Happy New Year 2017

Here we stand at the cusp of another year gone and a new year just beginning. Where does the time go to?  Time, as we all know, waits for no one; its passing ever felt, ever relentless. Time can almost feel like our enemy - there's always so much to get done and never enough time to do what we need to do!!!!  I'm sure that so many of us feel this way...

As I welcome 2017 I hope that I can embrace time a bit more and appreciate its passing (gulp!) by trying each day to set even just five or ten minutes aside for some quiet (breathing) time - well, I can at least try....?  

It's strange the way that the passing of one year to the next is always marked by a period of reflection concerning the year that passed and a pledge to begin anew, to change, in the year to come. Probably because we all hunger to be made new and, intuitively, we all know that means we must change within if we want to experience change around us.

GK Chesterton once wrote: "The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions."      -   What a thought!

All we can really do is thank God for the year that has gone and look forward to our New Year at school and all the blessings, opportunities and challenges it will bring in the year ahead. For we know God is with us, today, yesterday and forever.

'Behold, I make all things new.' (Rev 21: 1-5)

Happy New Year! May the Lord Bless you and your family in the Year of Our Lord, 2017

A wonderful end to the year...

What a wonderful Advent Season we have had!  I don't know how all the children have managed to pack so much in to these past few weeks...

Your generosity was amazing for our chocolate appeal for the Blackpool Foodbank and everyone was so impressed with the children's determination and enthusiasm on our first ever 'Santa Dash' and sponsored skip held last week. The children looked brilliant in their festive jumpers and onesies (and you parents who joined in with us were brilliant too!  Thank you so much for joining in the fun! We don't know exactly how much has been raised yet by these events - but if you still haven't sent in your sponsor money - please do so before we break for Christmas.

As you can see on the class pages, the children have not just been spending these past few weeks celebrating; they have been working hard in all areas of the curriculum and, by the amount of awards I have given out over the past few weeks, there will be some fantastic work on show in the new year when you come into school.

The children's Nativities and Concerts this year have been truly wonderful. All of the children have truly 'shone' and have really shown the true meaning of Christmas in all that they have done - in fact it was summed up beautifully in the Y1 & 2 Nativity 'A present for the baby' when a narrator told us that... It isn't the most expensive gifts that are important but the small things that really show our love for each other and the great love that God has for each one of us...  "Just a thought inside your heart - it's simple.  All the presents in the world could never be as good as just one kiss"

Very honest words - and very true!

Perhaps we do spend more time upon buying and wrapping the most expensive gifts - rather than thinking about the simple things in life which are much more important - and usually the things which cost nothing at all! At this time we are are all reflecting on Mrs Hunt, Mrs Dickinson and Mrs Welton - our amazing Teaching Assistants and Admin Staff who have served Our Lady's for an outstanding 28 years and 22 years respectively. These ladies will be greatly missed as they have given their time, love and care to the children and families of Our Lady's all through these years, supporting and guiding and shaping young lives for the better. We are truly grateful for all their hard work and dedication. They will leave a great hole in our community but we will never forget all that they have given to us through the years. Thank you all so much!

As we break for Christmas and come to the end of 2016 I hope we can all reflect on the things which matter most and hopefully grow a little more in God's love over this beautiful Christmas Season.

On behalf of myself and all the staff at Our Lady of the Assumption, I wish you all a very happy, holy and restful Christmas and peaceful New Year.

M Haggerty

Acts of Mercy this Advent...

As many of you will know, we have recently come to the end of this special Jubilee Year of Mercy on the Feast of Christ the King. This has been a very special year and one in which the children have really focused upon the 'little things' they can do and say which show the love of Christ through each one of us!

As we come to the end of our first week of Advent 2016 we have decided that at this special time of year, when we think about the difficult journey that Mary and Joseph had to endure to get to Bethlehem, we also would think about our journeys through Advent with them.

We are so fortunate in the many gifts that we have and our amazing children realise that there are so many families and children just like them, who will struggle to find homes, shelter and food this Christmas. So in this way, we have discussed the 'Little Acts of Mercy' we can show to others during this Advent Season.

Own Clothes Day...

Next Friday 9th December school will have an 'Own Clothes Day' and as one of our little acts of mercy we have asked that each child bring in some chocolate. This will not be for us, but instead will go towards making little treats - for children who may not have any presents this year. The chocolate will be donated therefore to Blackpool Food Bank for the Christmas Appeal.

School Council...

The children from our School Council want to try to give a family in a third world country the gift of a goat/water/a meal; from the CAFOD 'World Gifts' website. They will hold a hot chocolate making afternoon next week so children can bring in 50p if they would like a lovely drink (with marshmallows etc!)

Santa Dash...

We are holding a Fun Run on the morning of 15th December for everyone at school - children and parents!!! From 8.45am we will all take to the school field in our Christmas Jumpers/Santa Hats/Festive decorations to undertake a Sponsored Run for as many laps of our track as we can manage in about half an hour!!!! The monies collected will be split between school for much needed resources and also to offset the cost of class trips/visits for families; and also towards Trinity Hospice - we will also have 'Hospuss' - Trinity's mascot, who will be running along with us, and, you never know; possibly a visit from Santa too! Every child who returns their sponsor form on (or before) the event, will be put in a class 'draw' to win a lovely Christmas Prize!

Advent Masses...

Starting this Friday, 2nd December, we will be holding 3 special Advent masses in school at 8.15am in the school hall. (2nd, 9th & 16th Dec) Fr Jim will be leading us in these special masses to help us to focus upon welcoming Jesus into our hearts this Christmas. We do hope many of you will be able to join us as we really need children to serve with Father, to read and of course, to come and have some toast and a drink afterwards!!!!!

We really hope lots of you will be able to join us for the masses and other events and help to make this a wonderful Advent and prepare ourselves in the best way to meet Christ this Christmas!

Harvest Festival

This year we are supporting Blackpool Food Bank with our donations of food. Our Local food banks are really struggling with such high demand and ensure that needy families have nutritious food to help them through difficult times.

We are happy to be suuporting our local community and be assured that any donations you give will go straight to families who need it most.

Many thanks for all your support. (The list of foods can be found on attachment link HERE)

An exciting week!

I can hardly believe we are almost half way through our first half-term. Time is really going too fast!

We have had an amazing start to the new year - but in the last couple of weeks we have appointed our Head Boy and Head Girl from Year 6 (Dominic and Olivia) and also a Deputy Head Boy and Deputy Head Girl (Thomas and Hermione) who we are so proud of, and know that they will represent Our Lady's with pride. They have already led our Welcome Assembly this year and presented our new Reception class with medals and certificates to show them they belong to the special community here at Our Lady of the Assumption.

It has been a real week of 'welcomes' as we have also welcomed our 'Pilgrim Statue' this week. This was a beautiful statue of the Sacred Heart which had been sent by Bishop Michael to every school in the Diocese of Lancaster. The newly appointed Head Boy and Girl from St Kentigern's Primary School arrived on Monday morning to bring the statue to us and throughout the week each class has come to pray with the statue and have also produced some beautiful work reflecting on the love of Jesus. Some of the pictures have been collated in a special book which was passed on to St Cuthberts on Friday with the statue - but we still have some pictures in school for you to see! On Friday Fr Jim came across to school to lead us in a lovely liturgy so the whole school could say goodbye to this special 'visitor' during this Year of Mercy.

Welcome Back to a new school year - 2016/17

A very warm welcome back to everyone at Our Lady of the Assumption!

I can't believe we have begun another school year - I don't know where the time goes!  However, it is wonderful to see all the children eager and ready to learn in their new classes.

This year we welcome Mrs Chandler in our Year 3 class and Miss Dixon in Year 1. We are delighted to have these teachers at Our Lady's and you will have a chance to meet them at our informal 'meet the teacher' afternoons coming up in the next couple of weeks. These meetings will be from 3pm -3.30pm in your child's class so please try to come along if you can. It is a great way to find out a little more about your child's topics for this year, homework, PE etc and also the expectations for your child in their new year group. Class teachers are looking forward to meeting you!

We have had an amazing first week...   ALL of our Key Stage 2 classes won Golden Awards this week!!! A first at Our Lady's! This goes to show how proud their teachers have been of the way your children have settled into their new class and also their eagerness to get down to work and their enthusiasm for all the new learning experiences and opportunities that lie ahead. It's been a great and, I'm sure will be a very positive and fruitful year for everyone.

We have lots of exciting events for the children over the coming half-term. We are celebrating 'Roald Dahl Day' on Tuesday with a special assembly and lots of book reviews and activities. Later, we will celebrate European Languages Day, with each class choosing a European Country to study in depth on that day. We have our favourite author - Dan Worsley coming to join us to discuss his writing process for his new book and also our Welcome Assembly and further events as we come to the end of the special 'Year of Mercy' in November. (Don't forget to look at the calendar for specific dates of events!)

I also have to say a special well done to our new Year 6. They have begun their final year at Primary School in the best way possible - getting down to their work with enthusiasm; undertaking many of their new responsibilities in a very sensible way and most of all... demonstrating such a mature and positive attitude to all they have done in and around school. I can see that they are really about to show us that they can lead our school this year with love and respect and be shining examples to everyone!

We also welcome our new Reception children who have made a lovely start to their school life. We look forward to their starting full time on 19th September. I would just like to draw new parents attention to our large play equipment between Reception area and After School Club. THIS EQUIPMENT IS ONLY FOR CHILDREN 8 YRS & OVER. It must only be used with careful supervision and IS NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. Therefore, I'm sure you appreciate if staff bring children off the equipment if they notice them playing on it. Please can I ask that parents do not let children play on this before and after school; we don't want any accidents to start the school year. Thank you for your help on this! 

Keep looking on your child's class pages for updates and further news each week!

Children's University

Congratulations to all the children who took part in Children's University this year. Here are some photos from their Graduation.