As you know, last week I had the privilege of being part of a small group, invited by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, to join him on Pilgrimage to Rome. You will see from the pictures that I had the most amazing time. Not only were we invited to be guests at the Papal Audience, Cardinal Vincent arranged for us to actually meet the Holy Father in person. Wow!!

It was such an honour that you, the staff, the parishioners of OLSK Parish and my own Parish of St Mary's in Harvington, entrusted me with all your prayer intentions, which I was able to hand directly to Pope Francis during my visit.

Y6 were absolutely thrilled to hear that I handed to Pope Francis, their book of poems which they had written about Solidarity & the Common Good. I also bought him a book about The Legend of St Kenelm, for him to read and get to know, the Patron Saint of our school & parish.

During this Pilgrimage, we were invited to the Venerable English College, to join Cardinal Vincent and all the Seminarians for Holy Mass. After the service, during supper, I spoke to the Seminarians and the priests, about all the work that we are doing around Catholic Social Teaching. They were enthralled with what we are achieving as a school & parish community; and congratulated us on the work we have done, to achieve the accolade of a School of Sanctuary. Well done everyone!

During my time at St Peter's Basilica, I was able to offer all prayers for our school & parish family, and especially those in our school community, who have passed recently. I prayed for peace within, not only our school families and the wider community, but the wider world too.

On my return, in a whole school assembly, I shared all my experiences with the children, including meeting the Holy Father Pope Francis, my visit to the Colosseum and the throwing a coin for good luck, into Trevi Fountain. I also presented each class with Rosary Beads, blessed at the Vatican, for them to use in Class Liturgy and display on their Prayer Tables in Class. The Liturgy Leaders were absolutely thrilled with their gifts for their class and I look forward to celebrating Class Liturgy with them during Lent.

KS2 had a thrilling time when they visited Neverland! They battled Captain Hook & became part of the Lost Gang!
Mr Hyde met his admirer again with Mrs Smee dragging him up on stage to entertain us with a dance!

Well done Mary Stevens Hospice, we’ll be back again next year! 🐊🎶🏴‍☠️❤️

Mrs Turner & Mrs Woolls are part of the Puffin World of Stories initiative. This endeavours to raise the profile of libraries especially our school library to ensure that every child has access to high quality, engaging texts. As part of this we received 5 boxes from Puffin, full of brand new books to add to our collection! The Reading Rangers were thrilled to open them! 🥳📚❤️

Newsletter 17th February 2023

Parenting: Are you looking to find out more about...

• How your child develops
• Understanding how your child is feeling
• Tuning into what your child needs
• Responding to how your child is feeling
• Different styles of parenting
• Having fun together
• The rhythm of interaction
• Why is sleep important?
• Self-regulation and anger
• Communication and tuning in
• Looking back and looking forwards

You can book the online 11 module course 'Understanding your Child' developed by the Solihull Approach Team here Online Learning (heiapply.com)

If you are struggling with the cost of living, Dudley Council is offering support that may help you.

This Dudley WAM (Worrying About Money) leaflet to signpost people to a range of support options.

Safer Internet Day 2023 takes place Tuesday, 7th February and is centred around conversations with its theme ‘Want to talk about it?

It’s never too early or too late to start an online safety conversation with children and we will be focusing on that with all the children in class.

Following on from this, Mrs Mitchell, our Computing Lead, is delivering an online talk for parents on Thursday 9th February from 11:30-12:30 with the key messages from this year's Safer Internet Day and how you can support and guide your children at home. UNFORTUNATELY THIS HAS BEEN POSTPONED. A NEW DATE WILL BE ARRANAGED ASAP.

Invites for this will be sent to your child's TEAMS account

Reminder on how to get onto Teams

Log onto Microsoft Teams using your child’s log in details. These are:

Username: last name and first initial @our-lady.dudley.sch.uk

For example: smiths@our-lady.dudley.sch.uk

Password: (your child knows their password)

Once you have logged in, click on the calendar on the side bar and the meeting should be on the calendar at the time you booked. Click on this and press join to start the meeting. 

What a beautiful celebration of the Eucharist at Family Mass, with all the Mini Vinnies & the members of the SVP this morning! 🙏💕🙏 It was truly a wonderful show of solidarity.

Ava, Emmie and Amelia, all spoke so eloquently about not only their joy at being in our school, but about the faith & their Mission; called by God to carry out his good work, by Turning Concern into Action! 🙏💕🙏

It was such a privilege to listen to them describe the how important their OLSK journey has made them into the great Disciples of Christ that they are! 🥰 
 

Thank you all who joined us for such a special event, especially little Vinnie & his family💕💕 Thank you to all our children who read so beautifully, led the offertory & sang their hearts out; you were all amazing! 🙏💕🙏

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