Dear Parents/Carers,
I hope everyone has had a good week and you are all staying safe. Unfortunately it has been a challenging few days in school since I last wrote to you with our first confirmed cases among the pupils. Having carried out the risk assessment, supported by Public Health England and the LA, I had to send home our Year 6 classes and one Year 4 class for 14 days. Yesterday I had to also send home our Year 5 classes when a member of staff tested positive. Although this sounds a long time, when you include weekends and tracking back to the last direct contact, it actually works out at 7-8 school days which is not quite so bad and all being well the classes will be back in school by the end of next week or early in the final week and we can all be in school for the last few days of term. Remote learning is in place for all the pupils and the school has invested a lot this term in both online resources and time to prepare for this eventuality and hopefully we can learn from the experience of the staff and pupils who are all currently working from home. It is very frustrating after all our hard work to get all the pupils back in September and settled into routines but we need to manage this as best we can and hope things settle down in the next few weeks and months.
Advent
We are now in the season of Advent, one of the most important times in our school year. As we know this year is going to be different and many of the traditional things that we would be busy planning at the moment are not going to be able to take place. However we still plan to mark the season of Advent in school and do as many activities as we can, including filming some of the individual classes singing and fundraising for Christmas charities. I met with Father Gerry this week to plan what services we may be able to do in school during Advent. At the moment we are planning to hold Advent Prayer Services for each year group in the last week of term.
Federation of St Joseph’s Junior and Infant Schools
The Governing Bodies of both schools met on Tuesday to receive the report on the outcome of the consultation and then make their decision to go ahead with the proposed federation in early 2021. You should all have received a letter on Wednesday from the respective Chairs of Governors and the final report is now on the school website. The first stage of this will be to now establish a Federated Governing Body to oversee the steps that need to be taken in advance of the federation coming into place, including the recruitment of a substantive head teacher. I will continue to keep you updated over the next few weeks on this.
Parent Governors
As I mentioned above, a new federated governing body is being established. This body will include 2 parent governors and if anyone would like to nominate themselves for this position, please put it in writing with a brief outline of what skills and experience you would be able to offer and send into the school for the attention of the Chair of Governors. If required, an election would be held in January. The closing date for nominations to be received is Monday 14th December. If anyone is interested in this and would like some more information on what the role of parent governor would entail, please get in touch with me and I am happy to go through this.
COVID-19
Please note the following important points which I shared with everyone last week.
• If your child is not attending school for any reason, you must inform the school on the first day of absence before 9:00am with the reason for absence and how long they are likely to be off for. You should also send a note into school for the attention of the class teacher when they return to school. Obviously not all absences are going to be COVID-19 related but we need to know why pupils are off on any particular day.
• If your child shows any one of the symptoms of Coronavirus i.e. a high temperature, a new and continuous cough or a loss of taste and smell, you need to get them tested straight away. If the result of the test is positive they need to stay at home for 10 days from the day they were tested. If the result is negative they can return to school.
• If your child has come into contact with someone who has tested positive i.e. a family member, the child needs to self-isolate for 14 days from the day the test was carried out. If they show no symptoms during this period they can return to school after the 14 days. If they show symptoms at any point during this self-isolation, they need to get a test and if this is positive they will need to begin the 10 day period of isolation from the day of the test.
• If you have had your child tested, please share the results with us before they return to school. You can either bring this into the office or if it is more convenient you can forward the message to the school e-mail address.
• The school has to report every day to the Department for Education how many staff and pupils are absent and how many of these absences are COVID-19 related. This is why it is vital we have up to date information about all absences.
• If you are unsure about any of the above or want some advice, please contact the school and I am happy to discuss with you. Many thanks again for your on-going support.
Uniform
We are selling uniform every second week in school on Wednesday mornings from 8:30am to 9:30am. The next sale will be on Wednesday 16th December. If you need an item of uniform in an emergency, please come to the school office.
After School Clubs
Monday – Multi-Sports Club for pupils in Years 3 and 4 (3:00-4:00pm). Book this directly with PTC Sports. Book at https://ptcsports.class4kids.co.uk/term/28. For further information about the club you can contact Taskin from PTC Sports on 07513 522 896.
Tuesday – Dance Stables for all year groups (3:00-4:00pm). Book this directly with Dance Stables at ds.team@dancestables.co.uk.
No clubs next week for Year 5 and 6 as they are all isolating at the moment.
Please note that next week will be the last week for the clubs this term and they will not run in the last week of term.
Tuition Clubs
Please note that next week is also the last week for the Math’s Tuition Clubs for this term. We will be running more clubs from January. Hopefully when we next assess the pupils in numeracy, we will see the benefits of this tuition on top of all the hard work being done in class this term
Governors Fund
We sent out a letter asking families to make a contribution towards our Governors Fund for this academic year 2020-21. The letter outlines what the fund is used for and how to pay it. I have not increased it this year, again to try and make it easier for our families to contribute. Please note if you have already paid your contribution for this year, you do not need to pay again.
Advent Charity Support
During Advent we traditionally support 2 charities, the Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society (BCCS) Advent Appeal and the Save the Children “Christmas Jumper Day”. Today we held our non-uniform day for the BCCS Advent Appeal to support their wonderful work in our Diocese. Next Friday 11th December and the following Thursday 17th December we will have our “Christmas Jumper Days” for Save the Children. The pupils can come in Christmas jumpers, hats etc. or just their own clothes and donate their £1. Prizes for the most colourful class or classes on both days. I am adding an extra “Christmas Jumper Day” on 17th December so that hopefully all our children can take part in at least one of the days.
Friday Assembly Awards (Week of 23rd November to 4th December)
Golden Book Awards:
Class 3K – Misbah, Oscar and Sloan
Class 3H – Beatrice, Jaydan and Ruthie
Class 4P – Not in school today.
Class 4RC – Adam, Nicole and Aleksander
Class 5L – Kwame, Billion and Anna
Class 5O – Rebecca, Aisosa and Daniel
Class 6PM – Not in school today.
Class 6C – Not in school today.
Team of the Week – Didn’t award this today as several classes are isolating
Class of the Week – Year 3 classes for helping me to deliver our “November Harvest” to the parish this morning.
Attendance of the Week – Didn’t award this today as several classes are isolating
Pupils of the Week – Ruthie 3H, Nel 3K, Oliwia 4RC, Kayo 5L and Lina 5O
Parish Food Donation
I am sharing the information below regarding how the parish are going to be supporting families over the Christmas period. Today myself and the Year 3 classes donated our “November Harvest” to the parish appeal. If you can help in any way please contact the number below. I am planning to help with the food distribution on Saturdays.
As a church we will be coming together to support those in need this Christmas. The parish office will be open for donations of the items listed below on the following days:
– Monday and Friday 10:00am-1:00pm
– Sunday at all Masses
SUGGESTED ITEMS:
Cereal, soup, pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes/pasta sauce, lentils/beans/pulses, tinned meat, tinned vegetables, tea/coffee, tinned fruit, biscuits, UHT milk, fruit juice plus toiletries.
GET INVOLVED:
To help with food distribution on a Saturday please contact 0208 539 2908.
FOOD COLLECTION:
Food will be available for collection for all those in need every Saturday 12:00pm-2:00pm from The Jubilee Centre, St Joseph’s Catholic Church, 68 Grange Park Rd, Leyton E10 5ES.
British Legion Poppy Appeal
I was contacted this week by the ladies from the local branch of the Royal British Legion to let me know that the school raised £178.46 from the recent poppy sale and to pass on their sincere thanks to everyone in the school community for this wonderful effort. We have raised more in the past but these included non-uniform days. This is the most we have ever raised just through the sale of poppies at lunchtimes so well done everyone.
Parental Consultation
At the moment we cannot do the traditional face to face meetings but we are looking at setting up phone consultations between teachers and parents for the start of next term. By then we will have assessed all the pupils to see what progress they have made in literacy and numeracy and drawn up revised targets for each pupil. I know in the past we have held meetings at the end of the autumn term but there is a lot going on in school at the moment and my staff are getting quite tired and weary now with what has been a long and draining term. This is even before all the disruptions and interruptions caused by having to send home classes over the last few days. I think we all need a break over Christmas and to comeback refreshed. I am looking at the week of 18th January for the consultations (each year group will be on a different day). We will send out letters in advance with the exact dates and times so you can book a telephone appointment with your child’s teacher.
End of term
Just to give everyone advance notice that school will be finishing earlier on the last day of term on Friday 18th December. We will still have the two staggered endings but an hour earlier than normal. Year 3 and 4 will finish at 1:45pm and Year 5 and 6 at 2:00pm. This is to tie in with the earlier finishing times at the infant school that day and to allow parents time to pick up siblings from both schools.
Yours sincerely,
J Alexander (Head teacher)
Dates for this term (will be added to and updated each week)
- Wednesday 9th December – Class 4P return to school
- Friday 11th December – Year 6 return to school
- Friday 11th December – “Christmas Jumper Day” for Save the Children (non-uniform day, bring £1)
- Tuesday 15th December – Year 5 return to school
- Wednesday 16th December – Christmas lunch for pupils
- Thursday 17th December – “Christmas Jumper Day” for Save the Children (bring £1).
- Friday 18th December – last day of term (Year 3 and 4 end at 1:45pm, Year 5 and 6 end at 2:00pm)
2021 - Monday 4th January and Tuesday 5th January – Staff inset days in school
- Wednesday 6th January – First day of term for pupils.
