Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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FUN AT ENGINUITY!
Wed 03 Nov 2021Year 4 visited Enginuity Science Museum as part of their Vehicle for learning. They showed amazing teamwork and fantastic skills when making an electrical buggy. The staff said they were brilliantly behaved and the first class to manage to get all of the buggies working. We now have even more great ideas for our end of term Science Fair. Well done Year 4!
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WORLD RECORD DONATION TO MARY'S MEALS
Tue 09 Mar 2021Painsley Catholic Academy has raised £120,000 for the global school feeding charity, Mary’s Meals, an amount that beats any other single donation from an academy. The impressive donation is enough to feed almost 8,000 children for a whole school year through Mary’s Meals.
Back at the start of the academic year in September 2019, the 15 schools within The Painsley Catholic Academy, pledged to raise £100,000 for their chosen charity, Mary’s Meals, in a campaign they called 20:20 for Mary.
The aim was originally to meet this target by the end of the school year in July 2020. Pupils and staff undertook a massive range of events including cake sales, sponsored silences, sponsored head-shaves, sky dives, mountain climbs, bike rides, car washes and porridge breakfasts.
Since then, Covid has pretty much changed everything over the past 12 months. Plans have had to be cancelled and put on hold and schools had to change how they operate completely. Despite all the challenges that the schools have faced, the students, staff and parents have continued in their support of this charity, finding ever more inventive ways of raising the cash resulting in a fantastic outcome.
Mr Steve Bell, Chief Executive Officer of The Painsley Catholic Academy commented, “Mary’s Meals is a very popular charity with our pupils. It is a simple charity and that is what we like. It costs just £15.90 to feed a child with Mary’s Meals for an entire school year. Research shows that children who eat Mary’s Meals: have more energy, feel healthier and happier, find it easier to concentrate and do better in school. The school that we were raising funds for is Kafumphe Primary School, Dowa, Malawi; one of the world’s poorest countries where many families live through farming, but struggle to grow enough food.”
Mr Bell continued, “Our pupils loved the thought that by raising just £15.90, they would enable a child to eat a nutritious meal every day and attend school for a whole year. However, then the pandemic began. We realised that asking for sponsored events was not feasible, and on March 23rd 2020, our schools closed their doors to most pupils. However, the children and staff were adamant that they wanted to continue their fundraising efforts. The deadline for the target was extended until December 2020 with a view to raising as much as we could. This determination was underlined by the fact that the Kafumphe Primary School also had to close and the pupils would potentially not receive any food.”
During the pandemic, Mary’s Meals is providing children with food at home, until it is safe for them to return to the classroom. Parents and guardians collect the food from a central distribution point – observing all necessary hygiene and social distancing measures. Soap is distributed along with handwashing guidance to help support communities’ resilience to the virus.
Gillian McMahon, Director of Supporter Engagement and Income at Mary’s Meals, said: “We never cease to be amazed by the creative and committed fundraising efforts of the pupils and schools who support our work. The amount raised by Painsley Catholic Academy is so impressive. We are immensely grateful to everyone involved for their extraordinary fundraising efforts. This will help to transform the lives of children in Malawi so they receive nutritious meals, supporting them to feel healthier and happier and making it easier for them to concentrate in school. It’s clear that raising these funds have also proved life-changing in a different way for the pupils who took part, really demonstrating that so many little acts of kindness can make such a big difference. One of the core values of Mary’s Meals is that the charity believes in the innate goodness of people. There is no doubt that the pupils of The Painsley Catholic Academy have demonstrated this goodness.”
Mr Bell adds, “More important than the value of the fundraising, are the values that the pupils have learned along this difficult journey at this seemingly impossible time. We must look after each other regardless of where we live, our gender, our background, our colour, our faith. We are one human race in this battle together. The pupils, through their individual acts of kindness, will collectively be providing 7862 children with meals for a whole year.”
The celebrations of this achievement have had to be low key due to the current restrictions. However, the students who attend the schools within the academy, and the wider communities who have all played a part in the fundraising were delighted to receive a video thank you message from Founder and Global Chief Executive of Mary’s Meals, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.
In this video, Magnus says, “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done, your incredible 20:20 for Mary campaign. You’ve ensured that the children at Kafumphe Primary School can carry on eating, so on their behalf, I thank you with all my heart.”
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BWH COMPETITION FOR YEAR 5
Thu 25 Feb 2021Blessed William Howard is running a competition called' Lockdown Diaries' with the local Catholic primary schools. There are two tasks - the first one asks students to take a meaningful photograph of a scene that represents how they feel about the national lockdown. The photograph needs to be in black and white but can include special effects. The second task looks at the spoken word and requires students to write a poem of approximately 40 words.
The deadline for entries is 29th March. Winning entries will be published on the school websites and social media, as well as in the BWH Parent Bulletin. Good luck, everyone!
Thanks
Mr Burton
Head of Year 7 at Blessed William Howard
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PAINSLEY CATHOLIC COLLEGE TO BECOME TEACHING HUB
Fri 12 Feb 2021Painsley selected to provide high-quality professional development to teachers and leaders.
Painsley Catholic College has been selected to become a teaching school hub.
Teachers across the country will benefit from vital developmental support and expert advice, allowing them to improve a broad range of vital teaching skills, under plans announced by the Department for Education today.
The teaching workforce will get best-practice and expert advice on how best to engage with pupils, lesson planning, and classroom management, as the teaching school hubs programme is rolled out across the country.
Painsley is one of the 81 schools in England selected to be designated as a new teaching school hub.
Mrs Rachel Waugh, Principal at Painsley Catholic College commented, ““We are delighted to have been successfully designated as a teaching school hub. It is an important development for the continued professional development of teachers and leaders in education. We are thrilled to be at the forefront of training to ensure the highest quality of teaching and leadership in schools for the benefit of the staff and young people we serve.”
The teaching school programme was announced in 2019 and was followed by a procurement to successfully appoint six test and learn hubs (appointed in January 2020).
The 81 new hubs will be rolled out in addition to those six existing test & learn TSH, meaning there will be nationwide coverage for the first time, and that every school in England will now have access to a local centre of excellence for teacher training.
81 hubs will be added in all corners of the country to provide high-quality professional development to teachers and leaders at all stages of their career and play a key role in helping to build up trainee teachers as they enter the workforce. This will further level up the quality of teaching, allowing every child to receive a world-class start in life no matter where they are born.
Each hub, all of which will be operational and helping schools from this September, will have its own defined geographical patch and will be expected to be accessible to all schools within that area, serving on average around 250 schools each.
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Y5 VISIT
Thu 15 Oct 2020Year 5 took a ‘Step Back in Time’ yesterday as part of their curriculum vehicle.
They had an amazing day at The Ancient High House in Stafford.
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WARNING LOCKDOWN FLASH BACK!
Thu 15 Oct 2020We have just had a message from all the Robots created by Year 1 and 2 during lockdown claiming their robot dancing is far more impressive that KS2’s Rockstar moves -I think this calls for a dance off!
So we would like to invite all those children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 to brush off their best robot outfits and join KS2 in dressing up as a robot on Wednesday 21st October.
On the day you will have a chance to update your robot avatar and revisit the Numbot stories and challenges. (More information to follow through school email and class pages on the website).
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E SAFETY
Thu 15 Oct 2020The children have been using a range of resources including Childnet.com and Thinkuknow.org to find out more about how to stay safe on digitally enabled devices!
The displays are looking fab and are a great reminder to all those using the computing room about how to keep safe.
Your children are now equipped with strategies to stay safe, are you?
Click on the link https://www.st-austins.org.uk/e-safety-1/ to access the school e-safety page and check out resources for Parents/Carers.
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BWH SCHOOL HOLIDAY CLUBS
Thu 15 Oct 2020
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TRAVEL TO SCHOOL
Tue 25 Aug 2020Government advice is to walk, cycle or scoot to school if you can.
With less people expected on the buses, we’re expecting far more congestion, which also leads to air pollution and parking problems around our school.
We are calling on parents to keep the area around our school clear and safe by walking, scooting or cycling to school from next week.
Please use the map to help you plan your route to school.
Try out your new walking, cycling or scooting route to school this week - check out the green spaces around the area to see the world you’re protecting!
We know t it can be hard to get round the problems stopping you walking, cycling or scooting to school. You can find great tips to help you at https://bit.ly/ActiveTravelStaffs and make the school run more fun!
Please walk to school if you can! #activetravelheroes
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Y5 CREATIVE COMPETITION
Thu 11 Jun 2020
