Safer Internet Day 2020 is being celebrated around the world on Tuesday 11th February 2020. The global theme is ‘together for a better internet’ and this year in the UK we are putting the focus on how young people explore and express their identity online. Everyone has their part to play in making the internet a better place.  During the week beginning the 10th February we will be sharing the Safer Interent Day message through age appropriate assesmblies and lessons. Parents and carers from all year groups are invited to our Digital Leaders assembly for our Key Stage 2 pupils on Tuesday 11th February at 9am. 

A range of resources to support parents and carers in helping keeping their children safe online are available by visiting the Online Safety page which can be found in the Parental Information tab and by clicking on the document below which contains links to a number of useful websites.

Resources for parents and carers February 2020

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For more information on how to apply for a place for your child in Reception, Nursery or any of our current year groups, known as an in-year admission please visit the Admissions section of the website which can be found in the Parental Information tab above.

Class JJ started our Remembrance Day commemorations with a beautiful and very moving assembly on Friday 8th November. The pupils reminded us that the 11th November, or the the nearest Sunday to it, is a very special day when we remember and pray for the souls of all those who have fought in wars to ensure our country’s  freedom.  We do not just remember those who died in World War I and Word War II but those who have died in conflicts all around the world.  Class JJ's assembly was followed by a special assembly for our Key Stage 2 pupils on Monday 11th after which the whole school joined the nation in a 2 minute silence. The staff are incredibly proud of the reverence shown by the pupils from Nursery up to Year 6. Our class prayer tables continue to be a focus for our prayers for the fallen and all the dearly departed who we espcecailly pray for during the month of November. 

On Tuesday 15^th October, Class F were lucky enough to be Pirates for the day on the Floatiing Classroom. We  journeyed from Paddington Basin all the way to Camden and enjoyed exploring our local area, identfying materials used in the enviroment on the way. We also got to make our own pirate treasure chests and hats and promised that we will never litter, and always do our best to recycle.

Congratulations to our newly elected School Council members. Elections were held in each Key Stage 2 class during the week beginning 23rd September and the following pupils were duly elected to serve for the academic year 2019/20:

Lower Key Stage 2 - Ellie, Alistair, Lyra, Lanz, Emefa and Omar.

Upper Key Stage 2: Salma, Aiden, Anabella, Adriano, Liya and Matthew

They will be working closely with Mrs. Moruzzi this year to build on the great work School Council did in 2018/19 on raising awareness of the damage that is being done to our planet by waste products and highlighting ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle plastic. During Science Week in May 2019, Nursery and Reception parents helped the children recycle plastic to create robots, pencil pots, plant holders and various other innovative items for use around the home or in school. The School Council in 2018/19 also introduced a project to recycle bateries which was a great success. We wish the newly elected school councillors well in their endeavours and look forward to hearing more about their plans for the year ahead. 

Our 'Living eggs' arrived in their special incubator on March 25th and we are delighted to say that all ten chicks hatched. Gaspard and his family looked after the chicks over the weekend and we were amazed at how much they had grown when they came back to school on Monday.  The chicks are leaving us today (Friday 5th April) and, while we are very sad to see them go, we are so happy that Mrs Mourino is going to look after them on her allotment. 

I was excited to take them home for the weekend (Gaspard) 
They are God’s creatures and we look after them (Kitty)
We look after them carefully (Poppy)
The chicks broke the eggs (Isabella)
They hatch, they are yellow (Harley)

On Thursday 28th February, 9 of our Year 5 & 6 pupils represented our school at the Westminster Schools annual swimming gala at the Queen Mother Sport’s Centre.  The squad swam well individually and in teams with our boys bringing home the gold medal in the freestyle relay and bronze in the medley relay. Marcel and Giacomo won individual gold medals in backstroke and front crawl respectively with Gabriel taking the  silver in the in backstroke and Jeremiah the bronze in butterfly. Congratulations to them and the rest of the squad.

Congratulations too to our Year 6 boys football squad for reaching the final of the boys football tournament last term, losing narrowly on penalties to St. Joseph’s. A special well done to Hugo for being the top goal scorer in the tournament. 

As part of our Eucharistic journey in this year of Adoremus , Mr Harrison set the pupis and staff a special challenge. Our task was to write and perform our own lyrics for the well known carol 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' or sing the carol in a different way at our 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' assembly on Friday 14th December. One of the many highlights of this special assembly was Class JD's performance of the orginal carol in simplified British sign language while JI's rendition of the hymn in Latin was very impressive. Please click on the links below to hear our Nursery and Reception pupils sinigng their wonderful version with the rest of the school joining in the last verse snd Class P singing 'Oh Come All Ye Loyal'. For more information on Adoremus please visit the Catholic Life of the School section of the website.

	Hands Up! Jesus is Born, Foundation Stage	[pptx 4MB]
	Oh Come All Ye Loyal, Class P	[pptx 3MB]
	Lyrics Ji and JL	[docx 14KB]

Thank you on behalf of our team of Mini Vinnies to everyone who wore something bright to school today and made a donation to CAFOD. Together we raised £230! Our team of Mini Vinnies will be writing to pupils and parents/carers after half term to share more about their pledge to help our school community to continue to turn concern into action. Click here to find out more how CAFOD is supporting the people of Indonesia after the recent tsunami. 

Heavenly Father, You hold the whole world deep in your heart. Sharing our pains and burdens. Delighting in our joys and successes. We offer you our prayers – both spoken and unspoken – and ask you to hear us as we pray for others around your world. Amen.

This term Class Q has been very busy learning about life ‘Under the Sea’! During their class assembly, the pupils shared with us the story of ‘Rainbow Fish’ who learnt from the octopus and other wise sea creatures that it is important to share with others. The pupil in Class Q, like the octopus in the story, are very wise and told us that if we ever need a gentle reminder of how to show kindness and love, we can turn to Jesus whose example we try to follow each day in all we think, do and say. Finally, Class Q reminded us through song that we can always count on them which is great to know. Thank you Class Q!

We are delighted to be part of the Classical Spectacular Project again this year, in partnership with The Royal Albert Hall. The project kicked off on Friday, 23^rd February, with Year 3 pupils in Class JD taking part in a music workshop with members of Albert’s Band, a group of professional musicians from The Royal albert Hall.  The pupils and staff were treated to a wonderful performance of some popular classical pieces of music and found out lots of interesting information about the various instruments being played. They were then given the opportunity to play one of the instruments and the band members worked with groups of children throughout the morning to learn a peice of music. At the end of the morning, Albert’s Band and the newly formed 'Band JD' performed their ensemble piece to Key Stage 2 pupils and staff. For many of the pupils in JD, this was their first time ever playing an instrument in front of a large audience and they were amazing! The audience greatly enjoyed the performance and showed their appreciation with a wonderful round of applause.

The project continued when members of our School Choir attended The Royal Albert Hall on Friday 16^th March for a matinée performance of Classical Spectacular. The show presented a combination of the very best classical music, led by conductor John Rigby, and state of the art technology including stunning lasers, fireworks, canons and special effects. The two combined captivated the audience who were introduced to composers such as Wagner, Holst, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar. The audience was encouraged to clap and sing along to proms favourites such as ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, ‘Nessun Dorma’, ‘Rule Britannia!’ and the ‘1812 Overture’. All the members of the choir and staff agreed that they were so lucky to have seen such a rousing and unique performance of classical music which they will always remember.

An update from Miss Wakely

'The girls played so well as a team today. I was so proud of them for representing Westminster. in their bespoke red 'Team Westminster' shirts which are theirs to keep. Our team played against the top teams from all the other London boroughs so it was a very competitive tournament.  Our girls played well and with such a positive attutude. Mrs Da Sousa and I are very proud of the whole team.  Our team didn't qualify for the finals on the day but played to the best of their abilities. I am sure the squad will get a special mention at Friday's assembly and Mrs Da Sousa and I are looking forward to awarding our 'Woman of the Match' award.'

The finals of the Westminster School Football Competition took place on Friday 23^rd February and we were delighted that both our girls and boys squads made it through. Both teams played exceptionally well and were supported in true St. Mary of the Angels style by their Year 5 & 6 classmates and staff.  The boys played St. Joseph’s in a very close game which they lost 2 – 1. The girls played Essendine School in an even closer match which ended a draw so went to extra time and then penalties, which are always a tense way to settle a match for players and supporters.  Our girls kept their nerve and won the game and will now go on to represent Westminster in the London Youth Games Finals in Redbridge on 20^th March. Both teams should be very proud of their achievements and for their conduct throughout the tournament. We look forward to hearing of how the girls get on and will keep you posted.

Class P have been learning about feelings and emotions, what they mean and where they come from. During their assembly, they enjoyed sharing all that they had learnt so far. We were reminded that knowing how we feel is important and expressing our feelings and emotions in a safe way helps us to learn more about the people and the world around us and ourselves. Class P clearly love science and were very good teachers as they explained  how the brain processes emotion. 

As always, we learn best by following the examples of others and Class P shared many of the ways we care for those in our school and our familieis who are sad or worried. Most importantly of all, we were reminded of God's promise to us that He is always there for us in times of need or worry; we can always talk to God and look to Him to guide us.  Thank you Class P for guiding us too!

You can read God's Promise, based on a reaidng from the Book of Isiah, by clicking on the link below.

God's Promise

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There was a Roman invasion at St. Mary of the Angels this week when our Year 3 and 4 pupils and staff came in dressed as Romans. Our visitors from Freshwater Theatre Company performed a wonderful show to teach us all about life in Roman times. We learnt about how Romans lived and how their fierce and well equipped armies fought in battle. We found out more about Roman towns and how the weatly Roams feasted! We looked at artefacts such as Roman jewellery and  weapons and some of us got a chance to try on some Roman armour. Through role play we learnt about the life of Boudicca and used Roman designs to decorate the reports we will write about our amazing Roman day. Thankfully, the Roman invasion ended at 3.30pm when all the Romans went home! 

This year we invited Carloyn Gelenter, a specialist in language and communication, to come and judge our annual Book Corner competition.  The criteria was that each classroom should have an area devoted to the love of reading that was creative, imaginative, well organised, labelled clearly and with evidence of pupils' work as well as being cosy and comfortable of course.

It proved to be a difficult task to choose a winner but, after much deliberation, Carolyn eventually chose Class JD's book corner featuring Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon. Carolyn felt it was the class that most met the criteria. 

Carolyn said, 'It was was very inviting with the theme of celebrating women authors embedded in the environment. There was some lovely children's work on display and the books were well organised. In addition it was nice and cosy and had lots of interesting words related to reading displayed within the context of the book corner. Well done Class JD!’

Nursery's Gruffalo Forest and Class JJ's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs themed book corners were highly commended.

Click on the photo of Class JD's winning book corner or the Book Corner tab above to see all of our wonderful book corners inspired by women authors. 

The online booking system for the forthcoming Parent Teacher Consultations is now open. Click here to book an appointment or visit www.parents-booking.co.uk/stmaryangels

More information on how to use the system can be found in the letter below which was sent home on Friday 22nd September. 

A small number of slots have been set aside for parents and carers experiencing difficulties using the system or without access to the internet. Please contact Mrs Murphy in the school office on 02077821993 or via email at reception@stmaryangels.co.uk

Letter re online booking 22 Sep 17

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On Thursday 13th July, members of our girls' football squad were delighted and honoured to meet Prince William as he hosted a reception at Kensington Palace for the England's Women's Football team to wish them luck ahead of the UEFA Euro 2017 tournament. Thank you to Charlotte Edwards, QPR's Football Development Officer (Women & Girls) for inviting our school to take part and to the pupils for representing the school so well. Some of them even managed to score a penalty against the Prince! Memories to treasure forever.