Easter Blessings as we return to school for the summer term. We have now entered the season of Eastertide which started, as can be seen from the photo, with the most beautiful sunrise. Many people gathered to worship together on Swanage beach, to celebrate this important day.
Year 6 children from St Mary’s Catholic and St Mark’s CE primary schools came together on April 3rd in Swanage Parish Church to learn about and sing Vespers with Fr Tim Lewis and the Team Rector, Very Revd John Mann, and directors of music Simon Lole and David Fawcett. We had a great time, culminating in a beautiful service attended by many parents. We’re looking forward to the next occasion when we can sing and worship together in this special way.
Brother John, all the staff and pupils sent Easter Blessings to us all at St Mary’s School . Easter Sunday started early as they celebrated Mass together. Then the children worked together to prepare an Easter meal to share. They slaughtered and cooked a pig and some chickens (a very special treat), accompanied by cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes and matoke bananas- you can see from the pictures their cooking facilities are very different from ours!
You may remember that we collected money at our school carol service to buy seeds and tools to support our partner school in Uganda. They wanted to extend the areas which they can cultivate for food but to do this they needed to clear areas of bush, prepare the land and plant seeds. As you can see from the following pictures the crops are not only planted but growing well! Many thanks, as always, for your continued support.
Bienvenidos a la escuela primaria de Santa Maria!
What a brilliant day we had, with amazing Flamenco workshops and displays, Spanish activities, tapas, a delicious paella.
It was amazing – Lily, Y1
I liked the paella; I ate it all! – Benjamin, Y1
I really enjoyed the day – Florelyn, Y1
We really liked the Flamenco – Carlos, Y1
Congratulations to all who auditioned for St Mary’s Got Talent 2019; what a talented bunch you are. We had a range of acts for the final, including comedy, dance, song, gymnastics and music. Thank you to all parents and families who supported our finalists and to our judges. We had a very entertaining evening.
What a sight! Congratulations to all the runners who took part: our brilliant children, staff, parents, siblings, friends and family, firefighters and lifeboat crew. Also our support team of stampers and drinks monitors. The total number of laps recorded was 2896 which we think is over 1000km (or the distance to drive from Swanage to Inverness!). A great St Mary’s occasion.
Last Thursday, Year 6 enjoyed an exciting and interesting trip to London. We visited the Houses of Parliament where we went into both chambers and listened to the debating, toured the rest of the palace of Westminster, and learned about how our country is governed. In our Law and Debating workshop we passed a law which saw the end of school uniform for all pupils; however, an amendment introduced a uniform for staff!
A ‘flight’ on the London Eye followed before we headed home on the train. A big thank you to all the children for their excellent behaviour and to all the adults for their help.
Recent pictures from our Polish link school: a green team project on climate change. Children at St Mary’s will shortly be working on a similar project.
As a school we are holding a fast day on Wednesday 3 April 2019. We are not asking you or your children to fast, but to think about a luxury or treat you regularly eat that you could forego for a day, or a week, or all of Lent. Any money you save in this way would be welcomed as a donation that we will send to CAFOD to support our neighbours in other parts of the world.
More information on the CAFOD website.
