Great Crosby Catholic Primary School
Great Crosby Catholic Primary School
"...that they may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10
Great Crosby Catholic Primary School
"...that they may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10
Great Crosby Catholic Primary School
"...that they may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10
"...that they may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10
Updated guidance advises that children who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people. They can go back to school when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough to attend.
Children with a positive Covid-19 test result should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days, which is when they are most infectious.
We will be relying on you as parents/carers to keep your children at home if they are unwell. Thank you for your continued support.
Kind regards
Mrs Speed.
Welcome to Great Crosby Catholic Primary School website. We are a large Catholic primary school serving the parishes of Ss. Peter and Paul and St. Helen’s. Our Catholic mission underpins all we do.
Our school family works hard to provide a place were the Gospel values are lived out each and every day. We strive to create a community based on love, respect and forgiveness; a place where each individual can learn and grow in love of God and of each other.
At Great Crosby we strive to create a place of academic excellence whilst ensuring the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is given an equally high priority. We want everyone in our school family to simply be the best they can be. We work hard together to ensure that our pupils really do ‘have life and have it to the full.’
Our termly curriculum brochures keep you informed of the themes being studied and ways in which you can support your child at home. Our weekly edition of the Wednesday Word also allows you to support your child and the family in your faith journey.
Great Crosby also has Teaching School designation and works closely in partnership with other schools in Sefton and Liverpool to share good practice and ensure that we stay at the forefront of educational development.
We are also a member of the Archdiocese of Liverpool Primary School Improvement Trust.
P A Speed
Headteacher
Every school holiday, the fully qualified, experienced and enthusiastic Be Active coaches deliver a great range of activities to children aged 3-16 across Sefton. A fantastic way for children to keep active, have fun and make friends in a safe environment, their activities include one to five day camps, shorter sessions and reduced cost swim and splash sessions. Click on the image to visit the Sefton Be Active website.
This summer holiday challenge diary is for you to view or print off to give to your children. There are 30 challenges with a diary sheet for each. This diary will hopefully help children to stay positive over the holidays in a mindful and fun way. If you can't print it, children could complete the activity in a notebook or on paper. You can give them a certificate on completion! Click on the image to visit our Wellbeing for Children page, where you can view the pages.
Sefton Libraries recently visited school to introduce this year's Summer Reading Challenge and the Gadgeteers scientists.
Year 5 & Year 6 were out of school that day, but it is open to them too.
Click/tap on the image to visit the Gadgeteers website.
Click/tap on the green button to visit and follow Sefton Libraries on Twitter. There is a video to watch and details of extra activities available.
The final vlog of the school year from Great Crosby with news and thanks from Mrs Speed, including a reminder of PE kits for September. Also, Miss Bradley, who is leaving us, shares her final thoughts and thanks. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.
The children braved the morning drizzle that fell for a short while, to celebrate our last day of term liturgy outside, as we also said farewell to Year 6.
In Year 2, we have been learning about The Great Fire of London, so we designed and made a moving toy fire engine with functioning wheels and axles. We had great fun testing and evaluating them!
Visit Children > Year 2 for more photos.
We are very pleased to announce that our Jack Riding Trophy has been awarded to Grace. She's an all-rounder: happy to do whatever is asked, playing all positions on the football pitch & running & running in many cross country races for the school. Please click/tap on the image to read a full write-up
Today we were fortunate to be able to have our Star of the Term celebration outside. Each year group also presented farewell cards to two long serving teachers - Miss Bradley, our Assistant Headteacher and Miss Bishop who will be moving schools to become an assistant headteacher. Since Miss Bradley is well known for her love of woolly hats, staff and children wore hats for the duration of the assembly. We had a collection for CAFOD and raised £400.
Mrs Speed's news includes details of the final week of term and some headline feedback from the questionnaire.
Y6 enjoyed a great day at Waterside Lodge , Southport reflecting on their time at Great Crosby. They made friendship bracelets, painted stones, did mindful movement, saw a slide show of photos from N-Y6, affirmed each other with positive qualities, danced & celebrated Mass. More photos on the Y6 page. Click on the image.
We had a tremendous response for our 'Wear A Kit For Jack' Day' fundraiser for the Jack Riding Foundation. Lots of children wore their shirts from our local Premier League teams. It was fantastic to see children wearing their kits from their own teams and sports.
Jack Riding was one of our pupils; he collapsed and died playing the sport he adored on 15th August 2018. He was just 18 years old. Jack was a phenomenal footballer with a ‘crackin’ left foot’. He represented our school, Sacred Heart, Sefton and was also an academy player for Everton. He most recently played for Prescot Cables. On Friday 1st July, we are having our annual 'Wear A Sports Kit for Jack Day' to raise money for the Jack Riding Foundation. Children can wear any sports kit to school that day, although swimming kit is not recommended! There is a suggested donation of £1. Thank you.
Today Fr John from celebrated Mass with us on our patronal feast day - Ss Peter & Paul's Day. The rain held off, so Y4, Y5 & Y6 were able to celebrate outside. Y5 led with prayers & readings, & all the children sang. The younger children had liturgical assemblies in the hall.
On Monday 27th June Great Crosby held our first ever Science Workplace Workshop, in conjunction with Smashing Stereotypes from British Science Week. The day was jam packed full of people who work in the science industry. Here is the list of occupations that joined us on our science spectacular day: Senior Doctor / Registrar In Emergency Medicine at Southport and Ormskirk Emergency Departments, Dance teacher Musculoskeletal Therapist Philip Cutts School of Dance Medicine, Merseyside Police CSI, Chemical Science AstraZeneca STEM Ambassador, Scientific Associate II, Pharmaron Biologics UK, Environmental Advisor for Antarctica on behalf of New Zealand government, Systems Engineer/ BAE Systems and Consultant Medical Microbiologist/Liverpool Clinical Laboratories and finally Head of Chemistry/Sacred Heart Catholic College.
As the day was due to be so much fun we invited our cluster school partner Valewood Primary School to join in the fun. The two schools together enjoyed the day and inspired many children to have career aspirations in the science industries.
If you would like to take part in next years Science workplace workshop please get in touch: admin.greatcrosby@schools.sefton.gov.uk
Click on the image for more photos.
Welcome to the first issue of GC School News - our new school newspaper produced by Mrs Clarke and her team of Year 6 children.
The latest news from Great Crosby, including our Y6 aspirations programme, preparations for open evenings, our patronal feast day and Wear a Kit For Jack Day.
Sefton Council, with support from school will provide free school meal vouchers for eligible families during the school holiday this summer. If you already receive free school meal vouchers then you do not need to apply. If you declare formally that your child meets any the criteria for free school meals, they could receive further support in school. Don’t miss out! See if you qualify by clicking / tapping on the image. There is then a link to apply online or ring 0151 934 3263
Have you seen the photos and report about Year 5's recent visit to Sacred Heart? There is also news of a number of our former pupils. Click on the image to see the latest Heartbeat.
Great Crosby hosted the 2nd Jack Riding Memorial Shield on. Our boys welcomed St Nicholas, Waterloo, Valewood, Forefield and Ursuline Primary Schools. Mr and Mrs Riding joined the teams and enjoyed exciting football. Great Crosby Greens and St Nicholas made it through to the final. The teams played out a 0-0 draw. After discussions it was decided that both teams share the shield. Thanks for all who came and supported the teams respectfully. Thanks to Billy, Callum and Harry for refereeing and keeping order. See you all next year.
The latest news from Mrs Speed at Great Crosby following a busy sporting week.
Congratulations to Erin and James for passing their recent LAMDA drama examination. Both students scored high into the nineties and were awarded ‘distinctions’! James and Erin have been working with Limelight Speech and Drama Academy in school towards this qualification.
They both experienced many delays and setbacks due to Covid restrictions. Nevertheless, they persevered and should be congratulated on their resilience and effort. Well done to you both!
The latest news from Great Crosby including calendar dates and information for sports days and Y4 times tables assessments.
The latest news from Great Crosby with news of our Jubilee Day and changes to Sports Days dates for your diary. Please check the Calendar page.
Our staff are ready for a fabulous day celebrating the Platinum Jubilee including making a timeline of the decades and singing to our queen on the field. The children coming to school look fantastic in their outfits from the 1950s to the present day.
Well done and thank you to all our athletes in the Southport and Waterloo AC One Mile Races. We were awarded the overall Fair Play Award. In the year group team competitions, our Y3 boys team came 3rd, our Y4 girls teams were 2nd, Y4 boys and Y5 girls were both 1st and Y6 boys were 3rd. We also had individual placings - 1st in Y3 girls, 1st and 3rd in Y4 boys and 3rd in Y6 girls.
The latest from Great Crosby with news about Miss Bradley and a reminder to check the website calendar for dates for your diaries.
What do you think of when you are asked to picture a scientist? Many people, including children, think of a white man, in a lab coat with grey hair, aka Albert Einstein. We are asking anyone in our school community who works in science to please get in touch. We will be hosting a science workplace workshop for our older children on Monday 27th June in the afternoon. We would love it if you could talk to the children in person. If not, if you could make a short video at your workplace explaining what you do would be excellent. You can see example videos by clicking on the green button below. Many thanks, Great Crosby Science team.
Mrs Speed's latest news of the assessments that have been taking place this week and continue next week. There is more information about them for Y2 and Y1 below. Preparations continue for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations on Fri 27th May.
Year 6 boys played a thrilling Griffiths Cup semi-final vs Ursuline. Half-time saw the scores level at 0-0. Early in the second half, Ursuline took the lead with an amazingly brave header. With 2 minutes to go, Great Crosby were awarded a free kick which Oscar scored to equalise.
Nail-biting penalties followed, with Great Crosby winning 3-2. Well played to everyone.
The final will be played at Valewood on Thu 9th June at 5.10pm versus either St Nicholas's/Forefield or English Martyrs.
Our Y5/6 girls played an exhilarating match vs Valewood Primary. It was great to watch such enthusiastic footballers battle for a winning goal. A 0-0 draw was the final result. Well done to both teams & thank you to Valewood made us very welcome.
Thirty children from Year 5 enjoyed singing in school and onscreen by Zoom with other schools from the north west of England and the whole of Ireland in the Peace Proms. The concert was broadcast live from The Helix, Dublin, with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Greg Beardsell.
Y5 have all enjoyed their time with Ricky from One Goal Ltd learning how to improve their own mental health and how to be mental health champions.
Next week (from Mon 9th May) it is Mental Health Awareness Week. On Friday 13th May for the Mental Health Foundation we are asking children
to wear a green accessory – socks, hair obble, hat or t shirt over their uniform for a
50p donation.
An update for parents and carers about Little Wandle Letters and Sounds, our phonics scheme, and how you can help your child prepare for the Year 1 Phonics assessment. The videos mentioned in the Phonics meeting video are on our Parents > Information Presentations page. Click on the green button.
This week, Y6 have welcomed James Riley, a former probation officer into school for five daily workshops. He runs the Get Away 'n' Get Safe Prevention Programme with the aim to educate, inspire and empower young people to take control of their future by rejecting the gang lifestyle. James inspired Y6 with empowering messages to make good choices & examples of the consequences of gang membership. His key messages included 'be brave and confident to make the right choice', 'retaliation never solved a problem' and 'be forgiving'.
The latest news from Mrs Speed with a welcome message to parents of children who will join our Reception classes in September. There is news of forthcoming assessments and events after half term.
An update for parents and carers about Key Stage 1 assessments and mathematical methods. There are several ways that you can help your child. The presentation is also on our Parents > Information Presentations and Children > Year 2 pages
We are really looking forward to celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in school and giving the children a real sense of the time frame which this covers. To support our celebrations and the history surrounding Elizabeth’s reign the year groups are going to be split into the 7 decades: Year 6 - 1950s Year 5 - 1960s Year 4 - 1970s Year 3 - 1980s
Year 2 - 1990s Year 1 - 2000s Nursery and Reception - 2010 - present.
The children will have lessons and activities about their decade and significant events throughout the Queen’s reign during the final week of the half term. This will culminate in a party on Friday 27th May. On the day, we would like staff and children to dress up in the clothing style of your decade and hope that we can join together to make a human timeline of the last 70 years. We really hope it will be a memorable and enjoyable celebration for all!
Please click on the green button to read the letter on our History page.
At Great Crosby we follow the Little Wandle phonics scheme. We invested in the scheme this year and it covers phonics from Early Years Foundation Stage and Year 1. Year 2 follow the Liverpool Phonics Scheme which is focused on spelling rules and patterns. Within the Little Wandle scheme we have updated our reading scheme to Collins E-books for EYFS and Year 1. These books are matched to your child's phonic ability and are 90% decodable to them. The e-books are allocated every Friday by your child's class teacher. Find out more on our Curriculum page by clicking the image.
Mrs Speed's vlog with a round up of the end of term and hopes for the summer term.
Mrs Speed's vlog with news of recent fundraising, next week's CAFOD Walk Against Hunger and new guidance from the Department for Education.
Our KS2 children enjoyed a gloriously sunny afternoon having fun, playing a variety of games, buying books, puzzles and cakes to raise money for our Lenten charity, CAFOD, and our school funds. EYFS and KS1 children held their market day in the morning and sold cakes, books and toys to each other. Click on the image to see more photos.
Mrs Speed's latest news from Great Crosby including an explanation of our CAFOD & School Fund Market Day and other forthcoming events.
Today we were pleased to welcome Richard Cooke from CAFOD Liverpool
for 3 assemblies to help us promote our Walk Against Hunger on Mon 4th Apr & our Market Day this Fri 25th Mar, with proceeds going to CAFOD and the school fund. Click on the image above to watch the CAFOD Walk Against Hunger Lent video .
Mrs Speed's latest news from Great Crosby and the Lake District.
Y5 & Y6 thoroughly enjoyed the Musical Tracks schools concert this afternoon at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, including singing 'Songs Of Home In Hope Street', the poignant composition by Ian Stephens & Mandy Ross. The conductor was Melvin Tay & Alasdair Malloy, the entertaining presenter.
Many thanks once again for the tremendous response to the Polskie Merseyside Appeal for Ukraine. All the donations have been collected and are on their way to the Poland/Ukraine border.
Mrs Speed's latest news from Great Crosby after a busy week in school with a thank you to our families and the community.
For the first time in over 2 years, all of KS2 were in the hall together. Year 5 led our Ash Wednesday liturgy including CAFOD's Walk Against Hunger video, John Burland's songs, fasting ideas, dance, prayers & ashes distribution. More photos are on our Catholic Life of Our School page.
Thank you for all the donations for the appeal by Polskie Merseyside for items to be taken to the Poland/Ukraine border. Please bring any items by Thursday 3rd March. Items they are collecting: colouring pencils, colouring books, teddies, school supplies, blankets, emergency foil blankets, soaps, shampoos, shower gels etc, towels, sanitary towels, nappies, sleeping bags, toothbrushes, childrens' clothes (new or nearly new condition), cups (stainless steel), first aid kits, plasters, bandages etc. More photos are on our Great Crosby and the Community page.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to our meetings.
The SATs dates are in our 'Calendar' during the week beginning Mon 9th May.
A link to the YMCA Lakeside website is on our Children > Year 6 page along with the administering medicines permission form.
The online safety presentation slides are on the Parents > Information Presentations page.
Click on the image above to go our Love of Reading page which has details of our World Book Day activities.
At Great Crosby, we thoroughly believe that the purpose of World Book Day is to promote a love of reading. The reason why we don’t always dress up is because sometimes this detracts from the act of reading; some parents and carers find creating or finding a costume stressful and many people end up spending money on costumes when the money could be spent on a book instead. So, with that in mind, we have included a reading challenge for your child to complete between now and World Book Day, one for EYFS and KS1, and one for KS2.
Mrs Speed's end of half term review.
Tuesday 8th February is worldwide Safer Internet Day. The theme is ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’. The children will have activities and assemblies to watch during the week. Our Parents > Online Safety page has a number of activities and lots of information to help keep your family safe online, including details of our Safer Schools app, which will give you regular updates. Click on the image.
Mrs Speed's vlog with the latest news from school including next week's Safer Internet Day, our Safer Schools app, parents evenings, Forest School and the foodbank collection next Thursday.
Children have been making tiger tangram pictures to share with our exchange teachers from Shanghai who stayed with us in 2016.
Details of forthcoming parents' evenings can be found on our Parents > Parents Evening page. Click on the green button.
Mrs Speed's latest news from Great Crosby and an appeal for a builder with availability for a job in our Forest school area.
We turned our website purple to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Year 6 are visited The Plaza Cinema to see, 'The Island on Bird Street' and other year groups learned about the Holocaust through a variety of age appropriate activities on the theme of 'One Day'.
You didn’t think about yesterday, and tomorrow may not happen, it was only today that you had to cope with and you got through it as best you could.
Iby Knill, survivor of the Holocaust
Mrs Speed's first vlog of 2022 with the latest news from Great Crosby.
Parents and carers of children in Reception are invited to attend one of our virtual Parents’ Evenings. Appointments are available on Tuesday 1st February from 3.15pm to 5.30pm or Wednesday 2nd February from 3.15pm to 7.00pm. Please click on the image above to visit our Parents' Evening page to make an appointment,
Wishing all our families a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year. The children return to school on Thursday 6th January - The Feast of the Epiphany.
Please take a few minutes to watch our Christmas Liturgy that we would normally have done in school.
Fr John's blessings to all our families.
Mrs Speed's final video message of 2021.
For the children at home, there will be Teams meetings on Tuesday 21st December at the following times:
5CW - 10.00am and 1.00pm
4L - 10.30am and 1.30pm
5M - 10.30am and 1.00pm
Children should log into Microsoft Teams and check their calendar for the meeting.
Mrs Speed's latest news about our busy week in school and activities for the last week of term.
In the light of the storm forecast for tomorrow and possibly parts of Wednesday, we have taken the decision to re-arrange the Nursery Nativities in the Forest School.
NEW Nativity Thursday 9th December 2:15 pm (all children may go home after their performance, once we have them changed)
NBW Nativity Monday 13th December 10.15am
We apologise for the inconvenience but feel it is in the best interests of the children to do this.
Many thanks for your continued support. We are sure you will be delighted with the
Forest School Nativity. Wrap up warm!
Mrs Speed's latest vlog with news of Nativity preparations, the school levy, the foodbank and final week plans.
Thank you for all the kind donations of food and toiletries for South Sefton Foodbank today.
Father John from Ss Peter & Paul's RC Church has recorded an Advent blessing for our children and families.
The latest from Great Crosby at the end of another busy week. Mrs Speed has news about the fire drill, Christmas badges, our food bank collection day, a new phonics scheme and Christmas dinner.
As Mrs Speed mentioned in her vlog on Monday 22nd November, we have received the annual request from the Archdiocese for our ‘schools levy’ for 2021-2022. Whilst it is often difficult to know what happens to this money, it does go towards funding building projects and repairs in Catholic schools across the Archdiocese. We have as a school benefitted greatly from this fund – new fire alarm, renewal of flat roofs and this year we are asking them to support toilet refurbishments in some of our less modern toilet blocks. If, as a school, we are unable to raise the levy we will have to try and find it from our already tight budget. I know we can count on your support. We ask you for a £10 per family contribution, payable by cheque, cash, online on Pay 360 or by standing order. Thank you to those parents who have already made the payment for this year.
Please click on the green button to download the letter with payment details.
Here is Mrs Speed's latest vlog with news of the Wear White for Mrs White Day, Christmas badges, Nativities and the school levy.
This week the children have spent time in their classes learning about Remembrance Day, making poppy displays, sharing stories and gathering for a two minute silence. We were represented by our pupils on Remembrance Sunday.
Our latest news from school.
Mrs Speed's latest news.
Mrs Speed's vlog at the end of our first half term.
Mrs Speed's latest news from school including a day in memory of Mrs White on Thursday 21st October.
This week is Digital Parenting Week 2021. Parentzone is the lead charity. It has online safety resources from Google. We invite you to take part in a 7-day Digital Wellbeing Challenge. You can choose which day to start. Click on the logo to visit our online safety page.
Parentzone has 'parent guides' about the most popular apps and services, giving advice about parental and privacy controls. The guides are about Instagram, Facebook, Secret Converations, Twitch, Netflix, Live streaming, Influencer marketing, Esports, Fortnite, PEGI game ratings, Tik Tok, Snapchat, YouTube Kids, WhatsApp, Clash of Clans, Virtual Reality, Family games, Connected toys, Pokemon Go, Social media apps, Nintendo Switch, Minecraft, Yubo, Amazon Prime and Skype. There are also guides to self-esteem, digital detoxing, peer pressure and dealing with traumatic events.
Our 2021-22 league starts on Saturday 16th October. Details are in the letter emailed out on Friday 8th October, which is on our letters page. You can click on the green button below. Click on the image to sign up or login to set up your team then follow the instructions in the letter to join our league.
Positive mental health and well-being is very important at Great Crosby. Today we are 'Wearing Yellow' to support the messages from Young Minds Campaign. Children should wear their uniform plus yellow accessories and/or yellow PE top or polo shirt. We are not collecting any money only raising awareness.
If you are struggling to support your children's mental health, click on the Young Minds image to visit their website or click on the green button for the Liverpool CAMHS website.
Mrs Speed has news from school about visits by the school nurses, Year 3's theatre trip, Spelling Shed logins, Covid-19 test result reporting, mask wearing and reading.
The school photographer will be in school on Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th
October. We are asking that all children come into school in full uniform on
these two days. We will not be having PE lessons on these days so they will not
need their kits.
Mrs Speed's latest news about reading, school photos, 'Wear Yellow Day' and flu vaccines.
The latest news from Mrs Speed, including the continued Covid-19 arrangements and a new way of learning spellings.
Mrs Speed's first vlog of the new academic year.
Please visit our Parents > Parents Evenings page for information about our Meet the Teacher Evenings on 22nd and 23rd September.
Welcome back!
It has been lovely seeing the children return to school so well behaved and enthusiastic. They look so smart in their uniforms and are a credit to you all.
An especially big thank you to Year 5 and Year 6 who did a fantastic job of lining the end of the field as the funeral procession for Mrs White passed by. We were so very proud of them. They did truly understand the importance of respect.
We are looking forward to welcoming our new Nursery and Reception children into school on their staggered starts on Monday.
Here’s hoping for a more normal year filled with lots of learning, happiness and fun.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Mrs Speed.
Dear Parents/Carers,
Ahead of our return tomorrow, please can I refer you to the letter sent out at the end of term regarding the changes to the Covid-19 risk assessments and protocols.
Whilst face masks are no longer obligatory, we would recommend that you still wear them when entering or leaving our site. We have a large number of people passing through and I would regard our site as a crowded place especially during pick up.
As an act of kindness to others and to ensure that we maintain a healthy school population, I would urge you to continue with the face mask rule until the end of September when we anticipate a further review.
Looking forward to seeing you all.
Kind regards
Mrs Speed.
As we begin 2020, we continue our journey to live simply and look after our beautiful world, as Pope Francis has asked us to.
We continue to make simple changes in our school life:
· ensure we recycle paper
· switch off lights when not in use
· use reusable plastic to carry our lunch
· reuse single-use plastic bottles to make and store
· walk/cycle/scoot to school more often
· no longer using single-use plastic for jelly/ fruit in the kitchen
· letters home are electronic, where possible
· one paper-free day per term
We are working towards being zero-heroes for the environment.
Can you as families do any of the above? Or more?
Let us know any good ideas via admin.greatcrosby@schools.sefton.gov.uk
Creator God,
Your world is a wonderful and beautiful place, full of variety, full of wonder, full of life.
Teach us to care for the Earth and help us to build a world that is filled with your goodness.
Amen
If you would like a paper copy of any documents or to contact Mrs Speed, please click on the 'Get In Touch' button to send a message to Mrs Mason in the school office or email: admin.greatcrosby@schools.sefton.gov.uk
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