Newsletter 01 02/09/22

Lord God

Your Spirit of wisdom fills our lives and teaches us your ways. Look upon our young pupils at the beginning of this new school year. May they enjoy their learning and take delight in new discoveries. Help them to persevere in their learning and give them the desire to learn all things well.

Look upon our teaching staff. May they strive to share their knowledge with gentle patience and endeavour always to bring faith and a love of learning to eager minds.

Look upon all school staff who help us in our mission. May they be given the tools to achieve their work and the support of our community to do it well.

Grant that pupils and school staff alike may follow Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life, for ever and ever.

Amen

This week at Sacred Heart…

Welcome back to the start of the new school year; we hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful summer holiday. It has been wonderful to welcome all our pupils back to school. We hope that the children, and yourselves, have been equally excited about a return to school and all the exciting opportunities that the year ahead holds. I would like to take this opportunity to express a particularly warm welcome all our new children and families to Sacred Heart School and Nursery. We were delighted to have the new Early Years children start with us, all looking very smart in their school uniform. Welcome also to the children and families who have joined us in other year groups throughout the school. Thank you for your support in preparing your children and enabling a positive return to school.

We are very excited about some site-development and building work taking place in the school. You will have seen that we are installing a new Early Years Outdoor Area within our playground area to provide our youngest pupils with some additional outdoor space in which to learn. This work is due to be completed next week (provided weather conditions remain suitably dry). A small area of our playground will remain cordoned off (and out of bounds) while this work is completed. We are still ensuring that Early Years can access alternative outdoor space while this work is completed.

The building work to extend the rear of our Junior building is also underway – this extension will provide some additional learning spaces for pupils. The construction project will extend well into the autumn term and plans are in place to minimise impact and disruption for the pupils and health and safety considerations are being given the highest priority. This project will require us to restrict pupil access to some of the areas around the Junior building. Junior bike-sheds have been removed from their usual location – Junior pupils should bring their bikes through the main school gate and they will be directed to use an alternative bike storage area within our playground while our building work is taking place.

Our school diary is busy across this term. Please continue to refer to the school website for all school information, including our school calendar of events at https://www.shs-southend.co.uk/whats-happening/calendar.

We are all excited by the year ahead and look forward to working together to ensure it is a really successful one. Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to a really positive year ahead.

God bless,

Mrs. Mullally

• 5th Sept - Reception phased start (half days for a week)

• 8th Sept - Year 6 Prefects’ Assembly at 9.00am in school hall – parents/carers are welcome

• 8th Sept - Year 6 Residential Trip Information Meeting for parents/carers and pupils at 6.00pm in school hall

• 12th Sept - Breakfast Club starts (for Reception pupils)

• 12th Sept - After-School Clubs start (Years 1-6)

• 14th Sept - Feast of the Holy Cross Mass at 9.30am – in church

• 14th Sept - Headteacher’s Welcome Meeting and tour of Early Years classrooms for EYFS parents/carers at 5.00pm and 6.00pm

• 17th Sept - Optional 11+ Selection Test

• 19th Sept - Year 6 Residential Trip (19th-21st Sept)

• 21st Sept - Full Governing Body Meeting at 6.00pm

• 23rd Sept - Year 5 Taster Day at St Bernard’s / St Thomas More High Schools

• 29th Sept - Year 6 Height and Weight checks (part of National Child Measurement Programme – NCMP)

• 29th Sept - St Paul Class Assembly at 9.00am – in school hall – parents/carers are welcome

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new staff members. Welcome to our new class teachers: Miss Simpson joins us in Year 1, Miss Brown in Year 3, Miss Mendoza in Year 4 and Miss Barns in Year 5. Miss Field is also assuming the role of Class Teacher (Maternity Leave Cover) in Reception Class.

Starting in roles as support assistants in the school are: Mrs Jones, Miss Chalmers, Mrs Spivey, Mrs Crabb, Miss Veitch and Miss Keane. We are sure all of the staff and parents/carers will make them feel welcome as they settle in during the autumn term.

Mrs Edmunds has now re-assumed her role as Learning Support Assistant within the school, supporting the teaching and learning of pupils in Year 1. We would like to express our great gratitude to Mrs Edmunds for her great work in the role of Class Teacher in Reception Class, across the second half of last academic year, working alongside Miss Byast.

We have also bid farewell to Mrs Doctor, who has moved on to new ventures having secured a trainee teacher role in a local secondary school. We thank her for her hard work at Sacred Heart School and wish her the very best in the next step in her career.

We are reminding parents/carers that the school has a strict ‘no earrings’ policy, as we have had a number of children arriving back at school wearing earrings.

Please can we ask you to ensure that your child adheres to our policy by ensuring that earrings are removed each day before school. If a child does attend school with earrings, they will be asked to remove the earrings and parents/carers will be contacted.

This policy of ‘no earrings’ is quite clearly written in our school prospectus and website. Parents/carers are advised on this policy within application materials and reminded regularly through school communications. The school and its governing body expect parents and carers to adhere to this policy please.