I hope that you enjoyed the half term last week and had some time together with your children. We all need the opportunity to spend some time with our families and recharge our batteries although maybe the latter is not quite so easy if the children are around and requiring your attention!

It won't be too long before we are in the season of Advent although this week I spoke to the Juniors explaining that, in the Catholic Church, November is called ‘Allhallowstide’ or ‘Allsaintstide’ and is dedicated to praying for the dead. Hopefully, they may have a growing understanding of how Halloween falls on the eve of 'Hallows' (saints) day and is, therefore, directly connected to All Saints Day and All Souls Day. We discussed a few different saints and heard how they carried out many good deeds as they tried to live like Jesus. As we try to do the same, hopefully Sacred Heart can encourage some saintly deeds of our own!

The next significant day in Allsaintstide will be Remembrance Day where we will wear our poppies and pray for those who have died in wars. As always, having no memory of my own relatives who died in wars, I will be thinking most about my grandparents, who are no longer with us and who I don't think about often enough.

You will soon be receiving a copy of an unexpected OFSTED report on the subject of safeguarding. When concerns or complaints are raised, schools will sometimes experience a 'no-notice' inspection where inspectors will literally turn up after a phone call ten minutes earlier. We 'enjoyed' such a visit in the week before half term where the team looked into every aspect of how children are kept safe at Sacred Heart. The report details the processes involved and the findings but I am pleased to say that it represents a reassuring vindication of our caring, Christian approach, backed by robust systems and procedures.

On another topic, loosely related, you may well be aware that we are recharging our focus on improving playtimes for the children. By investing in equipment, asking for donations and developing different zones outside, we are aiming to improve upon the range of available activities; at the same time, we aim to encourage a philosophy of experiencing different forms of play, taking sensible risks to enjoy more benefits.

My first request is for scooters, prams and buggies. If you are fortunate enough to be updating your children's toys soon, maybe at Christmas, perhaps you would be prepared to donate older items to us? In terms of the prams and buggies, I am referring to the 'play' type where children take their own baby dolls for a walk. Dolls and action figures are also welcome!

I look forward to seeing some of you at next week's consultation meetings, maybe a good time to bring new items in for donation. If we do very well with our requests, we will be sure to donate additional items to our local charity partners.

Enjoy the weekend and week ahead.

Mr Beazeley

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

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.

• 10/11 – Girls football – At Our Lady of Lourdes selected team

• 11/11 – New Reception Family meeting at 9.30am

• 11/11 – Remembrance Day

• 11/11 – Parent Consultations Year 6, from 8.00am to 3.00pm

• 11/11 – Parent Consultations Nursery to Year 5 from, 3.30pm to 5.30pm

• 12/11 – Netball at St Thomas More- - selected team

• 12/11 - New Reception Family meeting at 2.00pm

• 12/11 - New Reception Family meeting at 5.00pm

• 13/11 – Class Assembly – Year 5 St Peter

• 13/11 - Parent Consultations Year 6, from 8.00am to 3.00pm

• 13/11 – Parent Consultations Nursery to Year 5, from 5.00pm to 7.30pm

• 18/11 – Flu Vaccinations in school

• 19/11 – Dodgeball at Freedom Leisure centre selected year 5 & 6 team

• 21/11 – Football at Len Forge selected year 1 & 2 team

This will be our new dinner menu, starting on 3rd November.

Year 5 Harry Potter trip.

Year 5 enjoyed a day at the making of Harry Potter. They got to see all the locations and props used in the films and how the films were made with so many skilled professionals.  There are many more photos on our Facebook page.

Dear Parents and Carers,

My name is Dori Calik, and I would like to introduce myself as the new Chair of Friends of Sacred Heart (FOSH), parent-run charity supporting SHS. Alongside me is Frankie Chilton, our new Vice Chair, and a small group of dedicated committee members. 

Following the recent resignation of the previous committee, the new FOSH team was formally appointed at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 2nd October. Our shared goal is to continue the valuable work of supporting and enriching our school community - be it events, fundraising, and working alongside school staff and families.

Our first project together will be the School Christmas Fayre, a much-loved event that brings our community together to celebrate the festive season. 

To make the fayre a success, we are looking for volunteers to help in a variety of ways — from planning and organising to setting up, running stalls, or tidying away afterwards.

We completely understand that time is precious, so our aim is to divide tasks into small, manageable roles to make it easy for everyone to get involved. Every bit of help, no matter how small, makes a real difference.

If you are interested in helping with the Christmas Fayre or getting involved with FOSH in general, please leave your name and contact details at the school reception, and one of us will be in touch soon. Or if you have a business and would like a stall at the fayre, again please leave contact details. 

Thank you for your continued support. We are very excited to get started and look forward to working together to make this year’s events enjoyable and successful for the whole school community.

Kind regards,

Dori Calik Chair, Friends of Sacred Heart (FOSH) and Frankie Chilton, Vice Chair

Dear Parents and Carers,

We wanted to send a reminder to all our families of the uniform requirements from September 2025. We would like to draw special attention to:

• Hair styles - must not be extreme

• Earrings - no earrings of any kind. If you wish to get your child's ears pierced, the must be done at the beginning of the holidays to allow sufficient time to heal before returning to school. 

• Shoes - must be sensible and sturdy - no trainers

• Boots - only to be worn to and from school - need to change to shoes in school

 Please read the attached document for full information on all uniform requirements. 

 There will be a PRE-LOVED UNIFORM EVENT at the beginning of September, so please look out for this. 

 We would also like to remind everyone that all items in school must be clearly labelled, and the school will not accept responsibility for lost items. 

 Please help us to be 'The smartest school in town' and support us in ensuring the children are wearing the correct uniform, are fully prepared and ready to learn.

Kind regards,

School Office.

In line with other schools we will be introducing a new policy where by any children not collected from school by 3.30pm will be placed in our after school tea club and a £6 fee will be applied to your School Money account.

We have seen an increase in the number of children not collected on time and we hope the new charges will ensure children are collected promptly.

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.

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.  Lost Property with no name is regualry sorted and either given to the pre-loved sale or taken to a local charity shop.

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.

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

Click on the image below to read a workshop for parents of children who are anxious or worried about coming to school

Click or tap on the picture below to view the digital brochure for Christmas In The City 2025 – Southend’s festive celebration full of activities, entertainment, and seasonal fun for all ages!