St John Vianney R.C. School Newsletter 17.11.23

Headteacher's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope your week has gone well?

We are busy in school making preparations for the end of the autumn term, which is only 5 weeks away. The preparation for Advent and Christmas at SJV is always very special and we are making arrangements for the children at school to have a memorable Christmas, once again in school. Central to our work is preparing spiritually, so that the real meaning of Christmas has been shared and understood.

This week we have been collecting gift boxes for ‘Operation Christmas Child’, providing presents for children across the world, who are unlikely to receive presents themselves because of poverty. Thank you to the parents, staff and pupils who have again been generous in their giving to others through this worthwhile project, a focus of our work in preparing the children for Advent. Next week, the Chaplaincy team will have a retreat with Fr Nick and Mrs Garfin to help prepare the liturgical programme for December. We have over 30 pupils attending.

The Assessment Team in school are busy preparing the end of term interim progress report, which we will post home in the penultimate week of term. Many of the children have made good and better progress in their subjects since September and their reports will reflect this.

The weather remains a challenge for what we are able to access each week in school, so we are hoping for a more settled period now to allow us to continue to provide a range of off-site activities, that will help bring learning to life.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Mr 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 22nd Dec @ 1:30pm - School closes early for the Christmas Break.

Stars of the Week

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week!

• Class 1 - Oskar - For great indpendence during lunchtime.
• Class 2 - Cory - For doing really well off-site with swimming and other activities.
• Class 3 - Zack - For reading really well and doing amazing work in English.
• Class 4 - Dylan - For fantastic effort in his Maths work this week and getting on with his classmates very well.
• Class 5 - Zachary - For hard work and determination.
• Class 6 - Thomas - For showing more independence in class
• Class 7 - Sana - For excellent work in fractions and teaching her peers.
• Class 8 - Justin - For trying really hard in Maths and English.
• Class 9 - Dylan - For listening and actioning advice from staff in order to rectify a difficult situation and move forward.
• Class 10 - Nesrine - For being an 'always' Child.
• Class 11 - Finlay - For working hard all week.
• Class 12 - Tomasz - For being a helpful friend and an excellent role-model.
• Class 13 - Tyler - For dealing very well with a difficult situation.

Employee of the Week

Congratulations to Miss Sherwin!

‘Big shoes to fill from last year with Class 11, but doing amazingly well with a class who have had the same teacher for 5 years - work is well planned- she really cares about her students and is leading well a strong team of staff. Provision for learning in Class 11 is really good; Well done!

Introducing....

Shawn

1. What have you been doing this week? I played with the wooden train. This week we have been swimming, to Hideaway soft play area and the sensory room.
2. What is the best thing about being in SJV? Class 1 and transporter cars.
3. How could SJV be even better? I would like our class to have an animal and number stack towers. It would be good to have water and sand outside to play with.
4. What are your hopes and dreams for the future? I am going to be a super star.

Mr Harris

1. What is your role in school? I am Assistant Headteacher with a responsibility for personal development, careers and emotional wellbeing.
2. What have you been doing this week? This week I have been focusing on anti-bullying week in my lessons and around school and taking part in our 'positive noticing day' on Wednesday, where we have taken the time to share positive messages with each other as a school community. I have also attended a training day on the theme of emotional wellbeing, which has given me some great ideas about how we can make our school even better than it already is.
3. What is the best thing about being in SJV? The best thing about being in SJV is the community. I have worked in many schools and the feel of community in SJV is the best I have experienced. As a new member of staff I have been made to feel welcome by staff, students, parents and governors and am very impressed by the sense of community that has been built here.
4. How could SJV be even better? I think that this fantastic school deserves a fantastic new building and am very pleased that we will have one (relatively) soon. I am looking forward to the staff and students having the facilities and resources that they deserve.
5. What are your hopes and dreams for the future? I hope to continue to establish myself at SJV and look forward to my role developing and finding new ways that i can support the students and staff here.

Class 11

• Who are the members of your class? Staff: Miss Sherwin, Miss Masri, Miss Belt and Mr Lu. Pupils: Aliya, Arshvin, Emilia, Evie, Finlay, Harley, Inaaya, Joe, Mia, Rayyan and Reece.
• What is the best thing about your class? The best thing about our class is that we are all friends.
• What would make your class even better? We would like to have a bigger classroom so that we can have more room to do even more classroom based activities.
• What has your class been learning this week? We have been learning about number bonds in Maths, exploring Remembrance Day in RE and Anti-Bullying in PSHE.
• What activities have your class undertaken this week? We have been doing Duke of Edinburgh at Wythenshawe Park. We had a good work out session at Longford Park Gym. We also went shopping to Morrisons.
• What is the class looking forward to in the future? We are all really looking forward to Christmas. We get to take part in lots of activities at school and our Christmas dinner together is really special.

Highlights Gallery

Our Catholic School

This week in SJV in our prayer focus we are reminded of God’s message;

‘Let us implore from on High the commitment to the cause of Peace’

Within our Catholic school this week we have been focussing on kind words and actions as part of the national focus of anti-bullying week. We have written our own pledges on how we are going to be kind. One kind word can change the outlook of someone’s day, it can really a make a difference. 😊

As you know, November is the month of Remembrance; we have continued with this theme in RE across the school and in our prayers.

The Chaplaincy Team have continued in their preparations for our retreat next week and we are all really looking forward to it. We have also started preparations for our Advent Service, practicing our dancing and drumming. It is sure to be a joyous celebration!

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

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

It's an exciting season for poetry at SJV as pupils start to prepare to enter a range of poetry and writing competitions to share their amazing work more widely. We are no stranger to success in these competitions, as we have already been grand prize winners with 'Poetry By Heart', with our pupils' achievements being celebrated with an overnight trip to Shakespeare's Globe in London and the chance to perform their work on that most famous stage. Pupils also had the opportunity to listen to the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Michael Rosen perform their poems, which was a wonderful experience for them. Mr Lomax is excited to be hosting some new bespoke workshops to help develop the creative writing of our young poets and help them to share their work in these fabulous competitions, watch this space!

Useful Information

Social Media Scams

Social media scams target young people in a range of ways, including through their spending habits. Click on the following link to get support and guidance on how to protect your children and young people from social media scams, including what you can do to tackle scams if they happen:

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/online-money-management-guide/social-media-scams-advice-guide-to-support-young-people/

How to help you child develop good money habits

Internetmatters.og also provide some useful information on how to help your children and young people to develop good money habits. Click on the following link for more information:

Internetmatters.org developing good money habits

Mrs Griffin