St John Vianney School Newsletter 07.02.2025

Assistant Headteacher's Message

Dear family and friends of SJV,

I do hope you have had a lovely week? It has been nice to see the days starting to get a little longer and the nights a little shorter and there is definitely a touch of spring in the air.

This week, in school all pupils have been involved in an enterprise challenge based around reading. Classes have worked together to come up with a product that they felt would encourage a love of reading and literature. The classes have then pitched their ideas in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ event. Mr Damant and I had the great pleasure of judging the products and I was blown away by the innovation, team work and presentation skills that our pupils displayed. Thank you to Ms Graham who did an amazing job in planning the event and producing all of the resources. It was one of the best events of its kind I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing here at school.

Well done to classes 2 and 9 who were our top winners with their design for a light up book and a Sleep reading Pillow. If I was a real Dragon I would definitely be investing in both products! Runner up prizes went to classes 6 & 10 for their fantastic designs called 'Reasily' (Read Easily) and 'LookBook V Read', a VR reading programme.

We finished the week with a Valentine day coffee and cake event for parents. This will likely be our last hospitality event at school before our move in April. I am so proud of how well the pupils have developed their skills in service and we look forward to welcoming you to our first event in summer term in our new school facilities.

A reminder that school closes at the end of day on Thursday 13th February for pupils as there is a staff inset day on Friday 14th February.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend,

Kirsten Nesbitt

We have now been given a firm date for the handover of the new build to the school (which is progressing well). The handover will be during the Easter Holidays, on 11th April 2025. We are planning with the builders, Kier Construction, on how we will manage this move and 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. If you have any concerns with these plans please do let us know.

Key information and Dates for your Diary

Dates for your Diary

• Thu 13th Feb @ 3:15pm - School finishes for spring half term.
• Fri 14th Feb - All Day - Staff INSET Day. School closed for pupils.
• Mon 24th Feb @ 9:00am - School re-opens after the half term break.

Residential Trips

• Thu 8th May overnight - Class 1 - The Wingate Special Children's Trust.
• Mon 17th Mar - Wed 19th Mar - KS3 - Classes 3, 4 & 6 - Bendrigg Trust.
• Wed 19th Mar - Fri 21st Mar - KS3 - Classes 2 & 5 - Bendrigg Trust.
• Mon 28th Apr - Fri 2nd May - KS4 - Classes 7, 8, 9 & 10 - Calvert Trust.
• Wed 26th Mar - Fri 28th Mar - KS5 - Classes 11, 12 & 13 - PGL.

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 10th February 2025:

Zones of Regulation Parent Course

Our new online course for Parents and Carers is now available. The online course will run over ten weeks and each short module will be sent out every Friday via email, it can also 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. This week is Part 5 of the 10 week course; we hope you enjoy learning with your child!

- Miss M Rodgers, Assistant Headteacher

Stars Of The Week

• Class 1 - Oskar - For interacting well with lots of teachers this week.
• Class 2 - Freya - For trying hard in lessons and being kind to her friends.
• Class 3 - William - For working really hard to be respectful to staff and being in his lessons.
• Class 4 - Adnan - For looking after our school environment and beyond and putting rubbish in bins.
• Class 5 - Ben - For showing greater resilience.
• Class 6 - Kian - For working well in his intervention and at Carrington.
• Class 7 - Charlie - For fantastic, consistent work and effort and for being an always pupil.
• Class 8 - Leon - For trying really hard to do the right thing and showing great maturity.
• Class 9 - Zack - For great participation and attendance.
• Class 10 - Jensen - For engaging well in PE and having fantastic attitude all week.
• Class 11 - Reece - For being kind, patient and challenging himself.
• Class 12 - Amy - For asking good questions in assembly and the careers morning.
• Class 13 - Liz - For having a settled, happy and productive week.

Employees Of The Week.

Congratulations to the Class 1 Team; Miss Shaw, Miss Kelly, Miss Devine, Mrs Yar, Miss Ashelby, Miss Marsh and Miss Harris and Mrs Griffin, Family Liaison Officer!

Highlights of the Week

Our Catholic School

Our prayer focus this week:

'Always know in your heart that God is by your side. Let us never lose hope'.

- Pope Francis

We have been busy in our Catholic school this week. Class 8 enjoyed their class retreat, at the Spiritan Centre with Fr Nick. I delivered a whole-school training session about our school's response to the Jubilee year and how we can support our mission during Lent.

During RE this week, Key Stage 3 have been looking at case studies which describe the ways in which charity helps throughout the world. Key Stage 4 have continued their work on the environment and how we are all called to be 'stewards of the earth'.

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

Today in Poetry News we reflect on our work surrounding the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Holocaust Memorial Week, and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica. Our poet in residence, Mr. Lomax, has been dropping into Faith in Action lessons to explore some of the powerful and important poetry linked to these events. In the session pupils discussed ‘What has the world learned from the Holocaust?’ Reading poems by Holocaust survivors and testaments from atrocities in more recent history, including the genocide in Srebrenica. The result was this beautiful poem, which our young poets Charlie and Leah have also translated into Bosnian.

Oliver Lomax

Useful Information

Safeguarding

Online Webinar Recording

Internet Matters hosted a free online webinar in partnership with Ambitious about Autism and Roblox. The webinar was for parents and carers of neurodivergent children and young people and covered a range of important topics, such as:

• Understanding life online for neurodivergent children and young people
• Insights from the online gaming research project
• Practical tools and resources to help you support your neurodivergent child in the online gaming world
• Tips to help your child stay safe online

It's available to watch on the Ambitious about Autism website here: https://forum.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/ (Please note that you will need to create a free account if you do not have one already, to access the recording).

Tips to tackle screen time

Spending too much time looking at screens can impact children's mental health, sleep cycles and development. Use the Internet Matters guide to help you spot the signs of 'too much' screen time and how you can set boundaries or update parental controls to help your child find a better balance.

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

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