Dear Parents
It has been lovely this week to begin again with the Class Mission Weeks after so long! It is important for the children to look beyond themselves and their immediate families and see themselves as part of the bigger picture, contributing to the community or world in which they live and thanking God for the good things in their lives. Mission Week assemblies also give the children the opportunity to screw up their courage and find their biggest voices to “perform” to the adults and wider community who are watching. All of these elements are life skills for the children and we are so glad that they once again have the opportunity to develop these skills.
This week has been the turn of Topaz Class and they have been focussing on the scripture around the Creation Story and exploring the idea of the Wonderful World in which we live. This week, the whole school took part in an Earth Hour – an international initiative to save energy by turning off lights, computers and whiteboards; this was a welcome change from the very screen-based learning children experienced earlier in the year! It has been good to hear the beautiful sound of children’s voices singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands” as the class have been practising this week and we are grateful to Year 3 for sharing their learning and their reflections with us in assembly this morning! Well done Topaz Class!
First Aid Week has been our theme this week and all of the classes have completed their PSHE work on First Aid through the week, including Key Stage Two children working on modules towards their St John’s Ambulance First Aider qualification. We are very grateful to Mrs Agnew for coming into school to talk to the Y5 and Y6 children about first aid and sharing her medical expertise with them. Some children in Key Stage 1 and some in Key Stage 2 were lucky enough to take part in First Aid workshops led by a former pupil, now in sixth form at Salesians – it was lovely to welcome her back to Cardinal Newman and the children really enjoyed their learning with her. It makes a big difference to the children’s learning to have real experiences through workshops and conversations with experts – if you have a skill / experience which you might be able to share to further the children’s learning in a particular topic, please do get in touch!
As we slowly begin to be able to have visitors in school again, we are about to begin the important but slightly arduous process of completing updated safeguarding checks for our regular parent helpers and we hope to be able to have parents back in school to help after half-term. All DBS checks are having to be renewed (due to the length of time people haven’t been in school for!) and there is a new Xavier safeguarding process for volunteers, but we do hope parents will still be keen to come in and support our children’s learning. Keep an eye out for Mr Flower’s email about next steps – we are looking forward to welcoming our volunteers back into school! Thank you for all you do for our children!
Tomorrow is the first day of May and in the Catholic Church, May is known as the month of Mary. Throughout May, the children will be praying the Rosary in school during their class prayer time and on Friday 7th May, the Year 4 children will be processing to the Prayer Garden to “crown” Our Lady. The children have been learning the traditional hymn for crowning and parents and grandparents might like to have a nostalgic listen to a YouTube version of the hymn here!
Attached to this mailing is a powerpoint from the diocese for families to pray the rosary together at home – each slide has one of the mysteries and will take about five minutes before bed. And if you’re wondering what the deal is with Mary – or just want a quick recap so you can answer your children’s questions – there’s a great two minute video “Catholics and Mary in Two Minutes” on Busted Halo here
I wish all our families a very happy Bank Holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday! Let’s hope for a warm and sunny weekend – enjoy!
All best wishes
Catherine Burnham
Headteacher
