To see our Christmas Fayre post please go to our Friends Association page to find photos from the event.

Samantha Aidoo from Jesuit Missions joined us for an assembly and to talk about her work and her recent visit to our Companion School, St Joseph's in Chishawasha, Zimbabwe. We were able to see photographs of children using the reading scheme which was bought for the school after Mrs Bailey's fundraising marathon in April.
She was delighted to be presented with a cheque for £330 which will be used to buy creative resources for the school. Following the assembly there were further donations, bringing the grand total to £350. Thank you to all the families who donated cakes for the cake sale and to those who came along to buy them and those who sponsored children to do jobs over half term.
This was the perfect assembly to illustrate this half term's Jesuit Pupil Profile virtues: Grateful and Generous. 

Friday assembly was led by Year 1 and 2 who were highlighting the uniqueness of each individual pupil and their importance in the school family.  This was our assembly to round off anti-bullying week and everyone was encouraged to wear odd socks to emphasis how different we all are from each other, but that we accept our differences as they make us interesting and unique. Year 1 presented making a cake to show that each individual ingredient is essential, or the cake will go wrong,  just as each pupil is an essential part of our school.  Certificates were presented to pupils who are good friends to others.

The children from St Gabriel's house met earlier this term and had lots of fantastic ideas for raising funds for resources for our companion school, St Joseph's in Chishawasha, Zimbabwe. The money from the half term's "helping harvest hedgehogs" is still coming in, with lots of children being paid for a range of tasks from helping with the washing up, to making a Christmas cake and helping change tyres and mend punctures! As always at St Joseph's, the selection of cakes provided for Friday's cake sale was incredible. The junior members of St Gabriel's did an excellent job of selling almost every cake. Thank you to everyone who has supported this fundraiser- we have raised an amazing £272.40!

Once again we had a busy assembly, led by Mrs Turner. Mrs Turner showed us some amazing work done by three year 6 pupils. They wrote a strip cartoon in french, complete with illustrations. The cartoon was about King Kong. 
Mrs Geldard praised the pupils who had done jobs for family and friends over half term to raise money from our partner school in Chisawasha.
Mrs Smith made a presentation of a St. Ignatius badge to Theo in year 6. These badges are only awarded for extra special reasons. Theo is considered an excellent role model for other pupils in his behaviour and work.

It has been a long and busy first half term in school, and our younger children in particular are ready for a break. The focus for the past half term has been animals, the children have learned about many features of animals from around the world and close to home. Our Autumn display was created by using sticks to drag the paint over the paper to make owls and hedgehogs, which we learned are nocturnal animals. Mrs Ward came to tell the children about her job as a vet, and she brought Thomas's African snail to show us. This helped to inspire the children to make our own vets role-play area. In maths we have been exploring shape, pattern and measures through a wide range of practical activities. Outdoors, the children requested a builders yard and had lots of ideas about what we'd need to make one, this is proving to be a very popular learning area.
I hope all the children are enjoying a well deserved rest ready for the next half term.