St John Vianney R.C. School Newsletter 24.11.23

Headteacher's Message

I hope you had a good week?

We are now at the halfway point of this half term, with only four weeks to go before we break for Christmas; the term is certainly flying by.

It has been another good week in school, with our children benefiting from additional experiences organised by the staff in School. The KS4 team on Monday had a fantastic day at the Action Sports Centre in Salford. They were able to participate in activities like trampolining, skateboarding and rock climbing and really enjoyed the off-site experience.

On Wednesday this week Mrs Garfin and Father Nick organised the annual chaplaincy retreat at the Spiritan Centre in Salford. 31 pupils, supported by 10 staff members spent time looking at our spiritual mission in school and helped prepare for the forthcoming Advent Liturgies. The next four weeks is an appropriate time for all of us to look at the real meaning of Christmas and our child centred programme will ensure that every child in school understands the role that they need to play at this really important time of the year. I look forward to participating in the various services and masses they have planned during Advent. Mrs Garfin reports that all the children involved were really attentive and engaged, eager to volunteer to lead aspects of the services planned. Well done to all involved.

Can I remind you please that next Friday the school will be closed for pupils. We have planned for an INSET training day for all staff, which will take place in school.

The construction work on our New Build is progressing well. We look forward to sharing more updates on the developments as they continue. The School site is starting to look very different!

I hope you have a great weekend and best wishes for the week ahead.

Mr A Moloney

Please note the School term will finish at 1.30pm on Friday 22nd December and that we have an INSET day for staff (school closed to pupils) on Friday 1st December.

Dates For Your Diary

• Friday 1st Dec, All day - School closed to pupils. INSET day for staff.
• Friday 8th Dec @ 1:45pm - Afternoon Tea.
• Friday 22nd Dec @ 1:30pm - School closes early for the Christmas Break.

Click here to book a place for Christmas Afternoon Tea.

Stars of the Week

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week!

• Class 1 - Daniyal - For settling well into new routines.
• Class 2 - Benjamin - For a real improvement in behaviour when off site.
• Class 3 - Jenna - For having an excellent swimming lesson and for great diving.
• Class 7 - Leon - For settling in really well in Class 7.
• Class 4 - Mikail - For some great work on prime numbers in Maths.
• Class 5 - Will - For being a great example to others.
• Class 6 - Danyaal - For making a brilliant start to life at school and working really hard in lessons.
• Class 8 - Callum - For trying his best in English.
• Class 9 - Leon - For his improved effort with reading during Literacy Time.
• Class 10 - Daniel - For improved independence in Maths.
• Class 11 - Harley - For being kind and caring to his friends.
• Class 12 - Allice - For completing work at home. including practice tests. Also for talking maturely over issues discussed in lessons.
• Class 13 - Joseph - For improved interaction and doing a good job in the Admin office.

Employee of the Week

Congratulations to Miss Wilkinson!

Great organisation of the KS4 trip to Liverpool 2 weeks ago, providing pupils with an opportunity to explore their learning in another context. Miss Wilkinson has also been great in supporting Class 3 at Cronkshaw Farm each Wednesday and also supporting the Duke of Edinburgh group each Thursday. Well done!

Introducing....

Miss Blackwell

1. What is your role in school? I am a volunteer on a Friday in the office with Lorna.
2. What have you been doing this week? This week I have been helping on Reception. I like helping with the gates and signing visitors in. I have done some photocopying and any other help that is needed. I help take Jase to the Chapel for assembly, which is good.
3. What is the best thing about being in SJV? I like the people in SJV. They are all amazing and wonderful with a nice sense of humour. I like making coffee for Mr Moloney.
4. How could SJV be even better? It would be good if we could have a swimming pool and a jacuzzi.
5. What are your hopes and dreams for the future? I would like to have a party with all the staff at St John Vianney.

Class 12

• Who are the members of your class? Staff: Mrs Shawcross, Mrs Rouse, Mrs Peddie. Pupils: Louis, Allice, Curtis, Micah, Katie, Megan, Amy, Molly and Tomasz.
• What is the best thing about your class? The staff are kind and talk to us as grown ups. They never shout and always try to help us. We like wearing our own clothes, being nice to each other, what great learners we are and the people we are friends with.
• What would make your class even better? A dance party! A bit more positivity and new blinds for our classroom.
• What has your class been learning this week? We learned about Brexit, voting and what it means. We have learnt about the 'saints of the day', safe spaces in the community, orienteering, route planning and using a compass. We are learning about alliteration in English and writing persuasive letters and coding in ICT. We sang the hello song in OMF and played the instruments. We learnt about Thanksgiving and that it is a celebration in Canada and America for giving thanks for food, family and friends.
• What activities have your class undertaken this week? We have been to Greater Manchester Outdoor Learning, Longford Park Gym, the Bread-and-Butter Thing and our chaplains went to the Spiritan centre on retreat.
• What is the class looking forward to in the future? Passing exams and gaining qualifications, going to college, getting good jobs, being good influencers and eventually living independently.

Positive Noticing Day

All staff, children and young people took part in Positive Noticing Day on 15th November. It was wonderful to see so many kind words and thoughts being shared across our school community. Take a look at Mr Healey's video compilation, which highlights the positivity that enveloped the school.

Highlights Gallery

Our Catholic School

Our focus in SJV this week is:

‘Do not bury your talents; the gifts that God has given you. Put your talents at the service of God’

-Pope Francis

We had a very exciting day on Wednesday with the Chaplaincy/G.I.F.T team who visited The Spiritan Centre for a retreat . This gave the team a chance to plan for all the different activities we are doing for Advent and Christmas. SJV has the largest Chaplaincy team in the diocese, with 35% of the school on the team, we are very lucky and grateful that Mr Moloney allows us all to go on the retreat. We had to hire a massive coach; even with our minibuses we could not have fitted the whole team in. We had a fabulous time, with lots of games, singing and dancing and some serious hard work as well! The team will be launching our Advent and Reconciliation Service soon and we have a very busy December with lots of events planned!

Within RE this week, we have been doing a lot of MAD time, which is 'making a difference' to our work. We have been looking at Holy Souls, Saints, Remembrance and the golden rules. After the students read their written feedback, they all tried hard to improve their work.

This week's edition of the Wednesday Word is all about 'Kindness'. Click on the button below to access it.

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

A fantastic week of poetry here at SJV! This week KS3 have been learning about Shakespeare’s The Tempest. They channelled their inner Prospero's and wrote some amazing weather-summoning spell poems. We are proud to be sharing with you all Roger's beautifully written 'Spell for a Sandstorm':

Useful Information

The National Autistic Society offer support and advice for parents and carers of autistic children. They offer various age range support programmes offering advice and guidance on strategies and approaches to working with young autistic children. The programmes work on understanding autism, building confidence to encourage interaction and communication, and understanding and supporting behaviour.

Click on the link to find out more:

https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/support-in-the-community/family-support