Many of our parents, carers, pupils and staff speak languages other than English. St. Mary's is proud of the diverse and multi-cultural background of our families. Sometimes when families first arrive in the UK language can be a real barrier to obtaining information and settling in. It can be very hard and isolating for parents and children.
So at St. Mary's we are creating a database of language leaders amongst our parents, pupils and staff so that we can quickly get help in translating conversations for newly arrived parents and children and help them to settle in quickly. These parent language leaders came to an information session to learn more about the role and they appear on our website here: https://st-marys.lewisham.sch.uk/language-leaders.html. If you would like to be a language leader, please let Mrs Tildesley know. St. Mary's campaign for better housing continued with an action outside Lewisham Town Hall last month. We gathered there with people representing 17 local institutions from Lewisham Citizens to call time on poor housing in Lewisham.
Our school council designed some beautiful cards asking for houses to be made into homes as we highlighted that some accommodation is far from perfect. One of our parents spoke brilliantly about how poor accommodation affects everyday life as well as her physical and mental health. The children made lots of noise to attract attention and we then delivered the cards along with photos of current conditions that families are living in to Councillor Sophie Davies. Housing is a huge issue affecting our families - please join us for our next Housing Action Meeting in the near future! Lewisham Mental Health Support Team (MHST) work in schools with the whole school community – including staff, young people, and families – to support emotional wellbeing. They run individual and group interventions as well as things like assemblies, staff training, parent workshops, and supporting the school’s wellbeing strategy.
Today they provided a workshop for parents on managing children's fears and anxieties. We learned about how to spot the signs of fear and anxiety in our children - flight, fright, freeze, submit - and the things that might reinforce those anxieties. Finally we looked at ways of coping and encouraging our children to overcome their fears;
Planned and organised by our amazing children's Faith Group, the school community joined together to raise money at our Easter Fayre. The money raised will be donated to the charities supported by the Bishop of Southwark's Lent Appeal - including projects in Zimbabwe and Jerusalem. The children in the Faith Group included many exciting activities that were enjoyed by everyone - a cake sale, Easter egg hunt, egg painting, hook an Easter duck and an egg and spoon obstacle race.
We are extremely concerned about the state of some of our families' temporary accommodation, and this prompted us to take action.
This month, working alongside South London Citizens, Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network and other local schools including Grinling Gibbons, we met with Lewisham Mayor Damien Egan and Councillor Sophie Davies to discuss some of the key issues facing residents in temporary accommodation. We also held a Community Conversations meeting in our Community Hub, where parents and carers were invited to come and share their stories, for example if their accommodation is covered in mould, they have repairs that are not being dealt with, or they have been bidding for a property for a long time without success. All these stories enable us to feed back to the decision makers in a bid to effect some positive change. 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! |
Community ProjectsFind out about the community projects we are working on Archives
May 2023
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