Over St. John's CE Primary SchoolHead Teacher Blog: Friday 5th October 2018
Date: 5th Oct 2018 @ 12:16pm
What an interesting week we have had! As part of our No Outsiders work, we welcomed Andrew Moffat into school on Tuesday. Mr Moffat is the Assistant Head of a very large school called Parkfields Primary School in Birmingham. He has pioneered the No Outsiders theme and came in to school to teach lessons about diversity with all the classes, lead assemblies and then to deliver training in the evening for all staff. Both children and staff alike learnt a great deal about what it means to all be different, but to all be treated the same, treated equally - whether from a different country, have different faiths or beliefs, have a disability, from different families, the list is endless. Mr Moffatt commented on the fantastic understanding of the children already and how they have really embraced our ‘No Outsiders’ theme. I will be writing to all parents over the next week or two to invite you all in to school to have a look at the books that we will be using with the children to reinforce the idea that everyone is different, but we are all accepted and treated the same.
This work was also reinforced through our Collective Worship this week on the theme of friendship. We talked about the Bible stories of Naomi and Ruth and the men who took their paralysed friend to be healed by Jesus. All children have been thinking about the qualities that make a good friend and how they can show friendship to others – ensuring that nobody in our school is left out, no one is an outsider, everyone is made to feel welcome at Over St. Johns. The children gave me some beautiful examples of how they have shown friendship this week such as letting other children go in front of them in the dinner queue, playing with children they don’t normally play with, helping with jobs at home when a parent was poorly… We had a long list!
Speaking of making people feel welcome, I would very much like to welcome Miss Howley to the Over St. John’s team. Miss Howley has joined our hardworking midday assistants in making sure that our lunchtimes run smoothly. I am sure that Miss Howley will settle in quickly and be an asset to our lunch time team.
We would like to wish Mrs Kelly a speedy recovery following her operation earlier this week. In her absence, I have had the great pleasure of joining Mrs Hodge in the Hatchmere classroom and whilst I had great fun working with the children and getting to know them all better, I am certain that they will be very pleased to see Mrs Kelly return in a couple of weeks!
Bookings for Parents Evening went live yesterday at 9am. Please do not forget to log onto our website via the internet or the School Spider smartphone app to book your appointment. The Autumn Term Parents Evening will focus on how your child has settled in to their new class, how they are doing in English and Maths and any support that school can put in place or you can offer at home as well as attendance and behaviour following our new expectations. As reported on my first blog, we have changed the way that we approach Parents Evenings and we will be happy to receive feedback once we have completed a full cycle under the new system to see how it is working. Thank you for your support in attending Parents Evenings.
A few reminders
As a school, we love the fact that children are keeping healthy and active by arriving at school on bikes and scooters. Please may I remind all pupils to dismount their bikes and scooters at the first gates to ensure the safety of all arriving at school.
School dinners are currently £2.30 per day, payable in advance. Please use our School Money system to pay for dinners.
Anyone wishing to take their child out of school during school hours must complete a ‘Request for Absence’ form from the school office. Permission cannot be given after the event. Head Teachers no longer have the ability to authorise requests for absence for holidays and parents may receive a fine from the local authority if children are absent from school. A new Attendance Policy has just been finalised. This policy is a Winsford Education Partnership (WEP) Policy involving all the schools in the town, ensuring that we all have a consistent approach to attendance. This policy will be available on the website in the next couple of weeks after approval by our Governing Board at the next meeting on 17th October.
Confirmed Dates for the Autumn Term – additions from last week are highlighted.
Sunday 7th October: All Together Service in St. John’s Church (change of venue) at 10.30am. All Welcome.
Monday 8th October: Hatchmere Autumn walk to Knights Grange
Wednesday 10th October: Children to visit St John’s Church for a service
Thursday 11th October: KS2 day trip to Burwardsley
Monday 15th October: Winsford Guardian to take photo of Reception children.
Tuesday 16th October: Year 5 Pilgrim’s Day at Chester Cathedral
Friday 19th October: Individual Photographs
Monday 22nd – Friday 26th October: No after school clubs due to Parent’s Evening except Street Dance on Monday 22nd October.
Tuesday 23rd October: Parents Evening 3.10pm – 6.10pm
Wednesday 24th October: Parents Evening 4pm – 5.30pm
Friday 26th October: Harvest Festival in St Johns Church at 9.15am. All welcome.
Friday 26th October: Halloween and Bonfire Safety talks for all children by our PCSO
School closes for half term at 3pm
Monday 5th November: School opens at 8:45am
Thursday 8th November: School Nurses in to do flu jabs for Reception to Year 5
Friday 16th November: Anti-Bullying workshops with One Day Creative on the theme ‘Choose Respect’
Sunday 2nd December: All Together Service in St. John’s Church Hall at 10.30am. All welcome for the Christingle Service.
Monday 3rd December and Tuesday 4th December: Linmere involved in WEP (Winsford Education Partnership) Christmas Choral Project at the Lifestyle Centre – more details nearer the time.
Wednesday 5th December: Children to visit St John’s Church for a service
Thursday 20th December: Carol Service in St. John’s Church at 1.45pm. All welcome. Please note: All children to be collected from church at 3pm instead of school.
Friday 21st December: School closes for Christmas at 2pm
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs E Snowdon