Saint Mary’s Catholic Primary
Voluntary Academy
Email [email protected]
website www.saintmarysprimarygrimsby.co.uk
March 2017
We are nearing the end of another successful term, and over the break, will be celebrating the most important
event in the Christian calendar – Easter. We hope that you have a peaceful time and are able to take time to reflect
on what Easter means to Christians and the sacrifice the Lord made for us.
FUNDRAISING FOR CAFOD
We are now well into the season of Lent, a special time in the church when we
prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our RE topics in school
currently reflect the preparation for this most important season with children
learning about Lent and Easter. Throughout Lent we are challenged to ‘give more’
and we have been thrilled with how well you and your children have embraced this
with your support for CAFOD during our ‘wear it funny for money’ Fridays. It has
been great to see the children coming to school dressed in a variety of interesting
and creative ways to raise money; each fish on the hall windows represents a
pound raised and I’m sure you’ll agree that they’ve done really well! So far, £430
has been raised – a fantastic amount!
Several members of Year 5 - Bobbie, Cody, Brooke and Angel – went to church on
CAFOD Family Fast weekend 12th March to tell parishioners all about CAFOD’s
Lenten appeal and what we are doing in school to raise money. They collected an
additional £122.11 after Mass. Well done, what a great achievement!
There will be an Easter Egg competition held this week. Show off your eggstraordinary artistic skills by turning a standard size hard-boiled egg into something
creative. There are no limitations on how to decorate your egg, so have fun with
it! You may stick on extra bits and bobs or create a scene around your
egg. Entries into the competition will cost £1 and there will be a prize of an Easter
Egg for the winner in each class. All proceeds will go to CAFOD. All eggs must
be brought into school for judging by Thursday 30th March. The competition
winners will be announced on Friday 31st. If you are looking for inspiration,
there are some egg-cellent ideas on the internet.
BISHOP PATRICK’S VISIT AND MASS
We have recently found out that Bishop Patrick will be visiting our school on the morning
of Friday 31st March. This is in response to a letter Sienna in Year 5 wrote to him after
learning all about the role of a bishop as part of her RE school work. This is an incredible
honour for the school and in order to mark the momentous occasion, we will be having a
whole school Mass in the church at 9:45am. Mass will be followed by refreshments in the
school hall. All parents are warmly invited to join us for this special celebration. We
might even ask Bishop Patrick if he would judge the Easter egg competition!
CLOTHING
COLLECTION
A massive thank you
to everyone that
bought in their
unwanted clothing for
the clothing
collection. We raised
£40.80 for school
funds – well done!
FATHER ANDREW’S INDUCTION MASS
On Monday 20th March, Father Andrew’s Induction
Mass took place at St Mary’s church. Bobbie, Cody,
Tegan and Brooke represented the school at the Mass
along with selected children from St Joseph’s and
HFCA. It was a great opportunity to host the
celebration back at the school afterwards as the Mass
was attended by Bishop Patrick, the Mayor of Grimsby,
the Anglian Bishop of Grimsby as well as many other
dignitaries across the diocese.
LIBRARY
Our library makeover is now complete and looking
fabulous! We continue to encourage children to visit
during their lunch breaks to pick up a book and get
lost in another world. We also encourage children to
read at home every night as this helps to build their
confidence and fluency. For every 100 reads,
children are rewarded with a £5 book token and these
are presented at Good Work assembly. Bishop
Patrick will be officially opening the library when he
visits on Friday.
STAFF CHANGES
After Easter, Mr Fidlin will be leaving us. In
the summer term, the Year 4 class will be
taught by Mrs Rouse in the morning and Miss
Snell in the afternoon. We would like to thank
Mr Fidlin and wish him well in the future. Mrs
Mancey will be teaching Year 6 in the
mornings and the afternoons.
NEW WEBSITE
We are very excited about our new website. Find us on www.saintmarysprimarygrimsby.co.uk The website is
a lot more user-friendly. We hope that you enjoy looking at the pictures and keeping up to date with
information regularly updated on the site.
READING REWARDS
A quick reminder that reading rewards
start again at the beginning of every
new school year. They are not carried
over from year group to year group.
SWEETS IN SCHOOL
Please cam we remind children and parents that
sweets are not allowed in school. A number of sweet
papers are being discarded in the toilets, cloakrooms
and playground. Unfortunately we had a complaint as
somebody threw sweets over the wall and they hit a
passing pedestrian. They also go against our ‘healthy
school’ ethos.
ABSENCES AND ATTENDANCE
END OF TERM REWARD ASSEMBLIES
Whilst we welcome parents to reward assemblies at the
end of each term, (i.e. Christmas, Easter and summer),
half termly reward assemblies are just for children and
staff as these follow the format of a normal weekly good
work assembly. We value your support and thank you
for your commitment to the school and children. We look
forward to seeing you on 7th April.
EQUIPMENT IN THE SCHOOL GROUNDS
Please can we remind you that footballs, bikes,
scooters etc. are not allowed in the playground before
or after school. Unfortunately, there has been an
incident of a child being injured due to being hit with a
football. The playground isn’t big enough to
accommodate extra equipment.
Please can you ensure that if your child is off school with an illness, that you contact the school to let us
know as soon as possible. We follow up all unreported absences with a phone call, and if there is no
contact when we ring and you have failed to inform us of your child’s absence, it will be recorded as an
unauthorised absence. Please can you also make sure that your child is punctual. Last term alone, the
following amount of time was lost due to lateness –
Reception - 4 hours and 16 minutes
Year 1 - 6 hours and 50 minutes – over a school day!
SPORTS AWARDS
Year 2 - 4 hours and 54 minutes
Last term’s in house sport
Year 3 - 4 hours and 33 minutes
competition was Dodgeball and
Year 4 - 7 hours and 27 minutes – over a school day!
was won by Bosco. The sports
Year 5 - 3 hours and 24 minutes
personality of the half term was
Year 6 - 2 hours and 51 minutes
Oliwia in Year 3. Well done to all!
Altogether, this comes to around 30 hours – a whole week’s worth of learning!
YEAR 3 BIG SING
On Thursday 16th February, the children in
Y3 had the opportunity to participate in the
Big Sing! They went to Grimsby Minister
and learnt how to stand, breathe and warm
up their voices. They then had a fantastic
time learning some new hymns. They even
helped teach another school "Be still for the
presence of the Lord" !
Y2 SINGING FESTIVAL
On Tuesday 14th March, Year 2 went for a
fantastic day out to the Grimsby Auditorium for
the Singing Festival. They had a magical day
and loved seeing everyone dressed up as a
prince, princess, fairy, dragon or knight! They
were there with 10 others schools from our local
area and we got a special mention for our
enthusiastic involvement during the day and the
children’s superb behaviour. Well done Year 2,
you did Saint Mary’s proud!
WORLD BOOK DAY
On Thursday 7th March, it was World Book Day and the
theme was ‘Bedtime Stories’. The children came to school in
their pyjamas and listened to stories before taking part in an
activity connected to that story, including inventing a new
chocolate bar for Willy Wonka, and creating their own paper
airplanes to take part in the ‘Great Paper Caper’. After
morning break, they all had cookies and hot chocolate, whilst
settling down to another story. What a great day, and what fab
pyjamas!
YEAR 3 AND 4 ABLE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP
On Wednesday 22nd March, some of the children from Year 3 and 4 went to Oasis Nunsthorpe to spend
the day rapping with rap poet Donovan Christopher, also known as ‘Rappaman’. The children worked in
pairs to complete their own poem to start, including tag lines from Rappaman, then they had to work
together as a group to produce a rap with our school's name in it. They finally presented it to the rest of the
room. The children did Saint Mary’s proud!
BROADWAY
After a very successful production of Joseph
WORLD MATHS DAY
and the Technicolour Dreamcoat last year,
On Monday 13th March it was
Broadway is back! This year, the children
World Maths Day. All the
are raising the bar by putting on a
classes spent the morning
performance of Annie. Auditions have taken
participating in a range of maths
place and rehearsals will be starting
activities and maths problem
imminently. Some of the children will be
solving, including a murder
visiting London to watch Annie at the
mystery in Year 5! Fortunately,
Piccadilly Theatre in the West End, where
they discovered the culprit!
they’ll be able to give the cast a few tips!
Y3/4 TRIP TO GAINSBOROUGH OLD HALL
On Friday 10th March, the children from Year 3 and 4 visited
Gainsborough Old Hall as part of their topic work on the
Tudors. The house was owned by Lord Thomas Burgh and
Lady Agnes Tyrwhitt. It is believed that the place is haunted
although they didn’t witness any ghosts! Henry VIII and
Catherine Howard visited for four days and the children
spent time in the bedroom where they would have stayed.
The children dressed up in costumes and re-enacted Tudor
life roles of Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, servants, cooks,
dancers, food tasters, jesters and many more. The children
also participated in a banquet and completed a learning
activity as they toured around the hall. What a great day!
Y5/6 TRIP TO HULL
On Tuesday 21st March, Year 5 and 6 visited the Hands-on History
Museum in Hull as part of their Topic work on the Ancient Egyptians.
The children took part in a workshop which included making papyrus
paper, looking at Egyptian hieroglyphs (Ancient Egyptian writing) and
having a go at writing their name in hieroglyphics. They also had a talk
about mummification and some children even participated in a mock
mummification, which they thoroughly enjoyed. During the visit the
children looked around the museum at the Ancient Egyptian artifacts
and treasures that were on display – they even saw a 2,600 year old
mummy! A great time was had by everyone.
GOOD BEHAVIOUR REWARDS
At Saint Mary’s, we value good behaviour and want to reward those children who are consistently
well behaved, well mannered and hard workers. To say thank you, several behaviour rewards
have been implemented. Afternoon tea with the SLT on a Friday afternoon has been very
successful this term, and at the end of the term there will be a whole school behaviour treat for
those who have improved their behaviour since last term. This will be a disco on 3rd April. This will
take place from 5-6pm for Years 1,2 and 3 and from 6-7pm for years 4,5 and 6. Children in EYFS
will have their party during school time.
KS1 CASTLES CELEBRATION
Year 1 and 2 invited parents into school for a
fantastic castle showcase. The children had been
working really hard all week to design and create
their own castles using a variety of different
materials. We thought they turned out brilliantly and
all of the children were extremely proud of their
creations. We displayed other pieces of the
children’s work for the parents to see including
stained glass windows, clay gargoyles, hand-made
crowns and shields and plenty of pictures from our
recent trip to Lincoln Castle. A big thank you to all of
the parents who came to visit the showcase; it was
wonderful to see so many of you there! We hope
you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Y2 / Y6 SATS TALKS
Both talks took place on Thursday 23rd March.
If you were unable to make them or would like
a refresher, the information given can be found
on the school website.
PARENT AND TODDLER GROUP
Mother and Toddler group meet every Thursday
of term time 9.30am until 10.45am in the hall.
Everyone is welcome for coffee, posh biscuits
and lots of creative play and singing!
PARENTS’ MEETINGS
Appointment letters will be sent out next week for the
parents’ meetings to be held on Wednesday
5th April. This is an excellent opportunity to speak to
your child’s teacher, look at the work in their books, find
out about the progress they are making and what they
can do to improve. Children can be collected from the
hall as on previous occasions. Please arrive before your
appointment time so that you have plenty opportunity to
look at all their work.
EASTER HOLIDAY SPORTS CLUB
Gravity Red are running a multi-sport holiday club
DATES – MONDAY 10TH, TUESDAY 11TH AND WEDNESDAY
12TH APRIL
THE CLUB WILL COMBINE FUN OUTDOOR AND INDOOR
SPORTS THAT THE KIDS LOVE SUCH AS FOOTBALL,
DODGEBALL, TENNIS, BASKETBALL AND NETBALL.
TIMES – 10AM UNTIL 3PM
FEES - £10 A DAY OR BOOK ALL 3 DAYS FOR £25
THE CLUB ALSO INVOLVES CHALLENGES FOR THE CHILDREN
INCLUDING TIME TRIALS, OBSTACLE COURSES AND
INVENTING GAMES.
CHILDREN WILL NEED A PACK UP, LARGE DRINK AND
CLOTHING FOR INDDOR AND OUTDOOR SPORTS.
RING/TEXT CRAIG ON 07557985470 TO BOOK YOUR PLACE!!(child’s name and details)- payment on day of
arrival.
ONLY 30 PLACES AVAILABLE. PLACES WILL BE GIVEN ON FIRST CALL FIRST SERVE BASIS.
DIARY DATES
Monday 3rd April - Father Andrew will visit the school for the sacrament of Confession
Thursday 6th April – Y5/6 WE day for social action
Thursday 6th April - Year 4 basketball
Thursday 6th April – Year 5/6 football final
Friday 7th April - awards assembly at 9:15 all parents welcome
Friday 7th April - The school will close for the Easter break with a Liturgy reflecting on the last
steps of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion. This will include a number of short bible readings
along with some Easter hymns.
Tuesday 25th April – return to school
Wednesday 26th April – the celebration of the Feast of one of our House Saints – Saint
Bernadette Soubirous. On that day all children may come to school wearing something in red,
which is the Soubirous house colour. Any donations received will go to Harbour Place, a local
charity helping the homeless.
Monday 1st May – school closed for May Day
Monday 8th May – start of Year 6 SATs week
Friday 23rd June – school closed for a staff training day