Weekly Update 19

UPDATE 19

MAY 2018

St. John’s RC Primary School NEWSLETTER

@st_johns_rc

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Key dates will now be updated on the calendar area of our website

JUNE 11th - Return to school 14th - NSPCC assemblies for KS1 & KS2

DIOCESAN INSPECTION SUCCESS The school underwent a rigorous inspection by three representatives from the Diocese of Salford recently. We received their very positive report this week and are delighted to share it with you today. (The full text is on the website) We would like to thank those parents who spoke so highly to the inspectors about our school and of course our wonderful children who made us feel so proud on the day. Here are the highlights from the report; THE KEY STRENGTHS OF THE SCHOOL INCLUDE: • Bright, articulate and polite children who are very enthusiastic about their school experience • The outstanding and courageous leadership of the headteacher, very well supported by staff and governors, all of whom have an uncompromising focus on continuing school improvement • The wonderfully inclusive culture in the school which ensures that all pupils are cared for, respected and valued • The remarkable range and quality of opportunities and experiences provided for the children which enable the development of the whole child and encourage resilience and a ‘can do’ attitude • The wonderful family ethos which permeates every aspect of school and parish life We are very pleased with the report and feel that it reflects all of the hard 1

15th - Fr. Mcmahon celebration -10am mass (No ‘Thumbs-Up Friday)

11th - Phonics check in Year 1 all week 19th - Great Science Share 19th (pm) - music concert for all musicians 21st - (3.45pm) Loreto Grammar parents’ meeting

WEEKLY UPDATE 19 work that the staff, governors and children put in every day.

We are very lucky to have lots of space in our school so have made one of our rooms into a beautiful new chapel. Mrs Law worked with some of the children on producing stained glass windows and spectacular crosses from around the world. It is a calm space which will be used by all our children for prayer, reflection, collective worship, lessons and P4C (Philosophy for Children). We look forward to welcoming you all for masses in the coming months.

Have a lovely half term holiday, Mrs B. O’Donoghue

STAFF NEWS Mrs Owen (Year 1 TA) is leaving us today to go on maternity leave awaiting the arrival of her first baby! We wish her and her husband well and look forward to meeting their new baby soon.

Mrs Webb has left St John’s after working here for many years. We thank her for all her work over the years and wish her luck for the future.

GDPR Today, 25th May, GDPR regulations come into force. You have already received the new school Privacy Notice and the policy will follow soon. The main changes in school are with regards to email addresses. It will no longer be possible for staff to communicate with parents via email and personal mobile phones. We now have four email addresses for parents to contact the school using the following email addresses each of which has a specific purpose. info@stjohnsrc.net - for any queries to be forwarded on to teachers or a member of staff admin@stjohnsrc.net - for general enquires or for aftercare/ morning care head@stjohnsrc.net - for any extremely important or confidential information enrichment@stjohnsrc.net - anything relating to any enrichment clubs. (These clubs are all run by outside providers whereas aftercare/morning care are run by school so have their own email address) Emails may take up to 3 days to receive a reply so, if your enquiry is urgent, please phone the school office on 881 1040.

SAFEGUARDING 2

PARKING As a school, St. John’s has endeavoured to ensure the safety of our children for many years now by asking parents / carers not to park in the vicinity of the school, particularly on the yellow zig-zag lines. There was a very serious incident last week which resulted in one of our children almost hit by a car which caused great distress to that child and their family as well as to those who witnessed the incident. The car was reversing out of Chepstow Road and, as the corners were blocked by other vehicles, was doing so blindly and at speed. This manoeuvre put the safety of our children at serious risk. Due to the severity of the incident it has been reported to the police along with the car registration. We do not, in contrast to many other local schools, ‘name and shame’ cars parked / being driven dangerously. But perhaps this is something we will have to consider if more care and attention is not given to keep our children safe. We would request again that you park at a safe distance away from school (including the car park at Longford Park stadium) and certainly not on any yellow zig zag lines.

ONLINE SAFETY It has also come to our attention that some of our children are playing Fortnite online using an XBOX or Playstation. This is a game rated 12 and is not appropriate for younger children because of the level of violence on screen. Also, the chat function within the game cannot be turned off resulting in children speaking to strangers. If your child is engaged with this, please speak to him / her about the dangers surrounding online gaming.

‘YEAR OF CYCLING’ TRIPS BEGIN Our first set of cycling trips for nursery and year 1 were a huge success this week. The sun shone and our legs pedalled many times round Longford Stadium. A big thank you must go to Simply Cycling for their input in our trips and for giving us access to their huge range of bikes. Please rest assured that safety is always a top priority for us here at St John’s and we insist the children wear helmets for all cycling activities.

Reception and year 2 will have their trip on Monday 11th June - the first Monday back after half term. Simply Cycling is a charity which runs their cycling sessions at both Longford and Wythenshawe Park on a regular basis. You may like to try it out during the school holidays http://www.simply-cycling.org/

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SPORTS WEEK National Sports Week 2018 is Monday 25th June to Friday 29th June this year. As usual, each year group will have their School Games Day (Sports Day) and another planned exciting sporting opportunity (final details will follow).

Monday 25th June 2018 Tuesday 26th June 2018 Wednesday 27th June 2018 Thursday 28th June 2018

10-11am Early Years 10 – 11:30 KS1 10 – 11:45 Y3 & 4 10 – 12pm Y 5 & 6

Children may wear SCHOOL SPORTS KIT all week.

We have noticed recently that there are a lot of children not bringing in their kit everyday. At St. John’s there are a lot of sporting opportunities and they don’t always happen on the same day each week. This is why we ask that every child has their kit in school each day. They are very welcome to leave it in a kit bag on their peg and just take it home on a Friday for washing. Here is a reminder of our school sports kit.

ROYAL WEDDING CELEBRATION

All year groups performed at the PTA coffee morning last Friday which kicked off our Royal Wedding Celebrations in great style - thank you to all parents who attended, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Thank you to all of those PTA members that helped on the day. Your hard work and support is much appreciated. In the afternoon, the children had a fabulous time enjoying an outdoor picnic in the sunshine.

YEAR 3 CAMP 4

The weather gods were shining on us last week as we held the first ever St John’s Camp on our school field. The ‘We are Adventurers’ team organised a great overnight experience and the children enjoyed a campfire (along with lots of singing!) and played in the forest area until it was dark. They slept well in their tents and then enjoyed a bacon and sausage butty breakfast cooked by some of our

fantastic parents the next morning. Prince Harry and Megan even came to camp to wish Miss McKeever happy birthday! I was incredibly impressed with the way the children behaved and the way that they showed their independence skills.

LONDON PARLIAMENT TRIP 28 of our KS2 children went on a trip to London this week to visit the Houses of Parliament. They visited the education department and had a guided tour of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The children were very interested and asked lots of intelligent questions. After the tour, they visited the Natural History Museum and ate at Wahaca before returning on the train. The other members of staff and I were extremely proud of how sensible and inquisitive the children were especially when the staff in the

shop in the Natural History Museum told us 5

that of all the many schools they have had in, ours stood out for their amazing manners. It was a wonderful experience which we hope to repeat annually.

FATHER MCMAHON’S 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY After the holidays (on the 15th of June) we will be celebrating Father McMahon’s 50th Year of being a priest. Father works tirelessly for our school and parish and to show our appreciation we will be holding a celebration in school for him. To begin the day of celebration on the 15th, the whole school will be walking to attend mass at St. John’s Church. Please do join us if you are available (This will take the place of ‘thumbs-up Friday) We have decorated the church with bunting made by all the children in time for the parish celebration which is being held on the 8th June (see the church noticeboard for details) to which all our families are invited.

REFLECTION An existence – a life.

A skateboard – fun!

Help us, Lord, to see the value, the inspiration, the joy

in other people’s lives

even when they don’t echo our own.

Creator and guide,

we remember all young people in all of their communities.

Remind us that it is too easy for us to judge,

to decide how others should feel, and enable us to enable others to live their own lives in their own cultures having fun.

Steven Davies (CAFOD)

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