Dear Parents and Carers

As we crawl to the end of the final full week of the term it would be remise of me not to remind everyone that the new Omicron variant is now firmly established throughout our country. Our sole aim throughout this challenging period has been to provide an excellent education to all our children in as safe an environment as is possible. This final week has seen our children enjoy as normal a Christmas celebration week as we can safely deliver. The Nativities have seen our infant children once again perform to a high standard and the Year 2 children who narrated the production were simply amazing. The children had a lovely day on Tuesday when we had our Christmas Dinner and we celebrated a surprise visit from Fr Grant. Wednesday was another mixture of classwork and fun activities with all the children enjoying a visit from Mr Keith Wells who entertained the children with a magic show and at the same time promoting the values that St John Bosco established throughout his life.

Our Year 6 class had a wonderful final, fun swim session, with everyone enjoying playing in the pool with their friends. Our Year 2 and 3 children enjoyed a Christmas Pantomime at the Everyman Theatre and although the coach was delayed in its return the children have told me what a fantastic time they had and I can well imagine them coming out of the Everyman Theatre in the darkness with the bright lights and bustle of the City of Liverpool adding to their excitement.

Today the Junior Children entertained their peers in our Bosco’s Got Talent Show. Once again it was wonderful to share something that resembled a normal activity and I was more than impressed with the fantastic variety of singing, dancing, joke telling and other novel performances.

We hope to have the Nativity Performance from Tuesday as well as our Junior Carol Concert on the website by the end of Friday. We have placed the performances under the class tab and scroll down to the appropriate heading. We hope that you are able to access these and share them with your family throughout the festive period.

I shall be joining our Year 5 class and staff on Friday as they enjoy a day out at Quarry Bank Mill as a way of celebrating their Victorian Topic. The rest of the school will enjoy a magic show from John the Scone. He will go into individual classes and entertain them in the same way as he did last year.

A reminder that Monday will be another fantastic day with our Bosco’s Got Talent Final in the morning and individual class parties in the afternoon. Children may come to school in their own clothes, Christmas Jumpers, hats etc.

Can I thank you for the generous book donations using our Amazon Class Wish Lists? We have been overwhelmed by your generosity and I can’t wait to take your children into our new library where I know they will benefit greatly from such a wonderful facility. Any further donations from these lists will be placed in our library and treasured along with all the rest. I hope to be able to share this with you in the New Year.

I am delighted to be able to allow our school choir to perform tonight at St James’ in front of their parents and a small number of parishioners and also at Fr Grant’s Carol Service on Monday 20^th December which will take place in Our Lady’s Church Prayer Garden at 7.00pm. Our children should be proud of their standard of singing and I too am pleased and proud to be able to show them off to the members of our wider community.

Can I remind you that school closes on Tuesday 21^st December at 2.00pm after our final Advent Wreath Celebrations which will be delivered separately to our infants and juniors. I wish you a peaceful weekend and ask that you continue to monitor both your own and your children’s health and inform the school if you have any concerns. If we succeed in this I hope we will be able to keep our school functioning as close to normal as is possible.

Yours sincerely

Mr D MacAreavy - Headteacher