When darkness is screaming, listen to the voice of Christ saying "I will never leave you"...

Community

We have come to the end of our second full week of ‘lockdown’ restrictions and look to Jesus for our support through these difficult times. We also are aware that in the church’s calendar we have also reached the end of one liturgical year in the Feast of Christ the King which we celebrate this Sunday.

Reflecting upon this, I found myself thinking about a hymn I used to love that we would sing on this Feast… some of the words in the chorus read ”….. Light of the world, you have helped us to see; That we are one people…” I truly hope that as a community of faith we can continue to work together ‘as one people’ to give each other strength and hope in keeping one another safe through our words and actions during this time.

Lets work together as a community of love!

One way we can do this is by wearing our masks…

Another is by ensuring that we ‘look out for each other’ to keep others safe. I am particularly thinking about our roads around school and the way I have seen families park cars, reverse when children are around, stop on zig-zags to drop off children and just generally show little regard for others around when driving, parking and crossing roads. Governors and myself have sought help from local council, from traffic safety and from challenging people ourselves when we see any potentially dangerous situations. Unfortunately however, these situations seem to be increasing rather than decreasing. Please, please have thought and consideration for others and DO NOT block our neighbours driveways/entrances. Fr Jim couldn’t get out of his garage to a hospital call this week as families cars were parked right up to the cones he places outside his garage entrance/exit. I have had to ask several parents not to stop to drop off children on zig-zags outside the gates. When driving to & from school we MUST show consideration for others. It is vitally important for the safety of other families, our neigbours and our children.

Christmas Cards

As you have read above, we are coming to the end of the church’s year and next week the season of Advent will begin. Even with the restrictions which are in place throughout our country I’m sure many of your children will be thinking about bringing Christmas cards for others at this time, but PLEASE DON’T as we are trying our best to ensure that we are making things as safe as possible for everyone at school and restricting what comes in. Instead, why not write a Christmas card for people who are in hospital, in our hospice or nursing homes… and the people who are working there? I had a letter this week to ask if the children could write, draw or make cards for people confined to hospital during this time to cheer them as usually the children would sing, play or visit some of our local care homes for Christmas. Of course we are unable to do this during COVID restrictions. Instead we can put a box in school for any cards/pictures that children do want to bring in. These can then be quarantined and sent out safely to our hospitals and care homes before Christmas and will hopefully brighten the day of someone who is suffering during this time.

In the same way, many of our classes are trying to make recordings of some simple liturgies, poems, music and even Christmas jokes which we can send to the hospital over the coming few weeks. As you will also see on your childs class pages, there are several up and coming events which our school PTA have organised for our Advent Time. Please try to ensure that you follow the guidance given to ensure that we have fun, but also keep our children and others as safe as we can during this time.

Lancashire Day

On Friday, the annual Lancashire Day is celebrated. We have been asked by the Active Blackpool team to take part in a Mile Challenge throughout the day as part of a Lancashire Challenge which is happening during the week. This is an ideal opportunity to get as many children, young people and adults moving whilst celebrating our red rose county.

So, as part of our continuing ‘keeping active’ drive, we are going to participate by seeing how many ‘miles’ our classes can run/walk - using our daily mile track - throughout the week! We can also win prizes for school if we record our ‘miles of activity’! Let’s see what we can do! If families want to see more Lancashire Day events, quizzes, features etc then you can find out more on the Visit Lancashire website.

So, remembering that this weekends Gospel tells us that every act of kindness done to someone else is also done to Jesus Christ. We are encouraged to remember that our actions speak louder than words. We hope that by working together each one of us can be doing our best to be mindful of our own and each other’s safety and well-being.

God Bless

Miss Haggerty

"If I speak with all the eloquence of men and angels, but have not love, I am nothing but a clanging cymbal..."

Tour of School

A message to any parents or families who are looking for primary school places for September 2021.

Our Lady of the Assumption did not have the opportunity to have an ‘Open Day’ for prospective parents/families who wanted to view our school due to COVID restrictions this year. This would have been a role which our Year 6 children usually relish. They really enjoy meeting families and having the chance to ‘show off’ about their school. So instead, our Head and Deputy boys and girls have taken the opportunity to give you a ‘virtual tour’ of Our Lady’s and introduce you to our Reception class and some of the activities they participate in during the year.

The videos can be found by opening the blue PARENTS tab on our home page. The videos can then be found on the image button entitled ‘Virtual Visit’ (In case you can’t find it… CLICK HERE!)

A reminder that the national deadline for all applications is 15th January 2021. All supplementary forms should be returned to school - this is also an essential part of your application!

Eloquent & Truthful

This second half term, the children have been tasked with developing the virtues of ‘truthfulness and eloquence’ from our Jesuit Values. I am forever proud of our children at Our Lady’s, but this week in particular has shown me real moments of pure joy in their hard work, their independence, their happily skipping into school and the care and respect they have given their teachers and others around school. They have shown ‘love in action’ in such difficult and uncertain times, and that has been more eloquent than words. They are a real credit to you all. I count each day we can be open and ready to serve our community as ‘a great day’ at the moment and the enthusiasm of the children is a blessing to all the staff who are really ‘giving their all’ to love and care for the children during these unprecedented times.

Parking Enforcement

I have been quite upset of late with a few parents’/families’ parking and lack of patience in their cars. As you know, it is a difficult area to park around school which is why Fr Jim kindly allows families to use church car park when dropping off and picking up at school. Even so, it has been alarming to see parents stopping on double yellow lines or even worse - on zig-zags! It has bothered me so much that I contacted Lancs Police Road Safety Team last weekend. As you will know, police officers arrived ‘en masse’ on Monday (I certainly wasn’t expecting so many!!!) However they were also concerned by some the issues they saw and will be returning to our area regularly to monitor the situation. A plea to you all therefore, to think ‘Safety First’ when collecting or dropping off your children.

SEND updates

For all parents information; Mrs Ormerod is our school SENDCo (as well as our Deputy Headteacher) and as part of her new role she will try to keep our website updated with useful information and links for parents which you may find useful/helpful in a variety of contexts. Mrs Ormerod intends to do this by posting regular information on the SEND area of our website. This can be found by clicking the blue PARENTS button on the home page and then on the SEND image button. (If you cannot find this CLICK HERE…)

First Holy Communion

Our First Holy Communion group for 2020 should hopefully be able to undertake their sacraments during Advent. 2 of the groups received their First Holy Communion on 17th and 24th October and our other 2 groups were postponed due to the current lockdown. Fr Jim has offered families the opportunity to undertake communion on 5th and 13th December when, hopefully, church should be able to re-open for public worship. We look forward to this wonderful event and pray for no further cancellations!

Finally…

We have been so fortunate at Our Lady’s that we have been able to maintain the full opening of school since September. It has been a blessing to have the children return and they have been so quick to settle down to new routines and rotas - they have been so resilient and their enthusiasm and positivity has both astounded and humbled me. They are relishing their learning - which is a delight, and makes all the hard work and diligence of our amazing teaching staff worthwhile. I know you would want to share my thanks for the love and compassion our staff have shown the children - their hard work and commitment to your children never ceases to both amaze me and fill me with pride. We can however, only carry on in this way if all families continue to take great care and every precaution during this ‘lockdown’ and our subsequent restrictions; by wearing masks, ensuring your children are only mixing with others in their family/support bubble, keeping good hygiene and maintaining the social distancing rules.

I am greatly saddened by people I see, or hear of who are not taking these rules seriously enough. Many of you will have, unfortunately, have seen the devastating and even fatal results of this first hand. I hope and pray that this current period of lockdown will have a dramatic effect on lowering numbers and rates of COVID cases. As we are all well aware - this will ONLY happen if EVERYONE works together and ENSURES THE SAFETY OF THEMSELVES & OTHERS. This means every single person playing their part to keep this virus at bay. (Read further Blackpool Council information HERE.) Our Lady of the Assumption is a wonderful community and I hope we can help each other to keep as safe as we possibly can.

My prayers for a safe weekend and in the week to come.

Miss Haggerty

Welcome back to half term 2...

Our second half-term begins… and yet again we hear that our country is to begin the tightest of restrictions from Thursday 5th November due to the increase of COVID rates. Fortunately school is able to remain open for the time being, but it is a time for the whole community to carefully reflect upon our actions and to be extra vigilant with the hygiene and social distancing measures we currently have in place.

Yesterday, many of our children received their flu immunisations from the NHS nursing service. This is one way we can try to reduce our risk of this serious seasonal virus and stop the spread to others. Again, it is reassuring that many parents are looking at this serious illness, in which symptoms can be very similar to COVID, and trying to keep both your child and family in isolation until symptoms ease/subside; therefore reducing the risk to other children and families in our school community.

We do understand that these symptoms can be easily confused and there is no easy answer; however, to help a little, I have been sent a graphic which shows some of the key symptoms of each and what to look out for. CLICK HERE

Remember please that if anyone in your household/bubble experiences any COVID-like symptoms then EVERYONE IN THAT HOUSEHOLD MUST ISOLATE and therefore your child would need to stay at home during this period.

The NHS/Government advice still states:

Self-isolate immediately if:

• you have any symptoms of coronavirus (a high temperature, a new, continuous cough or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste)

• you've tested positive for coronavirus – this means you have the virus at that time

• you live with someone who has symptoms or tested positive

• someone in your support bubble has symptoms or tested positive

• you're told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace or the NHS COVID-19 app

• you arrive in the UK from a country with a high coronavirus risk – see GOV.UK: how to self-isolate when you travel to the UK

  I have attached again the graphic below which details specific situations and actions as a reminder…

It is now even more vital that we abide by the strict guidance given to us in order to bring down our areas extremely high rates of infection. Therefore can we please ask that you are alert to any symptoms (see above) and that you:

• self isolate IMMEDIATELY if anyone in family experiences symptoms.

• ensure that you wear a mask/face covering to drop off/collect your child.

• parents do not congregate at/around entrances to school. We must remember our social distancing and have regard for anyone who may be vulnerable - particularly as we have many grandparents who collect children.

• try to minimise what your child brings in to school - please do not bring rucksacks if a book/reading record is all that is needed

  We want Our Lady’s to remain open for all of our children!

Shoebox Appeal

Our PTFA have invited children/families to send in some items which could be used to fill shoeboxes for the annual ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ appeal which sends personalised boxes to needy children all over the world as Christmas Gifts for so many who may receive nothing at all on Christmas Day. If you are unaware of this charity - have a look at the website HERE.

Each class have decided to focus on one particular category of item to donate, so a small gift is all that is needed. (See below) but we do want to start filling the boxes NEXT WEEK - week beginning 9th November. So anything you can bring in would be gratefully appreciated.

Look out for the text to remind you what your child’s class has been asked to bring!

Please help a child this Christmas by packing a shoebox…

This term’s RE themes

This weekend we heard the Gospel story of the Beatitudes - or ‘Beautiful Attitudes’ as we have called them for the children. They teach us humility and faith in God in such a wonderful way. We are also concentrating upon our values of learning to be ‘Eloquent and Truthful’ in all we say and do.

When we find ourselves in difficult situations (as we are at the moment) it is so easy ONLY to think about yourself - but we are reminding ourselves that it is in supporting and helping others and in considering their needs that we find true happiness.

For November newsletter please click HERE. This will also give you a family reflection which you can do together at home.

Samaritan's Purse Shoebox Gifts

Our Lady’s PTA would like to support the Samaritan’s Purse Shoebox appeal again after it was such a success when our Key Stage 2 children took part last year. We would be grateful if you would read this letter which has all the details you will need to help with this event.

"Make your home in Me, as I make mine in You..." John 15

Yesterday was the feast of St Therese of Avila and I participated in a lovely liturgy with Bishop Paul who reflected on the Gospel of the day; reminding us that Christ longs to walk with us throughout our lives - if we would only let Him!

As we reach the end of our seventh week together we can reflect on how we have all challenged ourselves to use Christ as our model and to treat others as we would want to be treated. This isn’t always easy but the joy it gives to others is often immeasurable. Next week the children will be focused upon the greatest commandment - to love God and to love one another.

I have set the children a challenge in their last week before the half term to try to show their love for God and each others by being ‘responsible’ with not only the things they use, but with the people they meet each day! Knowing our amazing children, I am positive they will not only reach this challenge - but exceed my expectations! They never cease to make me feel both proud and humbled in equal measure.

I am also so proud of our youngest children in Reception who have made so much progress this half term. It is amazing to see them coming in each day so independently and now to see some of the wonderful work they have been undertaking and their confidence in every day classroom life. They have settled in to school routines amazing well and continue to shine each day! At the other end of the school, our Year 6 children also continue to amaze with their growing independence and maturity, and reading some of their writing this week makes me realise just what is possible! It really is so good to be back at school!  

We have so much to be thankful for and even in these dark times, surrounded by uncertainty we have to remember that we are indeed blessed. Every day I see children bouncing into school ready for the day ahead and I realise that school is a safe place for them, where they can learn alongside their friends. Thank you for helping with this and continuing to implement our guidelines. It would be so easy at this point to begin to slip and do what feels easier but as I keep reminding everyone, we have a duty to protect each other and to always think about the ‘greater good.’ Everyone is trying so hard to keep each other safe and your well-being matters greatly to us. We hope and pray each day that God will protect each and every member of our school community and all their loved ones.

Next week we will be sending out a midterm report which will provide you with a snapshot of where your child is at. We hope you will enjoy reading them with your child, celebrating successes and planning how you are going to meet those targets together.

Enjoy a lovely weekend; I believe the sun may be shining, fingers crossed!

God bless

Miss Haggerty

"He's got the whole world in His hands..."

We are so grateful that Our Lady of the Assumption school family is back together and we give thanks that God is holding us all in his hands!

This has been another week of amazing learning and of embedding our ‘new normal’ of our super hygiene regimes to ensure we always have Healthy Hands not Horrid Hands!!! The children are really taking this on board and are trying to ensure that, even in their own class bubble, they are trying not to touch anyone else’s equipment with their nice clean hands and, most importantly, (and this is the hard one for our younger children) trying not to touch each other - especially each other’s faces!!!!!! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, can you try to keep reminding your children that doing this will only spread those nasty germs from others - to us!

Further COVID guidance below…..

COVID UPDATES

Over the past 72 hours we have heard of further changes and restrictions being enforced in our locality, meaning we will have to be extra vigilant that we try our best to ensure that we continue to keep ourselves and our community safe.

Blackpool’s director of public health has urged Blackpool’s residents and businesses to stick by the rules – or risk the introduction of the same lockdown restrictions imposed on the rest of Lancashire. Dr Arif Rajpura strongly advised the public to comply with the COVID guidelines, such as wearing face coverings, social distancing and the newly-introduced 'rule of six' – or face the consequences. 

Dr Rajpura said yesterday:

“I have said repeatedly that this virus has not gone away and there is absolutely no room for complacency here or anywhere else. 

“The special measures that have been announced by the government across large swathes of the north of England over the past 48 hours illustrate that nowhere is immune to this sort of intervention. 

“It is absolutely critical that residents and businesses adhere to the new 'rule of six' restrictions and follow all COVID guidelines around social distancing and wearing of face coverings. 

“The same advice goes to all those in our resort. The only way to stop the spread of the virus is to respect the rules which are there for a reason.  

“We have already seen a slight increase in positive cases in Blackpool over the past couple of weeks and it is essential that we halt this trend if we are to avoid the sort of restrictions being imposed in other areas.” 

Again, a huge thank you to parents and families who are really trying to adhere to the guidance and really considering when your child is unwell and may pass germs on to others. In school we are ensuring that children and staff from different class bubbles are not mixing in order for us to minimise risk. Please be cautious of your children mixing outside of school with those in other classes/year groups as this may mean that, in the case of any positive cases of COVID, we may have to shut more than one class/year group meaning that all contact households would need to isolate for 14 days.

Please click on poster below which may answer some of your questions about when to/not to send your child to school:

Click on image to open

Leadership in action

Next week our Year 6 children are applying for their roles of responsibility; some are currently making a video to present to everyone in school to state why they feel they should be a leader this year. We know this year will be very different and all roles will have a large virtual aspect but we know these children will rise to the challenge and make us all incredibly proud. We look forward to appointing these special roles to the children over the next couple of weeks.

We look forward to another exciting week….

Le temps passe... (Time flies...)

It’s good to be back!

We are now ready to enter our third week back at school, and, even though I can’t quite believe how fast time is flying, I do know we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for. Together we are all ensuring that our school guidance is being followed, which is helping to keep everyone safe. All classes are slowly embedding those important routines and developing a sense of ‘our new class, where everyone is important’. The children are continuing to develop that real focus needed to master those key learning skills and already progress is being made. Teachers are slowly gaining a sense of what each child needs and school has that familiar learning buzz; which has been sorely missed. A little bit of normal, at last!

A reminder about our new school start and finish times (see below). Again, a huge thank you for your patience while all of us try to make things work as smoothly as possible.

So, for the first groups the gates will be open just before 8.40am and then close at 8.50am. For the second groups the gates will open before 9am but will close at 9.10am. Try not to bring your child too early as this will only cause congestion . Please remember that these new times have been brought in to try to alleviate ALL families being unable to socially distance when arriving and leaving school and therefore try to separate groups as much as possible. Parents must also try to ensure their, and others’ safety by making use of the yellow footprints to keep a distance of 2m and also by wearing masks to avoid any close contact when larger groups are present.

Curriculum

The children have now got off to a flying start with their learning and teachers are very much focused on childrens physical and mental health and wellbeing. Through our RHE curriculum teachers are enabling children to explore their feelings and begin to build that resilience which fosters both positivity and hope. Alongside this, the curriculum is broad and balanced and children are enjoying all those important aspects of learning. From Monday we begin our structured PE activities with sports coaches leading some of our lessons. The coaches will all be wearing PPE and all equipment used is sanitised after each group following our rigourous PE risk assessment. Most days the sessions will be outdoors. It will be great to see children enjoying their PE sessions outside, keeping them active is so important, and we are taking every opportunity to enjoy the weather which, as we all know can quickly change at this time of the year.

First Holy Communion

We are so fortunate that, as the country again faces further restrictions, our church is able to stay open due to Fr Jim’s diligence and the support of his team of amazing stewards who are following strict guidance to ensure the safety of all. In this way, Fr Jim has been able to hold public mass throughout the week and at weekends. (Times can be found on the church website - the button is on the left of our home page)

Because of this, Fr has kindly organised that for our Sacramental Children of 2020, First Holy Communion will still take place. Therefore following the current restrictions, children can receive First Holy Communion at Mass over 4 Saturday evening masses at 6pm. They will be receiving their Sacrament of Reconciliation this week following all our school safety procedures, so please keep them all in your prayers.

If you have not yet returned to public mass, Saturday evenings are a lovely quiet time when you can bring your child to mass and familiarise them with the beautiful structure and prayers of our Eucharistic celebration.

School Dinners

A huge thank you to everyone for ensuring that dinners are paid for in advance using ParentPay. Our lovely Finance Officer was despairing of us as we had too many arrears in previous years and were constantly chasing for payments but this year we are doing so much better. Thank you everyone. We realise sadly that these are very tough times for so many families and financial worries add such a burden -please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need to check if you qualify for free school meals - in KS2 that £11.50 pw can make a difference. It’s the simplest of forms - the only information we see is your National Insurance number and Pupil Access can run the check and inform us. In KS1 it’s still worth checking as school then receive a Pupil premium payment which helps enormously at this time.

Further COVID guidance

As we all adjust to living with COVID we continue to meet daily challenges. This week we have had a number of children who have been poorly with colds, some of whom have had to take a little time off. but we have also encountered children with further symptoms than simply ‘seasonal sniffles’. I know for parents illness can be difficult to navigate in this present situation; please keep talking to us and asking those questions. Although we may not be able to provide you with a definitive answer we can always signpost you to someone who can. If in doubt, please contact 111 or speak to your family doctor. I have attached here a document which contains questions and answers which you may find useful as you make decisions. Further resources which may help to explain things to your children during this time are available here.

Most importantly we all need to keep being vigilant and the best thing we can all do is to keep updated with the latest guidance and advice. Yesterday, schools were issued with a joint letter from our Director of Public Health for Blackpool and the Director of Children’s Services. They stated…

“We are proposing a low threshold, learning from the successful approach we have taken as a local authority in our care homes and appreciate that this advice broadens the scope and need for testing. The current issues in testing and laboratory capacity are exacerbating the situation. The testing and laboratory capacity has been raised as a critical issue and plans are underway to address and improve swift access, which will support school attendance.

Our Public Health Director’s advice, which I support, is that we follow the World Health Organisations list of symptoms to support keeping transmission low and keep our children, young people and staff team’s as safe as we possibly can (symptoms referenced below). We appreciate that this is a challenging time for all schools and our community, but this approach we feel is the most appropriate to take.”

WHO list of symptoms

Most common symptoms

• fever

• dry cough

• tiredness

Less common symptoms:

• aches and pains

• sore throat

• diarrhoea/severe stomach upset

• conjunctivitis

• headache

• loss of taste or smell

• a rash on skin, or discolouration of fingers or toes

Serious symptoms:

• difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

• chest pain or pressure

• loss of speech or movement

As you can see, Blackpool Council and Education Authorities are ‘erring on the side of caution’ and asking us all to be vigilant for these symptoms and if any are present/develop, ensuring we isolate and seek a test if we (or school) have concerns. Please refer to the advice documents above for information, but please be aware that further symptoms may be things to look out for in your children (WHO - World Health Organisation list of symptoms)

We are all experiencing this together, and for the first time. Remember together we will always be stronger as together we will be thinking about each other and our actions will say a thousand words…

Let’s all help each other to stay safe.

Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

A new year... a new beginning!

Welcome Back to everyone!

It has been wonderful to see everyone again and a delight to be able to open school to all pupils for a new school year. The children have all grown so much since we last saw many of them. Last week’s ‘part-time week’ was been a lovely way for the children (and staff) to get a chance to familiarise themselves with the new safety measures in school and to get to know each other - and of course, to find out lots about experiences during lockdown!

This week, as you know, we are welcoming everyone back to their year groups and having lunch in school as we usually would.

Breakfast & After School Club

Breakfast and After School Clubs are now open but spread across 3 settings: At After School Club, Key Stage 1 children are the only bubbles in the club building, Years 3 & 4 are in the dining hall and Years 5 & 6 are in the main hall. Children are dropped off and collected at the dining hall through the Thornhill Close gates (opposite presbytery).

Thank You

I also wanted to say a huge thank you to parents for your patience and understanding as we try to get things running as smoothly and of course, as safely as we can, to drop off and collect children from the building. I do completely understand your frustrations, and we are trying to help as much as we can by having family groups drop all siblings and collect them all at the same time and from the same entrance. I am aware that it is hard for parents to socially distance as they arrive to collect and drop off children; however we have painted yellow feet on the pavement on Thornhill close and are also reminding you that wearing masks at this time would be safest for all.

We are trying our very best to try to make our start and end of day run as safely as possible. We know there will have to be ‘tweaks’ along the way so your patience is really appreciated!

Our Lady’s Birthday

Normally today, on the Feast of Our Lady’s birthday, we would be celebrating with a school mass to ask for Mary’s blessings on our school at the start of a new year. It is sad that we cannot gather together in this way - but a huge thank you to Father Jim who has recorded a mass with some of Year 6 reading. The children have watched and celebrated in this way today.

Our whole school wishes Mary a ‘Happy Birthday’ and prays that she walks with us on our difficult journeys this year.

Fr Jim is also saying mass for the intention of all of Our Lady’s School Family this evening at 7pm in church - a lovely way to start our school year!

Please do let us know if you are unsure/unclear about any of our current arrangements. Phoning school is the best and safest way for us to discuss anything rather than coming to the office.

A reminder that on Friday school closes after lunch, (see times below)

Again thank you for your understanding while we get arrangements running as smoothly as we can.