NEWS 01MAR2012

“Christ is at the Heart of this Roman Catholic School.”

Sacred Heart Mission Statement

Sacred Heart R.C. Primary School

Central Drive, Westhoughton, Bolton, BL5 3DU Tel: 01942 634681 / Fax: 01942 634682

E-mail: [email protected] Website/cLc: www.sacred-heart.bolton.sch.uk/cLc

Sacred Heart Parish Website: www.sacred-heart-westhoughton.org.uk

Headteacher: Mr. Martin Johnson B.A. (Hons.) Q.T.S. NPQH Deputy Headteacher: Mrs Catherine Parkinson B.Ed. (Hons.) NPQH

Chair of Governors: Mrs Mary-Anne Yearn

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Levels 1, 2, 3 & 4

Thursday 1

st March 2012.

Dear Parents, Children, Staff & Governors,

WEEKLY NEWS: FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT

This week’s theme is: ‘I try to appreciate the beauty and the wonder of the world around us...’ In our assembly we thought about how we can take for granted many aspects of our world, and the need to act responsibly as custodians. On Monday we celebrated our annual ‘faith day’ and paid particular attention to the rights and responsibilities we must live by if we are to truly listen to Jesus’ message of love for one another. Psalm 19 tells us:

When we look at the sky you have made, we wonder how big it all is; The moon and the stars shining there; How far away can they be?

And we feel so small standing here on the ground; And the sky is so vast, so high up above

But you make us great. Make us all just like you. You give us your world, let us give it your love.

PRAYERS: Please keep Miss Southern and her family in your prayers. Miss Southern’s father, John Southern, died last Wednesday

following a period of illness. His funeral is tomorrow. LENT 2012 [22 February – 7 April] MARCH THEME: Our theme in school this month in school is ‘Lenten Journey- reach out! ‘Let’s Embrace Neighbourly Thinking this LENT!’ Reception will lead our

Lenten service this afternoon in the school hall. All are welcome. LENTEN COLLECTION: Collection boxes for the Caritas Diocese

of Salford St Joseph’s Penny appeal have been sent home today. The appeal has been running since 1903, with children living the spirit of Christian giving by going the extra mile by supporting vulnerable children and young people in the Diocese. Please return them after the Easter break.

The St Joseph’s Penny Appeal was started over 100 years ago to help children through the Catholic Children’s Rescue Society. It still continues every Lent through Caritas, who invites all the Catholic primary and secondary schools in the Diocese of Salford to join the St. Joseph’s Penny Lenten Appeal. This is an important opportunity for all pupils to help other children and young people whose lives are affected by poverty, disadvantage or insecurity. Each school receives a small box for every pupil to fill as well as posters. As we prepare for this holy season, Bishop Terence Brain reminds us:

Every time you give to the St Joseph Penny appeal you will be putting the words of Jesus in the Gospel into practice: “love your neighbour as yourself”. Enjoy Lent: grow close to God. And thank you for helping me.

This year, the money raised will go towards the Young Parents’ Service, which has been deeply affected by council funding cuts. Caritas will use the money to help develop the Service to have more outreach activities that go into the homes of young parents and help them develop the skills and confidence they need as new mothers and fathers. Caritas looks forward to sharing the difference their pennies have made with every Catholic school in the Diocese, and give pupils direct feedback on the projects and people the St. Joseph’s Penny appeal has helped. By doing this Caritas wishes to become a ‘faith partner’ with each school and build a strong and personal relationship with every pupil and teacher. The St. Joseph’s Penny appeal makes a life changing difference to many children and vulnerable young people. Thank you for he lping change lives! RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOL: Governments should help parents by providing services to support them, especially if both parents

work [UNCRC, Article 18]. MILL BURNING BI-CENTENARY: The local history group continue to support us in our learning

at school and visited Class 3/4M yesterday afternoon. Ted Wisedale writes - I thought you might be interested to learn of some of the History Group's plans for the bi-centenary and at the same time consider whether you wish to involve the children of Sacred Heart in some of the activities. We're trying to make the weekend of 21

st and 22

nd April something special for

Westhoughton, commemorating the Mill Burning bi-centenary and promoting the town. The following plans are well advanced but some activities do require permissions which we hope to gain.

On Saturday: the market stall holders will dress in period costume and various organisations will take

stalls to promote their activities; the town crier will promote the activities taking place over the weekend; Silcock's Fun Fair will be open on the car park behind the Library; the mayor will unveil a plaque on the White Lion, opposite the old Mill site; the mayor will formally open an exhibition upstairs in the Library (probably early afternoon).

On Sunday evening: the Fun Fair will remain open; the Houghton Weavers will perform on the old mill site which will be open to the public, free of charge. Concert may start at

6:00 or 6:30 depending on other performers; there will be some other performance (We were hoping to engage Morris Dancers or perhaps Wingates Band but this is

proving difficult because of other engagements - this is also St George’s weekend); Active8 drama group will perform some inter-active play with the audience leading up to the burning of the Mill. A model of the

Mill is to be built and will form the basis of a bonfire (probably about 8:30, dusk); a firework display will close the event.

We think there are three opportunities for Sacred Heart to be involved. On Saturday, we could show a film of the children performing one of the Westhoughton plays. Options would include showing one of the films recorded earlier this month or filming the drama production which Sophie is working on. I would film the "play" if you wished or help in any way I can. The film show would take place alongside the exhibition in the Library. Some children have produced paintings of the Mill burning. We may be able to include some of these in our exhibition. On Sunday, some children could take part in the Active8 play. We're unsure how their session is progressing, but I'm sure your Scot's Greys could appear on hobby horse at the end of the production. They may even require a 12 year old boy to "break the Mill window” and shout some suitable encouragement to others, although we wouldn't want him to climb inside. You may have other ideas about how Sacred Heart could contribute to the weekend. If you have, we'd be pleased to hear from you. We are hoping to attract good media coverage including tv. Incidentally, just in case we're wondering, Silcock's are involved as the family own the former Mill site and their involvement will help to bring people into town. They will be promoting the event with banners and will probably be providing the firework display. Sounds quite exciting from our viewpoint. Hope you share our enthusiasm and can become involved. Ted Wisedale Westhoughton Local History Group

5Ws – Welfare : (Welcome – Word – Witness – Welfare –

Worship ).

This week we begin to consider how we together as a community. Welfare refers to healing and wholeness, wellbeing, a

community of deep care, service and belonging.

“When a child is loved, listened to, touched with reverence… it knows it belongs, it is held protected and safe, it opens without fear” Jean Vanier: “Community in Growth”

Scripture: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord... 1 Cor 12 v 4-5

Vatican 2: ...the Catholic school has continued to share responsibility for the social and cultural development of the different communities and peoples to which it belongs, participating in their joys and hopes, their sufferings and difficulties, their efforts to achieve genuine human and communitarian progress…

Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium

“Before I conclude, I wish to add a particular word of appreciation for those whose task it is to ensure that our schools provide a safe environment for children and young people. Our responsibility towards those entrusted to us for their Christian formation demands nothing less. Indeed, the life of faith can only be effectively nurtured when the prevailing atmosphere is one of respectful and affectionate trust. I pray that this may continue to be a hallmark of the Catholic schools in this country.”

Pope Benedict XVI London September 17th

2010 More information next week…

RADIO @ HEART: Our radio station is due to be delivered during City of London week – and we

will begin broadcasting soon after. Our radio interviewers will be beginning their work this week in order to compile the first broadcast.

ARTSMARK: Our assessor, Ann Brian, representing Arts Council England,

commented:

OUTDOOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: Mr Simpson attended the training session for group leaders this week for the Westhoughton Cluster project, Natures Den. A small group of our Y1 & Y2 pupils will take part in the cluster project over the coming weeks, based at Eatock CP School. Mr Simpson will also begin to lead groups of our pupils in outdoor education themed workshops each Thursday morning. The workshops will take some of the cluster project themes as their stimulus. We look forward to developing our outdoor provision for learning further over the coming months.

GOAL BOTTLE TUNNEL: We still need lots more 2litre round plastic bottles – in all colours. Please collect them and send into school.

LONDON WEEK 2012: The sequel to our successful creative learning KS1 & KS2 ,

entitled will take place week beginning 12th

March, led by a team of beginning teachers from the University of Cumbria. They visited us on Friday 17

th February, and will come again

tomorrow and on Friday 9th March to prepare for leading our creative learning week.

WORLD EDUCATION GAMES: The world education games period opens today with World Book Day, and the World

Spelling, Maths and Science days next week. http://www.worldeducationgames.com/ World Book Day book tokens have been distributed to all our children.

Invasion Week City of London Week

WORLD BOOK DAY IN THE : Today, children were encouraged to bring in their favourite book to tell their class about it.

Some children were asked to talk about their book in the

LIBRARY VISITS: Our children continue their visits to Westhoughton Library.

LIBRARY COMPETITION: Thank you to our children who designed a new book cover for their favourite book or wrote a poem about

reading for our World Book Day competition today.

BOOK EXCHANGE: Please send in your read books for our shelves! We are setting up the book

exchange, for both adults and pupils. To take a book, we ask that you make a small donation to our collection – which will be used to fund new reading books for our library.

: Daybreak have launched a nationwide campaign to Get Britain Reading! More information at:

http://www.itv.com/daybreak/lifestyle/familiesandparenting/getbritainreading/

Children's author Julia Donaldson has top tips to help your children get the best start in reading: Everyone wants their child to do well in reading. Apart from that nightly bedtime story, you may be wondering about what else you could be doing to make sure that your child gets off to a good start. Enjoying reading together in all kinds of different situations is vital all through the primary years. But it’s also important to balance this with some focus on your child's developing reading skills. Make reading an enjoyable experience, and then your child will keep reading. 3– 7 YEAR OLDS

Talk together - Talking about words and pictures is really important for building up a store of vocabulary and confidence Read together - Just 5-10 minutes at bedtime, bath time or quiet time really does help to hook them in. Remember when - Compare events in stories or information books with things you’ve done together, so your child starts to

make connections between these things and their own experiences. Sing together - Nursery rhymes and songs for your youngest and chart-topping songs you hear on the radio for your 6-7 year

old all count New books but old favourites too – Build confidence by reading lots of different books at the same reading level, and continue

to re-read earlier books so that you aren’t pushing up the difficulty of the read too quickly and causing frustration 7- 11 YEAR OLDS (Revisit the above, but also include the below)

Talk together – Talk about their reading interests and they may be interested in what you are reading too. Read together –Get your older children to read with younger brothers and sisters too. Revisiting favourites - It’s ok to have a favourite book, but also comparing and sharing memories of real life and books will help

your child to develop empathy. Sing together - Rhythm, rhyme, raps, advertising jingles or the latest top-rated downloadable track can all help the older reader

to appreciate and use the patterns of language they hear in both their speech and writing. For fun ideas to support reading and more information and tips go to http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Reading WELCOME… to Mr James Winteringham who joined us as Y1 Teaching Assistant this week. Mr Winteringham is

registered as our relief TA and has been volunteering in 4C each Monday for the last few months. CLASS 2B: Best wishes to Mrs Byrne who will be off for the next few weeks recovering from an operation. Mr

McMahon will be teaching Class 2B until Mrs Byrne returns. CLASS 3H: Until Mrs Hill is well enough to return to school, her class will be taught by Miss G Heyes, who is

registered with us as our relief teacher. Miss Heyes completed her Edge Hill placement with us last year in Class 5S. JSBF: Thank you to those who have paid their JSBF contribution. Please see the attached letter regarding 2012-13 JSBF from the

Diocese of Salford. If you still need to send in your contribution, please do so, to the main office. PARKING NEAR SCHOOL: Parking near school can cause problems for pedestrians and local residents. Wherever possible, our

school travel plan encourages parents to walk or park & walk. Zig Zag markings - "school - keep clear": We have zig zag markings outside our entrances.

zig zag markings provide a clear space for children to cross where they can see traffic and traffic can see them

parking on zig zag lines forces children to cross between parked cars - this is one of the biggest cause of child casualties on the roads

the law states you cannot stop, wait or drop off passengers on zig zag lines during the hours given on the accompanying sign

every local authority school receives visits each year from civil enforcement officers who can issue tickets on the spot if they find anyone waiting or parking on the zig zag markings

Dropped kerbs, driveways and parking on the pavement: Parking or waiting in front of dropped kerbs and driveways or parking on

the pavement causes problems for local residents, pedestrians and cyclists

dropped kerbs provide crossing points for people with pushchairs and mobility issues

parking in front of some dropped kerbs blocks cycle paths, forcing cyclists onto the pavement

stopping in front of someone's driveway encourages others to do the same. This can make it difficult for residents to leave their driveways during the school run when they may need to get to work

parking on the pavement reduces space for pedestrians (especially those with pushchairs or mobility issues) and can force them into the road

Please ensure that you are considerate to others when parking or waiting in cars before and after school.

SACRED HEART FAMILIES AND SCHOOL TOGETHER - FAST - Registered Charity No. 1131994 BONUS BALL: If you are interested in joining in with the competition please either give your name and contact to Fr.

Michael or to the school office marked Bonus Ball - FAO Ann Blezard. (£1 per week-prize £25). We now have a few numbers available. Winning numbers: 24 – Saturday 18

th February / 33 – Saturday 25

th February.

NEXT FAST JIGSAW MEETING: Tuesday 13

th March, 7pm, Parish Centre. This will be the AGM.

Agenda: Opening prayer / Election of Chairperson(s), Secretary, Treasurer / constitution / planned events / future events / financial summary / Date of next meeting / AOB. PLANNED FAST EVENTS:

Film Night – Friday 9th March, 6-8pm. Due to licence consideration, this will be a children-only event. Parent volunteers welcome.

Own clothes day – Monday 19th March – Egg donations.

Easter Egg Bingo – Friday 30th March, 6:30pm.

Ladies Night / Fashion Show – 26th

April, 7:30pm. SACRED HEART WALKING GROUP: Walks planned for the coming weeks –

03/03/2012: Rivington Lower Barn, 10am. 31/03/2012: Anglezarke Reservoir.

Contact John Clare for more details: 07740929051 / [email protected] LITERACY PARENTS MEETING: Wednesday 28

th March 2011, 5:30pm. Led by Catriona Fletcher, Primary Adviser. All parents

encouraged to attend. More details will follow.

VOUCHERS & TOKENS: School is collecting all vouchers and tokens, including Nestle box tops for books, Sainsbury’s Active Kids &

Tesco vouchers etc. Please send them into school. Our collection boxes are in the link corridor by the media suite.

THIS IS FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT [27

TH FEB – 11

TH MARCH]: http://step.fairtrade.org.uk/

SACRED HEART INVITES YOU TO ATTEND THE BIG BREW FAIR TRADE TEA AND COFFEE MORNING!

Everyone is invited to attend our Big Brew events on 5th

March. [More details at the end of our newsletter.] Pupils will be serving free cups of Fair Trade tea and coffee and delivering a Fair Trade presentation to share what they have learnt. Our Fair trade stall will be open for you to visit - selling a variety of fun food and gift items, ideal for Easter - alongside a Fair trade cake stand. Finally, there will be a fun raffle and Fair trade quiz with Traidcraft prizes for all of the winners!

FAIR TRADE FOOTPRINTS: All our pupils made pledges to work towards a fairer world this week, and, yesterday, contributed a

footprint to our fair trade logo to show their commitment. Thank you to Miss Bukhari [sister of our own Miss Bukhari!] who ensured the giant logo was created throughout the day. Look out for our film of the event.

CRUCIAL CREW: This Monday our Y6 children visited Crucial Crew for an afternoon of personal and safety education

MASSES THIS HALF TERM: Father Michael has cancelled all class masses this half term due to illness.

ADVENTURE TRAIL: Children must not use the adventure trail before / after school.

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP: Sam Jamil returned yesterday to lead photography workshops with our 3H, 3/4M, 4C & 5S pupils.

More details on the photography club will follow.

5Ws & PARENT VOICE PARTNERSHIP – CONTRIBUTE: Discussed at the PVP meeting this Monday, and for your Contribution at our SHARE AWD review meetings ~

LIFTED Pupil Voice School Council: Mr Callow writes: This week, our PVSC met to discuss the KS2 cloakroom. It had been

brought to their attention that snack was being dropped onto the floor and coats / PE kits trampled on. The PVSC discussed

a plan of action to make it better. They decided to tidy the area and promote / take back to class how we should keep it tidy. Next Monday they will review the area to develop a further plan of action to see if their strategy has had an impact.

SHARE AWD REVIEWS: Thank you to those parents & pupils who attended our Reception & 2B Achievement, Wellbeing & Development Reviews on Tuesday, and who completed the online parent & carer survey. Appointment slips have been sent out for the other classes AWD meetings which are next Thursday. Please ensure that you attend. Mrs Richardson will be available for those

parents whose children see her. LITTLE CHURCH: We invite children to display their work from Little Church in the prayer space each Monday. The work is then to be

collected on Friday afternoon. SECONDARY SCHOOL PLACES: All Y6 parents should now have received L.A. notification of their child’s allocated secondary school

place for September 2012. LATE ARRIVAL: Please ensure that if your child arrives after the yard has been cleared, you must bring them to the main entrance. It

is unsafe for them to walk to this entrance themselves – as there is no through route via the playground and we do not want children walking off the premises and along the pavement / up the driveway. Any children finding themselves left in this position must knock on a classroom window and not leave the playground. OVER THE NEXT FORTNIGHT: 27 FEBRUARY

FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT INCLUSION PROGRESS MEETINGS

01/03: World Book Day 2012 01/03: St David’s Day. 01/03: Happy Birthday Mrs Buckley! 01/03: Reception Lenten Service, 2:30pm. 01/03: Y6 Masterclass, 3:45-4:45pm 02/03: Women’s World Day of Prayer / Lent Fast Day. 02/03: City of London week preparation day. 02/03: Famous for a Fortnight, 3pm. 03/03: Session 4 of 6 - Sacramental Programme Catechist meeting with children, 9-10am, Parish Centre.

5 MARCH

FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT POD – MARCH WINDS WEEK – WILL WIND WORK ACTIVITY – ROOM 2 GROW WEATHER STATION ACTIVITY.

MARCH THEME: Lent – a time to help others. STLB 21: I know that it is ok for me to make mistakes. 05/03: STLB Collective worship, 9:10am.

LIFTED Pupil Voice School Council ,eco-warriors&fair trademeeting, 9:10am.

05/03: BIG BREW FAIR TRADE TEA AND COFFEE MORNING / AFTERNOON. All welcome. 05/03: World Spelling Day 2012 05/03: 3pm – RMG Admissions committee. 05/03: No staff meeting in lieu of AWD reviews. 05/03: Sacramental Programme parents’ meeting 2 of 3, 7:30pm, Parish Centre. ‘Reconciliation’. 06/03: World Maths Day 2012 / MATHS INVESTIGATION DAY 06/03: Y2 Mass, 9:30am. 06/03: LMT meeting, 4-5pm. 07/03: World Science Day 2012 07/03: The Big Sing Collective Worship, 3pm. 08/03: Happy Birthday Mrs Dalton! 08 & 09/03: Bolton Headteacher’s conference – MJ/CP.

08/03: Note that there is no Y6 Masterclass today. 08/03: SHARE AWD Reviews, 4-5pm / 6-8pm. [Parent/Child/Teacher meetings] 09/03: OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY OF PRAYER – Receive torch from Holy Family, New Springs – 11am assembly [all welcome!] and take to St Bernard’s, Ladybridge - afternoon.

09/03: City of London Week preparation day.

09/03: 4C Assembly, 3pm. 09/03: Phase 2 building meeting, 3pm [MJ] 09/03: FAST Film Night 11/03: Happy Birthday Mrs Caulfield!

12 MARCH

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT MEETINGS – TEACHER POD – WASTE WEEK

STLB 22: I can learn from my mistakes and failures.

City of London Creative Week 12/03: STLB Collective worship, 9:10am. 12/03: Commonwealth Day. 12/03: Happy Birthday Mrs Watkinson! 12/03: Happy Birthday Mrs Gregory! 12/03: Staff meeting, 4-5pm. Creativity. 13/03: 3H Mass, 9:30am. 13/03: LMT meeting, 4-5pm. 13/03: FAST AGM, 7PM, Parish Centre. 14/03: Westhoughton HT Cluster meeting, 8:30am. Venue TBC. 14/03: The Big Sing Collective Worship, 3pm. 15/03: Y6 Masterclass, 3:45-4:45pm. 15/03: Sacramental Programme Reconciliation, 7pm, Church. 16/03: Famous for being creative!, 3pm. [Open event may be planned by UoC teachers.] 17/03: St Patrick’s Day. 18/03: Mothering Sunday.

HCPT IRISH NIGHT: Past pupil, Simon Stones, writes:

Hi Mr. Johnson, Hope you are keeping well! As you probably know, I am a helper/carer in one of the Manchester region groups for HCPT - The Pilgrimage Trust. This will be my second year as a helper! Over the year, we hold many fundraising activities to raise the £60,000 needed to take our children in Manchester in 2012. One way of doing this is by organising our annual Irish Night. This is being mainly organised by my good friend, John, from another Manchester group. I was wondering if you would kindly advertise our Irish Night in your weekly Thursday newsletter please? Please find some details attached as regards to the evening. When: Saturday 17 March 2012 - 7pm until 12midnight Where: St. Joseph's R.C. High School & Sports College, Chorley New Road, Horwich, BOLTON BL6 6HW Ticket Prices: £6.50 Adults, £3.50 Children Event: Irish Night Ceili - Entertainment from The Flatcappers, a traditional 8 piece band, Irish Dance show from The Walsh School of Irish Dancing, further musical performances, a raffle, fully licensed bar, snack shop for young people plus complementary Carrs pasty and peas with every ticket. The event has been a huge success for the past two years - each year raising over £4000 - a fantastic sum of money to help us give these special children the opportunity to develop - socially and emotionally.

Thank you for your support. Best Wishes, S. R. Stones

Simon Stones Website Manager, Co-ordinator of Learning Resources & Volunteering St. Joseph's R.C. High School & Sports College

FIRE! London’s burning… Our KS1 pupils watched on Friday as their London street scene burnt… The fire service were on hand!

PLEDGE: Have you read our charter for action?

THANK YOU: At the end of the Spring 1 term we waved good bye to Miss McMahon & Miss Physick who completed their Edge Hill

PGCE Developmental Placements with us. We thank them for their hard work with classes 2B & 3H.

Miss McMahon: Miss Physick:

Thank you for your continued support as we together.

Enjoy half term! Yours sincerely,

Mªa [Œt[i[n JªŠh[n¡]on Catherine Parkinson

Hâ]a]d[·e]a]c[«e[r Deputy Headteacher

PHOTO STORY

BULLETINS: 19 & 26 FEB 2012

FROM BISHOP BRAIN: