Newsletter 21/07/2016

St Anne’s RC Primary School

Working, Learning, Caring

Moss Bank, Crumpsall, Manchester, M8 5AB Tel: 0161 740 5995 Fax: 0161 795 0236 Headteacher : Mrs K Orrell (BEd Hons, NPQH) School Web site www.stannescrumpsall.co.uk

and playing together in God’s love.

21.7.16

Dear Parents and Carers As we come to the end of another academic year, my staff and I would like to thank you for all the support you have given us this year. During the year, we have achieved many wonderful things: an outstanding RE inspection; completion of the Families and Schools Together Project (FAST - this was a great success with 30 families completing the eight-week programme); sporting achievements; further improvements to the school learning environment and end of school results, to name but a few.

Once again, our pupils have taken part in numerous school and Parish Masses.

During these occasions, our pupils have taken a full and active part; reading prayers, as altar servers, and taking part in the offertory. They have undertaken these roles with enthusiasm and pride – thank you children. Our school Chaplaincy Team has continued to grow with new pupils from Year 4 and 5 recently being elected. Miss Irene and the Chaplaincy Team have represented the school at diocesan events and have supported the teachings of the church in school through the delivery of the Wednesday Word and by supporting the class RE ambassadors. The Chaplaincy Team, along with other pupil leaders, was highly praised for their outstanding work during the section 48 RE inspection in December - well done children.

Pupil voice at St Anne’s has been very strong this year. We now have pupil leaders undertaking a wide variety or responsibilities in school: Librarians, IT Ambassadors, RE and Science Ambassadors, Sports Leaders, School Council, Peer Mediators, and Chaplaincy Team. Pupils have taken a full and active part in school life this year: reviewing school policies; leading assemblies; deciding on new resources to buy; keeping the library tidy and repairing books; supporting playground activities; and encouraging their peers to make the right choices when

OFSTED 2013: ST Anne’s is a good school!

disagreements occur. Their roles will continue to grow next year when pupils will have input into the school development plan for 2016-17. Thank you to all the staff who work with our leaders and to the children who give up their own time to be involved. You are a credit to all at St Anne’s.

This year, our pupils have continued to represent St Anne’s in various sporting competitions. These include; swimming gala (we won 16/20 events), girls and boys football, cycling (winners), and mini tennis. Our year 5 children also took part in the two-day cycling proficiency programme ‘Bikeability’. As usual, these pupils represented themselves and the school to a high standard. Thank you also to the staff and parents who supported these events. Our year 6 children also had the opportunity to experience a wide range of challenging activities whilst on the residential trip to Condover Hall; my thanks go to the staff who give up their own time in order to facilitate this trip.

Every year we undertake a range of activities designed to help our pupils stay safe and healthy. This year these have included: e-safety assemblies; drugs education week; Ten Ten theatre visit; weekly walk to school awards; anti-bullying sessions; PREVENT workshops for our Year 6 pupils; and visits from the emergency services.

We have also held safety sessions for parents on PREVENT (radicalization and terrorism), and drugs education. We are hoping to deliver further training for parents next year with e-safety training a priority.

In true St Anne’s tradition, there have been numerous educational visits this year.

Our younger children visited Pizza Express and designed, made and ate their own pizzas. Children have visited the Science and Industry and Manchester Museum.

Several classes have visited Crumpsall Park, local shops and Tesco as part of their studies. Gifted and Talented pupils in Year 4 visited Our Lady’s High School for additional maths support. Children have visited the Slavery Museum as part of their Black History topic, Sports City as part of PE and Manchester Crown Courts and John Ryland Library- truly a busy calendar of events.

This year, we have also facilitated a wide range of parent workshops in conjunction with support from Abraham Moss Adult Education Centre. These have included ESOL, Numeracy and English courses (to support parents with their own language and maths skills). Parent and child workshops have included crafts sessions, child and parent animation, and several phonics/reading sessions. In addition to this, we held welcome meetings in September for parents to meet their child’s new teacher and sent out parent friendly leaflets informing parents of the each year’s curriculum objectives. To improve our communication systems, we have also started e-mailing newsletters to parents and carers and have had two new external notice boards fitted. We are hoping to improve our communications further next year by having important information translated into other languages.

OFSTED 2013: ST Anne’s is a good school!

Our ongoing improvements to the school building have continued this year. We started the year with the opening of our KS2 extension, new corridor, new internet network, prayer area and toilets. We have added to these improvements throughout the year: new windows in Year 1L; replacement outdoor furniture for the children; and air conditioning in the school hall and kitchen (a necessity in the hall when temperatures are very high in the summer). We have successfully bid for a £165,000 grant for a new heating boiler which will be fitted during the summer holidays. In addition to this, we are updating the school kitchen with new ovens and refrigeration and increasing the number of staff toilets in the main building from 3 to 5. We have also commissioned improvements to the school’s security and fire systems. We are continuing our quest to access funds to develop the old nursery site opposite the school; hopefully either the Local Authority or Diocese will have some good news for us in relation to this next year.

This year we have continued to support both local and national charities: MacMillan Caritas, Lancashire Flood Victims, Mission Boxes, and Year of Mercy Collections. In total, we have raised over £2000 for good causes. Thank you to everyone who supported our collections for St Anne’s Christmas and Summer Parish Fairs. I know your donations are much appreciated. During the last half term, classes have been taking part in enterprise activities; these activities have raised over £800 which will go into school funds and benefit the children in the coming year.

Thank you also to the work the PTFA undertakes. Our PTFA is run entirely by volunteer parents and staff members. This year, they have successfully held a family bingo evening and several school discos. Please try and support the PTFA next year; they are always looking for helpers and all the funds raised are used for the benefit of St Anne’s pupils.

As the 2015/16 school year comes to a close, we say goodbye and good luck to Mr Fox and Mr Bilek, teaching assistants in EYFS and KS2. We say goodbye for a while to Mrs Radcliffe, whose baby is due in August - I’m sure she will bring her bundle of joy in to see us early in September. We also say goodbye and good luck to our parent governor Dorothy Hamilton; she has tirelessly supported the school as parent governor for the last 5 years and we give her our thanks.

A message to parents from Dorothy I have been a parent governor at St Anne’s for approximately five years and sadly I have now come to the end of my term of office. In addition to this, I have also served as an active member of the school’s PTFA for over six years.

I am confident and firmly believe with the high standards already set by the senior leadership team, St Anne’s will continue to provide an excellent environment for

OFSTED 2013: ST Anne’s is a good school!

teaching and learning. I can say without hesitation that each staff member works really hard to ensure that every child gets the best possible education.

As the Year 1 class governor, I have been able to follow their progress since they started nursery. It would be fair to say that I have been really impressed - in fact blown away - with their amazing work!

I would also like to congratulate the Year 6 staff and children who have worked so hard at their end of year SATS, significantly exceeding the Governments National Average - Well Done!!

To all the children, parents, staff and governors, it has been a real pleasure and privilege to serve as parent governor at such a wonderful school.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the future.

Sincerely Dorothy Hamilton Finally, I would like to wish you all a lovely summer break. Good luck to our Year 6 children and those who are leaving us to start new journeys. I leave you with a final blessing:God we pray: May you who leave this place: Take with you every blessing you have received here: Blessings of friendship Blessings of memories Blessings of knowledge And may you who leave here today to begin a new journey, leave us your blessing; your uniqueness, the mark you leave on this place that is only you.

May you all be refreshed this summer, Teachers, Pupils, Support Staff, and parents, So when term begins again, You may all meet new challenges, new places, new people, with a bright and cheerful heart.

So we pray that all may grow and learn to live with Love.

May God bless you all this day and through all the days to come. Amen.

Mrs K Orrell

OFSTED 2013: ST Anne’s is a good school!

OFSTED 2013: ST Anne’s is a good school!