Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment via our X page @st_swinton
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NSPCC Number Day!
Fri 07 Feb 2020Today the children have come to school wearing Numbers!! Thank you for all your kind donations for the NSPCC! We started the day with an excellent assembly by year 1 and have enjoyed a day filled with maths games!! Please visit our gallery for more photos! (Gallery is under the Children’s Tab)
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Capacity Fun in the rain
Fri 07 Feb 2020It might be NSPCC Number Day today in school but last week Year 3 braved the rain and went outside to have fun in a practical lesson run by Miss Clarke.
They had different containers and had to estimate the capacity, measure it and then work out the difference. Some results may have been different due to the rain falling down but what a great lesson!
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Year 6 discover careers at the Inflatable Manchester Museum
Fri 07 Feb 2020Yesterday, Year 6 experienced a real treat, as the Inflatable Manchester Museum came to our school hall!
We were split into four teams, with each team given a different career relating to some of the artefacts in the museum:
Geologists : We study rocks and minerals. We look at things that have never been alive. We look at how the environment has changed over millions of years.
Palaeontologists : We study things from a very long time ago - before humans were alive! We look at fossils of plants, animals and dinosaurs. We look at things that used to be alive millions of year ago. We study what the environment used to be like.
Archaeologists : We study human history, and objects that have been made. we dig artefacts and human remains out of the ground. We study people who were once alive, and things that were never alive. We look at how humans have lived in the environment over thousands of years.
Ecologists : We study nature. We look at animals and plants that are alive, or have been alive recently. We look at how different plants and animals work together in their habitat. We look at how humans are affecting the environment.
After a general talk about how to handle artefacts carefully (remember those detective fingers, Year 6!), each group was given a tray of objects to investigate. We had to deduce what each artefact was, and then decide which one would be of most use to our groups, based on the job descriptions above.
Every group got to look at all the artefacts, and we learnt lots of things about them. Three of our favourite items were the scarab beetle from Ancient Egypt, the megalodon tooth and the mole!
A reminder to all our children, and especially Year 6:
Manchester Museum is a great place to visit, it's free to enter and it is nearby - on Oxford Road, Manchester.
It's brilliant for Year 6 particularly, and they have some of Charles Darwin's finches there (which link to our Science topic of Evolution and Inheritance). On the top floor, in their tropical vivarium, you can see some amazing Costa Rican frogs (which link in well with our Geography work this term).
At half-term they have extra activities on for children, so if you have the chance then it's well worth a trip.
You can visit the Museum website here, to find out more about what they have to offer:
https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/
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St Mary's Excel Again at the Tag Rugby Finals
Thu 06 Feb 2020There's a strong tradition of rugby now at St Mary's and our teams continue to show their quality and they have done again today.
After making it through the preliminaries last year today was the finals of the Salford Schools Tag Rugby Tournament at the AJ Bell Stadium. We were up against the other five group winners and boy did we give it a really good go.
We won the first two games - the first a thumping 4-1 victory over St Joseph's with tries from Joshua (2), Archie & Kian. The second giving us the local derby bragging rights against Broadoak as we triumphed 3-1 with Josh, Oliver and Aaron bundling over the line with some excellent straight running and dodging those grasping hands.
In the third game we came up against St Paul's and it was real end to end stuff which is reflected in the scoreline as it ended in the narrowest of losses - 4-3 but the highlight came from Sophie running through to score her maiden try. Even more sweeter as she was captain for the game.
We managed to draw the next game 3-3 against Light Oaks who just sneaked the equaliser on the very last play as we failed to capitalise on our early lead. The team's heads never went down though - St Mary's resilience and perseverance shining through and we went into the last game against Holy Family and gave it our all, again narrowly losing 3-2 although we almost got the draw with Jake just being forced out at the end.
However as the format was a mini-league, the amount of tries we scored, the two victories and a draw, meant we sneaked into third place which is absolutely fantastic. The third best team in Salford is quite a satisfying end to the campaign.
Well done to the whole team today - Faye, Niamh, Sophie, Joshua, Jake, Oliver, Archie, Conor, Alex, Theo, Kian & Aaron for their outstanding performances and the school, staff, parents and children of St Mary's are very proud of you.
But we couldn't have managed it without the brilliant leadership of our Head Coach - Alfie! If anyone shows that sporting spirit and how you should never give up, the optimism that we will triumph then it is this young man. Well done Alfie for leading the energy in the team. We couldn't have done it without you.
Enjoy the pictures and there are a few videos in the Video Resource Section of the website - enjoy Sophie's mazy run.
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Year 3 travel to the Inflatable Museum
Thu 06 Feb 2020The children couldn't wait for today's visit to the Museum. We didn't have to travel on a coach and sit in traffic though! Today the museum came to us!
The children had a great experience handling artefacts and using their Scientific knowledge and creative minds to guess where and what the artefacts were.
We had Megalodon teeth, animals fossils, dinosaur fossils, Egyptian jewellery, rocks and a scarab beetle. We found out today that the Egyptians worshipped the scarab beetle because, like a dung beetle that pushes a big ball across the ground, they believed the scarab beetles pushes the sun up in the morning and then across the sky!
Well done Year 3 - you were brilliant today and hopefully the museum has lots of half term adventures on. Maybe we'll see you down there!
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Year 2 non-fiction texts investigation
Thu 06 Feb 2020Year 2 have been doing some non-fiction book investigations and finding features on non-fiction texts. They have created their own glossary with the help of a dictionary, labelled pictures and created captions. Now all we have to do is find some fabulous facts to complete our very own non-fiction text.
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Year 2 Gymnastics
Thu 06 Feb 2020Year 2 have had a fabulous half term of gymnastics, mastering basic skills, and developing balancing, coordination and control through a variety of activities. They have demonstrated excellent team work by helping one another, building each others confidence and giving each other praise when needed.
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Year 1 Field trip
Thu 30 Jan 2020Year 1 have enjoyed following an aerial map of St Mary’s grounds to locate human and physical features in geography today!
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Year 4 Historical Researchers.
Thu 30 Jan 2020In our English and history lessons we have been learning about the Ancient Greeks and how they have influenced our lives today. We have used the internet to research the different gods and goddesses from ancient Greek times before choosing one to do an in-depth report on him/her. We have used our computing time to use the word package to type up our reports too.
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Measles in Greater Manchester
Wed 29 Jan 2020Measles is circulating in Greater Manchester
Measles is extremely infectious and can be serious. Ensure your children are protected.
- Make sure your children get two MMR vaccines on time; the first at 1 year of age and the second at 3 years, 4 months
- If you or your children missed these vaccines, it’s not too late. Ask for the free vaccine from your family doctor (GP) if you or your children aren’t up-to-date
- If you have symptoms of measles, stay at home and phone your GP or NHS 111 for advice. STAY AWAY from GP surgeries and A&E departments – you could spread the illness to others
- Symptoms include: high fever; sore red, watery eyes; coughing; aching and feeling generally unwell; a blotchy red brown rash, which usually appears after the first symptoms
- Go to www.nhs.uk for more measles information
Symptoms:
* Rash
* Temperature
* Runny nose
* Red eyes
* Cough
