Well, it’s been another busy week at St Stephen’s!

Harvest Celebrations

Our children were absolutely wonderful during our Harvest celebrations this week! A huge thank you to all our staff for taking the time to rehearse with their classes, and a special thank you to Mrs Ogden for organising everything. Most importantly, a very big well done to all the children who sang and read so beautifully. Once again, you have made me incredibly proud!

Thank you, too, to everyone who donated to our Harvest collection for Atherton and Tyldesley Foodbank. We received so many wonderful donations that will make a real difference to families within our own community.

If you still have anything you would like to donate, please feel free to drop it off at the school office on Monday morning, as the foodbank will be collecting later that day. Thank you so much for your generosity!

ATSA Events

As the term progresses, our Sports and Arts events with ATSA are getting busier, too! We have had poetry sessions, badminton lessons and even a kickstarter session for some of our Reception children!!

Yesterday, Miss Quinn accompanied three of our Year 6 children to a drumming workshop at St George’s Central, where they had the opportunity to learn some drumming skills using the backs of chairs! It sounds like they had a brilliant time!

Well done, Appolin, Pippa and Aoife! And a big thank you to Miss Quinn for giving up her time to accompany the children. We really appreciate it!

History Comes to Life!

A huge thank you to Pippa’s Grandma in Year 1, who spent an afternoon with us this week sharing her knowledge of toys from the past.

Mrs Deakin said the children were completely engaged and listened so beautifully to all the wonderful things Pippa’s Grandma had to share. What a lovely opportunity for the children to learn about history through someone else’s experiences!

Thank you so much for giving up your time to visit us, Pippa’s Grandma. We learnt so much, and we would love to welcome you back again soon!

Happy Healthy Kids

On Wednesday 14th October at 2pm, the Happy Healthy Kids team will be visiting school to talk to parents about the work they will be doing with our Year 5 and Year 6 children around puberty, growing and changing.

This will be a lovely opportunity to find out more about the sessions, ask any questions you may have and talk to the team about the materials and topics they will be covering. We hope lots of our Year 5 and Year 6 families will be able to join us!

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 13th October – Year 5 and Year 6 Family Worship

Our Year 5 and Year 6 families are warmly invited to join us for family worship in the school hall at 9.15am. We always love welcoming our families into school to share these special moments with us!

Tuesday 20th October, 2pm – Reception Values Session

We are looking forward to welcoming our new Reception families into school for a special Values session. We will begin by sharing family worship together before taking part in some lovely craft activities to help us explore three of our special school values.

We really hope our Reception families will be able to join us for this special afternoon!

Thursday 22nd October – Autumn School Discos!

We are looking forward to our autumn discos! The timings are as follows:

Infant Disco: Reception to Year 2, 3.25–4.30pm
Junior Disco: Years 3 to Year 6, 4.45–6pm

Our Nursery children will also enjoy their very own little disco in class during the afternoon!

More information will follow next week, so keep an eye out for further details!

And Finally… What a Community!

A huge thank you to Mr Burrows and Rosie P’s Mum in Year 1, who managed to arrange very special video messages from Kevin Sinfield himself, thanking our children for their support!

The children were absolutely delighted to watch his messages. Thank you so much for thinking of us and making this happen. It really did make our day!

And there’s more wonderful news… our Sporty Clothes Day raised an amazing £332.70! What a fantastic achievement!

Thank you to everyone who contributed and helped us support such a wonderful cause. It is moments like these that show our children what compassion looks like in action: caring about others, thinking beyond ourselves and coming together to make a difference.

We really are so lucky to be part of such a wonderful school community. You are all amazing, and I couldn’t be prouder of our St Stephen’s family!

Just a few messages from me this week. It looks as though Autumn has finally arrived and our lovely dry weather is over! However, our OPAL provision continues, and so we are asking from now until the spring, if your child wishes to play in our muddy area or on the grass that they change into wellies. These can be left in school (We have some super welly racks outside Year 3, right by the muddy area!) with your child’s name on for easy access.

A gentle reminder that, at the end of the school day, the school car park is strictly for those who have an arranged access permit. Please ensure that your permit is clearly displayed in your vehicle.

This week, we have unfortunately seen a few near misses as cars have attempted to leave the car park while families are still crossing the drive. The safety of our children and families is our absolute priority, so we would really appreciate everyone’s support in helping us to keep the site safe.

If you require a car park permit, please speak to a member of the office team, who will be happy to arrange this for you.
For those who are permitted to use the car park, please be aware that the gates will be locked at 3.15pm and will reopen at 3.35pm. Please remain in your parking space until the gates reopen, rather than attempting to leave while children are still on the drive.

Thank you so much for your understanding and cooperation. Your support in helping us to keep everyone safe is very much appreciated.

We have shared the dates for our Harvest Festivals and our ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions.
For families who have not attended a ‘Meet the Teacher’ session before, these are short presentations from your child’s class teacher. They are an opportunity for teachers to introduce themselves, share some information about the curriculum for the year ahead, and talk about the opportunities and experiences your child will have in their new year group. Each session will last approximately 30 minutes.

Please note that, due to our site management team needing to finish within their contracted working hours, there will not be time during these sessions for individual discussions with teachers.

If you have any questions or concerns that you would like to discuss with your child’s teacher, please do get in touch with the school. We will be very happy to arrange a separate, mutually convenient time for you to speak with them.

I think that’s everything for me this week! Have a wonderful weekend and a good rest and we will see you on Monday!
A huge thank you for your ongoing support.

Our first full week is done and dusted, and what a lovely week it’s been!! I have loved being back on the gates in the morning, it’s been great to be able to chat to you all and have a catch up with lots of parents from years gone by!

This week, Mrs Deakin and Mr Lawrenson have also started their afternoons in class, it’s been great to hear their positive comments on the children’s behaviour and work in class and I know they’ve both really enjoyed spending time with so many children across school and are excited to see how much they’ll progress! I know the children have really enjoyed spending time with them too!

It’s been so lovely to welcome our new Reception and Nursery children too, they have astounded us with how well they have settled!! We are already so proud of you all and cannot wait to see the wonderful things you’ll achieve as you grow! A huge thank you too to Miss Hilton, Miss Jones, Miss Chan, Miss Reynolds and Mrs Newton for all the work you have done to make sure that this first week has ran so smoothly and the children have all felt safe and happy. You all do such a fantastic job!

A gentle reminder that earrings are not allowed in school. A number of children have returned to school wearing them and we politely request that they are removed before school in the morning. This is a rule that we have had for a number of years, following a spate of accidents involving earrings being caught during play. We do ask for the safety of all that the rule is adhered to, especially as we now have lots of equipment on the playgrounds as we strengthen our OPAL programme.

Our family worship sessions will begin again on Tuesday 22nd September for Years 1 and 2. You are warmly invited to come and spend some time with us; it is always a lovely time to be together! Grannies and Grandads are welcome too!!

A quick reminder too that our clubs start again this week. If you are unsure if your child has a place, please pop in the office to confirm.
I think that’s everything! I hope you have had a wonderful weekend and we will see you all in the morning!

Thank you so much for the kind words, cards, hugs, gifts and flowers I received last week. I had such a lovely last week in school, and I was completely overwhelmed by everyone's kindness and generosity. I have spent my weekend arranging flowers, opening gifts and reading your messages in the cards. Thank you. Your kind words mean so much. I have loved every moment of my 37 year teaching career, especially this last year seeing our nursery open. I am now ready for the next chapter. Sending much love to you and your families. The school is in safe hands with Mrs Lowe, Mr Lawrenson and Mrs Deakin. I look forward to seeing all you achieve together. Hope you have a lovely Summer.

Good afternoon everyone,

Our weeks are still super-busy. On Tuesday morning some of our nursery families joined us for worship. We did a craft together reminding us to let our light shine – and be happy, positive and kind to those around us. Most children spent the day with their new teacher on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Mrs Kaye wasn’t able to be with us – but she is looking forward to meeting our current Y4 class on Tuesday at our next pass up day. Mrs Lowe said that Y3 thoroughly enjoyed their day at Liverpool Museum on Wednesday. I accompanied Y6 for their first leavers’ service at Manchester Cathedral.  It was a very special occasion enjoying some time with other schools from Manchester Diocese. In the afternoon Mr. Lawrenson was out of school with a group of Y6 pupils taking part in a  cricket competition. The team was made up of some experienced cricketers and others representing school for the first time. The team played 3 games- hit some sixes, bowled brilliantly taking wickets and made some fabulous catches. Sadly the team didn’t win, but had lots of fun. Well done team! Miss Brennan and Mrs Peake were out of school with our netball team. Well done to our St Stephen's netball team, who won the first match against Garret hall 6-0 , Lost the match against Holy family 6-5 , and drew 3-3 against St Ambrose! The team showed fantastic determination, encouraging one another as they battled through three games in a row. It was also great to see our boys taking part this year too. A brilliant team effort – well done, everyone!

As we look to next week please note that most of the after-school clubs have now finished. A huge thank you to the staff who give up their time to run the sessions. Rees Sports sessions will still be taking place on Wednesday and Thursday next week. As I’ve already mentioned, we have our 2nd pass-up day on Tuesday. Our Y6 families are invited to join us at a Leavers’ Service for local schools at St. George’s on Thursday at 10am. On Friday Y2 go to Staircase House, and we finish the week with our Y6 Leavers’ Ball in the evening. 

After that we then go into the final week of this school year!

Enjoy the weekend.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come along to our Sports Days. It was lovely to see so many of you there. A huge well done to all the children. You were amazing! Can I just remind families please not to share photos/ videos on facebook etc as not all children have permission to be on there. Congratulations to Hanover- our winning team!

Well done to our Y6 maths reasoning group who had their final session on Wednesday. Miss Brown is so pleased with them and the resilience shown in the sessions, resulting in them coming first this week in their session.

Next week we have another busy week at St. Stephen’s. On Monday we are looking forward to the druhm sessions. Each class from nursery upwards will be spending time in the hall drumming developing a whole host of core skills for everyday life – namely focus and attention. For the sessions we have asked for a contribution of £2.00 per child, payable on ParentPay.

On Tuesday we have family worship with Years 1 & 2. Please meet at the junior gate on the carpark. Worship will start at 9.10am, and refreshments are available beforehand. On Wednesday afternoon we look forward to welcoming our new Reception pupils and their families into school for a fun afternoon.

This afternoon we were treated to a performance from one of our past pupils, Austin, on his cello. He has been working with Wigan Music Service to promote the cello. We have been offered a small number of free places for cello tuition, including instrument hire for the Autumn term. This is available for current Y2-5 pupils on a first come-first serve basis. Please email the office on enquiries@admin.astleysaintstephens.wigan.sch.uk to express your child’s interest.

Preparations are underway for our Summer Fair on Saturday 27th June. If anyone is able to provide some sweets or chocolates for our tombola they would be very much appreciated.

Fingers crossed we continue to see some sunshine.

Take care, and have a lovely weekend.