Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.

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• Year 5 Dance Show

  Fri 21 Mar 2025 Mrs Potter

  One of the highlight of the week has definitely been the dance show after school on Wednesday. Well done to all the children and thank you to the parents who came to support. We are so proud of you all for getting up there and dancing—well done!

  

• Year 6 Science Fair

  Wed 19 Mar 2025 Mrs Holmes

  In celebration of British science week, every class across the entire school have worked hard on their own class investigation. This week, year 6 held a school science fair. In groups, they chose their own enquiry to investigate, made prototypes, collected data, presented their data in graphs, changed variables and presented their results to the rest of the school. They took it in turns to talk about their enquiry, to discuss their findings and inspired many of their younger peers, as the room filled with ‘wow!’ and ‘that’s so cool!’. As a school, we have been working incredibly hard this year on elevating our science curriculum and have been taking part in the PSQM (Primary Science Quality Mark), which we hope to achieve at the end of the year. Well done year 6 on your confident delivery and outstanding science knowledge.

  

• Friends of St Mary’s Logo Competition

  Mon 10 Mar 2025 Mrs Flack

  Friends of St Mary's recently ran a competition to design our new logo. We were overwhelmed by the      fantastic entries we received. They really showcased all the creative imaginations you have. 

  It was a very tricky decision, however, after much deliberation we finally settled on our winner.

  Congratulations to Nuala in Year 5 who was our competition winner. We can't wait to see her vision be brought to life by a graphic artist!

   

  

• World Book Day at St Mary's

  Fri 07 Mar 2025 Mr Brown

  This year’s World Book Day was a fantastic celebration of storytelling through movement!  

  In EYFS and KS1, the children enthusiastically retold The Gingerbread Man through dance. They carefully learned each move, piecing them together to create a final performance. It was wonderful to see their excitement as they brought the story to life in such a creative way. The workshop leader was so impressed with how much the children engaged during the session. 

  Meanwhile, in KS2, the children explored Kensuke’s Kingdom. Through dance, they captured key moments from the story, using movement to express its themes and emotions. It was inspiring to see them embrace their creativity, with many stepping outside their comfort zones to try something new.

  A huge well done to all the children for their fantastic performances – and a special thank you to the staff who helped bring these literary adventures to life! 

  Please see below for some of the pictures displaying the workshops.

  Well done, St Mary’s!

   

  

• Girls Football Tournament—Champions!

  Wed 05 Mar 2025 Cassia and Penny

  On Wednesday 5th March, St Mary’s Primary School attended a Year 4/Year 3 girls football tournament.  It was held at Joyce Franklin High School in Newport.  Our team was Penny, Chloe, Cassia, Libby, Millie, Alycia, Linda and Edith.  In total, there were a staggering 14 schools that showed a lot of determination and perseverance throughout the whole tournament.  Below is an account from the proud pupils:

   

  ‘The most remarkable moment was when Penny stepped up to be a goalkeeper when she had never been in that position and it resulted in her saving 2 shots out of 2!  We had a splendiferous coach called Olivia who coached us with a lot of ambition.  Our hard work paid off, we were victorious in all of our matches and we won the competition.  Every team did tremendously well and they should be very proud of themselves.  Thank you very much to Miss Driscoll and all of the other adults who were there to support us.’   Yours sincerely, Cassia and Penny

   

  

• Amazing achievement— Eco Garden fundraising

  Fri 28 Feb 2025 Mr Jarmain

  During half term, Nuala (from Busybee class) raised money for the school's Eco-garden by doing a Read-a-thon. She was doing this she said, ‘because sometimes people want to do their part in the fight against climate change but can't due to the cost and I don't think it's fair for that to be the case!’  Nuala raised a whopping £142.55 for the eco-garden!

  Well done Nuala!

   

  

• Amazing Gesture – Little Princess Trust

  Fri 14 Feb 2025 Mr Jarmain

  In a world full of negativity, it is always nice to highlight the good.

   

  This week we are sharing the extremely thoughtful, and compassionate act that Rose (from Year 3) decided to carry out recently, once she discovered the work of a certain charity. The charity is called the Little Princess Trust who are responsible for making and providing real hair wigs for children affected by hair loss, as well as carrying out vital research into childhood cancer. Not only did Rose decide to donate 10 Inches of her hair but she also raised over £500 for this important charity.  Her parents have told us that they are incredibly proud of her selfless, kind, and thoughtful actions; that they wanted to share the news with the School as they believe It shares a lot of the schools’ values.

  Well done Rose—you should be very proud of your selfless actions.

  

• Indoor Athletics Team

  Wed 12 Feb 2025 Ms Driscoll

   

  Our Year 3 and 4 Indoor Athletics Team headed to the Uttlesford School’s Sports Partnership finals.   St Mary’s were the only team to represent their year group for Saffron Walden (and surrounding villages) and faced various teams from other pockets of Uttlesford. And what a performance they put on...they finished in first place and won the finals! We had some astonishing performances on the track displaying great technique and determination to win their races. The finals also saw an increase in the number of pupils that finished in the top three positions for their field events - Joseph managed to take 1^st place in standing long jump and 2^nd for vertical jump, Chloe finished in 1^st and 2^nd for long jump and 5 bounding strides along with Hugo. Lili managed to achieve 1^st place for her chest push throw with Penny taking 3^rd.  Millie also ran incredibly and finished 3^rd place in the vertical jump. 

   

  A huge well done to you all, you really did let your light shine on Wednesday

  

• Year 4 Public Speaking Competition:

  Fri 07 Feb 2025 Mr Jarmain

  This afternoon I was privileged to accompany four students from Year 4 to a Public Speaking Competition at Great Chesterford Primary School. A number of local schools also took part, including Katherine Semar Primary, R. A. Butler, St Thomas More Primary, Bentfield Primary, Great Chesterford Primary and ourselves! The focus of the competition was for the pupils to talk about a topic connected to ‘Environmental Awareness’, which fits in beautifully with our Courageous Advocacy Sustainability theme for the next two years. Thomas E, Maisie W, Cassia K and Teddy T represented the school excellently and had clearly spent some time preparing and practising their speeches beforehand with Mrs Norman—delivering their speeches and introductions clearly and passionately, with thoughtful answers to the questions which were posed by pupils from other schools. Everyone was also extremely impressed by their impressively constructed  ’Gruesome Greenhouse Gases’ collage poster (see accompanying photograph). All in all it was a fantastic afternoon and all four pupils should be very proud of their efforts and engagement.     

   

  

• Harvesting our Crops at our Eco Garden

  Thu 06 Feb 2025

  On Thursday this week, Mrs McInnes, our Forest School Leader, utilised the skills of the Reception and Year 1 pupils in digging over our Eco Garden area and whilst there dug up the potatoes that were planted by the reception pupils before the summer holiday. They had a brilliant time collecting all of their     home-grown spuds and each child in Year 1 was given one to take home. Those that were left were given to George in the school kitchen who is going to turn them into a culinary masterpiece to give back to our pupils. I am so delighted that this  part of our curriculum is starting to develop and grow (if you pardon the pun!).

   

  Big thanks to Mrs McInnes for driving this initiative forwards!