Dear Parents/Carers, This week we have shown what a great community we are and really lived out our Mission ‘Together…
12th January 2024
Dear Parents/Carers,
Happy New Year to you all! It was great welcoming the children back to school and hearing about how they spent the Christmas holiday.
I am glad that for the most part, the majority of our families had a happy and healthy Christmas and we’ve have kept the others in our prayers.
Our Pupil Leadership Team have excelled this week! As you know, there has been a change in our catering provider which our pupil leadership team were involved in selecting. Daily, they have been collecting pupil voice about the school dinners and feeding back to leaders their findings and personal feedback which I’ve have then shared with the chefs. This has led to some rapid adjustments. Every Friday the Pupil Leadership Team and myself will meet with Head Chef Mo and Operational Manager Serena to give them feedback. We had our first meeting today and they respectfully and clearly gave their feedback. I am so proud of Alicia, JoJo, Malika and Tae-Vienne. They are a very special part of our leadership team!
Once again, we’ve had a brilliant response to our club offering. Confirmation has been sent out by Mrs Johnson today and we were able adjust adults ratios to accommodate every child’s request! I want to extend a huge thank you to our team members who give up their time to make our extra-curricular activities so varied and rich and Mrs Mapp-Nwosu and Mrs Johnson for organising.
Last term, the boys requested their own choir and this club will run at lunchtimes. There are currently spaces in this lunchtime club and the ukulele club lunchtime club too.
The teachers have been working hard on the Curriculum newsletters for this half term. They will be shared with you next week in addition to the objectives that your child will be working on for the term. We know that our parents are engaged in their child’s education, and hope that these resources help you to support your child’s learning at home.
Phase Leaders have asked me to remind KS1 and Reception parents that phonics videos personal to your child’s phonics weekly learning are uploaded every Friday. The purpose of these videos is to enable you to support their reading at home. At present they aren’t being widely used, but we know you’ll find them very useful. You can find the videos on your child’s Google Classroom. If you cannot locate them, please let your child’s teacher know and they can support you.
We are really proud of the music offering that we’ve enhanced across the school. We have reviewed our provision to ensure that every child from Nursery to Y6 receives specialist music teaching every week! In addition to two music specialists, we also have a steel pan teacher who teaches the children termly. Last term, the Y5s had their lessons and this term Y4 are learning the steel pans, an opportunity usually reserved for Y5s.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, Mrs Chrusciak is expecting a baby! Please can you let us know straight away if you child has chicken pox as it can be harmful to the baby.
We have noticed that some children haven’t had their coats and jumpers this week. Please can you ensure your child has these as it is very cold. If you need support with this, please let us know via the school office or your child’s teacher and we will do what we can to help.
Did you know that our families have access to the Catholic crisis fund? Before Christmas, we were able to support some funding for our eligible families. This was based on our knowledge of our families. If you would like us to support you with an application, please email the school office and let them know and we will follow up with you or speak to myself or Mrs Mapp-Nwosu directly so we can support.
I hope you and your families have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs Ashley and the St. Joseph’s Team
