Congratulations to everyone who entered our Summer Art Competition. We loved your colourful and sunny artwork!
Thanks to everyone who attended their appointment to meet their new teacher and collect their school report. We were blessed with some beautiful sunshine as we welcomed our families into the playground, many for the first time in several months. We hope you enjoy your Summer Holiday activity packs and that you have a safe and happy summer before returning to school in September.
We have been so excited to learn that many of our children have been developing their creative baking skills whilst at home. Cooking is a great activity that promotes:
Quality family time together Speaking and Listening skills Physical development - pouring, mixing, cutting, rolling… Learning about healthy eating and trying a range of new foods Literacy - Reading and Writing instructions Maths - measuring amounts and ratios Science - reversible and irreversible changes Saving money when compared to buying ready meals or takeaways A delicious meal at the end that all of the family can enjoy together! We are proud to announce that on Friday 22nd May we were involved in an Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence assess and review day. The day was led by an external assessor, Mary Hewitson from Hertfordshire. This required the school to set up a series of 10 separate zoom meetings over an entire school day which involved the Headteacher, senior leaders, our School Home Support worker, class teachers, support staff, governors and parents. We would like to say a huge thank you to our amazing SENDCO Mrs Maseko for doing a wonderful job with organising and structuring the day. You can read a copy of the report here:
We are very proud of our children, parents and staff who continue to campaign and fight for equality and equal opportunity for all. St Mary’s continue to work closely with Citizens UK to ensure that our voice is heard and that we achieve real change. We have joined a new campaign, building on our previous success in enabling thousands of NRPF families to access Free School Meals:
Nobody should be left behind – not now, not ever! Time to end NRPF for good. Covid-19 has shone a brighter light on the injustices that many migrants face. Many of our neighbours are unable to access government help because of where they were born, and the immigration papers they have. This is because of a government policy called No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) that denies people living and working in the UK crucial forms of support from the government. Without assistance like Universal Credit and housing benefit, many people – including 100,000 children – are feeling stranded and left without a safety net. Please follow this link to find out more about the campaign. https://www.citizensuk.org/endnrpf As you will see, St Mary’s children are featured prominently; they are ‘agents of change’ and they know that their voices will be heard and they can make a difference! Thanks to generous donations from parents and from the Lewisham Citizens UK Emergency Fund we have been able to create playpacks and food bags for some families at St. Mary’s which have been delivered at a social distance to people’s homes. We have delivered over 30 playpacks designed to keep little ones busy and it is great to see parents and children as we have missed all our families at St. Mary’s. Lockdown is particularly hard on many families and of course if you are struggling with food or any other issues we would urge you to get in touch with the school so that we can support you. In conjunction with Helping Lewisham Hospital, who are based at The Point, we have been receiving weekly deliveries of Smoothies for the children. We also received some cooked meals from The Point and we were able to offer these meals to families who came to collect. Around 50 portions were distributed and we hope to do something similar in the coming weeks, so watch out for further texts! The children attending St Mary’s Learning Hub have enjoyed some creative learning. They have been busy exercising, making puppets and superheroes, planting, watering, rock painting, building, doing an obstacle race, creating cards for the elderly and making massive bubbles!
Despite the many challenges we are all facing, St Mary’s have continued to maintain our community links wherever possible. The children attending the school made some beautiful cards, which were sent to Lewisham Hospital and Bentley Court, a home for elderly residents. We received a message from a Nurse at the Hospital, to say that the card had been shared with patients on the wards and that everyone had been really touched. We also had a message from Bentley Court – everyone sends their love and loved the card the children made. They are all well and healthy. In addition, the children created some colourful rainbows which were displayed in the window of Hirst’s Bakers, opposite the school. We hope they bring some hope and light into the lives of everyone in our community at the moment.
Thank you to the parents that have become Reading Champions, volunteering to read with our children every week. They are doing a fantastic job in supporting learning at St Mary’s and we hope that they have inspired other parents to join them and also become Reading Champions. Please speak to a member of staff to get involved!
St. Mary’s celebrated the Chinese New Year in style! The whole school was a sea of red as everyone wore a red piece of clothing – raising money for charity at the same time.
To start the day the parents had a magnificent shared breakfast in the Community Hub. A huge thank you to our Chinese families who made such delicious plates of food to share with us all including peanut fritters and mung bean biscuits. Then the parents helped with Chinese calligraphy in some of the classes. |
School News BlogAll the latest news and events from St Mary's Lewisham CE Primary School Archives
May 2024
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