Last Sunday marked the second Sunday of Advent. The second Sunday of Advent symbolises Faith with the “Bethlehem Candle” reminding us of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. There is comfort to be found when we pause to read, pray, and reflect over the course of the Advent season...a time when believers eagerly anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth. The second Sunday of Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare our hearts in faithful waiting, celebrate the birth of Jesus, and ready ourselves for his second coming. It's a beautiful chance to reflect on the ways prophecy has been fulfilled and to ponder what the future (promised to us through prophecies) will bring.
To prepare ourselves, we went to church on Wednesday morning to take part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Father Frank talked to the children about the meaning of reconciliation and throughout the whole time we were there the children were so reverent. Well done Year 5, we were so proud of you.
Great team work!
We’ve had a fantastic week in Year 5, the children have really amazed me! They were set a number of challenges this week in our DT/Science lessons. In the first of these sessions, the children were split into three groups and given a different challenge. One group had to make a simple frame from wood, using tools safely. The second group had to make a a moving vehicle using tech card and their knowledge of circuits and the third group had to make a vehicle shell for a chosen planet and design it using their knowledge of that planet. All the children worked extremely well and completed their challenges successfully…
The children were then put into small groups and together as a team they were set the challenge of designing and making a moon buggy model. The children designed their buggy, deciding on the materials that they would need and set off making it. By the end of the morning the children finished their moon buggies. I am so impressed with how hard they all worked and more impressed with the maturity they all showed, working in their teams supporting each other and with good cooperation and collaboration. Take a look at what they achieved…
Our award winners:
Golden Award (CARE) - Stephen
Writing Award - Leo
Maths Award - Matilda
Our learning this week…
In English the children have finished working on their formal report and have worked hard using their editing skills to improve it.
Our focus in maths has been finding multiples and factors of numbers.
In RE the children have been working with Mrs Mannix and are learning about the covenants made with God
This week’s prayer and liturgy was planned and led by Luna and Willow. The theme of their liturgy was Be With Us, Lord Jesus. In the second week of Advent, the girls helped us understand that our actions impact others as well as our relationship with God. We had the opportunity to open our hearts to Jesus and become reconciled – right – with God by putting Jesus first as we prepare for His coming and the Year of Jubilee.
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation. (Luke 3:1-6)
In PE the children are working with PE specialist Charlie from Blackpool Football Club Community Trust. The unit for this half term is dance.
In our Bounce Forward session, we continued to look at what the children’s dreams for the future are and then they thought about the shorter term goals that would help them to achieve their dream.
This week’s resilient move challenges are:
Get enough sleep (Basics potion)
Engage mentors and learn from our role models (Learning potion)
Build your resilience
How many resilient moves can you make this week?
Use the resilient framework to identify the ones you and your family make. Resilience Framework
Thank you to Olivia who has shared her resilient moves this week…
If you would like to share a photo of your child making a resilient move, then send them to our email year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will post them here each week. For example, a photo of a bike ride - the resilient move would be fresh air and exercise which comes from the basic potion on the framework. Please note: if the photo has other children on it, please ensure you have consent to share it with me.
The BEBCMAT Rock Stars Super League competition continues and runs till the 20th December. Good luck everyone! Please make sure you take the time to do your bit. I will be rewarding house points to those children who go on TTRS.
Our school is currently in 4th place out of 12 schools in the trust and we have scored 1929 points (school average score) so far.
This week’s Our Lady’s Top of the Rock’s Leaderboard:
1st Harriet Year 6 22478
2nd Matilda Year 3 22335
3rd Natalia Year 5 20016
4th Olivia Year 5 19777
5th Aibhin Year 5 9934
Well done to everyone on our leaderboard this week!👏🏻🏆
To read this week’s Good News Gospel reading, please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. Good News Gospel
Please also have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worship…
Tuesday 17th December Festive party clothes day and Christmas lunch
Thursday 19th December KS2 carol service in church - families welcome 2pm
Thursday 19th December close for Christmas 3.15pm
Monday 6th January 2025 First day back in 2025
Have a great weekend, Year 5!
Mrs McVey, Mrs Hodgkiss and Miss Andrew
If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.
