Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9), when palm branches were placed in his path, before his arrest on Holy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. It thus marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final week of Lent.

Today we have retold the story of Jesus’ triumphant return to Jerusalem for the rest of the school to hear. We have focused on the joy of that day an the hope that was felt by all those who witnessed Jesus return that day. Next week we will focus of a different part of the Holy Week story, starting on Monday with the events of the last Supper and how things changed so quickly for Jesus. Next week is a very special week for us in school as KS2 recount the events of Holy Week, with each class taking a different part of the story as their focus for liturgy. I look recalling these stories with the children.

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 are continuing to work hard on our common exception words, reading them in class every day!

Maths - this week we have been working on addition through the adding of ones - we have looked to see if how we can ‘make 10’ by partitioning the second number in our calculation to get to 10 and then adding on the rest. That means that 7+5= would become 7+3=10 then 10+2=12. We have looked at how the ones digit remains the same in the last calculation. This has proved VERY tricky for the children - they know their number bonds too 10 and they can use a number line successfully, but breaking up a number to make 10 FIRST and then adding on the rest has proved a challenge. We will continue to work on this important skill - flexible with number is VITAL to mental maths an helps the children SO much as their maths become trickier.

RE - this week has been all about the story of Holy Week. We have sung about this story, listened to this story, made story maps and watched videos of this story! We hoped you enjoyed our retelling of it today.

Art - this week the children have been continuing with their mark making unit, using the story of the Three Little Pigs as their inspiration and adding details to the three houses they made last week.

Science - this week was all about comparing though the amount of daylight changes as we move through the seasons.

Many congratulations to this week’s winners….

Golden Award - Amelia for always showing kindness, love, friendship and care to those around her. Amelia demonstrates each and everyday that she is a disciple of Christ. A real role model to us all.

Writing Award - Buddy for working hard on his phonics and using these skills in his own writing.

Maths Award -William for working hard on ‘making ten’ this week despite finding it rather tricky - keep up the hard work!

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.

Water bottles - 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.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Veasey and Miss Sanderson and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson
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)
PHONICS Support - take a look at Oxford Owl for information about how you can help your child at home with their phonics and reading. This is is a great site in general but the page linked has a super little video showing how the sounds should be pronounced. See how many sounds your child knows! How can I support my child with phonics? - Oxford Owl for Home
Earrings - please ensure these are only small gold/silver studs as stated in the uniform policy - some of the earrings in school are getting a bit too big. Many thanks

TUESDAY 4TH APRIL - Key Stage 1 Open Afternoon - we would like to invite you to pop into class between 2-4pm to take a look at your child’s work, chat to them and us about their work and have a closer look at what we do. If you are able to come early (before the end of the school day at 3.10pm) then you will be able to take your child home with you when you leave. We would love to see you and the children would like to share their books with you. Class will be open until 4pm.

Please find attached details of the Being a Parent groups running next term. There will be two 9 week groups starting on Tuesday 25th April

10.00am-12.00pm The HealthWorks, 1 Clifton Street, FY1 1JD

6.00pm-8.00pm Online using Google Meet.

The group is suitable for parents of children aged 18 months – 11 years (priority is given to parents with children under 4 years) and is led by parents. It looks at communication, behaviour management and listening techniques. The group is free and childcare can be paid for to attend the group.

Parents can book their place by contacting Blackpool Learning Rooms on 01253 478131 or learning.rooms@blackpool.gov.uk

Information Flier

Despite the rain, Year 1 have been out EVERYDAY this week waling round the school grounds to help support CAFOD in the campaign to end hunger. Please support us through your sponsorship donations, if you can. Thank-you. See below for information about our challenge…..

This Lent, Our Lady of the Assumption is looking to fundraise for both CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) in its campaign to ‘Walk Against Hunger’. We will make it our own ‘Pilgrimage’ during Lent knowing that each little step we take will make a BIG difference. Each class will set its own Lenten walking target and in Year 1 we have chosen to do our walk around the school grounds. Year 1 will set out daily during the last two weeks of term to do a full circuit of the school grounds, thinking about those less fortunate then us with each step that we take. We will do this walk each day for the last two weeks of the school term. (Start date for Yr 1 27th March - 6th April)

As a school are asking parents/families to sponsor their child/children to undertake their special ‘Pilgrimage Walk’. Once we’ve completed our walk, we will add our kilometres to CAFOD’s ‘ Walk Against Hunger Totaliser’. The aim nationally is 40,000 km! This is a massive challenge, but by joining together we can all help stamp out hunger one step at a time. The children brought their their sponsor forms home on FRIDAY 3RD MARCH and we asking parents to send in the donations through PARENT PAY (by the end of this term, 6th April) and NOT send the money into school with your child. Please follow the PARENT PAY link you have been sent to set up your account - if you have any problems with this, please contact the school office. Please note you are sponsoring your child for the WHOLE challenge, not each individual, daily walk! Thank you for your support.

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

Please take a look at these Ten Ten resources to support prayer and worship at home.

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