A school is a place of magic. Seeing what the children achieve and who they are on a daily basis is the reason why we all do what we do. The first week of a new school year is nothing but exhausting, but it is one of the best as each child figures out their new environment, makes new relationships and reignites old ones. This week has been nothing but joyous. Today we all walked down to church to celebrate the start of the new year with God; asking for his prayers and blessings as we take on every challenge that comes our way. Year 6 read beautifully and we all sang our hearts out in praise. I have a feeling that this year is going to be even more successful than the last.
As with each new half-term, we focus on the Jesuit virtues to guide us on the right path. This half term we are aspiring to be attentive and discerning. Paying close attention to the things that matter in our lives and making the right decisions about how to live our lives. As we meet as a whole-school community every Monday morning, we will unpick these further and explore them in the gospel messages.
Meeting your teaching team…
On Wednesday 18th September, you have the chance to meet your teaching team. There will be two chances to come in and listen to all of the exciting opportunities that your child will experience this year.
3.45pm - 4.30pm and 4.45pm - 5.30pm.
If you have children in different classes then you will be able to do both. Ideally, please try and come without your child so that you can have a really good conversation and ask those questions that you would want to without little ears.
Shining like STARS…
Way back, last June, we started to talk to the children about what it meant to be a STAR at Our Lady Star of the Sea. There are lots of meaning of the word star and we wanted to ensure that this embodied the behaviour and relationships that we are trying to foster here in school. For a school to be really successful, there has to be consistency across the school and for everybody to be singing from the same hymn sheet (so to speak). Our policies and proceedures also have to work with our current community and be understood by all. With all this in mind, we have devised a new behaviour strategy and written a new behaviour and relationships policy, with a strong focus on praise and how we celebrate everything that we do well. There are some really specific actions in there that we are trying to develop and our policy will be tweaked over the next term to ensure that we are happy with it and it is understood by all (that is why the review date is also this term). All of the words below have been developed from what the children have said and the words that we discussed. We are STRIVING, THRIVING, ASPIRING and being RESPECTFULLY RESPONSIBLE. This language will embody everything that we do and who we are. Please do mirror this at home and have a conversation with your child. They have blown me away this week with how responsive they have been and how quickly they have shone like the Our Lady Star.
Communication in school
The prime reason a child make such wonderful progress, and is above all happy at school, is that communication between home and school is there. I am passionate about making sure that there is more opportunities for parents to experience school life. This will continue next week when the parents of our certificate and butterfly winners are invited to Friday’ celebration assembly. There is also more of an opportunity to touch base with the class teacher after school when required. As well as being passionate about parental involvement and the opportunites we can give for you to share in the magic of school, I am also passionate about our school staff having time with their families beyond the school day. They all work incredibly hard with some in school at 7am and not leaving until 6pm. Being a teacher is just one of the hats that they wear in their lives. We are one of the only schools who use email as a main way to communicate, and not a school app, and sometimes the ease of email can result in them being sent from staff and parents beyond 8pm at night. I really want us all to be aware of this, and to foster those healthy interactions where we can. Teachers will respond to you via email within the school working hours; not during teaching time when they are with the children. You may have noticed an automated message when you do email. There are so many ways that you can communicate with us and us with you - that is the wonderful thing!
We also want to ensure that we are empowering the children to communicate with their teaching team when something has happened that they have needed to share. These are also discussed with the child and perspective is created. Please can you also encourage this at home. If your child comes home and tells you something has happened during the day, encourage them to come and speak to a teacher and build their resilience.
Questions like; what happened? How did it make you feel? What could you do next time? Who is the trusted adult who you could speak to in school? These all help the children begin to problem-solve for themselves and reason situations. They are going to come across many situations in their lives where we need to provide the tools for them to problem-solve. Right from the earliest age of our children, they are able to do that. If we always investigate for them, they don’t become empowered to do so themselves and rely on the adults and others around them to do it for them - which is such a skill to have in life; and sometimes it can be something that has been spotted. We really appreciate your support with this and are always here if you need to sound something out with or ask a question.
On Monday we will be launching MY HAPPY MIND with the children in school. We are so excited about this programme and how it will support the mental health of all of our children.
Each week there will be a question that you can discuss with your child at home.
Don’t forget about our launch coffee morning on Wednesday 25th September at 9.15am where I will be explaining the programme and how you too can use it at home.
Enrichment in School
I cannot thank you for all of the donations that we have received from scooters, to dolls houses, to lego and everything in between. Our scooter zone is ready to be launched on Monday and the All Stars Club has been up and running this week. It has been lovely to see the children coming in each morning, having fun and eating breakfast and then having fun after school too. I think it is an excellent addition to our school community.
Now we have another plea - den making. Our den area is also being launched on Monday and whilst we have some tarpaulin, rope and crates, we definitely need more. Please can you raid your garages for the following items - we know we can count on you!
Waterproof picnic blankets
Ground sheets
Plastic crates
You will have seen that our All Stars children enter and exit school from the gate on Kenilworth Road. This is a locked gate at all times of the school day. Clubs start next week and the children who will be taking part in them are now on the sports page of the website. If there are any children coming or leaving the extra-curricular clubs on the school field, please can you do so via the gate on St Patricks. That way we keep all children safe and where they need to be. This will be for football and netball mainly. The other clubs can be accessed through the main reception and into the hall.
Finally, our school family has grown this week with the arrival of our new Reception class. 30 children have all skipped into school, eager eyed and in the shiniest shoes I have ever seen. We are so incredbly blessed to have them in our school and thank God that we are going to be part of their history. Another week of part-time next week and then they will be fully fledged the week after.
Have a lovely weekend with your family
Mrs Gregan