Newsletters
St Mary’s Catholic Primary Schools Trust
Dear St Mary’s Families,
We are now halfway through the Spring term and therefore halfway through the school year.
As I am sure all our Year 6 families realise, this will be a particularly important time for our Year 6 pupils and I have been so impressed with the way they are concentrating on their learning. Every time I walk past their class they are engrossed in their work and they consistently display all the characteristics that we value at St Mary's: Independence, versatility, persistence, aspiration and collaboration.
It is also a very important year for our Year 2 children as this is their last year at the Infant School. During the Summer term we will be preparing them for their transition into the Juniors to ensure that the change is smooth and worry free.
We have a lot to be grateful for and proud of this academic year so far from the Infant School retaining their outstanding Ofsted status after their Section 8 Ofsted Inspection in December (only 14% of previously outstanding schools have been able to achieve this), to our very successful externally validated teaching and learning reviews at the Junior School. The Junior Swim Squad also continue to make us all very proud with their outstanding successes at the recent Croydon Swimming competitions (they are topping the leaderboards!).
In line with our Trust development plans, we are continuing to refine our curriculum offer to ensure that we provide a wide, broad and rich curriculum at both schools and at our training day this Friday (14th February), our curriculum teams from the Infant and Junior Schools will be meeting to plan their next steps.
Coronavirus
I am sure like us you have been watching the spread of this virus with growing concern. The current Government and NHS advice is that as the germs can live on some surfaces for hours, we should all be using a tissue to catch our coughs or sneezes, place the tissue into a bin and then wash our hands thoroughly with soap and water or a sanitising gel. We shall be ensuring that our children are regularly reminded of this.
The Government also asks that if any of us visit specified countries that they have identified as carrying a significant risk of infection that we follow their travelers’ advice. For a list of these countries and advice please look on: gov.uk/coronavirus.
Music Festival
Our Junior children will soon start practicing their songs in earnest in preparation for the Croydon Music Festival. This year the final performance will once again return to Fairfield Halls. Unfortunately, the Infants will not be taking part this Year as there are no practice venues nearby.
Dance Festival
Both the Infants and the Juniors will be performing at the Croydon Dance Festival this Year. The Dance Association have managed to hire Trinity School for another year. I can’t wait to see them perform!
I wish you all a very happy long weekend and half term break and look forward to seeing you all at the usual time on Monday 24th February.
With very best wishes,
Miss O’Callaghan
Executive Headteacher
Weekly Newsletters
Please remember that although the Infant School are no longer printing newsletters unless you ask at the school office (as the Infant School children are eager not to waste the limited resources in God’s beautiful world), the weekly Headteacher’s newsletter is available under parent information, newsletters. The Infant class newsletters for your child’s year group are available under class blogs.