Over St. John's CE Primary SchoolHead Teacher Blog: Friday 4th April 2025
Date: 4th Apr 2025 @ 12:51pm
Easter Service
A huge thank you to all who were able to come and join us at church this morning to celebrate our Easter Service. As they always are, the children were fabulous and delivered a beautiful service sharing the Easter message of hope, love and new beginnings. I do hope that your Easter holidays are also full of love, hope and new beginnings and thank you all for your continued support of our school.
Robinwood Residential
Wow! What a fabulous time the children in Year 2 and 3 had on their adventures at Robinwood. They survived all kinds of adventurous activities including a piranha infested pool and apparently, a game of ‘The Floor is Lava’ at 2am in one particular bedroom! I hope you enjoyed looking at the updates that the staff shared during the children’s time away – I know there are over 400 photographs uploaded to School Spider so that should have really given you all a good flavour of what the children got up to. My sincere thanks go to Mrs Kelly, Mrs Skelley and Miss Dyson for giving up their own time at no extra cost, to give the children such a wonderful experience.
Attendance
I gave out many, many certificates for attendance this afternoon in assembly! We had 20 children receive a certificate for attendance of 96% or more in the Spring Term, 25 for 98% and 33 children got a 100% certificate! This is fabulous and shows just how hard everyone is really trying to improve attendance at Over St. John’s! All those who had 98% or more also went into our termly draw to win a £15 Argos voucher and the lucky winner was Haley.
As always, we are looking for attendance to be at least 96%. For the school this week we have had quite low attendance at 92.63% which had broought down our overall attendanc since September, which is now 94.79%.
Here is a rundown of each class attendance this week:
Hatchmere: 93.18%
Sandymere: 92.86%
Delamere: 91.05%
Oakmere: 88.93%
Linmere: 95%
Blakemere: 94.23%
Well done to Linmere for the best attendance this week who will receive our trophy in Collective Worship on the first Friday back.
As always, 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. You might also be interested in this link from the Government about support for parents for attendance:
Improving School Attendance - Government Support for Parents May 2024
#WakeUpWednesday
Instagram remains one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, especially among teens – used by around 70% of 13 to 17-year-olds.
It may be one of the most familiar social media names around but features like AI-powered chatbots and Threads integration have added fresh challenges for families and schools to navigate. From worrying livestreams, to issues like social exclusion and fear of missing out, Instagram isn’t just about photos. As the platform evolves, so too must the conversations we have with young people about how they use it.
The latest #WakeUpWednesday guide outlines what these new features involve, the possible risks they bring and how to make the most of Instagram’s parental controls to keep children safe online.
Holiday Activities and Food
Thanks to the crucial funding from the Department of Education, HAF Easter is nearly here and Edsential wanted to share with you some of the Holiday Activities and Food clubs available in our area. Coordinated by Edsential, on behalf of Cheshire west and Chester Council, this year's Easter HAF programme has a whole host of clubs that are completely free for children and young people in receipt of free school meals.
The new and improved map will let you find and book HAF clubs easier than ever before. Parents and carers can simply scroll, search or navigate the map to find the perfect club for their child. And the best part? Just click on a club, read their details and book directly with the provider!
To find a full list of the Easter holiday activity clubs visit the website.
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 currently cost £3 per day, £15 per week.
As promised last week, the new price of school dinners has been revised and will not be that that I originally shared. Instead, from 1st May, they will rise to £3.10 per day, £15.50 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 Summer Term 2025 – new dates highlighted
Dinner Week 1
Tuesday 22nd April: School opens at 8.35am for the Summer Term
Thursday 8th May: Red, white and clue non-uniform day for VE Day
Have a lovely Easter holiday.
Take care,
Mrs E Snowdon