Over St. John's CE Primary SchoolHead Teacher Blog: Friday 14th February 2025
Date: 13th Feb 2025 @ 2:40pm
Junior Safety Officers
The Junior Safety Officers shared their latest bulletin at the end of Collective Worship ealier this week. It contains lots of information about parking outside of schools and Safer Internet Day. I have attached the bulletin below.
They also announced the winners of their most recent competition which was colouring for KS1 and a quiz for KS2. Congratulations to Myah, Cameron and Albie in KS1 and to Jacob, Hudson and Oscar in KS2 – their well-deserved prizes were awarded earlier this week.
PTA Messages
Valentines Competition
Children will be coming home with a 'Things I Love' worksheet in their bookbags today. If they would like to enter our competition to win a box of lovely things all they need to do is complete the worksheet over the holidays, parents pop a photo of their completed worksheet on our Facebook, email in to OSJ PTA (overstjohnspta@gmail.com) or children can pop them in the competition basket in the Library on the first day back to school. Don't forget to include their name and class so we can choose our winner!
Roses
Thank you so much to everyone who supported our flower shop this week. This proved so popular that we completely sold out! We're sorry to everyone who missed out this time around, we're adding this to our list of events next year and tripling our order (AT LEAST!). It goes to show that our OSJ children have lots of love to give and we hope their adults were lucky enough to receive one.
St. John’s Ceilidh
St. John’s church are holding a special St David’s Day Ceilidh and meal at 7pm on Saturday 1st March, which looks to be a lovely, lively evening. I have attached further details below, including how to get tickets, should you wish too.
Attendance
As always, we are looking for attendance to be at least 96%. For the school this week we are at 94.33% and here is a rundown of each class attendance:
Hatchmere: 94.29%
Sandymere: 90.48%
Delamere: 93.55%
Oakmere: 95.60%
Linmere: 94.23%
Blakemere: 96.92%
Well done to Blakemere for the best attendance this week. I would like to acknowledge that we have had some good attendance figures over the past 3 weeks – thank you. I appreciate how difficult it is when there is illness circulating but also appreciate you checking Is my child too ill for school? and being reassured that we will send them home if they are too ill to be in school.
#WakeUpWednesday
Findings from Ofcom last year indicate that as many as 16% of the UK’s population are currently using dating apps to form new connections. That’s more than 11 million users in this country alone, and among so many, there are bound to be some who don’t hop on these platforms with the best of intentions.
This is especially important to remember when we consider that an Ofcom consultation in the lead-up to the Online Safety Act found that some children and young people use these apps – regardless of their age restrictions. It’s vital that parents and educators remain aware of the risks associated with dating apps and learn how best to keep youngsters safe from them. That’s why National Online Safety have put together this week’s expert-led guide, detailing the most prominent risks of these platforms.
Absence During Term Time – Reminder
As I have shared a number of times previously, there have been some changes to the way that Penalty Notices are issued for absences during term time. Penalty Notices are issued for irregular attendance, with days off here and there throughout the term including holidays.
The new National Framework for Penalty includes:
- A Penalty Notice must be considered for 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period – these days do not have to be all at the same time, they can be a couple of days here and a couple of days there; they can be a combination of a couple of days holiday and a couple of days absence at other times too.
- An increase to the amount of a Penalty Notice is now £160 if paid within 28 days, and £80 if paid within 21 days. This fine is issued to each parent separately for each child, so both parents receive the £80 fine, meaning that for one child it equals £160 (£80 for Mum and £80 for Dad) if both parents take the child.
- A second Penalty Notice could be issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3 year period being charged at a higher rate of £160 with no option for this second offence to be discharged at the lower rate of £80.
- A national limit of 2 penalty notices that can be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3 year period, so at the 3rd (or subsequent) offence(s) another tool will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).
School Dinners
School dinners cost £3 per day, £15 per week. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive free meals as part of the government’s Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) scheme. Dinner money must be paid in advance via School Spider.
If you are in receipt of benefits and think that you may be entitled to free school meals, please click here for more information and support and how to apply. It is very important to apply for free schools meals whatever year your child is in, even if you receive the UIFSM in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, as the school receives a sum of extra money to further help support your child and their education.
Confirmed Dates for the Spring Term 2025 – new dates highlighted
Dinner Week 1 - no ham sandwiches on 25th February.
Friday 14th February: School closes for half term at 3pm
Monday 24th February: INSET day – school closed
Tuesday 25th February: school opens at 8.35am
Wednesday 26th February: Delamere visit to Winsford Library
Saturday 1st March: St. David’s Day Ceilidh and Meal at St. John’s church 7pm
Wednesday 5th March: Sandymere visit to Winsford Library
Wednesday 5th March: World Book Day at OSJ
Wednesday 12th March: Hatchmere visit to Winsford Library
Monday 31st March – Wednesday 2nd April: Year 2 and 3 Residential to Robinwood
Friday 4th April: Easter Service in St. John’s Church at 9.15am. All welcome.
Friday 4th April: School closes for Easter at 2pm
Have a lovely half term holiday.
Take care,
Mrs E Snowdon
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