Our boys’ final league match of 2017 took place this afternoon against All Saints. The boys were looking for a 5th straight league win and confidence was high…

However, the boys quickly realised that this match was going to be an extremely tough challenge. All saints had a very physical team that were capable of competing with us on the ball. Chances were very sparse in the first half, with neither team attempting many shots on target. The comfortable win the boys may have been looking for was going to be hard to get!

Keeper Kamil Skop made an excellent save shortly before half time, as well as defenders Daniel Smith, Francis Westhead and Ruben McNeil continuing their excellent season thanks to excellent tackling and positioning. OLI’s issue was that goal-machine striker Dylan O’Brien wasn’t seeing much of the goal! The half ended 0-0.

After some “hair dryer treatment” from their manager, the 2nd half began. Winger Billy Smith came on to play on his preferred right side, and the boys began to play more positively. The breakthrough was difficult to find though, especially as captain Joe McFarlane-Wells picked up an injury that he was fighting to play through.

Eventually, with about 5 minutes left to play, Zac Abbou threaded a perfect pass to Joe that left him one on one… Joe aimed for the far right corner and the deadlock was broken! Joe’s now scored 1 match in every game, making it 5 for the season! With the score in their favour, OLI were galvanised and looked to increase the margin…

This happened about a minute later as Billy floated a corner in that was met with a stunning volley from number 10 Bobby Mitchell. The volley was on course to fly in for Bobby’s 2nd of the season… just as Jake Jones got the slightest of touches on it to steal the goal! Sorry Bobby.

Just before full-time, another corner was cleared off the line by a defender to deny Jonny Gee a goal… though the clearance smashed into Jake Jone’s side and rebounded up and over the keeper into the net for 3-0! Jake had somehow managed to score with a tackle; it was his 4th of the season.

The match ended there. All Saints were extremely unlucky and came within minutes of salvaging a point, they’ll be tough opponents for any team this season.

MOTM: Joe McFarlane Wells. Recovering from a tough first half, leading his team with heart, and scoring the goal that led to the win. Joe is invaluable to the team and he’s having a great season, well done!

Today our boys’ league team played their 4th game of the season vs St. Francis De Sales. Top spot in the league was riding on this match so the boys were desperate to get stuck in! A capacity crowd watched on as the game began…

It took all of 2 minutes for the deadlock to be broken! A low cross from Zac Abbou was met with a close range finish from Dylan O’Brien for 1-0! A frequent goalscorer; Dylan was undoubtedly an excellent summer signing! He proved this again by making it 2-0 minutes later with another effort inside the penalty area.

Though 2-0 down, St. Francis De Sales showed how dangerous they were as defender Jake Jones “fell into” a striker in the box to concede a penalty! When 2-1 looked imminent, Kamil Skop made an excellent diving save onto the bar to stop the penalty taker! Mr. Garth was attempting to referee and reviewed the goal-line technology before ruling no goal! OLI used the momentum of Kamil’s save to attack and set up a chance for Joe McFarlane-Wells that he took beautifully with a driven finish. His 3rd goal of the season meant 3-0! Soon after, Dylan netted a first-half hat-trick to end the half at 4-0!

As Jonny Gee came on for the second half into a new central midfield role, the boys continued to press with Bobby Mitchell coming very close to a goal several times. The relentlessness was rewarded through Zac Abbou scoring another OLI goal to add to his 2 goals from the previous game! Dylan scored a remarkable 4th goal soon after for an OLI 6th, putting him in leading contention for the golden boot.

Before full time, St. Francis De Sales scored a very deserved goal from close range after a corner. This made it 6-1, which left Kamil a bit unhappy to lose his clean sheet, though he’d like me to make it known that the goal was “definitely not his fault”. The game finished 6-1 with another excellent result for the team. Many parents commented at how nice it was to see the boys not only enjoying themselves, but for playing with such positivity. Let’s hope for the same in tomorrow’s final league match!

MOTM: Daniel Smith. Faultless defending and professionalism, Daniel is only in year 5 but plays with the game of a much more experienced player, he was excellent today.

A lucky group of Year 5 and 6 pupils took part in an exciting art project to celebrate Liverpool FC’s 125 year anniversary. After a few arty warm-up games, artist David shared some images from a 5 year period of Liverpool’s history, with pupils using a mixture of pencil and pen to recreate them. After the New Year, David will scan and copy them, along with artwork from other schools involved in the project, to create a comic style mural to be printed out and installed at Anfield! 

Thank you to Red Neighbours for allowing us to be involved in the project and to David for coming to bring it to life! These pupils will be a part of Liverpool FC history and we will hopefully get to see the final masterpiece by the end of the current season! Watch this space!

 

We gratefully received our Gold Games Mark Award for the academic year 2016-17, once again showing our dedication to providing outstanding PE and sporting opportunities for all of our pupils. Mr McGinn from the Liverpool School Sports Partnership spoke to the pupils in KS2 about how the award reflects all of their hard work and that they must keep making the most of every opportunity which comes their way. 

This is one of many awards which the school has received, which OFSTED were extremely positive about when inspecting the school last week. Thank you to all of the pupils for their dedication to PE and sport, as well as their parents and families for supporting them in every way, from having the correct PE kits, to supporting at competitions.

Please find a really useful guide to You Tube safety for your children on our Internet Safety page. It highlights the safety options that need to be raised with any children using You Tube and also safety options for parents.

Below is a link to our recent Ofsted report. We are very proud of the outcome of the inspection and the comments within the report show how well the school takes care of all members of the community as well as the progress pupils make in class. Pupils will be bringing a paper copy home tonight.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs C Sergeant.

Ofsted Report 2017

Many thanks to the girls in years 5 and 6 who played in today’s league match vs Emmaus. It was the girls’ first match the season and we were all very excited to get playing! Captain Livvy Roberts led the team out which consisted of a variety of girls from year 6 returning to the team, as well as Ruby Richardson and Shelby “The Steel Mobile” Steele making their debuts from year 5.

The match began with some tough luck for OLI. A corner from Emmaus was headed in at close range for 1-0. Our girls responded extremely positively, supporting each other without an ounce of blame. This resilience was rewarded shortly after when a through ball to striker Macey Jacobs went through the keeper’s legs for an equalising goal. 1-1!

Mia McCarthy and Lavelle Lamb were helping to run the midfield with precise passes and fearless tackles in an attempt to find Macey upfront. Unfortunately momentum shifted when a stunning Garth-esque effort from 30 yards out flew into the top corner for a 2nd Emmaus goal. The unstoppable shot was unlucky as the girls were playing excellently as a team. The half ended 1-2.

Some teams may have sulked, but the girls had a half-time group hug (something that we’re yet to see from the boys’ teams) and returned to battle in the second half. Defending was excellent as a barrage of shots came from Emmaus. Ruby Richardson was letting nothing through, as well as stunning work-rates from Penny Donnelly, Holly Lewis and Gabriella Bennett. Keeper Livvy was making excellent saves from several long-range efforts, using both the hands and feet to great effect. Unfortunately, a late goal for Emmaus came when a save from Livvy rebounded to a lurking attacker who finished from close range. The match ended 1-3 soon after.

Congratulations to both teams for a close match with excellent sportsmanship highlighting how to lose and win with grace.

POTM: Gabriella Bennett. Excellent tackling and passing, as well as smiling throughout the whole game. A real team player!

Year 5 pupils had a fantastic day out at the University of Liverpool with Professor Fluffy, finding out about university life from courses to social clubs! They also took part in an Egyptology lecture from a degree student, which nicely linked to our Ancient Egypt topic being studied over the next two weeks.

After a visit to the Garstang Museum to see a mummy and coffins, a campus tour of the library and sports facilities and making cartouches with hieroglyphs, the pupils all ‘graduated’ complete with cap and gown!

Thank you to the university’s outreach programme which delivers an excellent service each year and ‘caps off’ to the pupils whose outstanding behaviour saw them represent the school with ‘first class honours’!

Many thanks to the boys from year 6 who played for the boys’ football team in today’s friendly match vs Rice Lane. After a league match vs Rice Lane a few weeks ago, the schools agreed to a friendly rematch with totally new teams to give some players a chance to show what they could do; the match didn’t disappoint!

In spite of the game being a friendly, the boys came out determined to get a result and their early efforts were rewarded with a breakthrough chance for striker Harrison Hunter. His effort slid past the keeper and in off the post for 1-0! The boys were delighted but knew that there was a long way to go against this very capable team, with keeper Daniel Adeboye making an excellent save from a free kick shortly after.

After possession quickly changing hands a few times, the ball fell to winger Dominik Balcerzak who struck the post… before Harrison claimed the rebound for his second goal! Celebrations were short-lived though as Rice Line pounced on a mix-up in the box to make it 2-1 on the stroke of half-time.

Conditions were tough as the second half began. Rain was thundering down and the pitch was extremely slippy. Referee Mr. Garth was, as usual, struggling to see the ball clearly enough to make correct decisions (the game was also momentarily interrupted when a pitch invader decided that the quickest way to retrieve his rain-sodden portable telephone from the opposite touchline was to run in an ungainly manner directly across the pitch). However, the boys fought through the fatigue and difficulty of the game to get their heads up to play their best football in the second half. Defenders Ben, Aeen and Antony changed their gameplan after half-time and communicated excellently. This led to a defensive clearance leaving Harrison clean through to slide in a 3rd goal for OLI and a hat-trick for Harrison! Again Rice Lane bounced back immediately with a brilliant goal from a counter attack, leading to a tense last 5 minutes!

Skipper Scott Tynan was leading his midfielders, with Joel, Merci and Georgie refusing to give in to how tired they were feeling. As the game drew to a close, more space was available and chances were coming thick and fast. Eventually, space was given in the OLI penalty box and a striker tucked in an equaliser for Rice Lane on the cusp of full-time. The match ended 3-3, with both teams playing an excellent game with excellent sportsmanship. A big thank-you to Rice Lane for helping arrange a game that gave more players a chance to play!

MOTM: Harrison Hunter, brilliant work rate all match and 3 fantastic goals. Another Everton fan scoring a hat-trick. Surprising!

Year 6 researched the life of viking children and compared and contrasted it with the lifestyle of a modern day child. They collected a range of materials and in small groups planned and created their viking/modern day child. After a lot of creativity and hard work, the two year 6 classes gathered to present their creation, giving reasons for key elements of their design.

Year 5 have continued their mission to help and support others by visiting Year 3 and reading with them. They have also helped them to learn their times tables!

The theme for this year’s anti bullying week was ‘All different, All Equal’, the children have celebrated this in a variety of ways and we finished our celebration by wearing odd socks to show our individuality and that we are all different and equal. Also our glee club had their debut performance of their song ‘Rise up’ to kick start our celebration assemblies this week!

Check out the anti bullying page to see the variety of activities the children have focussed on!

 

In the latest research by anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label it was found that69% of young people under 20 have done something abusive to another person online, while 17% of young people have experienced cyberbullying. We give advice for parents and carers concerned about cyberbullying and practical tips for how they can support their child.

Discussing online bullying with your child

It’s important to have regular conversations with your child about the online world, including issues like cyberbullying. This will help you to understand if they have ever experienced or witnessed online bullying for themselves, and give you an opportunity to support them and reassure them that you are always there to help.

Some questions which you could ask your child are:

• How can you be kind online?
• What would you do if someone was being unkind online?
• What do you think cyberbullying is?
• How is it different to physical bullying?

See our conversation starters for more help starting this conversation.

Developing empathy

We also need to support children in developing empathy and understanding the impact of their online actions. While it might be difficult to think about your child behaving negatively towards someone else, it’s worth bearing in mind that sometimes young people find it hard to identify what bullying is and may just think the behaviour is ‘banter’ and to be expected. It’s important they recognise what behaviour is acceptable and recognise how online actions can affect others. This can begin as soon as children start using technology; our storybook Digiduck’s Big Decision helps even the youngest internet users develop this understanding.

If your child has experienced cyberbullying:

• Let them talk
  Give them the space to share what they want to in their way and listen. Try to avoid the temptation to interrupt because you know what’s going on, prompt if necessary but let them do most of the talking.
• Don’t be shocked by what they tell you
  If there’s one sure way to put a child off seeking help, it’s making them feel embarrassed or ashamed about why they’re asking for help. Times change and some of the things young people do today may make us cringe sometimes, but the inherent behaviour is the same as it was when we were their age.
• Don’t deny access to technology
  When we speak to young people about barriers to getting help they often share that they are worried that their device may be taken away from them. Reassure them that this won’t happen if they speak up about something that has been worrying them online.
• Encourage them not to retaliate
  Although this can seem like the most tempting thing to do in a situation like this it’s very important that you do not retaliate to the cyberbullying. Most of the time the bully is looking for a reaction when they’re teasing or calling someone nasty names. Your child may wish to reply and ask the person to stop sending messages however this is not necessary and action can be taken without replying.
• Save the evidence
  It’s important to keep the cyberbullying messages that a child has received, whether through taking screenshots or saving the messages on the device. Saving the messages allows you to have evidence when reporting the cyberbullying.
• Talk to their school
  Schools play a vital role in the resolution of abusive online behaviours. They have a plethora of effective tools such as the Enable anti-bullying toolkit. They have anti-bullying and behavioural policies in place in order to provide a duty of care to all who attend. As such, they will want to know about any incidences that could potentially affect a child’s wellbeing. Take the evidence of bullying and any additional details about the context of the situation and length of time it has been going on for. It is helpful to discuss this with your child and you may want to speak to the school together.
• Talk to the police
  If you think that your child is in immediate danger don’t hesitate to call the police. Equally, if there is a direct threat of violence or harm within any conversation then you may also wish to contact your local police for support. As parents, any incident involving children will be extremely emotive. There has been a lot of stories about online abuse in the media and the majority of bullying issues can be resolved satisfactorily with support from your child’s school.

We looked at what it meant to be different, we talked with our talking buddies about how we were different and then shared our learning with our friends. Kole told us all it was OK to be a different colour as colour doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t matter how tall or small you are or what colour our eyes or hair is because we are all different but we are all equal. We also watched the story Rainbow Fish by Marcus Ffister about a Rainbow Fish who is a beautiful fish who finds friendship and happiness when he learns to share.

We have been informed this afternoon that our school will be inspected tomorrow 14th November 2017 by H.M.I. Gill Pritchard. Below you will find a copy of the letter to parents that will go home with your children tonight. You will also find a guide for parents on school inspections. H.M.I Pritchard will be available on the playground at the end of the day to talk to parents. Please take the time to welcome her to our school community. We are looking forward to her visit in order to celebrate the fabulous work of our staff, children and families.

Letter to parents from OFSTED

School inspections – a guide for parents

Year 6 have been busy producing lots of work for Remembrance Day, based around the poem ‘In Flanders Field’. Some of the work will be displayed in OLI church this Sunday during mass.

Today the year 5/6 boys’ team played a league match against St. Teresa’s. The boys were feeling full of confidence after a 4-1 win yesterday, and a capacity crowd was out in full force to watch the boys as they attempted to make it 3 wins out of 3.

The boys got off to a strong start with an early goal! Luke Buckley got into the right position in the box to score a rebound effort; it was Luke’s first goal for OLI! We’re sure it won’t be his last. The boys continued to pressure the defence which led to further chances. A second goal was undoubtedly a candidate for goal of the season. Skipper Joe McFarlane-Wells glided past several defenders before floating a long ball to winger Billy Smith. Billy rifled the ball into the top left corner for 2-0! Shortly after, striker Dylan O’Brien made it 2 goals in 2 games with an effort from the edge of the area. The half ended 3-0.

Some teams may have bolted forward in a selfish effort to get on the scoresheet, but the boys tactically kept their shape, with Jake Jones, Daniel Smith and Ruben McNeil determined to gain a first clean sheet of the season. A 4th goal was shrouded in controversy. Joe was clean-through on goal and slid an effort past the keeper, but the ball got a touch from Zac Abbou! A fierce argument broke out between Joe and his manager about whether the ball had already crossed the line, after which the goal was, out of sympathy, given to Joe for 4-0!

Zac Abbou would eventually get a goal of his own from close range for his 2nd of the season, in addition to Billy Smith adding another goal. It seemed the match would end there but in the dying moments Billy scored another goal that deflected from the edge of the area. A first hat-trick for OLI’s number 2! The crowd were delighted to see an Everton fan experience a rare moment of joy.

A special mention has to go to Bobby Mitchell who ran the game from midfield, winning balls and passing incisively, much like skipper Sonny last year. Watching the game you’d have thought there were 5 Bobbys on the pitch! Fortunately we only have the 1 of him, and he had an excellent game. St. Teresa’s were a well-mannered and respectful team who are still finding their best line-up, they were a credit to their school and good luck to them for future games.

MOTM: Billy Smith. A hat-trick, great passing, movement and a flawless attitude. Well done, Billy!

W – 4-1

A huge thank you to the boys who participated in today’s league match vs Rice Lane. The boys were coming off a 4-1 win vs Gwladys Street and were full of confidence, though knowing that Rice Lane are a big school with strong players, they knew they were in for a tough game.

The first 10 minutes of the game were played almost entirely in OLI’s half. On the backfoot, the boys had to defend constantly against Rice Lane’s direct passing and strength in the air. It was a baptism of fire for debutant Francis Westhead, who was having to use all of his height to cover Jake Jones and prevent an early goal. Keeper Kamil Skop was in stunning form, with diving saves helping him command the area and somehow keep the scoreline at 0-0.

However, that was to change. OLI began to string passes together and test the opposition keeper. It was a few minutes later when Bobby Mitchell pounded a header from outside of the area which flew into the top corner. The header was stunning, so much so that the Rice Lane parents all joined in applauding. The boys used this momentum to set Dylan O’Brien free for a 1-on-1 that he slid into the bottom corner for 2-0! Well done to Dylan for scoring his 1st OLI goal. Arguably against the run of play, the boys had weathered the storm and, with strong leadership for their captain, ended the half 2 up.

The boys began the second half by playing with creative freedom. A ball in was deflected and fell for Billy Smith to score a 3rd goal with an acrobatic close-range finish! Dad’s half-time pep talk had worked! However, Rice Lane continued to be a threat, scoring a goal of their own minutes later from inside the area.

With minutes left, the stunning defense of Jonny Gee, Ruben McNeil and Daniel Smith held strong to survive the second wind picked up by Rice Lane. After a defensive clearance, Joe McFarlane-Wells ducked past his man to slot a close-range finish in to make it 4-1! Shortly after, full time was called by the freezing and very tired referee.

These match reports are always full of praise and admiration for the team, as they always put 100% of their effort in. However, this match stands out more than any other I can remember. Incredible defending, passing and movement was nowhere near as important as the boys’ fantastic attitude. Playing as a team, they fought through the tough times of the match to end with a brilliant result. Condolences to Rice Lane who were extremely unlucky to end 4-1 down, their team played with heart and did their school very proud.

MOTM: Ruben McNeil. An unsung hero of the team. Preventing attacks and clearing his lines, Ruben is a hugely important piece of the team and played flawlessly tonight.

Gaming: resources for parents and carers

The UK Safer Internet Centre has published a leaflet for parents and carers providing information and advice about online gaming, and how to help support children and young people enjoy online games positively and safely.

Source: UK Safer Internet Centre  Date: 31 October 2017

On Monday, 6 children from year 3 and 4 went to North Liverpool Academy for a regional hockey competition. The team began with a 1-1 draw thanks to a fantastic goal from Mayar! After that, the team rallied to win a close match 1-0 with a fantastic effort from Lucas Parkinson who was named man of the match! From there, the team went from strength to strength beating two teams from 4 oaks 2-0 then 3-0! You could see the children’s confidence building as they won their final match 4-0! After some calculations, the OLI team were announced as winners and received medals and certificates. But that’s not all…
The team will be returning to the field on Monday to compete in the city final! Best of luck to them!