St John The Baptist
Newsletter

07.03.25

Dear Parents and Carers, Due to last weeks technical difficulty, this is the first newsletter of this half term. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a fantastic start to 2025. The children settled back...

Dear Parents and Carers,

Due to last weeks technical difficulty, this is the first newsletter of this half term. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a fantastic start to 2025. The children settled back into class brilliantly, and it’s wonderful to see them making great progress in their learning. From pizza making to ukulelels, from screen printing to physics – it has been a busy half term.

We also have cause for celebration—our attendance rate has improved from last year and is now just under 96%! This means that children are missing fewer lessons and benefiting from more consistent learning, helping to close any gaps in their education. Thank you for your support in ensuring good attendance.

This week, we celebrated World Book Day and showcased our love of reading. Children came into school in either a book costume, comfy clothes or pyjamas, took part in our ‘Stop, Drop and Read’ event, visited our ‘pop up book shop’ and took part in lots of other fun workshops. Thank you to the parents who spent hours wrapping up book bundles and selling them after school on the sports pitch. That was a huge success and we love that children are so excited about taking their love of reading home!

You may have noticed we have started to add ‘greenery’ around the sports pitch. We have added this for several reasons. To improve air quality by reducing car fumes, for children using the pitch. Secondly there has been two occasions where dogs have come right up to the fence and although no injuries happened we want to reduce the risk of an injury occuring. Thirdly we wanted to give children additional privacy while playing in our playground.

Looking ahead, we still have lots of exciting lessons planned, along with even more special events including Comic Relief Red Nose Day and a whole range of Easter celebrations. We look forward to sharing these memorable moments with the children.

Warm regards,

Ms Toni Mason

Celebrate Comic Relief at School – Friday 21st March!

Get ready for a fun-filled day as we celebrate Comic Relief on Friday 21st March! Children can wear a red nose, a red top (jumper, T-shirt etc. (PE tops count!)) and get creative with red hair accessories. To help raise money for this fantastic cause, we will be selling red noses and accessories in the playground on Tuesday 18th and Thursday 20th March—please bring cash. All money raised will go towards supporting people living in poverty, both in the UK and around the world.

Key Education Updates for Primary Schools

1. Free Breakfast Clubs
From April 2025, 750 primary schools will trial free breakfast clubs, offering children a healthy start and parents extra childcare. A full rollout could save families up to £450 a year.

2. Ofsted Inspection Reforms
Ofsted will drop single overall ratings. From 2024/25, schools will get separate grades for education, behaviour, personal development, and leadership.

3. Curriculum and Assessment Review
An independent review aims to modernise the curriculum and assessments to better prepare children for life and work. Changes may affect primary education.

4. Focus on School Attendance
The Education Secretary urges parents to prioritise school attendance, warning that poor attendance harms learning and classroom progress.

There are still so many exciting events happening this term for our children to enjoy organsied by FOSJB (see list below). All are invited to be involved and help organise. Click here to sign up to help with the Easter Events

In the news over the past two weeks…

World Book Day in Year 1

In Palm Class we love to read. We celebrated World Book Day and we picked books to take home with us! We can’t wait to read them....

07 March, 2025

Who Helps Us in Reception

This week we have been looking at people who help us through different activities, including doctors, vets and fire fighters. ...

06 March, 2025

World Book Day 2025!

We celebrated World Book Day on Thursday. We asked children to come dressed in costumes or pyjamas/comfy clothes. We had so many fantastic outfits this year!...

06 March, 2025

Pop Up Bookshop

In celebration of World Book Day, we created our own pop-up Bookshop! We invited all children in the school to pick 2 books of their choice!...

06 March, 2025

Making Snacks in After School Care

In after school care this week, we created ants on a log using celery, cheese and raisins. We loved creating healthy snacks!...

28 February, 2025

Year 5 go to Shoreditch Park

Chestnut have been investigating the force of friction with an experiment in Shoreditch Park testing how long it takes for a Desdina to come down the slide on a variety of different materials. Using the same Desdina each time ensured it was a fair test......

28 February, 2025