As part of the 'Let’s Connect' theme for this year's Children’s Mental Week, our School Council visited some of our elderly friends at Bentley Court.

The children brought with them cards they had made showing what they enjoy doing to start the conversations flowing. They found out lots of interesting things about each other, including things they had in common!

It was a wonderful afternoon mixing young and old and bringing a smile to everyone’s faces.

Children in Year 1 and Year 2 took a trip to the Royal Festival Hall to take part in an interactive concert inspired by Anna Llenas' book "The Colour Monster".

The Colour Monster is all mixed up! He finds it very confusing. He’s feeling yellow, blue, red, black and green all at once. In the book, his friend (the narrator) helps him to identify each of his feelings and untangle them, placing each one in a special jar to study more closely. She suggests how positive emotions make you feel, and ways to help out people (or monsters) with negative emotions. Once the feelings have been separated, the Colour Monster feels something altogether different…

The London Philharmonic Orchestra played different pieces of music linked to the different emotions felt by the Colour Monster: happiness, sadness, anger, calm and fear.

Before the concert children created their own artwork based on these themes and colours, and they were delighted to see their artwork displayed on a giant screen during the concert.

We’re proud to be supporting Place 2 Be's Children's Mental Health Week (6-12 February), helping to shine a light on the importance of children and young people’s #mentalhealth. 
We will take part in a variety of activities throughout the week to encourage children (and adults) to connect with others in healthy, rewarding and meaningful ways. We started off the week with some mindful beading in the Community Hub , and some smiley stickers to cheer us all up!
​
Find out more here: childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk. 

Congratulations to our young sports stars in Year 1 and Year 2, as they travelled to Sydenham School for an exciting Multiskills event. Competing alongside children from other Lewisham Primary Schools, our children performed amazingly across a variety of running, jumping, throwing and team events.

We were delighted to welcome our local Community Police Officers to our school. They brought their police car with them and the children enjoyed getting to know the Officers and learning about how they can help us.

Our amazing team of journalists met this week to begin preparing St Mary's first ever School Newspaper - written, edited, designed and published entirely by our children. It will be the best way to keep up with the many exciting events that take place in and around our wonderful school. The children have begun to write their first stories and this has included conducting interviews and research, as well as taking photos. Watch this space for more updates and look out for the first copy - due to be published in Easter 2023!

Did you know that the number one reason for admission to hospital in primary school children is tooth decay?

St. Mary's had a visit from the Dental Unit at King's College Hospital to help educate our children more about the importance of good dental hygiene. There was a puppet show for nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 where the children learned how to brush their teeth well.
Years 4 and 6 also had class workshops to understand more about teeth and the important part they play in our general health. Many assume that bones are the hardest substance in the body, but that’s not the case. It’s actually teeth! Comprised of over 96% of minerals, teeth are even harder than bones!

Remember that NHS Dental treatment is free for all children under 18, so it is important to get regular check-ups at the dentist and ensure your children brush their teeth with a fluoride toothpaste twice a day.