4^th September 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to a new school year at St John’s!

I hope that you had a lovely summer and are now ready to embrace the excitement and opportunities that a new academic year has to offer.

Over the last few days, staff have been preparing to welcome your children back through prayer, preparation and revisiting our school mission, vision and improvement plan. Over the next few weeks, children will also have the opportunity to explore our mission and vision so that they can think and pray about their roles and responsibilities in our school community.

I invite you too to revisit our vision and mission below and join us in praying for a happy and successful year for our whole school community.

Vision and Mission Statement

We believe that a bright future starts with an excellent education.

Our vision is to ignite a love of learning that enables every child to achieve their very best. We aim to provide the excellent teaching and genuine nurture that will enable all of our children to be happy, resilient, creative citizens who have the skills, knowledge and passion to change the world.

Our mission at St John’s Cathedral Catholic Primary School is to educate the whole child through the Gospel values of Christ and provide academic excellence within a Catholic community, where all are loving to learn and learning to love.

Welcome

We welcome Miss Keeble who has joined our staff team as the Year 1 teacher and Miss Mason who joins us as a British Sign Language Communication Support Worker – she previously worked in our school as part of the Hearing Impairment Team. We also welcome Miss Cathrow who is on a teaching placement with us in Year 5. We wish them all well.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Mr Birch who got married in the summer and also to Miss White who got married last term and is now Mrs Maunders.

Class Teachers for 2024/2025

Nursery: Mrs Andrews Reception: Mrs Brown Year 1: Miss Keeble Year 2: Mrs Bradley Year 3: Miss Minall Year 4: Mrs Kahraman Year 5: Miss Turner

Year 6: Mrs Bailey, Mrs Leaman, Mrs Maunders

Uniform

Thank you for supporting us by sending your child back to school in full school uniform. They looked very smart and proud. Until October half term, they may wear summer or winter uniform as below:

Grey uniform skirt or pinafore dress or

Grey uniform trousers

White polo shirt with or without the school logo

Teal school sweatshirt or cardigan with the school logo White or grey socks or grey tights.

Yellow and white gingham check dress (or yellow gingham matching top and shorts/skirt) or grey shorts with a white polo shirt may be worn in summer

Sensible low heel, plain black school shoes or trainers. No markings or white soles. (black or white sandals may be worn in the summer)

School baseball cap with or without school logo (optional) Rucksack

PE Kit

Navy blue shorts or navy blue jogging bottoms in winter Light blue T-shirt with or without the school logo Trainers for outdoor activities

P.E. Bag

Tape to cover earrings if worn

Medicines

The office are happy to administer prescribed medicines that are needed during the school day and that can’t be administered at home eg inhalers, 4x day antibiotics where 3 doses are given at home and 1 is needed at lunchtime. The medicines must be prescribed, have the child’s name and dose on and be in the original packaging. They should be handed directly to the office and not left in the school bag or handed to the class teacher and a permission slip completed.

School dinners

Please remember to order your child’s school dinners in advance. The kitchen only cook the number of meals ordered and so it becomes very difficult when children arrive in the hall expecting a dinner that hasn’t been booked.

Education Sunday

This Sunday, 8^th September, is Education Sunday. St John’s is celebrating this at the 12 O’clock Mass at the cathedral. We invite all our families to attend and children to wear their school uniform. Our new Reception children will be processing in at the beginning of Mass and many of our children will be involved in the various ministries. Please bring you child along for this important celebration of Catholic education.

RE

For the first 2 weeks of term, children will be exploring our school mission and vision. They will examine what it means to be a member of St John’s school and establish expectations and responsibilities within their new classes. They will also be introduced to their class saint and their Mary’s Meals Country.

Mary’s Meals

Our faith in action focus this year will be on the work of Mary’s Meals, an incredible charity that serves nutritious school meals to children living in some of the poorest countries. They are already feeding more than 2.4 million children and ensuring that by attracting them to school with the promise of a good meal, these children are given energy, education and hope for the future. It costs £19.50 to feed a child for a whole school year through this charity and we are going to try and feed as many children as we can through our fundraising this year.

Carpark

As I explained in my previous newsletter, I have been very concerned about the safety of our school carpark with a number of near misses, damage to vehicles and a lack of consideration for others. With this in mind, I have had to take the difficult decision to extend the time that the gates will remain closed and limit the use of the carpark to staff and visitors. If you previously used the carpark to drop or collect children from school clubs, please make arrangements to find a safe and legal alternative. I am sorry for the inconvenience that this may cause but hope that you understand that I have to keep our community safe.

ASDA

I have been made aware that ASDA are running a rewards programme for primary schools. Every time customers shop with Asda using their Rewards app, the supermarket will donate 0.5% of the value of the shop to their chosen primary school. It would be great if parents and carers were able to choose St John’s when doing your shopping. Thanks in advance.

DIARY DATES

Sept

Monday 2^nd                           INSET Day

Tuesday 3^rd                           INSET Day

Wednesday 4^th                     Children back to school

Friday 6^th                               Choir to Mass for Apostolic Nuncio

Sunday 8^th                             Education Sunday 12pm Mass

Monday 9^th                          Fairtrade Fortnight begins 3.30pm KS 2 Meet the Teacher

Tuesday 10^th                         3.30pm KS 1 and Yr R Meet the Teacher

Thursday 12^th                       3.40pm Nursery Meet the Teacher

Monday 16^th                          School Council Election week

Wednesday 25^th                   Yr 6 Swimming starts

Oct

Monday 7^th                            INSET Day

Tuesday 22^nd                        Parents Evening

Wednesday 23^rd                   Parents Evening

Thursday 24^th                       Parents Evening

Friday 25^th                             3.30pm Break Up for Half Term

Half Term: Monday 28^th October – Friday 1^st November

Nov

Monday 4^th                            Back to School Flu Vaccinations

Tuesday 5^th                           Yr R Family Learning

Friday 8^th                               School Photos – individuals

Monday 25^th                          School Nurses Screening Yr R and Yr 6

Tuesday 26^th                         3.30pm KS 1 and EYFS Book Sharing

Wednesday 27^th                   3.30pm KS 2 Book Sharing

Dec

Monday 2^nd                           INSET Day

Thursday 12^th                       10am Nursery Nativity

Friday 20^th                             1pm Nativity at the Cathedral 2pm Break Up for Christmas

Christmas Holidays: Monday 23^rd December – Friday 3^rd January

Jan

Monday 6^th                            Back to School

Tuesday 14^th                         Yr R and Yr 1 Family Learning

Feb

Friday 14^th                             Break Up for Half Term