St John Vianney School Newsletter 10.10.2025

Assistant Headteacher's Message

Dear family & friends of SJV,

Week 6 of the half term has been an eventful one! Mrs Jordan and Ms Walsh’s classes have both enjoyed fantastic residential visits to CAFT. They threw themselves into all the activities, supported one another brilliantly, and came back having formed some wonderful new friendships. The opportunity to participate in residential activities is something we feel is very important here at SJV; it gives us an opportunity to strengthen relationships. This is the first year we have introduced a residential so early in the school year but we feel it will really help all of our new children and staff to get to know each other better. Without the dedication of staff giving up their own personal time these residentials cannot go ahead so thank you to all those who attended, we really appreciate it.

As we move towards the end of half term some of our pupils have faced some challenges and we have seen some spikes in behaviour; we appreciate that this time can be a challenge for our pupils and we welcome opportunities to work closely with parents and carers to support our young people. Thank you for your continued support with this. When we work collectively so that there is consistency between home and school, it really does support our young people to thrive.

We ended the week with our annual celebration of Harvest. Each class brought their donations of food into the chapel and we gave thanks together as a community. A huge thank you to all our parents and carers for your kindness and generosity – the amount of donations was staggering and they will go a long way in supporting local families through the local food bank.

Next week we look forward to our college morning for Key stages 4&5 on Tuesday 14th October. This is a fantastic opportunity to see what colleges or next steps may be available to your child as they move on from St John Vianney. I will be available during the morning, should you need to chat about the next steps for our son or daughter before their annual review.

Finally, a reminder that school will close on Friday 17th October for the half-term break and will re-open on Monday 3rd November.

I hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!

God bless,

Kirsten Nesbitt, Assistant headteacher/SENCo

Key information and Dates for your Diary

Dates for your Diary

• Tue 14th Oct 2025 @ 9:00 - 10:50am - College Morning for Key Stages 4 & 5.
• Wed 15th Oct @ 1:45 - 2:30pm - Open Afternoon for prospective parents to attend.
• Fri 17th Oct @ 3:15pm - School closes for Half Term Break.
• Mon 3rd November @ 9:00am - School re-opens after the half term break.
• Tue 11th Nov @ 9:15 - 10:00am - Open Morning for prospective parents to attend.

Key Info

Zones of Regulation - Parent Course

Our Zones of Regulation, online course for Parents and Carers is starting again this week with Module 2. The online course will run over ten weeks and each short module can be accessed via our website: Training for parents & carers. This course will introduce to you the ten concepts of the Zones of Regulation. The aim is to encourage the consistent use of language at school and at home to help regulate your child/young person's emotions and behaviours. I will set activities for you to do at home and introduce some strategies for you to use. If you would like some more information about this course, please contact the school office.

- Miss M Rodgers, Assistant Headteacher

Shoebox appeal

Our Operation Christmas Child appeal is underway and gaining momentum! We have got our pre-printed shoeboxes ready to go in school, as well as a stash of normal shoeboxes to wrap in colourful Christmas paper too.

There's still loads of time to get some items together to send into school, but you can also build an online shoebox too. Follow the link below to find out more, but if you do build an online shoebox, please let us know so we can add it to our tally! Build a shoebox online

Together, we're not just filling boxes – we're filling hearts with hope and happiness! Thank you for helping us show that small acts of kindness can create big ripples of joy.

With warmest wishes, Mrs Murphy.

Allergies

Please be aware that we have a number of pupils in school with severe nut allergies. To reduce the risk of exposure for these young people, we aim to keep the school nut free. In order to support us with this we kindly ask that you:

• Do not give children nuts or nut products in their packed lunches.
• Do not give nuts, nut products or snacks/bars containing nuts for break time snacks.
• Do not send cakes or food items, containing nuts, in to school for birthday celebrations, cake sales or events.

Thank you for your support.

Lunches

Week commencing 13th October 2025:

Stars of The Week

• Class 1 - Callum - For always thinking of others and putting 100% effort into his work.
• Class 2 - Nico - For Settling in well and making good progress.
• Class 3 - Bradley - For being consistent, doing all his work and having a settled week.
• Class 4 - Alex - For being an 'always' pupil.
• Class 5 - William - For showing resilience in dealing with challenging situations.
• Class 6 - Daniyal - For excellent SALT work this week.
• Class 7 - Bailey - For much improved behaviour and effort.
• Class 8 - Sana - For doing her best every day.
• Class 9 - Ethan - For excellent behaviour and work.
• Class 10 - K-leum - For working well in maths and ICT and making good choices this week.
• Class 11 - Mia - For being an 'always' pupil.
• Class 12 - Kyan - For trying hard to making positive choices and being kind to his friends.
• Class 13 - Charlie - For being very dependable and doing well with his timetable.
• Class 14 - Megan - For winning the national art award, whilst being a terrific role model.

Employee of The Week

Welcome to our school

Introducing Zak, Class 1

• What was your first impressions of SJV? It was really good, when I looked round the school with my family I noticed it was so fresh and new. I felt nervous but that feeling faded very quickly!
• How have you enjoyed our curriculum? The lessons are fun and somehow, I enjoy the lessons here much more than I ever have before. My favourite lessons are art and ICT, I like that I don’t have to eat my lunch in the canteen because I don’t like the smell in there. A small group of us eat in the Food Tech room and it’s a chance for me to chat to others too. I really like that we have the chance to go swimming too, I’m getting much better at it.
• What’s the best thing you’ve done so far at SJV? There’s been too many things I’ve enjoyed so far and so many things I’m proud of including making new friends but I think I’ve settled in at SJV really well.

Highlights of the Week

Our Catholic School

Our spiritual focus in SJV this week is:

"Faith and love are everything, and nothing is more precious than these."

- St Ignatius of Antioch

October is the Month of the Rosary. During this special moth, each class is allocated time in our beautiful chapel to pray The Rosary, helping to deepen our relationship with God whilst meditating on the events that occurred in the lives of Jesus and Our Lady.

During our Harvest Festival Service, each class delivered their filled Harvest boxes, that had been carefully crafted in their Faith in Action lessons. We are hoping that our theme 'The Jubilee Year of Hope' will pass on to those in need at our local food bank when they receive these wonderful Harvest boxes. Thank you for all your kind and generous donations to this worthy cause.

Fr Nick and I have come back to school with lots of great ideas following a recent Chaplaincy training course which is delivered by Salford Diocese. It was wonderful to meet up with the other schools and share ideas.

Within RE this week we have been making a difference to our work during our 'MAD' time focus and have been having some great discussions and debates about Creation and looking at picture of awe and wonder.

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

There was much laughter, surprise, and a healthy dose of poetic flair here at Saint John Vianney School last week, as the staff bravely stepped into the spotlight and joined students in entering our whole school Poetry Competition, and it is the pupils who hold the judging power!

Tilly and Munir are our two special guest poets who will be judging the Staff Prize (under the watchful guidance of Mr Brand) whilst our poet in residence Mr Lomax will judge the pupil prizes, all winners will be announced next Friday!

The breadth and standard of poems entered so far has been absolutely amazing, we can’t wait to share them all with you next week in Poetry Corner.

Until then we would like to share with you this wonderful poem written by Callum in Class 13. Callum is one of our ‘Reading Buddies’ a pupil who prides himself in helping younger pupils improve their reading skills. He penned this stunning poem to help inspire them further, it is now proudly on display in our school Library. Well done Callum!

Oliver Lomax

Useful Information

I attended a safeguarding conference last week, one of the guest speakers recommended the 'HMD Fuse' phone for children and young people. Please take a look at the information below and click on the following link to find out more: www.vodafone.co.uk/fuse

- Mrs J Griffin, Family Liaison Officer, Deputy Safeguarding Lead.

Introducing the Vodafone HMD Fuse: A Safer Smartphone for Young People

Vodafone has launched a new smartphone designed with child safety in mind — the HMD Fuse. It’s aimed at helping children and young teens use technology safely and responsibly, while giving parents peace of mind.

What Makes It Different?

The HMD Fuse includes HarmBlock AI, which automatically blocks explicit or inappropriate content before it can be viewed, shared, or stored. Parents can manage the phone through a Guardian App, controlling what apps are available, setting safe contacts, and creating location “safe zones.” When first switched on, the phone starts in “Brick Mode”, with only essential features enabled. Parents can gradually unlock more functions as their child shows readiness — helping to build digital responsibility step by step.

Why It Matters

In today’s digital world, many parents worry about online safety and screen time. The Fuse gives families more control while helping children learn safe and balanced tech habits. The HMD Fuse is available exclusively from Vodafone in the UK.

Supporting the wellbeing of children has never been more critical than it is right now. All custodians of a child, from parents, to teachers, governments and policy makers are more focused than ever on ensuring that children are protected from online harms.

The wellbeing outcomes of children are heavily influenced by their digital experiences. A child’s online activity, including what they view, who they interact with, and what they share can contribute to a deeply positive outcome, or pose a worrying threat to their wellbeing.

Developed by a team of world-renowned Online Safety Experts, the Hub is designed to engage and align the community on online safety and wellness by providing up-to-date and evidence-based information to all key stakeholders of a child’s life.

Parents will find a rich library of helpful resources, including app reviews, how-to guides and advice on an array of online safety topics.

Click here to visit our Online Safety Hub for more useful tips and advice.

Click on the following link to open a directory of useful links and information about facilities, activities and support available to you and your young person: INFORMATION DIRECTORY