St John Vianney School Newsletter 22.11.2024

Headteacher's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a good week?

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

It has been another good week in school, despite the cold weather, with our children benefiting from a range of additional experiences organised by the staff in School.

On Wednesday this week Mrs Garfin and Father Nick organised the annual chaplaincy team retreat at the Spiritan Centre in Salford. Over 30 pupils, supported by 8 staff members spent time looking at our spiritual mission in school and helped prepare for the forthcoming Advent Liturgy. The next four weeks is certainly the right 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 witnessing 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 (29th November) the school will be closed for all pupils. We have planned for an INSET training day for all staff, which will take place in school. The focus for the day will be our preparation for the forthcoming National Autistic Society’s visit to school to assess our Autism provision. This will take place on 21st and 22nd January 2025 and will, we hope, be a celebration of our work in this area. Please look out for the ‘Autism for Parents’ leaflet that will be sent to you by email. This will explain how you could be involved and support us in the accreditation visit in January.

We look forward to seeing our KS4 and KS5 parents at the College morning next Tuesday 26th November (9.30am-11am) and we are hosting a Christmas afternoon tea on Friday 13th December at 1.45pm, which will be an informal opportunity for parents to come into school and meet with us before Christmas. We hope you can make the afternoon event?

Finally please note that School will close on Friday 20th December at 1.30pm for the Christmas break. Local authority transport teams have been informed of this.

Can I also remind you about our Christmas appeals for 'Coats for the Homeless' and 'new or nearly new Toys' for children who may not get presents this year. All donations can be given in to the School Office and will, as always, be really well received. (please see poster at the end of the newsletter).

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

Mr A Moloney, Headteacher

NEW BUILD INFORMATION

We have now been given a provisional date for the handover of the new build to the school, which will be during the Easter Holidays, 14th April 2025.

We will need to plan with the builders, Kier Construction, on how we will manage this move and it is highly likely that we will need the days after the published Easter break, (which is Friday 4th April to Monday 21st April), to manage the move. That will mean that all pupils will not be able to return to school after the Easter break until Monday 28th April 2025. We are writing to inform parents of these dates, which I will confirm officially with you at the start of the spring term, in January 2025. If you have any concerns with these plans please do let us know.

Key information and Dates

Dates for your Diary

• Tue 26th Nov @ 9:30-10:50am - College Morning for Key Stage 4 & 5 parents/carers.
• Fri 29th Nov - INSET Day - No pupils in school.
• Fri 20th Dec @ 1:30pm - School closes for the Christmas Break.

Key Info

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 25th November 2024:

College Morning KS4/5 parents.

We will be holding our College Morning on Tuesday 26th November. This is an ideal time for parents to meet the colleges, discuss preferred options for your child and submit applications to prospective colleges.

• Parents of July 2025 leavers: This will be your final opportunity to collectively look at college offers before you are required to submit your child’s college application form.
• Parents of July 2026 leavers: This is an ideal time to start making enquiries and gain insights as to what the different colleges are able to offer, and best meet your child’s needs. You will then be in a strong position to articulate this to your local authority at their final EHCP annual review, along with school, in Autumn 2025.

Plan for the morning

A letter was handed out to pupils on 18th October. Please can you return the reply slip, confirming your attendance, if you have not done so already.

Yours sincerely, Mr Harris and Mr Cooper.

Christmas Afternoon Tea

Miss Nesbitt and the Key Stage 4 and 5 Hospitality Group are very happy to be hosting, once again, our Christmas Afternoon Tea event on Friday 13th December at 1:45pm. If you would like to attend, please click on the following link to add your name to our guest list: https://forms.office.com/e/QjmkjD6UyQ or scan the QR code below.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Stars Of The Week

• Class 1 - Daniyal - For excellent speech and language work.
• Class 2 - Ava - For coping well with challenges and being more independent.
• Class 3 - Zackariya - For working hard to complete tasks and trying really hard not to be distracted by others.
• Class 4 - Isabelle - For showing great resilience in SALT.
• Class 5 - Ben - For having a positive and productive week.
• Class 6 - Keldon - For working hard in lessons and being an always pupil.
• Class 7 - Charlie - For fantastic reading in the remembrance service.
• Class 8 - Ishaaq - For always trying his hardest and using strategies to manage his emotions in the yellow zone.
• Class 9 - Jenna - For great work and determination.
• Class 10 - Keenan - For being an incredibly kind, supportive and caring friend.
• Class 11 - Evie - For being kind and helpful all week.
• Class 12 - Megan - For great independence skills and being a great role model to her friends.
• Class 13 - Tomasz - For being very helpful around Post 16.

Employee Of The Week.

Congratulations Miss Watson!!

Highlights of the Week

Our Catholic School

Our prayer focus this week is:

'God is faithful and if we serve him faithfully, he will provide us all we need'

- St. Richard of Chichester

What a great time we have had this week, we are so lucky for the opportunities we are presented with at SJV. On Wednesday the whole Chaplaincy/G.I.F.T team took part in a retreat, hosted by Fr. Nick, at The Spiritan Centre, providing the team with a great opportunity to plan 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. 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 this week and we have a very busy December with lots of events to look forward to.

Within RE this week, we have continued our work on Holy Souls, Saints and inspirational people, discussing how we can use their example to live a good life.

This week's Wednesday word is 'Leader'

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

This week in Poetry News we celebrate our amazing Poet of the Week, Kayden from Class 7! I was lucky enough to be in one of Mr Wood’s fantastic English lessons on Tuesday in which pupils were exploring War Poetry and Propaganda. Taking inspiration from poet and propagandist Jessie Pope and the Great War poet Wilfred Owen’s 1917 poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, a poem that was originally addressed to Pope and spoke to her of the true horrors of war. Pupils wrote their own propaganda poems!

We are so proud to be sharing Kayden's amazing piece of work, here he is pictured with his stunning poem! Well done Kayden!

Please click on the following link to read Owen’s stunning poem: Dulce et Decorum Est

Oliver Lomax

Useful Information

Pinwheel have this week launched their safe mobile phone in the UK!

Pinwheel's mission is to help parents/carers guide their children to a healthy relationship with technology as they develop into independent young adults. Many families are waiting until 13, 14 or 16 to introduce phones for their kids. Every child and family are different, but whether you start at age 10 or 16, there is a learning curve. You wouldn't hand your car keys to a child just because they turned 16!

Pinwheel helps parents/carers navigate the journey from getting a first phone through mastery of technology so that kids develop a healthy relationship with their phone from the start.

What Children and Young people like about the device:

• Call and Text friends and parents
• Communicate with anyone on the safelist including text images
• Use popular apps for music, education and fun
• The Pinwheel App Library includes more than 1,200 popular streaming apps …
• Enjoy independence to go and meet friends and other activities
• Children and Young people can find their way with Google maps and easily call for help

What Parents like about the device:

• Block unapproved contacts and monitor texts remotely
• Block 100% of spam and stranger communication with the Contact Safelist. Only approved contacts can call or text the device
• Choose apps and set schedules for availability
• Create Custom schedules for contact and manage apps to help your child learn to manage the time spent on their phones
• Locate your child and get alerts
• See where your child is on the Caregiver Portal dashboard an get alerts when they leave or arrive at a saved location

To find out more click on the following link: - https://www.pinwheel.com/en-gb/howitworks

Guide to the best mobiles for kids

Buying your child a mobile phone can offer them a new level of independence, but it can be tricky to know where to start. Internet Matters guide to smartphones looks at the different options that could be right for your child, click on the link to find our more information: - Mobile Phones for Children

Other mobile devices are available to buy, please do your research and once purchased, be sure to activate all the parental locks to ensure your child and young person has a healthy and safe experience when using their device.

Winter Coat Appeal

This year we are supporting 'The Wellspring Charity for Homeless'. The Wellspring supports people that are homeless or at risk of losing their home. We are asking for your support by donating any unwanted adult winter coats. If you have any coats that are still in good condition, but no longer needed, please consider donating them to help others stay warm this winter. Please send your unwanted coats into school by December 13th and we will collect them at School and then pass them through to the Charity before Christmas.

Your generosity will make a real difference to those facing hardship in our community. We appreciate your kindness and support in making this initiative a success. To find our more information regarding the charity click here.

The Great SJV Toy Appeal

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