St. Mark’s Church of Primary School

Oxenholme Lane, Natland, , , LA97QH Telephone: 015395 60719 Fax: 015395 61769 30th April 2019 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.stmarksschoolnatland.co.uk Newsletter Summer 1 Headteacher: Peter Barfoot

Dear Parent

Summer term I trust that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing break and made the most of the incredible weather we had over the Easter weekend. This is always a busy and varied term with special events, trips and extra opportunities to learn outside the classroom. Please find a list of important dates for the summer term on the reverse of this letter.

Christian Values focus: friendship Our focus this term will be on friendship, a vital part of everyone’s life and key for healthy development and personal growth. We will be exploring friendship as it is demonstrated and taught in the bible as well as how we can act in a friendly way towards the environment and the world we share. The key messages will be that good friends: trust each other, are not afraid to tell each other the truth, share both joys and sorrow and recognise and celebrate their uniqueness and individuality. The bible teaches that Jesus is our friend when we follow him.

Hidden Haven As in previous years, the Year 3 class will be taking the lead in planting and growing fruit and vegetables in the Hidden Haven (our school garden at the top of the field at the back of the school). They had their first session this week preparing the raised beds and fruit cage. We are really looking forward to their reports on how things are growing and then seeing (and tasting) the produce in the summer and autumn.

Request for Plants Year 3 are entering a planted and decorated shopping trolley in a competition sponsored by Morrisons and to be judged at the Country Fest event in early June. You may have noticed the trolley at the front of school this week. Thank you to parent volunteers and Year 3 children who have started the work already. We would like to fill the trolley and plant up the sides with as much growth as possible. If any parents have plants spare at home or would like to donate a plant, the colour scheme is purple, blue and white, with a mix of edible plants, greenery and flowers. We have a particular need for lavender. All donations to Mrs Cook please.

Climate Change: our response Whatever your beliefs or thoughts about climate change there is no doubting the fact that we have all been challenged in recent weeks to think carefully about how we live and the way we treat the environment. The children have been asked to think about ways we can save energy, produce less waste, use less water and encourage biodiversity in school. If parents have any useful tips, ideas or skills linked to this please share them with us over the coming weeks.

Facebook Thank you to everyone who has seen, liked and shared the postings from school on our new Facebook page. It has been really exciting to be able to share and celebrate all the wonderful things the children do in the course of a school year. Thank you also to Mrs Whittaker, Mrs Paxton, Mrs Illingworth and Sarah Collin for managing the page for us.

Yours sincerely

Mr P Barfoot, Headteacher