Uncategorised – St Adrian's Catholic Primary School

Going back in time in Verulamium….

Like the Romans, year 4 went on a good march on Wednesday – to Verulamium Museum and back, via the hypocaust. Every child was a credit to their parents and St Adrian’s. I felt blessed to have a day out with such enthusiastic learners, who showed the best respect for the artefacts and the people in the museum and on the way there and back. We saw nearly as many dogs as people! Luckily, on the way back the playpark was completely empty so year 4 made the most of the opportunity to play there.

A massive thank you to Ms Carey and Mrs Donnellan, who came as parent helpers. These trips aren’t possible without voluntary help and it’s very much appreciated. Also thank you to Mrs Finnie and Miss Jilly, from school who came along too. Miss Jilly still found time to order some learning resources bought with cake sale money of which I will post photos when they are unwrapped and used.

Other learning has also gone on this week but I’ll post that later. I hope you all have a relaxing weekend and look forward to seeing everyone next week.

(The slideshow of Wednesday is in chronological order if you “swipe” to the left first.)

Nursery – 17.01.2025

This week we went up to the library for the first time and the children were really excited to visit a different part of the school. We will visit the library every Tuesday so children can take out books, if the previous book has not been returned they will not be able to take out a new one. Please comment or sign their reading record once read.

In maths this week we looked at subitising number 3, that means looking at a group of objects and seeing 3 without counting them. We played some different games to support this.

Other photos this week:

Important Dates

Friday 24th January – Reading Morning 08:45 – 09:00 in Nursery Classroom.

Monday 27th January – INSET Day – School Closed

Monday 17th – Friday 21st February – Half Term

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Taylor

It’s feeling a lot like Christmas now!

Thank you to all the adults who came into school on Wednesday, shared some time with the children and joined in the performances. The children are confident playing the ukelele and love doing it, so any opportunity to share this with others is welcome.

Everyone has made good progress in swimming. Well done! The children are also superfast at getting changed so we get back to school in good time.

The writing year was concluded with fantastic narrative telling as the children wrote their versions of “The Selfish Giant” – “The Spiteful Ogre”. I was blown away by their expressive language, insightful ideas and capacity to use Oscar Wilde’s clean, descriptive language to create their own prose with the same qualities. Also, the independent spelling in the creative writing has improved a lot this term. It takes a lot of effort! But the improvement in the outcome is very real and one which we’ll look to maintain and build on even further in the New Year.

Thank you very much indeed for the very generous Christmas presents you gave me and Mrs Finnie. I have been extremely careful with the “highly breakable” bag. Mrs Finnie and I really appreciate your generosity and also the time taken to organise these things. The bag in itself is a great gift.

We particularly wanted to thank you all this way as the gifts are simply from “year 4” . They are really appreciated and we feel very fortunate.

After the Christmas assembly today and an informative Advent assembly by year 5, the children spent the morning choosing their own activities in the classroom. They also asked to spend some time in the library which we did and was a lovely thing to do on the last day. They all played a game, when they followed the rules, helped each other and entered the spirit of it really well. Everyone waited till each child had received their present and opened their own. There was a wonderful collection of gifts and everyone looked delighted with what they had received. As on Christmas Day, once the unwrapping is done it’s time for tidying up….!

Mrs Finnie and I wish you all a very happy, relaxing and safe holiday wherever you find yourselves this year. I hope you have an enjoyable time with those you love, and that the spirit and peace of Jesus at Christmas time bring you joy.

I look forward to seeing all of you again in January!

Nursery – 20.12.2024

This week the children enjoyed having their grandparents and family members in to help them with some arts and crafts and to listen to the Christmas songs that they performed at their Nativity. Thank you so much for coming.

Miss Rowson and I would like to thank you all for the lovely cards, gifts and Christmas wishes we have received, we hope you have a lovely Christmas and a well earned break. The children have worked very hard this term and we are very proud of how far they have come since September.

Please could all bookbags have a keyring on them so children can identify them when getting ready for home time.

In January we will start going up to the library. The children will be taking their book bags so can you make sure that they are emptied each week so they are easier for the children to carry up. The children will not bring home a book on the first day back as I know they will want to spend time chatting and playing with their friends so we will start going the following week.

Recption Applications

The deadline for applying for a Reception place at St.Adrians is 15th January. You need to apply online and fill in a supplementary form and hand into the office.

Important Dates

Monday 6th January – School Closed – INSET Day

Tuesday 7th January – First day back – 08:45am

Friday 10th January – Reading Morning, 08:45 – 09:00 in Nursery classroom.

Monday 27th January – School Closed – INSET Day

Monday 17th- Friday 21st February – Half Term

Friday 4th April – Last Day of Spring Term – 1:30pm Finish

Wishing all Nursery families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

See you in 2025!

Miss Taylor

Nursery – 06.12.2024

This week we have spent a lot of time rehearsing for our Christmas Nativity ‘Mary’s Knitting’, Nursery have now been on the stage and have sat very well while waiting for the songs to come on! We hope you can join us on Wednesday 11th at 10:00am to watch, the children are all very excited that they will see you there.

In maths this week we have been working on repeating patterns, we have been doing this every day.

In RE we talked about the beginning of Advent and what that means. We lit the first advent candle.

Photos from this week:

Important Dates

Wednesday 11th – EYFS Christmas Performance of ‘Mary’s Knitting’ – 10:00AM.

Friday 13th – Christmas Clothes Day – Children can come to school wearing Christmas jumpers, outfits, socks, hairbands etc

Monday 16th – Kris Kringle Presents due in

Monday 16th – Grandparents Tea and Carols – 09:30am. A parent or other family member may come if Grandparents are unable to make it.

Friday 19th – School finishes at 13:30.

Tuesday 7th January 2025 – First day of Spring term.

Monday 27th January – INSET Day – School closed.

Have a lovely weekend
Miss Taylor

Advent in Year 4

Well done to all the children in year 4 who participated in the carol concert. Once everyone had braved the rain, the singing was fantastic and the narrators spoke clearly and with fantastic diction. I am sure that all the adults are as proud as I am of the children’s achievements.

There is one more ukelele lesson this term and two more swimming lessons. We will do end-of-term checks on spelling and times-tables too. I’ll let you know how the children get on so they know what to work on next.

The children have all got their “KrisKringle” names (except for two children who weren’t here on Monday: I have their KrisKringle names waiting for them on their return).

Let’s hope the forecast isn’t as bad as expected this weekend and we can all enjoy the Advent activities.

Nursery – 29.11.2024

This week in RE we thought about what a birthday is. Our birthday is the day we were born and will be the same day each year. We celebrated Kipper’s birthday in class. We had a party for him, wrote out invitations and made birthday cards.

This week we had a visit from Richard, the postman for this area. He told us all about being a postman and the jobs he has to do. He showed us some of the letters and parcels he had in his bag as well as a special machine he uses for scanning barcodes.

Other photos this week:

Have a good weekend

Miss Taylor

Nursery – 08.11.2024

This week we thought about a special day that is coming up – Remembrance Day. We talked about why we wear poppies at this time of the year as we remember the soldiers who fought in the war.

The children had a go at creating their own poppy which are now on display in the foyer.

In RE this week we thought about welcoming a baby in to a family and the joy and happiness a new baby brings to a family. We role played welcoming a baby in to the world.

Other photos this week

Reminders

As the weather starts to get colder, all children need a winter coat as well as hat/gloves/scarf which all need to be named.

Library books need to be returned each Tuesday so the children can borrow a new one.

You can now apply for a reception place at St Adrians. You will also need to fill out a supplementary form.

https://live.cloud.servelec-synergy.com/Hertfordshire/Synergy/under11s

Important Dates

Tuesday 12th November – Wear odd socks

Thursday 14th November – Individual and sibling photos

Friday 15th November – Children In Need – Wear spotty clothes – £1 donation

Wednesday 11th December – EYFS Nativity Performance 10:00AM.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Taylor

Nursery – 25.10.24

In RE this week we moved onto our new topic Baptism. We discussed how the children have been welcomed into the St Adrian’s community and the children were excited to talk about the school badge on their jumpers. We made welcome cards and a welcome poster to put up in nursery

After half term we will continue our work on Baptism, it would be lovely to see photos or any other special items from the Nursery children’s own Baptism. This can be a candle, special card, photo, blanket or gown. They will be shared with the class and then safely returned home.

This week we started our Foundation for Phonics lessons, each week we will look at a different initial sound, our initial sound this week was ‘s‘ . In the box there was a snake, scissors, strawberry, sellotape, soup, a scorpion and many many more things. If you find something at home beginning with the ‘s’ sound let us know, upload what you find to Tapestry!

We went back out into the school grounds this week to collect leaves so we could make crowns for today’s assembly. The children have worked really hard for the past two weeks learning the words and actions to ‘Crunching through the leaves’. Well done Nursery for a fantastic performance this morning in front of the entire school, all the staff and lots of lots of grown ups! Thank you again for all the donations.

Other photos this week:

Half Term Activities

Please upload any half term activities to Tapestry so we can share in class.

Reception Applications

Applications open next Friday, 1st November, you can You will also need to complete a supplementary form.

https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/schools-and-education/school-admissions/primary-junior-and-middle-schools/primary-junior-and-middle-school-places.aspx

Important Dates

Individual/Sibling photos – Thursday 14th November

Children in Need Day – Friday 15th November

EYFS Nativity Performance – Wednesday 11th December – 10:00AM

Have a lovely half term

MIss Taylor

Year 3

Today, our school proudly wore red to stand united against racism, demonstrating our commitment to equality and inclusion. We were inspired by the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign, joining together to say a collective “no” to racism in all its forms.

Harvest Donations

We are still accepting harvest donations and kindly ask that all contributions must be brought to the school by Friday, 25th October. Please see the image below for a list of suggested donation items.