Jerusalema On Thursday 16th December 1845, five Loreto sisters arrived in Gibraltar. Having travelled for 8 days on a ship called The Royal Tar, they spent the night on board before being rowed ashore the next day. They were accompanied by the Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar, the Right Reverend Henry Hughes.
Bishop Hughes had raised the standards of education for boys and turned his attention to developing education for girls. He approached Mother Teresa Ball – Foundress of Loreto in Ireland – who agreed to send the first Loreto Sisters to the Rock.
On Wednesday 17th December 1845, the sisters were transported by carriage from the quayside down Main Street to the Cathedral. The bells rang in welcome, troops lined the streets and a group of dignitaries welcomed the nuns to Gibraltar.
175 years later, their legacy and tradition continue unbroken in the Loreto Convent School of today.
As GBC Open Day falls on the same day as the arrival of the nuns, we will be donating £1,750 to mark the 175 years Loreto has been in Gibraltar.
The Loreto crest will be projected on to the Moorish Castle on the 16th and 17th December to mark this historic event.
In school, we will be talking to the children about this important historical event and working on projects to mark this year over the next 12 months. To get celebrations off to a flying start, Ms Sciacaluga, supported by Mrs Simpson and past-pupil Conor McGibney, have prepared a video treat for you.
With a huge thank you to all the teachers, staff and pupils for taking part, we hope you enjoy the Loreto Convent School response to the Jerusalema Challenge.
A Christmas Coding This half term year 4 pupils have been introduced to teh Scratch programming language. The pupils have been given a Christmas themed story project where they are creating their characters, backgrounds and coding this to automate their story.
Faith Diary Our Advent journey is about waiting, wonder and welcome; about prayer, preparation and the promise of approaching Salvation. On this ‘Gaudete’ or ‘Rejoicing’ Sunday, over half way through Advent, the priest reflects the joy of the church by wearing rose or violet vestments, and lights the pink candle on the Advent wreath to celebrate that the coming of Christ, the Light of the World, foretold by the ancient prophets and announced by John the Baptist, is now very near.
Christmas Jumper Day Pupils support Save The Children by participating in the annual Christmas Jumper day. We hope to have raised over £400.00 for the charity and we thank everyone for their support.
PE Is Key This week children have been learning about the key words used in Gymnastics and how they can help us in other sports.
Maths Mastery Year 5 pupils have achieved awards for Maths Mastery. Ms Lombard's class have successfully completed Mastery lessons in Geometry. The children loved the challenge and worked with Pi, using the proper formula to work out the circumference and the area of circles, Well done Year 5.
Parent's Weekly Focus - Stay Safe At Christmas This week's online safety focus for parents is looking at a guide to stay safe over Christmas. With technology gifts being high on wish lists each year it is important to ensure that you and your children are safe when playing with new devices. To help you over the holidays, we've set out a few top tips to help keep your household safe online.
Hamper Donations We have received a huge response this year to our Christmas initiative to collect food items for families in Gibraltar who may not otherwise enjoy much Christmas cheer. Led by Miss Smith and supported by our Class Representatives, shopping bags have been arriving in school for the past three weeks. Elves from Year 6 helped to load the food into a van this morning. We are working with leaders from the Youth Service who will be sorting and distributing hampers to families and elderly people in Gibraltar who would benefit from a little extra over Christmas.
THANKYOU TO YOU ALL!
First School's Gold Book These children have been awarded certificates and gold pencils in recognition of hard work and excellent effort.
Brilliant Balance! Take a look at Almudena, Sophie and James who are demonstrating great strength, balance and control in this frog balance.
Sustainable Decorations Outside our Library we have our Christmas tree where pupils can make a sustainable decoration which can be placed to bedeck our tree.
Creative Cards Year 3 made a Christmas tree card to say thank you to Mrs MacGregor’s mum who knitted a lovely stocking for every child. What a kind lady. Even the elves were impressed!
Year 2 Our class elf has come to visit us in year 2! Let's hope the children are all behaving well! The children also get into the Christmas spirit ahead of our last week of school.
Library Update Our Library Prefects Nico and Victoria have been busy this week with the following awards: Year 2
Bella Vivescu 20Points
Bianca Personeni 20 Points Year 3
Sophia Machin 60 Points Year 4
Cecilia Alarcon Bravo 100 Points
Victor Chaudhary also received a reader badge last week.
Class Christmas Performances This year we have been unable to invite parents into school as normal to watch the children perform their Christmas Plays. On Friday18th December, each class will have uploaded to Microsoft Teams their performance for parents to view online.
