Homepage Archive 2021
Remote Learning Protocols
Please read the document below. These guidelines are intended for any participants (staff, parents and pupils) in online ‘live’ or 'recorded' sessions. They are designed to keep all of the participants safe and maintain a positive, supportive learning environment. A child friendly version has been created for the pupils of St Mary of the Angels. Click on the image to make it bigger. Please ensure that you talk to your child about our code of conduct.
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Remote Learning Protocols- Jan 2021 | [docx 56KB] |
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Holocaust Memorial Day: Wednesday 27th January 2021
Be The Light In The Darkness
On Wednesday 27th January, Year 6 took part in a Holocaust Memorial Day lesson. This day marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz- Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
Holocaust Memorial Day also marks the terrible crimes committed during conflicts in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. We think about the places in the world today where people are still persecuted simply because of their religion.
In the lesson, Mrs Waine explained how people in her life had been affected by The Holocaust and talked about how Jewish people had their rights affected and how this year, during lockdown, the loss of our freedoms makes us think differently.
The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day is Be the Light in the Darkness and we thought how we could be that light.
For more information about Halocaust Memeorial Day please click here or go to https://www.hmd.org.uk/what-is-holocaust-memorial-day/this-years-theme/
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A Prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day | [pdf 211KB] |
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Racial Justice Sunday 31st January 2021
On Friday 29th January, pupils in school and learning at home joined their class teachers for age appropriate assemblies about this year’s Racial Justice Sunday which is more important than ever. The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, the killing of George Floyd, and the powerful message on fraternity and equality by Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti speak of the need to actively oppose racism and pursue racial justice with renewed vigour. The theme is ‘A Time to Act‘. Racial issues and inequalities were identified nationally and internationally in 2020 generating awareness, emotion and outrage. In light of this, Racial Justice Sunday 2021 is particularly significant. Action is needed to further the cause of racial justice but what can we do?
To help us reflect, Bishop Paul McAleenan, the Lead Bishop for Racial Justcice shared a message which you can read by clicking here.
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A Prayer for Racial Justice | [pdf 546KB] |
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Children's Mental Health Week: 1st - 7th February 2021
From 1st -7th February, we are taking part in Place2Be's Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Express Yourself. Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good. During the week, pupils in school and those learning at home will take part in activities to help them explore the different ways that they can share their thoughts, feelings and ideas.There are lots of resources on the Children’s Mental Health Week website that you can use with your child at home including activity ideas and tips for parents and carers. Teachers will be sharing ideas and resources via SeeSaw and Google Classroom and the website where we hope to showcase some of the children's creativity.
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Letter re Children's Mental Health Week 01 02 2021 | [pdf 600KB] |
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Our Virtual School Library
Whether you’re at home or in the classroom at the moment, you can join in the World Book Day fun by visiting our first ever SMA Virtual School Library. Click the book cover to listen to a story of your choice read to you by a member of staff.
You can also listern to the first-ever official World Book Day song! Get on your feet for the nation’s favourite rapping English teacher MC Grammar, who has created a brilliant book-themed tune to help us celebrate World Book Day! Hooray! Click on the picture to listen to the song.
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St. Mary of the Angels Virtual School Library | [pdf 1MB] |
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World Book Day 2021
We hope that you all enjoyed this year’s World Book Day activities. Thank you to everyone who completed and submitted the potato book character challenge. Please click the document below to view our gallery of wonderful characters made and create by the staff and pupils of St Mary of the Angels.
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SMA Potato Book Character Challenge 2021 (1) | [pdf 15MB] |
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Welcome back!
St. Mary of the Angels reopened to all pupils on Monday 8th March. The staff and pupils who attended school school during lockdown extended a warm and joyful welcome to all the pupils who have been learning at home. The school day began with an online 'Welcome Back to School' Assembly where we took time to reflect individually on the changes and experences we have been though this last year. We asked Jesus to continue to be with us on our journey as we get back in the rhythm of school life and being togther again.
Creative Collective Westminster Art Exhibition Spring 2021
In November 2020 children from St. Mary of the Angels were invited to submit a creative piece for the Creative Collective Westminster Art Exhibition. The piece could be based on the topics of lockdown, black lives matter, resilience and hope, or community.
We had many wonderful entries, which have now been displayed in an online virtual art gallery. You can view the artwork by clicking here
In further exciting news, three children from our school were chosen as finalists. Their art will be displayed in libraries across Westminster in the upcoming months.
The finalists are:
Rachel - short film based on Black Lives Matter
Precious - poem based on Black Lives Matter
Filippo - artwork based on Lockdown
National Day of Reflection: March 23rd 2021
St. Mary of the Angels pupils and staff answered Cardinal Vincent Nichols' call to take part in a National Day of Reflection on Tuesday 23rd March to mark the anniversary of the first national lockdown.
It was a day of reflection and prayer, where we came together as a school community to ponder on all that has taken place this last year and to pray the pandemic comes to an end.
We hope as you walk past the school hall you all get a chance to enjoy the beautiful daffodil window display made by the children in Nursery and Reception-reminding us all that there is hope for a brighter future.
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CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF ENGLAND AND WALES: National Day of Reflection | [pdf 132KB] |
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A Special Message from Marie Curie
Thank you once again for supporting and raising funds for Marie Curie and the Great Daffodil Appeal durning Lent 2021. Please see the special message that we recieved from Marie Curie thanking us for our fundraising efforts.
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STEM Week | [pdf 3MB] |
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Mental Health Awareness Week 10th -16th May 2021
The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘Nature’ and we would like to invite you all to take part in a special competition. You are also welcome to send your entries into school by Thursday May 20th, senco@stmaryangels.co.uk and we will put them onto the website for everyone to see.
If you would like to think more about how nature affects your mental health, there is a wealth of information on this website
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
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Mental Health Awareness Week Competition Poster MHST | [pdf 222KB] |
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Mental Health Awareness Week Competition Poster MHST | [pdf 222KB] |
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Non-uniform Day: Friday 28th May 2021
St. Mary of the Angels was awash with colour on Friday 28th May as the children wore the colours of a country of their choice in honour of the forthcoming UEFA EURO 2021/21 football tournament and in celebration of the many countries represented in our school. Thanks to he generpsity of our school comunity we raised an amazing £405! The funds raised will go towards new sports and play equipment for the school. Our dedicated School Council have already met with Mrs. Moruzzi to disucss how they woudl like the money to be spent and their list is now on Mrs. Wilson's desk! Thank you everyone for taking part.
STEM Week 7 - 11 June 2021
St Mary of the Angels will be celebrating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) week from the 7th June- 11th June 2021. Please click the document below for more information about STEM week and the planned activities.
Year 6 Event Week 21 - 25 June 2021
Last week the Year 6's had a fun-filled, action-packed week of activities to celebrate their time at St. Mary of the Angels coming to an end. On Monday and Tuesday, we had beautiful, sunny weather for two days of kayaking on the canals at Little Venice. On Wednesday, we took part in three sessions: football with QPR, non-contact boxing training and coding. On Thursday we had an exciting day out to Chessington World of Adventure. We discovered we have lots of thrill-seekers in Year 6! On Friday, we learnt some valuable life skills with first aid and CPR training and enjoyed a BBQ lunch and movie afternoon. The staff at St. Mary's also kindly made each child a Lucky Jar to take home. We hope the children enjoyed the weeks activities.
Dream Arts Transition Workshop
Today, Year 6 also participated in a drama-based workshop focused on transitioning from Year 6 to Year 7. We used improvisation to act out different scenarios, and talked about skills that would be useful for our 'transition toolkit' e.g. communication, teamwork and creativity.
Forest School News: September 2021
We are delighted to share with you that St. Mary of the Angels is now a Forest School in partnership with Sayers Croft Urban Nature Space at Paddington Recreation Ground. Over the course of the academic year 2021/2022 each Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 class will have six half day visits to the Urban Nature Space to take part in Forest School.
Forest School focuses on child led learning, giving participants ownership over the area during their visits. Children are valued and encouraged, have lots of fun, learn new skills and enjoy a positive experience in the park, engaging with nature as well as increasing their independence and self-esteem, which can transfer into other areas of life. To find out more, including the dates of class visits, please click on the document below.
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Forest School Announcement | [pdf 534KB] |
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Year 6 Production of Peter Pan: Wednesday 14th July 2021
Our Year 6 pupils amazing peformance of Peter Pan was filmed professionally just in case parents and carers were unable to attend the live performance scheduled for Monday 19th July. Sadly, this proved to be the case so we are delighted that we were able to gift our Year 6 families with a copy of this unique performance. Only a few members of staff were able to watch the live performane becasue of Covid-19 restrictions. However, having even a small, select audience was a boost to the actors, narrators, singers and dancers. In fact Miss Hulands and Miss Wakley told Mrs WIlson that it was their best performance ever! Congratulatins to all the children and staff involved who we hope will treasure the memory of their final performance at St. Mary of the Angels for many years to come.
Mini London Marathon 2021: 24th September 2021
For the second year in a row St. Mary of the Angels pupils and staff are taking part in the 2021 Virgin Money Mini London Marathon. During our PE lessons and playtimes from Monday 27th September to Friday 9th October, we will be running, jogging or walking 2.6 miles or maybe even more! Every child who takes part will receive a free commemorative Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon in schools medal and certificate. This year we are making this a sponsored event to raise money for the school. All of the funds raised will be used to buy books, learning resources and playground equipment so every child in the school will benefit!
Go Green for Cafod: 22nd October 2021
Today, pupils and staff took part in the call to action from CAFOD to 'go green', to unite together and fundraise to support communities around the world who are protecting the planet.
'Going Green' fundraising will support people like Luana who lives in the Brazilian Amazon. When fires destroyed the crops and trees that Luana’s community rely on to survive, CAFOD’s local experts helped them to replant using sustainable methods so that they would have food to eat and to sell.
Families and pupils were asked to bring in £2 to go towards this fantastic cause and we are pleased to say that we have so far raised £325!
We thank you so much for your fantastic fundraising efforts.
Primary Science Quality Mark: October 2021
We are delighted to announce that St. Mary of the Angels has been awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM). This prestigious award has been given in recognition of our school’s commitment to excellence in science teaching and learning. We now join a group of 4000 schools across the UK who have been awarded the PSQM since its national launch in 2010.
The Primary Science Quality Mark is led by the University of Hertfordshire, School of Education in collaboration with the Primary Science Teaching Trust. Associate Professor Jane Turner, PSQM National Director said: “There was never a more important time for primary children to have a high-quality science education. The Coronavirus Pandemic has made everyone aware of the impact of science on our daily lives. Primary schools have an important role to ensure that children understand how science works and keeps us healthy and safe. Schools that have achieved a Primary Science Quality Mark have demonstrated a significant commitment to science teaching and learning, even at this challenging time for schools. The profile and quality of science in each awarded school is very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom, developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure scientific understanding and skills. Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud.”
Year 5 at Sayers Croft
17th - 19th November 2021
Year 5 set off for Sayers Croft on the morning of Wednesday 17th November and had a great send off from parents and staff. Sayers Croft is a beautiful, safe site with 56 acres of woodlands, meadows, ponds and fields and has been providing quality outdoor experiences for young people for over 70 years.
Their three days are filled with a range of team building and adventurous activities including orienteering, archery and climbing, We are abolsutely delighted that our first residential visit since November 2019 has been able to go ahead.Thank you to Miss Hulands, Miss O'Brien and Miss Davis for accompanying the children. As always, we will be putting up the 'Welcome Home' banner to greet them when they return on Friday afternoon.
To find out more about Sayes Croft please click here.
Cello and Violin Recital: Wednesday 8th December 2021
Key Stage 2 pupils and staff were treated to a wonderful performance by our talented violinists and cellists on Wednesday 8th December. Mrs Hayes and Miss Lorimier, our violin and cello teacher from the Tri-borough Music Hub, joined them as they played a range of pieces finishing with the ensemble playing 'Good King Wenceslas' which was greeted with much applause. Thank you to Mrs Hayes and Miss Lorimier and to the 28 violists and 8 cellists for sharing your gifts and talents with us all. We look forward to anither recital in the spring term to which we hope to be abel to invite parents and carers.
Christmas Festival 2021
Our Year 4 pupils in Kestrels and Swifts recently took part in a digital Christmas Festival along with 20 other primary schools from Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea. With the support of our music teacher, Miss Pluta and Miss NcNab, the children worked very hard throughout November to learn and then record their two songs. The Tri-borough Music Hub team then did a marvellous job of collating all the tracks to produce the Christmas Festival 2021 which premieres on Thursday 16th December at 2pm. We will share the link here as soon as we can so that you can enjoy the wonderful performance. Well done Year 4!
Book Corner DIsplays
We love reading at St. Mary of the Angels so having an inviting, engaging and comfortable area to read and enjoy books is must in all of our classrooms. To ensure our class reading corners meet our high expectations. we hold an annual 'Book Corner' competition in September. This year's theme is British authors. Our resident poet, Neal Zetter, and Maura Murphy, our school receptionist, were tasked with visiting each classroom and choosing an overall winner. After much deliberation, Class Ps 'Jungle Book' by Rudjard Kipling themed book corner was announced as the winner during a special assembly on Friday 28th September. During the assembly Neal performed some of his new poems as well as some of our old favourites. Well done Class P and to all our other classes. More photos to follow soon.
Poetry Workshop: Swans Class December 2021
Earlier this term, as part of a project with the Poetry Society, Swans class participated in a day’s writing workshop with acclaimed poet Cheryl Moskowitz.
After learning about the history of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square which the people of Norway have given to the people of London every year since 1947 in gratitude for Britain's support for Norway during World War II, the children collaborated with Cheryl and created a wonderful class poem about this special gift entitled ‘Look at Me’.
This is the second year in a row we have worked with The Poetry Society and Cheryl was once again amazed by the creativity and talent of the children in our school. We hope enjoy the poem which you can read by clicking on the link below.
You may also like to wacth the animated performance of Julia Donaldson's magical poem 'The Christmas Pine' beautifully read by three pupils from the Swans class of 2020/21.
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'Look at Me' by Swans Class | [pdf 252KB] |
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A Special Visitor! Thursday 9th December 2021
On Thursday 9th December we had a very special visitor at St. Mary of the Angels…Father Christmas! He arrived just before the children’s Christmas lunch and delivered gifts for all the children. Each class in turn greeted him with a carol or festive song and he was very pleased by the warm welcome and the children's singing. After the visit, the children were treated to a fabulous Christmas lunch. A special thanks to Mr. Vacarri, Mrs Coldham, Mrs Patrascu and Mrs Benhalima, our cateing team, who do such a splendid job all year round in providing healthy and delicious meals for the chidlren and staff.
Light Up A Life Service: Monday 6th December 2021
A special thanks to our Mini Vinnie and School Council representatives who opened the Light Up a Life ceremony at St John's Wood Church on Monday 6th December by singing a Christmas carol. The service gave thanks for the work of the hospice and remembered all the families who have lost loved ones this year. We are very proud of all our pupils for all their hard work and enthusiasm towards this project. They are wonderful ambassadors and showcased our school in the best light possible.
Key Stage 1 Visit to Paddington Central
On Wednesday 8th December our Year 1 and Year 2 pupils were invited to Paddington Central to see Santa Claus who arrived by boat along with his trusted reindeers and Arctic friends. The children were treated to breakfast at Pergola-Deck The Halls and many said it was their best trip ever!
Certificate of Appreciation
St John's Hospice sent us this special certificate of appreciation in recognition for taking part in their Light Up a Life event and for raising an amazing £210.75 in aid of the hospice.