We started the New Year in earnest and the month of January has flown by. We celebrated a New Year Mass in Church at the beginning of the month and this week, we celebrated Mass in School due to the weather. We also celebrated our second Family Mass last weekend. More children attended Mass and lots of Parishioners commented on the joyful singing, directed by Mr Cairns and David. Following a meeting in Church last week, the school and the Parish are hoping to promote greater links. We are looking to develop a Children’s Liturgy and we are looking for volunteer parents and/ or grandparents and parishioners old or young, to help run the group. Please contact school if you are interested in helping out. The Family Masses will be held once a month at St Mary Magdalene’s RC Church on Saturday evening at 5.30. The next Family Mass is to be held on Saturday 9th March and then Saturday 30th March at 5.30. Everyone is welcome. Thankyou to those parents who attended the Curriculum Review Meeting. Lots of good ideas were collated and we are hoping to develop our Curriculum Intent Statement and Pupil Passport very soon now that we have consulted parents, governors and advisors. Look out too for a “Jobs Day.” We are hoping that parents will be willing to share their skills and knowledge by coming into school and giving children different experiences of jobs and the wider world. Last week Bob Turner from CAFOD delivered a Key Stage 2 Assembly about the Pope’s message (Lamdato Si), looking after the environment. We are making some plans to look at recycling in the school. Thank you to all parents who have supported the school bag/ rucksack issue. There has been a very big reduction in the number of large bags in school and the cloakrooms are much easier to access and keep tidy. A very big plea to everyone to ensure that all school uniform is labelled clearly, including PE Kit. We had an empty Lost Property Box at the beginning of January. It is now full of uniform and kit that is not labelled. The children should now be bringing a Home Reader and a Library book home. Please try to read at home with your children. Research shows that regular reading at home makes a difference to children’s language and progress across the curriculum. It’s also fun and is something that can be shared with all family members. There is a letter regarding weather conditions and communicating any closures to parents. Please only ring school if your child is absent due to illness. Please do not ring to ask if the school is open or closed. It is the school’s responsibility to communicate this information through the text service, the website and the radio stations.