Today, our Year 6 pupils welcomed debating teams from Holy Cross and Kirkdale St Lawrence Primary Schools to take part in a debate on whether Christmas has been destroyed by commercialism. Strong arguments were put forward on both sides with each school demonstrating excellent speaking skills.
We hope both schools had a fun afternoon at our school and enjoyed having their lunch in our school canteen.
Zyann brought a short story that she wrote for a younger audience (around Year 1 age) and first shared it with her class using the visualiser. She read with different types of voices based on how the character was feeling, then shared it with a Year 1 class before lunch!
Well done, Zyann, for excellent work at home!
Last week, pupils in Year 5 finished off their bikeability course with Bike Right! instructors. They took to the streets around the school to practise passing junctions and parked cars, a task which they all showed a great attitude towards.
With Christmas fast approaching, Year 5 visited Anfield Stadium for a very fitting workshop on the topic of money and financial understanding. The pupils were tasked with rating whether you need or want certain everyday items, then looked at a budget and how it needs to be carefully managed.
Pupils then created a ‘life’ for a given person, deciding on his income and expenditure to look closely at how they could balance their finances.
What a fantastic performance from our Year 5/6 dance club! They are extremely talented and will be looking forward to creating and performing a new dance routine for the annual dance competition next year.
After taking two teams last year, with both reaching the city finals (and one winning!) we added a third team into the mix, consisting of some new blood to the sport. Once again, our pupils were extremely successful, seeing all three teams qualify for the city finals and last years heat winners (Liv, Harrison and Georgie) taking first place in this heat.
Thank you to all the parents and family members who came to see the showcase of work from Mr Garth’s class today. They thoroughly enjoyed showing you their hard work and loved having the chance to teach you all a few things too!
What adults learned:
Parent: ‘They believed their heart was their brain.’
Mrs Sergeant: ‘I didn’t know that they killed the slaves if the Pharaoh died. Kieran told me that they realised this was stupid, so they used dolls in the tomb instead.’
Parent: ‘I learned only rich people were mummified and that farmers grew flax for clothing.’
Parent: ‘If we were in Ancient Egyptian times, most of us would be farmers.’
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.
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.
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:
See our conversation starters for more help starting this conversation.
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.