Dear parents/Carers, We have had a wonderful end of term. We held a special Stations of the Cross Service in…
25 September 2021
Another fabulous week at St Joseph’s has seen KS2 children participating in the Bikeability course, cricket coaching across the school and the election of our pupil committees.
As advertised in the last two weekly newsletters, clubs began this week and the energy and pupil’s enthusiastic engagement was wonderful to see. Well done everyone, especially to staff for giving up some of their lunchtime and time after school to run clubs. If you have got a place at the after-school clubs, please remember to pay for the clubs as soon as possible via parentpay or you will lose your place.
Reception children will have the opportunity to book onto clubs after half term and information for next term’s clubs will be shared the week commencing Monday, 11th October 2021.
The office continues to be a hive of activity for school administration. Thank you to Mrs Johnson and Ms McRoberts for fielding numerous calls. We have had an unacceptable level of negative language from parents regarding the timing of homework, clubs and P.E. days when this information is clearly available on Google classroom, newsletters, emails and texts. We do try extremely hard to make sure this information is clearly signposted on our website (which has the ability to translate to any language) and other communication channels, so it is disappointing when parents feel they can verbally abuse staff without checking themselves first.
Click here for the weekly schedule of clubs
Click here for the schedule of P.E. days
Click here for the school calendar
Photographs
You will have received a slip with a QR code to view your child’s photograph online. You can view ordering options and choose accordingly.
Pupil leaders
I am delighted to announce that the Year 6 pupil leadership team and house captains have now been appointed. I have every faith that they will diligently undertake their responsibilities and lead with energy and commitment. Congratulation to all of them, I look forward to working with you on all areas of school development. Appointments for other committees will be announced next week.
Head boys and girls:
- Head Boy: Misha
- Deputy Head Boy: Samuel
- Head Girl: Blessing
- Deputy Head Girl: Gabrielle
Pupil Leadership team:
- Jeremy
- Daniel
- Ethan
- Anaya
- Maggie
House Captains:
- St Catherine: Oyin and Alejandro
- St Cecilia: Vanessa and Laura
- St Francis: Emmanuella and Blessing
- St Sebastian: Noah and Aviel
Macmillan coffee morning
A big thank you to Mrs De Jesus for organising the coffee morning / cake sale on Thursday, 23rd September. Thank you everyone for your wonderful donations. I have to say you surpassed all expectations and the array of delicious cakes was fantastic. Mrs Bailey, Mrs De Jesus and I judged all entries for the ‘St Joseph’s bake off’ and our task was incredibly difficult owing to the high standard of all entries. The cakes and biscuits were beautifully presented and delicious but unfortunately, we had to make a choice for first, second and third places.
We agreed that two entries deserved to be awarded first place. The results were as follows:
- 1st – Luca (4O) & Caleb (3S)
- 2nd – Laura (6P)
- 3rd – Raphael M (4J)
Congratulations to all you master bakers, you did yourself proud.
I am delighted to announce that thanks to everyone’s generosity £536 was raised for the Macmillan charity. We will be sending a cheque to them on behalf of St Joseph’s school. Thank you, Mrs De Jesus, for your hard work and to all your helpers for organising a truly successful and happy event.
Bikeability
The children have been great and enjoyed a week of intense training on riding a bike safely. The instructors were pleased with the children’s progress and engagement. We hope to offer this opportunity again to other year groups, at a later date.
Year group curriculum meetings
We will be holding meetings for each year group, one before school at 8:30 a.m. and another at 3:15 p.m. (for infant parents in the infant hall) and 3:30 p.m. for junior parents in the junior hall. The content for both meetings will be the same, so you do not need to attend both meetings.
Dates are as follows:
27.9.21 – Y5
28.9.21 – Y4
30.9.21 – Y3
4.10.21 – Y2
5.10.21 – Y1
Teacher parent contact meetings will be held the week beginning Monday, 18th October. You will have a chance to have face to face meetings with teachers and view your child’s books. Booking details will be shared nearer the time.
Fireworks night – Wednesday, 3rd November 2021
This is going to be one of the highlights of our school calendar and a special moment as it is our first firework night at the school. We will be using it to launch our celebrations for the school’s 150th Anniversary.
We are really excited about our first fireworks event at St Joseph’s and hope this will be an annual event. My thanks to the PTA for working with the school to organise this event. Tickets are selling fast, so please do not delay in purchasing them before they are sold out.
Prices are as follows:
Early Bird offer until the 1st October 2021
£5.00 per adult (16 years and above) and £3.00 per child (aged 3-15 years)
After the 1st October until 24th October 2021
£6.00 per adult (16years and above) and £4.00 per child (aged 3 -15 years)
Food and refreshments will be on sale, together with an array of glow bands and other illuminated accessories. Please do email the PTA on [email protected] if you are able to help on the day, we need lots of volunteers. Do remember to purchase tickets in advance, as tickets will not be sold at the gate.
Click here to buy your tickets
150th Anniversary
We launched our first-anniversary event on Friday, 24 September. Past staff members attended a small gathering. We were excited to welcome back staff who have served the school community over the years. We plan to host other events where past pupils, parents and staff can return to the school. There will also be events for our current school community to come together to celebrate the school’s past, present and future.
We have also started taking pre-orders for the ” History of St Joseph’s ” book which Mrs McMillan has been diligently researching. The book is expected to be ready in time for Christmas.
Polling day – Thursday, 7th October 2021
St Joseph’s Infant School will be used as a polling station, therefore both the infant and junior schools will be closed on 7 October 2021. Staff will be in to attend training and work will be uploaded onto Google Classrooms. The expectation is that children must complete tasks set as it is not a holiday.
Parking
Thank you to those of you who continue to park considerately on neighbouring roads. Unfortunately, I had to recently deal with local residents who were upset as a result of people from our school community parking with no consideration to others. Residents have had their drives blocked and not been able to move their cars to collect their own children. We have been told that as a result, parking wardens will start to be deployed on Crown Dale and Bradley Road starting from next week.
Furthermore, residents have been spoken to in a rude and disrespectful manner. Needless to say, this presents a negative picture of the school and is not representative of the majority of our parents / carers. We are all role models to our children, so let’s be the positive role models they need.
Meetings with teachers
Should you wish to meet with your child’s teacher, kindly contact the office and they will arrange for the teacher to contact you. All staff are busy in the morning and need to focus their attention on teaching the children, so it is difficult to have a discussion before school as children are entering the classroom. Do remember that the year group emails are for messages or easily answered questions.
Positive engagement
Thank you for your continued support and for taking the time to positively engage with us to ensure the best for your child. It is always a pleasure engaging in conversation with you. Your positive comments and encouragement are greatly appreciated. We always have an open-door policy and welcome constructive discussion.
Best wishes
Mrs Leonore Fernandes
Headteacher
Thank you for reading this far. Click below for this week’s pictures.
