Happy Christmas!

Fourth Sunday of Advent

This Sunday will mark the fourth week of Advent. We light the final purple candle to mark the final week of prayer and penance as we wait for the birth of our Saviour. The 4th Sunday of Advent symbolises Peace with the “Angel’s Candle” reminding us of the message of the angels: “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.”

Our Year 5 prayer and liturgy this week was led by Emilia, Tommy and Zahra. Their theme was Our Wonderful World and they challenged the class to thank God for the wonderful world we live.

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. “ (Genesis 1:31 )

To keep our world beautiful and good, they reminded the children of keeping their Advent promises, which are linked to Jesus’ commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

‘Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” ‘

Great Team Work!

Space Rocket challenge…

Year 5 have worked hard in their teams to complete the Space Rocket challenge. Many of our groups managed to earn enough points to collect prizes, which also included having popcorn with a Christmas film this morning. Well done to the winning team, Lunar Foxes B, who will receive their prize in January.

The children earned points for their team by making good choices, completing homework, being great role models around school and for daily reading and getting their diaries signed. Well done Hallie and Lola Mae!

Our Lunar buggies work…

As part of our DT work, the children were challenged to make moon buggies to end our term - I am really pleased with how hard they worked, working in their teams supporting each other and with good cooperation and collaboration. Well done Year 5! Have a look at what they did…

Our Achievements

Our award winners:

Golden Award (RESPECT) - Ronnie

Writing Award - Tommy

Maths Award - Emilia

Our Reading champions

Well done to our reading champions this half term, who all completed bookmarks for reading regularly at home. Let’s see if next half term we can see more reading champions. Don’t forget to keep up with your reading regularly and get your diaries signed.

When the children read regularly, we give them extra points for reading and then we do a draw at the end of each half term. Well done to Teddy, who is our golden ticket winner for this half term.

Bedrock Competition

Well done to all of Year 5 who achieved 160 points or more on Bedrock over this last half term. I wish you all luck for the Bedrock prize draw, which will be drawn on 24th December! A big congratulations goes to our class Bedrock Champion, Hallie,  and well done to all the other children on our TOP 5 scoreboard!

Here is our TOP 5 winners on the scoreboard:

1 Hallie 787 points 🎄⭐️Bedrock Champion ⭐️🎄

2 Kurt 639 points

3 Layla 358 points

4 Gabriel 287 points

5 Isaac 214 points

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.

This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…

Top Tips for Setting up Parental Controls on New Devices - This guide provides some valuable advice on setting up new devices so that children can use them safely.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Thank you to those families who were able to join us for our KS2 Advent carol service today, we hope you enjoyed it. We wish you all a wonderful happy and Holy Christmas 🎄and we hope you all stay safe and well and have a great start to the New Year. See you all in the new year!

A reminder of Our Lady’s Church Christmas masses can be found at the following link Christmas card Father Chris has said that the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass is a favourite amongst families and they would be very happy if children wished to attend dressed as characters from the Nativity.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey




Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Our week...

This week we were delighted to welcome Father Frank in to our class. During this time, Year 5 asked Father religious questions related to our learning that they had been wondering about. The questions the children asked were so thoughtful and it was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to deepen our religious understanding and faith.  I was so pleased with how engaged the children were and we have let Father Frank know that we will continue to write down our difficult questions and invite him to come back next term.  Thank you Father!      

Our award winners:

Golden Award (LEARN) - Dominic

Writing Award - Lily T

Maths Award - Connie

Our learning this week…

In English we have worked to understand the difference between formal and informal language and we have been using our vehicle text to write in role.

In maths the children have been using the written column method to add and subtract whole numbers with more than 4 digits.

In RE we have begun to look at what covenants are and have begun to look at the covenant that God made with Noah and all his descendants (us).

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

In PE the children are working with PE specialist Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is invasion games: Rugby.

Our Year 5 worship this week was led by Teddy and Gabriel. Their worship was on the theme of Taking care of animals. They spoke about how animals enrich the world and give us so much pleasure. They also reminded Year 5 how when God created the world, he called on humans to be good stewards of the Earth and look after all of God’s creatures. Teddy and Gabriel asked the children to think about how they could show care towards animals just as Saint Francis showed us.

“If you are a good shepherd you must really look after your sheep.” Ezekiel

Bedrock Competition!

Bedrock have launched a new prize draw competition for this half term with some fantastic prizes to win. You have all been entered into this competition and for a chance of winning, you just need to collect 20 points or more each week and earn 160 or more points in total using Bedrock from the 30th October to 24th December. If you go to the dashboard on your Bedrock account, you will find details of how you can collect points. Remember, you need to complete at least one Bedrock lesson for homework but to earn more points you can do more. However, please do not complete more than one lesson per day to ensure vocabulary retention. In addition to Bedrock’s competition, like last half term we will also have our own in class Bedrock competition too. The member of our class who has the most Bedrock points by the end of half term will win a prize at the end of this half term. Good luck Year 5!

Here is our TOP 5 on the scoreboard this week:

1 Kurt 370 points

2 Hallie 201 points

3 Elsie 116 points

4 Isaac 113 points

5 Dominic 85 points

Well done to all the children who are on our leader board this week.👏🏻

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.

This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…

Smart TVs As these internet-enabled entertainment systems rapidly become standard, find out how to guide children in using such devices safely.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Dates for your diary…

29th November School nurse visit . The drop in is for any parent who might have an issue they wish to discuss, no appointment is necessary and they will be in the hall from 9am to 10am. 

8th December Coffee afternoon in the church hall . This is a 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. They will also look at support around the cost of living. 

Wednesday 20th December Christmas meal & Christmas jumper day Children are invited to wear their own clothes for the day, and this can include Christmas jumpers, dresses or accessories if they would like - but please don't buy anything especially. We would like to support Save The Children with the Christmas jumper day, and will add a voluntary contribution of £1 to Parentpay for donations to this charity nearer the time.

Free opportunity for children - Parks Tennis

This runs every Saturday 10am-11am at Stanley Park. These sessions are free to play and all equipment is provided so a great opportunity for families to give tennis a go! Parks Tennis flyer

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Saints are not "supermen" who are "born perfect," but rather are ordinary people who followed God "with all their heart." Pope Francis

To begin our new half term, the whole school went to mass to celebrate the feast of All Saints. All Saints’ Day is celebrated every year on 1st November; it is a holy day in the Catholic Church, celebrating the saints of the church as well as those saints who have not yet been recognised. The 1st of November also marked Our Lady’s School’s 70th birthday, so it was a lovely start to this half term. During mass, Father Frank talked about how the word ‘Saint’ means holy and told the children that to be a saint is to treat others as we would treat Jesus. After mass, Year 5 gave out little notes to the parishioners, that they had decorated,  to spread kindness and shine their lights. The parishioners were then invited into school for tea, coffee and biscuits to celebrate 70 years of Our Lady’s school. On display were photographs of times gone by and amongst the parishioners were past pupils and teachers. Happy Birthday Our Lady’s school! 🥳 🥳 🥳

Now our bulbs have all been planted for the Spring Bulbs project for the Edina Trust, Year 5 will be monitoring their growth and each day two children will go out to record the temperature and the rainfall to be uploaded to the Edina Trust’s website.

Our award winners:

Golden Award (LEARN) - Hallie

Writing Award - Alexander

Maths Award - Tommy

Our learning this week…

In English the children have continued to plan their own exploration narratives

In maths we’ve continued to work with numbers up to 1,000,000, comparing and ordering them and rounding them to the nearest 10, 100, 1000 and 10,000.

In RE, the children have used the stories of creation in Genesis to identify what they tells us about God, the World and humans.

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

In Computing the children have completed an activity comparing how different Mars Rovers collect and transmit data and how the size of random-access memory (RAM) affects the processing of data (CPU).

In PE the children are working with PE specialist Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is invasion games: Rugby.

In PSHE we have begun a resilience programme called Bounce Forward. Bounce Forward, written by Lancashire Mind and Headstart, is a universal resilience programme, which has been designed to increase wellbeing and resilience in children across Blackpool. Bounce Forward will give the children the opportunity to improve and build up their resilience strategies and skills, in a practical and fun way. This week the focus was sharing information about themselves and thinking about what resilience is.

Our Year 5 worship this week was led by Alexander and Kurt. Their worship was on the theme of Reconciliation and Peace. They reminded everyone of the importance of making things right with their friends when upset has been caused. Well done Alexander and Kurt!

15 “If your brother or sister[ sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.” Matthew 18: 15-20

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

The social media site X, highlighting the major changes since its rebrand from Twitter and the related online safety risks.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: a suspense-filled horror game which has nevertheless attracted a relatively young fan-base.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Great start back Year 5, well done!

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Even a small act of kindness can make a big difference!

I can’t believe we’re already at half term, the last seven weeks seems to have flown by! The children have been working hard over this half term and it’s been lovely getting to know them. They’ve particularly enjoyed their new leadership responsibilities this year and are really rising to the challenge of supporting their Reception Buddies in assemblies and being fantastic play leaders to our KS1 children at lunch times. Well done Year 5, you’ve shown what great role models you can be to our younger children in school.

Today we had our Harvest festival and we came together as a whole school to celebrate this. Thank you for your generous contributions to our Harvest collection, it’s' very much appreciated. The tins of food (over 400 tins) will be going to a local food bank for people within the community, which I’m sure you’ll agree is a worthy cause. Thank you for your generous support!

This afternoon the children were very excited to have a visit from a therapy dog. The dog came in to visit all the children in a special assembly and after half term, he’ll be working with children in Year 2.

The 'Spring Bulbs for Schools' project with the Edina Trust

This morning Year 5 planted their bulbs, daffodils and crocuses, in their own pot and placed them in one of our school garden areas. Over the next five and a half months the children will be watching over their bulbs to see when they first flower and to collect rainfall and temperature data daily to send off to the Edina Trust. Schools all over the UK are taking part and our data will be collated with theirs to contribute to finding out the effects of climate change. Take a look at our photos…

Our award winners:

Golden Award (CARE) - Grace

Writing Award - Corben

Maths Award - Hayley Marie

Reading champion

When the children read regularly, we give them extra points for reading and then we do a draw at the end of each half term. Well done to Harriet, who is our golden ticket winner for this half term…

Bedrock Competition

Well done to all of Year 5 who achieved 140 points or more on Bedrock over this last half term. I have been delighted with the effort that many of the class have gone to, to do above and beyond the expected homework! I wish you all luck for the Bedrock prize draw! A big congratulations goes to our Bedrock Champion, Hallie, and well done to all the other children on our TOP 5 scoreboard. Well done! 👏🏻

1 Hallie 770 points ⭐️Bedrock Champion ⭐️

2 Isaac 608 points

3 Kurt 574 points

4 Gabriel 566 points

5 Elsie 281 points

Well done to all the children who are on our leader board this week.👏🏻

Our learning this week…

In English we have begun planning our own exploration narrative ready to start our narrative when we come back. I’m really looking forward to reading these as the class have shared some lovely ideas.

In maths they’ve been continuing to develop their understanding of numbers up to 1,000,000, estimating and accurately identifying where numbers to 1,000,000 would lie on a number line and comparing and ordering numbers.

In RE, Year 5 have continued to explore consequences that the story of the Fall has had for humans.

In science we have been learning about all the other planets and how they move relative to the sun.

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

In Computing the children have been exploring how the Mars Rover collects and transmits data and how the size of random-access memory (RAM) affects the processing of data (CPU).

In Spanish we have continued to learn how to say the various nouns for family members.

Art - the children used chalks to create Space pictures.

In PE the children continue to work with PE specialist Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is leadership.

Our Year 5 worship this week was led by Elsie and Grace. Their worship was on the theme of Harvest and they asked the children to give thanks for our harvest and the food we have and reminded the class to bring in tins to contribute to our school harvest collection for the local food bank. Well done Elsie and Grace !

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

EA Sports FC 24 This is the spiritual successor to FIFA which is likely to be a similarly spectacular hit among young football fans.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Well done for a great first half term Year 5, we hope you all have a lovely well deserved rest with your families. Enjoy!

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Our week...

This week we have been participating in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. Programme. Speak out. Stay safe. is a programme for children aged 5-11 which aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a safe adult or Childline.

This child friendly programme is aligned with the curriculum and consists of an age appropriate virtual assembly, which the children watched this week, and next week a NSPCC volunteer will lead a face to face workshop with Year 5. The content is delivered in an engaging and interactive way with the help of the NSPCC mascot Buddy. If you would like to know more about the Speak out. Stay safe. programme visit www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout.

Real-life science project

Year 5 are going to be involved in a special project with the Edina Trust called The 'Spring Bulbs for Schools' project which gives pupils the opportunity to be part of a real science investigation where they will contribute to the final result. This is a live experiment where there are no known outcomes and no "right" answers. We will be planting daffodil and crocus bulbs next week and then from now until March, the children will be recording the rainfall and temperature each school day.

Over the course of this project we will be taking photographs of the children and would like to share some of these photos (from time to time) with the Edina Trust. Therefore we are seeking  your permission to share your child’s image with the Trust through X (formerly Twitter) and their websites and social media. If you are happy for your child’s image to be part of class photos throughout the project then please email me at year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk with your child’s name and for ease just copy and paste the following,

 “I consent to my child’s image being shared with The Edina Trust as part of The 'Spring Bulbs for Schools' project.”

Thank you!

Our award winners:

Golden Award (LEARN) - Lily T

Writing Award - Olivia W

Maths Award - Lilly C

Bedrock Competition

Don’t forget Bedrock’s new competition to be in with a chance of winning some great prizes. You just need to collect 20 points or more each week and earn 140 or more points in total using Bedrock from now till the 22nd October.

Here is our TOP 5 on the scoreboard this week:

1 Hallie 511 points

2 Kurt 457 points

3 Isaac 404 points

4 Gabriel 354 points

5 Elsie 265 points

Well done to all the children who are on our leader board this week.👏🏻

Our learning this week…

In English the children have developed their understanding of parenthesis indicated by commas, dashes or brackets. They have also been exploring the features of a narrative text in preparation for our own writing.

In maths we’ve been continuing to work with Roman numerals and the children have been developing their understanding of place value up to the 100,000s, learning to read and write numbers accurately. They have been counting in steps of 100,000, 10,000, 1,000, 100, 10 and 1.

In RE, Year 5 have explored the story of the Fall and the consequences that it has had for humans.

In science we have been learning about the movement of the moon around the Earth and the phases of the moon.

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

In Computing the children identified the computer architecture of the Mars Rover

In Spanish we have revised the vocabulary previously taught on presenting ourselves and have begun to learn how to say the various nouns for family members.

Art - the children enlarged their work inspired by the work of Hundertwasser.

In PE the children continue to work with PE specialist Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is leadership.

Our Year 5 led worship this week was led by Lola Mae and Connie. Their worship was on the theme of Friendship and they asked the children to think who had been a good friend to them and what they had done. Well done Connie and Lola Mae!

Everyone is welcome in the people of God! Reading from Luke 14:16-21

Homework

A reminder that a summary of this week’s homework can be found on the Year 5 homework page. Please make sure homework is completed by the end of Tuesday ready for spelling and times table tests.

A reminder about our RE challenge: To email two photos which I will print out to put on display in school and I might also display these here on our blog. One photograph should be of something Year 5 consider beautiful in this world and another photograph of something which is ruining the beauty of our world. For example, they might have a photograph taken with a sunset and the other photograph might be of rubbish on the beach. Year 5, it would be great if we can have lots of different ideas on display so please try to think of your own ideas. Please email photos as jpegs, if possible, to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk as soon as possible. Thank you to those of you who have already sent in photos. Thanks for your support.

Thank you to those children who have already sent their photos in, we have started putting them on display in school…

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

Among Us: a futuristic murder mystery that’s found an enthusiastic audience of young gamers.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

Black History Month Competition

Blackpool FC Community Trust in partnership with Blackpool FC would like to invite you to take part in their Black History Month competition. For Black History Month this year they are asking pupils to produce a newspaper front cover on an Inspirational Black Person. KS2 should use this Front Cover as well as a supporting fact sheet should you need some prompts.

Pupils are invited to submit a piece on an inspirational black person from any field that has inspired them in any way. This competition is to celebrate and honour the achievements of black people such as Martin Luther King, Bob Marley, Rosa Parks or even those closer to home such as teachers and family members. Once judged the work will be returned back to school.

The competition winner will receive a Blackpool FC kit and BFC goody bag as well as a BFC player visit for your school, to receive their prize.

To enter this competition, please complete the Tangerine Times newspaper front page on someone you think is inspirational and why.

Include a picture and stats to justify why your subject is so inspirational.

The text itself can be either factual or emotive, but it must say why this person is inspirational to you and others.

The competition will run through October.

Competition entries should be returned to school by Thursday 26th October. Winners of the competition will be announced by Blackpool FC Community Trust and Blackpool FC on Tuesday 31st October.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

We’ve had a good week Year 5. Hope you have a lovely weekend with your families.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

"If he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'repent,' you must forgive him." — Luke 17:4

Yesterday, Year 5 had our first class mass for this school year and we were so proud of how respectful and reverent the children were. Well done to our readers, who read so beautifully and clearly.

Yesterday’s mass was all about forgiveness and Father talked to the children about what Jesus taught us about having mercy - forgiveness and compassion. He told the children that when someone does something unkind to us and they say sorry, then we should forgive. He told the children that this is really hard to do but it’s the right thing to do. Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean that the person is not guilty of whatever they did to upset us. Forgiveness doesn't mean forgetting. Rather, forgiveness means letting go of the pain the incident is causing us. We forgive to give ourselves peace of mind, and in hopes that one day someone will return the favour if we ever offend them.

Bedrock Competition

Don’t forget Bedrock’s new competition to be in with a chance of winning some great prizes. You just need to collect 20 points or more each week and earn 140 or more points in total using Bedrock from now till the 22nd October.

Here is our TOP 5 on the scoreboard this week:

1 Kurt 299 points

2 Gabriel 294 points

3 Hallie 280 points

4 Isaac 205 points

5 Elsie 195 points

Well done to all the children who are on our leader board this week.👏🏻

Our award winners:

Golden Award (LEARN) - Olivia W

Writing Award - Isaac

Maths Award - Grace

Our learning this week…

In English the children have written some really descriptive contrast poems about the Earth and the moon using their words and phrases from last week. The children have also been learning about modal verbs and have been using these in sentences.

In maths we’ve been comparing, ordering and rounding numbers to 100,000 and been writing numbers to 10,000 in Roman numerals.

In RE the focus has been explaining the link between Scientific truths and theological truths .

In science we have been learning about the movement of the Earth around the sun.

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

In Computing the children have been learning that due to the vast distance from Mars to Earth, information collected by Mars Rover has to travel as ‘data’ and be translated into binary code. The children then played a game to practice calculating binary numbers.

In Spanish we have revised the vocabulary previously taught on presenting ourselves and have begun to learn how to say the various nouns for family members.

In PE the children continue to work with PE specialist Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is leadership.

Our Year 5 led worship this week was led by Peter and Olivia. Their worship was on the theme of Thanks and they encouraged the children to think about what they are thankful for. Well done Peter and Olivia!

Homework 

A reminder that a summary of this week’s homework can be found on the Year 5 homework page. Please make sure homework is completed by the end of Tuesday ready for spelling and times table tests. 

A reminder about our RE challenge: To email two photos which I will print out to put on display in school and I might also display these here on our blog. One photograph should be of something Year 5 consider beautiful in this world and another photograph of something which is ruining the beauty of our world. For example, they might have a photograph taken with a sunset and the other photograph might be of rubbish on the beach. Year 5, it would be great if we can have lots of different ideas on display so please try to think of your own ideas. Please email photos as jpegs, if possible, to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk as soon as possible. Thank you to those of you who have already sent in photos. Thanks for your support.

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

Among Us: a futuristic murder mystery that’s found an enthusiastic audience of young gamers.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

Black History Month Competition

Blackpool FC Community Trust in partnership with Blackpool FC would like to invite you to take part in their Black History Month competition. For Black History Month this year they are asking pupils to produce a newspaper front cover on an Inspirational Black Person. KS2 should use this Front Cover as well as a supporting fact sheet should you need some prompts.

Pupils are invited to submit a piece on an inspirational black person from any field that has inspired them in any way. This competition is to celebrate and honour the achievements of black people such as Martin Luther King, Bob Marley, Rosa Parks or even those closer to home such as teachers and family members. Once judged the work will be returned back to school.

The competition winner will receive a Blackpool FC kit and BFC goody bag as well as a BFC player visit for your school, to receive their prize.

  • To enter this competition, please complete the Tangerine Times newspaper front page on someone you think is inspirational and why.

  • Include a picture and stats to justify why your subject is so inspirational.

  • The text itself can be either factual or emotive, but it must say why this person is inspirational to you and others. 

The competition will run through October.

Competition entries should be returned to school by Thursday 26th October. Winners of the competition will be announced by Blackpool FC Community Trust and Blackpool FC on Tuesday 31st October.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Well done Year 5, have a lovely weekend with your families.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on  year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" Genesis

Year 5 have had another lovely week and have continued to work hard. The focus of our RE work so far has been Creation and we have talked a lot about how God gave us this beautiful world to live in and unfortunately we (humans) haven’t done a great job of looking after it.

Over the next few weeks we will explore this further and to support this work, I am going to set Year 5 a challenge to complete at home (with your help please 🙏) and then we will be sharing our work and our response to it, to the rest of the school in the coming weeks. I’ve not yet had the chance to talk about it with them but I thought to let you know so that you can get started.

The challenge: To email two photos which I will print out to put on display in school and I might also display these here on our blog. One photograph should be of something Year 5 consider beautiful in this world and another photograph of something which is ruining the beauty of our world. For example, they might have a photograph taken with a sunset and the other photograph might be of rubbish on the beach. Year 5, it would be great if we can have lots of different ideas on display so please try to think of your own ideas. Please email photos as jpegs, if possible, to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk as soon as possible. Thanks for your support.

Reading

In class we have been talking about the importance of reading and I’m really pleased that so many children are reading daily. As Doctor Seuss says, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Please can I ask that parents continue to encourage your child to read at home and sign their reading diary. More recently, we have noticed that some children are already not reading as regularly as they should and some children are not bringing their reading diaries to school everyday. This is such a shame and it really is having an impact on their quiz scores in school and the progress they are making. The children should be reading for at least 20 minutes a day at home. To improve this, we will continue to check reading diaries weekly and in addition to the house points they receive, every time they read they will also earn golden tickets. At the end of this half term, we will count up the golden tickets and a winner will be drawn. Get reading Year 5! 📚

Bedrock Competition

Don’t forget Bedrock’s new competition to be in with a chance of winning some great prizes. You just need to collect 20 points or more each week and earn 140 or more points in total using Bedrock from now till the 22nd October.

Here is our TOP 5 on the scoreboard this week:

1 Gabriel 207 points

2 Kurt 171 points

3 Hallie 143 points

4 Elsie 139 points

5 Zahra 128 points

Well done to all the children who are on our leader board this week.👏🏻

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Emilia

Writing Award - Olivia S

Maths Award - Elsie

Our learning this week…

In English the children have explored new vocabulary and have thought of ways to describe the Earth and the moon in preparation for writing a contrast poem.

In maths we’ve been working with number lines to 100,000 and identified numbers that are between two points (for example multiples of 10,000), using mathematical language to describe the position. The children have also compared and ordered numbers to 100,000 using what they know about place value

In RE the focus has been explaining the link between Scientific truths and theological truths .

In science we have been learning about the movement of the Earth around the sun.

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

Our Computing topic this half term is all about the Mars Rover and this week the children have learnt about the automated motor vehicle and have  explored how and why the Mars Rover transfers data. To get an idea of the distance that the Mars Rover had to travel, the children also researched the distance to Mars based on the length of other objects, such as the length of a double decker bus.

Art work from last week…

In PE the children continue to work with PE specialist Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is leadership.

Our Year 5 led worship this week was led by Dominic and Harriet this week. Their worship was on the theme of Courage and they challenged the children to be strong and courageous when things get tough and reminded us that God is with us wherever we go. Well done Dominic and Harriet!

“Here is what I am commanding you to do. Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid. Do not lose hope. I am the Lord your God. I will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

Homework 

A reminder that a summary of this week’s homework can be found on the Year 5 homework page. Please make sure homework is completed by the end of Tuesday ready for spelling and times table tests. 

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

  • Live streaming - This free online safety guide profiles live streaming – a hugely popular activity among young people that’s certainly not without hazards.

  • Setting boundaries around gaming - This looks at the benefits of setting boundaries around video gaming to help young people learn healthy online habits.

  • WhatsApp - This is an updated examination of WhatsApp – the globally popular messaging platform which contains both old and new hazards for young users.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Well done Year 5, have a great weekend.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on  year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Be the kind of leader that you would follow.

The children are now settling into Year 5 and are starting to get the hang of the routines and their new responsibilities. They have really embraced their role as buddies to Reception and on Tuesday they accompanied them to church to support them in our first whole school mass. We have talked a lot about being good role models and good leaders so we were delighted with how they rose to the challenge of being good role models and how they supported their buddies throughout the mass. This is really wonderful to see and we’re also pleased with how they are supporting them and KS1 at lunch times through their role as play leaders. Well done Year 5!

Swimming is also going really well and Year 5 are loving it. The swimming teachers are really pleased with the work they have all done so far. This week I observed the children who are just starting out as swimmers and both their swimming teacher and I were both so impressed with the progress they have made so far and after only two lessons. Keep up the great work Year 5!

Bedrock Competition!

A big well done to everyone who has already logged on to Bedrock at home as part of the homework and I’m delighted to see that so many of you have completed more than the expected lesson for homework. As you can see below, Bedrock have launched a new prize draw competition with some fantastic prizes to win. You have all been entered into this competition and for a chance of winning, you just need to collect 20 points or more each week and earn 140 or more points in total using Bedrock from now till the 22nd October. If you go to the dashboard on your Bedrock account, you will find details of how you can collect points. Remember, you need to complete at least one Bedrock lesson for homework but to earn more points you can do more. However, please do not complete more than one lesson per day to ensure vocabulary retention. In addition to Bedrock’s competition, we will also have our own in class Bedrock competition too. The member of our class who has the most Bedrock points by the end of half term will win a prize at the end of his half term. Good luck Year 5!

Here is our TOP 5 on the scoreboard this week:

1 Gabriel 124 points

2 Hallie 92 points

3 Zahra 75 points

4 Darcy 72 points

5 Dominic 60 points

Well done to all the children who are on our leader board this week.👏🏻

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Henry

Writing Award - Darcy

Maths Award - Rosanna

Our learning this week…

In English the children have been changing writing from the present tense into the past tense. They have read an extract about Neil Armstrong’s descent onto the moon and have identified his character from it. The children have also deepened their understanding of the people involved in the lunar landings and this has provided them with an opportunity to develop word banks of verbs and adverbs for use in their writing later on.

In maths we’ve been working with numbers to 100,000, focusing on the position and value of each digit. They’ve represented numbers in different ways and broken them down, explaining the value of each part.

In RE we have compared Scientific truths to theological truths and identified the differences.

In science we have been learning about how day and night occur

In history the children are continuing to learn about the Ancient Greeks.

Our Computing topic this half term is all about the Mars Rover and this week the children have learnt about the automated motor vehicle and have  explored how and why the Mars Rover transfers data. To get an idea of the distance that the Mars Rover had to travel, the children also researched the distance to Mars based on the length of other objects, such as Big Ben, the length of a blue whale, the length of a double decker bus, and the length of a football pitch.

In Spanish this week we have been looking at the Spanish alphabet and have been introduced to some of the sounds.

In our art lesson we have begun to look at the work of Hundertwasser and have used viewfinders to select and draw a section of his images into their sketchbooks.

In PE the children are working with PE specialist called Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is leadership.

Homework 

A reminder that a summary of this week’s homework can be found on the Year 5 homework page. Please make sure homework is completed by the end of Tuesday ready for spelling and times table tests. 

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

  • Live streaming - This free online safety guide profiles live streaming – a hugely popular activity among young people that’s certainly not without hazards.

  • Setting boundaries around gaming - This looks at the benefits of setting boundaries around video gaming to help young people learn healthy online habits.

  • WhatsApp - This is an updated examination of WhatsApp – the globally popular messaging platform which contains both old and new hazards for young users.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Well done Year 5, have a great weekend.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on  year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.



Posted
AuthorKay McVey

“When times get tough, we don't give up. We get up.” Barack Obama

Year 5 have had another great week of learning. The children have settled well and are really getting into the swing of things. Many of them have earned themselves lots of dojo points already because of their great attitude, focused learning, effort and great work. We’re now checking diaries and all bookmarks have  now been updated . I’m so pleased to see so many have already read and are getting  their diaries signed each  night - dojo points are also rewarded for this. Well done Year 5, keep that up! 

On Tuesday the children began their swimming sessions and we were delighted with the way they conducted themselves and represented our school. They made a fabulous start to their lessons and this enabled their swimming teachers to get them sorted into swimming groups quickly and begin working on their new swimming techniques. Well done Year 5!

Yesterday, KS2 had a visit from Parliament’s Education & Engagement Service. During the assembly, the children were given an introduction to Parliament: an overview of the three key parts of Parliament and how they work together to make laws. Afterwards, Year 5 took part in a workshop on Campaign for Change. The children learnt about how to campaign, looking at changes from historical campaigns, for example the Suffragettes, and then designing their own campaign around a current issue and presenting it to the rest of the class.

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Mia

Writing Award - James

Maths Award - Harriet

Our learning this week…

In English the children have turned the 1969 lunar landing transcript into punctuated speech and then improved their writing with description.

Our focus in maths has been rounding numbers up to 5-digits to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. We learnt a little rhyme to help us remember the rules for rounding.

In RE the children have discussed the Scientific view of how the World began and also listened to the Creation story from Genesis 1 (Theological view) and have made their own Creation wheel as a reminder of the story.

In science we have been considering different types of evidence, both direct and indirect evidence, for the shape of our Earth.

In history the children have begun learning about the Ancient Greeks.

In PE the children are working with PE specialist called Erin from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The focus of their lessons this half term is leadership.

Homework 

A reminder that a summary of this week’s homework can be found on the Year 5 homework page. Please make sure homework is completed by Tuesday ready for spelling and times table tests. 

Well done Year 5, you’ve all worked hard this week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on  year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Our first week...

What a great week we’ve had! Year 5 have made a great start to this year and it has been lovely to spend time getting to know them a little better. The children are settling in nicely and learning the new routines - we are excited to be working with them this year!

Your child will have come home with a reading book and reading diary this week. At the start of the year we usually use an assessment tool called Star Reader to assess the ZPD of your child’s book (this gauges the level of challenge that your child should be reading), however it has been off line this week. Hopefully we will be able to use this next week to ensure that your child is reading the right books. ZPDs will be marked down in their diaries once complete. Bookmarks and diaries will be checked regularly so please encourage your child to read daily if they can and they must have their book and diary in every day. Children should aim to read at least 20 minutes a day and discuss their reading if possible with an adult - this will ensure progress is maintained and the expected standard is met.

Your child’s new water bottle  will come home with them each evening to ensure that it can be washed and filled ready for the next day. Unfortunately we don’t have spares in school, or cups they can use, so it is important that they bring it in each day. When our typical weather returns, please also ensure your child brings a coat each day just in case the weather changes over the course of the day - we will still want to get outside for some fresh air even if it is a bit cold or just a bit of rain. For now though lets just enjoy this warm weather while we can.

On Tuesday the children will begin their swimming sessions. Please remind your child to bring their costume and towel and if they have longer hair, boys or girls, they should also bring a swimming cap.

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Kurt

Writing Award - Ronnie

Maths Award - Oscar

Our learning this week…

In English we have begun a new unit of work which will come from the book, Where We Once Stood, which details first-hand accounts of the six moon landings. This week we have explored new vocabulary and phrases from the opening extracts of the book and have looked at strategies to help us with the meanings of these words. We’ve also discussed whether or not humans should return to the moon and the children have backed up their views by giving reasons and justifying their thoughts.

In Maths the focus has been on place value.and the children have been reading and writing 5-digit numbers and recognising the value of each digit and rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100.

In RE we have been discussing how the world began and have compared their own views against those of their learning partner.

In Science we will be learning about aspects of Earth and Space. This week the children have shared their existing knowledge of this topic and they took part in a Space quiz to see how much they know already.

PE days

Full PE kit will need to be worn on Tuesdays (swimming) and Wednesdays.

Homework

Year 5 will use online learning for their homework this year. I will add more details next week.

Well done Year 5, you’ve made a great start! We hope you all have a lovely weekend with your families.

Mrs McVey and Mrs McCooey

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Welcome to Year 5!

Welcome to Year 5! I hope you have all had a wonderful Summer and are ready to start the new year in Year 5. I look forward to welcoming you into class tomorrow and look forward to getting to know you all!

I just wanted to let you know our PE days will be Tuesdays (swimming) and Wednesdays.


Tuesdays will be swimming and this will start on Tuesday 12th September and take place each Tuesday afternoon throughout the year. This Tuesday one of the swimming teachers will be coming to meet with the children and talk about swimming with them.

The children will be accompanied to the pool by me, Mrs McVey, and Mrs McCooey our class Teaching Assistant. The children will need to come into school on a Tuesday with their school PE kit for the day and will need with them their swimming kit in a separate bag to their school bag. Girls will need a one-piece swimsuit and boys will need swimming trunks (please see photo of acceptable type as baggy swim shorts are not allowed), a towel, swim hat for all girls and boys who have a longer hair style or fringe, and goggles if you return the signed goggles letter (this will come home with the forms after Mrs Wilson’s visit to us on Tuesday. The children will not need shampoo or shower gel as they will only have time to rinse and get dressed quickly ready to return to school. If your child has asthma, inhalers will be taken to the pool by the teachers so please make sure your child has an up to date inhaler in school as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Mrs McVey

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

Our week...

Sports Day…

Sadly, sports day was not to be today for KS2. I know that there were many who were disappointed with the decision, but we hope for Monday!🤞🏻

Our learning this week…

In English the children have planned their dilemma narratives and have begun their big write - I’m really impressed so far!

In Maths the children have continued to work on different methods for multiplication.

In history the children have explored what the Maya ruins tell us about city-states.

In computing the children composed space-themed music using Sonic Pi.

In DT the children have cut out their design ready to put their stuffed toy together next lesson and then practised the blanket stitch.

In PE the children have been practising the relay ready for sports day.

Our award winners:

Golden Award (LEARN) - Emma

Writing Award - Lexi Rose

Maths Award - Zak

Resilient Moves…

Thank you to Emma for sharing her resilient move…

What resilient moves will you make this week? Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk I look forward to receiving them.

This week’s resilient moves challenges are:

  • Play and hobbies (Basics)

  • Focus on the good things in life. Put on your positivity glasses! (Coping)

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.

This week’s online safety poster give helpful advice about…

Dates for your diary:

14th July - KS2 disco🪩💃🕺

17th July - KS2 SPORTS AFTERNOON weather permitting 🤞🏻

17th July - Reports out to Parents

20th July - SCHOOLS CLOSES FOR SUMMER HOLIDAYS!☀️

Work coming home for the Summer…

In preparation for the end of term, please send in a strong bag (e.g.bag for life) so that all work can be sent home on the last day of term before the Summer holiday. Please label the bag with your child’s name. Thank you!

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans, Mrs McCooey and Mrs Dunford

Posted
AuthorKay McVey

So proud!😊

Yesterday was our long awaited performance at the Grand Theatre. A huge well done to all of Year 5 , you were amazing, on and off stage, and the comments we received about your performance were so positive and thoroughly deserved! 👏🏻👏🏻⭐️ I could not have been prouder of the children, they were absolutely fantastic and demonstrated just how far they have come with their resilience! A big thank you to all the parents, grandparents and other family members who came to support the children, it made their day to be able to perform to you!

A big thank you to the Grand Theatre, Natalie, Helen and the rest of the team who have worked alongside the children for the last two years - we’ve enjoyed being part of this project! 😊

On Wednesday the children spent the afternoon in Year 6 with Mrs Murphy, who will be teaching them in Year 6 next year. The children had a great afternoon getting to know Mrs Murphy and equally Mrs Murphy enjoyed getting to know them. Well done Year 5!

Our learning this week…

In English the children have used relative clauses to describe the beast, recapped punctuating direct speech and have planned speech which conveys character and speech which moves the action on.

In Maths the children have been working on different methods for multiplication.

In history the children have explored what the Maya ruins tell us about city-states.

In DT the children have cut out their design ready to put their stuffed toy together next lesson and then practised the blanket stitch.

In PE the children have been learning to use a baton to run relay races in preparation for sports day.

Our award winners:

Golden Award (CARE) - Ayson

Writing Award - Frankie

Maths Award - Mickey

A big well done to our drummers, who performed in a showcase for parents and classes this morning. It was so lovely to see how much you have learnt and improved over the course of the year. Well done!🥁

Also, a big congratulations to Isabella and Emma who have achieved their bronze award for drumming. Well done girls!🥁👏🏻⭐️

Resilient Moves…

What resilient moves will you make this week? Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk I look forward to receiving them.

This week’s resilient moves challenges are:

  • Exercise and fresh air (Basics)

  • Highlight achievements (Learning)

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.

This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…

  • Rumble - This free online safety guide profiles Rumble, a video-sharing platform which features some outspoken influencers and, frequently, uncompromising political views.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

Dates for your diary:

14th July - KS2 SPORTS AFTERNOON ( KS1 Sports Day will take place in the morning). Please note that if it rains and we are unable to do sports day, our next date will be 17th July.

17th July - Reports out to Parents

20th July - SCHOOLS CLOSES FOR SUMMER HOLIDAYS!

Work coming home for the Summer…

In preparation for the end of term, please send in a strong bag (e.g.bag for life) so that all work can be sent home on the last day of term before the Summer holiday. Please label the bag with your child’s name. Thank you!

To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel

Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…

TenTen Parent Newsletter

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans, Mrs McCooey and Mrs Dunford



Posted
AuthorKay McVey