Dear Parents/Carers,
I hope everyone has had a good week and you are all staying safe. As well as everything else that is going on at the moment, the next few months are going to be very important for the future of our school and indeed the community of St Joseph’s.
Federation of St Joseph’s Junior and Infant Schools
As you will all know, earlier this year we went through a consultation process about the proposed federation of the Junior and Infant Schools. The result of that consultation back in March was that the proposal was rejected by both staff and parents in the Junior School. The process was in part triggered by my decision to retire from St Joseph’s this summer. However with the onset of the Coronavirus outbreak in the spring and the massive disruption this caused to schools, I made the decision in April to stay on this September to oversee the reopening of school and to ensure we had everything back up and running as best we could, which so far I think we have been able to do.
You will also be aware that since that consultation period, Mrs Boon has left St Joseph’s Infants to take up another headship and has been replaced by Mrs D’Souza as interim head since September. I have now also communicated to our governors my intention to retire next year and am looking at Easter 2021to finish. This means that both schools will have head teacher vacancies next year so in view of this, the respective governing bodies have decided to put forward a new proposal to federate the two schools from January 2021.This is fully supported both by the Diocese and the LA. Because this is a fresh proposal, there needs to be a new 6 week consultation period which begins today. We are sending home a copy of the consultation document along with a letter from the Diocese. We are also putting these documents on the school website. If you need a paper copy please come to the school office.
I know some of you may be asking why we are going through this process again so soon after the last consultation. The main reason is because the leadership situation in both schools has changed or is going to change in the next few months. The positive benefits of a federation between the two schools are essentially the same as they were 8 months ago. As before there will be meetings for both staff and parents in both schools and these dates are in the consultation document. I have met with Mrs D’Souza this week and we are both keen to ensure that the process goes smoothly and that we can protect the future of both our schools. As before I would urge everyone to respond to the consultation and give your views.
There will be protocols in place if a pupil is taken ill while in school with suspected Covid-19. If this happens parents will be contacted to collect their child as soon as possible and arrange a test. We cannot take a pupil back into school until they have been tested and the result is known. If it is positive they will have to isolate for 10 days from the first day of being unwell, if it is negative and they are feeling well they can return to school. Of course we will still expect parents to not send their children to school if they are unwell. I sent everyone a letter from the NHS last week with useful information around when to arrange a test for your child and when you don’t need to.
We have resumed the Breakfast Club from 7:45am to 8:45am and are taking bookings for the After School Club from 2:45pm to 6:30pm. Breakfast Club is £2 per day and After School Club is £5 per day up till 4:30pm and £10 per day up till 6:30pm with a reduced rate of £40 if you book for the week. You can use the clubs every day or just on days when you need them. You do not need to book for the Breakfast Club, just pay as you use it either daily or weekly. For the After School Club you will need to book a place. Application forms are available on the school website or at the school office and you can pay for both of the clubs online. Again with the colder weather coming I would encourage parents to take advantage of the reduced prices for both clubs.
Uniform
We are selling uniform every second week in school on Wednesday mornings from 8:30am to 9:30am. The next sale will be Wednesday 21st October. Again we will not be increasing our uniform prices for the new school year as we want to make it affordable for everyone. If you need an item of uniform in an emergency, please come to the school office. With the colder weather now here, it is important that the children are coming to school with a warm and waterproof coat. Because money may be tight for many families at this time, I am relaxing the uniform policy for coats. If possible we would still like the children to be in dark coats but if you don’t have one, they can wear another coat to save you having to buy what can be quite an expensive item. Having said that, the school coats are very good value and are both warm and waterproof.
PE
Year 3 – Mondays, Year 4 – Tuesdays, Year 5 – Thursdays, Year 6 – Wednesdays.
Normally we would expect the children to wear plimsolls for PE, but given that many of the pupils will be walking to school each day, if it is more comfortable for them to wear trainers on their PE days, they can do so. The main reason for this change is to avoid the children having to bring PE bags into school each week. If it is cold or wet on their PE day, the children should wear a warm jumper, coat and tracksuit bottoms to school.
Dance Stables
Join us for After School Dance Club at St Joseph’s Junior School.
Starting Tuesday 15th September 3.00-4.00pm and then every Tuesday during term time. £41 for a 6 week booking paid in advance.
Spaces are limited so booking is highly recommended
Book your place via email @ ds.team@dancestables.co.uk
We can’t wait to dance with you!!
Young Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet” Workshops
Our Year 4 pupils will be taking part in the Young Shakespeare Workshops next Thursday in school. We have been working with the Young Shakespeare Company for over 20 years, but with the current restrictions it will look a little different this year. In the past the children have taken part in the workshops in school, then a visit to the theatre to watch the play and finally they put on their own version at Christmas which has always been a wonderful production from our talented pupils over the years. This year they will not be doing the theatre visit after the workshops, but I truly hope they will be able to put on some kind of production for the school and parents at the end of term. This year the children are working on “Romeo and Juliet” for their workshops next Thursday.
Staffing News
We welcomed a new member of staff to school this week when Miss Addison started as a Learning Support Assistant in Year 3 on Monday. She is new to the post but not the school as she is a former pupil of St Joseph’s. We wish her every joy and success in her time here and she is already settling well into the Year 3 team.
Trainee Teachers
Even though these are challenging times for everyone in education, the government is actively encouraging schools to provide opportunities for trainee teachers. At St Joseph’s we have a long history of hosting trainees, many of who have gone on to work in our school as fully qualified teachers. In the last week we have welcomed Miss Rezwana Rahman from the University of Cumbria who will be in Class 4P and Miss Dilan Okten from St Mary’s College who will be in Class 5L. We are also expecting one and perhaps two further trainees from the University of Greenwich who will be based in Year 3 after half term. As part of their training, the students can be used to support small groups of pupils in their respective classes as well as taking on some teaching responsibilities, so they are going to be a valuable support for pupils who need additional catch up work this term. I wish all our trainees a successful placement at St Joseph’s and hopefully in some small way we can help to ensure there is a future pool of qualified teachers.
Catch-Up Tuition
As you may know, to support schools after the long period of lockdown this year, the government is funding catch-up tuition to support pupils who may have fallen behind during the lockdown or who are behind their peers. It is up to individual schools to decide how best to use this funding and as part of this support, we will be running after school study clubs, starting in the week after half term and running up till Christmas. I know some schools may employ external tutors to provide this but we will be using our own staff to run the groups as we feel they know the children best and vice versa. We have used the recent assessments to identify the children who need this support and will be sending out invite letters to parents next week. If you receive an invite, I would strongly urge you to take advantage of this additional support for your child. We will be focusing mainly on numeracy for the 6 week period after half term, as this is where the greatest need has been identified. I am grateful to all the staff who will be running the different groups.
Friday Assembly Awards (Week of 5th – 9th October)
These were the awards presented at the Friday assembly today. Congratulations and well done to everyone who received a reward today.
Golden Book Awards:
Class 3K – Emily, Jabari and Zofia
Class 3H – Patrycja, Emily and Lorenzo
Class 4P – Gracee, Nicolas and Darcey
Class 4RC – Nicole, Henry and DJuliana
Class 5L – Amber, Zephan and Elisha
Class 5O – Krzysztof, Aisosa and Michaela
Class 6PM – Esther, Kyrell and Ella
Class 6C – Stephanie, Tyrone and Kacper
Team of the Week – St. Angela’s with 3,360 points. Well done.
Class of the Week – Class 4P for a mature and focused week in school.
Attendance of the Week – Class 3H and Class 4RC with 100% attendance.
Pupils of the Week – Jabari 3K, Jaydan 3H, DJuliana 4RC, Loderya 5L, Simeon 5L and Devonte 6C.
Non-Uniform Days/Fundraising
We have raised almost £700 for school funds from our four non-uniform days so far his term. Well done everyone.
CAFOD Harvest Day (9th October)
We held our CAFOD Harvest Day in school today. The theme this year is very appropriate given the current pandemic as it is called “Wash Your Hands”. This has of course become an important message for all of us over the last few months but CAFOD want to remind us that in many parts of the world it is not actually possible to wash your hands with clean water. They want to support the poorest families to have access to clean water. I spoke to all the pupils about CAFOD’s work at the Monday assemblies and our non-uniform day is to raise money for CAFOD’s appeal. I will let you know next week how much we have raised.
Yours sincerely,
J Alexander (Head teacher)
Dates for this term (will be added to and updated each week)
- Thursday 15th October – Young Shakespeare Workshops in school for Year 4 – “Romeo and Juliet”
- Friday 16th October – non-uniform day for school funds (bring £1)
- Friday 23rd October – last day of half term
- Friday 23rd October – non-uniform day for school funds (bring £1)
- Monday 26th October to Friday 30th October – half term
- Monday 2nd November – first day of 2nd half term
- Wednesday 4th November – parental meetings as part of the consultation on the proposed federation at 8:00am, 4:30pm and 7:00pm.
- Friday 6th November – non-uniform day for school funds (bring £1)
- Friday 13th November – non-uniform day for school funds (bring £1)
- Tuesday 17th November – Book Fair in school each day this week 8:00-9:00am
- Thursday 19th November – end of consultation period on the proposed federation
- Friday 20th November – non-uniform day for school funds (bring £1)
- Friday 11th December – “Christmas Jumper Day” for Save the Children.
