22 July 2022

We’ve made it to the end of the year, survived pandemic restrictions, heavy rain, a heatwave and have come through it smiling and ready for a relaxing summer break

It’s been an eventful year, challenging in many ways but memorable in how we have faced them nonetheless.

“Not every challenge that can be faced, can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

President Barack Obama

The year began with a Tea Party for past staff and Alumni to launch our 150th Anniversary celebrations to commemorate the founding of St Joseph’s School and we’ve been pleased to welcome back past pupils over the year.

One of the highlights has to be when Archbishop John visited the school to bless the oak tree planted in the Infant School Playground. He spent time with the children and then celebrated Mass with the whole school at Virgo Fidelis Church. He was joined by Cannon Michael, Fr James, Fr Anthony and Fr Luke from our local Parishes. A memory to cherish with pride!

There are numerous events and trips, competitions and sporting events and if I listed them all, this newsletter would look more like a chapter book than an end-of-term edition. I am sure you all have happy memories and the children have reflected on their happiest moments.

Summer Camp

Mr Navarro has secured funding for our holiday camp and Mrs Odewale and her team will be running it for four weeks starting on Monday, 25th July 2022.

The provision is excellent and children enjoy a range of high-quality activities ranging from cooking, art, games and trips. We are limited to 70 children and as of today, we are full but we are operating a waiting list so please follow the link and register your interest and we will let you know if a place becomes available.

St Joseph’s HAF Programme

My thanks to Mrs Odewale and all her team for their hard work. I realise you are giving up your summer to help children not just from our school but also from the wider community.

Supermarket vouchers for FSM pupils

We have sent each FSM pupil (who has registered their eligibility with the school) a £60 supermarket voucher today. Please do check your mail spam folders in case you have missed it. It is £15 per week for four weeks, which is all the funding we have been given by Croydon Council. We realise summer is of course six weeks long; we would suggest you write to your MP as well as local councillors to try to change this in the future.

We note that of the vouchers sent to families this year, over 20% remain unredeemed, which either means they have not been needed or have been ignored. If you do not need them, why not buy groceries with the vouchers and donate these to your nearest food bank? We have many families outside our immediate school community who are not as fortunate with financial support, and this would be an excellent use of our taxpayer funds.

Dulwich Bookshop

Do remember to visit Dulwich Bookshop 6 Croxted Rd, London SE21 8SW. The school have paid for each child to receive £15 of book tokens to be redeemed at the bookshop which the bookshop has added 10% or £1.50, giving a total of £16.50 of value.

All you need to do is take your child/children to the store, give them your child/children’s date of birth and class and then choose books of your choice. The bookshop has received a copy of your child’s summer reading list so they are likely to have these in stock or if not, can order for you.

I am delighted to be able to offer this opportunity to all St Joseph’s children and to our new pupils joining us in September.

Farewells

On behalf of everyone, I wish Year 6 good luck in their new secondary schools and look forward to seeing them when they visit in the new term. I am proud of what they have achieved and the way they focused in recent months.

I hope they will continue to be resilient, aim high and follow their dreams.

I would like to thank Mr Navarro and Mr Defty for all their hard work and commitment to the school. Mr Navarro has taken up a post at Trinity School in Shirley and Mr Defty will be taking a career break to spend time with his daughter. They will always be part of our St Joseph’s family and I am sure they will be regular visitors. Mr Navarro made a wonderful speech to Year 6 at our Leavers Mass.

Click here to read it

PTA

My thanks to the PTA who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to organise events (e.g. fireworks, colour run, Easter hat competitions) and treats for the children.

Thanks to their generosity, the school now has a new digital piano to use in school and at community events and Masses. They treated children to a bouncy castle for two days and gave each child a unique pin badge to commemorate our school’s 150th anniversary.

Thank you to all those across the school who donated their silver coins for the PTA coin challenge. Together, we raised a total of £202.88. Congratulations to Nursery for raising the most in Infants with £20.40 and to 4O in Juniors with £40.00.

Do support them next year as they need your help and input.

Enjoy reading their newsletter here

Thank you

We are fortunate to have a team of people who strive to achieve the best for our children. My thanks to all the staff and Governors for all they do to help St Joseph’s be the special place it is.

We are more than a school, we are a community, and family bound together by Christ’s teachings of tolerance, respect, love and forgiveness and embody our motto of: ‘Together We Can’.

The biggest thanks must go to our children, who arrive each day smiling and happy to be in school. You are the reason we choose to teach and you make us smile, cry, laugh and above all you make us proud. Thank you, children it is an honour to teach you.

Thank you, parents and carers, for all your support and encouragement over the year and for the trust you place in us to teach and nurture your children. We value your ideas and want you to engage with us. There was never a truer saying than, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.

I wish you all a happy and relaxing summer holiday and leave you with a humorous quote to ponder on:

“Summer break: The time when all parents realise teachers are grossly underpaid”.

Mrs L Fernandes
Headteacher

Important information for September

School will reopen to pupils on Monday, 5th September 2022 at 8:40 a.m. with registration being at 8:45 a.m.

Infants will now finish at 3:10 p.m.
Juniors will finish at 3:20 p.m.
Nursery will have the same 09:00 a.m. drop-off time and either a 12:00 p.m. (if doing 15 hours) or a 3:00 p.m. (if doing 30-hours) collection time.

Entry for all year groups will now be via the Woodend entrance. To go to the juniors, take the path on the right; to go to the infants, follow the path on the left.

Thank you to all parents who completed our traffic survey. Based on this and following a review by Croydon Council of the traffic situation around the area, and in particular, the health & safety of our community, the entrances (the big double gates and the pedestrian gate) on Crown Dale will no longer be open for entry or exit. If you have been called to collect your child from school, please go to the school office on Woodend (there is no longer an office on Crown Dale) where your child will meet you. This applies to both infant and junior pupils.

Infant parents are welcome to accompany their children to their classroom and children are to be collected from the classroom at 3.10 p.m.
Junior children may walk in unaccompanied
Year 3 will meet in the Junior playground on the first day and their teachers will lead them into class
All junior children will be collected from the junior playground

Woodend will continue to be a pedestrian-only road from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Please do not park or drive down during these times as the Council will issue you with a £130 fine.

In terms of future communication, our process from September will be as follows:

The school app (“St Joseph’s App”): The school app is now our main communication tool. It is used to share whole school and year group/class information. The calendar on the school app has all the current dates for events. Signing up for school trips, clubs, events etc is also done via the school app, as well as this is how you should report absences. Pictures of learning from across the schools are also shared on the school app so please check the school app regularly.

Google classroom: Google classroom is used to share information relating to your child’s homework and class learning. It will contain information such as year group reading lists, expectations for homework and termly curriculum overviews. Your child should check this regularly (under your supervision of course).

Year group email: The year group email is checked daily by the class teachers and monitored by SLT. The email address can be used to make appointments with your child’s class teacher, share information or ask any questions relating to your child.

Weekly newsletter: The whole school’s weekly newsletter contains information about events from the past week and shares the dates/times of upcoming events. All past newsletters are available on the website (under Existing Parents>Newsletters) but we do share a link via the app as well.

School website: Important statutory information is shared on the school website stjosephsfederation.co.uk and each year group has its own webpage (under Existing Parents > Classes). but please do check the school app first as it has information that is meant for parents of St Joseph’s whereas the website is available to everyone and is our external portal for visitors.