Dear Parents and Carers

The whole school have had a wonderful week celebrating reading. The children have explored texts in class and enjoyed fun activities that promote a love of reading. Many of the children have visited Stourport Library this week and have been so excited to see the lovely books on offer there too. A huge, 'Thank you!' to all of our families for the time and effort spent on World Book Day itself to provide such beautiful and imaginative costumes. 

Today the under 9s and under 11s football team took part in the annual CTA Football Competition at Winterfold. The children enjoyed competing against other Catholic schools in Worcestershire and it gave them an opportunity to develop key skills in a competitive environment. The under 9s enjoyed experiencing their very first taste of representing the school at a competitive event and demonstrated fantastic energy and teamwork throughout. All this, while retaining a smile and enthusiastic approach for the whole morning, playing the game that they love. Our under 11s played brilliantly and although not winning they drew one of their matches against challenging competition.Our under 9s had two wins, drew three and lost one match, a brilliant effort  .Mr Tasker and Mrs Warnett both said it was noticeable how their drive to succeed, support for one another and fantastic sportsmanship allowed them to do so well. Well done to all. Thank you to all the parents and carers for your support and to Mr Fletcher for his coaching expertise over recent weeks .

A reminder that next week we are holding Spring Term Parents' Evening. Meetings will be held both virtually via School Cloud and in person at school. Face to face appointments are on Tuesday 8 March from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. Virtual appointments are on Wednesday 9 March from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. Please note that we will not accept any bookings made after 4 March in order to give staff time to prepare. We would request that even with the lifting of COVID restrictions parents and carers continue to be cautious and use hand gel on arrival and departure. Thank you for your support.

This week our Year 6 pupils received notification of their High School places. Hagley have received several enquiries from parents and carers unclear on how to accept their child’s place for September 2022. We have been asked to share the following information with parents of children moving on to Hagley..

To formally confirm acceptance of their child’s place at Hagley Catholic High School parents/carers need to email Worcestershire Local Authority School Admissions Team directly at schooladmissions@worcschildrenfirst.org.uk The email should provide the following information: Child's Full Name, Child's Date of Birth, Name of the School they are accepting a place with i.e. Hagley Catholic High School.

This week Year 1 went further afield and enjoyed a wonderful trip to Whitlenge to launch their new topic 'The Enchanted Woodland'.

This week the Year 6 children visited Stourport library and they had the opportunity to see the large (and growing) collection of quality fiction and non-fiction books, picture books, dual language books, magazines and newspapers.  Mrs Freitas read 'The Little Prince' by Antoine Saint-Exupery, the beloved 20th century children's classic, adapted for a younger audience for the very first time. 

This term the Year 6 children will be reading ‘Street Child’ by Bertie Doherty and it’s a story about a boy named Jim who tries to escape a workhouse in Victorian London. To celebrate their Victorian unit, Year 6 chose to come dressed as Victorians.

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On Ash Wednesday we celebrated a beautiful  whole school Mass, streamed from church, and ashes were distributed. The children sang and prayed with great reverence. We will be encouraging the children to focus on doing something positive during this season of Lent as part of their preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

Next Friday, 11 March, we say a temporary goodbye today to Mrs Tasker who leaves us for a very well deserved rest before the birth of her baby. I would like to thank her personally for the massive amount of extra work she has done to ensure a smooth transition for the children. We wish her and Mr Tasker much happiness for the future. She will be missed by us all but we are all looking forward to meeting the new arrival.

This week in Year 5 they have started their new topic, Pharaohs! They were challenged to create the tallest freestanding pyramid using only cocktail sticks and jelly sweets. It was a challenge, but by working as a team, they all managed  to build a structure! They also enjoyed a trip to the local library where they found books on every topic they could think of and enjoyed reading to their friends and teachers. 

Year three thoroughly enjoyed their Book Day challenge this week and created a beautiful class book in a day! Their theme was ‘Woodland’ because they have started their topic about the Stone Age and discussed the land use during this time. Every child searched through well-known literature including The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Wind In The Willows and many others to find phrases used to describe woodland. They then chose their favourite phrase to write in our class book with an illuminated capital letter. Well done Year3.

Reception Class had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day. All of their costumes looked fantastic and they enjoyed a day of activities based around some of their favourite animal books. The week was finished off with an exciting trip to the library with Year 2! 

We have been asked to highlight the junior section of our local cricket club.

Over the past week our thoughts and focus has been on the conflict occurring in Ukraine and the
devastating impact on the people in that region. As parents and carers you will know how you wish to respond to your children's questions and concerns but you may find for the older children Newsround is a useful source of age appropriate information

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/60554258

It would seem appropriate to end this week with the opportunity to share a prayer that we as a community have said this week.

Prayer for Ukraine

Loving God,

We pray for the people of Ukraine,

for all those suffering or afraid,

that you will be close to them and protect them.

We pray for world leaders,

for compassion, strength and wisdom to guide their choices.

We pray for the world

that in this moment of crisis,

we may reach out in solidarity

to our brothers and sisters in need.

May we walk in your ways

so that peace and justice

become a reality for the people of Ukraine

and for all the world.

Amen.

Thank you for your ongoing support and we hope everyone has a good weekend with their families.

K E Savage

Principal