Good Afternoon,

I would like to start today by sharing a poem written by Freya in Reception.

Thank you Freya, I am sure you agree it is important we all stay home and learn and we will see each other soon.

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. We have just started adding daily literacy activities to supplement the tasks identified on the weekly home learning plans. Please start week 2 on Monday 30th March, I have encouraged all the children to wear their school jumper while they work and to send their photo to office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk. We will tweet regular photos, challenges, activities and uplifting quotes. Please follow us we will be there to support you.

@ambrose_primary

We are so proud of all of your efforts to continue to learn at home. To our students, parents and carers, keep up the good work!

Keep a look out in The Kidderminster Shuttle for a news article written by Jess in Year 5 called ‘Coronavirus crisis but what are the food banks getting?’

Mr Pitt will be trialling a new video interactive learning service next week with a group of Year 2 children and parents on Zoom.us. The interactive video learning sessions will take place through a video call meeting where a number of students and Mr Pitt can communicate and learn together. This is in preparation for all teachers and students to take part in Zoom.us sessions in the coming weeks. The way Zoom.us will work is by the school office emailing/ messaging parents a link, passcode, date and time. A class teacher will perform a lesson/ activity styled session with all of the children who are participating live at the same time. This is a brilliant way to continue to learn in the current climate.

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.

We know it can be hard to stick to a routine, so we have provided you with a timetable as an idea of how you can structure your day (see timetable for year 3).

You will see 'PE with Joe Wicks' timetabled at 9am every day.  Joe Wicks is a Body Coach, and he will be providing children of all ages with daily 30 minute PE lessons.  His videos will be published on his Youtube Channel, starting on Monday 23rd March.

Worcestershire County Council have launched a new public campaign called here Here2Help, this is a useful link for us all. On their webpage they have a keeping kids entertained section and five ways we can look after ourselves and others.

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.

As requested by the Government, Saint Ambrose School is open for children from all years who fall into the vulnerable categories already announced (any child with an EHCP or Social Worker) and to children of critical key workers. Please see the briefing note from Suzanne Horan our Company Senior Executive Leader to parents regarding support over the Easter Holidays.

This week we have been challenged to face a new world: a life without school and Mass. More than ever we are called upon to reach for the strength that our Faith gives us. In these unprecedented times, unable to worship at Mass, the Scriptures are a wonderful way to keep close to Christ. The Gospel on Sunday told us about a man who was born blind receiving miraculous healing after an encounter with Jesus: the story helps us to reflect on how Jesus restores both physical and spiritual sight. The blind man who was healed came openly and honestly to Jesus, and so was able to see Jesus, as He truly is, the Son of God. The story helps us to know that we can come to Jesus openly and honestly and share all our questions, hopes and fears. We are invited to recognise how Jesus is at work in every moment of our lives however we are feeling.

On our Journey with St Matthew, Jesus continues to reveal himself through his miracles; Feeding the Five Thousand (14: 13 – 21)) and healing the daughter of a Canaanite woman, possessed by a demon (15: 22 – 28) before challenging his disciples with the question, “Who do you say I am?” We hear that Peter is the first person to say that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God and Jesus chooses him to be the first Pope, the head of the Church.

On Wednesday, the Feast of the Annunciation, Pope Francis asked us to join with him and our brothers and sisters throughout the world, to pray our family prayer, the Our Father. In our present troubled world, confined to our homes, it is important that we still find time to pray and seek comfort in the word of God and the teachings of His Son in the New Testament. On the Class pages tab of the website you will find a new page: Spiritual Support, which has resources for Daily prayer at home and Sunday Liturgies to share as a family together to make a Spiritual Communion.

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

Traditionally Lent is a time, where during the 40 days leading up to Easter, we think about Jesus’ time in the desert refusing to give into temptation, so we give up something such as chocolate or crisps. Father Lamb also reminded the children that this is a time where we can also do something extra, particularly in this Year of the Word. He suggested they think of it in terms of the 3 R’s: Repent, Reflect and Retreat – saying sorry to God and each other, taking time to think about what Jesus tells us in the Bible about how God wants us to behave towards each other and  spending quiet time to get to know God better and think about how we should follow Jesus’ example.

During this difficult time, perhaps you could take a few minutes a day to do some form of relaxation - I’ve found lots of free music on my Alexa. I’ve started a gratitude journal, each day I write 3 things I’m grateful for, this helps to focus on the positive’s we have in our lives. You could paint, do some mindfulness colouring or just sit in your back garden and listen to the birds singing.

Stay safe, thinking of you all Mrs Wallace. 

Please access the link below for mindfulness activities that you and your child can do at home.

Hi Year 3,

I hope you are all managing to do some work in between enjoying the lovely weather and spending time with your families! Remember to always start your day with PE with Joe, it's the best start to any day! I miss you all, and will hopefully see you soon.

Lots of love, Miss Ballard.

Dear Year 4,

I hope all of you and your families are well and staying safe?

Just sending a short message to you all. I feel very proud to get the chance to teach you all. I believe in you and you all have the ability to complete any kind of work given; whether it's easy or tough. So, during this time, always do your best and to the best of your abilities.  

I hope to see you all very soon, 

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Neri.

Hi Year 6,

Hope you are all keeping safe and well at home. I hope your home learning is going well and that you’ve also been able to enjoy the nice weather. If you haven’t already, have a go at signing up to Century - details on our class page - and let me know what you all think.

Missing you all.

Hoping we will be back together soon.

Take care, Miss Holtom. 

We will be using Facebook from today as a tool to keep pupils engaged with reading.

The first  story has been uploaded and we can't wait to hear your feedback.

Our aim is to upload a new story onto the TAPP Facebook page every day for our children to enjoy.

Their page can be found if you search within Facebook for; St Ambrose Primary School Teacher And Parent Partnership .

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.

If your child has music lessons at school then Severn Arts will continue to teach your child via didgital online lessons.

Please click on the document below that will advise you how you can take advantage of this.

We had a lovely time celebrating British Science Week at St Ambrose Catholic Primary School. Each class took part in their own Science week activity based on the theme of ‘Our Diverse Planet’. On Friday the 13^th of March during British Science Week we had an assembly. We thought about what ‘Our Diverse Planet’ means and where we can see diversity around us everyday. We talked about diversity of: habitats, people, animals, materials and our universe. We tried to spot different animals that had camouflaged themselves in their environment.  After watching a video about our planet, we thought of ways in which we can look after our diverse planet.

Here are some pictures from Year 4 who grew cress and Year 5 who created their own camouflaged butterflies and hid plastic animals around the classroom.

Kind regards,

Mrs Brocklesby