25 November 2022

Dear Parents and Carers

It is hard to believe we only have three weeks to the end of this term. The children continue to work very hard maintaining their usual  curriculum and preparing for their Christmas Nativity and Carol Service. Letters will be sent out next week regarding Nativity Play tickets. Thank you if you have already sent in your child's costume and we would be grateful that all are in school no later than Monday 5 December. Thank you, we are so looking forward to both the performances.

 Our decorated trolley is now ready for tonight’s Three Kings parade. Please come and join us to walk through Stourport and watch as the town’s Christmas lights are turned on. All the staff will be there but children must be accompanied by an adult. This is a lovely traditional community event for all ages. We will be meeting between 5.30 and 5.45 pm outside the lower Civic Hall carpark and would love to see you there. My thanks to Miss Mc Gowan who has organised everything for this evening .

At our recent Parents Evening attendance was discussed with some parents and we have been really pleased to see that attendance
is rising. Our attendance target is a minimum of 96% with our current whole school attendance now up to 93.4% . This is great news and thank you so much for supporting good attendance but it is important that this improvement continues. 94% appears a high percentage but in fact it equates to 14 days off per year. The table below illustrates the impact of absence. When we surveyed the children in July 2022 they were extremely positive about attending school from both  a learning and social perspective. Many of their reasons for both absence and lateness were beyond their control and caused them sadness at missing out and worried about missed learning and friendship. We understand if a child is too ill to be in school then the right place to be is safe at home until they have recovered. We really want now to work together to ensure our children have the best opportunities by attending daily and on time. Our doors open at 8.50 before the official start time of 9 am to support parents in drop off and gives the children time to settle and chat before the day starts. We still however have a small number of children who are late and arrive after lessons have started. This means they are starting on the 'back foot' every day. If you need support in anyway please contact me so we can work together to improve attendance and give every one of our children the best possible opportunities. Thank you.

As we begin the season of Advent on Sunday we begin our preparation towards Christmas. Tonight the children will bring home their Walk With Me Advent calendars with a daily focus for us all to think about or do. This has always been enjoyed by the children and our thanks to Fr Richard for organizing them for school.

Advent Prayer

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe.

You sent your Son to be the Light of the world and to

spread his light of love to all.

As we light the candles of this wreath

May its growing brightness remind us of the approaching

nearness of your Son

So that the day of His coming may find us prepared and

filled with joy.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

I have said before there can be a misconception that only Catholic children can apply to our school. We welcome applications from all families of all or no faith. If you know of any families who are presently applying for a school place please encourage them to contact me to arrange a visit and tour of the school. Applications for Reception Class 2023 must be completed online by 15 January 2023. If you require any assistance please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Brown in the office.

In the last couple of week, the Year 6 children have been practising dance movements linked to their WWII topic. Have a look at the photos and see how much fun they are having.

This week year 2 have been subtracting 2 2-digit numbers. We started the week using base 10 equipment to support us with this and by the end of the week the children had moved on to more abstract methods.  Well done Year 2

In Year 3 last week the children have been taking part in several Anti-bullying activities. During one afternoon, the children enjoyed creating their own anti-bullying lyrics to a popular reggae song, which they then performed to their peers. In Science, we have been finding out about different bones and muscles in our body and why they are so important. On Tuesday Year 3 spent the morning at the canal basin followed by an afternoon of activities with volunteers from the Canal and Rivers Trust as part of their topic studying our wealth of local history. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as the children enjoyed the day!

The raffle for the Smiggle Advent calendar continues on Monday and Tuesday with tickets at 50p. The draw will be in Assembly on Thursday morning.

We look forward to seeing many of our families at the Book and Biscuit morning on We3ednesday 7 December. This was highlighted in Mrs Tasker letter sent home yesterday. If you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact the school office or myself. 

We say goodbye today to Mrs Westwood who has been with us this term as part of her teacher training course. We wish her every success in her new placement. We have also welcomed Mr Dudley to Year 2 for his student placement starting in January. He has been in this week to meet the children and we look forward to seeing him again after Christmas.

We look forward to seeing many of you this evening with our festive trolley!

KE Savage

Principal