3rd March 2023

Dear Parents and Friends

It’s been a great book week where children have been immersed in reading for pleasure and celebrated the works of many popular authors. Children across the school took part in dance workshops linked to a Roald Dhal book. My thanks to Miss Bickmore for organising the sessions. The children were enthusiastic and enjoyed the opportunity to engage in performing arts.

I am delighted to say that the dance teacher will be joining us later this term to lead dance lessons in both the Infant and Junior School. Ms Ella Gilling will be offering a Street dance after school club on Monday from 3.15p.m. to 4.15 p.m. in the junior hall. It will begin after the Easter break.

Dulwich Book shop set up their book sales in the Junior Hall and it was wonderful to see so many families attend and redeeming their World Book tokens. My thanks to Cathy from the book shop, it’s wonderful to have these links to support our drive to further improve opportunities to read for pleasure.

Mary Poppins at the Laurels

My thanks to the staff and pupils at the Laurels for inviting us to their performance of Mary Poppins. Children and staff absolutely loved it and they felt as though they were watching a West End musical performance. The children sang some of the songs all the way back to school. Congratulations to the Laurels, you have so much of talent to celebrate, and thank you for allowing us to share it with you.

Class Assemblies

The school enjoyed another two class assemblies on Friday and both centred around book week.

Class 1E shared information about their favourite books and entertained us with their performances, reading and wonderful singing. 5S were equally amazing and reminded us about the importance to read, sharing video clips from staff and children talking about their favourite books. Congratulations Class 1E and 5S you certainly did everyone proud.

Parent/child toddler group

I am delighted to announce that our parent/baby/toddler group will be starting again on Tuesday, 7^th March from 9.30 to 11.30 a.m. My thanks to Mrs Fuentes and Ms Odewale for training our new parent champions and organising this group. It’s really exciting to have this group up and running again and I look forward to seeing it thriving. Please do pass on the information to any friends or neighbours who have young children and would like to attend. Everyone is welcome.

Mr Abrahams – Running the London Marathon

As some of you may know, Mr Abrahams is running the London Marathon in April. He is running for 2 wonderful causes. The first cause is for Great Ormond Street Hospital. The second cause is for his friend. She was recently involved in a life-changing incident which will require a lot of rehabilitation. The gofundme page donations will be used to make the process easier for her and her family. If you could split donations, that would be amazing. Saying this, any donation is greatly appreciated in the current climate.
London Marathon ” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>London Marathon Page
Go Fund Me

Parent/Teacher contact meetings

A letter will be going out on Monday with information about booking an appointment for parent/teacher contact evenings to be held for years Nursery to 5 on 14.03.23 and 23.03.23

Concert opportunity

The London Mozart Players are a chamber orchestra based in Croydon and are offering the chance to attend a family concert on Sunday 19 March at 3pm at St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, SE19 2RX. It’s called ‘Dinosaur Department Store’ and you can find more info about it here.

This concert is specially aimed at children aged 3-7. Joining the orchestra is Polly Ives, one of the UK’s leading music educationalists and founder of Concerteenies. Stories, musical accompaniment, image projection and audience participation will make up this approximately hour-long concert. There will be mats laid out and a range of refreshments available to purchase for children and adults.

Tickets are £10 for adults, £5 for under 18s and free for those under 5.

National General Knowledge Quiz Semi Final

Congratulations to our KS2 Quiz Team for taking part in the competition today. They came 16th with the first 15 automatically going through to the Final! We missed out by 3 points, but there is still a chance that we qualify depending on the other semi final scores. We will keep our fingers crossed and keep you posted.

RE Newsletter

‘Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.’

Our stations of the cross are beautiful and crafted with love

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

Mass Readings for Sunday

Sunday Mass Readings for February 26 2023, First Sunday of Lent, Year A
1st Reading	Genesis 12:1-4A
Responsorial Psalm	Psalms 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
2nd Reading	2 Timothy 1:8B-10
Gospel	Matthew 17:1-9

Sunday’s Gospel is about the ‘Transfiguration’

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

Celebrating achievement and hard work Headteacher’s and Attendance Award

Merit Certificates:

To every class in the school for enthusiastically taking part in book week and looking splendid in their costumes.

A great example of reading for pleasure at its best

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

Year group	Overall Class Attendance
Nursery	81.3%
RH	92.4%
RP	92.9%
1E	91.5%
1S	91.7%
2O	89.5%
2J	98.7%
3S	99.3%
3T	92.5%
4J	95.8%
4O	94.4%
5S	97.2%
5E	89.4%
6P	96.7%
6H	97.8%