Happy New Year! - St John`s Primary School

16th January 2015
Happy New Year!
Culture Week
A very happy New Year to you all. Although it now
seems like a long time ago I hope you and your
families had a very merry Christmas. It has been
lovely to hear all the exciting news from the children. We are now at the start of term 3 and there
are lots of exciting events taking place. Please make
a note of dates for your diaries from the dates on
page 3 of this newsletter.
Board of Success
Congratulations to all the children
with work on the Boards of
Success in Worrall Road and
Lower Redland Road. Please take
time to go and see the children’s
work.
Goslings: Wilson Cole and Olivia Heckford
Ducklings: Honor Fellowes and Benji Coram
Cygnets: Rowan Burns and Buddy Clare
Hawks: Nieva Brayshaw and Leo Nguyen
Kestrels: Zac Hill and Lucy Goring
Falcons: Scarlett Bates and Freddie Davies
Harriers: Sameer Asghar and Thomas Hallett
Owls: Jack Lewis and Lizzie Tonge
Dragon Boats: Molly Adams, Nini Suramlishvili
Charles Barwick-Barrett and Aleeza Kamran
Balloons: Betsy May Wright, Jinhan Zhang, Sam
Pilling and Barney Davies
Kites: Tyreese Greenaway, Charlotte Price and
Evelyn Hornibrook
Brunel: Michael Bousfield, Aryan Kamran, Jack
Miller and Ethan Odutola
Cabot: Jago Tye and Mia Otten
Muller: Tilley Bennett and Sam MacDonnell
House Points
Morpurgo
Dahl
Rowling
Lewis
Week 1
111
124
116
105
Week 2
92
90
93
105
This year our annual Culture
Week focussed on Uganda.
St. John’s already has a very
strong link with Kyabirwa
and our link school there
through Susannah Hills. We
wanted the children to find
out more about this country
and what it would be like to
live there.
We started with a great launch assembly from Mrs Hills with music,
photographs and lots of information about life in Uganda and for
children in particular. Over the course of the week the children have
researched further, drawn pictures, worked out currency conversion
for Ugandan shillings, played Ugandan games and even swept the
classroom like the children do every morning in Uganda. It really has
been an immersive and fun start to the term.
MyEden
You should all have received letters this week explaining the
new procedures for ordering school lunches. In the letter from
Eden there will have been your child’s unique ID number
allowing you to create an account for their school meals. If
your child does have a school meal please ensure that you
familiarise yourself with these procedures before the system
goes live on Monday 26th January. Please do remember to
clear any outstanding arrears you may have on the present
On-line system BEFORE THE 26TH January.
Severe Weather
We have had our first taste of winter this week and therefore it is
really important that all the children come appropriately dressed
and that all items are labelled. As a principle, we will always endeavour to stay open even if there is snow as we feel this sends an
important message to the children. However this may not always be
possible so if you are in any doubt please listen to local radio or ring
the school WR office. It might be that we operate just one site for
those parents who really need to work.
Our value for this term is EQUALITY
House Event
Last Friday, as part of our Culture Week
focussing on Uganda, we held an upcycling
house event which was a great success.
We started with a huge pile of rubbish and
transformed it into a variety of useable
and decorative objects.
The children worked in teams of all ages
and had to investigate how to use the
waste resources such as plastic bags
and plastic bottles. Their task was to
make something that had a purpose,
and convince their house and the
governor judges that it was the most
useful or decorative object.
The children worked collaboratively
and each group made something that
met
the
challenge.
The winning
house was Rowling with their children’s
toy theatre and full set of characters;
they win the full 100 house points.
Other winning entries included a fruit
bowl made from newspaper, with fruit
made from paper and plastic bags.
Expert Visitor for Y5/6
E-Safety
Children are now accessing
technological devices at a
younger age and seem much
faster than adults at working
out exactly how it works.
This can leave parents anxious about how to get the
most out of these new devices and still keep their
child safe. We teach the children five simple rules to
keep them safe online which are called ‘Smart rules’.
Safe: Keep safe by being careful not to give out personal information when chatting or posting online. Personal
information includes your full name, email address,
phone number and password.
Meeting Meeting someone you have only been in
:
touch with online can be dangerous. Only do so with
your parents’ or carers’ permission and even then only
when they can be present. Remember online friends are
still strangers even if you have been talking to them for a
long time.
Accepting: Accepting emails, IM messages, or opening
files, pictures or texts from people you don’t know or
trust can lead to problems – they may contain viruses or
nasty messages!
Reliable Someone online might lie about who they
:
The children in Year 5/6 had a fascinating
visitor this Thursday — apparently an
expert on Trolls!! The children had some
really interesting questions for
our guest. The children are
now really knowledgeable on
many aspects of troll life, including their habitat and troll
culture!
Reminder
If your child is unwell and will not be attending school
please remember to phone either Lower Redland
Road or Worrall Road Office and let the school know
that they will not be attending and the reason why.
You should call before 9.15 am. If you do not call your
child’s absence will be recorded as unauthorised.
Thank you for your co-operation.
are, and information on the internet may not be true.
Always check information with other websites, books or
someone who knows.
Tell Tell your parent, carer or a trusted adult if some:
one or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried, or if you or someone you know is being bullied
online.
You can report online abuse to the police at
www.thinkuknow.co.uk
INSET Day
Please remember that February 23rd will be an INSET
day and school will be closed for teacher training.
Dates for your Diary
Term 3
January
23rd
February
2nd
6th
7th
Year 3/4 to Museum
Year 3/4 Egyptian Day
PTA Disco
EYFS ‘Stay and Play’
Monday 16th February—Friday 20th February End of Term Holiday
Term 4
25th 7.30 pm
23rd
Year 6 Residential Activity Week Presentation to parents
INSET Day—School Closed
March
2nd
3rd
6th
w/c 9th
10th
16th
16th 2.30 pm
17th 2.30 pm
18th 3.45 pm
19th 2.30 pm
3:45 pm
20th
23rd
27th
Big Pedal Starts for 3 weeks
PTA Meeting
Book Fair Arrives
Authors’ Week and Book Fair
Authors’ Week House Event (LRR pupils drop off at WR)
NSPCC Workshops in Year 5/6
EYFS and Year 1/2 Parents’ Evening
Year 3/4 Parents’ Evening
Years 3/4/5/6 Parents' Evening
Year 5/6 Parents’ Evening
EYFS and Year 1/2 Parents’ Evening
ASC Disco
Easter Service for pupils at All Saints’ Church
Easter Service in Worrall Road for pupils (LRR pupils to be dropped off at WR)
Monday 30th March— Friday 10th April 2015—Easter Holiday
A Special Visitor to Year 1
Last term Hawks and Kestrels classes were studying Dick Whittington and were particularly interested in the
fact that he becomes the Mayor. The children wanted to find out more about a Mayor so they decided to write
to the Lord Mayor of Bristol. To their delight he replied to their letters saying he would like to visit us to
answer our questions.
So on Wednesday, the children were
thrilled to meet this special visitor.
They particularly enjoyed trying on his
hat and admiring the gold chains. He
told them lots of things about his
job and they were interested to find
out about his official house and
swords.
PTA News
School Disco
Get your dancing shoes ready for our School Disco on Friday, 6th February (5-7pm in the school hall at Worrall
Road). It’s lots of fun for both Infants and Juniors, with a professional DJ, disco party games, a hair & nail bar,
and hot food available to buy on the night. Parents and carers can catch up and enjoy a few drinks from the bar,
while their children party the evening away.
Tickets will be on sale in the days running up to the disco through both school playgrounds; £3
per child in advance, or £3.50 on the door (parents and pre-school siblings go free). We look
forward to seeing lots of you there for what is always a fun night for both children and adults!
Fantastic Christmas Fair!
The Christmas Fair was a huge success! Thank you to all of the families who came along and joined in the fun;
there was a real buzz about the school, and a fantastic array of stalls and activities for the children and their
families to enjoy. Hopefully it made everyone feel bit more festive and ready for the Christmas holidays!
A very big ‘thank you’ to all of the Class Reps and to the parents, carers and staff who supported them, for their
hard work in planning and running the event. We are still counting in the takings, but it
looks as though the fair has raised over £4,000, which is a fantastic achievement! All of our
fundraising this year will focus on raising money for much-needed ICT equipment, and new
library books at both sites. The revenue from the fair makes a significant contribution
towards this, and wouldn’t have been possible without your support (and generous
spending!) at our Winter Wonderland; thank you very much!
PTA Committee Meetings
The PTA committee meetings are open to all parents, and are a great opportunity to hear more about the social
and fundraising events coming up over the next few months. Meetings are usually held on the first Tuesday of
every month at 7.45pm in the Worrall Road school hall (dates for the meetings scheduled before the end of the
year are listed below). Please do come along to hear about the events, and feed into their planning; all ideas and
input are much appreciated!
3rd February
3rd March
5th May
2nd June
If you miss a meeting, but would like to see an overview of topics discussed, minutes of each meeting are published under the PTA section of the school website.
Have a great weekend!
HALF TERM ACTIVITIES
February 2015
Pancake Day
Redland Park
Arts & craft activities
Sports games & activities
Bowling
Free play
Art Workshop
Cooking activities
ABOVE ARE SOME DETAILS OF OUR FUN PACKED FEBRUARY HALF TERM ACTIVITIES.
ACTIVITIES ARE OPEN TO ALL ST JOHNS CHILDREN, AS WELL YOUR FRIENDS OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL.
Book now to be certain of some February Half Term fun with familiar faces.
To book Contact – 0117 9706677 or [email protected] for more information or login via https://libacura.co.uk