St John Vianney R.C. School Newsletter 01.12.23

Headteacher's Message

Mr A. Moloney

Dear Parents and Carers,

I do hope you and your families are keeping well and that you have had a good week.

We have had another good week in school and the children are continuing to work well in lessons and producing some excellent work. Behaviour across School also continues to be good and with the onset of Advent this week, we are doing all we can to keep the children focused on their learning through to the final weeks of term. Well done also to the KS3 and 4 Boys' Football team, who represented the school so well on Wednesday at the City in the Community tournament.

Advent and the preparation for Christmas is always an exciting time at SJV and we are planning to organise a range of events, activities and trips to ensure all the children are prepared to celebrate Christmas and have a full understanding of the important Christmas messages of support and care for others, of serving, giving and sharing. The last week of term is particularly planned for children to enter into the spirit of fun, which Christmas always brings and know they all will look forward to Christmas. Can I remind you please that we break up for Christmas this year on Friday, December 22nd, at 1.30pm.

We also have a number of important events, which we would like you to consider joining us for. Next Friday, 8th December, we invite you to join us for our Christmas Afternoon Tea from 1.45pm-3.00pm. The informal event will provide an opportunity for a Christmas visit to school, and some refreshments and mince pies from our BTEC Hospitality pupils. We may also have some carols from our school choir. Please do look to join us, if you can.

Our pupil interim reports are being completed and we hope to send these out before the end of next week, providing you with the opportunity to discuss with the class teams any concerns or worries you have that may be identified in the report, before the Christmas break.

I do hope you have a great weekend.

Mr A Moloney

Dates For Your Diary

  • Friday 8th Dec @ 1:45pm - Afternoon Tea.
  • Friday 22nd Dec @ 1:30pm - School closes early for the Christmas Break.
The KS4 Hospitality & Tourism group will be holding an afternoon tea event on Friday 8th December for family & friends of SJV. If you would like to attend, please complete the information on the link below. There is no set charge for afternoon tea, simply make a ‘pay what you can’ donation on the day.

Click here to book a place for Christmas Afternoon Tea.

Stars of the Week

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week!

  • Class 1 - Jase - For positive interactions with other pupils on school trips.
  • Class 2 - Matilda - For settling well in Class 2.
  • Class 3 - Adnan - For being kind and caring to his friends and teachers.
  • Class 4 - Kayden - For making some really good choices multiple times this week and doing really well with his class work.
  • Class 5 - Lee - For great work and attitude as always.
  • Class 6 - Cormac - For showing more confidence and working hard in class.
  • Class 7 - Isabella - For showing great resilience and support to her friends.
  • Class 8 - Jensen - For settling in well into his new class.
  • Class 9 - Sadie - For her classroom participation and helpfulness.
  • Class 10 - Bruno - For a fantastic trip out on Monday and improving independence.
  • Class 11 - Inaaya - For trying really hard at making good choices and for improved behaviour around school.
  • Class 12 - Micah - For being a good role model and a good support to his friends.
  • Class 13 - Daniel - For helping others during activities and being confident, especially Food Tech.

Employee of the Week

Congratulations to Miss McDonagh and Mr Freshwater!

Miss McDonagh did a fantastic job organising Operation Christmas Child, which provided 76 gift boxes to children in need around the world. Mr Freshwater organised a brilliant Key Stage 4 event at Action Sports last week.

Introducing....

Miss Rodgers

  • What is your role in school? Assistant Headteacher, Behaviour & Attitudes.
  • What have you been doing this week? This week I have been working with class 5 and talking to our Governors about behaviour as communication in our school.
  • What is the best thing about being in SJV? No two days are the same, I love the students and the team of staff here are amazing.
  • How could SJV be even better? I am looking forward to the new building, but before that I can't wait to wear my Christmas jumpers in school.
  • What are your hopes and dreams for the future? My hopes and dreams for the future is to keep making a positive difference to our students, there is no greater gift than helping to shape our young peoples' future.

Class 13

  • Who are the members of your class? Staff: Mr Kanakides, Mrs Lydon, Mr Foden and Mr Pemberton. Pupils: Ben, Daniel, Dylan, Isaac, Joe, Leon, Liz, Renee and Tyler.
  • What is the best thing about your class? The students. It is a joy to be able to watch them grow into the amazing young adults they become, with lots of laughs along the way. The class have lots of opportunities to engage with work experience, as a group or individually, and we, (the staff), love hearing about the things that they have achieved. The students when asked, said "wearing our own clothes" and "how nice the staff are" as the best things about the class.
  • What would make your class even better? The students would like more bean bags.
  • What has your class been learning this week? The class have learnt about prime numbers in Maths, in English, how to implement the FORREST technique into a letter of complaint.
  • What activities have your class undertaken this week? The class have been leaf blowing at Wythenshawe Park; helping to keep the paths clear and safe to walk on. They have also been preparing the Hall at the Salvation Army, by laying out tables and dressing them.
  • What is the class looking forward to in the future? We are all looking forward to watching our current school building being knocked down and watching the new one being built.

Allice

Allice's favourite actress
  • What have you been doing this week? I have been trying racket sports in PE. The Bread and Butter Thing was good, I am getting better at socialising and mixing with others. I enjoyed volunteering at Greater Manchester Outdoor Learning and raking the leaves up to keep the park clean.
  • What is the best thing about being in SJV? The school dinners, and the staff who make the dinners and my friends and the staff. Being in Class 12 is good, because its very organised and the positivity is lovely. Also having Francesca and Miss Rogers to help me.
  • How could SJV be even better? Have a Valentine's prom and school discos.
  • What are your hopes and dreams for the future? To get married, have a positive life , have confidence with other people and make my family and friends proud. I would like to influence others.

Highlights Gallery

Our Catholic School

Can you believe it's December already? I really love this time of the year; we are about to start the season of Advent this Sunday. In our Catholic school, Mr Donovan’s class enjoyed their retreat at the Spiritan Centre with Fr Nick and had a lovely time together. The Chaplaincy Team are busy practicing for our Advent launch next week and the upcoming Christmas Masses.

Our prayer focus this week is from Pope Francis:

'The Gospel invites us to be open to others, to share with the poor. Let us learn to live with kindness.'

SJV this week sent 76 shoe boxes filled with gifts for ‘Operation Christmas Child'. What a great way for us to demonstrate the school community's 'faith in action'.

Within RE this week we have been looking at ways in which we can prepare for Advent and Christmas.

This week's Wednesday Word is 'Prayer'.

Mrs Garfin

Poetry Corner

This week in Poetry Corner we are proud to introduce a prolific writer and poet Andrew. Andrew has a passion for literature and performance, he not only creates beautiful poetry in Mr Lomax's Poetry Interventions, he also writes in literacy time and at home. Performing his poetry to whole school groups in celebration assembly and in drama lessons, he inspires both staff and his peers. Please enjoy his stunning poem 'Lest You Forget'.

Mr Lomax

Lest We Forget

Useful Information

I would like to say congratulations to the group of parents and carers who completed their final session of our Riding the Rapids course this week. We had a lovely celebration and I wish them well in putting into practice all the valuable strategies we cover in the course.

Riding the Rapids is a high quality, evidence-based course for parents. It is designed for parents and carers of children and young people who are autistic or have significant learning disabilities. If you are interested in taking part in the next Riding the Rapids course please don't hesitate to get in touch via the school office.

For more information on what the course entails, please click on the link below.

Riding the Rapids Course

Mrs Griffin

Keep up to date with SJV on our website and on social media. Just click on the buttons below:

St John Vianney R.C. School. Rye Bank Rd, Firswood, Stretford. M16 0EX.

Tel: 0161 881 7843