One thing we strive to do at St.Mary’s is to prepare our children for the modern world.

Personal, social, spiritual, moral, emotional and cultural development are at the core of our curriculum and we continue to begin all of our half term topics with big thinking questions. Throughout the year, we use resources to teach online safety, we take part in mental health and wellbeing weeks and we use a variety of outside resources to support our curriculum such as Place2Be and Anna Freud. We have continued to plan many enrichment opportunities throughout the school year to support wellbeing. You can see from previous headteacher blogs, the teachers plan amazing enrichment opportunities for our children and I thank them very much. We thank all of our staff team for their skills and dedication- it is greatly appreciated.

So, what’s ahead and what have we been up to in the last couple of weeks before breaking up?

We will be looking forward to more visits to celebrate and learn about other faiths and religions, we will be working with other schools for fundraising projects, we are taking part with other schools in Lancashire Sings, we will be out adventuring on trips and you will be coming to see our amazing choir and band perform for you nearer Christmas. We will be taking part in the annual Our Lady’s Advent Service alongside other Preston Cluster Primary schools and much more! Please don’t forget, you can look at our safeguarding section on this website for support signposts and places for additional ways in which you can support your child at home. Information on there, especially under wellbeing support is for the whole family and anybody you might know who needs a bit of extra help. Always pop in and see us, we are happy to have a chat and see what we can do to help.

To continue our work with other projects and initiatives, we are delighted that we will be working with pen-pals in Kenya with children who attend The Shalom Academy. A few years back, our partner school St.Francis, a few businesses and other primary schools helped to fund and send resources and uniforms to create a school in Kenya for children who were not able to access any education. Our friendship with children at the Shalom Academy has remained strong and our children at St.Mary’s have already seen a PowerPoint sent from the children in Kenya to introduce themselves.
For the past two years, we have enjoyed working with other contrasting schools as part of The Linking Network and now we are looking forward to becoming pen-pals with children further afield.

To learn about careers, we continue to use resources from Primary Futures- a super initiative which aims to open eyes to the exciting world of work. We want ambition for all, without exception, and this term we entered a nationwide competition…

We know that many primary schools ask children about their hopes and aspirations for the future. This year, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Primary Futures, we want to celebrate and showcase what children aspire to and capture their creativity and imagination. In partnership with the NAHT, we are inviting primary schools across the country to get involved, asking their children to draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up – it is as simple as that! (Primary Futures 2024)

As part of this competition, we asked all children to draw a picture of what they would like to be when they grow up. The art work will soon form a beautiful display in school. It has been wonderful to see what the children aspire to be- I am sure they will get there! Pictures will follow in next week’s blog.

Learning about British Values:

All KS2 children across St.Francis’ and St.Mary’s enjoyed a virtual parliament assembly to prepare us for our school parliament week from the 18-24th November. Mrs Dodgson works as the senior education and engagement officer within UK parliament and the children.

As part of our personal development education, the RNLI came back to visit us and speak to the whole school about water safety…

Mountain rescue and a local vet also came to visit us and talk about their careers. We are very grateful to our visitors for coming in to talk to our children…

In Reception Class, we had some more ‘secret readers’ – some more of our lovely parents…

If all of this wasn’t enough, the children had been baking cakes and they raised money for MacMillan Cancer Charity. Well done children- super baking skills and team work!

As part of the Rocks and Fossils topic in Oak Class, the children have been learning to play The Volcano Song on ukuleles and they have enjoyed many activities in the classroom. The children and team are working so hard in there. The classroom environment is beautiful.

In Blossom Class, the children are wowing us with their geographical knowledge and they have been making clay animals and super comics…

It is another beautiful learning environment for the children with exciting challenges and places to develop enquiry skills.

It will be an exciting half term ahead with a variety of learning experiences and treats already planned. Next half term, some children in Blossoms Class will be competing in the small schools miniskills competition. We aim to give all children the opportunity to take part in competitive sports across the school year. As we work alongside the other small schools across Preston, we will be taking part in a variety of team and competitive sporting competitions.

Musically, we will be preparing for the carols around the tree concerts and other community events.

As always, we thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Please do remember, breakfast and after school club is available for all and you can call any day for a last minute bookings. We are here for you even at short notice, just contact Mrs Brice in the office and we will do the rest!

Please also note, we do have pre-school and Reception Class places available. It really is a magical place for the little ones. Here are just a few areas of provision within the classroom…