St John Vianney School Newsletter 14.02.2025

Assistant Headteacher's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have now come to the end of our first half term in 2025 and the Christmas Holiday seems like a distant memory. Our pupils have made a fantastic start to this year and this half term has been filled with lots of events and initiatives which have kept us very busy. The last week of the half term has been a short one for our pupils but has also been filled with lots of activity.

During ‘Faith in Action’ lessons pupils have been working in class teams to create a Holocaust Memorial design to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The designs were created by the children in each class and were then judged by Fr Nick on Wednesday morning. Congratulations to classes 2,5,8 and 11 for their winning designs! Each winning class were rewarded with some treats for their hard work.

On Wednesday our second group of KS4 pupils spent the day at Graystone Action Sports Centre. The pupils had a fantastic day and enjoyed taking part in a range of activities including skateboarding, scootering, freestyle gymnastics and bouldering. The pupils were able to develop new skills and enjoy some social time with their peers. Many thanks to Mr Freshwater for arranging the experience.

Following on from the fantastic reading enterprise project that our pupils took part in last week, Miss Graham arranged for the Scholastic Book Fair to visit St John Vianney this week. The Scholastic Book Fair operates like a mobile book shop and three cases full of books arrived at SJV on Monday. During the course of the week pupils have had the opportunity to choose books up to the value of £10 each. The pupils enjoyed the range of titles available and were all able to find a book which matched their interests. Thank you, Miss Graham, for your organisation of another successful event.

I hope that everyone has an enjoyable and restful half term break and we look forward to welcoming the pupils back into school on Monday the 24th February at 9am.

Mr T Harris, Assistant Headteacher

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

• 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.
• Fri 4th Apr @ 3:15pm - School closes for the Easter break.
• Tue 22nd - Fri 25th Apr - School closed for pupils as we move to the new building.
• Mon 28th Apr @ 9:00am - School re-opens for pupils after the move.

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 6 of the 10 week course; we hope you enjoy learning with your child!

- Miss M Rodgers, Assistant Headteacher

Stars Of The Week

• Class 1 - Shawn - For great music and for good sharing with his friends.
• Class 2 - Jaylen - For being a positive role model and showing confidence when presenting.
• Class 3 - George - For improved behaviour in class and good work ethic.
• Class 4 - Ezra - For trying hard with swimming and for riding a 2 - wheeler bike.
• Class 5 - Harry - For having a settled week and trying hard.
• Class 6 - Isabella - For working hard in DT.
• Class 7 - Ryan - For excellent effort with school work and fantastic attitude on the Graystone trip.
• Class 8 - Szymon - For trying really hard and working hard especially on Monday.
• Class 9 - Harley - For coping well with change.
• Class 10 - Jensen - For doing well at Graystone and participating well in all activities.
• Class 11 - Finlay - For trying something new and working hard.
• Class 12 - Bruno - For being helpful, mature and a good friend to other pupils in Post 16.
• Class 13 - Renee - For having a very settled week.

Employees Of The Week.

Congratulations Miss Graham

Highlights of the Week

Our Catholic School

Our prayer focus this week as 'Pilgrims of Hope':

'To follow Jesus means to share his love for every human being'.

- Pope Francis

Within our Catholic school this week, the Chaplaincy team have been planning for Lent, Ash Wednesday, Reconciliation and our Easter Services. This year they will be especially important as it will be our final time in our Chapel before moving into the new build.

Within RE this week, we have been undertaking 'temperature checks'. These help us to make a difference and improve our work. It is wonderful to reflect on such amazing work over the half term and to celebrate the progress our pupils have made.

I can’t believe its half term already! I hope everyone has a lovely break and that we all come back refreshed and recharged for our final weeks in the SJV as we know it!

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

This week in Poetry News we celebrate the work of Jack in Class 6. Jack has written this powerful piece of prose reflecting on some of the issues facing young people and families across Greater Manchester. This writing is brave and tackles difficult subjects including knife crime and the current cost of crisis with real insight and maturity. As if that wasn't enough, Jack has also written and performed some music with Mr. Dumville, creating a beautiful soundscape to accompany his spoken word piece.

Jack didn't want his picture to feature in this article, instead he selected two images he thought best represented the work, including the 'Knife Angel' a 27-foot sculpture created from thousands of knives and weapons handed in during amnesties or that have been seized by the police across the country. Wonderful writing Jack, we are so proud to share it, well done!

Please click on the video below and listen to this powerful and important work.

Oliver Lomax

Useful Information

Safeguarding

- 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