Congratulations to two members of our school community who successfully completed the London to Brighton bike ride - 54 miles including several steep climbs. Mr Parchment, our Premises Officer and Mr James, one of our parents, both arrived before 12:00, a great effort!

To celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, St Mary's enjoyed a special party. Children and staff were dressed in Red, White and Blue and the playground was decorated in the same colours. Each class enjoyed a special picnic lunch outside, with music and dancing to keep everyone entertained. There were also some party games and special jubilee cake for everyone! The children had learned about the Queen's 70 years on the throne during lessons and in worship led by Mrs Graham. As we enjoyed the picnic in the sunshine, the music featured popular songs from every decade of the Queen's reign. Later in the afternoon, Year 6 organised a fundraising fair for each class to visit. Games included balloon pop, ball in the bucket, lucky dip, what's in the box, obstacle courses and a cake stall! All money raised will be sent to our link school in Ghana.

St Mary's school were proud to host over 150 Lewisham Citizens for an inspiring evening as they shared their experiences and challenged the Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, and the Conservative Mayoral candidate, Caroline Attfield. The main themes were Housing and Immigration and the event was led by our Headteacher, Mrs Graham and our School Home Support worker, Mrs Tildesley. Children from St Mary's Year 5 class were the stars as they emerged from a 'house' to share their thoughts and their vision for a fairer world. In partnership with Lewisham Citizens, St Mary's continue to encourage our children and parents to campaign and know that their voice will be heard.

A very special service was held at St Mary's Church on Sunday 15th May as eight of our children from St Mary's School celebrated their First Communion at St Mary's Church. We are blessed that Father Max has spent the last 2 months preparing the children, meeting with them each week and leading them in a programme of study and reflection. The children were welcomed by the St Mary's Church congregation and it was a special day for the children and their families.

A team from Year 4 and Year 5 enjoyed learning new skills and competing against other schools at an inter-school Hockey tournament held at Sydenham School. Congratulations to everyone in our 2 teams as they played several matches, competed well and showed respect to everyone else at the tournament.

The children have loved coming to Easter School for a week of fun and learning. The Easter School has been well attended with over 70 children enjoying creative activities and revising key literacy and numeracy skills. Highlights have included every child making their own pizza, Easter egg hunts, programming robots, sports, gardening, arts and crafts, maths problem solving, hunting for shapes and using ICT to create pictograms. Thank you to all of the staff who have made it a special week for our children. 

St Mary's have been active in responding to the crisis in Ukraine. We have held fundraising events to raise much needed money to support those caught up in the conflict. An own clothes day was held with the theme of 'Blue and Yellow' to represent the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
Our children's Faith Group planned a Cake Sale and designed posters. Thank you to the generosity of our parents who donated cakes and biscuits, this ensured that everyone could enjoy a sweet treat at the end of the day whilst raising money. Special thanks to our star bakers as many parents prepared delicious cakes at home - some even decorated in blue and yellow!

Our amazing Girls football team have been representing the school at a series of league matches in Sydenham. Every Monday after school they have been busy showing off their skills on the pitch as they play against local Lewisham schools. Win, lose or draw, the girls always play with enthusiasm, teamwork and respect. We are very proud of them!

Our children enjoyed an after school club in the Spring Term, led by the Iroko Theatre company. Over several weeks, the children learned different elements of storytelling, leading up to a final performance. The combination of music, drama and storytelling created a wonderful atmosphere. In addition, our teachers received training from Iroko.

We have come to the end of another very exciting Book Week!

The children have had a marvellous time diving into lots of non-fiction books during their class reading banquets and teacher swap!

On Tuesday, they were inspired by the award-winning author, Colin Stuart, who came in to take the children on a journey to Mars. Year 5 were inspired by the fantastic facts that Colin shared with them and created some rocket-themed stop motion animations.
​
The children have also been analysing information from book surveys using technology to create charts and graphs. They even planned and carried out a ‘Dress Up Day’ Photoshoot. The children got creative with their costumes and came dressed as scientists, astronauts, Egyptians, and many other special people who made history, like Mary Seacole, Usain Bolt and even Abraham Lincoln! They all looked amazing and loved seeing all their teachers dressed up in silly outfits too!