Weekly Newsletter

Upcoming Dates

This week and next week

• SEND parent meetings

Tuesday 23rd September

• Year 2 trip to Bath

Wednesday 1st October

• Rainbow Group meeting at The Hive, 9am - 10am

Monday 6th October

• PSJ Stay and Play begins (For nursery age children) 8.30am

Tuesday 7th October

• Year 1 Harvest @ The Methodist Church @ 9:30am

• Year 2 Harvest @ The Methodist Church @ 10:30am

Wednesday 8th October

• Year 3, 4, 5 Harvest @ St John's Church, @ 1:30pm

• Year 6 trip to Parliament

Friday 10th October

• Reception and pre-school Harvest in the school hall, @ 10am

Monday 20th October

• PSA Disco for Reception, 5pm - 6pm

• PSA Disco for Years 3 & 4, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Wednesday 22nd October

• PSA Disco for Years 1 & 2, 5pm - 6pm

• PSA Disco for Years 5 & 6, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Thursday 23rd October

• Year 3 trip to Bristol Museum

Friday 24th October

• INSET Day - no school for pupils

Tuesday 4th November

• Parent-Teacher Pupil Progress Meetings

Wednesday 5th November

• Parent-Teacher Pupil Progress Meetings

Friday 21st November

• Non-Uniform Day in exchange for tombola prizes

Wednesday 26th November

• Rainbow Group meeting at The Hive, 9am - 10am

Saturday 29th November

• PSA Christmas Fayre, 11am - 2pm

Wednesday 3rd December

• PSA Christmas Wreath Workshop, 7pm - 9pm

Message from Mrs Noall

It makes me very proud to see how many children in our school have put themselves forward for positions of responsibility and leadership. Every child in Year 6 has been given a 'job' ranging from leading children as CARE Captains, representing the school as Head's Ambassadors, delivering messages as Office Angels, supporting younger children as Class Captains through to caring for our conservation area as gardeners, looking after laptops as IT technicians or supporting in assemblies as ANTS. In addition to the Year 6 roles, we have held elections for Pupil Voice representatives and have taken applications from children in Years 3 and 4 to join our Eco Team. I look forward to seeing these teams of children support their peers, act as role models and help lead on school initiatives. Well done children!

News and Events

Parent Governor Vacancy

We are currently looking for a new Parent Governor to join the Governing Body of our school. This opportunity has arisen due to one of our governors reaching the end of their term. 

The definition of parent includes a person who has actual custody or care and control of the child, and includes a guardian and a long-term foster carer.

Parent Governors play a crucial role in representing the views of parents/carers and helping to shape the direction of our school. If you're interested in making a difference, we encourage you to apply. Further information can be found here

All parent/carers will receive an email today with a nomination form. The deadline for nominations will be Tuesday 23rd September at 8am.

Any queries please contact scallicott@peasedown.mnsp.org.uk

KS1 Author Visit - Rachel Bright 

We have a very exciting visit planned for the children in Year 1 & 2. Rachel Bright who is the author of the world famous 'The Lion Inside' is visiting us on Monday 6th October to speak to the children and celebrate the 10th Anniversary of 'The Lion Inside'. Not only that she will be giving us an exclusive reading of her brand new book, 'The Turtle Who Turned The Tide'. 

If you would like to order either of these books for your children to have signed please pre order them through the school shop on Arbor. 

Year 4 Author Visit - Jack Jackman

A reminder that Year 4 children will have a visit from Jack Jackman on October 14th. 

Thank you for your continued support.

Miss Skipp

PSJ Stay ad Play is back!

Monday 6th October will be the first session for this year - we look forward to seeing you!

Reminders

Another reminder about water bottles

Please ensure that your child only has water in their bottle - no squash, juice or flavoured water please.

Clubs

Our school-led clubs start this week.

Mud!

We are experiencing a lot of mud coming into the building after lunchtime. To ensure this doesn't happen we are insisting that children can only go onto our grassy areas if they are wearing welly boots, or they have a change of shoes for lunch. We have a large selection of spare welly boots in school that children can use, but if your child would rather wear their own please ensure they bring a pair into school. 

Thank you for your support with this.

Em Wilkinson's Photography

We are very lucky to have a professional photographer in our Parent community.  Emma Wilkinson (from Em Wilkinson’s photography) has taken many stunning pictures of our children at work and at play over the past two years. I know that being able to share these images with you after our school events has meant a lot. In the summer, Emma was able to extend her talent to the Year 6 leavers' party and production. She is now looking to expand her business and has a portfolio of images, mostly from our school, ready to share with other school leaders. When joining our school, you are given the opportunity to opt out if your child's image is being shared by the school for its publicity. Therefore, we are now extending this to ask parent if they DO NOT wish for their child's image to be held and published within Emma's portfolio, to let us know via this google form. 

Sign here to opt out 

Class News

Find out what we have been up to on our class pages and on Face Book.

Home Learning

The button below will take you to this week's home learning for every year group. Home learning is designed to enable children to practice skills they will need in school and so it is really important that they spend some time over the week on this home learning. 

Attendance Matters

We've seen a really big improvement in children arriving for an 8:30am start - well done and thank you! This means that children are in their classroom ready to start their Early Morning Work each day.

SEND Updates

SEND Parent/Carer Meetings

Parents/Carers of children with a SEND Plan will have meetings this week or next week with their child's class teacher. If you do not yet know when this meeting is happening, please talk to your child's class teacher.

You will see that we have changed the format of the SEND plans, in order to make them more user friendly and ensure they have all the key information needed. You will get a copy of the plan at the meeting. 

PFSA Updates

PFSA Support

You can find a range of support services on the Support for Families page on our website by clicking this link Support for Families - Peasedown St John Primary School. 

Information on upcoming events will be in the weekly newsletter and noticeboards in the office waiting area and playground. 

If you would like to speak with me about any concerns you have you can call the office or email me pfsa@peasedown.mnsp.org.uk.  My usual working days are Mon-Wed 9:00-3:00.

Please remember that if your concern relates directly to SEND support for your child in school, you should direct your questions to the class teacher and/ or Mrs Tombs rather than requesting PFSA support. 

Second hand uniform

Do you have any uniform that no longer fits but could be given a second chance in a new home? If so, we are happy to take it from you and add it to our second hand uniform supplies.

Do you need some new uniform? Please contact Catherine if you need to look at our second hand uniform supplies, or come along to rummage at our parent progress meetings in November.

EYFS Updates

RECEPTION AND NURSERY

Welcome to our first EYFS update. We will be starting to answer those important questions such as:

What did your child do at school today?

What are children learning when they play?

Why do what we do in the Early Years Foundation Stage?

Strengthening our Partnerships with Parents we will provide relevant insights to support you to understand the value and role of Early Years Education.

PSJ BITESIZE

“From birth to age 5, a child's brain develops more, and more rapidly, than at any other time in life. - Early childhood studies and neuroscience have shown that children’s early experiences are important in affecting health, behaviour and developmental outcomes.” 

(Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework, 2023 and Early Education online)

We have a section in the newsletter for Reception and Nursery children and their families. PSJ Bitesize will set simple challenges for you to do with your child at home as well as the benefits for your child’s learning and development such as:

• Learn a nursery rhyme off by heart.

• Spot a shape in the local environment.

• Minibeast Hunts

• PE Challenges

⤊Pop Up and Play⤊

“Children have a right to play. Children’s right to play is recognised as so vital to their wellbeing and development that it is included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (1989). Play both indoors and outdoors is also a fundamental commitment to children throughout the EYFS.” 

(Birth to 5 Matters, 2021)

Once the children are settled we will invite parents to Pop Up and Play. These short sessions are a valuable opportunity to engage in activities with your child whilst learning about the purpose and benefits of the activities such as:

• Dough Gym 

• Phonics

• Drawing Club

• PE

Information and updates

A huge well done to all the children who have started with us in Nursery and Reception. They have settled in well and are becoming confident, resilient and competent learners. We have had a great start to the first term.

How we share our learning in Nursery and Reception 

Tapestry is our online learning journal. You should have received a login for your child’s account. If you cannot login to Tapestry please speak to the school office. 

Our School Website has a Nursery Class page and a Reception Class page. Here you can find information about your child’s class such as PE days and highlights of our learning.

Our School Facebook Page - Nursery and Reception will post ‘wow’ moments of learning here.

POLITE REMINDERs

• Please label your child’s belongings with their name including their coat, lunchbox and water bottle. 

• Water only in water bottles. No squash.

• Shoulder length hair needs to be tied up in a full ponytail.

• Please send your child to school with a coat everyday. The weather is changeable and we have been caught out in the rain at lunchtime.

• Please remember to book your child a hot dinner if they are having one.

• Please make sure your child has a named pair of wellies left in school.

Reception

• Reception PE starts this week - Mondays and Fridays. Please send your child dressed in the school PE kit.

• Please make sure you have returned the school drawstring bag to school filled with a set of spare clothes. These are left on their pegs and will be handed back to be refilled if your child needed a change of clothes.

• No large rucksacks please. We only have a small cloakroom.

• Please can your child bring their book bag to school every day. We will be sending home reading books and your child uses their book bags to bring home their drawings, etc. You can purchase a book bag from the school office.

• If you received an email inviting you to attend a SEN meeting please speak to your class teacher to book an appointment. 

A big thank you to our Reception parents for your patience and understanding at drop off and pick up. It does take quite some time to welcome our large cohort into class and ensure that we send children to the correct grown up at the end of the day. It is already becoming quicker and easier as the children are now more confident, resilient and settled. 

If you have any questions, big or small, please email the office who will forward it to the class teacher or speak to a member of the team at the end of the day. Thank you for your continued support.

Evo Sports at PSJ

Well, it would have been Road Dahl’s birthday this week so what better way to celebrate than to create dream jars and dream catchers. Children brought in their own jars so all we needed to do was create the magic to go in them. And just for good measure we created dream catchers so we can all sleep peacefully and be ready for school on time from now on. The children also enjoyed some outside time and creating structures. 

PSA Updates

Help needed!

Our PSA needs you!

Profits from events like the summer and Christmas fayres go to all year groups – nursery to Year 6. Recently it has funded Forest School, Year 6 leavers, musical instruments and other great things with £6,500 being paid to the school each year.

Volunteers from the school community (parents, carers, school staff and families) help on stalls, setting up events, collecting raffle prizes and ensuring the registered charity is run properly. This can range from a few minutes two or three times a year to being part of the committee of trustees with a meeting each term to plan events and manage the finances.  

If you would like to volunteer or find out more please email: psjprimary.psa@gmail.com   

Community News and Events