JOPS News 

Weekly Update

Dear Parents and Carers,

Harvest, Identity, and Looking Ahead to Half-Term!

What a truly fabulous week at school it has been! As the autumn leaves prepare to scatter across the playground, our school community has been buzzing with warmth, energy, and a collective sense of pride. From charitable giving to celebrating who we are, our children have continuously demonstrated the core values that make our school such a special place to learn and grow.

We kicked off our week on Monday with our annual Harvest Festival celebration. It was a beautiful occasion filled with song, reflection, and gratitude. We want to extend a massive thank you to all our parents and carers for your incredibly kind donations and also Dela and Reverend James from St. luke;s Church who helped us celebrate. Your generosity was staggering, and everything collected was delivered straight to the Rainham food bank. The volunteers there were completely overwhelmed by our generosity and asked us to pass on their deepest thanks to you all. In these challenging times, your kindness will make a tangible difference to local families, and it provided a powerful lesson to our children about the importance of community and helping others.

Today, the excitement continued as we marked Proud to Be Day. The school has been awash with colour, smiles, and individuality as children celebrated their own unique identity. At our school, recognizing and valuing diversity is one of our most cherished core values. Seeing the children speak so confidently about what makes them unique—whether through their heritage, their hobbies, or their personal strengths—was deeply moving. It is a vital reminder that everyone belongs here, and everyone is valued exactly as they are.

Our oldest pupils have also been leading by example this week. A huge well done goes out to our fantastic Year 6 school officials, who continued to share their love of reading with The James Oglethorpe Preschool. They visited the preschool to read stories, share laughs, and act as brilliant role models for the younger children. This cross-school connection is now a wonderful tradition, and our Year 6 pupils showed immense patience, kindness, and enthusiasm. You are a credit to the school!

Hard to believe, but there is now just one week to go until half-term. The time has flown by, but we still have plenty of learning and fun packed into the final five days of this autumn term.

Finally, as you will have noticed, the autumn weather is starting to change. The mornings are crisp, and the sky is looking a bit more unpredictable! Please ensure that your children come to school with appropriate outdoor clothing every day. This must include warm coats, ideally with hoods, so that they can continue to enjoy their outdoor play comfortably, rain or shine.

Thank you all for your ongoing support across this busy week. Have a wonderful, restful weekend, and let’s make our final week before the half-term break the best one yet!

Take care,

Mr Fielder

Headteacher

JOPS Pupil Parliament 

At JOPS, we believe that every child should have a say in how their school is run. That’s why all of our pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 are active members of our JOPS Pupil Parliament.

Instead of just electing a few representatives, every child gets involved. At the end of each school year, the children vote for their own top three group choices to decide which team they will join.

Our parliament groups meet once a half-term alongside their staff group leaders. This half-term, the children have been brilliant - working hard together to map out their action plans for the year. From next half-term, they will hit the ground running to bring those ideas to life, which will include planning some fantastic school events and fundraisers.

It is a wonderful way to make sure everyone is empowered, every voice is heard, and real decisions are put into action by the children themselves. Why not ask your child which parliament group they are in and what they are planning for the year?

Our JOPS Pupil Parliament groups this year include:

• School Council

• Rights Respecting Ambassadors

• Environmental Ministers

• Healthy Heroes 

• Sports Crew

• Digital Leaders

• Reading Ambassadors

• The Musical Minds

• Language Angels

• Explorer Ambassadors (Travel Ambassadors)

• Super Scientists

• Oglethorpe’s Historians

• Art Sparks