Newsletter 4th November 2015

4^th November 2015

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope you and your children have had a good school experience over the last half term and enjoyed your half term holiday. There have been trips to the Planetarium, Vauxhall City Farm, Peckham Fire Station, local parks and when we cannot visit speakers come to us, for example, the London Fire Brigade and ‘The Power of One’ to name a couple.  This half term there are visits to the theatre too. (See dates below).

We have had to manage a lot of educational changes during the last few weeks.  I wrote to you in September about the new assessment system. I hope you found the parents evenings useful and are beginning to get to know the new terminology.  The new curriculum is trickier and children have to meet certain indicators to show how much progress they have made. If you have any questions about this please do not hesitate to let one of us know so we can help your understanding. This is a constantly changing picture at the moment so if there is any news that means further changes for your children I will let you know.

English and maths

Can I ask you to support the school and encourage the children to keep reading every night for 10 minutes minimum?  Parents/carers should be listening to them
read and asking them questions about what they have just read so you are sure they have understood. Please sign the reading diary too – it’s important
communication for us, as it lets us know who is reading and how often and then we can deploy our resources more effectively
in school for those children who don’t get to read with an adult at home.                                                                                                       

Writing to make sense is also an essential life skill. When you help your children with their writing please make sure they are using the right tense, punctuation and spelling.

Some children do extra lessons after school or on a Saturday.  If this is the case please come and talk to the teachers about the methods we use in maths and English so children don’t get confused with two ways of doing things.  

MacMillan Coffee Morning We raised £354.40p for MacMillan thank you for your generosity and all of those cakes!

Foodbank Collection We have also collected food for the Manna Centre and Sacred Heart Foodbank - thank you again for your generosity.

Black History Month

The children have been learning about Black History Month through the curriculum and have also been taking part in activities to support diversity and equality. We learnt how to dance Bangrha Style, had tie-dye lessons, made flags, had assemblies about Harriet Tubman and Mary Seacole, cooked and our ‘International Day’ was a true success!  Everyone dressed up in their country’s colours or national dress. I hope you all enjoyed seeing our diverse community in such vibrant form. 

Emotional Wellbeing

This is very topical on the education agenda.  The new Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum focuses on life skills Do you know how your children really feel? When was the last time you had a really good chat with them about all the things that interest them? Do they have enough space to express themselves?  This week Yr 1-6 have had a visit from ‘The Power of One’ theatre group all around anti-bullying. Ask the children about it.

E-Safety

With the increasing use of social media on mobile phones, tablets, computers I need to ask you if you are really aware of what your children may have on their phones/computers?  This is worrying for any parent. If you don’t know make every effort to find out. It was surprising how many children put up their hands the other day in the ‘Power of One’ assembly and said they had a Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat account.  Please check out the E-safety tab on our school website for further information for parents.

Infant Christmas Fayre

If anyone is interested in helping to organise the Christmas Fayre can you please come to a meeting at 3.15pm on Wednesday 11^th November

Junior School Mass Dates

Please come along and share in the children’s class Masses - all are welcome.

4^th November 5I – friends are a gift

11^th November 3D - Eucharist

18^th November 6F – Kindness

25^th November 5H – Forgiveness

9^th December 6G and 6E- Advent

Some important dates for your diary

Wednesday 11^th November - Christmas Fayre Meeting 3.15pm

Friday 13^th November - Year 6 Royal Courts of Justice

Friday 4^th December - Infant Christmas Fayre 1.45pm

Friday 4^th December - Red and Rainbow Unicorn Theatre -The Snow Child

Thursday10^th December – Infant Christmas Play 2pm

Friday 11^th December - Junior Music Concert 6.30pm

Monday 14^th December – Infant Christmas Play (repeat) 9.30am

Wednesday 16^th December – Year 4 Christmas Play

Wednesday 16^th December - Year 2 theatre visit: The Gruffalo

Thursday 17^th December – Children’s Christmas Dinner

Friday 18^th December – Infant Advent Mass

15^th January 2016 – Blue Class Unicorn Theatre visit: Grass

21^st January 2016 – Yellow Class Unicorn Theatre visit: Grass

Firework Night - Enjoy your fireworks but please be safe!   

Reflection

‘Don’t walk in front of me - I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me – I may not lead. Just walk beside me - and be my friend.’ Albert Camus

Anita Gallagher