17th March 2023

Dear Parents and Friends

Wishing you all a very happy St Patrick’s day. My thanks to the PTA for organising a Family Quiz night to celebrate the day.

Despite being a short week, the children have been busy continuing with their normal curriculum subjects and taking part in Careers events for the second week running. Thank you to parents who volunteered to talk to the children, I know Ms Ugbo has arranged additional time slots next week.

Careers in the Civil Service

We were fortunate to welcome Loretta, Niraj, Awais, Leonard, Zainab and Kadiatu to speak to the children about the various jobs they do in the Civil Service and how they progressed into their individual areas of expertise. They work in a variety of roles within the Ministry of Defence.

Children were attentive and asked amazing questions. Our pupil leaders, met with them to engage in a session of ‘Question Time’ where they presented questions about current topics and discussed information. The children were brilliant.

Thank you to everyone involved in careers week and to all our visitors and parents for supporting us.

St Joseph’s Mass – Monday 20th March 2023 at 1.30pm

Our school’s feast day falls on a Sunday this year, so we will be celebrating it on Monday, 20th March with a Mass at Virgo Fidelis Church. You are more than welcome to attend and we will be delighted to have you join us. Do please let your child’s class teacher know if you are free to walk up to Church with your child’s class.

News to celebrate

Teaching and Learning Review – Phonics (Read, Write inc)

RWI is a phonics scheme we have used for over four years. We initially took it on to address gaps in our phonics curriculum. I am delighted to say that our recent external review focusing on phonics was highly successful. Mr Spencer spent the day observing lessons in class, talking to pupils and working with staff. He felt phonics is a strength of the school and children were making good to outstanding progress in the Infants. He was pleased with the support in the Junior school for children requiring further support. Staff are skilled and well informed and as a result attainment and progress is strong. My thanks to all staff and to Mrs Swain for leading the review. As you know Mrs Tope is on maternity leave, but the success of phonics is also due to her input and leadership and working closely with Mrs Swain and all staff.

Class Assemblies

Wow! I was so impressed with our Reception children. Their assembly was amazing and focused on St Patrick’s day. They spoke confidently and without any prompts, sharing information about St Patrick and how his feast day is celebrated all over the world. It was wonderful to see so many family and friends attend. Reception you are truly superstars and I am so proud of you. Well done!

KS1 Gymnastics competition at Meridian High School

Congratulations to our fabulous Infant gymnasts for coming third in a Croydon competition held today. Mrs Mangan and Mrs Odewale accompanied them and by all accounts they were amazing. Standards were high and they performed brilliantly. Well done to Persephone, Marjus, Marie, Juan and Jemima. Next stop the Olympics in years to come!

St Joseph’s chicks make an appearance

Children in the Nursery have been carefully looking after our new born chicks who hatched at the end of last week. They came to us as eggs in an incubator and with Nursery’s loving care and attention the chicks hatched and have loved being in our school community. Children from all year groups visited them and Nursery were just the best at reading to them, talking to the chicks and making sure they were well looked after. Sadly, they had to return to the farm but with lots of fun memories of St Joseph’s.

Parent/child toddler group

I am delighted to announce that our parent/baby/toddler group started on Tuesday. My thanks to our parent champions for their hard work and I look forward to seeing the numbers increase. It’s a great support network for parents with young children and a way to build new friendships.

Parent/Teacher contact meetings

Nursery – Year 5 – Thursday, 23^rd March, 3.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.

Please make an appointment to see your child’s teacher if you haven’t done so already.

Portuguese Sessions

We are working with the Institute of Camoes, the who are linked to the Portuguese Embassy and responsible for the teaching and promotion of Portuguese in the UK.

In our school, Portuguese is taught across KS1 but the Institute offers sessions after school. If you would like your child to join for the school year 2023-2024 please click on the following link for further information.

https://www.e-portugues.co.uk/cursos/#

Click on this link to enrol

You may also contact the teacher, Ms Rodrigues: [email protected]

RE Newsletter

‘‘‘The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want’

This week’s question to discuss with your child is;

Mass Readings for Sunday

Sunday Mass Readings for March 12th 2023, Third Sunday of Lent, Year A
1st Reading	1 Samuel 16:1B, 6-7, 10-13A
Responsorial Psalm	Psalms 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6
2nd Reading	Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel	John 9:1-41

If you click on the following link you can download an activity sheet for your child

Activity Sheet for 4th Sunday of Lent

Celebrating achievement and hard work Headteacher’s and Attendance Award

Merit Certificates:

At St Joseph’s we aim for at least 97% attendance.

Year group	Merit Certificates	Overall Class Attendance
Nursery	Djozzy and Daniel	84%
RH	RH for an amazing Assembly	100%
RP	RP for an amazing Assembly	97%
1E	Shine and Wilhelmina	94%
1S /2O	Eva and Miles	92%/92%
2J	Marjus and Leila	95%
3S	Andre and Rafaella	96%
3T	Yohanna and Sulyana	96%
4J	Kailem and Sophia	96%
4O	Elizaveta and Muna	100%
5S	JoJo and Santos	98%
5E	Yashash and Josiah	88%
6P	Bruno and Idally	99%
6H	Max and Anaya	97%