16 November 2018

Dear Parents

Thank you to all those parents and friends who supported our Year 2 Mass this morning. We were so impressed by the children's reverence as well as their fluent, confident reading. Well done Year 2, Please make a note of your child's Class Mass and we look forward to seeing you there and please stay for a cup of tea afterwards.

Thank you for all your generous donations of jam jars and chocolate for the Christmas Fayre. Thank you! I am very aware that we rely heavily on your generosity and understand Christmas is a great expense for everyone. The money you raise will be used for the next phase of the playground development. The PTA have already put a considerable amount of work into the Christmas Fayre (29 November) to ensure that it is a lovely family evening. If you feel you could offer help, before or during the night please contact a member of the committee or any member of staff. All help is gratefully received.

Our next school Mass at church will be this Sunday at 10.00am when our Year 3 children will make their commitment to their sacramental preparation. It would be lovely to see as many children as possible at this Mass as our children lead the singing. We look forward to seeing many families, Catholic and non Catholic, as we celebrate our faith together.

Preparations have started for our KS1 Nativity and KS2 Advent Service. Please note times and dates on the website. This is always a wonderful time of the year and we look forward to enjoying the children displaying and sharing their talents. There will be no need for tickets for either the Nativity at school or the Advent service at St Wulstan’s Church and letters will be sent nearer the time regarding arrival times etc.

This week your child will have come home with a leaflet explaining about our annual charity appeal for Samaritan’s Purse, ‘Operation Christmas Child’ . Please visit the charity’s website to see the pleasure and excitement that one gift can bring to children who could well believe that the world had forgotten them. I am aware that there are many financial demands on families especially coming up to Christmas. Please though take a moment to read the leaflet as a shoebox can be filled quite cheaply - a toothbrush and toothpaste, a comb, some hair bobbles, a cheap notebook and colouring pencils and a tennis ball would bring so much happiness. We will collect the shoeboxes over the next few weeks and hopefully will surpass our highest number ever of 125 boxes. Thank you.

On Monday 12th November, Year 3 visited Cadbury's World as part of their Scrumdiddlyumptious topic.They learned about how the Aztecs discovered chocolate, how the Europeans brought it back with them and how the Cadbury brothers developed their business. The children had the opportunity to write their names in melted chocolate and to temper the chocolate in order for it to cool. Their favourite parts of the day were trying melted chocolate and a lengthy visit to the Cadbury shop! The children were immaculately behaved throughout the day, Mrs Portman and Mrs James were very proud of them! They had a lovely day! Many thanks to Mrs Foskett for accompanying Year 3.

Our sporting calendar continued today as some of our Year 5 and Year 6 children took part in the Wyre Forest Sports Partnership Cross Country Competition at St Anne’s Primary School. The competition followed on from the recent trials which took place a few weeks ago over at the Memorial Park. The children showed great confidence, resilience and spirit and they tackled the muddy course with great enthusiasm, once again proving themselves to be great ambassadors for our school. 

On Thursday 14 February our Year 5 children will be performing at Birmingham Town Hall along with children from Hagley Catholic High School and its feeder schools. This will be the 7^th annual concert at the Town Hall and they have been absolutely fantastic in previous years and this year’s concert I am sure will be equally good. Tickets for this concert will soon be available and then in the new year further details will be sent out regarding a coach for parents on the evening. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy so please encourage family and friends to attend.

The Scholastic' Half price' book fair arrives on Monday and will be open before and after school from Monday afternoon. This is a good Christmas shopping opportunity as the books are popular and genuinely half price. A further bonus is the commission we earn to buy library books which the children choose. Please pop in and have a browse.

Wishing you a lovely weekend with your families.

KE Savage