Newsletter 01 06/09/24

Welcome back and to the first newsletter of the new academic year! I hope that you all enjoyed a lovely Summer and shared some special times with your families.

We especially welcome new pupils, their families and our new staff to Sacred Heart and trust that this week will be the first of many happy and successful weeks in our partnership together. We also remember, pray and give thanks for the pupils and staff that have left us for new adventures: we trust that they also will be happy and successful and we look forward to hearing how they are getting on. Our thoughts and prayers go to Lucy Brown, our former dance teacher, who suffered a serious illness in the Summer but who is now, thankfully, making a good recovery.

The children and adults have been readjusting to being back in school after a long break and it's great to see how everyone has come back together as a loving, caring team, quickly getting back into the swing of things. Every new school year is the start of a new chapter in our lives, just as every week and day are new pages: there are fresh challenges, new beginnings and the chance to get better in everything that we do. The children grow up quickly and, before you know it, they are off to secondary school. Let's enjoy the special days of discovery in Primary school while they last, celebrating everything we learn and improve.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, OFSTED have been and gone, leaving us with words of approval for the things we do particularly well and helping us to direct our efforts towards making things even better. You can be sure that our mission continues to be the best that we can be for your children, questioning all that we do and making continual improvements to our offer.  I would like to thank all of the children and staff for their hard work, not just on the two days of inspection but in all of those hundreds of days that add up to our school being recognised as a 'Good' one. Thank you too to Mrs Mullally and our former staff and pupils who contributed so much to making Sacred Heart the loving and successful place of learning that it is.

Just a reminder that our 'Tea Club' is operating until 5.30 for parents who need childcare after school. Other clubs begin next week, as do the curriculum information meetings for parents that I hope you will find useful. 

Mrs Crabb has been in touch to tell you about the School Street Scheme: we are now designated as being part of the scheme but, at present, we do not have enough volunteers to operate the barriers that would help to make our road (and children) safer. If you can give an hour of your time, before or after school, on any day of the week, hopefully we can build a big enough team for the temporary closures to begin. Your children will be looked after in Breakfast or Tea Club (at no cost) while you are helping out. Maybe find a friend and do it together!

God bless, keep well, enjoy the weekend.

Mr Beazeley

Our Amazon Wishlist is live!! The idea is that friends and family of the school can donate directly to the school library. We’ll still accept preloved copies from home that you may also wish to donate. The selection of books are chosen by the staff as texts that may benefit the pupil's reading comprehension, engagement with the curriculum and foster an interest in reading. The current list is reflective of this and will update as and when donations come through.  The link to our Wishlist is here.

A big thank you to those that have bought books for the school, we truly appreciate it.

We would like to remind all our families using breakfast club of the importance of booking in advance.  We have noticed an increase of children not booking in advance and this effects our staffing ratio.

All bookings must be made at the beginning of each week so we can ensure we have enough staff available.  Priority will be given to children who have booked in advance and those who have not booked may not be able to stay.

If you need assistance making a booking please email annemariedriscoll@sacredheart.southend.sch.uk

We would like to remind all our families that we are a nut free school to protect some of our pupils/staff and therefore request that no items of food containing nuts are brought in.  We have noticed an increasing number of children bringing in snacks and spreads containing nuts ie cereal bars, chocolate spread etc.  We hope you all understand the importance that some of our community have epi pens for their allergies and we need to ensure their safety at all times.  Thank you for your co-operation.

Please follow the link to the Ten Ten collective Worship Newsletter this month www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/