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St. James The Great ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIMARY AND NURSERY SCHOOL Web site: www.stjamesthegreat.org Email:
[email protected] Headteacher: MR S.C. BECK MSc. BA. Cert.Ed. FRSA. FCollP. MIMgt.
NEWSLETTER
INVESTOR IN PEOPLE
No 4
December 2014
Wishing you all a Happy and Holy Christmas
& Every good wish for 2015
T
his has been an enjoyable term as we lead up to the Christmas break. I cannot speak highly enough of our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils whose concert performances appropriately provided real challenges to learn words, sing and perform, to which they all rose. I am sure you were as proud of them as I was. I extend sincere thanks to all the staff involved for their work including dealing with the usual last minute absences due to winter afflictions. Well done to all. Our Nursery children likewise enthralled us with their nativity performance and singing and all these events have got our Christmas season off to a great start. Our Carol Service at St Andrew’s was likewise excellent and brought home to us the true meaning of Christmas. This celebration falls very much on the Key Stage 2 staff and I thank them all for the hard work they have put in. Special mention goes to Mrs Williams who, as our Music Leader, gets the children to the high standard achieved. In addition to these events the children loved Christmas dinner day and will enjoy their class parties and I know they are well “hyped up” for Christmas. All at St James the Great extend our very best wishes to all of you for Christmas and every blessing in 2015. R.I.P. Sadly I have to report the sudden death of Jonathan Mowbray, husband of Muriel Mowbray, who is a lynchpin of our lunchtime supervision and school uniform shop, among many other roles she plays. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her two daughters, Laura and Claire, at this very difficult time. I know you will all keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
school achievement award Department for Education and Employment
The school is an Intermediate International Schools Award holder
WINDSOR ROAD · THORNTON HEATH · SURREY CR7 8HJ TEL: 020 8771 3424 (2 Lines) · FAX: 020 8771 0065 St James the Great RC Primary and Nursery School is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (Registered number 7937939). Registered office: Windsor Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8H
ECO FLAG ACCREDITATION: We have received the excellent news that our school has been reaccredited with its Eco Green Flag, the top level of this award. My thanks to Mrs Lawless for all her hard work preparing and seeing the school through its reaccreditation process which has a heavy paperwork load in addition to the assessor’s visit. I know she, in turn, is very proud of the Eco and School councils for their input so well done to: Liam Brown, Patrick Craig, Jamie Critchley, Summer Desira, Jakub Dumanski, Sofia Ellis, Yasmin Giannini, Amelie Griesel, Hannah Kapszewicz, Nicolas Lara, Matthew Lawlor, Anthony Leonidas, Skye McLaughlin, Jonnie Miles, Virginia Ngatunga, Grace Rhodes and Megan Shakespeare. Thanks also to Mrs Parfitt and Mrs Miles for their input.
CHRISTMAS FAYRE: Thanks for the great support given to this event which has raised over £10,000 for the school. We have been very fortunate to receive sponsorship again from James Alexander, the local Estate Agent, for the signboards 120 of you agreed to have outside your homes.
We are also promised two matched funding payments from Barclays Bank which if received will push the result even higher. Once again the driving force behind this event was our committee Chair, Bridie Willis, who I cannot thank enough for being so consistently good natured under pressure. The committee likewise for the hours they put in preparing and clearing up afterwards. From reports received Santa’s grotto was exceptional and a special thank you to Irena Corbo, John Leathem and Marcel Kiedrowski for this. I would also wish to thank the high number of staff who lent their support and attended. This is appreciated. I must not forget the Choir and Mrs Williams who got the event off to such a lovely start. Again, well done to all. KEY STAGE 2 START OF DAY ARRANGEMENTS: The recent parental survey saw 49% of respondents wishing the start of the school day to remain at 9.15 am with the other respondents divided across the other options. As a result there are no current plans to change school times. Safety concerns have, however, been raised regarding the volume of parents crossing the Key Stage 2 lines as they come into school. It is proposed, therefore, to alter the arrangements for children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. From the start of next term children in these classes will be able to enter their classes from the outside doors from 9.05 am and ready themselves for a prompt 9.15 am start to the school day. An adult will be present in the classroom from this time. There is now no need to line up in the playground at the start of the day. The arrangements for Nursery and Infant children do not change and we hope this may make it easier for parents with children in more than one part of the school. We will review these arrangements at the end of the academic year. FOOTBALL: Well done to our boys and girls football teams who are doing very well at present. We look forward to reporting ongoing good results in the New Year. FINAL ASSEMBLY on Friday 19th December at 10 am in the school hall is an open assembly and all are welcome. It will be an extended assembly that will provide a nice “rounding off” for the term. SCHOOL POLICIES: As you are aware these are available on the school website via the front page documents tab and then click on policy documents. The school’s recently updated Marking and Feedback Policy has now been uploaded.
STEVE REED, LOCAL MP, CHRISTMAS CARD COMPETITION: Our Year 5 and 6 pupils were invited to enter a competition to design our local MP’s Christmas Card. Steve Reed was so impressed with the entries that not only was there an outright winner, Chloe De Faria, and three highly commended entries from Jade Earle, Katie Blundell-Doyle and Megan Shakespeare. We are waiting to see a copy of Chloe’s winning card which we understand will receive very wide circulation. All of the pupils submitted excellent designs and I did not envy Steve having to pick an ultimate winner. Well done to them all.
Chloe’s card design SCHOOL CATERING: Our annual whole school Christmas dinner day went really well. I thank Mrs Sheila Williams and her team for all their hard work. AUTUMN TERM BOOK FAIR: We appreciate our Book Fair now faces competition from a range of discount book providers so a big thank you to those who did support the Fair which has raised over £1,000 commission in books which will help to stock our new Library. THANK YOU TO MRS BROWN: We have to thank her once again for putting up some external decorations to the front of the school and the gazebo for the festive season. I saw some of this being done in very cold weather and all her efforts are much appreciated.
CHRISTMAS CHARITY COLLECTIONS: The collections at the Infant concerns for the Lawrence Hyde Boy’s Home raised a total of £250 which moves us very close to our £1,000 target to get their toilets completed. Thank you for your generosity. At the Junior Carol Service we collected for Marie Curie Cancer Care and raised a total of £165. Again many thanks. SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS: These have been well received. We expect to be able to fulfil all the Christmas orders. If any further orders are required these can be arranged in the New Year and there will be no extra charge for these later orders. FAREWELL: The end of term has seen Mrs Fernandes, one of Year 3’s classroom support staff, move on to a new job. We express our sincere thanks to her for all her hard work over the past 9 years and extend our best wishes to her for the future. We are also saying farewell to Miss Baker who has been a part-time teacher in Class 2.2. We appreciate her contribution to school life over her short time with us and thank her for having become an established part of the teaching team so quickly. We will miss her and hope to see her back again in the future. In the meantime, we wish her every happiness and success for the future. THANK YOU never seems quite enough to express the appreciation of myself and the staff for the numerous cards and gifts sent into school. It is not always possible to give individual acknowledgements but we would ask you to accept this general acknowledgement as a mark of our sincere appreciation for your ongoing generosity, help and support. A huge THANK YOU from Emily (6.1), Will (1.2) and their family to everyone who visited their CAFOD stall at the Christmas Fayre. A massive £270 was raised which means CAFOD can now provide 108 babies and children with life-saving vaccinations through their sister Lily’s CAFOD candlelight fund. For more info please visit www.cafod.org/candlelight. MENU: Please find the new Menu for the Spring term attached. N.B. LAST DAY OF TERM FRIDAY 19TH DECEMBER AT 2 PM (PLEASE COLLECT TH PROMPTLY). THE LAST DAY FOR NURSERY PUPILS IS THURSDAY 18 DECEMBER. School reopens on Monday 5th January 2014 at 9.15 am.
YOUR CHILDREN
