It has been an absolutely fantastic week. The Valley Singers concert was a great experience for our children and our children sang incredibly well with such gusto- even at some points battling past the bedtime hour yawns. We thank everybody who came and we thank the children and Valley Singers for giving us such a festive feel at the start of Advent. The Valley Singers have been coming in to rehearse with our children since the beginning of the half term- thank you for giving your time and thank you very much to the parishioners who prepared and served refreshments in the interval. There are always so many people to thank and these concerts and events wouldn’t be such a success without the whole team approach. I realised that I had left organising refreshments with Mrs Marshall, who clearly spoke to our wonderful and discreet parishioners-Mrs Coulthurst, Mrs Peel and Mrs Ashton. They had baked cakes and spent time setting up a beautiful spread. We thank Mr Warren , our brilliant music teacher for leading the choir songs and always putting a smile on our faces by his choice of arrangements!

Christmas Eve Mass begins at 4.00pm to begin with carols for half an hour before Mass begins at 4.30pm. I can’t wait to be there as it is such a lovely celebration- the folk group always choose the favourite festive classics and it is always a joy to sing Boney M classics! The traditional Christmas hymns will, of course, be sung and our community will have the opportunity to share the most special time of year together.

The Advent Service at Our Lady’s was wonderful and we thank the children who could make it. We realise how many commitments families have and there are so many school events to attend in the run up to Christmas. The art work the children produced was stunning and I thank Mrs Silvester and Mrs Rossall for leading this event. Unfortunately, Mr Gilmour and I were busy at the full governors meeting (unfortunately meant in the nicest possible way) and we couldn’t come.

Some of our children were taken to Bispham for their Grade 1 ABRSM music exams and we are very proud of them. Mr Gilmour has worked out that the minibus is in use at least once a week and it certainty proved useful on the day of the music exams. It resembled ‘The Magic School Bus’ (for those of you who watched the educational series as a child) and we have now reached a point where we are teaching from inside the bus due to the music exams lasting 4 hours in total with no where else to go in between and no waiting room. IPADs and other activities were taken on board with snacks and smiles as the children went inside the exam building one at a time.

We continue to work closely with our small school Catholic cluster and we have many joint events to look forward to. One of our first events was to visit a local Synagogue together (all aboard the Magic School Bus!) and what a great morning the children had. Mr Caro let our children experience all areas of the Synagogue and he taught them about the Jewish Faith and customs. We thank Mr Ramsey, the Headteacher at Great Eccleston, who organised this collaborative trip.

We are collecting for the Rock FM gift appeal and Mrs Rufus will kindly take any donated gifts to the allocated places. Any toys for children for all ages will be gratefully received. Mrs Doran is still collecting any tins of food and there is a box at the back of church to drop any spare tins for the local food banks. The money raised from donations after the Valley Singers and School Choir concert are going to a Preston based homeless charity- chosen by the school council.

Another fantastic week in our fantastic school-have a lovely weekend and I hope to see you at the Christmas fair this Sunday. Mass starts at 10.30pm and we need children to arrive for 10.15am with instruments so we can set instruments up for band. Band and choir will be entertaining you with their festive songs before the Fair in school. We have a range of stalls and our CAFOD Club will be selling gifts and raising money to buy bikes for families in Kenya. Some of our parents have stalls and the children have been making packs of cards- they will make beautiful gifts.