HEADTEACHER NEWS LETTER Thursday 29 th March

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1 HEADTEACHER NEWS LETTER Thursday 29 th March Let us prepare to celebrate Easter in the joy of God! Christ is risen! Christ is alive! Accept the risen Jesus into your life. Take a small step towards Him- He awaits you with open arms. Pope Francis As our Lenten journey draws to close, we reflect upon the events of Holy Week and give thanks for graces received. Our Year 1 pupils delighted their audience with a fitting tribute to Christ s journey from Palm Sunday to His glorious Resurrection. The children spoke, sang and acted with great confidence and respect. Their faces reflected the light and love of God and shone with delight. Thank you to our Year 1 teaching staff for preparing this lovely celebration for us all to enjoy SCHOOL NEWS.. World Book Day On 15 th March we celebrated World Book Day across the school. The teachers and children all made an amazing effort to dress up as their favourite book characters and celebrate this country-wide event. The children took part in a range of activities across the day including reading with other year groups, watching interactive videos and learning about different authors, illustrators and characters. Each child also received a 1 gift token to put towards one of the special World Book Day books or towards any other book of their choice. Please encourage your children to use these vouchers. Huge thanks to all the staff, children and parents who helped organise and get ready for this special event. Here s some pictures of our Year 6 efforts!

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3 AND FROM THE CLASSROOM FRONT. We are celebrating Easter in nursery we are presenting an Easter Liturgy to our parents and family. We have retold the story of Easter, each of us has had words to say aloud and we have sang songs about Easter, and completed a range of Easter activities. We are excited about Easter Sunday when we can celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the end of Lent. Nursery have been doing good deeds for Lent. The children have had a fantastic Spring Term, celebrating Mother s Day and World Book Day. The children found it very funny that we had snow as they were busy looking for signs of Spring!

4 World Book Day in Reception was fantastic with all the children coming to school dressed as their favorite character. That afternoon the Reception children choose their favorite book and were read to by Year Six children. The photos show how engaged the children were with books. It was a joy to see. In Literacy we explored rhyming sounds using stories. Following on from this the children wrote their own sentences using rhyme. Maths involved counting in 2s and subtraction number sentences. We continued to read and discuss the story of Easter in RE. All of the children in Reception have now had the opportunity to be taught how to ride a bike by Mr Reed.

5 Year 1 have been very busy these past two weeks, we have been getting ready for our Easter production. Thank you parents for helping rehearse lines and practice songs for our production. As well as preparing for our Easter production, Year 1 has had a brilliant world book day, sharing all our different books and reading together. We even got to make our own book covers! In our learning we have started our new science topic on plants. It has been very interesting so far. We have started by dissecting plants, to get a closer look at the different parts of plants. After Easter, Year 1 will be starting to grow and work on the schools gardening plot. If anyone has any gardening gloves, shovels and spades or watering cans that they would like to donate, that would be a great help. Finally if any Year 1 parents would like to volunteer to help with the garden, please contact your child s teacher!

6 In Year 2, we have been learning about the Gospel of Mark. For the first time, pupils have opened the Bible to explore some of the many stories from this sacred text. We found out about the Old and New Testaments, the four gospel writers and even read some of Mark s gospel stories. Did you know that there is no infancy narrative in the gospel of Mark? Here is what some of the children had to say I noticed that there are two testaments, an Old Testament and a New Testament Lily 2HB The gospel of Jesus temptation in the desert reminded me of the story of Noah s ark. Jesus was in the desert for 40 days and the flood also lasted for 40 days. Jonathan 2HB The story of the Passover reminded me of when Moses led the people out of Egypt. Michael 2SO I noticed that these stories were all about Jesus. Myla 2SO I liked it when we had to find 4 stories from Mark s gospel. Ciara 2JC I can tell that these stories are special because they are all about Jesus and his disciples. Alex 2JC Year 3 We have ended this term with a plethora of fun Roman activities. The trip to Verulamium was a chilly but invigorating day where the children were able to handle actual Roman artifacts and extend their learning with the amazing information found in the museum. Seeing the actual ruins of a Roman theatre enabled children to visualize and question how the entertainment space was used. In addition, children were also able to experience the true beauty of Roman mosaics and appreciated the fine detail thousands of years

7 after it was made. For Roman Day children had their own personal wax tablet to practise their Roman numerals and Latin; see if you can read what they have written! After an epic gladiator battle, children were able to enjoy a Roman feast whilst lying down and having the teachers spray perfume on their feet! This week, Year 4 have been learning about what makes a good insulator or conductor of electricity by creating electrical circuits and testing an array of different materials. In our R.E. lessons we have been making comparisons between Mark s gospel, and the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. By looking more closely at the persecution of Christians in Rome when Mark was writing this gospel, the children have gained a deeper understanding of the urgent writing style and wording that Mark used. In English, the children have been enjoying performing poems to their class from our topic poetry book, Please, Mrs Butler. The children are gaining lots of confidence through practising key performance skills such as using facial expression, subtle body movements and voice intonation This half term has been a busy and exciting one for Year 5. We have studied the book Coraline, a horror story and we were fortunate enough to secure tickets for the world premiere of a new opera based on the story. Pupils were immersed in the retelling of the story through song, on a live stage and screamed and gasped as the events unfolded! Our final treat this half term is to watch the film version of Coraline, and we will go onto to compare these three versions as part of our learning. In our Art and Geography topic we have been studying Turner s landscapes and rivers and have had the chance to create our own masterpiece of the River Thames at Westminster on canvas. Watch out art world, one of us may just turn out to be the Turner of the 21 st century!

8 Year 6 have been working incredibly hard this half term to perfect their dance skills, culminating in a special outdoor performance this Tuesday to crowds of enraptured teachers and students! The children have explored a variety of dance styles from swing to contemporary and have enjoyed staying active while continuing to work hard in the classroom during English and Maths lessons. Last week the pupils greatly enjoyed their Brazil Day. The day was full of a range of activities. In the morning the children participated in a creative art lesson where they made Brazilian carnival inspired masks. Additionally, the children were involved in playing along with traditional samba music and this was followed by a carnival in the hall. The dance moves on show were incredible with a range of children winning competitions. Later in the day the children enjoyed a Coin football competition and the children recreated the world famous Christ the Redeemer statue out of clay. Brain Gym The Quiz Club Team travelled to Gladstone Park Primary in North West London, where the intensity of brain strain was immense! The children performed so well under incredible pressure, I am very proud of them for achieving 4 th place (missing out 3 rd place by 10 points!) out of 12 very strong teams. Well done again team, thank you for representing our school with such high standards! 15 students travelled to Cardinal Wiseman for a writing workshop this week. The Year 5s and 6s had to write a short story which was revised and edited by Year 9 student leaders; they were given a range of tips and tricks such as using pathetic fallacy to improve their descriptive writing. Children were very

9 positive about working with older pupils to improve their writing outcomes and engage their reader with a true author s voice. Zach he (Ben) taught me so much in such little time! SCHOOL COUNCIL EASTER EGG RAFFLE Our School Council have raised a grand total of for the British Red Cross! Thank you to Miss. Darkes for organizing this event. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all for supporting! KS1/Reception winners Runners up Lily Al-Seraf 1EE Lauresna Saab 1EE Elena 2SO Mya 2HB Olek 2SO GRAND PRIZE WINNER Lynelle 2HB KS2 winners Runners up Johnny 3DD Christie 6HD Tom 3DD Rebekah 5KP Dylan 6CR GRAND PRIZE WINNER Craig 3DD Our Nursery pupils raised 50 for Emmaus House thank you! St. Gregory s Got Talent a note from Mr. Ross Dear Pupils, Over the last 3 weeks I have had the pleasure of watching over 100 performances that you have been working on in your own time. It has been remarkable to see just how talented you are! Thank you all for your participation in the audition process. Unfortunately only 18 acts could go through to perform at our St. Gregory s Got Talent Show which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. A wide range of talents were on show - from comedy acts to musicians - and the audience had a great time watching the finalists perform. The School Council judged each act and I am delighted to inform you of our winners and runners up. Well done all who participated!

10 1 St Place Nathan O Connor 2 nd Place Aimee Hatch Joint 3 rd Place Adam P Joint 3 rd Place The Brainless Boys OTHER NEWS AND UPDATES. All families have received a letter from Maura Lyons our Chair of Governors, requesting your financial help to support us in meeting the needs of our school. We have already received a number of generous donations and completed standing orders. Every contribution is greatly appreciated. Thank you! Our Junior Toilet Works are on schedule and will be completed for the start of the new term. We are pleased to have finalized this renovation which was long overdue! Thank you for all your donations of food which were delivered to Emmaus House last week. Lenten Boxes will be collected in after the Easter holiday. Still some time left to fill up your box! We hope to raise lots of money for the Catholic Children s Society PTA NEWS UPDATES! Children's Disco The Children's Disco (for year 1 through to year 6 only) will be held on Saturday 28th April. Please see attached Disco Ticket Request Form for further details. Tickets (which won't be a physical ticket but your child's name will be on the entrance) are 5 and limited. They will be allocated on a first come, first served basis so get your form and money in sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment! Next PTA Meeting The next PTA meeting will take place 8pm on Thursday 19th April in the Abbey Coffee Shop. All welcome. We will be discussing the logistics for the Children's Disco so if you are volunteering, it would be very useful for you to attend It just remains for me to wish everyone in our school community a Blessed, Holy Easter time. School ends at 1.30pm today - Thursday 29 th March - and pupils return to school on Monday 16th April. Margaret Kolanowska Headteacher