11 February 2022

We’ve made it through to the end of term and a big thank you to all the children, staff, Governors and of course to you, parents and carers.

Thank you for working with us to maintain sensible safety measures to keep everyone safe and healthy. We have been luckier than a lot of other schools that have suffered high levels of pupil and staff absences, however, we still need to be cautious moving forward.

Wellbeing week

“Emotions are important and you have to feel all the emotions. If you don’t feel sad, then you won’t know what other people feel when they are sad. It helps you to be a better person.”

(Billy, Year 4)

I chose Billy’s quote for my newsletter because it so aptly describes why it is important to experience a range of emotions. We have introduced a new initiative called ‘zones of regulation’ which help children talk about emotions and how to deal with them. It encourages them to realise that all emotions are important and finding ways to cope with them is an important part of life.

The children have been incredibly responsive and found it to be a useful tool to nurture emotional development. We will explain more about this initiative and will be uploading videos next term, where children present their ideas and explain how the zones of regulation work. Please do talk to them about it.

It has been a pleasure seeing many of you come in to read with your children and enjoy breakfast together. Our morning exercise sessions and Tai-Chi/Qi-Gong have been a great success along with the daily art sessions after school. It was nice to see adults working with children to paint a picture to reflect their interests and represent feelings. We will use the artwork produced to create a mosaic which will be displayed in both schools.

Do look at the montage of photos celebrating wellbeing week

Finally, thanks to Mrs Mangan, we are promoting a Healthy Eating app (courtesy of the NHS).

Follow the link here for more details

Parent/teacher contact meetings

These will be held the week we return to school. Meetings will be face to face and as follows:

Nursery, Reception, Class 1S, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 & Year 5: Tuesday, 22nd February (3.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.) and Thursday, 24th February (3.30 p.m. – 6.45 p.m.)
Year 6: Tuesday, 22nd February (3.30 p.m. – 6.45 p.m.) & Wednesday, 23rd February (3.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.)
Class 1E: Thursday, 24th February (3.30 p.m. – 6.45 p.m.)

Bookings will open on Friday, 11th February at 4.30 p.m. and close on 20 February 2022 at midnight. You will need to book via St Joseph’s App.

Please see the following page on the website for information on the App.

Download a user guide on how to book an appointment here

The App is working well and over 64% of parents/carers in Juniors and over 75% in Infants have now logged into it. I hope it will be 100% by the time I send my next newsletter! Thank you to all who entered the prize draw for the £25 vouchers; we will announce the winners after the half-term so please check your emails and also the ‘in-mail’ of St Joseph’s App.

Book Week : 28.2.22 – 4.3.22

Mrs Tope and Ms Bickmore have been busy organising a range of activities that will not only promote our drive to read for pleasure but give children the opportunity to be creative through the use of drama, art, maths, science and writing.

Click here for their letter and the schedule of activities

Primary Careers Week : 21.3.22 – 25.3.22

“Aim high and dream big!”

We will be organising a careers week commencing Monday, 21st March. There will be guest speakers from different professions, talking to the children about their roles and qualities/qualifications needed to enter each profession.

If you can spare some time to come and talk to the children about your job, we would be delighted to hear from you. Mr Defty will send out a questionnaire next term asking for volunteers.

It is so important to aim high and encourage children to think about their future careers. We have made contact with an accomplished former pupil, Ms Sharnette Donacien who wrote the book ‘Ada’s Wash Day’ and hope to arrange a zoom meeting with her during book week or careers week.

Download information about the book

Better still read it this half term. It’s fabulous for any age.

How great would it be if some of our pupils choose to be writers and we publish their work in time to come!

Half-term

Have a relaxing fun-filled half term and encourage the children to read regularly over the week. Take them to the Library if possible to enjoy the vast selection of books available. Do refer to the class reading lists on year groups Google classrooms.

I look forward to welcoming you back on Monday, 21st February 2022.

Mrs L Fernandes
Headteacher