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.

Congratulations to our Year 3 class who have been collecting food donations to support those in need in our local community. Building on the success of our annual Harvest Collection, the children decided to make this an ongoing project, recognising that there are people in need throughout the year. Year 3 class have made posters and visited each class to encourage contributions. When their box was full up, a group of children took the food to St Mary's Church ready for distribution. The children will continue to welcome any donations of tinned or dried goods - please help if you can.

Christmas is a time for thinking about other people and St. Mary's were blessed in many ways to have others thinking of those less fortunate.

Through our long standing contact with Rev Charles and the charity Projectfivek the staff at a branch of Nandos delivered special bags filled with treats and gifts for some of our children. In addition the Dinnertimeclub a charity based in Forest Hill delivered Christmas grocery goodies for some of our families which had been donated by Sainsburys.

We are very grateful for the generosity and kindness of all these individuals and organisations who have helped to make the lives of our families that little bit brighter and have really lived the values of love and responsibility to their local community.

Following a visit from our School Council, we received this message of thanks:

"St Mary's Primary were one of the first beneficiaries of this project...before we even had a name. They along with a dozen other schools and 40+ other care homes/community groups/homeless projects and others besides shared in the 115,000+ innocent drinks, 30,000+ Ivy restaurant meals and many tonnes of fresh fruit and veg that were channelled via this project the first months of the pandemic.

They were an absolute joy to work with. More importantly, seeing the teaching team fight so hard to put meal packs together for their kids was a great source of energy and inspiration for this project...and a good part of the reason why we are here today.

With all that in mind, it was a real joy (after 3 long days of being open) to have the lovely children from St Mary's school council come up to the hub with a big thank you note (and some treats for the volunteers). We couldn't wish for better neighbours!"

The children have been learning about refugees in assembly by looking at Amal and her journey from the Turkish/Syrian border. When asked how best we could welcome Amal if she were to come to our school we had various responses including "throw a party" and "make some bunting".
So we decided to make some bunting for the hall and as you can see we had some beautiful designs! Shyla's message was particularly moving; Amal you are wonderful and beautiful and may you live in peace.

What better message could you give to a child seeking refuge? The bunting looks beautiful in the hall and reminds us all that we should be shining examples of welcome and love to anyone coming to our community of St. Mary's.

Amal the giant walking puppet walked all the way from the Syrian/Turkish border across 8000km and 8 countries and finally arrived in the UK. Year 5 were on Deptford High Street to give her a very warm and special welcome along with lots of other children from Lewisham schools! As Lewisham's first School of Sanctuary St. Mary's had a very special part to play and accompanied Amal with giant bunting down the high street to Giffin Square where a huge poster was hanging which had been created by Years 5 and 6.  Ayana then gave Amal a giant Paddington sticker. Remember Paddington Bear was also a refugee like Amal!

Year 5 also spoke with the Mayor of Lewisham Damian Egan and Councillor Kevin Bonavia who has visited our school before. We even featured on BBC news that night! Year 5 were a real credit to the school and lots of people complimented them on their brilliant behaviour and good manners during what was a very busy celebration.

It was an amazing day and we are grateful to our governors and parents who accompanied us on the trip!