NATIVITY
A ‘King is Born’ was a triumphant display of all that is brilliant about working in a school at this time of year! The acting, the singing, the dancing and the general ‘joie de vivre’ on show from the children made this a really special performance.
I have had so many compliments from parents about this show and I know the KS1 team have too. Well done to the children and staff team on a fabulous show!
KS2 CAROL SERVICE
What a special service this was. I always love to hear the KS2 children singing, as they do it so beautifully. Well done to Year 5, who produced the tableau moments in the service and to all the children for their reading, singing and acting. A lovely reflective service that focused on the importance of giving and helping others at this time of year too.
Thank you for all your lovely words about the performance.
CHRISTMAS DINNER DAY
Yesterday saw our annual Christmas dinner day and I think you can see from the smiles, what a happy and joyous day this always is for the team. Big thanks to our catering team who cooked a delicious meal for the children and to all the staff who served the children!
CHRISTMAS PARTY
Wow, what an amazing time we had at the St M's MEGA Christmas Party. We had a disco, food, party games, crafts, activities and even a visit from Father Christmas too! A huge thank you to the PTA for working so hard to organise and make it happen and the staff and parents who gave up their time to help out too.
HARVEST FESTIVAL DONATION
We are delighted to announce that this Harvest Festival, our school donated an amazing 127.2 kg for the Brighton and Hove City Mission Food Bank, which helps some of the most vulnerable families across the city. A huge thank you to all that donated for our biggest ever year!
FEMINIST BOOKSHOP DONATION
A huge thank you to The Feminist Bookshop Brighton for a wonderful donation of books - this is just a few of them! The children can't wait to get reading!
BRIGHTON AND HOVE WATERHALL CROSS COUNTRY EVENT
Sunshine, no wind, no mud. It didn’t feel much like what we have come to expect at the Brighton and Hove Waterhall cross country event over the years!
Our female runners were the highest ranked this year with Daisy Hodgson gaining an amazing 3rd place out of a field of some 300 competitors. Other top finishers included Shalom, Tanya, Siri, Lyla and Ivy.
Well done to all our competitors who were a credit to our school both in their performance and in the way they supported each other too.
ST M’s FOOTBALL TEAM
Well done for another great game St M’s! Unfortunately not a win this time, but like always the team showed excellent team spirit and positivity for the next match!
REMEMBRANCE DAY 2024
On Sunday 10th November, our year 6 councilors attended the Rottingdean Village Memorial Service for Remembrance to lay a wreath. There was a further service on Monday 11th November where all of Key Stage Two attended to mark the 2 minutes silence and show respect for those who fought for our freedom. We will remember them.
RECEPTION CLASS MAKING DIYA LAMPS for DIWALI
This week Reception have been learning all about Diwali and had a go at making their own Diya lamps from clay. As the sculped their lamps, they listened to traditional music to really set the mood!
ANTI BULLYING WEEK
We are celebrating Antibullying week this week and today was national 'Odd Socks Day' in support of this year's theme 'Choose Respect'. We loved seeing all the children and staff in all their colourful socks!
YEAR 6 PGL
Our Year 6 are back from an incredible time at PGL. They stayed two nights away from home and were absolutely amazing throughout. They participated on the giant swing, climbed jacobs ladder as a team, zoomed down the zip line and worked together to build rafts. They tried archery, rifle shooting and learned so many new survival skills. They all came together so well to work as a team, giving everything a go and supporting each other to try new things. Well done Year 6!
YEAR 4 TRIP TO BIGNOR ROMAN VILLA
Year 4 had an excellent time on their school trip to Bignor Roman Villa, stepping back 2000 years in time to discover a villa where the roman’s once lived, leaving behind their stunning mosaic and lots of interesting artefacts. Thank you to the staff and volunteer parents who ensured the children had this great opportunity, and well done children - I heard you were brilliant ambassadors for St M’s!
PTA UPDATES
The PTA are thrilled to announce that last year they donated over £5,000 which went to the school to help with new equipment for Reception and KS1, guided reading books and school trips, amongst many other things around the school. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY
This week we held an assembly on World Mental Health day. The children talked about feelings (with the help of Inside Out 2!) and
when we might experience them. This years theme is to take time to talk. We looked at how checking in with your family and friends, taking the time to ask how they feel is a great way to open up conversations and share any worries that you might be experiencing. Sometimes talking about how we feel can help us to manage those emotions and help us fell better.
HARVEST CELEBRATION
What a wonderful Harvest celebration we had this year - the best yet I think!! The children read, acted and sang beautifully and really highlighted the importance of helping others. Your incredible donations are by far the most we have ever had for a food bank collection, and I would like to thank you all for your generosity - the true meaning of a supportive and kind community in action
FOOTBALL UPDATE
Well done to the football team for playing an excellent game against Coldean - the team may have lost, but they all did brilliantly and showed real team spirit. Onto the next one!
SCHOOL COUNCIL AND ECO COUNCIL
Last week, in celebration assembly, we presented our new School and Eco Councillors with their badges and welcomed them to their teams.
Next week, the school council and I will have our first meeting to discuss the children’s priorities for this year, to make their school experiences even better! Mr Jones will also meet the Eco Council to get their initiatives for the year started too.
MICHELHAM PRIORY SCHOOL TRIP
Last week, Year 3 went on their school trip to Michelham Priory. They enjoyed workshops where they studied artifacts from the Stone Age, Iron Age and Bronze Age, as well as a visit to an Iron Age round house. They then took part in a ceremonial 'burial' of one of their classmates. A fascinating day!
GARDENING CLUB UPDATE
As we come into Autumn, our sensory garden area is looking amazing thanks to our gardening club. They have an array of vegetables and flowers growing, plus some pumpkins which should be ready for Halloween! Our gardening club have been working so hard that they have also just passed their RHS Level 1 award too! Well done gardening club!
OUR NEW BUILDING WORK IS COMPLETE
Our fantastic new KS1 block is completed and the classrooms are modern, bright and bigger than before - the children are loving them! A huge thank you to the staff team who have worked tirelessly over recent months to ensure this project could be undertaken.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW HEDGEHOGS CLASS 2024!
What a wonderful start our Hedgehogs class has had to school life! I have been so impressed with how they have settled in so quickly and adapted to school routines so easily - their smiles show you how much they’re enjoying life at St M’s already!
ROTTINGDEAN IN BLOOM
This year we have been asked to be part of Rottingdean in Bloom and this week the judges came into school to have a look at the wonderful work the gardening club and Mrs Avey have been doing in our sensory garden. They were so impressed with all the plants and vegetables growing. Well done Gardening Club!
SPORTS DAY
What a great afternoon of sporting fun and excellence we had at the end of June, and thankfully the weather stayed dry too! Well done to all the staff for their hard work and to Mr Jones for coordinating such a fantastic display of sportmanship, team work and
inclusivity. Our winning houses were SAPPHIRE for the infants, and RUBY for the juniors - well done to both teams!
PERFORM WORKSHOP
This week Perform came into school and ran some exciting drama, singing and acting workshops for all the children. They did various themed classes - under the sea, turrets and tiaras, beside the sea, China, Egypt and Rainforests.
On Thursday, it was King and Queen Day for Year One. A day jam packed with royal activities from baking crown cookies to a Perform Workshop, where they hid from afearsome dragon. The day ended with a Royal Feast on the field, where all the parents
could come along. What a lovely day they had!
SCHOOL ECO COUNCIL NEWS
On Tuesday our 14 eco-councillors went to the beach to conduct a beach clean. Armed with bags, litter pickers and gloves provided by Surfers Against Sewage, we managed to fill two bags full of rubbish that would have washed out into the sea. We even spotted the local seal out in the swim zone too!
OPAL PLAY AWARD
This morning in Celebration assembly we welcomed Kurti our OPAL mentor, who presented the school with our PLATINUM award. This really
is a huge achievement for our team and the school community, and I am so proud of all the hard work and efforts that have led to this
moment over the last 3.5 years. Special thanks to Mr Jones and Miss Carroll who have led on this project with me since the beginning, and to Mr Thomas, Mr Toby and Mrs Britton who have all been part of the OPAL team over recent months.
Find out more about our outdoors OPAL play and learning at St Margarets here.
SUMMER FAIR 2024
The sun shone beautifully for our summer festival and it was such a fabulous event - I have had so much positive feedback from many of you, so thank you.
HUGEST THANKS to our fantastic PTA team who worked so hard to put on the event, for months leading up to it and during the day - we are very grateful for all that you do. THANKS also to the wonderful staff team who also go the ‘extra mile’ and support the school with these events, and finally thank you to all of you who helped, donated or spent your money on the day - our overall profit was £1500 - well done all!
WITHDEAN ATHLETICS
On Wednesday, 42 budding athletes from Years 4,5 and 6 represented the school in the Brighton and Hove athletics tournament at Withdean Stadium. Our St Margaret’s pupils took part in a variety of track and field events and all were an absolute credit to the school. Special mentions go to the following athletes who gained themselves a place on the podium. In the field events, Pixie and Daisy for Bronze medals in the long jump, Jethro, Artie, Lyla forbronze and Etienne for silver in the vortex throwing. In the sprinting events on the track, Daisy and Isaac got bronze, Lyla and Betsy got silver and Victoria and Shalom got gold. Betsy still had some energy left, as she then went on to pick up bronze in the 600m middle distance race and then to top it off our Year 4 girls relay team took the gold medal in one of
the last events of the day. The event takes place over three days so we will have to wait and see where we ranked
overall across the city but we should all be super proud of every individuals effort and achievements!
CHILDREN'S PARADE 2024
Well done to all that helped to build our wonderful Lioness for this years Brighton Children's parade. It was a roaring success!
