Dear Parents & Friends

A warm welcome to our new families and staff who have joined St Joseph’s in September. All children have

settled in and begun the new year focused and keen to do well. As you will have read in my welcome letter on

the 5th September 2019, we have several new staff. I am sure you will get to know them and am confident we

will benefit from their new ideas, energy and commitment to compliment all the strengths of our existing staff.

NEWS TO CELEBRATE

I am sure you have read our recent news post about St Joseph’s beings awarded a

‘Platinum Sports Award’ for standards achieved in sports throughout the school. It

acknowledges the numerous sporting activities always available to our children ,

pupil engagement and the work of staff and external coaches. A special thanks to

Mrs Mangan who leads PE and for her endless energy, enthusiasm and determina-

tion to ensure that all pupils have access to sports. She embodies our school values

and it is primarily due to her hard work that we have achieved this award. Sports

at St. Joseph’s school is a strength and all pupils are encouraged to participate. It helps them to develop so

many life skills and builds up qualities of resilience, determination and self-belief. So please continue to

support us by encouraging your child to join in the before and after school clubs.

Our pupils have settled in well , are focused and already rising to the challenges of a new academic year. We

are continuing to promote ‘pupil voice’ where we encourage all pupils to feel confident to share their opinions

on a range of topics. Several pupils have already met with me to discuss ideas about running lunchtime clubs

and will be writing to you in due course. The children are in the process of electing candidates for school

committees to represent their views and share in school development. Pupil voice is a great strength of our

school and our children’s opinions matter. I look forward to working with all the pupil groups and believe

that they can contribute significantly to the continued future development of the school. It is important that all

our pupils believe they can make a difference and their views are listened to and discussed.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Our pupils continue to look smart and are great ambassadors for the school. Please do remember to label all

items of uniform clearly. In the interest of health and safety, we would advise pupils not to wear earrings, but

if it is essential then please ensure your child wears small studs. All pupils including Year 6 are expected to

wear school coats. Only burgundy school hats should be worn in the colder months. Do refer to our website.

START AND END OF THE DAY

Thank you to all of you who park in neighbouring roads with care and consideration to others. Please remember

not to block residents’ drives and do not park on the yellow zigzag lines outside school. Infant children must be

accompanied to their classrooms and juniors may walk in unaccompanied. Children begin early morning work

at 8.45 a.m. and doors open at 8.40 a.m. so please ensure that your child is punctual.

CONTACT DETAILS

Kindly ensure that your contact details are up to date and you can easily be reached , particularly in an

emergency. Please update your child’s medical form as we need to know about existing allergies and how to

address them. Do remember that we are a NUT FREE ZONE.

SCHOOL FUND

Thank you to those of you who have made contributions to the school fund. I am sure you are aware of the

acute funding crisis facing all schools nationally. We are proud that at St Joseph's, we strive hard to ensure

that our pupils’ needs are met and high standards are maintained. However, it is becoming increasingly

difficult. Your donation to the school fund is so important and crucial to supporting the school financially.

The money raised helps to purchase key resources to support learning, it helps to fund the purchase of text books

and books for class libraries. We never compromise on health and safety as keeping children and adults safe is

our key priority. However, there are areas of our school that need further improvement, like our school gardens.

We intend to start a gardening project called ‘The Big Dig’ where parents/friends, pupils and staff come

together at the end of the school day for a few hours once a term. We work together on the school grounds/

gardens, planting, weeding and generally having a great time. Our school environment is so important and in

need of some ‘flower power’ It will bring us together as a school community, improve our school environment

and ultimately help our children. This is where the school fund will help to finance the purchase of gardening

and other tools and resources. So please contribute to the “school fund,” via parent pay. A big thank you for

your contributions it will have an enormous impact on our school and will help to fund more school projects.

HELPING YOUR CHILD TO SUCCEED

Every child has the potential to succeed but they cannot do it alone. We are trying to nurture our children to

be confident learners able to thrive in a competitive world. We want them to aspire to be young citizens who

will excel in life and have the qualities to be leaders in their chosen areas. This can only be achieved if we work

together and have an open mindset. Please do take time to read the information about our curriculum and how

you can help them to succeed with a strong resilient mindset.

The curriculum at St Joseph’s is broad and balanced and aims to engage children so that they develop a love for

learning and thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world. We nurture independent learning skills and

the ability for pupils to discuss ideas, express opinions n a respectful manner. Gospel and British values of

respect, tolerance and freedom of speech are an integral part of our curriculum. This year we will be

incorporating whole school topics and themes to extend learning and link core skills of reading, writing and

maths, to the wider curriculum.

The themes for the first half of the autumn theme are ‘Breaking news’ and ‘Our Heritage’

Breaking news - This focuses on current affairs, children are encouraged to discuss events in the news as well

as think about their own lives. Younger children will think about starting school and new beginnings.

Our heritage - Every year group will focus on a person (either from the past or the present) who has positively

impacted on our world. This topic celebrates the lives of a range of people from dif-

ferent cultures and links to black history month, remembrance day and celebrating the

cultures of our diverse school community. We will be inviting parents into school to

share cultural traditions and stories and organising music, drama and other subject

workshops. If you can give us time to come into school please let either Mrs Gal-

lagher or me know. A letter will be sent out to you shortly.

CAREERS MONTH - November 2019

At St. Joseph’s we aim for excellence and have high expectations for all our pupils. It is imperative that we

introduce our pupils to all the amazing possibilities available to them and potential careers to aim for. We

will be inviting professionals in to talk to pupils about a variety of occupations and the skills and qualifica-

tions required. If you wold like to be involved or know of anyone willing to give up time, please contact me.

Our children have the potential to achieve anything with hard work, resilience, your support and involvement

and above all self-motivation and determination. Exciting times ahead and we all need to be on board and

committed.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

We are continually looking for new ideas to further improve links between home and school and I welcome

your suggestions . We will be hosting drop in sessions where parents can come and observe maths and English

lessons being taught. Details will be sent out and owing to limited space, you will need to sign up for these

sessions. We will run several sessions to accommodate all requests.

Reading and writing is one of our school priorities for the year, with a focus on extending pupils’ vocabulary.

The key to this is daily reading and encouraging your child to read a variety of texts. A competent writer reads

regularly and builds up an extensive vocabulary. So please read with your child and take them to the Library

to give them the opportunity to enjoy different texts. We need to support our local libraries and make use of

their excellent resources.

We are always looking for volunteers to come into school, so if you can give time or know of other family

members or friends willing to help, please do contact Mrs Gallagher (Deputy Headteacher) I know we have so

many skills and hidden talents in our school community so please do volunteer.

LEARNING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

School trips and use of the school environment (particularly the forest area) supports a child’s progress and

attainment. We are fortunate to have extensive school grounds and would like to further develop them.

Funding is a problem, so please do contribute to the school fund as it is vital to our school development.

Please ensure payment for trips, school lunches and other events is made early. Unfortunately, in the past the

school has covered outstanding parental payments and this takes funds away from our children’s education.

We will no longer be able to do this and may need to cancel trips in the event of parents not paying on time.

So please support us and always come and see me if you have any questions or need clarification.

MACMILLAN COFFEE MORNING – FRIDAY, 27TH SEPTEMBER 2019

Mrs De Jesus will be holding a coffee morning on Friday, 27th September in the Junior Hall

from 8.15 a.m. All money raised will be donated to MacMilian Cancer support. Please

bring all donations of cakes and biscuits to the school hall and please remember we are a

NUT FREE ZONE, so kindly avoid using any nuts or nut extracts in your cakes/cookies. I

know we have some amazing bakers in our community and we will be in for a real treat.

Thank you in advance for all your contributions and I look forward to sampling some of the delights.

PTA

The PTA play an important part in developing parental involvement and

supporting the school, so please do try to get involved and refer to the

PTA board for information. The members work incredibly hard and

welcome your input and support. They will be contacting you shortly

with information regarding dates and times of the AGM.

KEY DATES

Please refer to our website for information about forthcoming dates. Thank you to our Year 6 parents for

attending the curriculum and transition to Year 7 meeting on Thursday, 12th September. her year group

meetings will be held over the next two weeks (dates are included in this newsletter). You will have the

opportunity to find out about the curriculum and expectations for your child’s year group and ways you can

support, so please do add the dates to your diary.

Infants and Nursery Juniors Crown Dale, London SE19 3NX Woodend, London SE19 3NU T: 020 8670 2385 F: 020 8670 0420 T: 020 8653 7195 F: 020 8653 0807

Thank you for continuing to work with the school to ensure successful outcomes for all of our pupils.

It is an exciting time at St. Joseph’s School and I look forward to everything we will achieve together.

Mrs Fernandes - Headteacher

WHOLE SCHOOL INFORMATION – 1st Half Autumn Term

Class Assemblies 11.10.19 – Class J Assembly 16.10.19 – Harvest Celebration - 11.00 Junior Hall – KS2 Mass 1.30 – KS1 Assembly Other key dates 23.09.19 - Reception pupils full time 23.09.10 - Y3 Parent Curriculum meeting - 5.00 p.m. 24.09.19 - Y2 Parent Curriculum meeting - 5.00 p.m. 26.09.19 - Y1 Parent Curriculum meeting - 5.00 p.m 26.09.19 - Individual pupil’s photographs 02.10.19 - Rugby Tournament 03.10.19 - Reception Parent Curriculum meeting – 9.00 a.m. 07.10.19 - Reception parent workshop - 8.45 – 9.15 a.m. 07.10,19 - KS2 Flu nasal spray 10.10.19 & 11.10.19 – Anne Frank workshop (Y5 & Y6) 11.10.19 - Class J Assembly 14.10.19 - International week 16.10.19 - Harvest Celebration - 11.00 Junior Hall – KS2 Mass 1.30 – KS1 Assembly

Please refer regularly to our school website for up to date information www.stjosephsfederation.co.uk