Good Afternoon,

Thank you for keeping in touch, we have really enjoyed finding out about what lots of our pupils have been up to over the past few weeks via email – it has really lifted our spirits!

As we start the Summer term, we continue to hold all of the members of our school community in our thoughts as we share a prayer together.

Dear Lord,

You taught us to love our neighbour,

And to care for those in need,

As if we were caring for you.

Give us strength to comfort the fearful, to tend the sick,

And to assure those who are isolated of our love and your love.

We are your people God, giving and loving,

Wherever we are, whatever it costs.

For as long as it takes, wherever you call us.

Amen.

All the staff are missing everyone and wanted to deliver you a message so please follow either of the links below to hear and see our message on twitter and facebook.

Thank you to everyone who took part in World Book Night last night. It was a lovely way to join in with everyone across the country to celebrate reading. We loved seeing the photographs of you all reading your books.

Dan and Emily from One Life Music are kindly continuing to record a weekly liturgy for schools and home. It is such a wonderful way to bring us together as a community of prayer and I am sure that we will all be strengthened by it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL-kS4ZP6hs&feature=youtu.be

So many children are feeling worried and anxious right now, the books below will help alleviate some of their fears. 

https://www.flipsnack.com/CSKidsBooks/what-s-going-on.html

https://nursedottybooks.com/dave-the-dog-is-worried-about-coronavirus-2/

The school nurse team are putting out daily tweets and information for parents and young people to help with their activities and emotional health during lock down.

Please see the link below for information and activities to share with your children.

https://twitter.com/SN_Kidd

The Jesuit Fathers provide an excellent resource for prayer and meditation. If you go on-line to www.loyolapress.com you will see that it provides a three minute daily retreat. This is an excellent way of doing something extra by way of prayer for the season of Easter. Just follow the instructions when accessing the reflection. The meditations provided are accompanied by scripture references and gentle background music.

I would like to re-assure you that we will still be here for you throughout the period of school closure. You may just want a chat about how your child is dealing with the changes so please call 01562 823568 or email office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk.

We care very much about you and your child. Crucially, we are acutely aware of the need to look after you and your child's mental wellbeing. We want you to know that we will do all we can to try to retain some form of normality and routine in your child's life. We also want to support their education so they are not disadvantaged during the closure.

By working on the educational tasks set on the class pages, children will reduce a sense of boredom or frustration. This will improve their mood and feelings. We endeavour to update our class pages regularly with new ideas so please keep checking.

I hope all the children have enjoyed working on their week 3 Home Learning plans. If you need any resources printed out or you just want to ask a question, please contact the school office or email office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk This week the children will start week 4 and staff will now be including activities from the Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize.

Next week we would like you to choose one day to learn together as a family and produce an entry for our Community Bake Off. Please send a photograph of your showtopper to office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk by 2pm on Thursday 30th April. Results will be announced the following day on the school newsletter.

Good Luck!!

The Oak National Academy is a government backed online learning resource. This is a fabulous way of keeping your child enagaged with their education. Each day there is an online delivery of 3 lessons for your child to enjoy. To access this you will need to go to thenational.academy>>online classroom>>schedule>>then select your child's year group. This will then take you to 3 lesson options that can be completed in any order. This really is a great resource and we hope that you have fun utilising it.

The BBC has launched an education package across TV and online, featuring celebrities and teachers, helping to keep children learning at home and supporting parents.

Please see below a letter from West mercia police that has links and activities regarding road safety.

Thinkuknow is an education programme from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command.

Since 2006, Thinkuknow has been keeping children and young people safe by providing education about online abuse.

Thinkuknow aims to ensure that everyone has access to this practical information – children, young people, their parents and carers and the professionals who work with them.

We're excited to tell you that our third #OnlineSafetyAtHome pack is now available with new activities for parents and carers to use at home! Access them here: 

You can still find all of our previous home activity packs on our parents and carers website. These can be downloaded at any time you choose.

We want to develop your life skills at St Ambrose and need your help to develop it. Please complete the survey online so Miss Brewer can put together an exciting life skills curriculum. You will find the life skills survey tab on our school website (below the 'contact us' tab on the home page) and there will also be a link on the class pages.

Worcestershire County Council have launched a new public campaign called Here2Help. Please follow the link below to access their website.

http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/Here2Help 

The types of additional support available to people through Here2Help is as follows and the aim is to prevent families/households getting to crisis points:

This is a useful link for us all as also on their webpage they have a keeping kids entertained section and five ways we can look after ourselves and others.

Please see the link below that will take to their webpage with links to a number of activities and educational support links.

Here are some ideas from the NHS website of what you can do as a family to support your wellbeing:

You can also go for a walk outdoors if you stay more than 2 metres from others.

Please keep in touch.  We will get through this together.

On Thursday we celebrated the Feast of St George, patron saint of England. Unfortunately this year, due to the lockdown, the Rainbows, Beavers, Brownies, Cubs and Scouts are unable to parade on Sunday or proudly dress in their uniforms for school.

Depicted slaying a dragon St George is seen as the hero who defeats evil. Although, as with many early saints, facts are very sketchy, it seems that he was from Palestine and, as a conscript in the Roman army, decided to stand up against the persecution of Christians in the fourth century because he was so disgusted by the barbaric methods employed by the Empire. He was very impressed by the faith of those who died believing in Jesus that he became a Christian himself, even though he knew that this would mean certain death. Indeed the cross of has become his symbol and our English national flag.

At a place called Lod, in Israel, St George’s Church is the alleged resting place for his body. It was also at Lod – which in Bible times was called Lydda – that Peter, because of the resurrection of Jesus, experienced the power of God work through him to perform a miracle, healing a man, who had been ill for eight years (see Acts 9: 32-35).

Some things such as the story about St George slaying a dragon, are hard to believe. This week the Gospel tells the story about how after Jesus had died, two disciples heard that he was alive. They didn’t believe the news as they thought Jesus had died and gone forever. On the Sunday after he died, (Easter Sunday) St Luke tells us that they left Jerusalem, for a village called Emmaus about 7 miles away, when Jesus started walking alongside them, although they did not recognise him, until having invited them for supper, Jesus blessed and broke the bread and gave it to them. It was only then that their eyes were opened and they knew that the stranger was Jesus.

Jesus is with us too. He speaks to us through Scripture. When we receive the Eucharist. Because we have eyes of faith, we believe that Jesus is risen and is with us too. We should take comfort in these troubling times that the Risen Jesus knows all about suffering and pray together for his support and loving help. Whilst we are unable to receive the Eucharist in Mass please visit the Sunday Liturgy provided by Ten Ten on our Class Pages on the website under Spiritual Support, where as a family, you can receive a Spiritual Communion each week.

For your own personal development try reading the Bible in a year using an app such as Bible in One Year.

Visit https://speechandlanguage.info/parents for lots of speech and language resources, advice and tips for parents working at home with their children who have SLCN.

Please see the useful documents below detailing how to reduce stress and anxiety for you and your child during Covid-19.

These are worrying times for anyone but it can be particularly hard for children, some of whom will struggle to comprehend why they can no longer see their friends at school.

With schools across the UK closing and people being urged to step up social distancing, communities are rallying round to bring a little brightness to young ones amid the gloom.

Please brighten your community by displaying the beautiful rainbows in your windows at home.

Send us a photo of a rainbow in your window to office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Kind regards,

Mrs Brocklesby