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A huge thank you to Projectfivek who have provided food vouchers to many of our families, not just at Christmas but throughout the year. The charity has also provided funds for our breakfast club to enable extra items to be purchased to ensure the children have a hot breakfast when they come in. Acts of generosity like this are a wonderful example of how important it is to support those who are in need or struggling at this time. If you need help with food or any other basic necessities please contact Mrs Tildesley via the school office or have a chat with her at the school gate.   Year 6 visited four of the Elderly Care units at Lewisham Hospital to sing carols and bring Christmas cheer! St. Mary’s also donated 30 Christmas gift bags and handmade cards for patients to have on Christmas Day. The patients and staff were delighted to hear the children sing - many sang along and remembered Christmases past. Well done to all the children and especially to Mr. Sandman who accompanied the children on his guitar in true style! A big thank you to our parents who came to wrap 100s of presents for Santa’s grotto. If Santa’s elves go on strike St. Mary’s parents could cover it no problem!  Here are our fabulous School Council 2022-23! We have two representatives from each class Year 1-6 and we meet a couple of times each half term. The School Council are a really important part of our school community as they share their views about aspects of school life and help with lots of projects! Watch this space for more developments! There was a lovely turnout of parents for an event to launch our Making it REAL project in the Nursery. This project aims to raise early literacy levels by encouraging families to do simple low cost activities at home like mark making, reading, talking and looking at everyday objects around them. Every conversation with your child matters - whether on the bus or in the bath - so seize every opportunity! Our Year 6 class developed their understanding of communities and their role as citizens both locally, nationally and globally. The event was held at Lee Fire Station and the children explored themes including transport, fire safety, the role of the police, road safety and healthy lifestyles. We were honoured to be chosen to host our local Assembly meeting, attended by all three of our local councillors and many local residents. It provided an opportunity to share local updates, focusing on housing, transport and community events.  At St. Mary's we are very proud of our courageous advocacy campaigns with Lewisham Citizens which both parents and children have been part of. The first win came in March 2022 following an extensive campaign by lots of schools and charities to allow Free School Meals for all families who have no recourse to public funds. A former pupil at this school and his mum attended an MPs briefing at Westminster with Mrs Tildesley to share their experiences and this was the catalyst to the announcement made by the government to allow all pupils FSM regardless of their parents' immigration status. The second win came in June 2022 - a concession from the government so that not all young children have to pay £1012 to become a British Citizen. Our children have been campaigning for the abolition of the fee for a number of years and even went to the Home Office some years ago to draw attention to this. You can read about the campaign below which includes a quote from one of our parents... https://www.citizensuk.org/about-us/news/news/citizens-uk-and-coram-childrens-legal-centre-celebrate-home-office-waiving-citizenship-fees-for-some-children/?fs=e&s=cl We are proud to be a Sanctuary School and we will continue to campaign for the right of everyone to be welcomed and treated with respect and dignity. Some of our parents and children went to Laurence House to meet up with the re-elected Mayor to remind him of the promises that he made around housing issues when he came to our school for the Lewisham Citizens Accountability Assembly in April. Damien Egan promised that if he was re-elected he would work with us to improve conditions, care and communications for Lewisham residents. Together with representatives from lots of other organisations in Lewisham we congratulated the Mayor on his re-election by giving him some bunting to hang in his office. We also invited him to play a wordsearch game - some of the children from St Mary's helped him to find the words:
A special worship was held for each class to share an update on their community projects. Children at St Mary's learn about Courageous Advocacy - how they can make a difference to their local, national and global communities. Nursery and Year 1 have been collecting donations for the homeless. Reception class have made links with local elderly people, including sending them Christmas cards. Year 2 have continued to develop the therapeutic garden at St Mary's Church whilst Year 3 have been running a foodbank collection scheme. Year 4 are planning a uniform sale and Year 5 continue to encourage recycling at School every week. Finally, Year 6 have been writing to the children in our Ghanaian link school as well as organising fundraising activities. |
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St Mary's Lewisham CE Primary School - 329 Lewisham High Street - London - SE13 6NX
Tel: 020 8690 2613 email: admin@st-marys.lewisham.sch.uk |
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