Newsletter 29/3/2018. Mrs Lawlor Writes

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1 Newsletter 29/3/2018 Mrs Lawlor Writes Dear Parents The spring term has drawn to a close and has ended well with a wonderful reflection of the Way of the Cross led by our Year 6 children. It is always fitting to end the spring term on Maundy Thursday as it enables the children to engage with the events of Holy Week leading up to the joy of Jesus resurrection. cont d page 2

2 Cont d from page 1 Space to Earth Challenge We have had some wonderful experiences at St Joseph s in the last few weeks. On Friday 16th we took part in the Space to Earth Challenge in partnership with the Triathlon Trust. It was a beautiful sunny day and the children threw themselves into the challenge. As a school we managed 1351km which meant that virtually we made it to the International Space Station! Well done to Year 4 who were the year group to clock up the most kilometers! Many thanks to Mrs Fairbanks for her organisation of the event and special thanks to Ms Cripps who together with her sister-in-law Beth, ensured we were one of just twenty schools to take part in the challenge. The Triathon Challenge was mentioned in a tweets by Tim Peake, and also by the Triathlon Trust! Well done to all involved. cont d page 3 Vacancy for Midday Supervisor We are seeking a new member of our team! A position has become available for a Midday Supervisor, required from 11.45am pm daily. Please enquire at the school office if you are interested in this position. Tel or secretary@stjosephs-redhill.surrey.sch.uk

3 Cont d from page 2 Osmington Bay Y6 had a wonderful trip to Osmington Bay and enjoyed a lot of sunshine as well as a range of interesting activities. The group were a credit to us and we received some positive feedback for the whole trip and for the staff team, as well as the for PGL centre itself. My thanks to all the staff and parent volunteers on this trip, in particular Mr Osman, Mr Carey and Mr Po-Ba. Parents Evening It was good to meet and see so many of you at our recent parents evenings. I hope you found the information useful. You may have seen in the children s books our new approach to marking and feedback. Our aim is to ensure children respond to verbal feedback and make immediate changes and improvements to their work. Maths Mastery Maths mastery at St Joseph s is underway with a greater focus on deepening understanding, application and reasoning. The children will be encouraged to use concrete materials in their lessons to support their understanding, practise fluency and to embed concepts. To help us with the implementation of the approach we have introduced weekly maths challenges to develop thinking and reasoning. We hope to be able to invite you in to school in June to a parent s workshop whereby we can demonstrate and discuss some of the approaches with you. cont d page 4 Maths Challenge This term we have introduced a weekly maths challenge for pupils in Years 2-6. Each year group has their own Maths Challenge board, which will have a new reasoning or problem solving challenge every week. All the pupils who have a go will receive team points for their house and out of those who get the answer correct, they could be picked to spend time on the computers during their lunch. Congratulations to the first week lucky winners: Year 2 Tilly H. and Lara S. Year 3 Alma J. and Sophie T. Year 4 Jack R. and Grace E. Year 5 Sinead H. and Thomas D. Year 6 Edward P. and Caitlin Nye School Dinners The cost of school meals for the new Summer Term 2018 is 2.25 per day. First half-term ( ) = Second half term ( ) = Total for whole term = Payment for school meals can be made online, and we encourage you to do this. If you need further information on how to create an account to enable this please speak to the school office. Cash payments or cheques payable to Surrey County Council are also acceptable. Any payment brought in to school MUST be in a sealed envelope with the child s name and class and details of the payment clearly marked on the outside. Please may I remind you that we require a half-term s notice if you wish your child to change from hot lunches to packed lunches or vice versa. A letter is required at the end of the term in order for the kitchen to organise their ordering. Many thanks for your co-operation with this. May we also remind you that we cannot allow any debts to accrue. Dinner money must be paid in advance or weekly.

4 St Joseph s Day and World Book Day Cont d from page 3 World Book Day and dress up day finally arrived at St Joseph s on Monday 19th March. We had a joint celebration with St Joseph. Author and actor Grant Koper came to school to read us his latest book The Day Granny s Knickers Blew Away. The children loved hearing his story, and were happy to retell the story to each other once back in their classes. Thank you to Mrs Osman and Miss Floyd for their organisation of the week. Miss Floyd writes A big Congratulations to Mrs Ennals, Mrs Gordon and all the children who won the best dressed competition for their costume on World Book Day! All the children and staff looked fantastic! We spent the day discussing why books are so important, reading and sharing our favourite stories. Thanks also to all the parents who came in and read their own favourite stories to the children. After a special assembly for St Joseph, the SJA provided all the children and teachers with an ice lolly. As there was snow still on the ground outside, the children enjoyed their lollies together in the hall. Thank you to the SJA for their generous donation of ice lollies and ice creams and for helping to make the day a very special one. cont d page 6

5 Year 6 Osmington Bay Residential Trip 2018

6 Cont d from page 4 Breakfast and Afterschool Club at St Joseph s from September 2018 We can now confirm that we will be running a breakfast and afterschool club provision at St Joseph s School from the 5 th September The club will be available from 7.30am before school and until 6.00pm after school daily. The club will be run on the school premises and will only have children from our school attending. The club will be run by an OFSTED accredited third party provider called Energy Kidz. Please see the information that will be sent out along with this newsletter so that you can make decisions with regard child care from September Uniform We will need to make some changes to our school uniform. We have been informed by SWOTS in Reigate that they will no longer be supplying the green check blouse for the girls. We have been looking into other options and have engaged the services of Mr Patrick Biggerstaff to supply and source our school uniform. Mr Biggerstaff is very keen to work with the school to provide good quality uniform items. More information will be available to parents once plans are finalised. There will also be an online school shop set up for your convenience via the school website. Staffing updates Miss Courcey has kindly agreed to stay on as class teacher for 1C until the end of the academic year. Miss Courcey has indicated that the summer term will be her last term at St Joseph s School. At the end of term we invariably say goodbye to members of the team. This term we will be bidding Mrs Julia Walker farewell as she leaves St Joseph s to take on a new career. Mrs Walker has been a member of staff here for the last 12 years and we would like to thank her for her commitment and dedication to the school. INSET day September 2018 The Governors have approved an additional INSET day on Friday 14 th September The day will be used for staff training on an approach to developing quality writing from Reception to Year 6. The strategy is called Talk for Writing which many of you will have heard of. Our aim is to introduce the teaching strategy early in the academic year to ensure a consistent approach to the teaching of writing at St Joseph s School. We would like to thank you all for your support of the school this term and wish you all a very happy and Holy Easter. I hope you enjoy quality time with your families and friends, and we look forward to welcoming you back for the summer term on the 16 th April Best wishes, Mrs Tammy Lawlor and staff Football On Wednesday 21st March, our Year 6 football team took part in the annual end of season tournament at Sandcross School. The team beat St John's, Salfords and Earlswood in the first round which meant they progressed to the next stage of the competition. In the semi final the team were beaten 2-0 by Reigate Priory, who went on to win the competition. It was a fantastic effort from the boys who have enjoyed a good season. In the league our team finished in third place overall and had some memorable victories. It has been a pleasure training the team and we hope they continue to develop their football at secondary school. Mr Hughes

7 Super Success at Netball Tournament On the 27 th of March, 9 children took park in the annual Netball tournament at Reigate Priory. The weather was not on our side to begin so it was a little miserable but that did not stop the children from having a good time! In the first round, we had to play 5 short games against Wray Common, Reigate Priory, RAA, St Johns and Furzefield. We won one game, lost one and drew three. The children played brilliantly and used everything that they have learnt in training, on the court. They had fantastic footwork, great communication and good game awareness, not to mention some super shots! We came 3rd in our Pool which was a fantastic! There was only one point between 2nd and 3rd! As a result, we were entered into a playoff against Salford s School and what a close and intense game it was! The ball was going from team to team but in the end, we had a fantastic win of 4-2. Overall, this meant that St Joseph s came 5 th out of the 12 schools that participated! An outstanding achievement for our budding netballers! Thank you to Miss Dogansoy for her dedication with Netball training each week, to Mrs Millican for coming to umpire our games, and a big thank you to the parents for their support and enthusiasm on the sideline during games and for help with lifts! Miss Dogansoy would also like to congratulate all the children who were part of Netball Club this season. Their skills have improved greatly and they were a delight to teach/coach. We re already looking forward to next season! Forthcoming Events and Dates for the Dairy 16 th April Return to school for Summer Term 30 th April 4 th May Year 4 trip to Isle of Wight 7 th May May Bank Holiday School Closed 10 th May Ascension Day Saturday 12 th May Make a Difference Day Induction Mass of Mrs Tamsyn Lawlor Headteacher 5.30pm Mass at St Joseph s Parish 14 th May 17 th May Year 6 SATs Week 22 nd May Denary Day for Year 6 pupils hosted by St Joseph s Friday 25 th May Break for half term