Welcome back and a very happy new year! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you all a great new year.
Yesterday we celebrated Epiphany and the new year by going to church for whole school mass. Epiphany is celebrated 12 days after Christmas on the 6th January and is the time when Christians remember the Wise Men who visited Jesus in Bethlehem after his birth. During mass, Father Frank set us all a challenge. Between now and Easter, each day we need to make someone’s day by saying lovely things about them. Together, we can spread the good news and share Jesus’ love. I’m delighted to say that I’ve already heard and seen children rising to this challenge.
Our award winners:
Golden Award (RESPECT) - Eleena
Writing Award - Jackson
Maths Award - Elsie
Our learning this week…
In English we have begun to explore the story FArTHER, which we will use to support our development of writing a first-person setting narrative. This week the children have considered different pieces of evidence from the text to write a prediction and in small groups they have made mood palettes to describe different illustrations from the book.
Our focus in maths has been identifying prime numbers and using factors to determine whether a number is prime or composite.
In RE the children have been working with Mrs Mannix
In art the children have begun to look at the 3D work of Alberto Giacometti and have had a go at drawing figures inspired by his sculptures.
In Spanish we are continuing to learn words related to our family.
In PE the children are working with PE specialist Luke from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is invasion games.
In our Bounce Forward session, we started to talk about ordinary heroes and agreed that you don’t have to wear a cape to be a hero. We considered the heroes in our own lives (our friends, our family, people we meet on our travels who are kind to us…) and then the children designed a super friend. The children thought about all the characteristics of what a true good friend is like, a superfriend - honest, trustworthy, kind, helpful, good listener, supportive… It was lovely to hear that many children already feel they have superfriends and heroes in their lives who support them to be resilient and bounce forward when times are tough.
Build your resilience
How many resilient moves can you make this week?
Use the resilient framework to identify the ones you and your family make. Resilience Framework
This week’s resilient move challenges are:
Get enough sleep (Basics potion)
Be brave (Coping potion)
If you would like to share a photo of your child making a resilient move, then send them to our email year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will post them here each week. For example, a photo of a bike ride - the resilient move would be fresh air and exercise which comes from the basic potion on the framework. Please note: if the photo has other children on it, please ensure you have consent to share it with me.
The BEBCMAT Rock Stars Super League has a new competition, which started on Monday and runs till the 20th December. Good luck everyone!
Our school is currently in 3rd place out of 12 schools in the trust and we have scored 604 points (school average score) so far.
This week’s Our Lady’s Top of the Rock’s Leaderboard:
1st Ava Year 4 6746
2nd Matilda Year 4 6567
3rd Leo Year 5 4049
4th Lilly T Year 6 3018
5th Kurt Year 6 1830
Well done to everyone on our leaderboard this week!👏🏻
At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…
What Parents & Educators Need to Know about JusTalk Kids This free guide breaks down the potential risks of JusTalk Kids and provides expert advice on how to safeguard young users as they navigate the app.
We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all. Thank you.
To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel
Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…
20th January Introduction to Tales Retold at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool
3rd February Year 5 visit to Blackpool Grand Theatre’s Oracy Symposium
March – June 2025 Year 5’s in school workshops with experienced drama/dance practitioners as part of the Tales Retold project
Thursday 15th May Year 5 trip to Grand Theatre to watch Pig-Heart Boy Thursday 15th May
(Information about the above dates will be sent by email.)
Great start to this half term Year 5, have a great weekend!
Mrs McVey, Mrs Hodgkiss and Miss Andrew
If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.
