DATE: Friday 11th December

Good afternoon,

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Following on from the Government announcement, school will be open as normal on Friday 18 December.

Public Health England has asked that schools for six days after the final day of teaching help with trace and tracking of contacts of Covid-19 cases. For this reason if a pupil or member of family who lives in your house has a positive test result we will ask you to contact school on the out of hours number. This number will be shared next week via a push notification.

YEAR 6 CONFIRMATION

On Monday evening, our Year 6 pupils received the Sacrament of Confirmation. We are really proud of how hard they worked in order to prepare to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how carefully they chose their confirmation saint name.

VOCATIONS DAY AND FEAST DAY OF SAINT AMBROSE

On Monday, we celebrated the feast day of our patrol saint: St Ambrose. It was a very special day for us all and we spent the morning learning about St Ambrose in a virtual assembly with Miss Holtom. She introduced us to the idea that St Ambrose was called by God to be the Bishop of Milan and then we spent the rest of the day thinking about what God is calling us to be. In the afternoon, all our children were fortunate to take part in Zoom calls with Sister Margaret (Sisters of Charity of St Paul the Apostle) who shared all about her calling from God and her life as a religious sister. Father Lamb then treated everyone to some chocolate to end our celebrations - we all had a lovely day. Please see the photo below of the wonderful art work some of our Year 6 pupils produced.

ATTENDANCE

Good attendance is very important to us at St Ambrose as we know that regular school attendance is a vital part in giving our children the best possible start in life. Thank you for all your support in ensuring your child's learning is maximised by being at school. Next week, if your child's attendance falls below our target of 96% you will receive a push notification to make you aware of this. If your child falls below 90% and is therefore classed as a persistent absentee you will receive a letter from school so that we can all work together to support and help improve this. We are fully aware that we are in exceptional times and this will be taken into account when our letters are sent out.

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS DATES

 

Advent Dates

 

15th December

A Silent Christmas (Whole School)
Video will be shared with families at 6pm, we are currently looking into the safest way to do this.

16th December

 

A Silent Christmas (Whole School)
Video will be shared with whole school at 10 am

17th December

Whole School 'Covidella' Pantomime organised by TAPP
Virtual - 1.30pm

18th December

Whole School End of Term Mass 11.15am - virtual

 

On Tuesday we will be sharing our Christmas video with you. We will send you the details on Tuesday as a push notification explaining how you can access it. I am hoping that we will all sit down at 6 o'clock and watch it with a mince pie. This week the children will also watch a virtual pantomime and I will share this link with you on Thursday to enable you watch it together as a family before Christmas. Details will also be sent out on Thursday via a push notification.

Advent work:

Below is some wonderful work completed by Archie in Year 6. 

BAMBELLINI BLESSING

Bambinelli Sunday is a beautiful tradition that was started by Pope St. John Paul II and is celebrated on Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. Thousands of people usually come to St. Peter's Square bringing the Baby Jesus figurines from their creches and nativity scenes; then, at the time of the Pope's Angelus address, he blesses all the little figures of the Child Jesus.
This week, all our children have made their own special Baby Jesus figurines, which Father Lamb has virtually blessed this afternoon. These will have been brought home this evening so that our children can find a special place for their Baby Jesus in their homes to serve as a reminder of the real meaning of Christmas.

AMAZING ADVENT FUNDRAISING

Thank you so much for supporting our Advent fundraising, I am thrilled to tell you we have raised over £800. The children have worked so hard to organise and plan all the events-Well Done Everyone!

Reception:

Reception took part in their Nativity Walk on Wednesday to raise money during Advent to sponsor Harry the Pony.

We completed walking 10 laps of our playground and listened to Christmas music along the way. We raised an amazing £145. Thank you to all our families who supported us.

Year 2:

During Advent, Year 2 took part in a sponsored run around the playground wearing a Christmas jumper this week. The money raised will go to the NHS. Thank you to everyone who supported us. As a whole class we collectively ran 191 laps altogether around the playground!

Year 6:

On Tuesday, Year 6 came to school dressed in their pyjamas and took part in a penalty football and basketball shoot out! They were sponsored to take part in these activities by their friends and families and in total raised a brilliant £115.80 for their chosen Charity: CAFOD. Well done!

LIFE SKILLS

Reception:

Reception spent Monday morning baking cakes. We followed the instructions step by step. All of us loved mixing all the ingredients together and icing the top before adding sprinkles.

Year 2:

In Year 2 we had a brilliant day on Wednesday making our own pizzas. We started the morning by making our own pizza dough. Then in the afternoon we made our own pizza base and we added our own toppings. Mrs Lloyd carefully cooked our pizzas in the oven. Then we took them home to eat. They were delicious! We enjoyed learning a new life skill.

Year 3:

In Year 3 we spent the afternoon baking chocolate mini-muffins.  We worked in 4 groups, and had to do EVERYTHING ourselves with no help!

It was a massive success – they tasted delicious!

Year 6:

As part of our World War II topic, we have been looking at rationing and were tasked to make a Lord Woolton Pie based on the rations they would have had back then.

We had to wash, prepare, chop and cook our vegetables and mash potato; we were very proud of the results!

CHRISTMAS DINNER

Christmas dinner this year was a little different however, in Year 3 we enjoyed very much and even had it delivered by our very own waitresses!!

We ate and sang lots of Christmas songs!

WINTER LOCKDOWN READING CHALLENGE

Well done to all the children who took part in the Winter Lockdown Reading Challenge. It was great to see a range of reading material. Prizes were handed out in celebration assembly for all children who completed the challenge.

Congratulations to the following class winners:

Harriet (R)

Amelia F (1)

Allegra (2)

Charlie (3)

Amelia (4)

Lilli-Rose (5)

Adam (6)

Allegra also won overall with a staggering 710 minutes. What an amazing achievement!

Keep on reading everyone!

CONGRATULATIONS

On Monday 14th December we will celebrate the hardwork and achievements of our pupils in a virtual celebration assembly. The following children will receive a certificate:

 

Reception Connor and Lincoln
Year 1 Alicia and Daniel P
Year 2 Matilda and Molly
Year 3 Isla and Anthony
Year 4 Casey and Ethan
Year 5 Ffion and Ethan
Year 6 Isabella & Archie

CHRISTMAS CARDS

If your child would like to send Christmas cards to their class friends only they can bring them into school to be sent out.

CHRISTMAS STORIES:

Thank you to Mrs wallace and Miss Brewer and Mrs Shuker for recording Christmas stories. I am sure you will enjoy them.

VISIT FROM FATHER CHRISTMAS

Exciting news Santa will be visiting Saint Ambrose next Thursday morning! Santa’s elves have been planning the grotto, with social distancing measures in place of course - they don’t want Santa to have to isolate on Christmas Eve! Please ensure all letters for Santa are returned to school by Monday at the latest.

ONLINE MUSIC TUITION - SEVERN ARTS

If you would like your child to begin or continue with online music lessons provided by Severn Arts please follow the link below to book your child a place for the Spring Term.

KEEPING IN TOUCH

As we are unable to hold face to face meetings between teacher and parents we have set up year group email addresses for you to communicate with staff. Please note that emails received after 6pm will be answered the next working day and none over the weekend.

General enquiries: office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Reception:Reception@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 1: year1@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 2:year2@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 3:year3@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 4:year4@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 5:year5@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 6:year6@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

RECEPTION APPLICATIONS 2021

Applications for Reception Class 2021 have now opened and must be completed online by 15 January 2021. We welcome applications from all families of all or no faith. If you know of any families who are presently applying for a school place please encourage them to contact school. Again, if you have any queries regarding applying please do not hesitate to speak to us.

TEAPOT TIME

Due to the new national restrictions in place, Teapot time will be cancelled until these restrictions are lifted. We will notify you in due course of the next meeting.

Kind regards,

Mrs Brocklesby.

Emmaus CMAC
St Ambrose Catholic Primary School Ofsted
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