Week 8, Term 1

Good afternoon parents,

It has been a lovely last couple of weeks preparing those students who will be receiving Eucharist for this first time this coming Sunday.  Both the candidate children and prayer buddies have been absolutely amazing in their preparation for this event. 

We are very much looking forward to celebrating this special occasion together Sunday 26th March!

A few quick reminders for Sunday...

Candidates (and families) are to come dressed in their Sunday best - white or light coloured clothing is most appropriate for this occasion as white symbolises that purity and being transformed.

• Please make sure that you are seated in your assigned seat by 8.15am. Getting there a few minutes before will allow time for a few photos outside if you wish. 
• A reminder that there is only room for immediate family in the pews - there is plenty of seating at the back and upstairs. Your child will have a dedicated pew with their name on a chalice image at the end. 
• You will be invited up as a family to receive the Eucharist with Fr Ian giving it to the candidate first. He will then offer it you, if you do not wish to receive the sacrament, please indicate this by crossing your arms over your chest that you only wish to receive a blessing.
• Once all members have received either Eucharist or a blessing, you will then return to your seat. You will then kneel down to say a small prayer in silence.
• Your child has been instructed on how to approach the sanctuary when your turn comes, you will move up on to the sanctuary and wait until it is your child's turn.
• If you can please make sure that upon arrival you are mindful of noise, this is a joyful occasion of course but we want to maintain the reverent nature of the event.  Similarly, when the time for Eucharist comes, please be mindful of maintaining a silent and reverent manner - we want each child to feel special in this moment!

OTHER REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK:

Parent Meetings 

4M parent meetings are this Wed/Thu for those of you that have requested to come in for a chat. Each block is for 15 minutes, however, interviews are approximately 10 - 12 minutes long. This allows us a couple of minutes to get ready for the next interview.  Please contact one or both of us via email if you would like a longer meeting to discuss any complex issues.  

Thank you to everyone for using the booking calendar on Outlook. Bookings are now closed in the calendar for this week, however if you missed the opportunity to book, there will still be an opportunity to chat next week. Just send us an email. Please note that all meetings will be held in the classroom.

Easter Egg Raffle - As one of the many amazing initiatives of the P&F, the Year 4 families will be donating Easter eggs to be used to create baskets to be raffled off!  This will be our year group fundraiser for the year.  Please bring in donations into the class and our parent reps will collect them up for the raffle.    

Our Learning

We began working on our adventure narrative stories and planning out interesting events for our characters.  This week the students will begin writing an adventure story of their choice, with the opportunity to publish!

In Maths we are moving on from multiplication and onto addition and subtraction with larger numbers before completing our first investigation.  

In Spelling we are looking at the sound below:

fish is most frequently represented by the grapheme f (e.g. fun, after, leaf). 

We usually use ff after short vowel sounds at the end of single-syllable words (e.g. off, puff).

The grapheme ph can represent fish (e.g. phone, graph). Words containing ph for fish usually originate from Greek. 

The grapheme gh represents fish in a small set of words, usually at the end of words (e.g. laugh, enough).

Character Strength of the Week:

This week is another great one, yes, I know I say that every week but a super relevant one...it is the strength of Gratitude. .

St Ignatius Loyola was an expert in the art of spiritual direction. 

His Prayer the daily Examen was a way to reflect and show gratitude to God for our blessings.

Do you easily find what went well in your day and are thankful for it? 

Do you feel blessed?

Extended Leave

Please note that if you are planning on starting your holidays earlier, can you please make sure that you fill in an extended leave form, these are available from the office.

Homework...

We are back into the world of Homework this week, please make sure that your child is reading out loud each night AND choosing a different question to answer each night.  All homework is to be brought in on this Friday morning to be marked, checked and handed back, ready for the following fortnight!

Thank you all for a great term so far, we are very much looking forward to seeing you all next week in our meetings.

Chrissy and Amy