Dear St John the Baptist Families,

It was wonderful to hear about all the wonderful acts of kindness we celebrated in Celebration Assemblies today. The children at St John the Baptist show such kindness to each other, really emphasising our school vision of “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Each week in Celebration Assembly, the children come together and celebrate each other’s achievements in different areas including spelling and sports. We hope that any certificates that come home are proudly displayed – we are so proud of all of our children!

When asked about Celebration Assembly, one child said, “I like when other people like my friends get certificates. It makes my friends happy and I feel happy when they share it with me.” 

Thanks to all who have completed the OPAL survey. If you haven’t yet please do complete the survey (info below) as your thoughts are important.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes, Toni Mason

OPAL – Outdoor Play and Learning

To help us develop our playtimes even further, we have brought in the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Primary Programme, a strategic improvement programme designed to help us improve opportunities for play, make sure our outdoor environment provides the best range of experiences for the children and help our staff feel even more confident in helping all children have a great playtime every day. This means that soon our playtimes will be becoming even better and every child will have a more varied opportunity to grow and learn through play.

We would love to hear from you – about your thoughts and feelings towards playtimes by completing this short survey (Please click) Thank you so much to those who have already completed the survey.

This data will help us know where we are now, and plan for and measure the changes across the school over the next couple of years.

In the coming 18 months you will be invited to events where you can come and see for yourselves what is happening and have the opportunity to join in too. Do let us know what you think – and if you can help. We will soon be asking for donations – more information to follow.

We are really excited about this project and hope that you will support us in our efforts to improve playtime for all children.

Collection Arrangements

Next week we will be checking our pick-up lists so please see your child’s teacher to confirm that we have the correct information about who can collect your child.

Please introduce staff on the gate, classroom staff and office staff to any new people picking up your child. We can then be sure of who is collecting your child. We don’t release children to unknown adults or children under 16 years of age.

In an emergency, we have additional measures in place for safeguarding. If you need somebody we don’t know or haven’t met to collect your child, please make sure that you have called ahead to tell us. The office will pass on a password for you to give the collector. They will then need to to give this when collecting your child.

Please also ensure that the person who is collecting your child has photo ID on them so that we are able to identify them. (Particularly if they are new additions to your list.)

Thanks in advance for helping us to ensure your child’s safety.

Attendance

It is been so encouraging this term to see the improvement in our school attendance compared to this time last year—we are now at 94.4% and aiming for 96%. We are getting closer to our school target and it is so good to see the numbers of children whose attendance is below 90% is falling. If children have attendance below 90% for any reason it means they are recorded as a persistent absentee. Every day counts when it comes to attendance. Children who miss even 5% of school over the year amount to 2 weeks worth of learning lost!

We know that children at St John the Baptist really enjoy school and learning so are eager not to miss out. Thank you to all parents and carers for your support with this.

Coffee mornings this half term

Wednesday 31st January 2024 – Coffee morning: Helping your child with arithmetic for Years 1,2,3

Wednesday 7th February 2024 – Coffee morning: SaLT support – language focus

Nursery Places

We currently taking applications for the waiting list for both three-year-old and two-year-old Nursery. Please speak to School office more information.

Please share with your family and friends as places are limited!

Spring term dates

In the news this week…