The Light of Christ

We looked ahead this week to the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, as Jesus sets out to begin his ministry. He calls his first disciples, preaches in the synagogues and heals the sick. We are reminded of the Prophet Isaiah’s words, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Jesus’ words and actions help the people to see their lives in a new light. He offers them a bright new perspective.

We, too, are called to be a bright, shining presence in the lives of those around us. And we have the perfect reminder - our school logo! Although a smiling sunshine might seem like an unusual choice for a Catholic primary school, it actually fits perfectly with our mission and ethos. Light helps to show us the way, it reveals the truth and encourages new life - we are dependent on it. In the same way, we are spiritually dependent on the light of Christ to enrich our lives.

A - 3rd Ordinary

Year 1 in control

In PE this week, Year 1 have been thinking about using a range of well rehearsed skills (throwing and catching, jumping and running) but with a focus on balance and stability. The children have become very confident in the skills above as we have practised these many times over the course of the year. However, the focus now lies with accuracy and control of movement when changing direction and thinking about our body shapes.

Trouble in Year 3

Our English work in Year 3 has been based on the popular book 'The Twits' by Roald Dahl. After enjoying the story, we looked at how dialogue is set out in a text and practised using inverted commas. After this, we planned a new trick the characters might play on each other and wrote an additional chapter for the book using dialogue. We had some wonderful ideas: water in balloons, glue in her shoes, snakes in the bed, bath bombs in the porridge and hair dye in a hat! The new chapters were a delight to read and some children enjoyed acting them out. Our next task is to write our new trick as a play script. A wonderful couple of weeks of writing and acting in Year 3.

Big Feelings in Nursery

This week in nursery we have been continuing our theme of the colour monster. We have been making our own 'colour monsters' out of playdough, creating some paper 'colour monsters' and discussing why we might be feeling sad, angry, happy and loved. Even the nursery teachers got involved with a little role play to show the children how their words and actions can make someone else feel sad and then loved. The children have been busy making some large scale colour monster pictures so we can create a display to help us to continue to identify our feelings.

Collectables in Year 2

This week in English we have been looking at collections, a continuation of their work on the book, "The Marvellous Fluffy Squishy Itty Bitty". The children brought in a variety of different things that they collect such as stickers, football cards, shells, precious stones, collectible 50p coins and much more! It was wonderful to see the children sharing their interests, asking and answering questions and having an opportunity to make links in their learning. These skills help to develop vocabulary, build confidence when writing independently and really bring their sentences to life!

Reception on the move...

Reception classes have been working hard on their dance moves this week. Each week, they move and dance to different music with a particular theme. Last week we did different things in the playground. This week, we were focusing on the ocean and different animals that live there! What do you think they will be learning next time? Here is a clue... crash, bang, pop!

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London Bound

This week Year 6 went on the most wonderful trip to London. We started the day by arriving beside the London Eye and taking in the view of the Houses of Parliament before making our way to the London Aquarium. To enter the Aquarium, the children walked over a transparent bridge with sharks and unusual sea creatures darting beneath them. The children stayed transfixed throughout the visit, marvelling at rays, snapping turtles, jellyfish, penguins (who were really showing off) and one of the UK's largest living coral reefs.

Following this, we walked along the Southbank in the most glorious sunshine, taking in the sights, particularly marvelling at St Paul's Cathedral. We arrived at Shakespear's Globe ready for a tour and a workshop delving into the tormented mind of Macbeth. The children acted out a famous scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, paying particular interest to their tone of voice (mostly a whisper due to the treacherous content of the conversation), intonation and body language. We will be using this piece of Shakespere's text in our English, planning an argument for or against the demise of King Duncan!

A huge thank you from the Year 6 team to all the parent helpers who joined us for the day; we couldn't have done the trip without you!

Anyone for Lacrosse?

Undeterred by the sub-zero temperatures on Tuesday morning, a group of Junior children braved the icy conditions to begin a new club for this term - lacrosse. Although lacrosse is less common in the UK, it is the oldest sport in North America, dating back to the 1500s, when it was played to settle disputes and prevent war between nations. It has grown into one of the most popular sports in the USA, and is played by both children and adults.

Lacrosse is a high-speed team sport played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick. We are playing a primary school friendly version called Pop Lacrosse, with shorter sticks with a plastic net and a softer ball. This aids with hand-eye coordination and builds confidence for those who have not played it before. Lacrosse is often referred to as "the fastest game on two feet" because of how quickly the ball moves across the field. We saw some amazing speed from the children who took part, who were only too happy to chase down the ball in an attempt to keep themselves warm!

The children were keen to move on to playing some matches during the early morning club, and we look forward to continuing with skills practice so that we can start to play some matches soon. Next week, we will be introducing throwing, which is quite a tricky skill to master. The world record for the fastest lacrosse ball thrown during a match is 114mph! We might not quite be reaching those speeds next week, but after a very successful first session, it may not be long!

Out of this World

This week in Science, Year 5 were given the task to create a simple model to represent their phases of the moon learning. In pairs, they were given a ping pong ball, whiteboard pen and pencil to create a simple model of the phases of the moon. The children managed to solve the task by shading in half of the ping pong ball with the whiteboard pen to represent the shadow of the moon and the white side represented the illuminated side of the moon. By slowly rotating the pencil and revealing more or less of the illuminated side of the moon, the children could show the phases of the moon.

They were also given Oreos to show the phases of the moon. "The less cream on the Oreos, the less the moon is illuminated", was one quote from a child when explaining how they use the cookies to represent the phases of the moon.

Fun was had by all and no Oreos were wasted during this Science lesson!

Decision Time

Year 4 have enjoyed starting their new topic on the Romans and have been using source material to reflect on why Emperor Claudius wanted to invade Britain. The children are excited for the debate next week on whether Emperor Claudius makes the right decision!

2U Shine Their Light

Our thanks to St Ursula's Class for reminding us of the light each of us holds and can share and shine with others in our lives.

Just like putting an odd pair of socks on in the dark, sometimes we can make mistakes in the 'dark' and it's when we find Jesus, the Light of the World, hope can be restored.

Through beautiful singing and acting, 2U shared their lights with us this week - Thank you for leading us in Worship.