ST MARY’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL
A Community Where we Live, Learn and Laugh Together in God’s Love
A big welcome back to all our families and children as we enter a whole new school
year as a community. It has been great to see the children looking so well and rested and especially
looking so smart in their new uniforms. Thank you to all parents for making such an effort!
It has been especially nice to see the new children in school who have basically come in so easily and have
started already to make a positive contribution to the community of St Mary’s.
FOUNDATION STAGE WELCOME There will be a meeting on Thursday 6th October (6pm) for all
parents of new Reception Class children. There is no child-care provision available for this meeting so
unfortunately children are not allowed to come along. Mrs Smith, Miss King and the team will be giving you
lots of information about how we teach your children to read, count and write and do all sorts of other things
in their first year with us. We will especially try to give you advice on how you can support your child at
home so that they make the most of school. There is plenty of research available that shows that children
make better progress if they are supported at home with their learning.
Something to think about: "The thing about school uniform is that it
creates an even playing field. No one knows whether you shop at
Primark or Harrods... A liberation for children. It is also the start of
getting into a routine - you get up, put on your uniform and get ready to
learn..... It is the same as putting on a suit or a uniform when you start
work as an adult. Even now that I am the Boss I don't wear what I want
to wear at work - leggings and a T-shirt. I wear my own version of a
uniform. It is all part of getting your attitude right and of course for
children, understanding that in life you can't always do what you
want." (Baroness Karren Brady CBE. Millionaire and Vice-Chair of West Ham Football
Club).
MASS (Thursday 29th 11am) Everyone in our community is invited to come along to
this whole school Mass to reflect on the start of the academic year.
Thank you to everyone who sent flowers to school on Thursday last week to help us
decorate Our Lady’s Statues and Pictures to celebrate her birthday. As you can se, we
were flooded!! Let us pray that Mary will bless us all for the coming year.
ASSESSMENT RESULTS We were especially proud of the achievements of our
children across all statutory assessments this year. In many areas we were above the Calderdale and
National averages.
AUTUMN FAYRE (Saturday 24th September: 12pm – 3pm) The Summer Fayre was
unfortunately postponed due to a reduced level of ‘person-power’ to help run the stalls.
However we now have enough help and the Fayre has turned into an Autumn Fayre
instead. Please come along and support this event so that we can raise lots of money to
subsidise the provision we make in school. If you are helping with a stall please be in
school by 11am at the latest.
PTA LOGO COMPETITION We would like to establish a different logo for the PTA each year from now on.
We invite all children to come up with some creative designs on a piece of A4 paper and to send them in to
school by Friday morning, with their name and Class written on the back. Each entry will cost £2 and the
entry fee needs to be handed in with the entry. The WINNER will have their design published on all PTA
communications for the academic year and their photo will be the ‘Face of the PTA’ for the year. In addition,
the winner will have FREE Entry to all future events (Such as Film Nights) for the year. The logo needs to
be simple and attractive and MUST contain the words ‘PTA 2016-17’ somewhere. Good Luck!!
ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS – COMING SOON!! As mentioned in a previous Newsletter we will soon have
the facility for parents to pay for school trips, school dinners, charitable events etc. by electronic means via.
Smart Phones, Laptops and Tablets. We aim to start this from the 1 st October and will keep you informed
as the details emerge.
WRAP- AROUND CARE A small working group has been established to start to look at the move we want
to make towards an extended and hopefully more varied child-care provision between 7.30am and 6pm
from the beginning of the Spring Term 2017. It is very early days at the moment and we will keep you
informed when more details emerge of how it will work.
DEN BUILDING Y6 and Y5 had a fantastic time
on Wednesday this week building shelters and
then testing whether they were waterproof! This
was the start of their topic work on ‘Materials’.
EUREKA TRIP (3/4L & 3/4R) The children will be going to our local Science Museum on 6 th October to do
some exciting work on Space. Parents will be informed of the details before the end of next week.
YORKSHIRE WILDLIFE TRIP (Y1&2) Our children will be spending an exciting day learning about
animals on Tuesday 4th September. A letter has gone out about this.
ROYAL ARMOURIES The children in Y6 and Y5 will be at the Royal Armouries on 7 th October as part of
their topic work on materials. A letter will be sent to parents soon.
ASSEMBLIES Parents are very welcome to come along to our whole school assemblies every Friday at
3pm (Prompt). Sometimes this will be a Sharing Assembly where we simply share some of the work
children in classes have been doing. On other occasions an individual class will lead the assembly. The
following dates are currently in place:
23rd Sept. 6F
4th Nov. 6C
30th Sept. KS2 Sharing
11th Nov. KS2 Sharing
7th Oct. 2H
18th Nov. 5M
14th Oct. KS1 Sharing
25th Nov. KS1 Sharing
2nd Dec. 5B
AMPLEFORTH 2017 (Y5) We have confirmed our booking of
the Retreat at this beautiful location for the 15th to 17th March
2017. We would like to introduce the Retreat and all the activities
we hope to do to parents (and children if they want to come
along) on Tuesday 6th December (6.30pm). Please put this date
in your diary. The cost of this trip will be £85 which is very close
to the charge we used to make for Myddelton Grange. We hope all children will attend this residential and we are
happy to start receiving instalments as soon as you want. We usually encourage the children to do small jobs between
now and the trip itself to ‘earn’ it!
KESWICK 2017 (Y6) We have confirmed our booking for our Y6 Residential trip to this
beautiful part of The Lake District from 3rd April to 7th April 2017. There will be an
information evening for parents (and children if they want to come) on 5th October
(6.30pm). The cost of this trip is £230 per child. We appreciate of course that this is a lot of
money, and we are grateful to the PTA for subsidising the costs of the coach. Parents
might like to start paying small instalments between now and the actual trip date?
LABELS PLEASE!! We are already experiencing a growth in the number of clothes ending up in our Lost
Property Boxes. If they have names on them they can be eventually returned to their owners- Please make
sure your child’s uniform, shoes, pumps, shirts, trousers, coats etc. are clearly labelled.