Christmas Bazaar - a great success

Many thanks to all those who helped making this event happen, either organising before the event or running the bazaar on the day. It is a great event that the pupils love!
It also is a great fundraiser, particularly this year raising over £1,000 towards Our lady's new library.

Also before term ends, don't forget to buy a 2015 Our Lady's wall calendar which are on sale in the school's office. Each pupil has drawn a self-portrait drawing which appears on the month of their birthday.
It is only £4 and would be a lovely household Christmas present.

Christmas Bazaar tomorrow

The PTA have been busy sorting and organising all the lovely Christmas goods for tomorrow's Bazaar.

The children always have a lovely time selecting gifts for their families. Remember to give them £3-5 (or an affordable amount!) and a plastic bag for their goodies.
This year we are having a Christmas Bazaar for our parents from 3- 5pm and there will be a glass of mulled wine too!

Christmas Shoebox Challenge - a big thanks!

Many thanks for the support of the Christmas Shoebox Challenge. The turnout of beautiful wrapped shoeboxes was amazing to see in our school hall. They were then sent to St Joseph's School to be distributed to pupils at the school and surrounding area.

 

Linda Freestone, the Chair of the friends of St Joseph's School sent a special message to our school;

 

"We are really grateful to all who made this possible. Sister Mary is delighted to have been given this opportunity to bring some joy to the children of St Joseph’s and the surrounding community in this time of real hardship"

 

If anyone is interested in giving further, the fundraising page to help support Sister Mary's work is still open www.virginmoneygiving/team/ebola4

 

 

Come to our Bingo night next Friday 14th November

Come and join other families at our popular Bingo night, with the lovely Mrs Wootton calling the numbers. As well as it being a fun family-friendly activity you may get to meet some new OL parents and possibly win a prize! 

Please note you can buy your bingo cards on the evening . The doors will open at 6.30pm ready for a 7.00pm start

You can buy soft drinks and sweets for the children at the tuck shop but are welcome to bring your own drinks and snacks. 

During the interval we will serve a fish and chip supper, £5 for fish and chips and £2 for chips. Remember to give in your order form, which was sent home in your school bag, and relevant money to the school office (with attention of  Our lady's PA) by Tuesday 11th.

We hope to see you there!

Mrs Majcher and the lovely cake that was enjoyed by the children, staff and parents after Mass at the end of term celebration on Friday 24th October. Thank you Mrs Majcher and we hope everyone has a restful half term.

You're invited into the school on Friday 24th at 2.40pm

Join the Head, Mrs Majcher and your children in the school hall for a slice of cake and a cup of tea together before the half term break.

Annual Welcome Meeting

We held a very successful Annual Welcome Meeting last Thursday night and were delighted to see new faces and plenty of staff members present.

  

This year we have tried to change the structure of the PTA a little and rather than having a small committee group with responsibility for all events to have a larger group of volunteers doing small jobs. 

Rachel Midgley will remain as Treasurer and Amanda Foulds has kindly agreed to act as Secretary. However, we have no Chairperson and would welcome anyone who would like to volunteer for the position. Assuming the grand plan of delegating duties to a larger group works, then this role should involve little more than coordinating efforts and liaising with staff and volunteers. If you would like to know more please do just get in touch.

You can read the full minutes of the meeting here.

Tea & Cake

We will be having a Meet & Greet session over tea and cake on October 7th at 2pm.

Come along for a cuppa, meet other parents and find out about what we do.

Annual Welcome Meeting

Our Annual Welcome Meeting (yes, it's an AGM but friendlier!) will be held on Thursday October 16th at 7pm.

This is your chance to come and have your say about what the PTA does, how we fundraise, what the money is spent on and generally what you think. If you don't tell us, we will never know!

We'll try to keep the meeting to an hour but if you can't make it and would like to contribute something please just email us.

We are still looking for class reps for some classes, desperately need someone to coordinate the Christmas bazaar and generally would love any assistance big or small. The more people that get invovled the more events we can run and the more we can help out with our children's school.

Hope to see you there!

End of Year Party

The sun shone and the music played at the end of year party last night, a fine farewell to departing teachers Mr Roberts and Mrs Hastings. Following a mass to celebrate their years of hard work and dedication to Our Lady's there was a barbecue, live music and lots of fun for families in the school grounds.

Thanks to everyone who came along and enjoyed the fun!

A picnic on the grass.

The fabulous XES who kept us all entertained.

Enjoying scratch art, gliders and loom bands on the craft table.

Crafts galore.

Chilling our in the evening sun.

The lovely people behind the party.

The exhausted chefs!

Thank you!

Huge thanks to everyone who helped to organise, sort donations, set up, man stalls and clean up again on the day of the fete! Extra special thanks to Mr Marshall for a day getting soaked in the stocks.Without you all this wonderful summer celebration would never happen.

The fete raised well over £1,000 for the school and this figure will increase once we sell off leftover stock. 

Roll Up, Roll Up! It's time for the Summer Fete!

 

Our Lady's School Summer Fete, June 7th 11.30am-3pm

The Summer Fete is just around the corner and it's shaping up to be one of our best year with a vintage theme to help celebrate out 80+ years in the community. There will be lots of vintage cars on display, plenty of retro games and music and we're hoping everyone will come in period dress to be in with a chance to win a prize for the most convincing period costume. We'll have a collection of stalls and games, live music, dancing, martial arts and plenty of exciting fresh food on offer. 

We do need your help to pull it off however! If you can volunteer to man a stall for a couple of hours, can help make food, help early in the morning to set up or in the late afternoon to tidy up, that would be hugely appreciated. We also need donations for our bottle stall, and if you're having a clear out would love any good quality toys, games, CDs, DVDs or books you no longer want for our second-hand stalls.

This is the Friends' biggest event of the year, please help out if you can. All money raised goes right back into the school to fund equipment, projects or trips for our children.

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who came along to bingo night on Friday. The evening was great fun and raised £250 which will go towards playground improvements.

Many thanks to Miss Boggs and Mr Roberts for running the show so superbly!

Bingo Night on Friday!

Friday night is Bingo Night!

If you would like a fish and chip supper on the night orders need to be in by tomorrow Wednesday 7th May. Bingo tickets can be bought on the night.

Doors open 6pm, eyes down 6.30pm.

Drinks and snacks will be available or the night or you can bring your own.

Easter Raffle

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets for the Easter raffle which raised a wonderful £230 for the school.  

Congratulations to all the winners:

1st prize: Bethany Hewer

2nd Prize: Joseph Diaz 

3rd prize: Acer McDonald 

4th prize: Steven Wilkinson  

5th prize: Craig Wooton

World Book Day

The playground was a sea of fancy costumes yesterday and it was great to see so many children and teachers getting into the spirit of the day. All children should have received a book from the PTA for World Book Day today, happy reading!

A thank you card to the PTA from Miss Boggs' class.

Quiz Night & Cake Sales

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Quiz Night and especially to Miss Boggs for organising the quiz itself. It was a really enjoyable night with some highly competitive teams getting very high scores!

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who came along on the night and helped out. The quiz raised £140 for playground improvements.

Foundation held their cake sale on Shrove Tuesday and raised £240 for class supplies. Huge thanks to all the parents who baked cakes and helped set up, sell and clear up on the day.  

Quiz Night February 28th, 7pm

Don't miss our bumper Quiz Night on Friday!

Doors open at 6.30pm. Tickets: £3 per adult, £1 per child.   

All proceeds towards playground improvements.

Teams should have four to eight people and should include one child. Don't worry if you are on your own or don't have a child with you, we can match people up on the night to make up teams. There will be prizes for each round, plus a grand prize of £50 for the overall winning team.

    If you would like fish and chips you need to get your orders in by Tuesday 25th at the latest. Chips alone cost £2, fish and chips £5. There will be a tuck shop selling sweets and drinks, though you're also welcome to bring your own.

The summer fête is fast approaching!

The school summer fête will be held on Saturday June 7th and this year we are having a vintage theme to tie in with our 80+ years in the community.

     We will be asking everyone to come in some sort of period dress - there's plenty to choose from so get thinking! Could you be a 1930s flapper, a war time land girl, 50s housewife, 60s hippie, 70s punk or 80s pop star? There will be prizes for the best dressed on the day.

     We are hoping to have some vintage cars on display, plenty of stalls to reflect the retro theme and lots of fantastic games and entertainment. This is the biggest PTA event of the year and we really need your help to get everything organised.

     Please think about getting involved with the organisation, running a stall, cooking for our food hall or pulling in some favours to get friends or family to help out in some way.

     Do you know anyone in a band who might play on the day? Do you take part in a sport or activity which could be turned into a display? Know anyone with a vintage car? Could you run a stall, even for part of the day? Could your work place donate a raffle prize?

     If you're planning a clear out please do keep any unwanted books, toys, CDs, DVDs or games for our second-hand stalls.

   The more people who help, the better the day. We'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas or suggestions.

Join our Facebook Group

In an effort to reconnect past pupils and gather stories and photos about the school in the past we've set up a Facebook page for Our Lady's. Click here to join up!

Mr Ernest Wright (85) from Abingdon, one of the school's oldest known graduates with Neven B (4), one of the youngest children in Foundation, pictured at our recent story gathering coffee morning at the school.

New Year News

Happy New Year to everyone! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Cowley News
We're off to a good start to 2014 with two articles in the current edition of Cowley News. There should be some copies of the paper in reception soon or you can pick them up at Temple Cowley swimming pool just inside the front door.

BBC Radio Oxford, Thursday 16th January about 10.30am
Mrs Webb and Sr. Anne shall be speaking on the Malcolm Boyden Show on BBC Radio Oxford on Thursday about the school's history and encouraging listeners to send in their memories as part of our upcoming celebrations for our 80+ years in the community. Listen in for some fascinating stories about our school's past.

Miss Evans' Class Cake Sale
Just before the Chritsmas holidays Miss Evans' class organised a fantastic cake sale raining £200 for class supplies. Thanks to all parents who baked and helped out on the day.