St John Vianney School Newsletter 04.10.2024

Headteacher's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have had a good week. It has been another very busy week in school.

Last night we had our first opportunity this academic year to welcome parents and carers into school to meet our teams of staff. Thank you to those parents and carers who joined us for our Welcome Evening; we had a very positive turnout from families and received some lovely feedback on how happy many of our pupils are at SJV. I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to see your child’s classroom and meet the staff in school they work closest with. Should you have any worries or concerns please do let us know and we will do all we can to support you. Please contact the Admin team in the first instance.

On Wednesday afternoon we had a significant number of prospective parents and pupils at our Open Afternoon. They told us that the school was really welcoming and many of the pupils who also attended wanted to sign up for a place already. It is great that our reputation, as an excellent SEND school, continues to grow and that pupils across Manchester and their parents know of the good work we do in school. If any parents, looking for a place for their child, want to have a more personalised one-to-one visit, please also let us know, by contacting our SENCO, Ms Nesbitt.

A reminder please that we have our Harvest Festival on 16th October and any Food Donations from families, which will be donated to the South Manchester Food Bank, will be really well received. Please send in any donations with your child to their Class teacher.

NB Building 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.

Best wishes for the weekend.

Mr A Moloney

Headteacher

Key information and Dates

Dates for your Diary

• Thu 10th Oct - Hello Yellow Day - wear something yellow for World Mental Health Day; donation of £1 or £2 please.
• Tue 15th Oct - Whole School trip to Chester Zoo
• Weds 16th Oct ; Harvest Festival
• Fri 25th October @ 3:15pm - School closes for the Autumn Half Term break.
• Mon 4th Nov @ 9am - School re-opens for Autumn Term 2.

Key Info

Parent/Carer Drop Off and Pick Up

Please be mindful of our neighbours when dropping off and collecting pupils from school. It gets very busy outside school at the start and the end of the day. The local authority buses and cars have priority, directly outside school, with no space for additional parking. If you need to drop off/collect your child, the best place to park is on one of the nearby streets. Please make sure you do not block any driveways when parking on these residential streets, and be aware that there are Traffic Wardens patrolling the area regularly. This situation is only temporary, while we await our New Build, where there will be space allocated for transport collections and drop offs. Thank you for your support.

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

Stars Of The Week

• Class 1 - Aidan - For a great week and getting in the big pool at swimming on Tuesday.
• Class 2 - Quinn - For always being positive and showing more independence.
• Class 3 - Lewis - For making better choices and trying hard in lessons to complete work.
• Class 4 - Adnan - For always being helpful and a good friend.
• Class 5 - Ben - For always being ready to learn.
• Class 6 - Matilda - For being an always pupil.
• Class 7 - Roger - For fantastic effort in all of his lessons this week.
• Class 8 - Danyaal - For making a great transition into KS4 and settling in well to Class 8.
• Class 9 - Ethan - For amazing work in maths.
• Class 10 - Amanda - For being amazing all week, and really resilient.
• Class 11 - Harley - For engaging in all lessons and having good peer interactions.
• Class 12 - Aliya - For trying really hard to work independently, being a good friend and helping pupils in class.
• Class 13 - Leon - For his hard work with the coffee enterprise, 'The Daily Grind'.

Employees Of The Week.

Congratulations to Miss Devine who has established a great rapport with the students, fully embracing the routines and individuals in her class. Miss Devine is a great asset to the team. An excellent TA who has fitted really well into the SJV community.

Highlights of the Week

Our Catholic School

Within our Catholic school this week, we have been focussing on the following message from Pope Francis:

'Let us allow God to fill our hearts with goodness. A good example brings about so much good. Goodness always tends to spread'

It’s already October! We are more than half way through the first half term already. That’s the joy of SJV, there is always so much happening in our school community and with our engaging curriculum time literally flies by. Within our Catholic school during this month, we will focus on the Rosary. In the Catholic church, October is the month of the Rosary.

We will also be celebrating the Harvest Festival this month and would very much appreciate any donations. If you can please send in to school, items such as cans and long-life or dried goods e.g. pasta, noodles, beans etc. Each class will be collating the donations and presenting them on Wed 16th Oct at our Harvest Service, in a beautiful box that they will be designing and decorating themselves during their Faith in Action lessons.

Within RE this week we have been looking at the Sacrament of Baptism, vocation and what it means to have a 'calling' in life.

This week's Wednesday word is 'Openness'

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

National Poetry Day Celebrations

This week at SJV saw us enter the Guinness Book of Records for taking part in the largest National Poetry Day workshop ever! Thousands of schools worked together across the country, helping to write a collaborative poem on this year's theme of 'Counting'. Our young poets loved the national 'Counting' poem, but wanted to create one of their very own! So, we rebelled, and at the end of the workshop created this brilliant and unique piece about what counted to us as a group. Every pupil in the room contributed a line. Some funny, some sad, some searching, some questioning, everything a good poem should be. A huge thank you to all the staff and students that took part, today we are poetry world record breakers!

Oliver Lomax

Useful Information

Concessionary passes update

Following a series of engagement sessions, the forms for concessionary passes for disabled people have been redesigned. These are now live on the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) website. Disabilities are split into different sections, each with their own eligibility criteria and application form. One of these is a section for learning disabilities and neurological development conditions which covers adults and children with ADHD and autism. Application forms can be completed in paper or digital format (via email). Paper copies are available at Information and Ticket stands (TravelShops) in interchanges. If you have difficulty completing the form or need any advice, please contact TfGM on 0161 244 1000 or email travel.pass@beenetwork.com. If you feel that you or your child meet the eligibility but don’t have the requested evidence, they may be able to offer support to complete the application form.

Free creative classes

The Edge Theatre in Chorlton has free creative classes for children and adults with learning disabilities:

• Aspire - Theatre project for young people, 8-12 years on Mondays 4-5pm and 13-19 years on Tuesdays 5-6.30pm. It uses games, drama, storytelling, music and movement, and is a chance to play, make friends, and build confidence through theatre.
• Expressive Edge Company – for adults
• Stepping Out dance class – for adults

All classes are held at The Edge Theatre and Arts Centre, Manchester Road, Chorlton, Manchester, M21 9JG.

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