thing is that your child is happy and thrives at Our Lady’s. If there is anything you wish to ask about please do not hesitate to contact me, remember nursery is a partnership! My email address is: b.draper@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Nursery direct telephone line is 720497. As you can appreciate we are not always in the office so if you cannot get through on the nursery number, you can call Mrs. Nel in the school office on 726105.

Please join in the awe and wonder your child will experience in nursery, it truly is a magical place to be.

See you on Thursday

God bless and stay safe

Barbara

Year 3 2026-2027

I hope that you are all having a wonderful summer holiday. The weather has certainly helped; I cannot remember a summer quite like it.

I just wanted to update you all on two things ready for the children coming back in a couple of weeks.

You will be aware that Miss Drummond was unwell last year and has been absent from school since Easter. Whilst she has been recovering at home in this period, she has informed us that she is not well enough to return to school for the start of the academic year in September and will require some additional time off. We continue to send her our best wishes and our prayers - hoping that she will be back with us soon.

When a key member of the staff team is off, especially as we head into a new academic year, my absolute priority is getting someone in place to ensure that the children feel settled and welcomed as they start their new year group. Having a familiar teacher in place is absolutely essential. I am delighted that Miss Brookes will be joining us and taking charge of Year 3 in Miss Drummond’s absence. The children know Miss Brookes incredibly well as she taught them in the final term of Year 2 as she completed her teaching qualification. She can literally hit the ground running with them; she is so very excited and has done a wonderful job of getting the classroom ready. Miss Brookes is the perfect teacher for this role and we are very lucky to welcome her to our class team. All of the teachers will be writing a welcome blog in the coming weeks so I will let Miss Brookes take over then. I know you will all support her and welcome her formally to Our Ladys.

Secondly, you will be aware of the closure of St Annes Swimming Pool, which now appears to be closed for some time. Year 3 is our school swimming year and St Annes is the swimming pool that we use; infact, all of the schools in our cluster use it. As a team of Headteachers, we have been trying to problem-solve what we can do to ensure that our children keep swimming as the information from Fylde came to us quite late. We are currently in the process of working with Palatine Swimming Pool in Blackpool to see if they have a slot in which they can accommodate us; which we think they do. This is just taking some time to organise the logisitcs. As soon as we have a plan, we will let you know when the children will be swimming. The curriculum requirement is that all children should be able to swim 25m by the end of primary school; we want to do that as soon as possible, given where we live. If your child does not have swimming lessons, I wuld urge you to get them swimming as soon as possible then as soon as we have a school swimming plan, it will help the children further.

I am really looking forward to welcoming the children back in September. Enjoy the last few weeks of your Summer!

Mrs Gregan

Final Year 5 Blog of the Year 17.07.26

Wow! What a final week of Year 5, a final week of teaching for myself and what a year these children have had. I could write endless essays about these children and the year we have had, which is why I have written a thank you letter in each of the children’s gift bags. The week we have had has been action-packed! The first two days (and nights) of our week were fixated on the end of year play- hosted by Year 6. The children thrived in their roles and really enjoyed performing infront of a large audience- this has made the teachers very excited for next years play for when they take the lead. From the day the children walked through the door in September, they were set a class reading challenge by the previous Year 5 class (you may have seen this on the door during pick ups). As of last week, the children surpassed their target and ended the year with a total of 16,074,914 words read based on quizzes from Accelerated Reader- a fantastic group achievement. Because of this, we took the class out to Hope Street Park yesterday afternoon for an extended break time. The children played football, ran down zip lines, swung back and fourth and just had fun in the sun!

From myself and Miss Johnson (soon to be Mrs Austin), we would like to thank all you children and parents for the most amazing year together and we wish you the most amazing summer and for a brilliant year ahead in Year 6.

Conversation starters

Reflection- It is always good to reflect when a journey comes to and end and to also discuss the new journey to begin?

What have you loved the most about Year 5? What will you miss?

What are you looking forward to the most about Year 6?

Water Safety- Mrs Mather spoke on Monday about the importance of this. Many of you will be by water over your summer holidays so what do you remember from this lesson?

Let’s Celebrate

The children have been voting for their learner and star of the year- the winners are…

Virtue Star of the Year: Emilia

Learner of the Year: Bea


Notices

  • Summer Homework- Please make sure the children keep on top of their reading.handwriting, spelling and times tables over the summer holiday- ready to start their final year in primary school!

  • Parent Pay- Please make sure all outstanding balances are settled before the end of the school year.

Year 1's final weekly blog of the year 17.7.26!

What can we say?! It has been an absolute gift to teach your children this year. It is truly such a blessing to welcome their smiley faces each morning, hear the lastest updates about all of the wonderful things that they have been up to and to be a part of their primary school journey!

We have had a busy final week together and a huge thank you for all of the generous donations towards our CAFOD fundraiser! The children definitely earnt their donations as lots and lots of walking took place!

We also shared a wonderful prayer and liturgy with our Year 5 partners…

Today has been full of celebration and happy tears! We started the day with our Star Charter assembly which was just brilliant! There really is so much to celebrate!

We would also like to say the biggest thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your very kind and generous gifts, we are overwhelmed and extremally grateful!

We wish you a wonderful summer holidays!

All our love,

Miss Bassett and Miss Hennessey

It's been an amazing year...

It’s always difficult to say goodbye at the end of the school year. It has been a truly fantastic year and all the nursery team could not be more proud of each and every child in nursery. Learning this year has been at an optimal level and the children are now ready to continue their journey into Reception.

Each child throughout the year has nurtured and grown their relationship with Jesus…we really are ‘Team Jesus’. We have become something greater than ourselves. We are part of a team that is led by the Saviour Himself and we recognise how each and every one of us plays a vital role in His plan.

On behalf of the nursery ladies I would like to say an enormous thank you to YOU, the parents, grandparents who have made this year a success. You have trusted us with most treasured possessions and that has enabled us to work our magic. It has been such a privilege to work alongside your child, they will remain in our hearts forever, Thank you.

Celebration Party

Such a wonderful day, everyone embraced the superhero theme and had a jolly good time. We played splat Spiderman, superhero tin can alley, musical bumps, musical statues, musical ‘pick up’ and did lots and lots of dancing! Finally we all got water bombed by someone…we think it must have been Evil Pea!!!!

We had ice lollies for snack because it was sooo very hot and in the afternoon we made popcorn and had a movie afternoon, we were exhausted! Such FUN!!!!

It just remains for me to say another massive ‘thank you’ for all the cards, kind words and gifts that you given so generously, it has been our pleasure and we will watch carefully their progress through school.

Have a wonderful summer break and I will see you all in September, if not in nursery but over the garden wall in Reception.

Remember to keep yourselves safe.

God Bless

Barbara