Most of you will have been told by your children that we have been watching our eggs hatch this week! We have four very healthy little chickens and one that is being nurtured to full strength as we speak by Miss Stuart. We welcomed Mr Severyn to our team this week, as he has joined us for the rest of the term to teach curriculum music to all year groups. Ukuleles are being ordered on Monday and the day began with the sound of reggae music! It is incredible to hear how the children in the infants are genuinely talented at music and many are playing instruments. The juniors set a fabulous example for our younger children and I sincerely thank them for their inspiration.  I don’t think they realise just how powerful an influence they all are. I was delighted to welcome back some children who have now returned to choir. We have so many infant musicians and we are currently planning to have an infant music concert. Children in Year 2 joined the choir today and what an incredible sound they all made. We value every voice and children can join the choir at any time.

Jesus is Alive!

We know that Easter marks the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus. It is the most important Christian festival and the one celebrated with the greatest joy. On Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene visited the tomb and found that the huge stone had been moved and that Jesus’ body had gone. At first, Mary thought that Jesus was the gardener and when she realised it was Jesus went to tell the disciples. For forty days after this, Jesus appeared to the disciples several times.

We have been incredibly moved this week as we have been part of some truly moving Holy Week reflections presented to us by each of our classes. On Monday, Pendle class portrayed The Last Supper. They reminded us how Jesus served His disciples as He washed their aching feet. We constantly reinforce the need to serve others in our kind acts. Parlick led assembly on the events which took place in The Garden of Gethsemane. It amazes me how even our youngest children rise to any challenge in such a mature way. When the music stopped, the children continued to sing with confidence and rhythm. Fairsnape class used a range of media to convey the Stations of the Cross. It left us all speechless. I would urge all of you to visit Fairsnape Web page to fully appreciate this. Today, the children in Beacon class lifted our spirits with their ‘Newsround’ interpretation of  Christ’s Resurrection and it was a perfect end to our school week. The children inspire me and all of our staff. It is the constant search for enriching their time with us that we continue to teach with incredible flare and come together as our community. Happiness can be underestimated or forgotten about but I strongly believe that we need happiness to perform to the best of our abilities. We have so many abilities that we have to foster in our children for them to thrive in the world. Self belief is everything. This, alongside our thoughtfulness for each other and the world in which we live, surely means that we can only make our world a better place. Care for our common home and care for each other.

St.Francis’ prepares for Holy Week

I just received an email with a picture of our children this afternoon. We share so many common goals but this picture, for me, highlights our school mission-working together for the better. It struck me today that life is so fast paced that we don’t often sit back and reflect upon what great moments take place. It was only when I watched, and listened, to the children performing and sitting in the audience that I fully appreciated the best moments you enjoy working in a school. Luckily, we appreciate these often. There may be many changes in education but childhood occurs once in a lifetime and we have to get it right. This will always remain to be our fundamental approach at St.Francis’ and we are proud to be the school we are!

I seem to find myself, yet again, not knowing where to begin with this week’s blog. That is because we have fit so much into today that I can’t remember much prior to yesterday. Yesterday was incredible because our infant children led a wonderful and truly humbling Palm Liturgy. My life is full of ‘wow moments’ at St.Francis’ and I must try to expect that these can happen at any time. I didn’t quite realise what today was going to hold because I had delegated the ‘Conga’ and ‘Sport Relief’ work to the Sport Captains and some children in Year 6. Beth and Ilayda had sent out a letter a few weeks ago (that I had forgotten all about) and I was bombarded with questions about the afternoon Conga. It must have been my incredibly blank face that said it all as it was (another) one of those moments where I wondered what I had signed us up for! The day began with our ‘Coffee Morning Fairtrade Concert’ and it was amazing! 3/4 of our school sing or play a musical instrument and it makes me so proud to watch them perform. The children held a Fairtrade Stall and a Sport Relief stall to raise money for worthy causes. Thank you to sponsor money that has already been given in. Parents and visitors were in awe and it was a lovely opportunity to come together to celebrate talent and enjoy each other’s company. I am a firm believer that children need a purpose and something to work towards that will continue and develop their motivation. I can’t wait for our ‘Music Showcase Evening’ that we will hold one evening at the end of the Summer Term-more to come on that nearer the time. After lunch, the whole school went outside to undertake cross country running and a giant Conga. The stamina of the children was amazing and the greatest part of this time outside was the amount of laughter that could be heard-not just from the children. I know I have said this before, but the staff here really do give so much of their time and efforts to go above and beyond for the children. I thank you all. When all this had finished, the children in the juniors came together to have a talk from two very special visitors who had spent three weeks in Ghana. They showed the children a powerpoint of what life is like there and what school is like there. I have put this on our ‘Year of Mercy’ area as it gives us chance to reflect upon global needs and our own Year of Mercy fundraising to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Science Week has been fantastic and we thank Mrs Gornall who came with her expertise in this field and led the children in some fun and inspirational experiments. The children in Parlick class have come home with a sunflower plant to grow  and have undertaken some exciting Ink blot experiments. The egg cracking was Mrs Kerr’s fault and not Mrs. Gornall’s! Speaking about eggs-we also had a visit from Catherine who brought chickens and eggs into school to prepare us for our own chickens. She is lending us some incubators and scanners to help us watch the chickens grow and nurture them.  We thank Mr Eastham who organised the removal of some old netball posts and helped us clear the chicken coop area next to the Willow Dome.

We have had some fantastic developments in school this week. On Friday, we had two new CTouch screens installed in Fairsnape and Beacon class. Mrs Kerr and Mr Gilmor are delighted! These have replaced our old whiteboards and they are fantastic. The other classrooms will be fitted with this new technology soon. Miss Stewart has been very busy on chicken duty and has organised not only eggs to be hatched in school but also a scanning machine to enable children to see what is going on inside the eggs! We can’t wait to have the chickens. These will be homed next to the Willow Dome area.

The week all started with our INSET day on Monday and since then I just haven’t caught up. In fact, the following days at school seem to have merged into one because we have been so busy. Our new CTouch whiteboards are being fitted in Fairsnape and Beacon (junior classrooms) in a couple of weeks and we have new laptops coming. Mrs Kerr and the children are delighted with the new carpet in Fairsnape class and I am thrilled with how our school entrance area looks with new carpets (and displays) also. Fencing began in Fairsnape and the children had a brilliant time. We can’t wait for cricket and Judo to begin after the Easter break. Mr Gilmour is already organising his cross country runners for a competition coming up soon. We will give you some more information on this soon. Do have a look on our ‘Enrichment Activities’ section on our homepage-you will find pictures of clubs taking place in school and much more.