St Augustine's Catholic Primary School

It is lovely to see how you are celebrating this special VE Day Anniversary with your bunting hanging in your window and other ways that you are celebrating. Please keep sending us your photographs so we can upload more!

On Tuesday 25th February 2020, Year 1 went to the RAF Museum in London. We had so much fun looking at all the aeroplanes and finding out more about how they work. We completed a trail to find planes from different periods of time and even got to pretend to be pilots. We also had a workshop where we learnt about the history of flight and how in such a short period of time, we have been able to create planes that we see today.

“This was the best day ever!!”

Thank you so much for your support at our Macmillan Coffee morning on Friday 25th September, it was lovely to see so many parents with family and friends coming together to enjoy the performances of our children. The school hall was ‘bursting at the seams’ as one of our children remarked.  The total amount raised for this worthy cause was £429.80.  Every penny you helped raise will help support people living with cancer, physically, emotionally and financially.  Thank you.

On Friday 13th September we celebrated Roald Dahl Day and at the end of the day, it was lovely to see so many parents joining us to read their child's favourite story with them. 

Our Stars of the Week are presented by their teachers in the Celebration Assembly for their conscientious effort and hard work throughout the week as well as  exemplary behaviour.   Each star will now also enjoy 'Hot Chocolate' with Mrs Napier as a reward for gaining 'Star of the Week'.

Our parish priest Father Philip Miller pays regular visits to our school and encourages the children through prayer, class and whole school mass, worship, liturgy and reconciliation to develop a greater understanding of their role in the world.  We are eternally grateful for his commitment to our school community. 

From Monday 17^th June to Friday 21^st June, Year Six excitedly ventured to PGL Liddington in Swindon, which is the UK’s leading outdoor education company, providing a great combination of adventure activities, accommodation, food and service. For a lot of our Year Six children, it was their very first experience of being away from their parents and enjoying their time with their friends. It was a time for them to enjoy themselves with activities they have never done before. They all had a great time with all the challenges they accomplished.

It was a time when they overcame their fears and explored new activities, as well as having lots of fun in the process with the help of the wonderful leaders – especially Caleb ‘celeb’.

PGL was the absolute best part of Year 6 for all the children. It was an amazing time that allowed them to overcome their fears when exploring new activities as well as having lots of fun. They did so many different activities: zip wire, abseiling, Jacob’s ladder, giant swing, archery, mountain biking, trapeze, just to mention a few. They had so much fun with all of their friends and they hope everyone in years to come enjoys their PGL experience as much as they did.

Our school choir performed at Spotlight Theatre at the end of last half term.  They are an amazing group, with wonderful singing voices and we are very proud of them.  A big ‘Thank you’ to Mrs Barone and Mr & Mrs Harvey who give up their time to come in on a weekly basis to tutor them.

Chance to Shine is a national charity who work with schools to provide children with the opportunity to play and learn through Cricket.  We have been very fortunate to once again work alongside one of their coaches for 6 weeks during the Spring Term 2.  Cricket lessons will be provided for a six-week period for Years 1, 2, 3 & 5 and aim to develop the all-round skills of the children as well as improving the confidence of school staff to deliver further sessions independently. The sessions ensure that children are achieving the skills they need, as set out in the national curriculum, like throwing, catching and ball-striking; as well as enjoying themselves at the same time.  Year 4 & 6 will have a specialist coach for P.E lessons from Challenge Sport Education and will have the opportunity to take part in the  lunchtime cricket club.

The lovely ladies from SAPTA organised 2 successful disco’s for this year’s Valentine’s Day.  They arranged for children’s entertainer, Sally Squiggle, to add to the excitement of these events with lots of fun games and music.  An enjoyable time was had by all.   THANK YOU SAPTA for all your hard work and support for our school.

Safer Internet Day went really well on Tuesday with a full timetable of events which the children enjoyed participating in and which provided further information on how to safe when using all technology.  A range of work from this day will be used to refresh our E-Safety display. Thank you to Mr Loveridge for co-ordinating this event.

Every Year the travelling Book Fair visits St. Augustine's school.  Book week provides a great opportunity to create a school-wide reading focus and build a buzz about books for the children.  Book Fair is packed with hundreds of the best children’s books for all ages – from award-winners and the newest titles to pocket-money pick-ups and treasured classics.

The range includes picture books, early readers, chapter books, books for reluctant readers, older fiction, non-fiction, home learning and lots more.  It was wonderful to see so many of you supporting your child/children at the Fair. 

The Chaplaincy Team forms a vital part of the school’s life, especially the spiritual journey of our children.  The team are responsible for upholding and supporting the Catholic Life of the school in a variety of ways including assisting with the daily and weekly Collective Acts of Worship and liturgies.  On Wednesday they travelled to St. Joseph’s Windhill Centre in Bishops Stortford to join with other Chaplaincy teams from the local area for a Retreat Day.  They learned sign language to the hymn ‘Bread of Life’, wrote their own prayers and shared in discussion on the 10 most important things about the Eucharist.  They also visited St. Joseph’s church where they placed their prayers on the Altar. 

It has been a very busy and exciting time at St. Augustine's with our school community coming together to make some magical Christmas memories. We have enjoyed our EYFS & KS1 Nativity performances, Christmas lunch in our Christmas jumpers, a wonderful Carol Service in Church, the Whole School Pantomime at the Spotlight Theatre, celebration of Mass in school with Father Philip and our end of term Christmas class parties. Please see the slide show of all our Christmas events. 

Merry Christmas to you all.

A big 'Thank you' to SAPTA for organising our Christmas Fair on Friday 30th November.  The afternoon was a great success and got better and better with a special visit from Father Christmas. Many parents have talked about the wonderful atmosphere and the hall was full with families and children busily trying out all the many stalls, queueing excitedly for Santa's Grotto and having some very, glittery face painting! A fabulous time was had by all.

Today we celebrated ‘Children in Need’.  It was fantastic to see all of the children coming to school in their spots and dots and having lots of fun filling up our drawing of Pudsey bear on the playground with their spare change. A total of £453.29 was raised for Children In Need along with a bag of foreign currency which was donated to the Royal British Legion.  Thank you as always for your generous support.

It is with much reflection that we approach remembrance weekend.  Our thoughts and prayers are for those who have lost their lives and for those that remain in sufferance from the devastating effects of war.  Some of our parents kindly arranged for a poppy wreath from our school to be laid at the Hoddesdon Remembrance service on Sunday 11th November 2018. 

Families have been leaving their prayers on our Remembrance tree for loved one’s past and present. 

On Wednesday 7th November Year 6 met with the Crucial Crew team at Herts. Regional College.  They were delivered a personal safety educational message in preparation for secondary school through participation in a range of active scenario’s and interactive videos.  First Aid, Rail safety, Road safety, Safe/Dangerous Medicines, Water safety and Health issues were amongst the many areas covered.

The following day they performed their World War II/Remembrance Assembly with reverence as a mark of respect for the people who have lost their lives and continue to suffer in war.  An excellent portrayal.  Well done. 

On Thursday 18th October the whole school, Reception parents and family witnessed our Reception children and other new members to our school having their official welcoming to St. Augustine’s with our annual Reception Tie Ceremony. In what is always such a lovely celebration, all our new children received their Red Book for special work to be kept during their years at St. Augustine’s, their personal Bible and their school tie. The singing was beautiful and the ceremony ended on a high note with the Reception children singing ‘If I were a butterfly’ with confidence and beautiful voices. A very special "Thank you" to Mrs Blackwell and team!

As part of our celebration of Black History Month, SAPTA funded a Steel Pan Workshop for the whole school to take part in on Tuesday 16th October. The workshop provided each year group with the opportunity to learn about the music of the Steel Pans and how to play them. The children did amazingly well and it was a pleasure to see so many parents joining us at the end of the day to share in the experience. A ‘Big Thank You’ to SAPTA for funding this special event.

On Friday 28th September 2018, we held our annual MacMillan Coffee morning where we sold cakes, coffee and tea. A big thank you to SAPTA for assisting us with this.

During the morning, Mrs Napier was brave enough to have her hair cut off in order to fundraise for Isabel Hospice! Mrs Napier donated her hair to The Little Princesses Trust who provide real hair wigs, free of charge to children and young people up to the age of 24 that have sadly lost their own hair due to cancer. We would like to express our gratitude to Ms Phelps who took time out of her day to style Mrs Napier's new haircut!

A huge amount of generosity was displayed throughout the morning which was heart warming to see. Thank you to our school community for your support and donations to such worthy causes.

Amongst the many events this week has brought, one that has stood out is our CAFOD assembly on the 1st October led by the CAFOD representative Mrs Kavanagh.  Once again, she provided a crucial insight into the magnificent work CAFOD do around the world. 

On the afternoon of Wednesday 12th September, Father Philip celebrated our first Whole School Mass of the academic year.  It was lovely to see so many parents joining us for this special event.