Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.
Please click a headline to read more.
-
Pink Fun Run
Tue 29 Mar 2022Well done to everyone for their efforts on Tuesday. It was a wonderful sight to see the children and adults decked out in their pink clothes and accessories, running endless laps around the playground for our Pink Fun Run. And what a good job we did— a fantastic 328.9 miles in total which is 4605 laps of our playground! The school ran in their colour groups, cheered along by our fab sports ambassadors and motivated by the thumping tunes! A special shout out to red group who ran the most laps of all the colour groups—1246, wow!
We are raising money for Breast Cancer Now, the research and care charity who provide a service called Someone Like Me. They have greatly helped and supported our dear colleague Louise Robinson who was diagnosed with breast cancer at Christmas and is currently undergoing treatment. We have raised a huge amount of money—over £2,000 (including cash donations) so far and hope to raise more over the next few days. The children were so thrilled with their achievement and loved the pink biscuits that our chef Riina prepared for them.
We hope that the money will be well used to help support people like Louise. Breast Cancer Now spend millions every year on their research, services and campaigning.
-
Red Nose Day
Fri 18 Mar 2022The school council led an assembly this week, explaining to the whole school what Red Nose Day is and all the good it does around the world! There will be buckets by the gates at the end of the school day if you would like to make a donation.
The BBC Red Nose Day marathon begins at 19:00 this evening and can be seen on TV and iPlayer - please tune in!
Anna and Claudia even sported some crocheted red noses - produced by their nan the night before!
-
Gardening Club exploits!
Fri 11 Mar 2022This week gardening club were excited to plant some new trees on the path to the nursery, which are particularly welcome given that we have sadly lost a couple recently in the storms as well as two trees bordering the steps down to the field which were identified as being diseased during the Summer term.
These new trees were generously given to the school free of charge from the Woodland Trust as part of the Queen's Jubilee Green Canopy project which is donating trees to people all over the country. We received 15 native British saplings of 3 varieties - Rowan, Hazel and Crabtree. They came complete with protective tubing and poles for support as they grow. The children worked really well together, measuring out the plots, digging the holes and planting the trees. We look forward to seeing them grow!
If you would like to get involved with the Queen's Jubilee Green Canopy project, here is the link with more details: https://queensgreencanopy.org/get-involved/
I would like to pass on my thanks to the amazing Mrs McInnes—who organises and facilitates our Forest School provision (in addition to our Gardening Club) here at St Mary’s as well all of the fantastic pupils who make up our Gardening Club.
-
Book Looks and Share-Our-Work sessions
Thu 10 Mar 2022Book Look and Share our Work sessions:
Yesterday - at the start and end of school - St Mary’s welcomed our parents, carers and friends of the school to our termly Share our Work session, following the Parents/Carers consultations, which took place last term. Once again, it was so lovely to see so many members of the school community coming in to school and it was also lovely to give our wonderful pupils the opportunity to show off all of the hard work that they have ben putting in, since the start of this academic year.
The staff truly hope that you all find these sessions useful and good way to be able to see what your children have been doing in class and also provide an informal opportunity to meet your children’s class teachers.
Thanks for your continued support for the school and your children.
-
Year 4 go to the Dance Festival
Wed 09 Mar 2022A huge well done must go out to all of the Year 4 pupils who took part in an annual Dance festival at Saffron Walden County High School, on Wednesday this week, after school. The children from Firefly class performed an impressive routine to the music of the famous disco classic Carwash to a packed auditorium which included parents, carers, pupils and staff members from a large number of local primary schools—which included schools from Saffron Walden, as well as some of the surrounding villages.
I am incredibly proud that all 32 members of the Firefly class attended, as I know that this would be have incredibly daunting for children of such a young age—especially as none of the schools present had been able to practise on such a large stage beforehand! I know that the children got lots out of this event and that they very much enjoyed being cheered on by lots of their parents, carers and other relatives! Riley said: ‘I enjoyed watching the other children dance—they were superb! I think the festival was phenomenal and I hope that other children in the school can experience the wonderful dancing like me and my classmates!’ Emma stated: ‘I had lots of feelings jumbled up! It felt spectacular once we were on stage. Learning the dance was really fun and I feel like we want to do it again. All the dances were good—I can’t decide which was my favourite one! Theo reported: ‘getting ready for the dance show (with Mrs Colman and our teachers) was really fun and amazing! The moves were hard… but it was definitely worth it!’
I am also delighted to report that the children’s behaviour was exemplary and they also supported all of the other performances by clapping, cheering and getting fully behind their peers. These children showed all of the resilience, effort and respect that we love to see from our St Mary’s pupils. Mrs McInnes, our Sports Leader, quite rightly praised these pupils in assembly yesterday for representing the school so impressively.
A big thank you must go out to Mr Brown and Mrs Trust, Miss Driscoll, as well as Jackie Colman and Carron Shaw for all of their hard work in getting the children up to ‘performance level!’
-
Author Visit - Fay Evans
Wed 02 Mar 2022During this week, we were fortunate to have the author, Fay Evans, in the school to do some interactive storytelling sessions with the children. The day started with Fay leading our collective worship and talking about her experiences in becoming an author and answering the children’s questions. Throughout the day, Fay visited classrooms from Reception to Year 6, to tell one of her stories (Bob’s beard) and involve the children in the storytelling. I was very impressed with the children and how they immersed themselves in the experience and asked some fantastic questions to the author! Well done to the entire school for showing respect and effort throughout this day.