Newsletter 04 27/09/24

An apology, first of all, to the pupils who took the 11+ exam last week. It wasn't until after the newsletter was sent last week that I realised that it was happening last weekend. I hope all went well for you and that everyone in Year 6 manages to find a secondary school that suits them well.

Please save the date for Friday 13th December when we will be holding our Christmas Fayre from 5pm until 8. These events can only happen with the support of volunteers and FOSH, our most supportive, core group, would be appreciative of your assistance for an hour or so on the day. The more people help a little, the more we can spread the load and work together. FOSH are meeting on Monday, 6:30pm in the school hall, to discuss this event and others later in the year so, hopefully, there will more to tell you about soon.

Our ECO councillors have been introduced to the school today and they will be at the heart of our efforts to keep our community and wider world clean, tidy and a nice place to live in this year. One of the ways they will assist our neighbours is by providing waiting parents with a bin at drop-off and collection times. 

In a loosely related way, you will probably already be aware that children don't always appreciate the expense that you go to as parents. A by-product of this is that they don't always look after property that you have bought for them: the result seems to be a constant stream of abandoned, 'lost' property. 

As well as staff in school, perhaps, recognising and rewarding those pupils who never abandon their belongings, I'd like to ask for your support in ensuring that all of their uniform is named. In this way, we stand a far better chance of returning items to the correct owner, without parents needing to waste their time and raise their blood pressure in what can be a daily hunt!

We are pleased to share that there are now enough volunteers for us to commence our Street School closure from Tuesday 22nd October in the mornings only. All volunteers will receive training on this day and it will continue after this morning. The council is allowing us to trial mornings for 1 month whilst we continue to look for volunteers to cover the afternoon closure. 

Well done to the girls' football team who competed in a tournament in today's wet weather, winning games along the way to finish a creditable fifth place of fifteen schools.

Enjoy a weekend that promises to be drier than recent days.

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.

• 30/09/24 – School Nurse Drop in Session – 8.30am to 9.30am

• 02/10/24 – Reception Class Information Meeting – 2.00pm

• 03/10/24 – Mary Mother of God Class Assembly – 9.00am

   03/10/24 - Sleep Work Shop in the Atrium, open to all parents

• 04/10/24 – INSET DAY – NO PUPILS IN SCHOOL

• 07/10/24 – Pre Loved Uniform Sale from 3.15pm

• 08/10/24 – Year 2 Beach Trip and Gallery

• 09-11/10/24 – Year 6 Residential Trip to Skreens Park – students not attending must still attend school

• 10/10/24 – World Mental Health Day

• 11/10/24 – KS1 Cross Country – morning

• 11/10/24 – KS2 Cross Country - afternoon

Here are our stars of the week who have represented our core values well through their actions of responsibility, achievement, compassion, equality, faith and respect. 

Year 6 have enjoyed their Victorian experience today and have taken part in fun activities including baking, playground games and sketching as well as learning how Victorian children used to learn in their lessons - very different from what they are used to

The children were exploring the properties of a variety of balls, and predicting which would be the bounciest. We discussed and designed an investigation and thought about how to make a fair test.

Application forms are now available in the porch of both churches to apply for your child’s place on the First Holy Communion Course 2025. Your child should be in year 3. It is best if your child joins the course while in year 3 as they will be amongst likeminded children of a similar age and with their friends. However, if your child is a little older they may also join the course. The forms must be returned to Sacred Heart Presbytery by Sunday 3rd November. You will be informed if your application has been successful before the Parent’s Meeting on Wednesday 13th November. We will ask to see your child’s Baptism certificate.

Sacred Heart Craft Fayre

Saturday 12th October

12 Noon – 3pm

Sacred Heart Church Hall

Tea and Cake

Model Railway

Crafts to buy

Raffle

Repository

Fun and games for all the family

If you have unwanted gifts for the raffle or bottles for the bottle stall please see Marie Lang.

LOST PROPERTY

Please can all parents check their child’s clothes -  All items should be clearly labelled and your child needs to ensure they can identify their own property.  Staff are wasting too much time searching for children’s clothing and dealing with frustrated parents.

Any unlabelled items will end up in our pre loved uniform event on 7th October so please take the time to label their clothes accordingly and check they have the correct uniform every evening.

Thank you for your co-operation.

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.

Breakfast club bookings also includes the tea club (£9 per session) - again all bookings must be booked and paid for in advance.  Failure to pay will result in the child not being able to attend future sessions.

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.

Parentkind – the charity that supports school PTAs - have teamed up with Asda, who are making millions of pounds available to donate to primary schools across the UK through their ‘Cashpot for Schools’ initiative –  all you have to do is, opt in through the Asda Rewards app, choose our primary school and shop and scan in store or shop online at Asda.com, between 2nd September and 30th November 2024

Asda will donate 0.5% of the value of your shop to our Primary school. Also, every time somebody opts in, Asda will give an additional £1 to the school Cashpot. Plus, it doesn’t stop there – Asda are also giving £50 to every school to get them started.

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