An exciting week!

I can hardly believe we are almost half way through our first half-term. Time is really going too fast!

We have had an amazing start to the new year - but in the last couple of weeks we have appointed our Head Boy and Head Girl from Year 6 (Dominic and Olivia) and also a Deputy Head Boy and Deputy Head Girl (Thomas and Hermione) who we are so proud of, and know that they will represent Our Lady's with pride. They have already led our Welcome Assembly this year and presented our new Reception class with medals and certificates to show them they belong to the special community here at Our Lady of the Assumption.

It has been a real week of 'welcomes' as we have also welcomed our 'Pilgrim Statue' this week. This was a beautiful statue of the Sacred Heart which had been sent by Bishop Michael to every school in the Diocese of Lancaster. The newly appointed Head Boy and Girl from St Kentigern's Primary School arrived on Monday morning to bring the statue to us and throughout the week each class has come to pray with the statue and have also produced some beautiful work reflecting on the love of Jesus. Some of the pictures have been collated in a special book which was passed on to St Cuthberts on Friday with the statue - but we still have some pictures in school for you to see! On Friday Fr Jim came across to school to lead us in a lovely liturgy so the whole school could say goodbye to this special 'visitor' during this Year of Mercy.

Welcome Back to a new school year - 2016/17

A very warm welcome back to everyone at Our Lady of the Assumption!

I can't believe we have begun another school year - I don't know where the time goes!  However, it is wonderful to see all the children eager and ready to learn in their new classes.

This year we welcome Mrs Chandler in our Year 3 class and Miss Dixon in Year 1. We are delighted to have these teachers at Our Lady's and you will have a chance to meet them at our informal 'meet the teacher' afternoons coming up in the next couple of weeks. These meetings will be from 3pm -3.30pm in your child's class so please try to come along if you can. It is a great way to find out a little more about your child's topics for this year, homework, PE etc and also the expectations for your child in their new year group. Class teachers are looking forward to meeting you!

We have had an amazing first week...   ALL of our Key Stage 2 classes won Golden Awards this week!!! A first at Our Lady's! This goes to show how proud their teachers have been of the way your children have settled into their new class and also their eagerness to get down to work and their enthusiasm for all the new learning experiences and opportunities that lie ahead. It's been a great and, I'm sure will be a very positive and fruitful year for everyone.

We have lots of exciting events for the children over the coming half-term. We are celebrating 'Roald Dahl Day' on Tuesday with a special assembly and lots of book reviews and activities. Later, we will celebrate European Languages Day, with each class choosing a European Country to study in depth on that day. We have our favourite author - Dan Worsley coming to join us to discuss his writing process for his new book and also our Welcome Assembly and further events as we come to the end of the special 'Year of Mercy' in November. (Don't forget to look at the calendar for specific dates of events!)

I also have to say a special well done to our new Year 6. They have begun their final year at Primary School in the best way possible - getting down to their work with enthusiasm; undertaking many of their new responsibilities in a very sensible way and most of all... demonstrating such a mature and positive attitude to all they have done in and around school. I can see that they are really about to show us that they can lead our school this year with love and respect and be shining examples to everyone!

We also welcome our new Reception children who have made a lovely start to their school life. We look forward to their starting full time on 19th September. I would just like to draw new parents attention to our large play equipment between Reception area and After School Club. THIS EQUIPMENT IS ONLY FOR CHILDREN 8 YRS & OVER. It must only be used with careful supervision and IS NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. Therefore, I'm sure you appreciate if staff bring children off the equipment if they notice them playing on it. Please can I ask that parents do not let children play on this before and after school; we don't want any accidents to start the school year. Thank you for your help on this! 

Keep looking on your child's class pages for updates and further news each week!

Children's University

Congratulations to all the children who took part in Children's University this year. Here are some photos from their Graduation.

Deanery Family Fun Day at Our Lady's

Blackpool Catholic Deanery will be holding it's Family Fun Day on Sunday July 10th at Our Lady of the Assumption!

This will be a special day of family events which everyone can participate in...  dancing,  treasure hunts, sports activities, plus food tasting from around the world and some craft activities too!

The day begins at 11.30am and will culminate in a special liturgy at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church at 3.30pm. 

We hope you will be able to come along and join us on this day!

Fun Day Poster

Summer Music Concert

Last month our talented singers and musicians treated us to a wonderful Summer music concert. Take a look at these two videos...

A very busy Summer Term

Well, what an exciting (and extremely busy) start to our last half-term...

I can hardly believe we are coming to the end of another academic year - and my goodness we have started with a bang!!!!    

As you will have seen Our Lady's has had visits from the amazing 'WordPool' authors and artists including an assembly from Dan Worsley. We have had our wonderful times tables event, developed our own'Digital Leaders', had some further 'Anti Bullying Ambassador training, visited St Mary's for a Year 3 Mass.                                                                                     Our Year 6 class had an incredible time at their residential week at 'WaterParks' in the Lake District (Mr Sharrock, Mr Whetnall, Mrs Murray and Miss Evans were incredibly proud of all of them during their time away.)                  

We have also just presented an amazing evening of music at Our Lady's Musical Showcase on Tuesday 21st June. The children were incredible! They sang and played with such confidence and it was wonderful to see all their fabulous achievements due to the time spent with Mrs Bird, Mr Simpson and Miss Benson - and indeed all the other dedicated music staff who have worked with Our Lady's through the years! The children played and sang with gusto - and we were all delighted to have a performance from our own little 'Aker Bilk' (aka Joseph) who gave us an incredible solo of 'Stranger on the Shore'!                                                                               This just goes to show what can be achieved through dedication and practise - and of course, a love of music helps too! A huge thank you to all of our parents who, I'm sure, sit through many an hour of instrument rehearsal!!! It was lovely to see all of your dedication and support for your children's learning of music have a great showcase for all to see.

A huge well done to everyone!

And on top of all of this... we have also witnessed the miracle of several 'births' at Our Lady's in the form of a group of eggs which arrived on the first day we returned to school and due to Year 3's care and attention the chicks all hatched and were even made their own bespoke 'chicken run's' before they left Y3 to go on to the farm!

I can also announce that we have 2 new teachers who will be joining Our Lady's Family in September - Miss Dickson who be teaching our Year 1 class and Mrs Chandler who will be teaching Year 3.

Yes... as you can see, we will be having a little move around of some of our staff from September:

Reception - Mr Whetnall

Year 1 - Miss Dickson

Year 2 - Mrs Hollinghurst

Year 3 - Mrs Chandler

Year 4 - Miss Slater

Year 5 - Mrs McVey

Year 6 - Mrs Ormerod

We are all very excited at the new opportunities that our changes will bring and really look forward to the children meeting their new teacher on our 'Moving-Up Day' (Date to be confirmed)

Don't forget that we will be holding our SPORTS DAY on Thursday morning - weather permitting!!!! so lets pray for a nice day! Then the following week (keeping to our 'Sporting Summer' theme, our PTFA are holding a 'Sports Clothes Day' on Friday 8th July when you can come to school dressed as your sporting hero - or in the clothes of your favourite sport...  I wonder if we'll have any golfers, cricketers or basketball players this year?????

And finally for now... I hope families will be able to join us on Sunday 10th July from 12 noon (or straight after the 10.30am family mass) for our Deanery Family Fun Day. You will have seen the posters outside school and church and we hope you can join us for a lovey afternoon!

Keep your eye on the website for any further details!

Wordpool Family Day

Many of you will have attended the Wordpool's Big Family Day out before and so here are the details of this year's event which will take place on Saturday 2nd July from 1pm - 4pm. Our Year 2 and Year 4 children have both worked with visiting artists from Wordpool and some of their work may be on display at the event. Hope to see you there!

School 'Sports Dinners Week'

On the week of 20th - 24th June 2016, Our Lady's will be holding a week of Sports Themed Dinners.

All children will be invited to have a special dinner each day this week as Our Lady's celebrates all the Summer's sporting events in a special 'School Sports Dinners' Week...   Euro 16, Wimbledon, the Tour De France and of course the Rio Olympics to name but a few.  This will also be the week of the Blackpool Youth Games.  A letter will be coming out after half-term so that you if you do have packed lunches - you can sign up for any or all of these wonderful dinners!

See menu below...

Celebration of Sports Menu