Thank you to Years 1 and 2 this week for their excellent Nativity performances. An entertaining modern script and songs brought the Christmas story to life in a new and enjoyable way. Well done to Year 2 for their talented acting and narration, along with the annual task of managing tricky costume! Even so, all would have been less impressive without the lovely accompanying singing of Year 1 - well done to them too and to all of the adults who have been preparing the children during this half term.

It was lovely to hear of the choir sharing their singing with two of our local community groups this week. They visited and entertained the residents of Windermere Home on Tuesday and this afternoon have been performing to Warm Cafe at church. As part of our mission to serve and share with others, following the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, we want to show solidarity with others. In the same way that the chuldren of the choir have brought some cheer and happiness into the lives of others, we would be happy to consider the needs of others in our community if you have any suggestions.

In a related way, our parent group, FOSH, have been working hard to make preparations for today's Christmas Fayre, in order to put on an enjoyable evening for our school community and, at the same time, raise money to provide nice things for our children to enjoy in school. As with all of the schools that I have worked at, the core parent group in FOSH is a small one and, for future events, it would really help to have a greater number of people contributing some time and ideas in order to spread the workload. As for today, we look forward to seeing you all this evening and we welcome your feedback as to the best times to hold school events like this one.

With one week of term to go, after the third (and pink) Advent candle is lit on Sunday, there is still a lot to look forward to. Most notably, we have parties, Christmas Dinner and Jumper day (Tuesday) and the KS2 service on Wednesday coming up in our final week.

I wish you luck with your Christmas shopping and other preparations and hope that the final week of term can be an enjoyable celebration of Jesus' birth.

Mr Beazeley

• 17/12/24 – Christmas Dinner Day

• 18/12/24 – KS2 Christmas Service – 1.45pm

• 18/12/24 – KS2 Christmas Service – 6.30pm

• 20/12/24 – Last day of term

• 23/12/24 to 3/1/25 – CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

• 6/1/25 – INSET DAY

• 7/1/25 – CHILDREN RETURN TO SCHOOL

• 07/01/25 – New Nursery children first day

• 09/01/25 – Sports Hall Athletics at Garons – Years 5&6 selected team

• 10/01/25 – Sports Hall Athletics at Garons – Years 3&4 selected team 

Here is our new dinner menu. starting this half-term.  Please note that Soya has recently been added as an allergen to some of our dishes.

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.

KS1 Nativity was an outstanding success and gave everyone some festive cheer. Well done to all pupils and staff involved.

Some of our school choir went to sing carols at Windermere Care home this week. Their beautiful voices bought much cheer and happiness to the residents.

Year 6 have been revising instructions and how to make a jam sandwich correctly!

Year 4 visited Sarah's Chocolate Kitchen and made their designs come to life with real bars of chocolate.

Year 3 have been learning about visitors in RE and how at this time of year we may see lots of visitors at this time of year and how important these are to us.

Our Neuro Ambassadors visited Southend High for Boys to record a video about their roles at school.

All of our children enjoyed making Christmas decorations, with some wonderful creations.

A few days ago, our junior pupils participated in new Age Kurling and Boccia tournament. Everyone participated well and our Boccia team placed 4th in a finals playoff out 23 Southend Schools.

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. 

We would like to remind everyone that after school clubs will still be taking place on Friday before the Christmas Fayre -  children in badminton club will be outside enjoying a different sporting activity so please ensure they have suitable clothing.  Art club will be on as normal.

 Next week all activity clubs will finish on Wednesday 18th December -  there will be no activity clubs on Thursday or Friday.

 Breakfast club and Tea club will be running all next week as normal.

 Kind regards, School Office 

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.

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.

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