Reception homework to be handed in on Monday 21st September

Thank you all for having so much fun last week decorating your homework book. They all look fab!

This week I have a couple of tasks for you…

Ten:Ten learning:
This week we have been learning just how special and “unique” we are. Inside your homework book you will find the following sheet. Please work together to complete this lovely activity. We will be learning more about our families and important people next week. Your child could draw, make marks and scribe key words and/or sentences to you.

---

Families:

Next week this theme will run through our learning. Please email 1 photograph of you as a family. The children will make photo frames and these pictures will go on display in our home corner. Thank you.

---

Phonic Sounds: We have now learnt the first set of sounds. Your child has brought home this first set of sounds. Please make time to practise recognising these sounds.

Play the game “I spy”… “I spy with my little eye something beginning with” (hold the card up and your child to say the sound).

---

Reading: Please make time for 1 story each and every day. Bed time is a great way to incorporate this into your routine if it isn’t already. Snuggle up and share a book, this is great for building speaking and listening skills, vocabulary, turn taking and to build an enjoyment of stories.

Year 1 homework to be handed in on Monday 21nd September

---

READING

Please continue having the children read their RWInc (phonics) books at home daily. At some point this week, the children will pick a book from the library for their leisure; this can be read to them or with them, at your discretion.- The main priority is their phonics books!

---

MATHS

This week, the children have 2 maths sheets stuck in their homework book (or loose in their bag if they didn’t have their book with them). Picture below:

---

English:

In English, we are focusing on capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. The children should have a sheet of sentences stuck in their homework book to rewrite using the correct capital letters, finger spaces, and full stops. Please complete at least 4 of these! (Some children may have different work)

SPELLING:

---

Note- Please don’t worry if your child’s book does not have these exact documents, I have adapted some homework tasks to children’s specific targets in their learning!

Reminder: if your children haven’t decorated the exterior of their Homework book, please can this be done too!- There are so many gorgeous books! I have attached just one of them as an example

Year 5 Homework 15.09.26

Homework to be completed and brought in to school by Monday 21st September

Thank you all so much for spending lots of time decorating the children’s homework books with them! They look absolutely fabulous and are so unique to each individual!

Reading

Please have ago at the reading comprehension ‘the effects of energy drinks’. Read the non-chronolgical report careful and make sure you answer the questions in full sentences.

Anton Maths - Tenths

Log on and complete the tenths tasks online. Your log in details are stuck in your homework books.

Spellings

The children have a spelling sheet to complete which is based on this week’s spellings. We are looking at the spelling rules when changing nouns to pronouns.

Decorate your homework book

If you have not already please decorate your homework books.

Castlerigg Day 1

We’ve arrived and we have had a wonderful first afternoon. The children have been busy taking part in lots of team being activities, enjoyed exploring the Castlerigg gardens and the facilities in the games room.

The theme for our next three days is ‘Let Your Light Shine’— something our children do so well. This afternoon, the children have taken part in some fun ice-breaker games, before being split into smaller teams and creating robots to change the world. As always all their ideas were amazing with an Our Lady theme of kindness thread through them all - we were very proud.

After a long journey and a busy afternoon of team building the children were more than ready for their chicken fajitas at dinner, followed by delicious cinnamon roll birthday cake to celebrate our lovely Anna’s birthday.

We are about to finish the day gathering in the Chapel followed by a bedtime story.

Enjoy these few photos of our first day.
Night night and God Bless from Castlerigg

Reception Weekly blog 11.9.26 - "Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." – Romans 15:7

Our first week! It has been truly special seeing all our Reception friends come together. Old friendships rekindled after the summer holidays and many new friendships made too. The children have all been so brave and wonderful. New beginnings can be a nervy time but together, you have shown that new beginnings are incredibly exciting too! To all our new children, you have been welcomed in and we are so happy to see you settled and ALL of the new friendships you have made! A huge well done to each and every one of our children, they have shown kindness, care and absolutely wonderful sharing skills!

In prayer and liturgy this week we have been learning to be still, to close our eyes and to wait to hear Jesus. We have held our hearts and closed our eyes, waiting for God to put a picture of someone special to us, being still we have said little prayers for these people. We have also spent time together, with the candle alight, as we welcomed Jesus to hear our prayers. On Wednesday we thought about to word, “forgiveness” and we know that God wants us to forgive people, and also for us to say sorry when we might have struggled to make the right decision.

Magic moments

I may say this often but their truly has been so many magic moments. This week we have had so many firsts, and with this SO much to remember. However, this week has also been about building such positive relationships and spending time with each and every child. It has been a joy for myself, Mrs Summersall, Miss Krol, Miss Canham and Miss Woodend to get see each child happy and for us to learn more about them. Alongside this on Wednesday evening we were able to speak to so many of you and again this was just fab! A huge thank you for your trust, openness and for sharing all of the wonderful things your child has shared with you this week about their new school!

I am so excited for the year ahead!

Star Award

Each week we will award a child our special STAR award.

This week ISLA has been awarded our STAR for being very kind towards others. Isla you have gone above and beyond to help other people around you. A huge well done!

Student Council and Eco Council

Today we had our very exciting leadership assembly and during this we learnt who will be Receptions Student Councillors and Eco Councillors. These children will attend special meetings throughout the year and will help Mrs Gregan!

A huge congratulations to Elsie and Zac who have been chosen to be our Student Councillors. and another huge well done to Arlo and Isla who have been chosen to be our Eco Councillors.

We know that you will all thoroughly enjoy these roles of responsibility!

Reminders

1. PE days: Tuesday pm - Outside. Friday am - Inside. Shorts needed for Fridays (come either wearing or in your child’s bag). Children to come to school wearing their PE kit on both days. Depending on weather shorts or jogging bottoms may be worn for the day.

2. Homework: Please return homework books on Monday, these will then stay in school overnight and be handed back to the children on Tuesday.

3. Inhalers: Please make sure that it your child uses an inhaler that we have these in school. Please drop off via the office and an asthma form will need to be completed. Thank you!

Induction evening

For those of you who were unable to attend and for those that did but would like to look again at key information. Below you can click on the link to view the PWP we went through.

Coming up

Wednesday 23rd September - School photographs

Sunday 27th September - Family mass 9:30am

Monday 28th September - Flu Vaccinations

---

Have a wonderful weekend, it is very well deserved!

Miss Bassett, Miss Woodend, Mrs Summersall, Mrs Krol and Miss Canham

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Year 1 Weekly Blog 11.09.26

What a super week it has been in our first full week of Year 1! The children have settled in so well and are already settling into their new routines and expectations brilliantly!

---

RE

We began our RE curriculum this week with our first unit being ‘Creation & Covenant’. We started looking at the Creation story and really enjoyed bringing it to life using different objects and pictures as we retold what happened. It was lovely to see the children getting involved and remembering different parts of the story as we went along.

---

Maths

In Maths, we have been practising counting objects within 10. We have been working carefully to make sure that we count each object once and can say how many there are altogether in a group, making sure we can count from any number up to 10.

---

English

We have been continuing with our All About Me topic and have been working hard on our simple sentences. This week, we have been focusing on remembering our capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. The children have been practising these skills in their writing and are becoming much more confident about what a sentence needs.

---

Our wider learning

The children have also enjoyed their PE and Science sessions with Mrs Hunter, as well as getting creative in Art with Mrs Mather. It has been a busy week, and the children have enjoyed having the opportunity to explore lots of different areas of learning as well as learning through play in provision.

---

It was lovely to meet so many of you on Wednesday at induction evening and to finally put some names to faces. If you didn’t manage to make induction evening or you missed any key details from the night, here is a copy of the slides from the presentation.

---

GOING DEEPER IN CONVERSATION

In HRSE this week, we have been looking at bullying, saying “NO” and trusted adults. We talked about what bullying might look like, how we can say “NO” if something doesn’t feel right and, most importantly, who we can go to for help. The children shared some really thoughtful ideas about the trusted adults they have around them and why it is important to speak to someone if we are worried.

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

LET’S CELEBRATE

Loving and Compassionate Star

Our Star Virtue this week was Martha.

She has shown such compassion and love towards her classmates and teachers throughout the week. She is always willing to help others and has been a really positive role model in our classroom.

She is an absolute star, and we are very proud of her! ⭐

---

Notices

• School photographs- School photos will take place on Wednesday 23rd September.

• Flu vaccines- Flu vaccines will take place in school on Monday 28th September.

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

• Forest School- Those children attending forest school, a letter has gone home this week- it starts next week.

• Email- a.edwards@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk
  
  
  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Edwards, Mrs Hunter, Mrs Hennessy, Mrs Davis & Miss Canham

Year Three Weekly Blog 11.09.26

What a Wonderful Week…

I am so incredibly proud of all of the children for their first full week back in school! After only having two days in school last week, it has certainly been a busy and jam-packed week, but the children have settled beautifully and have taken everything in their stride. It has been wonderful to see them getting stuck into their new learning, embracing new routines and showing such enthusiasm and positivity throughout the week.

I would also like to say a really big heartfelt thank you to all of the parents and carers who were able to attend our welcome evening on Wednesday. I am incredibly grateful for the time you took to come along and I hope you found the evening informative and useful as we begin this exciting new chapter together. I would also like to apologise that I am not the most confident public speaker! However, I am very grateful to you all for your patience and kindness and I hope that I was able to give you all the information you needed and provide a helpful introduction to Year 3. If there are ever any questions you have, anything you feel I may have missed, or something you would like to share with me, please do not hesitate to get in touch. As I mentioned during the evening, you are very welcome to contact me via email at any time. If you would prefer a face-to-face conversation, simply pop an email over to me or catch me at the door at home time and we can arrange a convenient time to chat together.

e.brookes@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

If you were unable to join us for the welcome evening, please find all of the shared information below:

---

Magical Moments of Learning…

In RE, we have been developing our understanding of the Creation Story and exploring how the story is presented in the Bible. The children have sequenced the events of creation across the seven days, carefully recalling what was created on each day and discussing the significance of God's creation. We have also enjoyed exploring the beautiful, poetic language used in the Old Testament to describe creation. The children have been inspired by this to write their own thoughtful poems, to celebrate the wonder and beauty of God's creation. It has been lovely to see the children sharing their ideas and reflections, and beginning to appreciate how Scripture can use poetry and imagery to help us understand our faith.

Alongside this, we have been very busy exploring the wonderful world of Paddington Bear! The children have been watching clips from the Paddington film alongside reading Chapter One of A Bear Called Paddington. We have been busy comparing the film and the book, spotting similarities and differences and thinking carefully about how the story has been presented in each. The children have also been practicing their summarising skills, identifying the key events and important information from the chapter. The children have worked incredibly hard, and we have had quite a few giggles along the way as we’ve watched some of Paddington Bear’s funniest moments!

In Science, we have been learning all about rocks, with a particular focus on igneous rocks. The children have been finding out how igneous rocks are formed when molten rock cools and solidifies. We have been exploring the difference between magma and lava and looking at examples of igneous rocks. The children have been fantastic scientists this week, asking thoughtful questions and developing their understanding of the fascinating world beneath our feet!

---

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 “yucky” feelings and what this means. This does not mean the feelings are negative, it means 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 from this is to tell your trusted adult. Here is a letter about the lessons and what we did today.

---

Let’s Celebrate

This week, our Virtue Star is Sophia!

Sophia has shown so much love and compassion since returning to school. We are extremely proud of how beautifully she has settled into Year 3 and most importantly, how kind and caring she is to those around her. Sophia, thank you for being so wonderful and for always having such a loving and kind heart. We are very proud of you!

A huge well done to all of the children who put themselves forward to be a School Councillor or Eco Councillor! It was wonderful to see so many children showing confidence, enthusiasm and a willingness to take on an important responsibility within our school. Everybody did so well and we are incredibly proud of each and every child who had the courage to put themselves forward. After an individual class vote, I am very proud to announce…

Our Year Three School Counsellors are: Theo and Cora!

Our Year Three Eco Counsellors are: Kian and Mia!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

---

Key Messages and Reminders…

• FOREST SCHOOL will be starting again next week. Letters have been sent home with the children who will be taking part, so please ensure that your child comes to school with the correct clothing and footwear for Forest School.

• SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS will be taking place on Wednesday 23rd September for all children in school.

• HOMEWORK will be sent out next week on Monday 14th September. Please have a little look at the Year 3 Homework Blog for some guidance and information about this next week.

• WOODMATTERS SCHOOL TRIP is on Wednesday 30th September! This is now live on ParentPay and is £32.00 per child. Please note, the deadline for this is Friday 18th September.

Thank you once again for all of your continued support. We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Miss Brookes and Mrs Austin

Year 4 Weekly Blog Friday 11th September "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah)

We are so proud of how well the children have settled in this week, getting to know routines and really working so hard. It has been a very busy week, jam-packed with learning in Year 4. We have continued our study of Abraham and the great faith he needed to do what God asked him when his future was so uncertain. This was echoed in Father Peter’s homily in church on Wednesday when he talked about children shining their lights into the darkness and my goodness, they have done this all week. They have settled into Year 4 really well.

We have done our first Kidsafe lesson this week, where children reflected on how to keep themselves safe and also looked at what it means to be able to trust someone. Please read the letter below for further information.

It was lovely to meet so many of you on Wednesday evening. I have put a copy of the powerpoint below for all those who could not attend or if you need a refresh. I am sure we will have a really positive year full of growth and joy!

In other news this week, children have learned about life processes in science, they have been mastering the layout of column addition in maths and have been using lots of different reading skills in English. They have done brilliantly in their spelling lessons this week, whilst also learning how to use a dictionary. Ask them about fastest finger first!

Conversation starters:

Kidsafe:

What is trust? How is it earned?

Science

How do you know if something is living?

Notices:

We have not yet had confirmation of a start date for ukulele lessons. When we get started, children will be coming home with them each week. Here is the power point from our Induction evening. In the meantime, if you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Let’s Celebrate!

Our virtues this half term are to be Compassionate and Loving. This means showing genuine care for others and trying to put yourself in their position. This week, our star goes to Annabelle. I have been watching how gently you speak to others, you see their needs and help them. You really do shine your light.

PE Stars: Olivia Ho. and Oscar for having a great go at gymnastic moves and thinking creatively.

Mrs Lyons and Mrs Carter

a.lyons@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

This week...

Such a wonderful start to nursery! There may have been the odd tear but they really didn’t last long at all! The children quickly got stuck into exploring the learning landscapes both indoors and outdoors and have been having such fun. I have already noticed some lovely friendships forming.

Worship

As in all other years we start our day with Prayer and Liturgy. The children have embraced the tranquility and calm Jesus brings to us all. This week we have been discussing ‘Creation’. The children have been very interested in how God created our Wonderful World but were saddened to hear that we haven’t been looking after it very well. We read a story called Wonderful Earth which really made the children think. We have decided that as custodians of our planet we are going to pick up our litter and recycle if we can and to be thankful for all the wonders that God has given us…including all our friends and families.

Towards the end of the week we started to choose prayer leaders to lead our prayers at the end of worship; a very responsible job. We have started to learn how to make the sign of the cross and to pray to Our Lady saying the Hail Mary together. We even went all around school searching for images or statues of Our Lady and it will come a no surprise that there are many dotted around the school!

Family Mass

Our first Sunday family mass of the year will be on Sunday 27th September - the Feast of Our Lady Star of the Sea. We look forward to welcoming everyone to our new school family.

Learning Landscape

We have launched into our learning this year with some gusto! We have been:

• sorting colours- namely blue, yellow and red

• mixing blue, red and yellow to make a new colour. Great fun paint and shaving foam is always a winner and we managed to make purple and orange and a lot of mess!!

• met Zero the Hero and learnt that zero is the number for nothing, none! We also found out that zero is one less than one and if we want to write it the rhyme tells us to go round in a loop like and empty hoop!

• started our Read, Write Inc sounds, focusing on ‘a’ and the rhyme that helps us to write the sound, round the apple and down the leaf.

• painting pictures of our faces to go on the All About Me display. I think we have some budding artists amongst us.

  Take a look at the photos, I think you will agree we have been extremely busy!

Snacks

In line with our sustainable outlook and school focus, we will again be wrapper free this year for snacks. This is the same as what we requested last year, we will just be enforcing it this year. There are so many ways in which snacks can be brought into school; avoiding wrappers and recycling these properly at home. We do not have the correct school recycling and it costs us a lot of money for weight of the waste. Please get into good habits each morning and help us to become more sustainable. This is big focus on our School Improvement Plan this year. Any wrapped snack will be popped back in the child’s bag and sent back home; not consumed in school. We will again have the opportunity to order snacks on a weekly basis. All orders need to be placed each week by 8am. At lunch time, packed lunches can be eaten and wrappers will be sent back home, not placed in the school bin. Please get into the habit again of avoiding wrappers at lunch time to continue us working towards being sustainable.

School Photographs

School photos are being taken on Wednesday 23d September. I am aware that some of our children are not in on that day but don’t worry I have spoken to Mrs. Gregan who will arrange a time slot for you to pop into school for a photo. I will let you know the time on the blog next week.

I think that’s all from me this week. I hope everyone has a restful weekend in readiness for another busy week at nursery next week.

God bless and stay safe

Barbara

Year 5 Weekly Blog 11.09.26-‘God has shown you all of this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are’- Joseph

What a super week it has been in our first full week of Year 5! The children have settled in so well and are already rising to the expectations of the upper juniors.

We began our brand new RE curriculum this week with our first unit being ‘Creation & Covenant’, looking into the first covenants that God made with the strongest faiths and those who showed the most trust in God. We started with Abraham and how he was promised to be the father of many nations and how this linked down to his great grandchild, Joseph, and the wonderful story of how his faith and trust in God became such an inspirational story in the Bible. Today we have just finished learning about Moses, how faith and trust helped the Israelites to be freed from the hand of the Egyptians.

In maths, we have continued to look into our newest column in place value- our tenths column and have been exploring this in various ways such as part whole diagrams, addition and subtraction equations, fractions and also decimals. We had a great time exploring the way ten tenths make a whole in capacity, length and weight …

In English, we have dived into what it would be like as a WW2 evacuee, listening to and reading some real life experiences before we bgin to write our letters back home to our parents from the 1940’s.

---

It was lovely to meet so many of you on Wednesday at induction evening and to finally put some names to faces. If you didn’t manage to make induction evening or you missed any key details from the night, here is a copy of the slides from the presentation.

---

GOING DEEPER IN CONVERSATION

How would you feel if you were an evacuee durng World War II times?

Next week, how can you demonstarte our virtues of the half term- Loving and Compassionate?

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

LET’S CELEBRATE

Loving and Compassionate Stars

This half term we will be on the lookout for all the children that stop and notice how others are experiencing their lives, and how they feel, and why they say and believe what they do.  Ultimately, it is what makes us kind and, at a deeper level, opens up the possibility of being loving through our just and merciful actions and forgiving words. This week we thank Isla for always being compassionate and loving with others.

---

Greek Day at Our Lady’s for Year 5 on 6th October- On this day, the Heritage Learning of Lancashire is coming to school, to unravel the mysteries of Ancient Greece whilst investigating the stories behind Democracy, City States and Greek treasures. We will learn about Alexander the Great and what is the connection between a sad face and a smiley face? We will delve into myths and legends, theatre, sport and home life to build a vivid picture of this ancient civilisation. We may even try a spot of greek dancing! To get the full experience, it would be wonderful if we all dressed up in Ancient Greek clothing, we might even spot a few greekv gods and goddesses! Payment for the Heritage visit is now live on parent pay. Here are a few ideas to help to get you started on planning the costumes…

---

Notices

• Indoor PE next week will be on Tuesday instead of Thursday- this is just forone week.

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

• Forest School- Those children attending forest school, a letter has gone home this week- it starts next week.
  
  

• Sports Timetable- A full timetable for all of the sports opportunites this half term is available on the sports page of the school website [engage-sport]
  

Have a wonderful weekend from Mrs Harrisom and Mrs Tierney

Year 4 homework to be handed in on Thursday 17th September

Thank you for decorating your homework book. Please finish this if you have not yet done it.

Maths

This week we have focused on learning how to lay out column addition properly on squared paper so that it can be easily added in columns.

Children have been given some squared paper and need to set out the following calculations in columns as shown in the example below.

Please use a pencil and use a ruler for the equals line at the bottom. The first 4 calculations have the answers given - simply to practise layout.

The second 4 do not have answers so you will need to calculate.

Please ensure your hundreds, tens and ones are lined up underneath each other.

Always add the ones first. Then tens. Then hundreds. This concept is vital for our work on carrying next week.

23 + 45 = 68 63 + 45 = 108 235 + 24 = 259

202+392 = 594

35 + 51 = 13 + 71 = 312 + 456 = 45 + 333 =

Spelling

Year 3/4 key words we have learned this week.

believe    enough    answer     century     question   actually  decide   quarter    describe    earth   favourite  breathe   different     island calendar important interest though although

We have looked up the meaning of these words and studied them to find the tricky bits within each word. We often SAY them HOW we spell them to help us remember.

In your homework books:

1. Pick 10 of these words that you need to practise

2. Copy one word down carefully. (best joined handwriting)

3. Use a highlighter or different colour pen to underline the ‘tricky bit’ of the word.

4. Then copy it 2 more times.

5. Repeat with the other 9 words you picked

   Optional:

   Spelling Detectives Game that we play in class!

   You could write these words on post it notes and stick them around your house. Put our detective music on (The Pink panther) and look at one of your words. Come away from it and write it from memory. This teaches your brain to visualise and remember it.

Sticky Grid method that we play in class!

Show your parents how we draw a grid and practise our words by:

1. Tracing 2 Copying 3 Hide and Remember 4 Write with your eyes closed

Optional Homework

Here are a few lovely ideas linked to what we will be studying this half-term. Why not give them a go?

Reception Homework to be handed in on Monday 14th September

Welcome to our homework page. Each Tuesday you will find the homework for you to complete and this then is to be returned on Monday.

This weeks homework: Decorating your book!

We would love for you to decorate your homework book with photographs or stickers - I am sure they will love using their creativity and sharing a little of their personality through this activity! It would be lovely to talk about school so far, sharing all of the new and exciting experiences they have had so far!

Please make sure name labels remain visible.

Thank you!

Miss Bassett

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Year 5 Homework 8.09.26

Homework to be completed and brought in to school by Monday 14th September

Reading

Everyone has now been to the library to choose a book and over the next couple of weeks will be doing their first star reading test of the year. Please make sure yhou are reading at least half an hour in an evening to help achieve your reading targets, improved your fluency and to bring your writing skills alive!

Times Tables

Please complete the tenths maths worksheet in your Maths books.

Please also make sure you are continuing to go on TTRS regualrly to keep being super speedy with your times tables- a large majority of the Year 5 Maths curriculum is based on solid times tables knowledge so keep practicing- even if you have already gone green!

Spellings

The children have a spelling sheet to complete which is based on this weeks spellings. The children should be familiar with how to complete this as we have practiced this in our spelling lesson.

Vocabulary check- Our tricky Year 5 spellings are the final 5 spellings on our test. Please practice these spellings in your homework book by completing the sheet.

1. play

2. see

3. high

4. all

5. build

6. earth

7. circle

8. buzzes

9. bushes

10. witches

11. achieve

12. category

13. dictionary

14. excellent

15. nuisance

Decorate your homework book

Please bring your homework book back in on time every Monday. Your job is to write your name on your book and have fun decorating them - make them personal - pictures, stickers etc - have fun.