Last the week the NSPCC visited our school. The children took part in an assembly where they reflected on the importance of sharing their concerns with their trusted adults. Speak Out Stay Safe!
Next week Year 5 and Year 6 will be taking part in NSPCC led workshops developing the theme of staying safe.
This week we launched our Year Of The Family 2018. Last year we had a wonderful celebration of 50 years of our school and now we look forward to the next stage of our school’s journey. The Year of the family will link to Pope Francis’ teaching about the family in his writing Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) where he writes
“What God most wants from us is to knock on the doors of families and to find people who love each other, who bring up their children with love and who contribute to a society of truth, goodness and beauty.”
The Catholic World Meeting of Families was started by St John Paul in 1994 and takes place every three years in a different country. Pope Francis has announced that the next World Meeting of Families will be held in Dublin in 2018. Families from all over the world will gather to celebrate their lives together, to share their experiences from different parts of the world, to reflect on the different challenges they face and to grow together in faith. In support of this event, during the year, we will reflect on and celebrate the relationship that exists between our home, school and parish families and how we can develop ways of bringing the love and joy of Christ to others. This week the children have been celebrating their families by reflecting on the people who bring joy and happiness to their lives.
What a wonderful day we had on Thursday! Our Christmas lunch was delicious! Thank you to Hollie and the Herts Catering Team for a fabulous meal. The children enjoyed being served by their teachers and LSAs and then sharing the meal with them. Thank you to FOPPS for providing the Christmas Crackers!
After lunch we were treated to a fabulous Pope Paul’s Got Talent Show. Well done to all the performers and congratulations to Oliver in Year 1 and Sophie in Year 5 who were our overall winners. Please have a look at our class blogs to see many more photos.
Thank you all for you patience and understanding yesterday. It was lovely to welcome the children back to school today. Unfortunately we were not able to have a full dress rehearsal for our KS1 Nativity today but we look forward to sharing the performance with you tomorrow.I thought you might enjoy these early morning shots of our beautiful school grounds!
On Wednesday we welcomed Bishop John Wilson to our school. He took part in a special assembly where he blessed our new Lectionary of Masses for children which was a gift from our Parish. The children then enjoyed asking Bishop John questions when he visited each class.This visit marks the end of our Jubilee Year. We give thanks for 50 years of Catholic Education here at Pope Paul and we look forward to the next 50!
Well done to all our KS2 children who presented a wonderful, moving and thought provoking reflection yesterday evening. Your singing, reading and acting were fabulous! Congratulations to all our soloists who sang with confidence and conviction. Thank you to Mrs Joyce for leading the preparation for this Service and to Miss Pringle, Mrs McNamara, Miss Varga, Mrs Lines and Miss Donatantonio for all their hard work practising with the children. Performing in our beautiful church, it was heartening to see our links with the Parish growing from strength to strength. Thank you to all the parents, governors and parishioners who supported the children by sharing in the Service.
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Well done to the choir who entertained the Potters Bar Community Club with their singing this afternoon. They sang a range of Christmas carols and songs of worship. It was wonderful for the children to be able to share their talents with others and to have a chance to bring a small piece of Christmas spirit to the elderly of our town community.
Congratulations to the choir who sang at the Act4 URC Christmas Fayre today. You all did brilliantly and were a credit to your parents and to our school. I received an email from the Director of music, Stephen Jones….
It was lovely to hear the choir today. I thought their singing was excellent. As I said after your performance, I was impressed by their clear words, good choir discipline, excellent intonation, beautiful tuning in the two part singing (not only in, but especially in the chromatic lines of ‘White Christmas’), performance demeanour – there were some smiling faces, lots of great mouth shapes and dropped jaws, good ensemble stemming from their evident good training – things like watching the conductor, and responding to the beat. There was lots of energy too, especially in your finale ‘Rocking around the Christmas tree’ which the choir sang with great panache and evident enjoyment. All in all, a very pleasing performance of which everyone can feel proud.
Thank you to all the parents who made it possible for the choir to perform today and to Miss Donatantonio for all her hard work with the junior choir.
Well done everyone!
Liz Heymoz
On Friday donations of food collected last half term were given to the St Vincent de Paul Society, SVP, to distribute to the needy of Hertfordshire. Mrs Surry and our Year 6 pupils packed and loaded the food!
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Thank you for your generosity
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ANTI-BULLYING WEEK 2017 ‘ALL DIFFERENT, ALL EQUAL’
Monday 13th November to Friday 17th November is National Anti-Bullying Week coordinated by the Anti- Bullying Alliance. Anti-Bullying Week shines a spotlight on bullying and encourages all children, teachers and parents to take action against bullying throughout the year. The theme this year is ‘All Different, All Equal’ with the aims:
During this week each class will participate in lots of different activities which promote anti-bullying. However we recognise that this focus should not just be for one week and we are committed to long-term sustainable measures to prevent and deal with any form of bullying behaviour, working together with children and parents to address this important issue.
Please talk to your children about their learning this week. We are always interested to have any feedback from parents.
With thanks for all your support
Liz Heymoz
