God of wisdom and might,

we praise you for the wonder of our being,

for mind, body and spirit.

Be with our children as they begin

a new school year.

Bless them and their teachers and staff.

Give the strength and grace as their bodies

grow;

wisdom and knowledge to their minds

as they search for understanding;

and peace to fill their hearts.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Welcome back to our new academic year,

we hope you all had a lovely summer

holiday and enjoyed time together as a

family. A special welcome to all of our new

children and families in both Reception and

new Sunshine Nursery Class. All the children

have settled in really well and we are

delighted to have them in our school.

What’s New?

We are delighted to welcome our new

members of staff to Our Lady’s: Miss

Carnegie (Coral Class) Miss McCarthy (Ruby

Class) Miss Burns (Lime Class) and Miss

Bartlett (Indigo Class). We also welcome

Miss Spackman (Nursery) and Mrs Kavanagh

who will be teaching Reception three days a

week until Mrs Pearce returns from

maternity leave.

RUAH

‘Ruah’ (pronounced roo-a) is Hebrew for

‘the breath of God.’ It stands for respect,

understanding, affection and humour. We

are teaching the children to be respectful

(personal development), understand how to

improve in their lessons (teaching and

learning), show affection towards each

other (behaviour and personal

development) and have a sense of humour

(because sometimes life is just too

serious!) RUAH appears in our Mission

Statement and is how our curriculum is

designed.

Curriculum

We are teaching a new curriculum this

year. We will still teach the requirements

of the National Curriculum and the Early

Years Curriculum, however, we have

included extra strands to ensure our

children learn as many skills as possible.

Please see the additional pages which fully

explains our curriculum.

Playground

As you will have seen and I am sure heard

about, we have a few new additions to our

playground. The new six-tower climbing

frame, round seating area and pitch

markings were funded by a generous

donation from Watkin Jones who own the

new student development on Between

Towns Road (next door). The children are

allowed on the equipment before school,

however, parents must supervise during

this time. The school will not be held

responsible for any accidents that may

occur before or after school.

Key Priorities for 2019-2020

Our key areas for improvement this year

are:

1.) To improve children’s fluency,

understanding, confidence and

enjoyment of reading

2.) To improve teachers assessment

and feedback during lessons

Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School Newsletter

ourladys@dbmac.org.uk 01865 779176 www.our-ladys.oxon.sch.uk Issue 1 20th September 2019

Parking

Please remember that the car park must not be used by parent/carers for dropping their child at school .

Please consider our neighbours when parking near the school.

Help and Support

We are always here to help and

support you. Please speak to

your child’s class teacher with

your concerns or worries in the

first instance.

Miss Molloy, Assistant Princi-

pal, is available to discuss any

concerns with teaching, learn-

ing or assessment and Mr

Spackman, Senior Assistant

Principal, is available to discuss

any concerns with SEN, Pupil

Premium or behaviour. Pat

McGovern is always on hand

for help and support or even a

shoulder to cry on! If a member

of staff is not available immedi-

ately, they will always reply to

you as soon as possible.

Any emails directed to mem-

bers of staff must be sent via

the office.

School Times

All classroom doors will now

open at 8.35am (the bell will

ring). This will allow children

10 minutes to get to class as

apposed to 5 minutes in pre-

vious years.

The official start time of the

school day is 8.45am. Chil-

dren arriving after this will

be marked late.

3.) To improve school attendance

to over 96%

4.) To embed RUAH across the

school community

Homework

In July 2019 we decided it was time to

refresh our homework. Some of the

work that was produced in the

Learning Logs was amazing, however,

it did not suit everyone. Therefore, we

have decided that the most important

skills that we need the children to

practise at home are spellings, maths

(Mathletics) and reading. In addition,

there will be a ‘surprise’ piece of

homework every other week; this will

be anything from reading to RE or art/

DT. Children love surprises – even for

homework!

Reading at Home

It is essential that your child reads at

home as much as possible, even if it is

only for 5 or 10 minutes a day. The

more the children read, the better

confidence they will have to speak

and write clearly. Please support your

child with reading.

Parent Readers

We need your help! Listening to

children read for ten minutes a day

can make all the difference. If you are

able to give your time to help with our

library or to listen to the children read

please see Miss Molloy in Scarlet

(Year 2).

Medicine and Allergies

If your child needs to take any

prescribed medicine during the school

day please visit the front office to

complete the relevant medical forms.

Additionally, if your child has any

allergies it is vital that we receive this

information so again, please visit the

front office. Remember that we do have

children in school with allergies so please

do not give your children nuts or other

products that contain nuts in their

packed lunches. We are a nut-free

school.

Coffee Morning

Our annual Macmillan coffee morning

(and afternoon this year!) returns on

Friday 27th September from 8.45am to

10am or 2.15-3pm in the school hall. The

invitation is open to all of our school

community; parents/carers,

grandparents, PSA and members of

the parish. Last year we managed to

raise over £350 for this very worthy

cause. Please help us to exceed that this

year by donating cakes and visiting for a

cup of tea or coffee.

Uniform

We are so delighted that so many of our

children our wearing our new uniform—

a big thank you to all parents who have

made the investment. Please remember

that if your child is wearing the school tie

it must be worn with a light blue shirt

and not polo t-shirt. School fleeces may

be worn to school but children must

wear the school jumper when in class.

Please remember to label all of your

children’s uniform, including PE kits. We

always seem to have an obscene amount

of uniform left in the lost property. If you

don’t label it, we will!

Secondary Schools: Year 6

Applications for secondary school plac-

es must be submitted by Year 6 par-

ents to Oxfordshire County Council by

the end of October. We would recom-

mend that you visit all of our local sec-

ondary schools if you are unsure about

where to send your child for the next

stage of their education. Please see

page 9 for dates of open days in our

local secondary schools.

Breakfast Club

We have spaces available at a cost of

£4 a day. Payment must be made in

advance via the Gateway.

Thought of the week….

Page 2 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

We look forward to seeing as

many of you as possible at our

coffee morning/afternoon on

the Friday 27th September.

With best wishes

Miss Davies and all the

staff

Page 3 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

Attendance

Please remember that your child’s attendance at school is essential for good learning and development. Holidays during

term-time are not acceptable and may result in fines or a referral to the Safeguarding team in the future for persistent

offenders.

Piano Lessons

We are thrilled to be able to offer piano lessons by MJ Music Services to children in Years 2-6.

Lessons will be 25 minutes each and cost £19 per lesson. This includes 1-to-1 tuition and all

books/music diaries that your child will need to be able to play the piano. If you are interested,

please email the school office: ourladys@dbmac.org.uk to register your interest as soon as pos-

sible. We will then be in touch with you individually.

MJ Music Services have taught music in schools for over 20 years and have a wealth of experi-

ence working with young people. Their skilled teachers currently teach the piano in various pri-

mary and secondary schools in both Oxford City and Oxfordshire County.

Years 5 and 6

Do you like action and adventure?

Do you like water sports?

Kingswood Trip

14th-17th June 2020

Meeting for children and parents

Monday 23rd September 2019

@3pm in the school hall

We are collecting Aldi vouchers—please collect them and

bring them in to school!

Page 4 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

Nursery

Topic: Fairytales

Story: The Billy Goats Gruff

Curriculum Topics: Autumn Term

Reception

Topic: Fairytales

Story: The Three Little Pigs

Years 1 and 2

Topic: Heroes

‘Can anyone be a hero?’

Story: a range of comic strips (superman, Beano)

Years 3 and 4

Topic: Crime and Punishment

‘Is it ever ok to break the rules?’

Story: I want my hat back

Years 5 and 6

Topic: World Peace

‘How can we create Heaven on earth?’

Story: The day the war came

Our curriculum is designed creatively so writing, history, geography, art, design technology, music and compu-

ting are all taught through one theme. This is called the ‘Learning Journey.’ The Learning Journey is centred

around an enquiry question that the children should be able to confidently answer by the end of the session;

there will also be a focus story for each Learning Journey.

Page 5 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

Weekly Attendance

National Average = 97%

Class %

Coral Bronze Award 96%

Ruby Needs to improve 93%

Scarlet Silver Award 97%

Lime Needs to improve 94%

Olive Silver Award 97%

Emerald Silver Award 97%

Indigo Gold Award 99%

Aqua Gold Award 99%

Sapphire Needs to improve 95%

Salesians of the Week

Coral— Ayesha

Ruby—Esa

Scarlet—Valentina

Lime— Dominika

Olive— Barra

Emerald— Deon

Indigo— Sofia

Aqua—Serra

Sapphire— Musa

Learners of the Week

Coral— Olivia

Ruby—Esa

Scarlet—Oscar

Lime— Tallulah

Olive— Barra

Emerald— Abiel

Indigo— Uchechi

Aqua— Raquel

Sapphire— Dominik

Dates for your Diary

Page 6 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

Page 7 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

Curriculum Design: Years 1-6

Curriculum Statement

At Our Lady’s our curriculum is unique to our school and is rooted in the Salesian concept of RUAH (Hebrew

for the breath of God): respect, understanding, affection and humour. In September 2019, we will launch our

brand new curriculum so that every child will:

Show respect towards the common good and care for the world God created.

Understand how to reach our age expectations and beyond by using our God given talents to the full.

Behave with affection towards each other and appreciate the importance of life-long learning.

Have the confidence to solve future challenges in the modern world with a sense of humour.

For a child to be formed to become ‘an Our Lady’s child’ our curriculum design includes:

reading

writing

maths

science

the arts (art, design, music, performance)

physical and mental health education

computing

safety online

history and geography

outdoor learning

relationships education

Catholic social teaching

British Values

Local community

National and international communities

Physical and mental wellbeing

Every term our skilled teachers, in collaboration with the children, plan topics that have high levels of en-

gagement, excitement and enthusiasm based on an enquiry question that the children will be able to answer

and discuss at length at the end of each topic.

Page 8 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019

Prime areas of learning: Personal, Social and Emotional Development 1. Self-confidence and self-awareness

2. Managing feelings and behaviour

3. Making relationships

Communication and Language

4. Listening and attention

5. Understanding

6. Speaking

Physical Development 7. Moving and handling

8. Health and self-care

Specific areas of Learning: Literacy

9. Reading

10 Writing

Mathematics

11. Numbers

12. Shape, space and measure

Understanding the World

13. People and communities

14. The world

15. Technology

Expressive Art and Design

16. Exploring and using media and material

17. Being imaginative

Curriculum Design: Early Years Foundation Stage

Curriculum Statement

At Our Lady’s our curriculum is unique to our school and is rooted in the Salesian concept of RUAH

(Hebrew for the breath of God): respect, understanding, affection and humour. In September 2019, we

will launch our brand new curriculum so that every child will:

Show respect towards the common good and care for the world God created.

Understand how to reach our age expectations and beyond by using our God given talents to the

full.

Behave with affection towards each other and appreciate the importance of life-long learning.

Have the confidence to solve future challenges in the modern world with a sense of humour.

Throughout each topic, the children in Early Years will be assessed under the following headings, as per

the Early Years Framework:

Page 9 of 9 Issue 1 20th September 2019