St John Vianney School Newsletter 06.12.2024

Assistant Headteacher's Message

Dear family and friends of SJV,

The school has certainly started to look festive as we have begun our Advent Journey. This week’s Advent theme is ‘Hope’ as we await the coming of Jesus at Christmas. Over the coming weeks we will be sharing lots of festive activities as we prepare the children for the Christmas season.

Congratulations to Ms Wilkinson and her team who took a group of children over to the Trafford talent show this week. The children performed a wonderful drum and dance sequence. We certainly have lots of talented pupils in our school. Last Saturday Amy and Leon from Post 16 performed at a Nordoff and Robbins music event. Amy sang beautifully and Leon demonstrated his growing guitar skills ( Eric Clapton watch out!).

The highlight of this week was that we have had the pleasure of welcoming the Right Reverend Bishop John Arnold, Bishop of Salford into school to celebrate mass and to bless the commemorative stone for our new build. The Bishop met with pupils, parents and staff and had a tour of the school. It was a great opportunity for our pupils to show the Bishop what a wonderful community we are here at St John Vianney School. We are very proud of the respectful and warm welcome that the pupils gave, they were a credit to themselves and to us all.

Can I please remind you that we are holding our annual Christmas afternoon tea event next Friday, 13th at 1.45pm? Please complete the link below should you wish to attend, it is important that you let us know if you are attending so that we can cater accordingly.

As we move towards week two of Advent may I take this opportunity to wish you some moments of peace amongst the hustle and bustle of preparations for Christmas.

God bless,

Kirsten Nesbitt, Assistant Headteacher/SENCo

Key information and Dates for your Diary

Dates for your Diary

• Fri 13th Dec @ 1:45 - Christmas Afternoon Tea.
• Fri 20th Dec @ 1:30pm - School closes for the Christmas Break.
• Mon 6th Jan @ 9:00am - School re-opens after 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 9th December 2024:

Stars Of The Week

• Class 1 - Abdul - For some great swimming on Monday and for some great reading.
• Class 2 - Lucas - For taking responsibility in class and being kind to others.
• Class 3 - Neo - For coping really well with medical issues.
• Class 4 - Will - For practicing his Mass reading to the whole class.
• Class 5 - Maisy - For improved attitude and pastoral relationships.
• Class 6 - Kian - For always working well especially in PE and sports this week.
• Class 7 - K-leum - For excellent effort in English.
• Class 8 - Miya - For her kindness to others and fantastic effort in all of her lessons.
• Class 9 - Ethan - For excellent work and behaviour.
• Class 10 - Kenzie - For having a great week.
• Class 11 - Mia - For her progress and commitment to learning her colours every day.
• Class 12 - Amy - For trying hard and responding well to her new visuals and being a good ambassador for the school.
• Class 13 - Leon - For being a brilliant student and working hard with the Daily Grind.

Employee Of The Week.

Congratulations Mrs Kelly !!

Highlights of the Week

Our Catholic School

Our prayer focus this week is:

'Advent is a time for us to make peace with ourselves and our neighbours'.

-Pope Francis

Can you believe it's December already? I really love Advent as a countdown and preparation time for Christmas. It is nice to reflect on the real meaning of this season.

We have had a huge event this week in preparation for our new school building, we had the pleasure of Bishop John Arnold visiting our school today. What a great honour! He toured the school, had time with the students, staff, parents and carers. Bishop John blessed a memorial stone which will be displayed in our new school building. During our Faith In Action lessons, we spent time preparing for this special visit and made some beautiful welcome signs. It was wonderful for us to have him with us today.

Within RE this week, we have been looking at what we can do to prepare for Advent, and how we can bring hope to others.

This week's Wednesday word is 'Preparation'.

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

Poetry Anthology Launch

Today we launched our amazing school poetry anthology ‘Salute The Sun’ in the presence of Bishop John Arnold, the School Governors, and other invited guests. It was a truly magical poetry reading as our pupils took to the stage to perform a selection of work from the new book. Huge thanks to all our amazing young poets Kian, Leah, Charlie and Keenan, everyone was absolutely stunned by their performances.

Our Poet in Residence Oliver Lomax introduced the reading by saying…

The Nobel Prize winning poet Derek Walcott once said ‘I have never separated the writing of poetry from prayer.’ I believe that at Saint John Vianney poetry is a form of collective worship. The poem is a safe space in which we can reflect, come to terms, express ourselves, our loves and passions, confront our fears, and try and gather a greater understanding of who we are as individuals and our relationship to the world.

Poetry has created a map of empathy across our school, I see first-hand how this expression can improve wellbeing, self-confidence, and create a greater sense of community for pupils and staff alike. This amazing collection is testament to the talent and passion of our young poets!

Oliver Lomax

A Message From Mrs Griffin, Family Liaison Officer

Thank you to all our parents who completed the 10 week parenting course Riding the Rapids. We are looking forward to welcoming our new group of parents/carers to the course in January 2025. If any parents/carers are interested in finding out further information about Riding the Rapid please contact Mrs Griffin via the school office.

Useful Information

City in the Community Free Holiday Soccer Schools.

City Football Academy:

Manchester Enterprise Academy:

Trinity Sports Centre:

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