Dear Parents/Carers,

What a week of celebration for us all! Happy St. Patrick's Day to the Irish and Montserratian members of our school community and Happy St. Joseph's day to us all.

To celebrate the feast day of our patron saint we attended Mass at Virgo Fidelis on Wednesday. Teachers have said it was a wonderful celebration and the children sang wonderfully and uplifted the Church.  Thank you so much to Mrs Phillips, Mrs Winters, Mrs Parry, and everyone who helped make the Mass a success. We are grateful to the children who served and read, leading us in prayer and worship.

In preparation for Lent, children attended Confession at Virgo Fidelis on Monday. Thank you for Fr James for working to closely with us and helping us develop our children's relationship with God.

On Tuesday,  Y5 and Y6 children were invited to watch a production of The 12 Angry Men at Cedars. Thank you to Mrs Daniels for organising. I love how the partnerships we've formed and develop are benefitting our children, enriching their education journey. 

There was a very exciting development in our Reception classes... our chicks hatched this week! The children were left in a state of awe and wonder as they witnessed life coming into the world. They looked after them so well and I am sure they will remember this special learnring activity for years to come. I can't wait to see they work they produce based on their observations.

There is a sickness bug going around school which has effected certain year groups. We are encouraging everyone to wash their hands. Please can you help to stop it spreading by remembering not to bring your child back to school until 48 hours has passed.

I hope you and your family have a great weekend.

Mrs Ashley and the Team

Consent

Consent means giving clear, informed, and voluntary permission to do something. While it’s often used when talking about sexual activities, it’s also important in other situations, like setting boundaries in relationships and making decisions. For children, this means making sure they can say “yes” or “no” without feeling pressured, forced, or tricked into it. 

Why is it important for children to understand consent?

Teaching consent encourages children to respect their own and others’ physical and emotional boundaries. Consent fosters open communication, mutual respect and equality in relationships. Educating children about consent helps prevent situations of sexual assault, harassment and coercion later on in life.  Understanding consent gives children the tools to make informed choices about their body and relationships. Consent creates a culture of respect which helps to reduce harmful behaviours like victim-blaming. 

The 4 C’s of consent help children know if consent has and is been given: 

Clear: Yes means yes. If it isn’t a yes, it’s a no. 

Continuous: Keep checking that it is still a yes; yes now doesn’t necessarily mean yes later. 

Coercion-free: It isn’t yes if pressure has been put on someone to do something. 

Conscious: The person giving consent must be fully capable of giving consent.

Over the past few weeks Year 4 have been incredibly busy. As well as their usual Maths and English lessons they have taken part in book week, including a visit by a theatre company and making their own hats for the parade, attended Mass at two different churches, enjoyed a celebration of St Josephs day, a trip to PGL and a visit to the science museum. 

The pupils who attended PGL had a fantastic time, participating in a number of different activities including archery, rock climbing and the giant swing. Those who went to the science museum enjoyed visiting different exhibits including flight and time with some claiming that this was "The best trip ever!"

This term, our classrooms have been buzzing with enthusiasm as we continue our maths learning using the mastery approach. Our young mathematicians have been engaging in hands-on, interactive lessons that build on their understanding of a range of maths topics. They practice their number skills and develop number sense using a variety of concrete objects and pictorial representations, such as ten frames, dotted dice and number lines.

In Year 1, children have been learning how to recognise 2D shapes and patterns. A key strategy to developing their understanding is to give them the opportunity to compare shapes and answer the questions: What is the same? What is different?  In line with the mastery approach, children have been exploring addition to 20, learning through games, and using a variety of strategies for solving subtraction problems.

In Year 2, children have been introduced to key vocabulary to help them talk about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes, including number of sides and vertices. They have been taught how to recognise lines of symmetry and complete drawings of shapes using their understanding of symmetry. At home, you can ask: ‘How do you know it is a square/triangle/rectangle?’ and encourage them to explain using the correct mathematical vocabulary. In number and the four operations, children are becoming increasingly confident partitioning numbers in different ways and working flexibly with addition and subtraction.

Through a series of engaging activities and challenges, pupils in key stage 2, are consolidating their understanding of  multiplication and division. To prepare for the Multiplication Tables Check taking place in June, children in Year 4 continue to practise rapid recall of the multiplication facts up to 12 x 12, three times a week. In addition to this, weekly fluency practice is ongoing across the school to help children retain and build on previous learning in the four basic operations.

Lessons have been enriched with a variety of interactive resources allowing pupils to work collaboratively and independently. This makes learning more accessible and fun. The junior children also benefit from using concrete objects and pictorial representations to aid understanding and explain their thinking. For example, Year 3 children have been demonstrating their understanding of a hundred more/less using Dienes and multilink cubes. In Year 5, pupils have been using ten frames and fraction bars to write percentages as decimals and fractions, and using place value counters to demonstrate understanding of the formal written method for long multiplication.

Last week was assessment week for years 1-6, who had the opportunity to recall number facts and use reasoning to solve a variety of word problems, including problems involving time, mass and shape. We are pleased to announce that children continue to make good progress and we will consistently provide opportunities for them to develop a deeper understanding of skills and concepts taught. 

We hope you and your family have a wonderful weekend.

The St. Joseph's Team