Newsletter 05 03/10/24

I hope that you are enjoying the additional day with your children today as much as they may be! If you have been working, I hope that you have been able to make arrangements that haven't inconvenienced you.

The teachers have been spending the day at St Thomas More High School enjoying a collective, Assisi Trust day of reflection and learning with colleagues from other schools, marking the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. Starting with a Mass, the day is made up of a series of sessions, aimed at supporting our aim to nurture the intellectual and spiritual parts of our children, and encouraging us to use Catholic Social Teaching as the cornerstone of our holistic educational mission.

On Thursday, we enjoyed the first class assembly of the year, presented to pupils and parents by Year 6's Mary, Mother of God class. They retold the story of The Good Samaritan to reinforce our core values of love and care, whilst also relating them to the host of responsibilities of service that they have now taken on as our oldest, Year 6 pupils.

Well done to our girls' football team who came away from Hamstel with a 2-0 victory on Tuesday.

I hope that Year 6 have a great time on their three-day, two-night residential to Skreens in the second half of next week and that Year 2 enjoy their trips to beach and library. Also next week, we are beginning our link to My Future, My Southend which is aimed at connecting our children to a range of people in different careers, something that we will develop further during Aspirations Week. Hopefully, the children will be inspired to come home and tell you about new role models and inspirational people that they 'meet' online.

On Thursday, we will also be wearing something yellow to recognise and prompt discussion about World Mental Health Day.

Wishing you a happy and peaceful weekend and coming week.

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.

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

• 10/10/24 – Year 2 Beach Trip 

• 09, 10 & 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

• 15/10/24 – Boys Football at Hamstel 3.00pm – 5.00pm – Selected team

• 16/10/24 – Lion King Trip – Year 5

• 17/10/24 – Beach Art Trip – Year 1

• 18/10/24 – Netball League Games – Selected team

Mary Mother of God Class shared their class assembly today with their families and the school community. They gave the message of helping others through the story of The Good Samaritan and how they will adopt this approach in their roles of responsibility in Year 6.

Our Girls Football team worked hard today to play brilliantly despite the autumn weather in the local schools competition in their new kits.

Hot Chocolate Friday - We celebrate pupils and staff that are superstars in all aspects of their school life.

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.

The Ben Kinsella Trust are running an online 2 hour session in October for all parents, carers and anyone who supports young people.
Join this FREE online workshop to learn more about topics such as the influence of social media, the signs and stages of exploitation, and how we can prevent young people being affected by knife crime as parents, carers and as a community.

The Ben Kinsella Trust - Parents and Carers - Helping our Children Stay Safe | 15th October 6:30 - 8:30pm (beaconforms.com)

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/