What an Adventful week at St. Mary’s!
Keeping with the spirit of Advent, the children at St. Mary’s have been preparing for the school’s Christmas fair. Our school council, along with our wool & stitches charity group and Crafty CAFOD creations group, have teamed up together, working towards creating stalls and gifts in order to raise money for Alder Hey children’s hospital and CAFOD World Gifts. The school council have decided to choose CAFOD world gifts to support a range of different people around the world. The Wool & Stitches group will support Alder Hey hospital (a local hospital) once again, as they did earlier in the year, raising £40 for the Children’s hospital. The Crafty CAFOD Group will be making small gifts and running stalls of small gifts and books. Mr. Gilmour met with the children twice this week to support them in organising the fair. We look forward to welcoming families to the fair, raising money for both a local and worldwide charity and choosing our CAFOD world gifts.
Advent Service with local schools!
We were very proud to join Our Lady’s Catholic High School and the family of local primary schools at the Advent Service (supported by the Salvation Army). The school was represented by children in Years 3-6. A huge thank to those that came, created the art-work and took part in the service. It is a wonderful time of year for local schools and families to come together to learn about the true meaning of Advent and learn about the local work of the Salvation Army. 
PTFA Friends of Claughton – Wreath Making
The magic of Christmas wreath making was alive in the school hall last week! Katie, from the ‘Friends of Claughton’ ran a creative wreath making session for the parents and local community of Claughton. Katie raised a massive £240 for the PTFA and parents and friends of the school went home with their wonderful wreaths! There is already demand for further sessions next year – well done Katie! And a thank you to Mrs. Brice for helping out and supporting the event. I’m sure you agree that the wreaths look amazing!
Oh no they didn’t!
The whole school had a magical time at Lowther Pavilion Theatre this week watching the panto, Snow White! The children had a great time and were delightfully entertained! All the children came back to school full of Christmas spirit. Thank you to he PTFA, ‘Friends of Claughton’ and local company Garstang Independent financial advice, who made the trip possible, as they supported the cost for the transport to and from the theatre. The children’s big smiles and happy faces speak volumes – you made their day!
Oak Class – performance and paint!
Oak Class have excelled this week in creating their own paint (as part of their history topic) using natural materials they found around school. The children devel0ped a quick appreciation for B&Q and ready made paint cans. Trying to emulate pre-historic ways of life, gave the children a real understanding of what life was like thousands of years ago!
The children have also been studying one of Mr. Gilmour’s favourite poems, ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes, as part of their English work. The children performed the poem to be published on the website as part of their performance poetry. They have really taken to the poem, quickly learning the lines and stanzas to perform and interact with the different themes and vocabulary in the poem – check out the performance below!
And lastly…Mrs Brice ordered a Christmas tree Clark Griswold would have been proud of!
It is usually Miss Deakin that has issues with directions and sizing, she is known to have mixed up her metres with her millimetres when ordering items online – but Mrs. Brice was not to be outdone! Whilst decorating the tree, an observant child stated that we should no longer be known as the ‘Small School with a Big Heart, but as, ‘The Small School with a GIGANTIC TREE!’ It looks magical for sure – I’m just not sure what we will do with it when we are finished! Lumberjack wanted – apply within.
