As Christmas draws near, the Church emphasizes the joy which should be in our hearts over all that the birth of our Saviour means for us. The great joy of Christians is to see the day drawing nigh when the Lord will come again in His glory to lead them into His kingdom. The oft-repeated Veni ("Come") of Advent is an echo not only of the prophets but also of the conclusion of the Apocalypse of St. John: "Come, Lord Jesus," the last words of the New Testament.
This Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday. The term Gaudete refers to the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, "Rejoice". Rose vestments are worn to emphasize our joy that Christmas is near, and we also light the rose candle on our Advent wreath.
Our Learning
Look at what we have been learning this week! Our theme in Reception was Winter:
Phonics - we have recapped our sounds this week and the children have also taken a Phonics assessment to see how much progress they have made since the start of the year. They have all done brilliantly!
Literacy - the children have learnt some tricky words this week - no, go, into, the and I. They then created a tricky word snowflake to help them to remember how to spell these words.
Maths - the children did some winter themed number activities this week - ‘I spy number 5’ and measuring snowmen using blocks.
Fine motor skills - this week the children built igloos using sugar cubes and tweezers.
Super six - our guided reading book this week was One Snowy Night.
Outside area - we created some ‘snow’ in the water tray which the children loved playing in!
Expressive Art & Design - the children created a Winter themed picture based on Stickman.
The children have also thoroughly enjoyed spending time in our igloo this week.
Our theme in Reception next week is…CHRISTMAS!!
Award winners
Each week during our school celebration assembly I will be handing out three certificates - Maths, Writing and a Golden award. Here are our winners for this week:
Maths - George
Writing - Arlo
Golden - Luna
Boogie Woogie Nativity
The children have been working so hard on our nativity. It is going to be a wonderful show and we can’t wait to perform it for you all. The nativity will be on the 13th December at 2pm - each child has now brought home 4 tickets for the performance. Please note, our PTA will be in attendance on the day selling raffle tickets as well as mulled wine and mince pies after the show. Please remember to bring some money for this! Thank you.
Advent Liturgies
Throughout Advent we would like to invite all children and families to join us in the school hall for a short Advent liturgy led by Father Frank. This will be held every Tuesday morning at 8:20am and will begin from Tuesday 29th November, continuing until Tuesday 20th December 2022. We do hope you can join us for this opportunity to gather as a faith community to reflect on the true value and meaning of Advent.
Wednesday Word
We are delighted to be able to share with you the Good News Gospel readings for families. Please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6
At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
With Christmas nearly here and perhaps with presents including new technology or related games being received, we thought we’d share some helpful advice in setting up appropriate parental controls. Parental controls can help to protect your child from seeing something that they shouldn’t – although it is important to emphasise that no system is effective all of the time so it is important to engage with your child and talk to them about their online life regularly.
We hope you find this Newsletter informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.
Online Safety Newsletter December 2022
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Heim-Sarac, Mrs Debowska and Miss Murray
