Over St. John's CE Primary SchoolHead Teacher Blog: Friday 7th February 2025
Date: 7th Feb 2025 @ 2:40pm
Children’s Mental Health Week
This week we have celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week in school with the theme of ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself.’ Classes have used their PSHE sessions to deepen their understanding of mental health and have had lots of extra opportunities throughout the week for brain breaks and reflection. Also, we joined the Sanctuary Foundation on Tuesday morning for a special Great Big Live Assembly focussing on mental health which the children found very beneficial. Please take a look at the class blogs to find out what the children got up to in each class.
We have a special page on our website dedicated to mental health and well-being which you can access at any time: Over St. John's Mental Health and Well-Being page
World Book Day
We have had to make a change to when we will be celebrating World Book Day and all things reading this year. Due to unforeseen circumstances, at Over St. John’s we will be celebrating this on Wednesday 5th March. Further information will be shared with regards to the many fun activities that we will be doing to celebrate reading in the near future, so do keep your eyes peeled for this.
I thought that I would mention that every Thursday at the end of our Collective Worship, I share a ‘Just Because…’ story with the children. This is a story that I read ‘just because’ we can, to give us the opportunity to read a variety of books and enjoy the story. We read a fabulous book this week called ‘Jack and the Jellybean Stalk’ which really captivated the children’s attention. I had reports that a few children went home and put in quite demanding requests for some magic beans! My apologies for this but at least you can see that they are enjoying the stories!
Attendance
As always, we are looking for attendance to be at least 96%. For the school this week we are at 96.35% and here is a rundown of each class attendance:
Hatchmere: 97.14%
Sandymere: 95.24%
Delamere: 96.67%
Oakmere: 96.80%
Linmere: 94.23%
Blakemere: 98.08%
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
‘Fake news’ is a widespread issue in the digital world, and it's overwhelmingly likely that both children and adults will be exposed to it online. In fact, a study from the Alan Turing Institute has found that 94% of people in the UK have encountered misinformation on social media and that’s only the ones who were aware of it!
However, while some fake news is shared mistakenly by well-meaning individuals, it’s also shared by scammers and other cyber-criminals to lend legitimacy to their con. While this presents a clear risk to children and young people online, the question remains as to how we can protect them against such tactics. This week’s free guide offers expert advice on the specific ways scammers use misinformation and how to safeguard younger users against these techniques.
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 3
Wednesday 5th February: Linmere to visit Winsford Library
Tuesday 11th February: Pupil Consultation Evening 4pm – 6pm
Wednesday 12th February: Oakmere visit to Winsford Library
Thursday 13th February: Pupil Consultation Evening 3.15pm – 5.15pm
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
Wednesday 5th March: Sandymere visit to Winsford Library
Wednesday 5th March: World Book Day – CHANGE OF DATE
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 weekend.
Take care,
Mrs E Snowdon