Furry Friends and Creepy Crawlies!

22nd March 2025Fiona Kirrane

As part of our Science unit:  ‘Animals Including Humans’, we had a hands-on morning getting to know some wild and wonderful creatures!

The children were able to encounter lop-eared rabbits, guinea pigs , a blue-tongued skink, a python and even a tarantula! It was a wonderful opportunity to experience the animals and reptiles and all of the children had the chance to hold and stroke each animal in turn. Some of us even overcame our fear of snakes and spiders!. What a morning!

Thank you to Claire from Animal Encounters for sharing her vast knowledge with us and for allowing the children the opportunity to experience the animals first hand! We really enjoyed our time with you and learnt a lot!

Alton Castle Retreat 2025!

20th March 2025Fiona Kirrane

Year 5 had a fantastic time making memories of a lifetime this week at our Alton Castle retreat!

On Monday afternoon, we waved the parents and carers off and went on our way. There was a mix of anticipation and nerves as we departed which all changed to excitement as we neared our destination.

 

Upon arrival we were warmly greeted by the Alton team and sent off to our rooms to unpack and set about making our own beds which was a sight to behold in many cases! We spent some time getting used to our new surroundings in the beautiful castle and met for our first meal together with our co-residents, The Abbey School from Birmingham.

Our first activity of the evening was to conquer the Night-Line challenge by supporting and guiding each other through the darkness as we followed a rope-trail through the woods and over rocks and tree trunks. The children did incredibly well and worked hard to help each other making sure no-one was left behind and that everyone returned to the starting point safely.

We ended the day with evening prayer and reflected on the theme of our retreat ‘Come Close, Listen to the Story’ as we listened to the story  ‘You Are Special’ read to us by one of the Alton staff, Elisha.

Before bed, we were treated to a cup of hot chocolate and we settled down for the night; ready for Day 2.

 

We woke bright and early (some of us earlier than others!) and headed down for breakfast. We were split into two groups, Scahill and De Verdun and we ventured off for an action-packed morning of mountain biking and survival skills.

The cycling route took us along an old railway track with beautiful scenery along the way. We found some parts fun and some parts challenging but it was all good fun. We stopped mid-way for a time of reflection and meditation in our surroundings as we ‘Came Close and Listened to the Story.’

Survival Skills was all about learning new techniques. We learned how to survive a night in the great outdoors – lighting fires, tying knots and building dens. It was a great opportunity for team-work and for trying out new things.

After a quick lunch we were sent off for the afternoon; De Verdun to the low ropes and Scahill on an 5k trek through the fields to the summit; a local cave.

 

After our busy afternoon of adventures we had time for a visit to the Tuck Shop, a tasty dinner and then we were off to Mass and Celebration of the Word – Prayer and Scripture with Father Chris. The Church of St John the Baptist at Alton is a beautiful historic building designed by architect Augustus Pugin. We took time to take-in the beauty of the ornate statues and decor and spent time listening to prayer and scripture and reflecting on the season of Lent. Special thanks to Aurora, Rafferty, Jonah and Sadie for reading at the mass and to Finn for doing the offertory.

The remainder of the evening was spent at a social gathering with the our co-residents from The Abbey. The Alton team hosted games, singing and dancing and the children had great fun showing off their dance moves!

After tiring themselves out with so much dancing it was time for evening prayer and reflection and an early(ish) night. Everyone was exhausted and headed off to bed to re-charge their batteries for the final day of our retreat.

We woke early to pack and get ready for home, filled up on breakfast and headed out for our final activity session. De Verdun were off on a trek and it was Scahill’s turn for the low-ropes. There was a lot of fun had and we couldn’t have asked for better weather to enjoy our final day!

 

We waved goodbye to the Alton staff and set off for home, happy and exhausted but full of joy and memories of the fun we had together. A minor blip on the journey home caused quite a delay so we thank you for patience and understanding as we know it was a longer than anticipated arrival time. The children were in great spirits despite the gridlock!

We had a wonderful time and arrived home safely albeit a lot later than expected.

A huge thank you to Mr Cooke, Mrs McCloskey and Miss Greenway for all of their help, support, guidance and organisational skills – and for being there for Year 5’s (and Mrs Kirrane’s!) first residential trip.

Thank you also to the staff at Alton Castle for hosting us and to Father Chris for sharing the Celebration of the Word – Prayer and Scripture with us.

The children were so well behaved throughout the retreat and their friendships really shone through. They were incredibly supportive of each other when they faced personal or physical challenges which was so lovely to see and truly epitomized the All Souls ethos.  Each and every child represented All Soul’s to the highest standard and their behavior was exceptional, making us all incredibly proud of them.

Year 5 – you did it!

You are amazing!

Next stop Dol-y-Moch!

St Patrick’s Day Coffee Morning

15th March 2025Mr R YOUSON

We had a fantastic morning celebrating all things Irish at our St Patrick’s Day Coffee Morning kindly organised by All Souls’ PTA. Saint Patrick is the class Saint for our Year 5 children and they took part in hosting the morning by performing songs and acting out the story of the life of St Patrick.

We were incredibly grateful to be joined by local musicians Jarlath Mulhern and Fiona Hoey from the Comhaltas and The Wild Mountain boys, who treated us to a live performance of Irish music throughout the morning. It was wonderful to welcome Jarlath back to All Souls as he spent his school days here. Once an All Souls boy, always an All Souls boy!

Following the musicians came a spectacular performance from the Mary McHugh School of Irish Dance. Mary teaches weekly dancing  lessons at the school and pupils from Year 2 up to Year 6 put on a fantastic display for their lively audience.

The morning ended with closing prayers of the faithful, read by the Year 5 children, as we prayed for St Patrick to guide us and reflected on all those in need or suffering during this time of Lent.

A special thank you to the Coventry Irish Society for attending and supporting the event throughout and for offering their support to the Irish community across the city. Also, to our very own Mrs Edge who designed the leaflets and co-ordinated with the Irish Society and many of the artists to enable them to join us on the day.

Thank you to all parents, grand-parents and carers who baked cakes to help raise money for the school on the day and for everyone who donated to the raffle. To the Year 5 children for their St Patrick’s day performance and for helping with cake and raffle sales and representing the school so well, Mr Youson for supporting with the lights and sound and Miss McGaffney, Miss Brady, Mrs Smith, Mrs Cannon for keeping the Irish coffees flowing on the day!

A very special thank you to Mary O’Malley and Rob Hunter for their hard work in organizing the entire event and leading on the morning, it takes a lot of time and care to co-ordinate such an event and your commitment is hugely appreciated.  Thank you to all of the members of the PTA who helped in planning the day and for helping out selling raffle tickets, decorating the hall, manning the cake and coffee stalls – all of these things made the event the success that it was.

Above all – thank you to everyone who attended. The PTA were very pleased with how the morning went and the monies raised for the school. We hope you all enjoyed it too! Here are some more photos of everyone who managed to join us on this special day:

We wish you all a Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Year 5 Lenten Family Workshop

15th March 2025Fiona Kirrane

This week we hosted our Lent craft afternoon for family members, where we came together to pray and reflect on this time of spiritual preparation as we lead up to Easter. We invited our family members to join us as we read Bible scripture and offered up our Lenten intentions with the prayers of the faithful.

 

The children then shared the things that they think their adult at home should consider fasting from during Lent. There were many varied suggestions such as giving up certain types of food or drinks to adults spending less time working so that the children could spend more time with them. The most popular suggestion was for their adult to spend less time on their phone – something we are all guilty of it seems!

 

We then spent the time creating the scene from Golgotha and recreated the cross that Jesus was crucified on with moss, sand and stone. The children had some beautiful and thoughtful ideas as they reflected on how the terrain would have been at the time and how Jesus would have felt as he suffered his final hours.

We ended the afternoon by gifting each family a set of rosary beads and encouraged them to consider praying the rosary together during Lent. It was an incredibly special afternoon and so wonderful to see so many adults attend – we understand that its not always convenient with work or other commitments so we really do appreciate the time that people take out of their day. For those who couldn’t attend, the children were able to bring home the crafting items to share and make with their adult at home so we hope that everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the experience and to spend some time reflecting on this time of Lent and on God with their child.

Helping the Homeless

13th March 2025Fiona Kirrane

As part of our Lenten intentions, Year 5 have been thinking about people who are less fortunate than themselves. We decided to make food parcels for the homeless to help members of our community who rely on a local homeless shelter for food and support.

The children prepared over 30 parcels packed with a sandwich that they made themselves, a piece of fruit, a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate.

The parcels were collected by the lovely Mrs Atwal who has worked at All Souls for many years and who now works in our school nursery. Mrs Atwal kindly delivered the parcels, along with 30 bottles of water, the same day to the shelter, for them to pass on to the homeless people who use their services. The following day Mrs Atwal told us how appreciative the recipients were and how gratefully the parcels were received.

Well done Year 5 on your enthusiasm and empathy as you prepared the food and your continued interest in how we can help those around us to support and improve our local community!

TTRS

10th February 2025Mrs J Hartwell

We have been busy bees on Times Tables Rock Stars recently. 

Here are a few of our achievements: 

  • We have climbed from being ranked 27th out of our closest primary schools in Coventry to 19th this week with a mean studio of speed of 3.63 seconds per question! 
  • We now have 11 Rock Heroes amongst us – meaning their average speed of times tables recall is less than 1 second! 
  • We raised £155 for NSPCC’s Number Day and took part in their NSPCC Rocks TTRS challenge with the highest scoring class that day being Year 6.
  • We WON the Battle of the Bands tournament against Manor Park primary with Year 4 being the highest scoring class. 
  • This week we have a Battle of the Bands competition between KS2 year groups. to earn themselves some extra play!

Well done to everyone who has been working hard to improve their times tables knowledge. 

I feel a TTRS theme day coming up… watch this space! 

NSPCC Number Day!

7th February 2025Mrs J Hartwell

Thank you to all the children and staff who dressed up for digits today and celebrated this year’s Number Day – a first for All Souls!

If you can. please help us to raise money for the NSPCC charity by making a donation through School Gateway. 

We have already raised a fantastic £155!

Everything the NSPCC does protects children today and prevents abuse tomorrow. The NSPCC need our support more than ever. By raising money, we can help to fund their vital services such as Childline – the helpline that’s always there for children and young people whatever their problem or concern. On average, a child contacts Childline every 45 seconds.

Check out our gallery of mathstastic photos:

Spring Cinquains!

5th February 2025Fiona Kirrane

This week we have taken our learning outside in search of inspiration for our Spring-themed cinquain poems. The children really enjoyed spending some time the sunshine and blustery wind and drafted some excellent ideas before getting to work on forming their cinquain.  They selected their vocabulary carefully and concisely to create their poetic masterpieces! We were so pleased with the results that we have displayed the poems around our classroom. Well done Year 5!