NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER 12 December 1st December 2011

St Teresas Catholic Primary School Ashingdon Road Rochford Essex SS4 1RF Tel: 01702 547918 Fax: 01702 530193 www.st-teresas-rochford.ik.org Headteacher: Mrs N. Stevens

Our Code of Conduct

Be safe Be kind Be responsible

A school that is dedicated to moving From Good to Great

St Teresas Parish Church http://www.rcrochford.org Parish Priest: Father G. Drummond FOSTs Mobile: 07598580118

Our next Family Mass will take place this Sunday, 4th December at 10.30 am. I would urge parents and children to join us as Father Gerry celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the second Sunday of Advent. Mrs Johnson and the Church choir have extended an invitation for the children to join the choir on Sunday.

3rd December: Parish Craft Fayre 4th December: Family Mass 5th December: 9.30 Reconciliation Yr 4, 5 and 6 12 1pm FOSTs Meeting 6th December: 9.20 am Inauguration of the Boy/Girl Bishop 6th, 7th, 8th December: Phase 1 Nativity 11th December: 10.30 Boy/Girl Bishop to preach 14th December: Carol Mass 3rd January 2012 School

Thank you to the Year 3 and Year 4 children for the very prayerful Advent Service they presented last Friday. The readings and the singing were superb. Well done to everyone involved. Thank you to Year 5 and Year 6 who led our celebration of the Mass last Monday.

Applications for Reception Class places for children born between 1st September 2007 and 31st August 2008 are now being accepted by Essex County Council for September 2012. If you wish to apply for a place at St Teresas you must complete an Essex County Council Common Application Form and a St Teresas Supplementary Information Form. Essex Countys online application system will remain open until midnight on 15th January 2012.

The next FOSTs meeting will be held on Monday 5th December at 12 pm-1 pm in the Annexe. All welcome.

Closure Day

A message from Mrs S. Marshall.

The Junior Glee Club will be performing at 2pm on Sunday at the Rochford Lights, Rochford Square. Please come and support us!

As parents will have seen, the building work commenced last week. The work ! will continue for the next few months. Certain restrictions have had to be put in place for the safety of all. Please note that the barriers at the front of the building are for pedestrian access for visitors and staff to the school.

Please see the notice attached to the newsletter about children who are entitled to Free School Meals.

As in previous years, we will be operating an internal Christmas Post Box from today. The post box is situated in the library area so that children will be able to bring their Christmas Cards to school and post them to their friends. Please can you ensure the name (including surname) of the child the card is being sent to, and their class, is written clearly on the front of the envelope to avoid confusion! Year 6 will deliver the cards just before the end of term.

A message from Father Gerry. Next Tuesday is the feast of St Nicholas of Myra, otherwise known as Santa Claus! He is the patron saint of children, and this year once again we are reviving an ancient tradition - the St Nicholas Bishop. In the Magnificat, Mary sings that the Lord casts down the mighty from their thrones and raises up the lowly. In recognition of this, churches and cathedrals throughout Europe have traditionally chosen a young person to replace the Bishop for a week. Year 6 children are in the process of selecting the Nicholas Bishop for this year. The Nicholas Bishop will be installed next Tuesday, 6th December, at the 9.20 Mass and will preach the sermon on the following Sunday, 11th December. I would urge parents and children to join us for this special occasion.

Every Wednesday at 9.10 am we hold our Achievement Assemblies in the School Hall. All parents and grandparents are welcome. We would like to invite parents of Year 3 pupils to join us for Morning Prayer on Thursday, 8th December at 9.10 am in the School Hall. In addition, Year 2 would like to invite their parents to join us on Thursday, 15th December.

A message from Thomas (Year 6) Last week it was a perfect day to kick start the Football league. Our first league match was against Great Wakering Primary School. St Teresas seemed to start off really strongly as we kept the ball away from Great Wakering just by passing the ball. We all battled our hearts out for the first part of the match but soon we were one nil down. Not long afterwards Wakering came back at us and knocked in a second goal. We battled on and eventually forced their defence to make a crucial error and they score an own goal. A couple of minutes later Jack (Year 5) netted us a second goal and at half time we had drawn it back to 2 2. As the second half kicked off we seemed to start really strongly as Wakering attacked and we were able to stave them off. We had a lot of chances but were unable to score. With just a few minutes to go Wakering scored. The final score was 3 2 to Wakering. What a brilliant game and what a brilliant team, said Daniel (Year 6). Our next game will be this Friday at home, against Our Lady of Lourdes.

It has become the tradition at St Teresas that we have a Christmas Hat Parade during the morning of the school Christmas Dinner. The children are invited to make a hat at home which they will bring to school on Wednesday, 14th December. We look forward to seeing their interesting and inventive hats!

Many thanks to Mrs Keogh and Mrs Walker who organised our recent Book Fair. As a result we were able to choose books to the value of 524.The books have already been circulated to the classrooms for the enjoyment of the children. Many thanks to everyone who bought books.

Easyfundraising.org.uk
Recently we were pleased to inform you about our new fundraising opportunity with easyfundraising.org.uk. We would be very grateful if you could spare just a few moments to register with this site as it will really help us raise money for the children at no extra cost whatsoever. Please remember to type in Friends of St Teresas School - Rochford (or type in the following URL, http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fosts).
With very best wishes Veronica Mahon Deputy Headteacher