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 family 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. Please continue to work on these number bonds to 10 at home.

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.

History - this week we focused on Queen Elizabeth II and learnt lots of facts about her that we used to make our own fact file.

Art - this week’s work was inspired by the work of Patrick Heron and his hot and cold series.

ICT - we have continued to work on our programming skills to make our Bee Bots do what we would like them to do! We are becoming more precise!

Many congratulations to this week’s winners….

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

Writing Award - Philip for working hard on his pencil grip too make marks and follow patterns.

Maths Award - Lincoln for super knowledge of his number bonds to 20 - and winning ‘Around the World’ in class today!

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 - 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 Gilheaney, Miss Simons and Mrs Connolly and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson

Party Invitations - I am afraid that Miss Simons 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)

Lent Calendar - to share at home

A huge thank-you to all those who joined us on Tuesday for our Open Afternoon - it was lovely to see so many of you. I hope you found the experience worthwhile - I know the children loved having you in our classroom and sharing their work with you. It touched my soul to see them so proud to show off our classroom and what we have been learning to you. Many thanks.

Tuesday 26th March - please join us IN CHURCH for a Lent Reflection for Rec and Yr1 lead by Fr.Frank at 2.40pm. We would like as many parents, carers, grandparents as possible to join us for this special liturgy.

ON THIS DAY ALL CHILDREN MUST TO COLLECTED FROM CHURCH. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO COME TO THE SERVICE YOUR CHILD MUST BE COLLECTED FROM CHURCH. ONLY CHILDREN AT AFTER SCHOOL CLUB WILL BE BOUGHT BACK BY SCHOOL STAFF.

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/