What a truly wonderful week it has been at St Joseph's! As we reflect on the many blessings we've experienced, I'm reminded that when we focus on love and kindness in all we do, we remind people that there's goodness in the world and God's love for us is real.

It was an absolute honour to host the Croydon Headteacher Breakfast on Wednesday! Approximately 45 Headteachers from across the Borough came to receive updates from guest speakers and the Local Authority. Our visitors shared overwhelmingly positive remarks about our children and staff, staff filled my heart with pride. They commented on the welcoming atmosphere, the children's excellent behaviour, and the friendliness of our team.

A very special thank you goes to our Pupil Leadership Team and their parents for ensuring all our visitors felt truly welcome. Your hospitality and confidence made such a positive impression. As a reward for their outstanding efforts, the Pupil Leadership Team enjoyed a special breakfast in my office, which they absolutely loved! Thanks to Chef Mo, Nadia, Mrs Johnson and Ms Lodge for ensuring they felt like Princes and Princesses.

This week, our Year 5 pupils had a fantastic theatrical experience as part of their Creative Arts project. The talented Glide Theater Company performed Shakespeare's Macbeth for our pupils, bringing this classic tale to life in an engaging and accessible way. The technical production brought this classic to life and our hall was truly transformed.

In line with our Catholic mission, to spread joy and love to others we invited the Year 5 pupils from Good Shepherd Primary School to join us for this special performance. It was wonderful to see both school communities coming together to enjoy the arts, and the children were captivated throughout!

This performance has enriched our Year 5 Creative Arts project, helping pupils explore dramatic storytelling, character development, and the power of live theatre. I can't wait to see our children's performance in April! Some questions to ask your Year 5 child: What was the most dramatic moment in the Macbeth performance? How did the actors bring the characters to life? What did you learn about Shakespeare's storytelling?

I'm thrilled to share that our Reception and Year 1 pupils are making excellent progress with their phonics! The children have been working incredibly hard, and we're seeing wonderful results in their reading development. Thanks to Mrs Tope and all the staff for their hard work in ensuring the children have a great introduction to reading.

Children throughout the school, should be reading for at least 10-15 minutes at home every day. This daily practice makes such a difference to their confidence and fluency. Even just 10 minutes each evening helps reinforce what they're learning in school and builds a lifelong love of reading. There is actually evidence to support that the more you read, the more you earn when you are older. I tell the children this fact all the time... it seems to motivate them!

Letter joining handwriting codes have been sent home this week. A special thank you to Mrs Daniels for ensuring that all children have access to practice materials at home. We hope you find this helpful. Please encourage your child to practise their letter formation and joins regularly. Consistent practice at home, alongside our teaching in school, will help develop their handwriting fluency and confidence.

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent pupil consultation evening. It was wonderful to see so many of you and to discuss your child's progress and achievements.

If you were unable to attend, please don't worry. Your child's class teacher will call you to provide an update about your child's learning and development. Alternatively, you can contact the school office, and we'll arrange a convenient time to speak with you.

You and your family are warmly invited to join Croydon's International Language Day on Tuesday evening from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the rich diversity of languages spoken in our community and to enjoy cultural activities with your family.

If you would like to attend, please let me know via the school office, and I will contact the organisers to try to secure you a place. Spaces may be limited, so please respond as soon as possible if you're interested. Our Y5 children have been selected to be part of the performance.

We hope you and your family have a great weekend,

Mrs Ashley and the Team

"Love is patient, love is kind... Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Student Leadership Team

This week has been exhilarating.Year 6 have been playing Irish whip, and Year 5 have been to a Macbeth workshop by Guildford Shakespeare Company. Year 4 has been finishing there yellow write, and Year 3 have been enjoying gymnastics.

‘’I really enjoyed the theater’’ Tega[Yr6]

“We have done many fun things’’Ruben[Yr5]

‘’We have been doing excellent music’’[Maggie Yr4]

The nursery have been making bird cake and been bird spotting.

Year 2 have been learning 2~d shapes while Year 1 have been learning numbers up to 20. In Reception they have been doing their yellow write.

Written by :

George (Headboy) and Jacob (Senior Sports Leader)

Safeguarding

Safer Internet Day 2026 - Tuesday 10th February 2026

Safer Internet Day is a global awareness day that encourages children, young people and adults to think carefully about how we use the online world and digital technology. It’s a useful annual prompt to refresh conversations about online safety, wellbeing and responsible digital behaviour.

Theme for 2026: Smart tech, safe choices – exploring the safe and responsible use of AI.

This year’s focus reflects how quickly AI and smart technologies are becoming part of children’s everyday online experiences. The emphasis is on helping young people develop confidence, critical thinking and good judgement when using digital tools, rather than fear or restriction.

For schools, Safer Internet Day is an opportunity to:

reinforce existing online safety messages
encourage open, age-appropriate conversations about AI and digital decision-making
remind staff and families that online safety is an ongoing safeguarding responsibility, not a one-off lesson

Useful resources from the UK Safer Internet Centre:

Top tips for parents and carers:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2026/top-tips-for-parents-and-carers

Top tips for children and young people
https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2026/top-tips-for-young-people

You can find more information here:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2026

Inclusion

Drop-in SEND Support Sessions

Parents and carers are reminded that free SEND drop-in sessions are available every Friday during term time. These sessions offer advice and support with EHCPs, needs assessments, appeals, tribunals, and meetings with schools or the local authority.

📍 Carers Support Centre, 24 George Street, Croydon, CR0 1PB
🕙 Fridays, 10.00am–12.00 noon (term time only)

🔗 More information:
www.croydonsendiass.co.uk

Early Years

Reception have been learning about capcity in maths this week. We have been filling containers so they are full, nearly full, empty and nearly empty. We have used water, pasta, pom poms and rice which was great fun. We have also measured how many cups of water go into different containers and discussed which one has the greatest capacity.

Key Stage 1

Year 1 News 🧠👃

This week in Year 1, we joined in with hundreds of children across the country to celebrate National Storytelling Week. We met the famous author Annemarie Anang and joined her online for the storytelling workshop of ' Am Nefertiti'. Together we created a story through sound and rhythm.

Lower Key Stage 2

Year 3 pupils have had a fantastic and exciting week. They absolutely loved showing off all their hard work and learning to their parents during Parents’ Evening, and it was wonderful to see just how proud parents were of everything the children have achieved. In class, they have also been showing off their creativity as they have been writing their own narratives inspired by The Secret of Black Rock. Their stories are full of imagination, exciting ideas and thoughtful detail and it is a real pleasure to read! They are now looking forward to publishing their stories next week.

Upper Key Stage 2

On Monday, Key Stage 2 enjoyed an exciting performance of Macbeth by the Guildford Shakespeare Company. Year 6 were completely captivated by the actors, and at the end of the show the company praised the children for their impeccable behaviour.

In English this week, we watched a silent film called El Caminante, about a tightrope walker visiting a sleepy Andalusian village. The children focused on using techniques such as “show, not tell”, varying sentence lengths and adding rich, detailed descriptions to engage the reader.

Please continue to support them at home by revising key learning and practising multiplication and division facts up to 12 × 12. Hit the Button is a fantastic game for times table practice and is a fun activity the whole family can enjoy.

English Update

This term, across the schools, pupils have been working hard to improve their reading comprehension skills, particularly their ability to explain answers using evidence from the text. As seen in recent classroom work, children are learning to ask questions about what they read, make sensible inferences, and justify their ideas clearly. This reflects the national expectation that pupils not only decode texts fluently but also understand, interpret and discuss meaning.
In writing, there has been a strong focus on sentence construction, clarity of ideas, and using language to explain and reason. Pupils are practising writing complete sentences that explain their thinking, using appropriate vocabulary and punctuation. This supports national guidance that writing should be purposeful, clearly structured, and linked to reading where possible.
Alongside reading and writing composition, pupils have been developing their handwriting and letter formation, practising correct joins and consistency. This work supports the National Curriculum requirement that pupils write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed, allowing them to focus more on the quality of their ideas.
Across all English lessons, pupils are encouraged to show resilience, pride in presentation, and perseverance, reflecting our commitment to high expectations and inclusive learning for all. We continue to promote a classroom culture where pupils feel confident to explain their thinking and celebrate progress. We are very proud of the effort pupils are putting into their English learning.

RE

We had a lovely Epiphany liturgy to start our term and are now looking forwards and making plans for the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is on the 18th February this year, which is during the half term holidays, and we will begin a variety of activities when the children return to school. We will send out further information nearer the time but this will include mass on 19th March (which is St Joseph's Day) and the annual Y3 Easter production. During this period we hope to raise money to support CAFOD and the Catholic Children's Society.

Happy Birthday!

Everyone at St. Joseph's wishes you the happiest of birthdays

Year 1: Marcus and Amelia Year 6: Hope and Tyler

Staff: Mrs Clements

Sending love and best wishes to you all!

Key Dates

10.02.26

Safer Internet Day

10.02.26

International Language Day Croydon Town Hall, 6-8pm

13.02.26

INSET DAY

23.2.26

RP West Norwood Library Trip AM

Year 1S West Norwood Library 1.45-2.30pm

24.02.26

Year 2 West Norwood Library Trip1

Year 1E West Norwood Library 1.45-2.30pm

25 - 27.02.26

Y4 PGL Trip

25.02.25

Year 4 trip to Science (children who aren’t going on PGL)

02.03.26

Year 3 West Norwood Library Trip

RH West Norwood Library visit AM

03.03.26-07.04.26 -

Whole School Book Week

03.03.26

Year 4 and 6P Library Trip

TBC.02-04.26

Jump Start Jonny

03.02.26

Yr 5 Theatre Workshop

23.02.26

Year 5 West Norwood Library Trip

06.03.25 (tbc)

World Book Day

Dulwich Book Fair in Infant School

Year 1 Library Trip

09.03.26

Reception: get eggs/chicks for 2 weeks.

12.03.26

Yr 5 Science Museum Trip

11.03.26

Yr6 Girls Catholic Football Tournament

19.03.25

St Joseph’s Day - Whole School Mass

20.03.26

Last Year 4 Swimming Lesson

26.03.26

Stations of the Cross in the Junior Hall

15.04.26

Yr 5 Hampton Court

21.04.25

RH West Norwood Library Trip AM

Year 5 West Norwood Library Trip

23.04.26

6P West Norwood Library Trip

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