After a tumultuous year, there is comfort to be found when we pause to read, pray, and reflect over the course of the Advent season in which believers eagerly anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth.

The first Sunday of Advent gives us the opportunity to center our thoughts on hope. It's a beautiful chance to remember the hope God offers to our lost and dying world, and that He's given us through Jesus.

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ arrival as a gift to all humanity; let’s stir up in our hearts and homes a sense of anticipation. Over this Advent, we pray that hope would rise up in our spirits in a tangible and life-giving way.

English - we have continued on with our RWI lessons. During these sessions we all focus on phonics, reading, spelling and sentence development. We have also been working on our pre-cursive handwriting in which we focus on how to write our letters, starting on the line. We have also been learning how to spelling because suing the rhyme….big elephants can always understand small elephants. As well as that we are focusing on the tricky words of ’said and ‘you’ - how to recognise them, read them and spell them.

Maths - this week we have continued to work on parts and wholes as our introduction to addition and subtraction. We have been using counters to support our work as well as our ten frames to show how a number can be represented and the different ways we can make a number. We call these facts Number Bonds. We have investigated how to form number bonds and worked in a systematical way to record all the number bonds for a set number - ie 8. We keep reminding ourselves that the numbers we add together are called PARTS and the total is called the WHOLE.

RE - this half term is all about Mary. This week we have stated to talk about the birth of Jesus and the journey that Mary and Joseph had to take. We have also make Advent Promises for our class Advent Calendar. Each child has made a star with a promise on the back and each day we will all try to live out that promise as we journey towards Christ’s birth. I hope you can see your child living out these promises!!

Science - our topic this half term is all about animals. This week we have been thinking about what animals eat and grouping animals as to whether they are carnivores, herbivores or ominvores.

Geography - our focus for this half term is all about the world around us, with a focus on continents. We continued this week with looking at the seven continents of the world and then focusing in on Africa and Kenya in particular this week.

ICT - this have term it is all about algorithms - we have started by looking at algorithms as simply a set of instructions.

Design - this week the children continued with their sewing work…their sea creatures are looking amazing! By the end of term each child will have made their animals with Mrs Veasey.

Many congratulations to this week’s winners….(in my absence Mrs Veasey has chosen this week’s winners)

Golden Award - Amelia for always showing respect and consideration to all she meets…and for having, and using, beautiful manners.

Writing Award - Eva for super writing this week.

Maths Award - Edie for super Maths work this week.

PE will be on Monday and Friday so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home. PLEASE NOTE THAT PE LESSONS MAY BE A LITTLE DISRUPTED OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS AS WE PREPARE FOR OUR NATIVITY!!

Water bottles - all the children were given a new school bottle this week. This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 1 have white tops.

I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Veasey and Mrs Connolly and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson

Party Invitations - I am afraid that Mrs Veasey and I will not be able to give out party invitations in class. Please do not send your child into class with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.

Key Rings - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it create fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.

School bag - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don’t not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.

Homework Expectations - please see the Homework page for what I expect the children to do at home…..don’t worry, it’s mainly just reading!! Yr1 Homework — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)

8.12.23 - follow up from the successful SEND afternoon and will focus on deciding what professional parents would like to hear from and areas that they need support in. Mrs Ormerod will speak about how to navigate the FYI directory and how APDR/ graduated response works in school. There will also be members of the Blackpool parent forum in attendance. We will also look at support around the cost of living. Church hall 2-3.10pm

18.12.23 Year 1 and 2 Nativity! There will be two performances at 10am and 2pm. (Keep an eye out for any slight time changes.) Each child will be sent two tickets for each performance. These are free but we have to limit numbers as it is for two classes and we can only physically fit so many people safely in the hall at once. Many thanks for your understanding.

Work has started on this year’s nativity! If you, or your child, are keen to listen to the songs and do a bit of extra practice then please follow the link below to Year 2’s homework page where Mr Whetnall has added all the songs! Hopefully the children will also have brought home a song sheet this weekend. We would really appreciate any help…..and sorry for the fact that you will wake up humming these songs!! Many thanks. Yr2 Homework — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)

Catholic Life of our school..

The following resources are a great way of keeping you all informed of our current liturgy themes and of the weekly Gospel scripture, with some activities that the children can complete at home. We hope you find these resources useful and that they help you to support prayer and worship in your own homes.

https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6

http://www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/