Last week we celebrated the first Mass of the new school year. St Joseph’s Parkhill joined us and also some parents and parishioners. This week we also held interviews for Catholic Ambassadors. The panel consisted of new Governors, Mrs Stracey and Mr Fletcher, and Father Allen. Mrs Austin and myself also supported the panel.
There were 11 applications from Year 5, for only four posts. It was an extremely difficult decision for the Panel to choose only four. Congratulations to all of the applicants I was very proud of all the children and those children who were not successful were particularly graceful and handled their disappointment well. I know that they still have a lot to offer the school. The four new Catholic Ambassadors will now join the Year 6 Catholic Ambassadors in helping to develop the spiritual life of the school. They are attending a Chaplaincy Day at St John the Baptist, Padiham on Wednesday.
They will have the opportunity to meet other Catholic Ambassadors and Chaplains and also to meet the Bishop. We had a Drama Specialist in yesterday who worked with a group of children from different classes. The children use role play to bring alive reading and writing. Amazingly, in only a few hours, they were able to do a short performance in the afternoon for the rest of the school, some parents and Father Allen. Yesterday, they discussed their work and wrote a recount of the day.
Today we had an Anglo Saxon visitor to Year 5 as they are studying this topic. He was very frightening and really stirred the imaginations of the class. We look forward to seeing some writing opportunities following this. There was a flurry of activity last week as we showed the Ofsted Visitor all the great things we do at school. I will be letting you know when the Report is published but, whatever the outcome of the report, we were very proud of the children as they continue to shine at St Mary Magdalene’s.
We do value your views as parents to help improve the school. Questionnaires can be very helpful but sometimes we need more information in order to be able to address your concerns. This week, we held an additional meeting for Year 2 parents to address some concerns, but this was only after one parent let me know about the issue.
Please do let school know if you have any concerns. Conversely questionnaires or communication with school doesn’t always have to be about a concern or issue. We value your positive responses too. We don’t always get it right but we are trying!